Chapter 180 the Legendary Favorite Concubine (1/2)

At Prince Yi’s Manor…

On a spacious machilus chair carved with dragons and phoenixes, was a man who was incredibly handsome against the black garment with golden trim. His profile was as delicate as being carved, and his good looks were beyond description. And under the black crown decorated with a dragon design, his beautiful eyes were deep and as bottomless abyss and as dark as pure black ink, without a trace of light.

There was a gorgeous invitation card among his slender fingers, and several rubies on the invitation letter had crumbed by him.

With a strange smile on his thin lips, he asked coldly, “Was this invitation card sent from the imperial palace?”

“Yes. It was just sent here from the imperial palace. Prince Yi, they had sent the same invitation card to you before, but they worried that you might forget it, so they asked their people to send another one,” Eunuch Wang answered carefully. His master did not seem to be happy now.

Whenever such a look appeared on that extremely handsome face, his master was not in a good mood. Since he had upset his master, what Eunuch Wang could do was to pray for himself.

“I won’t go. Tell them that I’m sick!” Rolling his eyes and curving his lips, Ao Chenyi threw the invitation card into the air. He found people from the imperial place became even more boring. At this time every year, they would invite some noble Young Ladies to enjoy flowers in the imperial palace and then asked the princes to join them. He did not know what their purpose was, and for him, it was a burden to attend the party.

The invitation card banged onto the floor. All the precious rubies on it were shaken off and several of them broke into powder the moment they touched the ground. Eunuch Wang swallowed hard subconsciously. He knew that his master had never been patient to deal with this kind of thing.

“Prince Yi, it’s time to find a hostess for this manor!” Although scared, Eunuch Wang had to mention it. Prince Yi was old enough to marry. Without a woman, he couldn’t have a baby. Under the current situation, he would benefit a lot to have a lawful heir.

“Hostess?” Ao Chenyi curved his lips and narrowed his eyes. A cold, bloodthirsty smile appeared on his lips.

“Yes. Prince Yi, if you married a woman from the noble family, people of the imperial palace won’t bother you again for this. But if you don’t plan to find a woman by yourself, they might designate one that you don’t like.” Since Prince Yi did not protest, Eunuch Wang immediately continued to persuade him.

He had watched Ao Chenyi grow up, so he really hoped him to marry a woman he loved and give birth to several successors.

Since Ao Chenyi refused the marriage that the emperor had arranged for him, he had always been requested to attend such parties. Although he had excused himself from going each time, people from the imperial palace would mention it repeatedly. If he married a woman, those people would not trouble him again with such parties, and nobody would blame him for not attending the occasions.

Last time, they were at the imperial study room of the emperor when he implicitly refused the emperor’s arrangement of his marriage last time. However, emperor was the most authoritative person in the country, if he arranged the marriage for Ao Chenyi in the presence of the officials, Ao Chenyi would not be able to refuse him anymore.

Ao Chenyi had realized it. His eyes became even darker. Glancing at the invitation card embedded with rubies on the floor, he lifted the corners of his mouth, making him extremely handsome, but also coldest.

It seemed it was necessary to find a hostess for his manor. He had never worried about how to deal with the emperor, but he had a problem in managing the internal affairs of his manor. He did not think it was a problem, and he would ask the imperial guards to solve the problems if there was anything he did not know how to deal with, but this would arouse gossips!

Besides, he would be requested to attend parties like this constantly!

Now he was managing to a semblance of peace with the emperor, but nobody knew when the peace would be broken. He was clear how the emperor jealous and suspicious of him!

The cold smile on his face had turned to malicious mockery. The emperor wanted to depose him as his younger brother and support his son to inherit the throne, but he worried that the official historians would say that he disobeyed the will of his ancestors. Thus, he would be despised by the world in history.

Ao Chenyi stood up and pushed the table aside. Then he walked down the platform along the stairs with his hands clasped behind his back. “Tell the people from the imperial palace that I won’t forget to attend the party,” he said.

Since the emperor had never been tired of playing this game with him, he would play with him.

It was a long way from the imperial palace to the Plum Garden. Fortunately, with Heng Yuqing by her side, Ning Xueyan wasn’t bored. After turning the corner, she caught sight of a corner of an extremely huge palace. From afar, she saw the beams and pillars of the palace were carved and painted with elaborate designs, and looked extremely exquisite. Although the palaces around it were also tall and exquisite, they seemed to lack something when compared to this one.

“Is that the empress’ palace?” Ning Xueyan asked curiously. That palace was so obvious, but it wasn’t on the central axis of all the imperial palaces.

“No, it isn’t.” Heng Yuqing looked in the direction of her gaze, and then looked at the left and the right before saying in a low voice, “It’s Honored Consort Xia’s palace. She lives there.”

“Honored Consort Xia?” Ning Xueyan had never heard of her before. Her title did not seem to be as high as Honored Consort Shu’s, but apparently the palace was a main palace.

“The emperor’s favorite concubine Honored Consort Xia lives in that palace. It’s said nobody has ever seen her. She is extremely beautiful and is quiet by nature, so she hasn’t shown up in front of outsiders by now. She is very mysterious. Someone said that she is the concubine of the former emperor, but I don’t know if it’s true.”

Heng Yuqing whispered.

“The former emperor’s concubine?” Ning Xueyan was shocked. It was incredible that a former emperor’s concubine could be favored by the current emperor like this!