Chapter 257 - Acting Out (1/2)

Prince Rui arrived back at his manor and made a beeline for his room but then he suddenly heard Princess Nalan shout. Worried that they were under attack, he promptly changed directions, racing over. But then Prince Rui arrived at the garden to a scene that confused him.

”Nalan, how could you be so careless?!” Molin scolded as he moved Prince Yi's robes aside to see how deep the wound on his shoulder was.

”He's the one who didn't move!” Princess Nalan defended as relief washed over her when she saw the wound was not deep.

”What is going on here?” Prince Rui asked with knit eyebrows as he walked towards the trio kneeling on the ground. Princess Nalan and Molin both froze and did not turn around as cold sweat formed on their foreheads. They knew they were in trouble now.

Prince Yi glanced up and then pulling his sleeves back up over his bleeding shoulder as he moved to stand up. Princess Nalan and Molin quickly held onto his arms to help stand up. Prince Yi smiled at Princess Nalan and then looked at Prince Rui and explained, ”I asked for a sparring session...and became distracted so I hurt myself.”

Princess Nalan and Molin promptly nodded their heads in agreement. But Prince Rui narrowed his eyes at them, obviously not convinced and the two promptly looked off to the side.

Prince Rui let out an irritated breath, it seemed to be one problem after another today. ”Molin, send for a physician and ask the servants to get some water to clean the wound...”

Prince Rui saw that the wound was not deep but he would rather they not take any chances with Prince Yi. Therefore, the physician was necessary, even if it was only for appearances. He already had enough problems to worry about at the moment with the Emperor.

He was expecting that Prince Yi would refuse and just leave. But instead, Prince Yi simply walked over to the pavilion with Princess Nalan following next to him holding his arm as if she were dealing with a crippled patient.

Prince Rui frowned at their backs and Molin glanced at him and went, ”Rui, is everything alright?”

”It's fine...go get the physician.” Prince Rui calmly said and then walked towards the pavilion himself, where Prince Rui and Princess Nalan were now sitting.

As Prince Rui walked up to the pavilion, he heard Prince Yi say, ”It's nothing...It was my fault for not being attentive.”

”Still...I should have been more careful.” Princess Nalan responded with knit eyebrows. If she knew this would happen, she would not have sparred with Prince Yi. She could already sense the death glare her brother was giving her, she was definitely in for a scolding later on.

It was just that Prince Yi brought an interesting master craftsman sword and she could not help ogling it when she saw it. He was nice enough to let her appraise it and even gave her permission to try it out.

So she told Molin to spar with her, but Molin was being difficult saying that his condition was not too good today. Prince Yi then kindly offered to be her sparring partner instead of Molin and she happily agreed, eager to try her hand with a new partner.

As they sparred, she realized that he was highly skilled and so she got excited and more aggressive in her attacks. He held up against her attacks very well and they were having fun. How could she have known that he would suddenly lose focus?

Prince Rui came up to Prince Yi, cupped his hands and bowed, ”Prince Yi, I apologize for my sister's mistake...Please do not hold it against her.”

”It's nothing...It was my fault for being distracted.” Prince Yi kindly said, sending a reassuring smile at Princess Nalan, who sent a half-smile back, hoping those words would persuade her brother to let it go as well.

Prince Rui nodded and then sat down as well, waiting for the physician to arrive. He had urgent matters to attend to and truly did not have the time to indulge a stray Prince today. But his sister had carelessly injured him, therefore he could not just wave him away. So Prince Rui had no choice but to sit down and attend to this guest to avoid any other issue cropping up.

Princess Nalan glanced at Prince Rui and could tell he was highly irritated and in a foul mood, so she remained silent and kept her head down with a disgruntled pout. Prince Yi was also irritated with Prince Rui's arrival as it ruined the atmosphere and messed with his plans.

This was not how this scenario was supposed to play out.

Prince Yi had spent the last day thinking about how to proceed with this new plan. As Chun Hua had hinted that night, the only option was for him to get Princess Nalan pregnant.

That was why he brought himself down to visit Doctor Lou, despite the doctor's past rude behavior. And it was why he was here today to begin the process.

When Prince Yi arrived at the Zou representatives' manor and discovered that Prince Rui was out, he was thrilled. He had not expected to be able to get Princess Nalan alone so soon, so this was perfect. Prince Rui always seemed to be restricting Princess Nalan's behavior and so with him gone, the visit would be more personal and they could get closer.

Of course, he did not think that he could get the actual deed done today. After all, getting her alone was a huge problem considering Prince Rui was always hovering around her. And even with her brother's absence today, she herself would probably try to kill him if he tried as things stood.

During their past encounters, Prince Yi had been ignoring the Zou people completely and only ever actually came because Lei Xing was there.

Prince Rui and Molin mostly ignored him as well, but Princess Nalan was nice to him and often tried to talk to him, but he had been quite rude and dismissive with his response. Sometimes he did not even respond at all. So today he came to smooth out the playing field.