Masquerade in Bridal Attire and Marry the Prince

Chapter 161: The Demotion of Imperial Concubine Xiao

Translator: 抹茶鸟

After he said these words, all the officials were stunned and they couldn’t help but look at the Emperor. It was really a violation of etiquette. Besides, Imperial Concubine Xiao was just a concubine. If it was not for the third prince, she would not even be allowed in the palace.

“Your Majesty, in my opinion, the matter put forward by the Crown Prince needs to be investigated carefully. If it is true, Imperial Concubine Xiao must be seriously punished. Otherwise, how can the rules in the palace be kept?” An old man stepped forward right away. He has always been adhering to the rules when speaking in the imperial palace. As long as he feels that something is wrong, he would rather dissuade the Emperor with his life than letting it go.

“Seconded.” In a short while, more and more people came forward. The way to handle something of this kind actually depends on the attitude of the people in the palace. Now that the Crown Prince had brought it up, and it did delayed the treatment of the Crown Princess’ illness, it was definitely not something to be solved by petty tricks.

“Your Highness, how are you sure that His Majesty will agree?” Dongxiang was bringing in a piece of osmanthus cake after letting it cool when he heard Luo Yun, who was combing Du Chuxuan’s hair beside him, asking in uncontrollable curiosity.

Looking at the reflection in the bronze mirror, Luo Yun can still vaguely see that Du Chuxuan was very beautiful now. He couldn’t help but raise his lips and think that Du Chuxuan was really a man with the face of a woman. Even if he didn’t get into the trouble of entering the palace, he might still end up here somehow.

“Of course, father will agree. Because he might never know that I just went to the Imperial Hospital to get someone at noon.”

With a chuckle, Du Chuxuan couldn’t help but mock the person on the throne. He remembered the words someone once told him: as long as someone believes too much in the things in his control, he often forgets to observe many details and rules, and it is exactly these little things that are the most dangerous.

Luo Yun understood after a short while and she stopped asking about it. Today, she combed the bun popular among all the noble women in the capital for Du Chuxuan, and decorated it with an ordinary white jade hairpin. After the simple dressing-up, although there was no makeup, Du Chuxuan’s beauty couldn’t be hidden.

“Commander Luo said that most of the forces in Xiangyang city have scattered in the past two days. Our people waited there for a long time, but still didn’t figure out the movements of the people of Manlou. It was likely that they had already fled when they heard about the message.” The details were not mentioned, but the result was not satisfactory.

“Nothing at all?” Du Chuxuan was a little surprised. The fact that he was able to expose Manlou was one of the proudest things he did in the trip to Xiangyang city. It could even be said that, if Manlou was in a mess, it would be much more convenient for Yuxing Tianrui to take actions. At least, there were few forces in Jianghu who could do anything to him from then on.

Luo Yun said with certainty, “Commander Luo said that he doesn’t think this is as simple as it seems. The force of Sect Luo had never been obstructed in the central plains. This is the first time, and he felt that someone from the imperial palace helped behind the scenes.

“No rush,” Du Chuxuan stopped Luo Yun’s hand that was about to apply some makeup for him and pouted at the door. Very quick-witted, Dongxiang stood outside and served as a guard for the two of them, “Tell Luo Yi to expand the search range to all the cities near Xiangyang. Even if these people left, they definitely can’t disappear into the thin air. They will definitely leave some clues in haste.’

Luo Yun responded and turned to leave. Du Chuxuan looked at the rouge in his hand and his face darkened. He can’t let go of Manlou now. If it was still the little troubles before, he could still tolerate him. Nothing important happened after all. But this time, they even attacked Yuxing Tianrui outwardly!

It was just an overbearing philter this time. What would it be the next time? He did nip it in the bud, but would it be this easy the next time? The more he thought about it, the more worried Du Chuxuan became.

“Your Highness, the morning imperial meeting is already over, and His Majesty agreed.” Dongxiang did not know what they were talking about. He thought that Du Chuxuan was still worried about whether Imperial Concubine Xiao would be punished, so he said happily.

Glancing at Dongxiang, Du Chuxuan suddenly had an idea. “Dongxiang, from today on, take Luo Yun and the other people to keep a close watch on those locked up. And send some loyal people to rewrite the account book of the East Palace over the years. Be quick! The quicker, the better!”

“Your Highness!” Dongxiang was startled. The first mission was not a big deal, since Du Chuxuan did not trust those people anymore, deploying some people to monitor them might expose some clues. However, the second one was somewhat too difficult for him.

Ever since Yuxing Tianrui was titled the Crown Prince when he was young, he officially moved to the East Palace and had been living there for more than ten years. If stacked up one by one, the account books were probably at least two feet, if not three feet. How could he be able to complete the investigation in a short time?

“Finish these two things as soon as possible. If you don’t have enough manpower, you can get some from Zizheng, or ask Luo Yun to get Luo Yi’s help, it’s okay.”

Seeing Du Chuxuan’s nervous expression, Dongxiang dared not delay. After all, it was just a time-consuming task demanding hard work. Since his master wanted it done, it wasn’t something impossible for him.

He was about to turn around and leave, but he was pulled to a stop by Du Chuxuan, “It’s impossible for the account to be too detailed. Getting the big numbers right should be enough, you must not let anyone else know about it.”

“Don’t worry, Your Highness,” Dongxiang nodded fiercely and left. Seeing that he had left, Du Chuxuan finally let out a sigh of relief. The next thing was only to wait for the snake to come out of its hole. He had done everything, everything he should and could do.

With so many senior officials’ demand for the Emperor’s action, and the fact that it was Yuxing Tianrui that put forward the matter at the beginning, Imperial Concubine Xiao’s title was immediately deprived, and she became Noble Lady Xiao. Besides, she was sent to Jingsi Room to reflect about her own faults as punishment, which seemed slight and annoyed many senior officials.

However, it involved the Emperor’s family affairs after all, so it is not appropriate for them to intervene too much. Since the Emperor chose to punish Imperial Concubine Xiao, he had already shown his attention to the Crown Prince to some extent. As long as the result was what they wanted, they certainly didn’t care whether Imperial Concubine Xiao had become Noble Lady Xiao or Palace Woman Xiao.

When Imperial Concubine Xiao heard the Emperor’s decree, she was somehow twisted. The person sitting opposite her was exactly the Third Prince. Early this morning, she had called Yuxing Wei there to wait in her palace. She thought it would be a decree that made the two of them happy, but she didn’t expect it to be a piece of bad news.

“Mother, why did this happen?”