Chapter 104
Chapter 104: Luo Ning Earns Merit
Princess Consort Wei had shot a deer and was very happy.
She sat on her horse and raised her brows at Luo Ning in a taunting way, then looked at Cui Zheng Lan.
“Sister-in-law, you have to practice your archery more,” Princess Consort Wei said to Luo Ning. “Seventh Younger Brother has been good at mounted archery since he was a child. He loves women whose archery is outstanding. If you stay like this, you will be outshone.”
As she spoke, she glanced at Cui Zheng Lan again.
She was trying to sow discord right in front of them.
Still, what she said might be true. Xiao Huai Feng probably did like women who were good at mounted archery. Empress Zheng’s mounted archery was very impressive.
Luo Ning looked at the deer that was already dead. Princess Consort Wei’s bodyguard was dragging it onto a horse’s back. Luo Ning did not speak and did not answer Princess Consort Wei.
There was not only blood on the bodyguard’s hands, but also some color, like brown dye from the deer’s body.
The bodyguard seemed to notice it too. He lowered his head and looked at his palm with some doubt. But in front of Princess Consort Wei, he did not dare to speak. He quietly wiped his hand on his clothes.
Cui Zheng Lan’s face looked terrible.
Princess Consort Wei left, full of pride. Cui Zheng Lan did not move. She frowned at Luo Ning.
Luo Ning looked back at her.
Luo Ning thought Cui Zheng Lan would pick a fight and ask why she had knocked her arrow aside, making her miss. But instead, she heard Cui Zheng Lan speak.
“Princess Consort Luo, what did you mean just now? What was wrong with that deer?” Cui Zheng Lan asked.
There was still some impatience between her brows.
But she was very sharp.
She had noticed that Luo Ning stared at that deer several times and did not even bother to answer Princess Consort Wei.
“It did not seem to have any problem,” Luo Ning said with a small smile.
Cui Zheng Lan was speechless.
She blew out a breath in anger, kicked the horse’s belly a few times, and urged her horse forward.
As soon as she left, a bodyguard came over.
“Princess Consort Luo, the Prince asks you to return. Please come with this humble servant,” the bodyguard said.
Luo Ning agreed.
On the other side, other bodyguards went to look for Cui Zheng Lan.
A short while later, the dozen or so people who had gone hunting all gathered in the most open part of the mountain forest.
A few people were kneeling on the ground.
One of them was even wearing official robes.
Prince Chen’s face looked very ugly. He said: “You are saying that the Auspicious Beast that was to be presented ran into this prince’s Imperial Hunting Grounds? This is a frame-up. You want to drag this prince into committing great disrespect.”
The kneeling official kowtowed and said: “This lowly official deserves death!”
“You do deserve death!” The usually gentle Prince Chen actually lost his temper. “I released ten deer today just for the hunt. If the Auspicious Beast is hurt by mistake, who will take responsibility?”
Xiao Huai Feng listened and turned his eyes toward Luo Ning.
His dark eyes grew deeper as he quietly looked at her.
Luo Ning looked back without any expression. She showed nothing on her face.
Cui Zheng Lan frowned slightly.
Prince Wei’s face also looked very ugly.
Everyone had their own thoughts.
Prince Chen had already given orders to call back everyone who was hunting and to bring in all the game. After confirming that there was no Auspicious Beast, the White Deer, among them, he would have the Prince’s Manor bodyguards surround the mountain and search inch by inch.
Everyone had quite a lot of game.
Cui Zheng Qing had the most. Among his prey there were two deer. Xiao Huai Feng came next. He had a pheasant, a wild rabbit, and a roe deer. Prince Chen also had quite a lot of prey. He looked gentle and weak, but his archery was not bad at all.
Then there were the womenfolk.
Princess Consort Wei’s game was about the same as Cui Zheng Lan’s. The Secondary Consorts had a bit less.
Only two people, Luo Ning and Prince Wei, had just one piece of game after being in the mountains for so long, and both were small animals. Luo Ning had a wild rabbit, and Prince Wei had a pheasant.
“…There is no White Deer.” Prince Chen personally counted the game and let out a sigh of relief. “Then we will retreat for now. Seal off the Imperial Hunting Grounds and search slowly…”
The official beside him almost burst into tears.
He choked up and said: “Prince, we were afraid something would happen on the way, so we dyed the White Deer with some color. We planned to wash it clean before entering the Imperial City.”
Prince Wei looked at the deer among Princess Consort Wei’s game. His face grew so dark it seemed that water could drip from it.
Cui Zheng Qing and Prince Chen also grew nervous. There were deer among their prey too.
The official checked them himself.
When he saw that Princess Consort Wei’s deer was completely dead, the official went weak and fell to the ground. “The Auspicious Beast is gone… It was specially sent from the Southern Region to the Capital City. When it reached the borders of the Capital City, auspicious clouds appeared in the sky to welcome it, and now it is dead.”
Everyone was stunned.
Each person’s heart shook heavily.
Princess Consort Wei lost her balance and fell from her horse. Luckily, the bodyguard ignored propriety and caught her with his back, so she did not crash straight into the ground.
No one had the mind to help her up.
Princess Consort Wei was in utter disgrace. “I… I did not know. This was just an ordinary deer. Its color was only brighter… A’Lan was the one who was going to shoot it first… I did not know!”
Prince Wei’s face was as dark as the bottom of a pot. He looked at Princess Consort Wei with a gloomy gaze and said coldly: “Be quiet. There will be a judgment in the end. Do not speak wildly!”
Princess Consort Wei shut her mouth, but her body kept shaking.
Her face was as white as paper.
Cui Zheng Lan wanted to look at Luo Ning. But there were many people present, especially Prince Wei, so she held herself back.
In the early morning, there had been a strange sign in the sky. Now dark clouds covered the sky, and a few drops of rain fell.
Prince Chen quickly made a decision: “We will go into the palace first.”
He added: “A few of us, including Fourth Sister-in-law, must all enter the palace.”
Then he said to his own deputy general: “Send the other womenfolk back to their homes.”
Everyone answered.
Prince Wei and his princess consort rode in the same carriage.
As soon as they got into the carriage, Prince Wei slapped his princess consort hard. Her head was knocked to the side, and her ears buzzed for a long time. She could not believe it.
He had actually hit her.
“Before we came, how did I warn you again and again? Shoot only what flies in the sky, not what runs on the ground. Where is your memory?” Prince Wei squeezed out every word through his teeth, full of cruel anger.
Princess Consort Wei did not dare to cry.
She covered her face and said: “Prince, I…”
“Be quiet! This matter can be made big or small. I will handle it properly. You will tell Imperial Mother that you want to eat only vegetarian food and chant Buddha’s name for half a year to wash away this sin,” Prince Wei said.
Princess Consort Wei agreed.
She had bitterness she could not speak, and tears kept falling.
Prince Wei clenched his fingers hard until his nails stabbed into his palms and they hurt.
He had long known that the Southern Region had found an Auspicious Beast, a White Deer, and was sending it toward the city.
In his heart he had planned how to use this matter to make trouble for Xiao Huai Feng.
That was why he had thought of the hunt.
The ones transporting the Auspicious Beast were yamen runners and minor officials from the Southern Region. He bribed one of them to act as a spy and, when they passed Prince Chen’s Imperial Hunting Grounds, to release the Auspicious Beast, the White Deer, into the forest.
He had planned this for a long time. Ordinary people would never think that Prince Wei had carefully set it up in advance.
The Imperial Hunting Grounds belonged to Third Brother, and the White Deer might die at the hands of Xiao Huai Feng or Cui Zheng Qing. This would be very good for Prince Wei, dragging Third Brother, Seventh Younger Brother, and the Cui family into it all at once.
Even better, there had been a strange sign in the sky that morning.
This was something Prince Wei had not expected.
Prince Wei thought: [The Heavenly Lord is helping me. I am meant to have good fortune.]
He felt that he might be Heaven’s favored child. Heaven Above was helping him, and he was even more confident in his plan.
But he never expected that just as the hunt started, the local official escorting the White Deer would come looking for them, instead of waiting until near the end to be led over by the spy.
This official was too sharp.
So from the very start, Prince Wei’s face had looked bad, because it was very possible that no one had yet shot that Auspicious Beast.
Yet when everyone’s prey was gathered and examined, the Auspicious Beast had actually died at the hands of his own princess consort. Prince Wei had lifted a stone only to smash his own foot.
He was so angry that his chest ached.
This woman was no good at doing things but very good at ruining them.
But it was still possible to turn things around, since this had happened in Prince Chen’s Imperial Hunting Grounds. Prince Wei had already quickly thought up his excuse.
However, when the brothers carried the dead Auspicious Beast to the Palace Gate, they learned that half an hour earlier, a huge event had already happened.
Cold sweat streamed down Prince Wei’s back.