Chapter 562   A Sudden Bloody Dagger

Ning Xueyan followed Commandery Princess Xianyun into the courtyard. The eunuchs closed the door behind them. After all, the prince had ordered that people couldn’t easily meet the lady in this yard. Of course, their master agreed to meet the Princess and Consort Ning herself, so the responsibility wasn’t theirs to bear.

“Greetings, Your Highnesses.” The woman with the white veil seemed pretty courteous. She saluted them both at the door of her room.

“I’m free today, so I thought I’d visit you with Sister Ning. If you need anything in your yard, feel free to tell me. We can’t keep troubling the prince for matters of the inner courtyard or I’d be too embarrassed to call myself the princess,” the Princess said affectionately.

She didn’t mention a word about coming here to help Ning Xueyan apologize.

That had been her sister in disguise and had nothing to do with this lady in front of her. Naturally, the less that was said about it, the better.

“Thank you, Your Highnesses. Please come in for a chat.” The woman in the white veil politely gestured for them to enter the room.

“Sure. Sister Ning, we can talk about it inside.” The Princess turned around and indicated for Ning Xueyan to go in. They could discuss everything inside; they should at least remain polite on the surface.

Ning Xueyan nodded and walked in as instructed. The woman in the white veil stood on the left of the door to welcome her guests in. Naturally, she wouldn’t enter until her guests were inside.

The Princess, having spoken to the woman earlier, stood on her right and near the door. That made it impossible for Ning Xueyan to enter from the right, so she had to enter from the Princess’ left. Meanwhile, Qingyu and Xiangrong stood on the other side of the door.

It was all too sudden. The moment Ning Xueyan walked past the woman and raised her foot to enter the room, someone knocked into her and she couldn’t stop herself from falling on the veiled woman by the door. She instinctively reached out to hold herself steady.

A scream rang out at that moment. Before Ning Xueyan could react, she felt something being stuffed in her hand and someone grabbing her other elbow to steady her.

“B-Blood... Sister Ning... How can you kill her?” The Princess’ horrified exclamation was accompanied by Xiangrong’s scream.

When Ning Xueyan calmed down, she saw that the veiled woman was lying on the floor with her clothes soaked in blood. In her hand was a dagger. A few drops of blood dripped from the dagger and landed on her clothes. She was so surprised that she let go of the dagger and let it fall.

A crisp clang resounded.

“Murder! Murder! Everyone, come quick! Consort Ning murdered someone!” Xiangrong seemed to have lost her mind from the shock. She was yelling at the top of her lungs as she staggered backward, knocking into a nearby pillar and falling.

The two eunuchs who were guarding the door had just closed the doors and stood aside. They hadn’t even stood firm before they heard Xiangrong’s scream from the yard. They froze for a second before pushing the shut door open. Their expressions changed drastically when they saw the veiled woman lying in a pool of blood and the dagger in front of Ning Xueyan.

One of them immediately closed the door while the other anxiously ran to inform Prince Yi. To think that his consort killed his favored concubine! What a disaster...

The Fragrance Garden was located near Bright Garden and Jade Garden. The few concubines were wandering outside, hoping to catch some of the excitement. When they heard that something major had happened—the consort who had fallen out of favor had killed the favored concubine as soon as she entered the courtyard—they immediately became frenzied. Although they didn’t dare to go over, they could still look in the same direction.

With that woman dead, would they be next?

“Why, Princess?” Ning Xueyan looked up and at the Princess quietly. Her face was pale but her eyes were cold.

“What do you mean, why? I’d like to ask you why did you kill her. She invited us in kindly, yet you... How could you do such a thing?” A smug Commandery Princess Xianyun glanced at the veiled woman, whose life or death was unknown, with a look of confusion and anger. She looked like she was truly angry that Ning Xueyan would do something like this. Only the faint mockery in her eyes betrayed her true emotions.

Ning Xueyan seemed calm, but unfortunately, she was still no match for her.

“The dagger isn’t mine,” Ning Xueyan said coldly.

“Whose is it if not yours? Sister Ning, you should admit your mistake to the prince. How can you do this because of a concubine without any title? They would never match up to us. You’re just too ruthless and vicious. You couldn’t stand someone else having the prince’s favor, so you did this. I... I’ve misjudged you.”

The Princess felt that Ning Xueyan was done for. Even though she was expressing how disappointed she was in Ning Xueyan, her mocking smile was getting more and more apparent.

Ning Xueyan looked at her coldly, taking in the unabashed ridicule on her face. Commandery Princess Xianyun was indeed an ambitious woman to be so ruthless. Many people saw how she had entered this yard in anger, while the Princess had appeared calm.

Thus, she was the most likely suspect for killing the concubine. Moreover, the dagger had fallen in front of her. With Xiangrong’s sharp scream and her insistence that the consort had killed someone, the people outside would surely think that she was the one who killed the veiled woman.

Xiangrong must have been the one who pushed her while she was entering the door, while the Princess acted at the same time, piercing the veiled woman with the dagger hidden in her sleeve. The Princess then put the dagger in her hand. She was in such a haste to grab something to steady her body that she instinctively grabbed what was stuffed into her hand.

It went without saying that the dagger would fall in front of her.

Thus, this was all the Princess’ scheme.

“Commandery Princess, if something happens to you, I wonder if the Lord Peace’s Manor would protect you. Can a vicious woman who killed someone and tried to frame another for it become the Princess of a manor?” Ning Xueyan asked calmly.

This time, she was referring to Commandery Princess Xianyun as the Commandery Princess, and not the Princess.

“What do you mean? You...” The Princess’ expression changed.

It was abnormal for Ning Xueyan to say such things at a time like this. Shouldn’t Ning Xueyan be scared out of her wits? Shouldn’t she helplessly shout and defend herself? Shouldn’t she try to convince the Princess that she was innocent? How could she say such things so calmly and even somewhat coldly?

Ning Xueyan could very well suspect her for the dagger wasn’t hers and the Princess, being closest to her, was the most suspicious. However, Ning Xueyan appeared absolutely sure that she was the killer. The Princess didn’t think that any of the words she said or any actions that she made along the way gave Ning Xueyan any room for suspicion.

But why was Ning Xueyan not only looking calm but mocking as well? She appeared as if she was looking at a clown putting on a show. What right did Ning Xueyan to think of her as a clown...

The doors flung open with force as a handsome, gloomy Ao Chenyi appeared in the courtyard with a group of men.

Immediately, the courtyard was enveloped in thick pressure. The Princess subconsciously felt short of breath as she watched the tall, sturdy man walk over.

Giving up arguing with Ning Xueyan, she turned around and walked toward Ao Chenyi. Facing him at the corridor, she knelt with a loud thud.

“Your Highness, please spare Sister Ning. She... She didn’t do it on purpose.”

Her seemingly pleading words were no more than a conviction for Ning Xueyan, which would surely make Ao Chenyi feel rage building up inside him. How could this be unintentional? A woman carrying a dagger to another person’s yard and killing her, only to say that she didn’t do it on purpose? No one would believe it.

Moreover, the victim was Ao Chenyi’s dearest concubine.

Commandery Princess Xianyun was trying to anger Ao Chenyi. She hoped that Ao Chenyi would become so furious that he would sentence Ning Xueyan to death without saying a word. Qingyu was the only one who could bear witness to the so-called argument with the veiled woman now. In a fit of anger, Ao Chenyi would even kill the maid of a woman who killed his dearest concubine.

Of course, there was a possibility that Ao Chenyi would question Ning Xueyan. But so what? At the time of the incident, only Ning Xueyan and Qingyu were there. They would surely try to get Ning Xueyan out of it but the problem was, Ao Chenyi’s favorite concubine was dead and he had never liked Ning Xueyan in the first place. He would only get angrier and refuse to listen to their explanation.

Even if Ning Xueyan’s life was spared, she would surely be sent back to Lord Protector’s Manor for her family to deal with her. Ao Chenyi had always been this cruel.

Of course, the former outcome was the better one. It was best if Ning Xueyan didn’t even have the time to say anything. The Princess wanted Ning Xueyan to die a murderer. Besides, the people outside were listening. Even with Ning Xueyan dead, she would still be known as a vicious woman.

Ao Chenyi lowered his head to look at Commandery Princess Xianyun and asked in an especially cold voice, “You think that she’s the one who killed my favored concubine?”

His voice was very nice, yet sounded ice-cold to the Princess. It felt as if there was a ghost’s hand crawling out of the underworld and sliding over her throat. It gave her goosebumps. Her heart couldn’t help but tremble. Why was he asking her? Shouldn’t he be questioning Ning Xueyan?

“Your Highness, don’t, don’t be angry. Sister Ning really didn’t do it on purpose. She... She said she wanted to visit this lady here out of the kindness of her heart. She just wanted to see her. She even invited me along for this.”

The Princess sounded as if she was standing on Ning Xueyan’s side but every word was dragging Ning Xueyan closer to her death.

She wasn’t lying but she had taken everything out of context. Put together, it sounded as if Ning Xueyan had planned to kill the favored concubine, so she deliberately invited the Princess along.

If Ning Xueyan tried to defend herself at this time and accused the Princess instead, all the better. Then, the Princess could explain that Ning Xueyan invited her to meet the concubine not to have her witness the assassination but to shoulder the blame for her.

If Ning Xueyan didn’t defend herself, she would have tacitly accepted her punishment.

Ning Xueyan sneered inwardly. Commandery Princess Xianyun had forced her to a path of no return where she could neither advance nor retreat. It was all a dead end for her.