Chapter 9：Trouble Found Her

Even though Yin Hua Lei wanted to stir away from trouble, it seemed trouble was looking for her.

What was insulting was, a small brat dared to bare her teeth against her!

Of course, Yin Hua Lei knew her own temper. She wasn't the immovable saint, people imagined her to be because the asura[1] was just hiding beneath the surface.

The tenth princess only saw Yin Hua Lei rising from her seat. She felt proud of herself. She was able to order imperial daughter Gao Le, a feat that no one even dared.

The twins, Huaying and Huajing felt helpless. No matter what, the other side was a royal princess. Their cousin sister had to deal with this on her own. But if Xia Luyoung went too far, the two hoped his Majesty would forgive them for what they would do.

There was a harmless curve on the tips of Yin Hua Lei's lips and she looked like she was floating towards the tenth princess.

Xia Luyoung thought that she was walking here to apologize so she raised her head higher.

But beside her, a girl just a few years older, also stood. The girl hid her shaking hands inside her sleeves and under the folds of her dress.

The girl was precisely Bai Chan Yi who was up and about now that her bruises had healed. She managed to squeeze herself among the girls who curried for the princess' favor. From there, she went on to incite the tenth princess to lash out on imperial daughter Gao Le.

Wasn't the tenth princess higher in rank? But why was Chan Yi feeling a little queasy now that the imperial daughter was drawing near?

There was clearly no hostility in the imperial daughter's eyes but the look on them was so unreadable.

Yin Hua Lei's hooded eyes seemed to be seeing inanimate objects while weighing the pros and cons of buying this trinket or that. It would be the same if Chan Yi or even the tenth princess were there or not, as though she wasn't really looking at people of flesh and blood.

When Yin Hua Lei was a few steps away from them, Xia Luyoung also began to sense something wrong and did her best not to fidget.

What's wrong with me?

If Yin Hua Lei knew their reactions, she would be baffled too because she didn't know that as a villainess, she had a natural ability to make people feel disturbed in her presence. Of course, she wasn't aware of this and didn't even make good use of her villainess halo when she was still fighting for Xia Yu Heng.

As the two girls' nerves were on the verge of exploding, who knew that the imperial daughter would only softly say, "Tenth sister..." these two words and then pass them by.

And as people were still bewildered, asking: Did imperial daughter completely throw the tenth princess' face?

Yin Hua Lei paid them no heed. Standing at the middle of the hall, she bent her knees while facing the main entrance.

"Uncle Emperor and Aunt Empress have come, Hua Lei is glad."

A few soft spoken words caused the people's ears to ring.

Sure enough, it was only then that the eunuch announced the dragon and the phoenix's presence.

Everybody in the hall had to do a grand salute and loud greeting. Even the Emperor's children were no exception.

And as if they weren't shocked enough, before his Majesty told them to rise, Eunuch Min Tong, being the only one whose face wasn't parallel to the floor, was the only one who saw Emperor Du Liang's frown.

"Xiao Lei, what did Zhen tell you about greeting Us? That year, you became sick for months. Since then, your body was always weak. Won't you hurt yourself like this?"

One must say that Eunuch Min was really efficient. Before the Emperor even opened his mouth to speak, he was already near Yin Hua Lei to personally help her stand up.

Did she have to reply?

Yin Hua Lei only hummed reluctantly in agreement. As though she still wanted to follow protocol but had no choice.

Emperor Du Liang then proceeded to occupy the highest seat.

Only then, he said: "En... You may all rise."

The ones attending this marriage ceremony were all not simple people. This plain interaction made them understand.

Who said that imperial daughter Gao Le lost favor? Would kneeling for a whole day be sufficient proof?

Even these lords punished their daughters sometimes but that didn't mean they wouldn't return to being pampered young misses the next day.

But monarch Xia Chun really wanted to teach a lesson to his daughter this time.

"Zhen heard Young'er was saying something important before We came in. Your voice really stood out among the festivities happening around but Zhen didn't quite catch the words."

Xia Luyoung felt lightheaded.

"Imperial Father... Yo-Young'er..."

How could she continue her words of complaining Yin Hua Lei's rudeness? Right now, she only wanted to cry.

If she repeated her words, wouldn't it be said that she saw herself higher than the Emperor who didn't require Yin Hua Lei to kowtow?

How could her own father favor his niece? She felt it was really unfair.

A mild yet clear and succinct voice interrupted Xia Luyoung.

"Tenth younger sister wants to sit with Hua Lei. Hua Lei also finds Young'er cute like a small pet. Come, sit with jiejie."

The Emperor stared at his daughter for a while before nodding in assent. The people only saw imperial daughter Gao Le's now gloved slender hand wrap around the tenth princess' wrist as she gently led her to where she was sitting earlier.

Yin Hua Lei's hold was incomparably light but somehow, Xia Luyoung felt lead was slowly weighing down her heart. She sensed a foreboding danger but didn't know how to dodge.

"Next time, tenth meimei shouldn't sit with random people. What will Aunt Empress say to me, not caring for you?"

Yin Hua Lei carelessly mumbled which made Bai Chan Yi who was beside the tenth princess earlier, to freeze and pale in fright. What did imperial daughter mean by those words?

Empress Yi An came in with the Emperor. At first she was puzzled why his Majesty didn't want the eunuch to announce their arrival but when she heard her daughter's young but snarky voice, she nearly marched inside in anger!

She forgot to tell the princess not to cause trouble with this imperial daughter.

The Empress looked at her husband's smiling face. If she made a sound then, she could still salvage her daughter but if she disobeyed, what would be the consequences?

Now sitting beside Emperor Du Liang, the Empress wanted to throw something.

Her husband's bias was evident. What was worse, it wasn't leaning towards his own offspring.

"Young'er, come sit near imperial mother." Empress Yi An gestured to the empty seat below her.

"Empress, let Young'er sit with Xiao Lei and learn a few things from her. Zhen's princess is not that young anymore. She should broaden her horizons." Emperor Du Liang then turned towards the two.

"Spend more time with Xiao Lei these days. It's not good to be always cooped up inside the palace."

Xia Luyoung was shocked: "Imperial Father means?"

"Silly girl, Uncle is saying to stay at imperial daughter Gao Le's manor for a while." Yin Hua Lei prompted.

"Bi xia is letting Young'er stay outside? She'd never been outside for too long. This consort is afraid Xiao Lei will be inconvenienced. Why not let her stay in her third brother's palace?" Underneath her sleeves, the Empress' hand was squeezing the armrest so tight.

Hearing this, Xia Luyoung also panicked. "Imperial father, Young'er doesn't like to stay at such a small imperial daughter's manor!"

The tenth princess was really young. Those words just made matters worse for her.

"It seems even staying inside the palace doesn't help one's learning." The Emperor smiled at his Empress.

But Empress Yi An wasn't the mother of the world for nothing. She'd been with the Emperor for many years and she literally earned this spot.

She retained her composure, "Young'er is still young, bi xia. There are many chances to learn."

"Precisely, it's settled then. Send her to Xiao Lei's manor first thing in the morning."

Empress Yi An was stumped. Everybody was stumped.

Now the different officials and their families knew that the rumors of the Emperor and Empress' internal feud were true. They just didn't expect that Emperor Du Liang would barely hide it and pretend not to hear the Empress' indirect words of opposition.

The power struggles in the palace were as such: the Emperor had a weak temperament, average skills at decision making and could barely hold the court together.

Meanwhile, the Empress was ambitious and wanted her son, the third prince to take the throne already.

The Emperor of course didn't like that and was subtly leaning on his first prince to balance it out.

The matter was concluded like that even though the other side was unsatisfied.

The groom and bride arrived and did the three ceremonial bows and nine kowtows[2].

Everyone praised the veiled bride's grace, the groom for his gentle and celestial bearing and so on and so on.

The Emperor and Empress went back to the imperial palace after giving their blessings.

Xia Chun left an imperceptible wink at Yin Hua Lei. Great, now she had to babysit a spoiled princess.

Let's see if the princess would still be spoiled once she came out of her imperial daughter's manor.

The festive atmosphere in Chang palace continued til late night. But Yin Hua Lei grew bored and went home early with her twin cousins.

They also parted ways because Yin Hua Lei would now go back to her manor to prepare for the tenth princess' arrival. While the two would go home to Duke Yin's fu.

That night, some people slept peacefully, some did not.

Eunuch Min Tong sent the Emperor to his chambers and soon heard the ruler's soft breathing.

On the other side, Princess Xia Luyoung repeatedly stomped her feet and wailed, not wanting to leave the palace tomorrow.

Empress Yi An's headache grew and had a strong palace mama[3] carry the princess to bed.

She then wrote a letter and hurriedly gave it to her trusted nurse. The letter went from hand to hand among the Empress' network inside the palace until it safely reached outside where an inconspicuous man who liked raising fast birds received it.

The man then tied the letter to his fastest pet and let it fly in the dead of the night.

Meanwhile, the newly wedded couple inside Chang palace after sounding out for possible attacks finally couldn't hold it in and gave in to their spring.

Joyful yet ambiguous sounds didn't stop until the break of dawn.

And lastly, our villainess Yin Hua Lei had nothing better to do than silently meditate in her front yard.

Meditating surprisingly helped ease her mind and chase away her nightmares.

Her Xiu hidden guards and the two first ranked maids could only watch the silent silhouette under the moonlight.

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[1]Asura- type of malevolent supernatural being in Buddhism aka demon

[2]Three ceremonial bows and nine kowtows- bow to the Heavens, to the Elders, to each other. Each bow had to kowtow 3x

[3]Mama- the older maidservants