I woke up as the Villainous Empress

83 Smells nice.

Royal Palace – Dragon pavilion

“Your Highness, I have escorted the court lady Yu Ling to the Yang Household as you have ordered.” Gu Lan reported to Zheng Liang.

The atmosphere between them is still heavy and uncomfortable. However, unlike before, Zheng Liang isn’t ignoring him and even asked him to escort court lady Yu Ling to the Yang Household.

However, before sending him for this task, he didn’t forget to comment, ” You will not run away this time, will you?”

Again, Gu Lan has no other choice but to stay silent in front of His Highness until he calms down and forgives him for the mistake that he made in the morning.

His mistake endangered someone’s life. It was reasonable that Zheng Liang was mad at him.

He has to acknowledge that if it were not for Lady Yang Ning, the situation would have gone out of hand and he would have been held responsible if the bear had attacked and injured lady Yang Ning and her maid Xiaowei.

Not only that, many people would have pointed their fingers at His Highness as well if people would have gotten injured during his presence at the brothel. Thankfully, the situation didn’t turn out like this since Yang Ning killed the bear before things could have gone out of their control.

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.....

Zheng Liang was sitting at a chair in his chamber and poured himself a glass of alcohol as he listened to Gu Lan’s report.

“Did something happen while you were at the Yang Household?” Zheng Liang asked.

Gu Lan held his low and pursed his lips, wondering if he should report this to His Highness or not.

Zheng Liang put the alcohol bottle down and looked up at Gu Lan when he didn’t hear anything from him. Noticing his grave expression, he remarked.”So something did happen. What was it?” He asked.

Gu Lan was troubled about what he had seen at the Yang Household and wasn’t sure whether what he saw was true or not.

However, since Zheng Liang had asked him, he should answer him without making him wait.” When we went there, Lady Yang Ning and her father, Minister Yang, seemed to be in a heated argument.” He said.

Zheng Liang pursed his lips and a few lines of frowns appeared on his forehead. “What kind of argument?” He asked coldly.

Gu Lan hesitated, ” Since we were standing quite far from the Yang Household, I couldn’t find out the contents of what they were talking about clearly.”

“However, I heard Minister Yang shouting at the guards to grab Lady Yang Ning and take her somewhere. Lady Yang Ning’s maid also seemed to be quite desperate and was kneeling on the ground.” He recalled the events that he witnessed at the Yang Household.

When he went to the Yang Household with Court Lady Yu Ling, she stopped him from going near the Yang Household since she already saw Lady Yang Ning standing at the entrance of the Household, in front of the front yard and there seemed to be an argument going on between her and Minister Yang.

Lady Yang Ning was injured and couldn’t even stand properly. However, seeing her standing outside the Yang Household for so long, he started to worry about her injuries which hadn’t even healed yet.

How can Yang Luoyang not worry about his daughter’s visibly painful injuries and interrogate her at the entrance of the household?

Wasn’t Yang Ning the pampered daughter of the Yang Household, then why would Minister Yang treat his daughter in such a nasty manner?

Were the rumors that he had heard before, were all lies, or what was it? He wondered.

When the situation seemed to be escalating, Gu Lan was ready to go and interfere in the matter when lady Yu Ling turned to him and ordered him to go back.

He was hesitant but knowing the status of Lady Yu Ling at the palace, he didn’t doubt her capabilities and went back, leaving the responsibility of Lady Yang Ning in her hands.

Since he has grown up with Zheng Liang, Lady Yu Ling was like a mother to him as well. She is not just a maid who has taken care of Zheng Liang when he was young but was more than that for His Highness and him as well.

He trusts in her and believes that nothing can go wrong until she is there. That’s why His Highness sent her to the Yang Household to take care of Lady Yang Ning.

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The aura around Zheng Liang turned gloomy when he heard Gu Lan’s report. When Yang Ning requested him to provide her with a maid to look after her until she recovers from the injury, he understood the hidden meaning behind her words.

She didn’t ask for a maid just because Xiaowei is injured and there is no one to look after her. It was because she knew that something like that might happen and she wanted someone to be by her side to protect her.

Seems like the relationship between Yang Ning and her Father Yang Luoyang is worse than he had imagined.

At that time, he got the hint that she was doing this to protect herself from the wrath of Yang Luoyang because she made this request after finding out about his argument with Yang Luoyang.

That’s why rather than sending just any maid to the Yang Household, he assigned Court Lady Yu Ling to serve Yang Ning.

He respects and trusts in her more than anyone else. That’s why rather than assigning any maid to Lady Yang Ning, he requested Lady Yu Ling to take care of this matter.

He even went to His Majesty to get his permission since, at the moment, Lady Yu Ling has been assigned to the main palace to serve His Majesty and has been appointed as the Head of the Court Ladies of the palace.

It wasn’t easy to get his permission and sent her to the Yang Household to serve Yang Ning. However, thankfully, Court Lady Yu Ling also agreed to his request and His Majesty didn’t object to this decision either because he was pleased by Yang Ning’s praises earlier and was in a good mood.

Looks like he did the right thing by sending Court Lady Yu Ling to the Yang Household. With her at the Yang Household, he will not have to worry about the safety of Yang Ning since Yang Luoyang can never dare to do anything in the presence of Yu Ling.

“Alright. You can leave!” Zheng Liang waved his hand at Gu Lan and asked him to leave.

Gu Lan pursed his lips and was feeling bitter about the cold shoulder that Zheng Liang was giving him. He politely curtsied to him and turned around to leave the chamber when he heard him say,

” I heard from Lady Yang Ning that it was her who asked you to leave at the scene.”

Gu Lan halted in his steps and turned to Zheng Liang in surprise. He wasn’t expecting Lady Yang Ning to give an explanation about his actions to His Highness despite the chaos at the palace.

” I am still angry at you for agreeing to her suggestion and leaving her alone. You have been by my side the longest and should have known that I am capable enough to deal with a wild bear, but Lady Yang Ning is not.” Zheng Liang said.

Although Yang Ning managed to protect herself in the nick of time, what would have happened if she had missed her shot and it didn’t hit the bear?

He let out a deep sigh before saying, ” However, I have decided to let this matter go since Lady Yang Ning has forgiven you for your negligence of duty and requested me to forgive you as well on your behalf.”

” You should consider yourself lucky because if not for her, I would have sent you to the Northern Frontier to battle with the tigers.” Zheng Liang teased him to lighten the atmosphere but Gu Lan couldn’t help but shudder at his words.

Because of his cold and indifferent expressions, Gu Lan could feel the sincerity behind his so-called joke.

“Ah! I have to show my gratitude to Lady Yang Ning for saving my life then.” Gu Lan said in response and scurried away from his chamber without waiting for his reaction so that he wouldn’t change his mind and send him to battle with the tigers as a punishment.

Zheng Liang was surprised and chuckled when Gu Lan ran away so quickly. “Well, at least he has surviving skills. He will not die even if he lives with tigers as well.” He commented as he took a sip of his drink.

After finishing his drink, Zheng Liang removed his upper robe and prepared to go to bed. When he walked to the bed and saw the ruffled blanket on his bed, his ears turned red upon remembering that it was the side where Yang Ning was sleeping earlier.

At that time, he didn’t think much about it and laid her on his bed rather than taking her to the guest chamber but after she left, it was feeling strange to sleep on the same bed where Yang Ning slept earlier.

A while ago, a maid came to change the blanket and the bedsheet to a new one. However, for some reason, he didn’t want her to change anything and shooed her away.

He ran his hand through his hair, ” Ah! I must be going crazy. I am the Crown Prince. How can the Crown Prince start to use the bedding which has been used by someone else?” He groaned while getting on the bed and covered himself with the blanket.

“Well, at least it smells nice.” He snickered and went back to sleep.