The carriage came back and saw Murong Zhuangzhuang's carriage at the clinic. The guard stopped the carriage and asked the guard next to Murong Zhuangzhuang's carriage. The guard replied that the princess was inside. He then lifted the curtain and said respectfully: "Your Highness, the eldest princess is inside."
With the help of two guards, he got off the carriage tremblingly.
These thirty blows were considered light. If it had been in the military camp, thirty military sticks would have crippled him.
The palace guards showed mercy, but this precious prince had never suffered any hardship since childhood, and his martial arts training was just fancy moves, so he fainted from the pain when he was beaten with a stick.
He was originally going to rest in the palace, but the Queen ordered him to leave the palace immediately and go to the Taifu Mansion. The prince's party had suffered a heavy blow, and as the prince, if he did not come out to appease the hearts of his ministers, it would cause alienation among the officials. So although the Queen pitied him, she arranged for him to leave the palace with injuries to appease the hearts of the prince's party.
But the queen could never have imagined that he would ignore his job and get involved in the struggle in the prime minister's residence.
When the owner of the clinic saw that first a princess came and then a prince, he was extremely frightened. He woke up all the people in the clinic to come out and serve them, and brought out the tea and cakes in the clinic. Then he retreated to a corner to wait, not daring to breathe, not knowing whether it was a blessing or a curse.
Yuan heard the voice from inside, grabbed Zi'an and warned him, "Don't be so stubborn!"
Zi'an replied softly, "Don't worry, mother. I know what I am doing."
Yuan said again: "Princess, please take good care of me."
Murong Zhuangzhuang said: "Madam, please rest assured. No one in the court dares to bully my people in front of me now."
The two of them went out together. Zi'an's eyes first fell on the prince's face, then passed through the prince and looked at Madam Linglong and Xia Wan'er behind him.
"Why don't you kneel before me, you bold and unruly commoner?" The prince angrily rebuked Xia Zian as soon as he saw him.
Zi'an's eyes narrowed, and he stepped forward and saluted according to the rules, "Xia Zi'an pays respect to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince!"
Murong Zhuangzhuang pulled Zi'an up with one hand and looked at the prince casually, "Your Highness is so arrogant. I wonder if you will kneel down to greet my aunt?"
The prince seemed to have just seen Murong Zhuangzhuang, and his arrogant look only slightly changed. "So it's Grand Auntie who is here. I knew it. I didn't expect Xia Zian to be so bold as to order people to stop the carriage of the Prime Minister's Mansion. Inside is my future Crown Princess."
Murong Zhuangzhuang did not respond, but looked at Madam Linglong and Xia Wan'er with a sharp gaze.
Madam Linglong and Xia Wan'er stepped forward and bowed slightly, "Greetings to the Grand Princess!"
"Kneel down!" Murong Zhuangzhuang suddenly said sternly, "Who taught you the rules?"
Madam Linglong's expression was stern. Before she could say anything, Xia Wan'er stepped forward and said, "Princess, this is not the palace, and I have received the Queen's decree to marry the Crown Prince. According to the rules, there is no need to kneel down and bow."
Murong Zhuangzhuang said coldly, "Who told you such a rule? It's shabby for a daughter of a prime minister to say such uneducated things. Not to mention that you are not the crown princess yet, even if you have married the crown prince, you still have to kneel down and bow to me, the princess who guards the country. Even your future mother-in-law, the queen who is high above you, has to call me imperial aunt respectfully."
Xia Wan'er was slightly stunned. In fact, she didn't know the palace etiquette. She just felt that the Crown Princess would be the future Empress, the most noble woman in the world, and she shouldn't have to pay respect to a princess.
Murong Zhuangzhuang shouted, "Why don't you kneel down!"
Madam Linglong had no choice but to pull Xia Wan'er to kneel down together and bow properly. She thought Murong Zhuangzhuang would let them stand up immediately, but who knew that Murong Zhuangzhuang only said to the prince indifferently, "The prince is injured. Instead of resting in the palace, where are you going so late at night?"
"Don't worry about that, Auntie. I'm here to see who intercepted the Prime Minister's carriage." After saying that, the prince looked at Zi'an provocatively.
Zi'an just lowered his head and frowned, with no expression on his face. In the eyes of the prince, he felt that Zi'an was afraid.
"It was my order," Murong Zhuangzhuang looked at Madam Linglong coldly, "Just now you pushed Yuan off the carriage, causing her to be seriously injured. I want to hear your explanation and see why you injured Yuan and then left without a care."
Madam Linglong had already prepared her speech and was about to open her mouth when she saw Zi'an rush forward, grab her hair and drag her towards the door.
Zi'an attacked suddenly, and even Murong Zhuangzhuang was caught off guard. Madam Linglong was even more frightened. She kicked the ground with her legs and grabbed Zi'an with both hands, but she felt a sharp pain in her scalp, and she screamed in pain.
Xia Wan'er came back to her senses, jumped up from the ground and rushed out, angrily saying, "Xia Zian, you are so brave, let my mother go."
The prince also scolded them and asked the guards to stop them.
Zi'an was blocked by the guards, but he still did not let go. He grabbed Madam Linglong's hair tightly, and his face was so sinister that it made the guards feel a little scared.
"Capture him!" the prince shouted.
The guard drew his sword and pointed it at Xia Zian. Murong Zhuangzhuang's face darkened. "Whoever dares to hurt the future regent princess, I will take his head."
The word "Princess Regent" shocked the guards. The prince's men looked at the prince, then at Murong Zhuangzhuang, and did not dare to take any action for a while.
The prince was furious, "Aunt Grandma, are you trying to make things difficult for me? You hurt my future mother-in-law in front of me. Have you forgotten that you are a member of the royal family?"
Murong Zhuangzhuang didn’t know what Zi’an was going to do, but for now, no matter what she did, he would support her.
So she ordered the sword-wielding guards, "Everyone retreat!"
This sentence was extremely harsh, and her face was as white as frost and snow, showing the majesty of the Princess Zhenguo.
She looked at Zi'an, who had a vicious look in his eyes and his other hand was clenched into a fist with veins bulging. She had already guessed that Zi'an was going to strike first, because once the prince asked about the matter, it would be equivalent to intervening in the assault case, and the result would have to be judged by him.
Zi'an didn't want to drag her into this, so he decided to solve the problem himself.
As expected, as soon as the guard pushed the door open, Zi'an grabbed Madam Linglong's hair and slammed her hard against the marble beside the door.
As a military doctor, she knew how to control the strength very well. With this collision, Madam Linglong immediately slid to the ground with blood oozing from her forehead.
This action shocked Xia Wan'er and the prince. The prince could never have imagined that Xia Zian would dare to hurt someone in front of him.
Moreover, Xia Zian did not stop. She took out a dagger, and before the guards rushed over to help Madam Linglong up, the dagger flashed with a cold light and chopped off the little finger of Madam Linglong's left hand.
Madam Linglong's screams resounded through the sky. Xia Wan'er rushed over like a madman, shouting angrily, "Xia Zian, I'm going to kill you!"
The prince saw the cold light in Zi'an's eyes, then looked at her hands, and cried out in surprise, "Not good, Wan'er, step back."
However, it was too late. Zi'an's dagger had slashed across Xia Wan'er's left cheek, and blood formed a small waterfall on the wound on her face, flowing down quickly.
Xia Wan'er only felt a chill on her face, and then felt wetness sliding down her cheek. She reached out and touched her hands, and found them covered in blood. She was so scared that her eyes rolled back and she fainted on the ground.
Zi'an wiped the dagger with a handkerchief, his face grim, and slowly said to the owner of the clinic: "Please stop the bleeding for them, doctor."
(End of this chapter)