Chapter 217: A Scheme, the Banquet Held by Princess Royal
Mo Xuetong got up late in the morning and could still feel the pain in her head. She leaned on a cushion but couldn’t recall when she fell asleep last night. The quilt was placed meticulously on her without any sign of wrinkles. Could it be Feng Yuran…
How could he be such a caring person? Mo Xuetong laughed at her own guess.
Hearing her getting up, Mo Lan pulled up the curtain and tucked it behind the hooks aside, which was decorated with jade-like stone. “Do you want to get up?” Mo Ye held the wash supplies.
Mo Xuetong held Mo Lan’s hand and got up. At ordinary times, Mo Yu was always the first one appearing by her bedside. “Where is Mo Yu?”
Mo Lan burst into a laugh. “Miss, don’t look for her now. Yesterday she tried to get me drunk, but she drank even more herself. She was still drunk and hasn’t wakened up.” Last night, Mo Yu urged them to drink, but she couldn’t drink too much herself. Therefore, she also got herself drunk and hadn’t wakened up until now.
Mo Xuetong heard the words and also smiled brightly.
Mo Lan helped Mo Xuetong to the dressing table and said smilingly, “Miss, please get up quickly. Don’t forget we have to go to Princess Royal’s manor. It won’t be good to be late.”
Mo Xuetong was blank for a while before she remembered there was such a thing indeed. Days ago, Princess Royal especially left a message to invite her. Now, she recounted and found the date was today.
Mo Ye, who was making the bed, suddenly asked, “Miss, what’s this? It’s so beautiful!” She took out a pair of hairpins under the pillow. There seemed to be nature flowing on the light green hairpins. And the jade tassels behind were inlaid with white pearls. On top of it, they were inlaid with several red diamonds which were placed among the green color. It looked so beautiful!
Those sword-shaped hairpins were changed into this?
Mo Xuetong hesitated for a while and recognized that those were the ones they got last time when she went out with Feng Yuran. Then she somehow felt that the hairpins were too conspicuous and she couldn’t let anyone find that she had the pair of hairpins. So she asked Feng Yuran to help to change and decorate them.
However, against her expectation, he made them so beautiful. If she hadn’t had a deep impression of the hairpins, she couldn’t tell what they used to be like.
The sheath of the sword had been changed into the body of the hairpin, which was more beautiful than before. No one had expected that the sword would get out of the sheath with a little tap on the bloom.
“From now on, you can take these hairpins along with you when you’re dealing with the royalty. It’s necessary to have a weapon to protect yourself. Now I can’t always show up by your side, so you must be careful.” By her ears came a lazy voice as if a handsome man were gently fondling her long hair…
Her delicate face instantly turned red. She bit her lips and didn’t dare to look at her pink cheeks in the bronze mirror which looked as if they were covered with rouge.
She pretended to be casual and said, “It was found out at my mother’s place. They were so pretty so I put it away. Take them over and help me put them on.” She said it was her mother’s dowry. These days, Mo Huawen took out the key to the little warehouse and gave it to Mo Xuetong. And Mo Xuetong actually picked something out of it, so it did sound reasonable.
But the flush on her face couldn’t be hidden. So she just lowered her head and pretended to fiddle with the pearl ornaments on the table.
Mo Lan looked at Mo Xuetong confusedly, not knowing why she was so bashful.
However, Mo Ye knew about it. The minute she asked, she knew she had done something wrong. Hearing Mo Xuetong explaining like that, she pursed her lips and smiled. Then she put the hairpins at the table and quietly turned around to make the bed. After all, she was happy to see her two masters end up together.
This time Princess Royal didn’t hold the banquet at the palace, which was not a good place to hold a banquet. If she held it at the palace, everyone would be constrained and couldn’t be themselves. Therefore, she used her own manor instead. Princess Royal spent some time in her own manor every month. It took the carriage from Mo Manor quite a ride to get there because the Princess Royal’s manor was quite far from Mo Manor.
On arriving at the gate of the princess’s manor, Mo Ye got out of the carriage first. Then she instantly turned around to help Mo Xuetong out of the carriage. Mo Xuetong’s feet had just touched the ground when a mocking voice came. “How come the lord mayor also received my aunt’s invitation?”
Mo Xuetong lifted her head and saw Fifth Princess who was surrounded by a lot of people. Today, Fifth Princess was particularly gorgeous. Her dark hair was done in a lofty bun, and there was a splendid golden lotus crown on her head, which was inlaid with star-shaped diamonds. In front of her forehead was a half-arched jade bun. She wore a gorgeous robe and the bangles and pendants clashed around her. She was so glamorous that no one dared to see her directly.
“Greetings to Your Highness.” A gentle smile showed up on Mo Xuetong’s face. She politely walked over and bowed to her as if there were nothing wrong between them.
Fifth Princess smiled politely too, but her words sounded very harsh. “I haven’t expected to meet you everywhere I go. It is said that you’re the only miss who can go out at Mo Manor, but you’re almost everywhere.”
Mo Xuetong raised her eyes and smiled. “I’m sorry to have aroused Fifth Princess’s concern. I haven’t expected to see your beautiful face everywhere I go. I’m so lucky.”
Although she didn’t want Fifth Princess to be her enemy, she wouldn’t let Fifth Princess humiliate Mo Manor like that, as if Mo Huawen asked her to suck up to Princess Royal. Although she didn’t explain for herself, her words clearly showed that Fifth Princess went out of the palace for too many times, which was disgraceful.
Mo Xuetong didn’t want to argue with Fifth Princess anymore. She wore a bright smile on her face and said, “Your Highness, there is the banquet held by Princess Royal inside. Therefore, I can’t stay here for too long and shall get in first!”
Fifth Princess got choked and became angry. She stepped in front of Mo Xuetong to stop her from passing.
“Why does Her Highness do this? Do you want to drive the guests out for Princess Royal?” Mo Xuetong’s smile was still gentle. “Maybe Princess Royal isn’t holding a banquet today. It’s me who has mistaken it?” She blinked her watery eyes and looked childishly attractive. She looked at Fifth Princess, but her eyes revealed her detachment.
This time couldn’t be compared to the last time when Bai Yihao asked her to go there. Last time she didn’t dare to speak it out loud in front of Fifth Princess, which might get her jealous.
But Fifth Princess didn’t dare to drive the guests out for Princess Royal!
Although as the Empress’s daughter by blood, Fifth Princess knew how much her father cared about Princess Royal. Besides, Princess Royal was an elder to her, thus she couldn’t evict her guests out.
Fifth Princess’s face turned cold. She stepped forward and lowered her voice. “You can’t try to win my cousin’s attention. He looks down on you; you’re just a third-grade official’s daughter. You can’t dream of getting Cousin’s attention and becoming the Empress in the Yan Kingdom.”
She did do that for Bai Yihao. Mo Xuetong was still smiling, and she said lightly, “Why would you think there is a connection between Sir Bai and me? Sir Bai was royalty and will be a perfect match with a royal princess like you. I’m just an ordinary acquaintance of his. And why would I have any relations with him? Besides, an ordinary girl like me can never think about the respected position of an Empress.”
She didn’t want to be involved with Fifth Princess and Bai Yihao. It had nothing to do with her no matter what happened between them. Compared with Feng Yuran, Bai Yihao seemed more dangerous to her, and she would never be stupid enough to let herself trapped in the war between the two countries. Even though he smiled gently and affectionately, he was still that bloodthirsty emperor.
Mo Xuetong would rather believe that it was only his camouflage, which would let down others’ guard.
In this second life, she would rather believe in the hearts she could see through.
Bai Yihao was definitely cruel and cold-blooded!
Seeing Mo Xuetong speaking like that without hesitation, Fifth Princess was kind of satisfied. She snorted. “You’re sensible enough.”
At the moment, the guard by the gate declared loudly. “Sir Bai is here.”
The noisy place by the gate suddenly turned completely silent. In the sun glows, a man walked out of the carriage. His white clothes flew up in the air and looked very enchanting.
He raised his handsome flawless face which instantly caught everyone’s attention. Though he was far away from them, he seemed to have brought along elegance, freedom, and easiness as carefree as the clouds in the sky.
He was wearing a light silver cloak which was embroidered with phoenix patterns. Those bright eyes glanced through the crowds. He was so elegant and noble that he didn’t seem to belong to this world. The wind blew his hair up and disturbed not only Fifth Princess’s heart. Every miss there obsessively looked at the figure walking out from the light.
Bai Yihao walked out from the carriage and glanced in Mo Xuetong’s direction.
Mo Xuetong hesitated for a moment and took two steps back to hide. Fifth Princess was already hard enough for her to deal with. If the princess noticed that Bai Yihao paid attention to her, she might have to die for it.
Bai Yihao was walking in her direction!
Mo Xuetong lowered her head and looked at the ground. Mo Yu and Mo Ye also politely stood by the side. With their heads lowered, they were not so conspicuous compared with all the maidservants Fifth Princess brought.
Bai Yihao smoothly walked to her, and his cloak with the embroidery of the phoenix motif raised a breeze which chilled people’s hearts. “I haven’t expected to meet Third Miss Mo here. I’ve ordered someone to send the clothes to you. Have you received it?”
Mo Xuetong’s face turned pale and she tightly held the sleeves in her hands. She obediently stepped back to bow and offered a polite smile on her face. “Thank you, Sir Bai. I wore Fifth Princess’s clothes that day and left too hurriedly because I thought it might be inappropriate. Therefore, I left my clothes at your place. Thank you for sending it back to me.”
After her words, she said to the cold-faced Fifth Princess, “I haven’t thanked Your Highness for giving me the clothes.”
Seeing her talking politely and indifferently to Bai Yihao and mentioning her help, Fifth Princess’s expression softened. Just when she wanted to speak, Bai Yihao smiled tenderly and gently said, “It wasn’t a big deal and isn’t worth mentioning again.”
After those words, he turned to Fifth Princess. “It’s so lucky that you’re here. We should get in together now in case Aunt gets worried because of the long wait.”
Princess Royal Yunruo and Princess Royal Mingzhu used to grow up together before Empress Dowager and had a special relationship. So it was proper for Bai Yihao to use such a close appellation.
Fifth Princess agreed to him happily. “Okay, Aunt just sent someone to urge us and said you were too late. So I’m here to wait for you.” Then she turned around and glared at Mo Xuetong as if she were threatening. When she turned back, she was chatting and smiling with Bai Yihao with a sweet face when they walked in.
They were closely followed by a big crowd of maidservants and eunuchs. Then those misses, who just collected themselves, started to step forward.
Mo Xuetong didn’t move until they all left.
Mo Yu couldn’t help murmuring, “Miss, Sir Bai was too…”
Mo Xuetong replied coldly. “Mo Yu, don’t speak improperly.” Then she knitted her brows a bit.
Even Mo Yu knew it’s improper to talk with her in public, Bai Yihao, who was so smart, must know about it. He knew it inside whereas he still talked like that and even mentioned that thing in front of Fifth Princess. If she were Fifth Princess, she would also be annoyed.
Mo Xuetong definitely wouldn’t believe Bai Yihao did it accidentally. A person like him wouldn’t let others find a fault with him. The only explanation was that he had another purpose on her. This thought made her chill and her heart wouldn’t stop trembling. When faced with Bai Yihao, she didn’t think she had any chance to win even if it was in her second life.
Such a person should belong to a totally different world from hers…