Chapter 44

Zhou Huaijin kowtowed and stood up. Raising her eyes, she saw that the woman wearing a silver mask in front of her had treated her reprimand as background noise. Her gaze fell shamelessly on His Highness, truly daring beyond measure.

Zhou Huaijin’s barely raised lips pressed down three points as she quickly walked up to that commoner and angrily rebuked, “How dare you!”

She reached out her hand, making a gesture as if to force the person to kneel on the ground.

Her hand had just suspended in mid-air when it was struck by a string of beads shot diagonally from nearby. The well-maintained middle finger was hit, reflexively curling into a ball. With fingers connected to the heart, the fingertip pain was now piercing.

Zhou Huaijin’s eyes were shooting flames. Today everything was going wrong. Just now, because of Jia Ziyun, she had already lost face in front of His Highness. Now, when she finally had a chance to discipline the woman who didn’t follow the rules for His Highness, she was interrupted again.

She suddenly raised her head, glaring angrily.

Looking at the woman walking closer and closer, when she saw the person’s face clearly, her angry expression was withdrawn at an extremely distorted speed.

Jing Huan stepped forward two paces, ignoring everyone else, and once again stuffed the purple-gold embossed hand warmer into Liu Changning’s arms, saying gently to her, “It’s better for Cang Yun to hold the hand warmer. The wind is strong today, and it seems the way back has been blocked by some people throwing their weight around. Be careful not to catch a cold, that wouldn’t be nice.”

After saying this, she stood in front of Liu Changning without allowing refusal, and gazed across the space at the red-clothed man leaning obliquely against the wooden door. Seeing that his eyes were calm and undisturbed, with his usual alluring smile hanging on his smiling lips.

Jing Huan’s eyes carried a hint of playful smile, and she couldn’t help but let out a cold laugh in her heart. The Auxiliary State Long Emperor Qin was far-sighted and meticulous, yet he couldn’t recognize his heart’s beloved. It was truly pitiful and lamentable. Hah!

Jing Huan’s full lips curved pleasantly, her gaze restrained, fixed on Zhou Huaijin, and that hint of a smile disappeared without a trace.

With stern light in her eyes and an expressionless face, she looked at the arrogant Zhou family girl before her.

She asked in a neither loud nor soft voice, enunciating clearly, “Is ‘How dare you’ something the Zhou family girl can say? The Long Emperor Qin is here and hasn’t spoken yet, what kind of thing are you to dare bully others with your power?”

Jing Huan usually didn’t talk much, and when speaking to people, she was steady and reserved, not showing sharp edges.

But if she raised her voice, it meant she was angry.

Even the Dingyuan Marquis could not withstand such pressure in front of her.

Let alone Zhou Huaijin, who was merely a daughter of the Dingyuan Marquis’s family. At this moment, enveloped by Jing Huan’s pressure, her legs involuntarily weakened.

She retreated several steps, avoiding to behind Pei Yuanshao, her knees bent, and with a thud, she knelt at his side.

Kowtowing, she raised her head to look at him pleadingly, admitting her mistake, “This commoner had absolutely no intention of overstepping, may Your Highness quell your anger.”

The four people gathered at the back door of the teahouse, and this commotion had long since attracted the attention of the students in the main hall.

The Long Emperor Qin, with his red clothes and ink-black hair, and his extremely beautiful face, was particularly eye-catching. With just one glance, many students had already recognized him.

Some bold female rulers stretched their necks, craning to look towards the back door.

Pei Yuanshao took in the scene in the main hall, turned sideways, not even looking at the Zhou family girl kneeling and pleading.

He stepped forward two paces, fixing his gaze on Jing Huan.

A flash of disgust passed through his peach blossom eyes as he watched Jing Huan protect the woman not far away behind her. An inexplicable anger arose in his heart.

Jing Huan’s protective stance towards Liu Cang Yun was extremely eye-catching.

Women loving women, the fondness of grinding mirrors was not a sin in itself.

But this despicable person Jing Huan, using love as an excuse, used all her scheming. Her pulling and protecting Liu Cang Yun here at the teahouse, under the noses of the children of poor families, if seen by others, Liu Cang Yun would surely be gossiped about by those with ulterior motives, forced to be classified as part of the Southern Garrison King’s faction.

The winter wind outside the teahouse blew in gusts, making the cotton clothes of the red-clothed man leaning obliquely against the wooden door flutter noisily.

Liu Changning raised her eyes and saw that outside the unbuttoned toggle at his collar, the skin exposed to the air had tiny hairs standing up.

She pursed her lips and stepped past Jing Huan, cupping her hands to bid farewell.

However, unexpectedly, her hand was halfway out when it was suddenly caught by the wrist by the red-clothed man who had walked up close, their five fingers interlocking as he rubbed her dry palm.

His smiling lips curled upwards, and facing Jing Huan, he frivolously lifted Liu Changning’s chin.

Lowering his head, his lips brushed against her ear as he said in a low voice, “Don’t move! Look behind me.”

Liu Changning, following the gaps between his jet-black hair strands, inconspicuously swept a glance at the distance.

At this moment, several pairs of eyes from the main hall had already gathered here.

Currently, she was still covering half her face with the silver mask, but half of her face was not covered. If someone saw her full appearance.

I’m afraid that in a few days, the entire Jinling City would spread that Liu Cang Yun, a poor scholar from Lingnan, had a dispute with the Dingyuan Marquis’s female ruler and was forcefully protected by the Southern Garrison King.

If this matter spread, she would probably be labeled as part of Jing Huan’s faction from now on.

Her convenient husband seemed to be helping her at this moment.

Although the Long Emperor Qin was part of the pro-emperor faction and stood against the Southern Garrison King in the court,

Outside the palace, he still maintained his reckless personality, known for his romantic indiscretions.

At this moment, if he was seen flirting with her in the inner courtyard corridor of the teahouse by those with ulterior motives, it would only add another stroke to the Long Emperor Qin’s romantic affairs.

But it wouldn’t bring her into the pro-emperor camp.

After all, everyone knew that although the Long Emperor Qin had numerous male concubines and was fond of sensual pleasures, he had two different faces inside and outside the palace.

Because of being framed by the Jingzhao Prefecture three years ago, after he returned to the palace, he became extremely cautious and absolutely did not get involved with palace officials.