Chapter 210: Everything Has Its Price

Cheng Ru'an embraced her daughter, gently patting her back.

Granny Liu brought a cup of warm milk, speaking softly: "I suppose you were frightened today; this young lady usually loves drinking it."

Tuan Tuan smelled it: "So stinky!" Having said that, she quickly covered her own mouth.

I clearly didn't mean that! What's going on!

Granny Liu stared, lifted it to her nose and sniffed, looking puzzled: "It's not stinky at all! Miss, try again!"

Tuan Tuan's little nose twitched: "It reeks!" She reached out, took it, and gulped it down in one go with glug-glug sounds.

Cheng Ru'an's face filled with question marks: "Stinky... and you still drank it?"

"Tuan Tuan?" she worriedly touched her daughter's forehead, "Are you feeling unwell somewhere?"

Tuan Tuan slipped from her embrace, anxiously stamping her feet, wanting to explain but blurted out: "Mother's hands are so hot!"

Cheng Ru'an startled, quickly pulled her hand back and placed it on her own forehead to test.

Not hot at all; just now, because of Xiao Ningshu's matter, I stayed outside too long, actually it's cooler than usual.

Xiao Er entered carrying a food box: "Miss, the kitchen made your favorite osmanthus cake, saying they added honey this time; try it?"

Tuan Tuan lunged over: "I hate osmanthus cake the most!"

Xiao Er froze, standing stiffly: "The miss doesn't like it?"

"Oh, then I'll take it back." He had just turned around.

Tuan Tuan anxiously ran up to him, snatched the food box from his hand: "I won't eat it!"

She ran to the table, climbed onto the cushion seat, opened the box, took a piece and stuffed it into her mouth.

Clearly it tasted fragrant, but in her mouth she said: "It's awful! So awful!"

Cheng Ru'an finally sensed something wrong, hurriedly ordered: "Quick! Please have the Prince return to the mansion!"

After a moment, Xiao Yuanhang hurried in.

Tuan Tuan happily lunged over: "Father! I don't miss you at all!"

After saying that, she sighed and lowered her little head.

Xiao Yuanhang scooped her up in one motion, held her in his arms, and looked at Cheng Ru'an: "What's wrong with Tuan Tuan?"

He had just left Zichen Hall not long ago, still carrying a scent of dragon's saliva fragrance.

Tuan Tuan inhaled: "Father reeks! Must be from that stinky Zichen Hall of the Imperial Uncle!"

"That place is the stinkiest—no, I mean, especially stinky! Stinks like a cesspool!"

"Zichen Hall like a cesspool?"

Xiao Yuanhang stared blankly.

Xiao Er's shoulders trembled; Cheng Ru'an pressed her lips, covering her mouth with a silk handkerchief.

Tuan Tuan was so anxious in Xiao Yuanhang's arms she was almost twisting into a knot: "Father reeks too much!"

She wrapped her arms around his neck, rubbing his face: "Father's beard doesn't prick at all!"

"Tuan Tuan hates being held by Father the most!"

The more she spoke, the more confused she became; finally she pouted her little mouth and wailed, burying her face in Xiao Yuanhang's neck.

Why do my words not match what I think! I don't want this!

Xiao Yuanhang and Cheng Ru'an both hurried to comfort her, but Tuan Tuan cried harder and harder.

Amid the chaos, a servant hurried in: "Prince, Princess Consort, the National Preceptor has arrived, saying there is an urgent matter."

Xiao Yuanhang hurriedly said: "Quick! Please bring the National Preceptor directly here."

"Yes."

After a moment, Chu Yuan entered.

Tuan Tuan opened her mouth and still shouted: "National Preceptor, you're leaving!"

Chu Yuan was taken aback, thought a moment: "Princess, does my Daoist robe look good today?"

His Daoist robe today is all gray-white.

Tuan Tuan looked him up and down: "Too ugly!"

After saying that, she shook her head vigorously: "I mean, it's hideously ugly! Ugly as a big wolf!"

Chu Yuan also looked puzzled: "Big wolf? Who is the big wolf?"

Xiao Er couldn't hold back any longer, raising his hand to cover his mouth.

Xiao Tuanzi looked around blankly at everyone, anxious and at a loss, and started crying again.

Xiao Yuanhang quickly patted her back gently: "Don't cry, Tuan Tuan, don't be anxious."

He looked at Chu Yuan: "National Preceptor, please sit; I just entered the mansion myself, I don't know what exactly happened to Tuan Tuan. Why have you come today, National Preceptor?"

Chu Yuan sat down: "I, the Daoist, came specially because I was worried about the Princess; it seems my worry has come true."

Cheng Ru'an hurriedly asked: "National Preceptor, do you know the whole story? Look at this child, she's beside herself."

Chu Yuan slowly said: "Since I heard that the Princess, while in Da Xia, absorbed Wu Luo's cultivation, I have been somewhat worried."

"Wu Luo's cultivation is profound; for the Princess to have received this much out of the blue is highly improper."

"But the Princess's fortune is deep, and she showed no reaction, so I did not mention it."

"Today I saw a thunderbolt from a clear sky, and the people in the rear mansion also told me the situation at the gate of the Prince's mansion, so I rushed over."

He looked at Tuan Tuan: "Princess, do you know that everything has its price?"

"Speaking contrary words like this is the price of your vital energy leaking today, drawing thunder from a clear sky."

He rose to his feet, patted Tuan Tuan, who had her face buried in her father's chest pretending to be dead: "Don't be anxious; after twelve hours, you will recover."

"From now on, you must study well how to restrain your vital energy, so you won't suffer backlash again."

So that's how it is! How embarrassing!

Tuan Tuan refused to lift her head, mumbling: "I don't want to study at all! I just want to use it casually!"

Chu Yuan shook his head helplessly, looking at Xiao Yuanhang: "Your Highness, there's no need to worry; this poor Daoist takes his leave."

Everyone thanked Chu Yuan, then looked at Tuan Tuan, all of them laughing and crying at once.

Tuan Tuan became even more clingy, clinging to Xiao Yuanhang's arms like an octopus and refusing to get down, while muttering, "Let go of me quickly."

The couple looked at the hypocritical Xiao Tuanzi, feeling both amused and worried.

At night, Tuan Tuan, who had spoken nonsense all day, finally fell asleep.

Cheng Ru'an gently tucked in her blanket's corner, then walked to the outer room.

She looked at her husband, worried: "Your Highness, Miss Shu has caused such a commotion today; how should we settle her?"

Xiao Yuanhang stood with his hands behind his back at the window: "She neither cares for the Prince's Mansion's reputation nor spares the mother-daughter bond, openly smearing your good name before the whole city; she must not be kept any longer."

"Tomorrow, we will send her to the Official Weaving Workshop."

Nominally, the Official Weaving Workshop is a workshop that weaves clothing for the palace and the army, but in reality it is a place that houses the wives and daughters of criminals.

Once inside, one is destined to lifelong weaving labor, unable to leave except by death.

Xiao Yuanhang said in a flat tone: "There are official guards stationed there, cut off from the outside world."

"Every day they labor from before dawn until late at night, with coarse tea and plain food, wearing hemp clothing and sleeping on straw mats."

"Didn't she constantly claim the Prince's Mansion mistreated her? Once there, she will naturally know what true mistreatment is."

He paused: "As the National Preceptor said well, everything has its price."

"Since she has chosen this path, she ought to pay the due price. I, the Prince Ning's Mansion, have raised her to this point, and have already exhausted benevolence and righteousness."

Cheng Ru'an let out a soft sigh and nodded.

The next morning, a gray-cloth carriage left the side gate of the Ning Prince's Mansion silently and went straight to the Official Weaving Workshop.

Xiao Ningshu was dragged off the carriage by two old women.

She looked in terror at the rust-streaked iron gate before her, the soldiers patrolling the entrance, and the rumbling of weaving machines coming from inside, and finally panicked completely.

She struggled, refusing to go in: "I won't go! I am the Fourth Miss of the Prince's Mansion! You can't treat me like this!"

The old women's eyes were full of disgust: "Fourth Miss, please."

The two of them jointly dragged her inside, exchanged a few brief words with the elderly caretaker, then turned and left.

The iron gate slammed shut heavily, sealing off Xiao Ningshu's sobs and reluctance inside.

From then on, there was no Fourth Miss of the Ning Prince's Mansion in Jingcheng; only an unnamed weaving girl remained in the Official Weaving Workshop.

The next day, Tuan Tuan finally returned to normal, and someone from Dezheng Palace came, asking her to enter the palace.