Chapter 52: The Prince, However, Goes Off to Have a Secret Tryst with Another Woman

"What is going on? Why did the carriage stop suddenly?"

A female voice issued a dissatisfied demand.

Nan Xueyin tilted her head; this was Hua Lianying's voice.

She walked closer with slow steps.

The coachman was in the middle of explaining the problem to Hua Lianying and hadn't noticed her approach at all, so she acted decisively and struck him unconscious with a single blow of her palm.

The speaking voice came to an abrupt halt; Hua Lianying was already in a temper, and now she was even more furious, throwing open the curtain and shouting a reprimand the moment she opened her mouth, "I am asking you, how exactly do you handle errands? Don't you know I have urgent matters tonight..."

Before she could finish, Nan Xueyin suddenly grabbed her by the collar and dragged her out of the carriage.

Hua Lianying was so frightened that her face turned pale, and she let out a shrill scream: "Who are you?!"

By the moonlight, she caught sight of Nan Xueyin's striking, beautiful face, and she was stunned for a moment, her complexion immediately turning deathly pale, with almost no blood left in it.

Nan Xueyin felt that she must be wondering why she was still alive.

After a long while, Hua Lianying adjusted her emotions and put on that pitiful, aggrieved look again, calling out with tears in her eyes: "Sister, you finally returned! You have no idea, I have been especially worried about you these days..."

Nan Xueyin was expressionless: "Are you pregnant?"

Hua Lianying was startled, not expecting her to bring this up; she subconsciously touched her still-flat lower abdomen, not daring to lie, and said in a weak, soft voice: "It is the Prince's..."

Nan Xueyin did not care whose it was, and said again: "The day I went to the Dali Temple Prison to kill, you pretended to be unwell and had someone call a doctor, so you didn't go to meet me for my escape, is that right?"

It sounded like she was asking a question, but based on her understanding of this cousin, the truth of the matter was exactly that, or very close to it.

Hua Lianying paused for a moment, and tears suddenly fell, "Sister, I know, I have done many wrong things that made you not trust me and made you dislike me... But you also know that my parents are both gone, and I only have you. I, I had to find a way to stay by your side! There are many things I really was forced to do..."

She sniffled, looked at Nan Xueyin with miserable, teary eyes, her voice trembling, "Sister, we are both women, you must understand how difficult and bitter it is for me. We are cousins, and we are the only family left in this world... Sister, you surely won't blame me, right? Look, you are perfectly fine, you will definitely forgive me, won't you?"

After listening, Nan Xueyin released her neck.

Hua Lianying thought she had escaped disaster and was just about to breathe a sigh of relief.

"Smack!"

A crisp sound exploded in the night.

Nan Xueyin slapped Hua Lianying across the face.

Her force was heavy, and this blow carried the power of a thunderbolt, acting more like a heavy punch that knocked Hua Lianying entirely to the ground.

Hua Lianying's hair fell loose, her head buzzed violently, and she was in so much pain she almost lost consciousness.

After a long while, she sat on the ground, trembling as she touched her injury, and discovered that half of her cheek was already swollen high, and the corners of her mouth were covered in warm blood.

"Hua Lianying, you are disgusting."

In truth, Nan Xueyin was not very good at saying nasty things.

She lowered her eyes, the gaze she directed at Hua Lianying filled with coldness, responding to her words from just before, "You are not desperately trying to stay by my side, but desperately trying to stay by the Prince's side. Perhaps you like him, or perhaps you just want to be the Duan Prince Consort; in any case, from the day you knocked on the door of the Duan Prince Mansion, you have only ever treated me as a stepping stone. You approached the Prince under the guise of being Nan Xueyin's cousin, and you always tried to highlight your own charm by belittling me."

Hua Lianying wanted to speak, her lips moving, but only a stream of blood foam came out.

"You say that since we are both women, I should understand your hardships; however, the Hua family are merchants, and you grew up in luxury, living even better than the daughters of some officials. You lived that life until you were sixteen, and only after your parents died did you come to rely on me. But when I was sixteen, I had already spent six years living a life of licking blood off the edge of a blade. That year, I even nearly died out there. Could it be that your life was more dangerous than mine?"

"Finally, regarding our blood ties. Your mother, my aunt, always looked down on the Nan Family for being poor. My parents knew of this, so our two families rarely interacted. It wasn't until that year when our hometown suffered a disaster and the harvest was truly poor that my mother, having no other choice, went to your home hoping to borrow a little grain, promising she would definitely return it the following year. But your mother refused to lend it, and even humiliated my mother before driving her out of the Hua house. Now you ask me to consider our blood ties?"

Nan Xueyin sneered, took two steps forward, and leaned down, "In the past, even when you deliberately spilled medicine on my hands, I just ignored it as a small matter. But how dare you repeatedly sabotage my missions? And even try to put me to death?"

Hua Lianying was in a wretched state; in front of Nan Xueyin, she was like a lamb waiting to be slaughtered, a lowly ant with no room to resist.

Things having reached this point, there was no need for the two of them to continue pretending to be virtuous.

Hua Lianying endured the pain and raised her proud head: "Even if I did all those things, so what? I am now pregnant with the Prince's child. How, how dare you touch me? If something goes wrong, can you bear the responsibility?"

As she spoke, she used one hand to vaguely cover her injured cheek, while the other hand remained tightly pressed against her lower abdomen.

Nan Xueyin glanced at her and said coldly: "One slap won't take your child's life. Even if you both died, I would only be punished. That little injury will heal before long. Why don't you try competing with me to see who dies sooner, and who dies more miserably?"

Hua Lianying's face turned white, and for a moment she could not speak.

After a long time, she seemed to think of something and laughed, "You don't know yet..."

"Know what?"

"Do you know who the Prince is meeting tonight?"

In fact, Nan Xueyin didn't need to guess to know that the person Xiao Mingyu would be meeting these days was none other than Yan Zhirong.

Hua Lianying seemed to be in high spirits: "Sister, I heard that you like the Prince. But... even I have been in the Prince's bed, yet you haven't even held hands with him! Do you call that him cherishing you? Yet he only lets you go kill people and lets you go seduce the Crown Prince. You are currently between life and death, yet the Prince is off having a secret tryst with another woman..."

As she spoke, she truly laughed, laughing quite happily.

Nan Xueyin found it annoying to listen to, so she leaned down and slapped the other side of her cheek hard.

It was unclear whether it was because her strength was too great, or because Hua Lianying's body was too delicate, or perhaps both.

After the second slap was finished, Hua Lianying collapsed on the ground and fainted.

Nan Xueyin was speechless for a long while; she ignored her further, abandoned Hua Lianying on the side of the road in the wilderness, and drove the carriage away alone.

She did not know where to go, so she simply let the horse run as it pleased.

Before long, the carriage stopped by a lake.

The horse stopped walking and found a spot nearby, lowering its head to graze on some green grass.

Nan Xueyin got off the carriage and spotted a pleasure boat docked at the shore.

Night had already fallen, yet candles were lit inside the pleasure boat.

Driven by some unknown urge, Nan Xueyin walked up on tiptoe.

As she drew closer, she heard sticky sounds coming from the boat, and by the candlelight, Nan Xueyin saw a man and a woman embracing, kissing in a way that made it hard to part.

Accompanied by the rustling sound of clothing rubbing together, the man finally let go of the woman in his arms, pressed his forehead against hers, and said softly: "I am leaving tomorrow, and I truly do not know how I will get through the days without you."

Nan Xueyin's footsteps faltered.

She recognized this voice; it was Xiao Mingyu.