Chapter 74: Petty

Qin Tang and Qin Xun felt relieved, while Rong Yan and the others were momentarily stunned.

Jiang Shi peeked from the doorway, her face covered in feigned distress, her expression shocked; she could not immediately accept being slapped by an advisor. Lin Yao, as an advisor, had always been gentle and smiling.

As a scholar, Lin Yao valued the integrity of a literary man; making him a concubine was simply an insult.

Was the Crown Princess joking? Clearly not.

"Why did you hit me?" Jiao Ran cried.

"Causing trouble," Lin Yao said. "Bringing harm upon us all."

Lin Yao, abandoning his usual scholarly frailty, looked grim, while Jiao Ran remained bewildered, unable to understand his words. Deep down, Jiao Ran believed Qin Bi was merely joking with the advisors and others, putting on a show for her.

Rong Yan also stopped smiling, finding the situation difficult to resolve.

Watching Lin Yao slap Jiao Ran, Qin Bi remained unmoved and remarked, "With the Crown Prince absent, there is no need to vie for favor before me. I do not take concubines. When the Crown Prince returns, you may perform for him."

Rong Yan couldn't help but burst out laughing again. Indeed, if they were all women, it might be a scene of rivalry for favor, but the problem was that only Jiao Ran was a woman; only she desperately wanted to be a concubine.

Lin Yao and the others were so angry they nearly exploded, their faces turning grim one by one.

Qin Bi, however, did not care, acting as though if Jiao Ran entered the inner quarters, she would take Lin Yao, Rong Yan, and the others as concubines as well. Was she joking? Qin Tang glanced at Qin Bi's expression and sucked in a breath; she was not joking.

Qin Lang, holding the child Rong Yang, watched from the doorway of the inner side hall.

"My mother cannot be angry," Rong Yang worried.

Qin Lang stopped the child: "Rest assured, your mother is not angry; others are."

Rong Yang looked around and saw it was true; the advisors were nearly fainted from anger.

At this moment, the atmosphere in the room was incredibly amusing. Qin Lang was so excited he nearly ran out to watch the spectacle. Qin Tang and Qin Xun, raised in the Marquis Manor since childhood, had heard of the schemes within the inner quarters.

A female general like Jiao Ran, who had saved lives, was the hardest to deal with, yet Qin Bi did not follow conventional rules. She created this scene, stunning everyone; "confused" was insufficient to describe everyone's current state of mind.

Rong Yan was worried, yet he couldn't help but laugh.

Jiang Xu stepped aside to watch the spectacle. The angriest person present was Lin Yao, the scholar, along with the burly guards, former deputy generals in the army. Placing them on the same level as a concubine who climbed into bed would naturally make men angry.

Qin Bi glanced and noticed one person was not as agitated. He appeared as a frail scholar, seemingly not an advisor, but a man of deep cunning, not as quick-tempered as the rough men.

Qin Bi seized upon him, looking at this man and saying, "You seem untroubled, unlike others who are emotionally agitated. Do you truly have intentions?"

Wow, Qin Lang's eyes widened enormously.

Everyone else turned their gaze to him in unison. The man paused, then looked at Jiao Ran. The woman was eyeing him with scrutiny, her face full of wariness, clearly fearing a man would steal the Crown Prince from her.

Excellent. This frail scholar, enraged, raised his hand and slapped Jiao Ran again.

Jiao Ran covered her cheek, instantly stunned: "Why does everyone hit me?"

Qin Bi felt disappointed; this was an attempt to end the matter. She had not yet vented her anger. She was not joking with anyone. People like Jiao Ran were not rare; as long as there was someone like this by a man's side, they would eventually make a scene.

Whether Jiao Ran's appearance was someone's scheme or not, if she did not appear today, she would eventually demand the position of a concubine years from now. Qin Bi had no patience; this had to be resolved now.

Actually, it was not about resolving anything; mainly, who had heard that if one person made sacrifices for another, they must marry them?

In Qin Bi's view, this logic did not hold.

Furthermore, Qin Bi was petty. She had seen Lin Yao and the others indulging Jiao Ran from the start and would not let them have a good time. Regardless of any past camaraderie between the advisors and guards who served together at the border, Qin Bi would not maliciously destroy their bond.

If their bonds were different, then if one wanted to be a concubine, let them all be concubines.

Jiao Ran felt she was different, but she was mistaken. She believed she had done much for the Crown Prince, yet others had done no less. If one tallied what Jiao Ran had done, Lin Yao and Rong Yan and the others were actually the ones who contributed the most daily.

Therefore, if becoming a concubine was the goal, Jiao Ran would be last; rushing to the front would be useless.

Jiao Ran could make a scene, but she could not stop Qin Bi from refusing to let her cut in line.

"Crown Princess," the slender scholar explained. "I have no intentions."

Did Qin Bi believe him? She looked at Jiao Ran: "Both of you stay by the Crown Prince's side. She has intentions, yet you do not? You and Jiao Ran are no different. She looks down on women of the inner quarters, claiming she can endure the hardships of the border just like you men. Then I shall treat you all as soldiers. She wants to be a concubine, yet you tell me you have no intentions?"

Qin Bi did not smile, nor did she intend to use this as an excuse to deal with Jiao Ran. She was simply fairly distributing rewards to those around the Crown Prince; the reward was the position of a concubine in the inner quarters.

The man was at a loss. He glared coldly at Jiao Ran, then looked at Lin Yao.

Lin Yao also realized this Crown Princess was no ordinary person. Her methods were beyond even his comprehension as an advisor. Taking a concubine as a joke was one thing, but he feared she might be serious.

He signaled to Rong Yan and the others. They did not eat; Lin Yao took his leave, and the guards dragged the unwilling Jiao Ran away.

Lin Yao, walking behind, bowed to the Crown Princess: "Crown Princess, rest assured. In the future, any woman of the same status as us will never become a concubine in the inner quarters, nor will she become the principal wife."

Thus, Jiao Ran must die. If anyone like her appeared in the future, they would not be able to make a scene before Qin Bi.

Lin Yao was afraid, and Rong Yan was afraid too. In the future, if they saw any female guard with complicated intentions, they would simply resolve the matter quickly themselves, lest the Crown Princess muster all her strength to anger them to death.

This was a cultivation world where fortune and luck were paramount. Qin Bi, carrying a child, said, "Let her return to the border; that place suits her."

Lin Yao paused in confusion, then withdrew.

Once everyone had left, Qin Bi smiled and turned to the others: "They are gone. Let us eat; the dishes have gone cold."

Maids and nannies took the food away to reheat it. Qin Tang and the others had laughed enough but now grew worried. Lin Yao was an advisor with considerable status among scholars, and Qin Bi had angered him greatly.

"Will the Crown Prince be angry?" Qin Tang asked.

"No," Qin Bi smiled. "Even if Rong Juan gets angry, I will not return to my maiden home."

Qin Tang temporarily set aside his worry. When the food was brought back, they invited Lin Yao to dine, but he found an excuse not to come; he was too full of anger to eat and needed time to cool down. Who had the mood to eat?

Qin Bi did not care and invited her brothers, sisters-in-law, and others to eat.

Rong Yang stumbled out and was held by Qin Bi while eating.

Qin Bi indeed did not worry about Rong Juan getting angry. Since their marriage and the birth of Rong Yang, Qin Bi knew exactly how much Rong Juan loved her and the child. However, she remembered that Rong Juan had treated her poorly in the past.

Being able to anger Rong Juan made Qin Bi feel very good.