Chapter 289: Well, Is His Highness Satisfied Now?

Chapter 289: There, are you happy now, Your Highness?

Jiang Shuning was fuming with rage, but she had to suppress her emotions. She forced herself to lean in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. Then, face red, she said indignantly, "Is that good enough now?"

Xiao Lingchuan, however, held the back of her head, his gaze lingering, a mocking smile curling at the corner of his lips. "Of course not. If you're going to kiss me, it has to be on the mouth. A kiss on the cheek doesn't count."

"You..." Jiang Shuning trembled with rage, her eyes filled with humiliation and anger.

Worried about Cui Zhilan's safety, she had to keep dealing with this handsome yet malicious man.

"What's the matter?" Xiao Lingchuan's gaze lazily roamed over her face, his tone laced with mockery. "You're already pregnant with my child, and yet you're still shy about kissing?"

Jiang Shuning's face turned crimson, her ears burning as if about to bleed. In her heart, she cursed his shamelessness.

Frustrated and angry, she gritted her teeth and lunged forward abruptly. But she was so forceful, her lips slammed into his, immediately breaking the skin and drawing a trace of blood.

Xiao Lingchuan was speechless.

Jiang Shuning: "...There, are you happy now, Your Highness?"

"Go ahead. Let Ling Wu accompany you to see Concubine Cui." Xiao Lingchuan said casually as he wiped the blood from the corner of his lips, his tone laced with leniency.

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Jiang Shuning, as if granted a reprieve, quickly broke free from his grip and hurried away as if fleeing.

She headed toward the Brocade Collection Pavilion, Ling Wu followed silently behind her.

Ling Feng, coming from the opposite direction, saw her and bowed respectfully. "Greetings, Your Highness."

A sudden thought crossed Jiang Shuning's mind. She turned to Ling Wu and tentatively asked, "Are you and Ling Feng siblings?"

"No!" Before Ling Wu could speak, Ling Feng answered hastily, his tone urgent. "I have no blood relation whatsoever with Ling Wu!"

Jiang Shuning nodded thoughtfully. "Since you both have the surname Ling, I thought you were siblings."

Ling Wu explained, "Not at all. The surname ‘Ling’ was given to us by His Highness, taken from his own name. We are both orphans, we didn't have a surname."

"I see." Jiang Shuning nodded slightly, then asked, "How old were you when you started serving His Highness?"

In her previous life, Xiao Lingchuan never had Ling Feng or Ling Wu by his side.

In fact, aside from the Seventh Prince Xiao Qiyu, he didn't have a single person he could trust. He had to bear many things alone.

Ling Feng replied respectfully, "Reporting to Your Highness, I was adopted by His Highness at the age of five."

"Five?" Jiang Shuning was startled, a glimmer of surprise flashing in her eyes. "How is that possible?"

Though Ling Feng was younger than Xiao Lingchuan, he was already a grown man.

If he was adopted at five, then Xiao Lingchuan would have been no more than ten years old at the time. How could he have done that?

Seeing her confusion, Ling Wu added, "It's absolutely true! His Highness was still young back then. He found us begging by the roadside, took us in and even taught us martial arts. If not for His Highness, we would have starved to death."

Upon hearing this, a startling guess rose in Jiang Shuning's mind—could it be that Xiao Lingchuan was reborn much earlier than her, perhaps even when he was still a child?

She had always assumed that Xiao Lingchuan's rebirth was simply earlier than hers, but she never imagined it could be so much earlier.

If he had been reborn since childhood, then wouldn't he have to relive the sufferings of the cold palace all over again?

At the thought, her heart tightened inexplicably, and an indescribable bitterness surged within her.

In her previous life, her greatest suffering was the ten lonely years in the mansion after marrying Xiao Lingchuan.

But for Xiao Lingchuan, the most unbearable memory was likely the daily torment and humiliation he endured in the cold palace.

Jiang Shuning stepped into Cui Zhilan's room and saw her lying on the bed, her face as pale as paper, eyes tightly shut, already unconscious.

Xiao Cui was carefully applying medicine to her wounds, tears streaming down her face, sobbing, "Though my lady is the legitimate daughter, she's never been favored, never suffered much in her life. How could she endure such torment? His Highness doesn't even treat her like a noble lady—he actually subjected her to torture. Poor lady, with such a delicate body, how could she bear it?"

Hearing this, any trace of sympathy Jiang Shuning had for Xiao Lingchuan vanished instantly.

To be so cruel to a defenseless, delicate woman—he's truly ruthless and vicious to the core!

She quickly comforted Xiao Cui gently, "Don't be sad. I have some knowledge of medicine. Let me take her pulse and perform a few acupuncture treatments. I will do my best to help her recover as soon as possible."

Xiao Cui was overwhelmed with gratitude and bowed deeply to her. "Thank you, Your Highness!"

Jiang Shuning sat by the bed and gently took Cui Zhilan's wrist to feel her pulse. Fortunately, she found that most of the injuries were superficial, not affecting the bones or tendons. She sighed in relief.

She took out silver needles and skillfully performed acupuncture. Within moments, Cui Zhilan slowly regained consciousness, a hint of color returning to her pale face.

As soon as she opened her eyes and saw Jiang Shuning, Cui Zhilan's lips moved, her voice so weak it was almost inaudible. "Miss Jiang..."

"Don't speak. You're still injured and need to rest well." Jiang Shuning gently advised.

But Cui Zhilan looked tense, struggling to sit up, and asked urgently, "Miss Jiang, you've been brought back by His Highness. Then... what about my cousin?"

"He is not in mortal danger, but..." She paused, as if finding it hard to say, "He was humiliated."

Cui Zhilan sighed in relief, her face still as pale as snow, murmuring, "Thank goodness he's fine."

Then, she blamed herself, "It's all my fault for being careless and letting Concubine Zhao overhear our plan, which caused this operation to fail..."

"Concubine Cui, please don't say that." Jiang Shuning felt deeply guilty, her voice low and bitter. "I'm the one who dragged you into this..."

Jiang Shuning stayed in Cui Zhilan's room for a short while. Before leaving, she carefully instructed Ling Wu to bring some food and medicine to help Cui Zhilan recover.

At parting, Xiao Cui choked back tears and pleaded, "Your Highness, could you visit my lady often? She is under house arrest by His Highness now, with nothing in this room, all alone..."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Shuning's mind involuntarily recalled Xiao Lingchuan's ambiguous yet domineering demand for a kiss, and her cheeks flushed inexplicably.

But she didn't want to disappoint Xiao Cui, so she said, "Don't worry, I will come often."

"Thank you, Your Highness!" Xiao Cui, overwhelmed with gratitude, quickly bowed to thank her.

Jiang Shuning left Cui Zhilan's room and walked slowly along the corridor, only to run into Zhao Ruowan.

She immediately noticed that Zhao Ruowan wore her hair piled high with red hairpins and gold ornaments today, richly adorned and exceptionally ostentatious.

As soon as she saw Jiang Shuning, Zhao Ruowan put on a fake smile and took the initiative to greet her. "Oh, isn't this the Princess Consort? Your humble concubine greets you, Princess Consort!"

The moment Jiang Shuning remembered that it was this woman who had betrayed their plan, a surge of disdain and disgust arose in her heart. She couldn't be bothered to exchange pleasantries with her and kept a cold face, unwilling to speak.

But Zhao Ruowan, indifferent to her coldness, deliberately taunted her. "Princess Consort, you're not here to see Concubine Cui, are you? If I may say so, Concubine Cui truly has ill intentions—she instigated you to elope with another man, just to have His Highness's favor all to herself! Luckily, His Highness brought you back, or else she would have succeeded!"

Jiang Shuning sneered at this, her gaze sharp as a knife, piercing into Zhao Ruowan. "Do you think everyone is like you, with nothing on your mind but trying to win His Highness's favor, with nothing better to do than compete for affection?"

Zhao Ruowan's expression shifted slightly, but she still smiled flamboyantly.

Fiddling with the gold hairpin on her head, she said sarcastically, "You're right. I'm not like you. Even after committing murder and eloping with another man, His Highness still dotes on you. But well, His Highness is a man after all. He might tolerate your betrayal now, but as time goes on, he's bound to get tired of you. You'd better not take advantage of his favor to act recklessly!"

As she spoke, she deliberately shook the gold hairpin on her head, showing off proudly. "Speaking of which, I have to thank you. If it weren't for your elopement with Prince Ning, how could I have had the chance to pledge my allegiance to His Highness? Look, this hairpin was bestowed by His Highness. Isn't it beautiful..."

Before she could finish, Jiang Shuning could no longer suppress the anger in her heart. She suddenly raised her hand, and with a sharp "slap," a crisp slap echoed through the corridor, landing squarely on Zhao Ruowan's face.