Thinking of the flowers, a hint of guilt appeared in Xiaohong’s eyes.
Ninger continued pressing, “So your young mistress is ungrateful, collaborating with the Third Prince of Xuan Country to have you intentionally lead our princess here, intending for Zhao Li to attack her?”
“No, no!”
Xiao Hong, afraid that Ning’er would completely misunderstand her, blurted out without thinking, “This was my doing, I did it! It has nothing to do with our young mistress!”
As expected, Xiao Hong has indeed teamed up with Zhao Lid.
At this moment, An Xuetang and Shou’er walked over as well. An Xuetang, using her ‘skills’, had already heard Zhao Li’s voice and also heard everything Xiao Hong had said.
After walking over, she cast a disappointed glance at Xiaohong and then looked at Ning’er, “Are you hurt?”
“Ning’er shook her head slightly, “Return to the princess, no.”
“That’s good.”
An Xuetang then looked at Xiao Hong. Her icy expression was enough to make Xiao Hong’s face pale and her tongue freeze, unable to utter a word.
After staring at Xiaohong for a moment, An Xuetang didn’t say a word. She heard the sound of someone hurrying over and her icy eyes narrowed slightly.
“Take her with you.”
Having said that, An Xuetang turned and walked away, Ning’er and Shou’er dragging Xiaohong after her.
Just shortly after they left, several gossipy maids appeared at the back of the mountain. They had obviously come because they’d heard something big had happened here, but after arriving, they saw nothing.
“Strange, there’s nothing here at all!”
“So, were we tricked?”
“What a waste of our time and energy! I thought we might have made great achievements today and been rewarded by the generous benefactor.”
Several palace maids returned defeated. As they left, their hearts filled with discontent, each of them muttered angrily under their breath, spewing insults and curses.
Just as those maids left, An Xuetang and the others who had been hiding nearby emerged from their hiding place.
Xiaohong’s face was now even paler than white paper, and fear gradually consumed her heart like a monster.
An Xuetang had Ning’er remove Xiaohong’s gag, then asked leisurely, “Why did you do this? Did Huaduo tell you to?”
“No! That’s not how it goes… It’s not like that!”
“Your Highness, you must not misunderstand our young mistress. This matter is truly none of her doing… It was my own idea, I deserve to die! Please, Your Highness, punish me instead. Do not blame our young mistress, she truly considers you a good friend and would never do anything to betray your trust.”
“Everything is the maidservant’s fault, it was the maidservant who was possessed by a demon and did something wrong. But our young mistress truly knows nothing about it.”
“I am willing to die, just please don’t blame our young mistress. Please don’t do anything to her. As long as you don’t misunderstand our young mistress, you can ask me to do anything. It was I who wanted to harm you, so please, Your Highness, kill me. I will not resist.”
“….”
An Xuetang listened, then suddenly let out a cold laugh. Xiao Hong looked up at her in confusion, unable to tell what the Northern Border Princess meant by that smile for a moment.
Ning’er and Shou’er looked at each other. Shou’er said in a voice that couldn’t tell her emotions, “So even if our Princess Consort wanted to kill you, what could you do to resist?”
“! ”
Xiaohong’s eyes glazed over, as if she had only just thought of this problem. That was right, after all, what could the esteemed Northern Border Princess possibly do to her that she could resist?
But none of that mattered. What truly mattered was convincing the Northern Border Princess that their young lady was genuinely unaware of the Third Prince’s affairs.
She wasn’t lying; her mistress truly didn’t know.
An Xue Tang was too lazy to say anything to her, “This concubine doesn’t want to hear this nonsense. There is only one chance for explanation. If you want this concubine to believe you, you know what to do.”
Xiaohong didn’t know if the Princess of Beijiang had actually believed her words, but since the Princess was willing to let her explain, she thought she still had a chance to clear their young mistress’s name. Tears streaming down her face, she continued to explain.
From her incoherent explanation, An Xuetang finally understood that this matter was related to Mo Yunchen, who was far away in Beijang.
When the third prince and sixth princess of Xuan Guo entered the capital, Mo Yunchen had already written a letter to Huaduo’er. He hoped that Huaduo’er could help match Mo Yunjing with Princess Zhao Si of Xuan Guo.
He even gave Huaduo’er some advice, asking her to use underhanded means to bring Mo Yunjing and Zhao Si together. However, Huaduo’er and An Xuetang were such good friends. No matter how much Huaduo’er wanted to help Mo Yunchen, she would never do anything that would hurt An Xuetang.
Mo Yunchen seemed to have guessed that Hua Duoer wouldn’t do this, so he still had a backup plan.
Besides sending a letter to Huaduoer, he also sent a letter to Xiaohong, who was beside Huaduoer, a letter that Huaduoer didn’t know anything about.
In his letter to Xiao Hong, Mo Yunchen promised her a big pie. He told Xiao Hong that no matter whether she or Huaduo completed the task he had assigned them, he would find a way to bring Huaduo to Beijang.
He knew Huaduo’er’s feelings for him, so he promised that no matter who completed his task, Huaduo’er or Xiaohong, he would make her his Crown Princess. In the future, Huaduo’er would be the entire Tianba Kingdom’s Empress.
And his task for Xiaohong was different from Hua Duoer’s, because he knew it was nearly impossible for Xiaohong to deceive Mo Yunjing.
That’s why he asked Xiao Hong to make a move against An Xue Tang. He didn’t ask Xiao Hong to do anything difficult, just to lure An Xue Tang to a secluded place to meet with the Third Prince of Xuan Guo. If this was done, Xiao Hong wouldn’t have to worry about anything else.
And Xiaohong also saw that Huaduo hadn’t gone to complete Moyunchen’s mission. For Huaduo to leave this place and for Huaduo to be with the person she had liked for so many years, she made up her mind to complete the task assigned by Moyunchen.
So, today she heard that An Xue Tang entered the palace, and coincidentally, the Third Prince of Xuan Country was also in the palace. That’s when she decided to risk her life and do this.
Huāduǒr today really wanted to see ?nxuetáng, but Huāduǒr was prepared to wait in her own palace. After all, she knew that ?nxuetáng had the ability to avoid the eyes of the palace.
But Xiaohong ultimately betrayed Huaduo’er. She deceitfully misled An Xuetang, wanting to lure her to the fake mountain.
What she underestimated was the vigilance of An Xuetang and others. The mission ultimately failed, and it led An Xuetang and the others to misunderstand Huaduoer, making them think that this incident had something to do with Huaduoer.
By now, Xiaohong was truly fearless of death, but she feared that the Princess Consort of Beijiang would blame her young mistress.
Once they shift the blame onto their young mistress, with the capabilities of King and Queen Beijiang, it would be as easy as flipping their hand to get rid of her.