Reborn to be a Stepmother

061: Then Play Dead

Still muddle-headed, Zhao Hua asked, “Father Emperor, what are you doing here?”

His Majesty the Emperor took a deep breath and didn’t want to take care of her, so he got up and left while ordering the servants to look after them. The two girls weren’t allowed to get up before sunrise.

Dumbfounded, Zhao Hua exchanged glances with Xiao Ting. After the court lady, who looked after her, explained, they understood what happened.

While crying without tears, she muttered to herself: “This Princess just drank some wine and joined the fun. Ninth Uncle is too cunning.”

Then she looked at her friend Xiao Ting and sympathized with her, “Ting’er, I think you’re so pitiful!”

“Aren’t I? This Miss fell into the wolf’s den. That kid played us.” Xiao Ting cursed through gritted teeth, “Bastard, just wait for this old lady.”

They were fully awake now and after kneeling for a long time, their legs became sore. Zhao Hua wanted to stand up, but while the Palace servants next to her didn’t dare let her up, they also didn’t dare to stop her.

The servants knelt and pleaded: “Princess, please be merciful. If you get up, the Emperor will not let these servants go.”

Softhearted, Zhao Hua glanced around and found more than 20 people guarding them. She knelt back in discouragement.

“Ting’er, my leg hurts.”

Xiao Ting was speechless at the moment. Her legs were so numb right now. Grandma, who invented this kneeling punishment?

Always kneeling will give you rheumatism in the future.

“According to the usual plot, a downpour would come at this moment.”

Thinking of the plots she watched in her previous life, wouldn’t situations like these end up like that?

Facts proved that although it’s already night, it’s not suitable for dreaming.

Zhao Hua also followed her to look at the sky, but the sky was clear. Even though a light cloud would occasionally float by, there’s no sign of rain.

“Ting’er, I can’t hold on anymore.” After saying that, Princess Zhao Hua was about to sit down again. Before her butt could touch her legs, the group of servants knelt in an instant and pleaded once more.

Speechless once again, Zhao Hua then vowed that she would never drink with Ting’er ever again.

In fact, Xiao Ting was also weak in the legs, and she was very awake at this moment. The soreness from her knees made her twist her body unconsciously. She wanted to move to another place but felt even more pain when she moved.

After persevering for another quarter of an hour, the sky was still clear with the moon hanging high. She felt utterly dead.

Suddenly, she had an idea and said, “Zhao Hua, can you pretend to be dead?”

“Yes.” Princess Zhao Hua’s eyes lit up as she nodded and said, “But it’s not easy to deceive Father Emperor!”

Xiao Ting looked at the people around them and asked, “The Emperor said that before sunrise, this consort and Princess Zhao Hua are not allowed to get up, right?”

Everyone looked at each other for a while and nodded.

Then someone carefully added, “You can’t sit either.” This was the previous order, and it’s obvious the Emperor knew his daughter very well.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Ting blinked at Zhao Hua and said, “Then play dead!”

After speaking, Xiao Ting stretched her limbs and laid down on the roof. Looking at the stars in the sky, she was in an excellent mood.

Zhao Hua also followed her and laid down.

Everyone became anxious, “Princess, the Emperor said that you…”

“This Princess is dead. I can’t hear you.”

Xiao Ting added, “If you dare, report it to the Emperor!”

Then she closed her eyes and didn’t get up.

Everyone looked at each other. At this time of the night, what status do they have that they’d dare disturb the Emperor?

Finally, someone whispered: “The Emperor’s order is to not allow the Princess to get up. He didn’t say that the Princess is not allowed to lie down.”

Therefore, a collective silence fell.

This evening, Xiao Ting and Zhao Hua laid on the rooftop of the Imperial Palace under the gaze of more than 20 people and truly treated ‘the heavens as their canopy and the earth their bed’.

Regardless of what would happen to them in the morning, it’s said that Jiu Wangye personally led people to turn Rui Wangfu upside down, and finally found young prince Yun and young master Xiao ‘sleeping’ in a dry well.

King Rui swore that he never participated in this matter and once again believed his conjecture that someone wanted to instigate the relationship between them. Fortunately, young prince Yun was fine. Otherwise, this matter would become difficult.

Jiu Wangye also responded and expressed his belief that King Rui was not such a person and that this matter must be done by others.

When he left, he expressed his gratitude to King Rui once again. If he hadn’t discovered others’ conspiracy early, it would have caused unnecessary misunderstandings and endangered the Empire.

After the group left, King Rui looked at the messy wangfu. As the autumn wind swept the fallen leaves, a hard punch smashed a hole in the wall.

After tossing in the middle of the night, Jiu Wangye and his party finally returned to the wangfu and sent the two little ones back to their rooms. YuChi XinHan finally couldn’t help it and laughed out loud.

Thinking of what happened tonight, he really admired his friend, “I say, A’Li, are you trying to provoke King Rui?”

He just knew it. Why else would Jiu Wangye throw the two small ones into Rui Wangfu when he heard Cheng YunYi’s appearance?

It turned out he was baiting King Rui. When he received the message from Housekeeper Mu, he was a little dumbfounded.

What a pit, a pit, ah!

Jiu Wangye smiled faintly, “He asked for it.”

“This time, I have to thank wangfei and the young prince.”

“Benwang will thank them for you.”

YuChi XinHan suddenly thought of something, “Your wangfei is still in the Palace, aren’t you going to pick her up?”

Jiu Wangye glanced at him and said, “Why don’t you pick her up for benwang?”

YuChi XinHan quickly shook his head and said in his heart: Ever since that time when his friend beat up the wangfei, the relationship between them had become a bit strange. His friend seemed to be hiding from her.

Haha, there’s a good show to watch.

“Regarding Cheng YunYi, did you send someone to stare at him?” Seeing that he was smiling slyly, Jiu Wangye asked about business matters.

They made another commotion and threw Chu Yun and the others in Rui Wangfu to force Cheng YunYi away from Rui Wangfu. This way, they could find out who else was in contact with him so that they could dig deeper.

“Don’t worry; he can’t hide.”

YuChi XinHan confidently replied.

“What else did you find?” Jiu Wangye asked again. At that time, Rui Wangfu was searched. Naturally, Jiu Wangye wouldn’t do it himself, and just stood outside and waited with King Rui.

However, YuChi XinHan, who should have left halfway, was actually dressed as a guard and participated in the search to find other useful clues.

“I can’t hide anything from you.” YuChi XinHan tsked, feeling very bored, but still excitedly said: “Rui Wangfu has a secret passage. I don’t know where it leads, but I found the mechanism. I’ll go there when I have time.”

“Well, if you’re tired, go and take a rest!”

Jiu Wangye still looked indifferent, as if everything was within his expectations.

YuChi XinHan murmured, “So boring.”

He got up and stretched, then turned around and left.

Amidst the dim candlelight, Jiu Wangye leaned on the chair. The book in his hand hadn’t been turned for a long time, but his eyes were still fixed on it, as if there were some difficult words on it. A trace of worry could be seen in his eyes.

When the first rays of morning light shone on the ground, a big drama was staged in the Palace.

There were two young girls lying on the roof, cuddling with each other and sleeping soundly. There were also dozens of people standing around and surrounding them, seeming to be guarding, but in fact, they’re taking care of the two girls.

“Isn’t that Sixth Miss Xiao?”

“What Sixth Miss Xiao, she’s Jiu Wangfei now.”

“Oh, yes, but why is she sleeping there? That girl’s family is really…” The old man shook his head and sighed with pity on his face.

Someone else made a sharp-eyed discovery, “Old man, am I dazzled? Why does the other person look like Princess Zhao Hua?”

“Oh, this old man also felt like they’re alike.”

“What like, she is. Didn’t you hear the ruckus last night? The garrison was dispatched throughout the city. Did you know what they’re looking for?”

Someone well-informed said: “You really slept soundly. I heard that Princess Zhao Hua and Jiu Wangfei were take captive from Jiu Wangfu last night and thrown into Rui Wangfu. Fortunately, King Rui found out in time and rescued them, then reported to the Emperor. After that, the garrison was dispatched. Why else do you think this minister would go to morning court so early?”

“What? I just saw them, but why would they sleep here?”

“I heard that they were being punished because while they were drinking and having fun in Jiu Wangfu, they also affected the young prince Yun and the young master Xiao, so the Emperor punished them to kneel.”

“Kneel?” Everyone looked at the rooftop. The two women, surrounded by so many people watching over them, were still sleeping like dead pigs. Was this really punishing them by kneeling?

Forgive them for their lack of knowledge and lack of courtesy. Well, they don’t understand the royal etiquette.

There were a lot of people here in groups of three or five when someone else commented, “Didn’t you see that Imperial Uncle Xiao wasn’t here early in the morning?”

“He must have gone to see his son in Jiu Wangfu.”

“But I heard that Imperial Uncle Xiao agreed for his son to be raised in Jiu Wangfu. This is too radical.”

“I heard that young prince Yun likes him, so he asked young master Xiao to be his companion. Can someone clarify? I just heard from an insider that Jiu Wangfei was afraid that Madam Xiao would mistreat the child, so she brought the young master with her to Jiu Wangfu.”

“This is really a disaster from the sky. Now, Imperial Uncle Xiao should be blaming this Sixth Miss and taking back his son!”

“That’s true, a daughter can’t be compared to a son, not to mention a married daughter.”

“Good girl, my good girl, where are you?”

With that shout, the sought-after Imperial Uncle Xiao appeared with an anxious expression as he hurriedly ran to the rooftop with messy clothes.

This familiar voice awakened Xiao Ting from her sleep.

She sat up in a daze, then leaned back and stretched. All the ministers averted their gaze.

Unaware of this, she rubbed her eyes and scratched her messy hair, then slowly raised her head and shouted: “Hong Shao, it’s so early in the morning, which ghost is screaming outside?”

Everyone: “…” Did you think this is your home?

Ghost? That’s your father.

This sound attracted Imperial Uncle Xiao, who had just climbed up. He quickly pushed everyone away as he approached.

“Good girl, what happened to you? Why are you sleeping here?”

“Is it cold?”

“Are you hungry?”

“It’s all Daddy’s fault. I should not have gone and gotten drunk in the Red Light District last night, so much so that I just got the news. My poor girl…”

Everyone was speechless. This Imperial Uncle Xiao was truly a marvel.

“En? Daddy, why are you here?” Xiao Ting opened her eyes and was a little dazzled. She quickly blocked the ray of morning light while asking Imperial Uncle Xiao.