Chapter 63: All the bad luck in the capital has followed Xiao Huaiqing's mouth right over here

In the imperial palace, the Empress Dowager was holding Lin Yue's hand and saying, "If there is anything in the Prince's Estate that needs to be handled, just have Nanny Qin run back and forth. You shouldn't tire yourself out like this."

"Settle down here at ease. This Empress Mother will help you build up your stamina, and once Jingyun returns, the two of you can have children."

Lin Yue shivered in fright.

[Getting a husband for free is enough, why would anyone want children?]

[A husband can be discarded, but how do you discard a child?]

[Absolutely not!!]

The Empress Dowager: "..." It seemed her daughter-in-law still wished to practice immortality. In that case, her chances were still very high.

For the sake of her own happiness, since her son already had Huaiqing, he should surely understand her.

At worst, she could just have Huaiqing father a few more children later on.

The Empress Dowager smiled, unconcerned.

Lin Yue said, "Nanny Qin is getting older, and I don't want to trouble her. I'd like to have Luo Qingyu, the commander of the Prince's Estate's guards, come to make reports instead. Does Mother think that would be acceptable?"

The Empress Dowager replied, "Luo Qingyu? I've heard Jingyun mention him. He is very fond of that boy and even took him on as a disciple."

"Very well, let it be him. Later, I will have Deng Wei send him a token for entering the palace!"

Lin Yue quickly said, "This daughter-in-law thanks Your Majesty!"

The Empress Dowager smiled and said, "Why be so formal among family? You are only doing what is best for the Prince's Estate, and I know that well."

As Lin Yue was reflecting on how pleasant physical and mental well-being could be when mother-in-law and daughter-in-law got along, she saw Nanny Nanny Ping enter to report, "Empress Dowager, Princess Consort, Prince Huaiqing has arrived."

Lin Yue was instantly amused: [Without even thinking, I know what Xiao Huaiqing is here for. He still can't figure out his own position, even worse than Xiao Huaizheng, and yet he's still the male lead.]

[Fine, I suddenly understand why so many穿越 (time-traveling) girls fall in love with the villains instead.]

Upon hearing this, the Empress Dowager furrowed her brows.

Her grandson was endlessly making a fuss, and even she found it tiring to watch. She said to Lin Yue, "Go into the inner chamber to avoid him for a moment, and I will ask him what is going on."

Lin Yue wanted nothing more and hurried to the inner chamber to rest.

When Xiao Huaiqing entered and did not see Lin Yue, he looked around in confusion, his previously furious expression freezing for a moment.

Seeing his aggressive demeanor, the Empress Dowager immediately demanded, "Who are you looking for?"

Xiao Huaiqing subconsciously shook his head, but quickly added, "Imperial Grandmother, my mother has entered the palace again. Please persuade her to return to the Prince's Estate. What kind of spectacle is it for her to live in the palace day after day?"

"Today, she even..."

The Empress Dowager unpleasantly interrupted, "What did she do today? She left the palace perfectly fine this morning; did you provoke her to anger again?"

Xiao Huaiqing shook his head and said, "I did not."

The Empress Dowager sneered, "If you didn't, why has she returned to the palace? Don't assume that because your imperial father is away from the capital, you can do whatever you please. She is your mother; if you were truly filial to her, you wouldn't keep running to me to make complaints. Do you think you are still a three-year-old child? You have not a shred of a royal scion's composure—what kind of behavior is this?"

Xiao Huaiqing was extremely depressed and aggrievedly muttered, "But you didn't see the way she walked so closely with Fourth Younger Brother, they even rode in the same carriage..."

"Fourth Younger Brother is already fifteen... Why doesn't she avoid suspicion?"

The Empress Dowager laughed in exasperation, "You know your fourth brother is only fifteen, yet you are already seventeen. If you summon her back, shouldn't she avoid suspicion around you?"

Xiao Huaiqing's expression shifted slightly, and he stammered, "Th-that's different, Head Steward Bai is in the estate as well."

The Empress Dowager countered, "Was there no one by her side today? Didn't you see it with your own eyes?"

"Huaiqing, you have disappointed me deeply. Could it be that your gentleness, filial piety, and amiable nature all this time were merely an act?"

"Why do you harbor such deep malice toward your mother? You were already deeply dissatisfied with her before, and now that she has distanced herself from you, you still refuse to let go. What on earth are you trying to accomplish?"

Xiao Huaiqing froze. What on earth was he trying to accomplish?

Right!

He wanted to know as well.

Yet his heart simply ached with distress. He did not want Lin Yue to leave the Prince Ding's Estate, nor did he want her to grow wings like a bird and fly into the palace.

If only she would care for him as she did before, putting him above all else in everything, instead of revolving around his fourth brother—what relation was his fourth brother to her anyway?

Why on earth should she be so good to his fourth brother?

He was unreconciled!

Yet his heart was filled with a tangled bitterness that he could not voice.

Xiao Huaiqing could only say, "My imperial father is not in the estate, so I have the responsibility to take good care of her. It was my fault before, and from now on I will not target her again."

"Imperial Grandmother, just let her return with me, otherwise the people of the capital will once more say that I am treating her poorly."

In the inner chamber, Lin Yue cracked open a melon seed and spat fiercely.

[How utterly unlucky!]

[All the bad luck in the capital has followed Xiao Huaiqing's mouth straight over here.]

[A pervert is a pervert; unable to let go in his heart yet too cowardly to covet openly, he can only resort to dark-minded manipulation.]

[Damn it, given Xiao Huaiqing's character, could he have inherited it from his biological mother?]

The Empress Dowager behind the bead curtain: "0___0" ???

Xiao Huaiqing's biological mother was a gentle and magnanimous lady from a prominent family, the daughter of the great scholar Cui from the late emperor's era. Never had there been any rumors of her lacking virtue, and her mind certainly wouldn't be so gloomy and dark.

Could he have been taught this way by the old matrons in the Prince's Estate?

The Empress Dowager felt a pang of regret; she should have kept Xiao Huaiqing by her side to raise and educate him back then.

Meanwhile, Xiao Huaiqing had also realized that Lin Yue was right there. His face flushed red, and he even wanted to barge in and drag Lin Yue out.

The Empress Dowager commanded directly, "Guards, escort the Prince's Heir out of the palace."

Deng Wei immediately entered with two young eunuchs. At this sight, Xiao Huaiqing agitatedly cried out, "Imperial Grandmother, can you truly be so ruthless? I am your own flesh and blood grandson!"

The Empress Dowager sneered, "This Empress Dowager has many grandsons, but legitimate daughters-in-law are only two. The Empress and the Princess Consort of Ding—which one do you think you can compare to?"

Xiao Huaiqing froze, his eyes widening in sheer disbelief.

"Drag him out! From now on, without my command, the Heir is not permitted to set foot in Shoukang Palace!"

Thus Xiao Huaiqing was dragged away. Before leaving, filled with resentment, dissatisfaction, and bitter anguish, he screamed, "Lin Yue, are you satisfied to see me like this? How much longer are you going to exact revenge on me?!"

Lin Yue could hold back no longer. She rushed out and hurled a teacup directly at Xiao Huaiqing, shattering it against his head and drawing blood.

And she angrily cursed, "You scoundrel, I am taking revenge on you? What revenge have I ever taken on you?!"

After throwing it, she took a look—oh dear, it was bleeding.

[Now the Empress Dowager won't feel sorry for her precious grandson... Oh no, I acted too impulsively.]

Lin Yue's gaze flickered slightly as she quickly changed strategies, bursting into tearful complaints, "It's too much to bear, Mother! The Heir is simply trying to leave me no way to survive!"

"Sob, sob, sob, sob, sob... This daughter-in-law cannot go on living like this; I am going to the frontier to find Jingyun and beg him to seek justice for me!"

[Go ahead and make a mess of it, let everyone ruin things together. At least the one who dies in the end won't be me!]

[If the Empress Dowager dares to protect Xiao Huaiqing today, I'm running away right this second. Damn it, what imperial crisis, let it all go to hell!]

[No good deed goes unrewarded? Why stay here, just to watch Xiao Huaiqing ascend the throne? By then, he'll probably want a forbidden romance and lock me up in confinement—tsk tsk, how tragic!]

When the Empress Dowager heard this: A forbidden romance???

That meant the person coveting his own mother-in-law was none other than her own grandson, Xiao Huaiqing!

This wretched creature, how dared he?!

And yet he had turned things around to play the victim and come make a complaint!

He was utterly heinous and unforgivable!

The Empress Dowager immediately hurled another teacup, striking Xiao Huaiqing's foot and causing him to jump in pain. Then, because the young eunuchs failed to steady him, he tumbled flat onto the floor.

"Your mother is right, you are simply a scoundrel! I don't know who has been teaching you all these years, but I will surely interrogate them one by one to see what kind of dog-shit they've been stuffing into your brain!"

"Someone, throw the Heir out! No imperial physician is permitted to treat him. Pass down my command: from now on, the Heir Xiao Huaiqing is forbidden from stepping within half a step of the palace gates without an imperial decree!"

"If anyone dares to let him in, this Empress Dowager will have their head chopped off!"