Reborn Into The Harem Of A Prince From An Enemy Country - Chapter 8

Qi Xiaoyun continued to patiently persuade him, “I set these rules purely to manage the expenditures of Prince Rui’s estate. If Commander Murong wishes to use your own personal money to buy more meat, then of course there is no problem at all.”

“What do you know?” Murong Ying remained in a volatile and irritated state. “We guards usually have to grab a hasty bite whenever someone else steps in to cover our watch, so we naturally have to rely on the meals provided by Prince Rui’s estate. How are we supposed to find the time to go all the way outside to buy anything else? Do you think everyone is as idle as you, with nothing to do all day?”

Qi Xiaoyun was only reasoning with him out of consideration for Murong Ying being Chu Lianmo’s trusted confidant. Yet every single sentence Murong Ying uttered was laced with barbs, and Qi Xiaoyun was starting to grow genuinely impatient.

At the same time, Qi Xiaoyun could not treat Murong Ying the way he had treated Yin Mei with a direct slap across the face; he had known how close Murong Ying’s relationship with Chu Lianmo was ever since his days as a hostage. Consequently, he found himself momentarily troubled over how to handle the situation.

Right at that moment, Chu Lianmo pushed open the door and stepped inside. “What is going on? I could hear the sound of you two arguing from far away.”

“I wasn’t arguing.” This accusation left Qi Xiaoyun feeling somewhat aggrieved. “It was Commander Murong who was dissatisfied with the meal regulations I established, and I was simply explaining them to him.”

“A-Ying.” Chu Lianmo gazed at Murong Ying with a stern expression. “What kind of nonsense are you making?”

“Your Highness! Why are you blindly taking his side now?” Murong Ying instantly put on an aggrieved, teary-eyed expression of his own. “He just makes a few complaints, and you immediately assume everything he does is right!”

Hearing this, Qi Xiaoyun could not help thinking to himself: I was merely stating facts and didn’t say a single bad thing about you; how on earth did that turn into reporting or complaining?

“Murong Ying!” Chu Lianmo suddenly raised his voice in a sharp reprimand. “Even though he is merely this Prince’s concubine, within this estate he is still your master! Have I been treating you too well lately, making you increasingly arrogant and completely ignorant of all rules and etiquette?”

“This subordinate deserves death.” Seeing that Chu Lianmo had genuinely lost his temper, Murong Ying grew frightened and was forced to drop to his knees.

Chu Lianmo softened his tone as he turned back to Qi Xiaoyun. “Tell me the details.”

Qi Xiaoyun then recounted the general gist of their conversation.

“Very well, you handled it correctly.”

Chu Lianmo nodded at Qi Xiaoyun, then shifted his gaze back to Murong Ying with renewed sternness. “The estate’s rules apply equally to everyone, and even this Prince is no exception. Why should you receive special treatment simply because you have a particular fondness for meat?”

“Your Highness, am I truly such a pampered and spoiled person in your eyes?” Murong Ying’s eyes grew red with grievance. “There are times when I’m too busy to eat, and other times when I just wolf down a few bites in a rush. When has this subordinate ever complained? But am I not allowed to eat a bit more meat when I finally have some free time?”

Hearing Murong Ying put it that way, Qi Xiaoyun recalled the time when they were dining at the restaurant, and Murong Ying had simply grabbed a couple of pastries and stood outside to eat them. As a guard commander, Murong Ying was indeed quite dedicated and responsible, but why did he insist on bickering over such a trivial matter?

“Are you going to keep making a fuss?” Chu Lianmo frowned slightly. “A-Yun has already told you, when you actually have free time, you are entirely free to go outside and eat whatever you like. But as long as you are on duty in my Prince Rui estate, you must abide by the rules here. If you keep acting up, you can pack your bags and go home to play the young master!”

Chu Lianmo had phrased it so severely that Murong Ying dared not utter a single half-word of rebuttal. “This subordinate knows he was wrong. Please spare your anger, Your Highness.”

“If you were wrong, there must be a punishment. Go kneel in the courtyard for half an hour.”

Murong Ying looked far more than just aggrieved; he looked positively tearful.

Yet after staring tearfully at Chu Lianmo for a moment and realizing the other man was completely unmoved, he had no choice but to push himself up from the ground and obey.

Watching Murong Ying’s retreating figure, Qi Xiaoyun felt a twinge of soft-hearted sympathy.

After all, the kid just wanted to eat a bit more meat and hadn’t committed any grave, unforgivable offense.

“Ah, A-Yun, you truly are a kind-hearted person.” Chu Lianmo noticed his expression. “There is no need to worry. Guards possess robust physical constitutions, so kneeling for half an hour is a piece of cake.”

In truth, Chu Lianmo was merely putting up a tough exterior while harboring a soft heart. Although he was determined to establish proper discipline for Murong Ying, he ultimately couldn’t bear to punish him too harshly.

He had ordered Murong Ying to kneel in the courtyard precisely because it was a high-traffic area, adding a touch of psychological humiliation to the penalty.

Meanwhile, Murong Ying, kneeling straight in the exact center of the courtyard, felt like dying of shame and frustration.

After a short while, true to form for anyone undergoing punishment in this estate, a fine drizzle began to drift through the air.

Given Murong Ying’s physical conditioning, he wouldn’t normally care about a light drizzle, but he soon noticed that the rain falling on his head had suddenly stopped.

Looking up, he saw Jiang Wan standing beside him with an oil-paper umbrella.

“Why has the Principal Consort come out?” Murong Ying hoped at that moment that everyone would stay away from the courtyard and avoid witnessing his most humiliating side.

“I have already heard about what happened between you and His Highness,” Jiang Wan said softly. “Eating a bit more meat is just a trivial matter, so why make things so unpleasant? Tell you what, I happen to prefer a vegetarian diet, so I will give you my entire two-liang meat allocation starting today. That way, your total share will be four liang, which isn’t far off from half a jin.”

Murong Ying was somewhat startled and taken aback by Jiang Wan’s gesture. “Your Highness, you really don’t need to do that!”

Jiang Wan smiled gently. “It is no trouble at all. As you know, my health is not very good, and consuming too much meat is genuinely difficult for me to digest. Delicacies are ultimately superfluous to me, so it is better to give them to someone who actually needs them.”

“My Lady, why… why are you treating me so well?” Murong Ying had never shared any past friendship with Jiang Wan. He neither dared nor was permitted to interact extensively with Chu Lianmo’s inner household, which left him completely baffled at the moment.

Jiang Wan let out a soft laugh and instinctively gazed toward the northeast. That was the direction where the Jiang family estate was located.

“I have a younger brother who is also in his early twenties. My third sister is his twin, and she loves to bicker and fight with him. Whenever he made my third sister cry, he would be scolded and beaten by my father, so I was always the one comforting and soothing him. In my eyes, the two of them were born merely a tea-brewing’s time apart, and there is no reason why one should always give way to the other.

“Your temperament and age are very similar to my younger brother’s, which is why seeing you always reminds me of him.”

Hearing that phrase—”there is no reason why one should always give way to the other”—the sense of grievance welled up inside Murong Ying once more.

In truth, this minor affair wasn’t all that important; what he resented was simply the unfairness. Why should Chu Lianmo favor a newly acquainted male concubine over someone who had accompanied him for many years?

Zhou Yun was merely the concubine-born son of a minor official, whereas he was the legitimate son of the prestigious Murong clan. Why should he have to yield to Zhou Yun and treat him as a master?

As if seeing right through his inner thoughts, Jiang Wan gently guided him: “His Highness is an extremely reasonable man who is not easily swayed by emotion. In this matter, he is simply siding with reason rather than personal closeness. If everyone demanded special treatment, how could the new rules formulated by A-Yun ever be successfully implemented?”

Murong Ying felt that Jiang Wan’s words carried a ring of truth, and a few parts of his tangled thoughts began to clear up.

“Speaking of which, A-Ying, how long have you been kneeling?” Jiang Wan suddenly shifted the topic. “Would you like me to keep you company and chat for a while? The time will pass more quickly.”

“Would… would that not be causing you too much trouble?” Though Murong Ying said this, a faint sense of delight bloomed within him. Kneeling in place without moving or speaking was, after all, agonizingly boring for someone of his temperament.

Jiang Wan smiled. “I actually know you possess a naturally cheerful disposition, and you must have felt quite stifled keeping up all these formal rules around the estate, haven’t you?”

“My Lady, you truly understand me!” Murong Ying grew somewhat excited. “In that case, I won’t hold back anymore! Since you initiated the conversation, even if His Highness wants to punish someone, he certainly shouldn’t punish me!”

Jiang Wan chuckled softly. “Indeed. Talk about whatever you wish. His Highness has always treated me with gentleness and respect, so he will not scold me.”

From behind a nearby clump of bushes, Qi Xiaoyun observed this scene with a measure of astonishment.

He had originally noticed the rain starting and came over intending to deliver an umbrella, only to find that someone else had already beaten him to it.

Even more unexpected was the sight of these two individuals, who usually maintained strict propriety and spoke very little, chatting and laughing together with such apparent happiness.

Qi Xiaoyun could not help falling into a thoughtful silence.