Your Highness, This Concubine is Terrified

Whether by coincidence or not, the front courtyard was brightly lit, and the sound of men talking could be heard. Jin Xin knew immediately that Prince Rui had returned.

She didn't have time to think too much and immediately ran to the front courtyard. Seeing Prince Rui giving instructions to someone beside him, she rushed forward in excitement.

"Your Highness! Save me!"

Hearing the cry, Prince Rui turned his head to look at Jin Xin. She was wearing only her inner garments, running toward him with unsteady steps.

This place was full of men. Prince Rui frowned, his expression displeased, yet he still took off his cloak and stepped toward her, wrapping it around her body.

"What are you doing? This place is full of outside men. How can you be dressed like this? Where is your sense of propriety?" Prince Rui shouted sternly.

Jin Xin hugged him, her eyes filled with terror. She wept as she pointed toward her quarters. "Your Highness, snakes... there are so many snakes."

Hearing this, Prince Rui was startled. Thinking she had a nightmare, he reached out to place his hand on her forehead, but Jin Xin gripped his hand tightly and continued, "Your Highness, someone released snakes into my room! Surely that person hasn't gone far. I am terrified."

She was truly frightened. Snakes were her greatest fear. Her legs had turned weak then, and if not for her intense will to survive, she really wouldn't have been able to run out of that room.

Just then, everyone heard the deafening screams of Lian Rong.

Prince Rui quickly headed toward the West Wing. The commotion was so great that the various courtyards in the West Wing were lighting their lamps one by one, followed by several more piercing screams.

Lian Rong hurriedly backed away a few steps. Seeing the Prince enter, followed by the limping Jin Xin, Lian Rong rushed forward and knelt before Prince Rui. "Your Highness, please seek justice for my mistress! Someone released venomous snakes here—so many venomous snakes in my mistress's room!"

Prince Rui looked up. By the dim moonlight, he could still see one or two snakes slithering out of the room. Seeing this, the other concubines screamed in terror and hurriedly ran out the door, clamoring for the Prince's protection.

Under Prince Rui's command, the guards behind him quickly rushed forward.

Only then did Prince Rui look back at Jin Xin. She stood there, her body trembling violently, her disheveled hair draped over her shoulders. She looked at her quarters with uneasy eyes. Seeing Prince Rui looking at her, she cried out piteously, "Your Highness, I am afraid."

As she spoke, she stepped forward unsteadily. It was only then that Prince Rui noticed her strange gait. He stepped forward two paces to support her and asked, "What happened to your leg?"

Jin Xin slowly pulled up her trouser leg, revealing the wound on her knee, which made Prince Rui's chest tighten. But seeing that she wasn't otherwise harmed, only having the wound on her knee, he could guess somewhat how this had happened.

"Was it Side Consort Cao making things difficult for you again?" he asked.

She shook her head, silently shedding tears, and replied, "Upon returning from the Marquis's Manor, my Eldest Sister punished me by making me kneel. That is all."

Hearing the words "Eldest Sister," Prince Rui couldn't help but be puzzled. Just as he was about to ask for clarification, his confidant stepped forward to inform him that the scandal of the Marquis's Manor had already spread through every street and alley.

Upon hearing this, Prince Rui's expression became both strange and complex. Why would Qinghui Garden do such a thing? If he had made someone bear his child, he should have treated them well. Instead, he had arranged for them to be in the back courtyard, forced them to be a servant, and let them be bullied by others without taking an ounce of responsibility. And that man was his father-in-law—wouldn't this make others laugh at him as well?