The Devious First-Daughter (Web Novel)

Chapter 444 Cordial Commandery Princess Xianyun

She was dressed in a light blue peacock dress embroidered with morning glow patterns, and the hem was embroidered with patterns as gorgeous as clouds. The hem moved with her as she walked, making her look extremely beautiful. In addition, she had a fair and elegant figure, a gentle smile and a face as bright as a piece of nice jade. Commandery Princess Xianyun was undoubtedly a pretty girl who was demure and gentle with impressive bearing.

“Madam Dowager, I heard that sister Yan was injured. I wonder if she has got better now.” After saluting Madam Dowager, Commandery Princess Xianyun asked softly, “May I go to see sister Yan now?”

“Thank you for your concern. Xueyan is taking medicine now. Please wait for a moment and go in after she finishes taking medicine and the smell of medicine is gone,” Madam Dowager said politely with a smile.

Commandery Princess Xianyun was the future consort of Prince Yi. It was strange that she came to see Ning Xueyan at this time.

“Okay, I’ll wait for a moment.” With a smile, Commandery Princess Xianyun looked up at Madam Dowager and measured her with the eye. After that, she asked gently, “Madam Dowager, have you felt sick recently? Have you suffered from insomnia and dreamful sleep, lost your appetite and felt all kinds of dishes tasted lighter than before?”

“How do you tell that? Do you have a good understanding of nursing health?” Madam Dowager asked in surprise. She had felt increasingly exhausted recently and suffered a lot from the symptoms Commandery Princess Xianyun said. She didn’t expect that Commandery Princess Xianyun could tell that at a glance. How could Madam Dowager not be surprised?

“Not exactly. Madam Dowager, your pale face reminded me of my grandma’s similar symptoms, so I asked about that. Unexpectedly, you are in the same state as my grandma is. Next time I’ll send someone to bring you the prescription of the herbal dishes for my grandma. My grandma said that they taste good and do no harm to her health.”

Commandery Princess Xianyun said with a smile.

“Thank you very much!” Madam Dowager expressed her sincere gratitude.

While they were talking, Lanning came out from the room. She saluted Madam Dowager, and then saluted Commandery Princess Xianyun, “On hearing that Commandery Princess has come, my master took the medicine right away. Now she invites Commandery Princess to come over.”

Commandery Princess Xianyun didn’t refuse. She left most of her maids and old maids outside and went in with only an intimate maid. Madam Dowager decided to stay this time, and went into Ning Xueyan’s room with Commandery Princess Xianyun.

The room was full of a strong smell of medicine. On the table, there was a medicine bowl that hadn’t been cleaned up in time, and the pungent smell of medicine was coming out from it. Although the window was open, such a strong medicine smell couldn’t disperse in a short time. Madam Dowager didn’t mean it literally by saying that they should come in after the smell of medicine was gone. No one knew how long it would take to wait till then.

On the bed, Ning Xueyan struggled to sit up. With her black hair straggling over her shoulders, she looked extremely weak with a lack of energy. In addition to her pale lips, she looked out of spirits, and even her dark and clear eyes were full of weakness.

“Sister Yan, stay in bed. I happened to come to Cold Mountain Temple to offer incense to Buddha. On hearing that you are injured, I hurried to come and see you. You’d better lie down now. If you hurt yourself because of me, coming to see you would even be a worse choice than not coming.” Commandery Princess Xianyun stepped forward hurriedly and reached out to hold Ning Xueyan on one side before Lanning held Ning Xueyan. After that, she didn’t sit down on the brocade stool prepared for her on the side, but sat down by the bed.

“Thank you, Commandery Princess!” Ning Xueyan coughed with her hand covering her mouth and then looked up again with a smile.

Madam Dowager walked in after Commandery Princess Xianyun, and had sat down on a chair on the side. She looked at Ning Xueyan’s face carefully and then breathed a sigh of relief, as if she really came over to have a look out of her concern for Ning Xueyan.

“Stop calling me Commandery Princess. I’ve asked you to call me sister,” Commandery Princess Xianyun said reproachfully and reached out to hold Ning Xueyan’s hand intimately.

“Sister Cai!” Ning Xueyan agreed. Although they hadn’t been officially introduced to each other as Prince Yi’s consort and co-consort, Commandery Princess Xianyun had been on intimate terms with her. Now that the decree had been issued and they were going to marry Prince Yi soon, Ning Xueyan didn’t need to be over polite. Otherwise, she would be a little hypocritical.

“Why are you so seriously injured? Can you recover in such a short time?” Commandery Princess Xianyun smiled and then involuntarily frowned. Ning Xueyan was going to get married in a month or so, but she didn’t look very well now.

“The imperial physician said that I should nurse my health well. It’s easy to cure external injuries, but it’s hard to recover from internal injuries,” Ning Xueyan said in a low voice. She withdrew her hand from Commandery Princess Xianyun’s hand quietly, picked up her handkerchief, turned her body sideways and coughed again.

In other words, her external injuries were not serious, but her internal injuries were. Moreover, most of the internal organs couldn’t be cured by medicine. So she couldn’t recover in a short time. Commandery Princess Xianyun blinked and reached out to pat Ning Xueyan on the shoulder. “Does His Highness know that you’re so seriously injured? Maybe we should inform him. He may have some good medicinal materials which could help you recover faster.”

“His Highness has come, but left in a hurry after hearing that a concubine he likes best got sick,” Madam Dowager said with a faint smile.

“A favorite concubine got sick? Which sick concubine could be more important than Sister Yan’s health?” Commandery Princess Xianyun asked in surprise.

“I don’t know. I heard that it’s Prince Yi’s favorite concubine. Alas, Xueyan hasn’t married into the manor…” Madam Dowager sighed and didn’t say anything more. She just looked at Ning Xueyan with pity and looked very regretful. “If I’ve known it before, I would have risked my reputation to prevent the emperor from granting the marriage between Prince Yi and Xueyan.”

“Grandma, I’m fine!” After coughing, Ning Xueyan raised her pale face and said.

“Xueyan, I just feel sorry for you!” Madam Dowager said, and then looked towards Commandery Princess Xianyun solemnly, “Commandery Princess, I’ll have to trouble you to take care of Xueyan in the future. If she does anything wrong, please give her some advice. I only have a biological granddaughter, so I’ve treasured her as a jewel of inestimable value and always worried that she would suffer any loss.”

Madam Dowager said so sincerely that those who didn’t know the truth might really believe that she thought everything for Ning Xueyan and was even willing to disobey the imperial edict for Ning Xueyan. Both her tone and her expression indicated her deep affection for Ning Xueyan. Who could think that Madam Dowager had been indifferent to Ning Xueyan for so many years?

Even when Ning Xueyan was going to die, she had never defended her. But now at the sight that she pretended to be such an amiable grandma, Ning Xueyan sneered coldly in her heart. Fortunately, the one beside her was also good at acting. Commandery Princess Xianyun answered Madam Dowager with extremely sincere and touching words.

“Rest assured, Madam Dowager. Sister Yan and I will definitely unite and work as one in Prince Yi’s Manor and never be bullied by those people.” Commandery Princess Xianyun promised while patting her chest. She looked at Ning Xueyan with increasing gentleness and pity in her eyes.

They talked for a while, but as the hostess, Ning Xueyan could not keep holding on. Her falling body and her forehead covered with sweat indicated that she didn’t feel very well. Although she forced herself to hold on without saying anything, she looked worse and worse. At the sight of this, Madam Dowager naturally suggested that Commandery Princess Xianyun should go to her place to have a chat.

Commandery Princess Xianyun also agreed that they should not disturb Ning Xueyan’s rest. So she said goodbye to Ning Xueyan, and then left with Madam Dowager.

Lanning sent them to the door of the courtyard on behalf of Ning Xueyan, and then came back after seeing them walk away. In the room, Ning Xueyan was indeed a little tired, so she slightly closed her eyes.

“Young Lady, why did Commandery Princess Xianyun come here?” Lanning came over and cautiously rubbed the middle of Ning Xueyan’s eyebrows, asking in a low voice. Commandery Princess Xianyun was going to marry Prince Yi as his consort. At this time, she should stay in her manor and embroider all kinds of dowry, and shouldn’t have time to come to the Cold Mountain Temple.

“She’s worried!” Ning Xueyan closed her eyes and raised the corners of her mouth to show a smile. “Hearing that Prince Yi is in my place and thinking that she and I are going to marry Prince Yi at the same time, she felt indignant, so she came here to see me deliberately.”

She told Commandery Princess Xianyun what the imperial physician had said, but Commandery Princess Xianyun pretended that she didn’t hear it. The imperial physician either came from the imperial palace or worked for Prince Yi. Moreover, the news that Prince Yi had searched the mountain and she had an accident should have spread around. Even if Commandery Princess Xianyun stayed in her boudoir, it was impossible for her to know nothing about it.

However, she pretended that she had just known it and even mentioned the medicinal materials of Prince Yi’s Manor on purpose. She tried to sound out Ning Xueyan on the real situation.

Later, hearing from Madam Dowager that Prince Yi went back because his favorite concubine got sick, Commandery Princess Xianyun immediately acted like a good sister. It seemed that Commandery Princess Xianyun did not do any substantive harm to her, but Ning Xueyan didn’t forget that Commandery Princess Xianyun had made Ning Ziyan ruin her reputation at the banquet Commandery Princess Xianyun held.

However, Commandery Princess Xianyun was rebuked by Ao Chenyi before succeeding. At that time, the imperial edict had not been issued. But even so, Commandery Princess Xianyun had planned to get rid of her. Moreover, she was set up by Ao Chenyi and had to agree that both of them got married at the same time. She was obviously displeased with that.

“Is Commandery Princess Xianyun totally relieved now?” Lanning asked with worry. Commandery Princess Xianyun came to the Cold Mountain Temple on purpose and seemed to be hostile.

“No!” Ning Xueyan shook her head with a smile. “But at least more than half of her suspicion has been dispelled. For the time being, she doesn’t pay attention to me. In the next few days, she will probably watch the situation. She won’t believe everything we said.”

She could tell that Commandery Princess Xianyun was obviously not a person who believed others easily from the fact that Commandery Princess Xianyun held her hand and thus to feel her pulse repeatedly. Commandery Princess Xianyun seemed to know about some medical skills. Fortunately, although her injuries were not as serious as they looked, she was really injured.

Besides, it was impossible for Commandery Princess Xianyun to cross the line and really feel her pulse. The two points meant that Commandery Princess Xianyun couldn’t see through the serious injuries she feigned in a while. It was not an emergency to deal with Commandery Princess Xianyun, at least for the time being. There was still a month before she entered Prince Yi’s Manor. If something terrible happened to her, Commandery Princess Xianyun, who was also on the mountain, would certainly be suspected. So Commandery Princess Xianyun certainly wouldn’t do such an obvious thing.

So she had another emergency. Madam Dowager happened to be in the Cold Mountain Temple, so it was a great opportunity for her to get to the bottom of something.

“Xinmei, go and find out where Madam Dowager lives. Tell me after making sure of it.” Ning Xueyan opened her eyes which were dark and deep. Since she was Ning Xueyan now, she had to take on some responsibilities.