Chapter 68: Disobeying the Order
A Lian collapsed to the ground holding her stomach, but she was relieved in her heart - the young lady actually let her go so easily!
As early as when she kowtowed to Tang Ying and begged for mercy, Tang Ying heard that she actually bit her back. Although she was frightened by Tang Ying and trembled with fear, she still stared at her with resentful eyes, with resentment in her heart - it turned out that a servant who betrayed his master was unreliable!
Tang Ying drew her sword and sheathed it, then turned around and sat down as if nothing had happened, and called out to Fu Chen: "Sir, come and sit down. We are having a great banquet today, and we can't go back with an empty stomach!"
Since the Second Prince has set up the stage, there is no reason for her to leave early. Otherwise, wouldn't all his efforts be in vain?
Fu Chen's eyes were complicated, showing both heartache and indulgence, and he sat down below her very obediently.
The second prince looked around the hall. On his left sat the Tang family, while Tang Ying and Fu Chen sat on his right. He turned around and sat on the main seat, saying sadly, "Everyone in the capital knows that I brought back the orphan of the Tang family and took good care of her. I also asked my father for an imperial decree to grant her marriage. Even the imperial decree has come down. Can anyone tell me what is going on?"
Madam Tang San has always been known for her strictness in the clan, but she has always been clear about rewards and punishments, and has a lot of her husband Tang Li's style of commanding the army: "Your Highness, let me say a few words about this matter."
"Please speak, old lady."
Madam Tang San: "Everyone in the capital knows that Your Highness brought back the orphan of the Tang family and asked for an imperial decree to grant them a marriage. In fact, someone pretended to be my Tang daughter and deceived Your Highness. When we look into this matter thoroughly, it has nothing to do with my Tang daughter." She started by disclaiming all responsibility - Your Highness , you are blind to have recognized the wrong person, not our child who deceived you!
The Second Prince was not expecting her to say this, and his gentle face almost broke down: "If she wasn't the daughter of Marshal Chen Tang, I wouldn't have to bring her back to the capital to take care of her."
As soon as these words came out, Tang Ying's face turned pale as paper. She pulled back her black hair, tears streaming down her face, her voice trembling and choking: "Your Highness... Your Highness... I lied to Your Highness, but my feelings for Your Highness cannot be false!" She pointed at A Lian with resentment: "It was all because of this lowly maid. If she hadn't instigated me, I wouldn't have been so infatuated at that time..."
"Bah! It's obviously you who is greedy and vain, but you have to blame others!" A-Lian used to be treated as a deputy young lady in the Tang Mansion, and Tang Ying was very polite to her. Ever since the imperial decree of marriage came down, Tang Ying has taken enough money from the future princess, and no longer treated A-Lian with the same courtesy as before, which made her feel resentful for a long time, and she was ruthless in exposing her shortcomings: "When you followed the young lady's ass before, you had bad intentions, always thinking about suppressing the young lady, and often tried to please Madam Yu, saying that girls are better off being chaste and dignified... Looking at others, no one can tell what your plan is. Don't you just want Madam Yu to dislike my young lady so that you can take her place?"
When she was excited and was about to say a few more words, she suddenly saw Tang Ying's face was as gloomy as water, and she was very unhappy. She suddenly came to her senses and used Tang Ying's injustice to express her indignation, and she looked remorseful: "Miss, you and I have been master and servant. The Tang family has treated me with the kindness of rebirth. If it weren't for the Marshal with you, I would have starved to death in the snow. Even if you are no longer my lady in the future, I still have to say these words!"
"I don't know how many little tricks she has done behind the young lady's back. She even tried to wipe the young general's sweat under the pretext of delivering snacks to him, which frightened him so much that he ran away. She also often made purses and embroidered handkerchiefs for the young general, and said that she didn't know anything else but learned to take care of people... There are so many such things. I know you don't care, and neither does Young General Yu, but I find her disgusting! She has done so many things, and she still shamelessly follows you and Young General Yu, and even pretends to be you, trying to marry the Second Prince..."
Tang Ying sneered: "Alian, I didn't know you would be so brave!" She crossed her legs, her eyes swept across Alian's throat like a knife, and she said slowly in a long tone: "You two are just biting each other, you should take revenge when you have grudges, but don't use my affairs as an excuse." She slapped the carved armrest of the rosewood chair, and the armrest cracked with a big crack.
A-Lian was so scared that she covered her mouth and dared not say another word.
"Alas, this chair in your Highness's mansion is really not suitable for use. We are martial artists, so it will crack if we use a little force. I'm really sorry!" Tang Ying casually bowed to the Second Prince and apologized perfunctorily, making it clear that she wanted to sit back and watch the show.
Fu Chen clenched his fist and coughed lightly, and gave a "kind" advice: "You should be more careful with your hands and feet, and don't scare people right away by shouting and killing!" He spoke as if he had never scared anyone before.
Tang Ying responded immediately: "It's my fault!"
Yuan Lang: “…”
Tang Song was impatient, and he hadn't seen his little cousin for many years, so he wanted to catch up. He pointed at Tang Ying and said, "Anyway, it was her that Your Highness brought back, not our Xiaoying. Your Highness only needs to interrogate her, and it has nothing to do with our Xiaoying!"
Tang Ying applauded: "Brother Xiaosong's words make sense!"
Yuan Lang turned to Tang Ying, looking extremely disappointed: "Can you tell me now, who are you?"
Tang Ying bit her lip and said nothing, looking as if she was refusing to admit it.
Lord Fu had interrogated many prisoners, and he was always quick to make harsh remarks: "Perhaps she has been pretending to be Marshal Tang's daughter for so long that she has forgotten her own parents and ancestors. Second Prince, please allow her to think about it for a while, maybe she will remember it!"
Yuan Lang: "Alian, you go ahead and say——"
A Lian was just looking forward to it: "She is the daughter of Tang Shu, a deputy general under the Marshal. Her name is Tang Ying. It sounds the same but the characters are different." She even specifically told the Second Prince which character it was "Ying".
Tang Ying was completely defeated. She knelt before Yuan Lang and begged him, "Your Highness, you used to treat me tenderly and considerately. Whenever I cried, you would think of a way to cheer me up. You also said that you would take care of me for the rest of my life. Your Highness, do you think your words are not valid? My father also died in the battle of Baicheng, and I am also an orphan of a loyal hero..."
Yuan Lang turned his gaze to Tang Ying. He thought she wanted to ask for evidence, but Miss Tang was a gentleman and was willing to testify for Tang Ying: "She is right. Her father, Tang Shu, was a general under my father's command. He died in battle when the city was captured."
She propped up her chin, not knowing whether she was gloating or thinking this, and actually encouraged Tang Ying: "Yes, yes, since you and His Highness have pledged to love each other for life, why not let His Highness marry you, just don't use my name!"
Yuan Lang felt extremely disappointed. His plan was about to fail. How could he let it go?
He pushed Tang Ying away fiercely, pointed at her and cursed: "You deceived me and wanted me to marry you. Do you take me for a fool? You even dared to betray your parents and ancestors, and you still expect me to believe you?"
The second prince stood up suddenly and shouted, "Come here, take these two slaves away. I will report to my father and then make a judgment!"
Tang Ying didn't care about her disheveled appearance with her hair disheveled. She pulled at the corner of Yuan Lang's robe and refused to let go, saying in a sad voice: "Your Highness, I love you with all my heart, and I can't lie! Even if my identity is fake, I am real... Your Highness, I beg you..."
Four guards rushed in from outside, dragged Tang Ying and A Lian away, but Tang Ying refused to let go: "Your Highness, let me stay with you..." as if she was holding on to her last hope and would not let go even if she died.
The two guards exerted a little force with their hands, and with a scream, they involuntarily loosened their hands that were pulling the corner of Yuan Lang's robe, and were finally dragged away. However, after leaving the main hall, the servants in the palace who were passing by outside all looked over curiously, not understanding why the future princess was dragged out. Tang Ying's face instantly fell to the mud, as if she was accused and spat on by countless people, and laughed at in person. Finally, she shut up in shame and stopped shouting.
Compared to Tang Ying's crying, A Lian was very quiet. She kowtowed three times to Tang Ying and was calmly taken away by the guards.
Yuan Lang sat back dejectedly and said self-deprecatingly: "I'm sorry for making such a big joke, and embarrassing everyone!" He rubbed his forehead tiredly and asked Tang Ying for help.
"Miss Tang, everyone in the capital knows that our father has granted us a marriage. What should we do about this matter?"
Fu Chen didn't know why, but his fingers curled up involuntarily.
Everyone was staring at Tang Ying, except for the person involved, who looked relaxed and surprised: "Oh, it's such a big deal, how can the Second Prince ask me about it?"
Madam Tang San thought that what she said meant "parents' orders and matchmaker's words", and that it was not easy for a girl to agree to her marriage. Just as she was about to speak, her teasing voice rang out in the hall: "It was Your Highness who was deeply in love with someone else and promised to spend her life together. It was Your Highness who asked for the imperial decree to grant the marriage. The person Your Highness wanted to marry was not me. You asked me, but you asked the wrong person, didn't you?"
She said, "Could it be that Your Highness thinks that I am a woman who takes marriage very lightly?"
Fu Chen breathed a sigh of relief.
Yuan Lang: "No, this prince has no such intention, Miss Tang, please don't misunderstand!" He frowned, as if in great difficulty: "This prince respects the loyalty of the Tang family. At the beginning, he just wanted to take care of Marshal Tang's daughter, so he did not dare to neglect her. Later, I asked my father to grant me a marriage for this reason, not to promise to spend my life with someone! For this prince, marrying a wife is more about family style and morality, and I sincerely want to take care of Marshal Tang's daughter. Now that the misunderstanding has been resolved, the imperial decree for marriage is still there, and Miss Tang also knows the consequences of disobeying the imperial decree, this prince really can't bear to let Miss get hurt again, so..."
Tang Ying said half-truthfully, "Your Highness means that as long as the fake Miss Tang is locked up and dealt with, we can just pretend that nothing happened and that this person never existed, and we can just get married according to the imperial decree?"
Fu Chen: “…” Didn’t you say you wouldn’t be casual?
Yuan Lang was overjoyed: "That's exactly what I want!" He said sincerely: "I sincerely want to marry you, young lady. I hope you will give me a chance and let me take good care of you for the rest of my life, and never let you suffer any wind and rain again!"
"Thank you for your kindness, Your Highness!" Tang Ying said seriously, "I was just saying it casually, Your Highness, don't take it seriously." She also complained to Yuan Lang, "I have already said that I am not a woman who takes marriage lightly, why doesn't Your Highness understand?"
"But... but disobeying the imperial order is a serious crime!" Yuan Lang had already planned to use the imperial decree of marriage to force Tang Ying to submit, so he was not surprised at all that it came to this. What surprised him was that Tang Ying's temperament in this life was very different from that in the previous life, which was really puzzling.
Tang Ying stretched himself, stood up, and said in a very bachelor-like manner: "Why don't you tell His Majesty that I disobeyed His Majesty's order and behead me. Anyway, I am the only one left in our family, so it won't be difficult to kill me!"
Yuan Lang was stunned and speechless.
——Is this how you can disobey the emperor’s order?
She seemed to be unaware of what strange thing she had done, and turned around to blame Fu Chen: "It seems that we can't have this banquet today. Why don't you invite my clansmen to Yanyue Tower for a reunion dinner?" She apologized to Madam Tang: "I'm sorry, Third Aunt, my niece is very poor now! Once the salary is paid, we will be well off."
"I'm satisfied to see you in good health. Why should I invite you?" The group said as they were about to leave. The situation suddenly took a turn for the worse and Yuan Lang was caught off guard.
"Miss Tang——"
"Miss Tang——"
He hurriedly got up and followed him out. Tang Ying really turned around and stopped, as if she had something to say to him.
Yuan Lang was overjoyed. It turned out that this matter was not without room for negotiation.
"Miss Tang—— "
Tang Ying smiled playfully: "Oh, there is another thing I forgot to tell Your Highness. Since you also know my identity, then return it to its original owner. Don't come to the Fu Mansion to ask me for Tengyun in the future. It is not an ownerless horse on the side of the road. Whoever picks it up will own it."
Yuan Lang: “…”
Yuan Lang watched the group of people leave the palace in a mighty procession.
