"I am not mad, Xue Yan is in critical danger," An Ning said coldly.
Upon hearing this, Xue Lan looked at her and said in a low, angry voice, "Her life is in danger, what does it have to do with you? Hurry and apologize to the Empress."
An Ning looked at Xue Lan, who noticed that the young girl's gaze was clear with a hint of coldness.
For some reason, Xue Lan felt an indescribable sense of déjà vu from this gaze, as if she had met her before.
The young girl's gaze grew colder, like a biting frost.
Xue Lan couldn't help but feel a trace of fear.
The young girl withdrew her gaze from her, and the oppressive force finally dissipated.
Xue Lan inexplicably felt relieved.
"Empress, Xue Yan belongs to the Crown Prince. If the Crown Prince learns that you are detaining the imperial physicians and preventing them from examining Xue Yan, and anything happens, you will bear all responsibility."
The Empress trembled, instinctively raising her head. The young girl's face was icy at this moment, and her slender, fragile body stood there, yet she seemed taller than ever.
Though the young girl stood below her, she felt an unprecedented nobility, and the scar on the young girl's face no longer looked as hideous or terrifying as before.
She knew the young girl was right. She knew her own son, and she knew the maid named Xue Yan was once a person of the Empress of Huangze. If anything happened to Xue Yan, she and Jing Yun might truly become strangers who know each other well.
However, to be accused like this, she was the Empress, the most supreme woman in the Xue Kingdom, and she could not tolerate such a thing.
"I can agree to send an imperial physician to the Eastern Palace, but you, this palace maid, your death sentence can be waived, but you cannot escape punishment," the Empress said coldly.
An Ning breathed a sigh of relief and knelt on the ground, "As long as the Empress allows the imperial physician to go to the Eastern Palace to examine Xue Yan, I will submit to any punishment."
Upon hearing this, the Empress's gaze turned sharp, and she angrily said, "Drag her away and administer twenty strokes of the cane."
Xue Lan, looking at An Ning's smiling face, couldn't help but ask, "Is it worth it?"
The young girl smiled at her, her eyes exceptionally bright, "Saving a life is better than building a seven-story pagoda."
After speaking, the young girl was dragged away.
The blows landed on her body, and it hurt.
An Ning felt happy in her heart, would Xue Yan be saved now?
Could the child be born safely?
But it hurt so much.
This was her first time being beaten since she was born.
Father Emperor, An Ru, it hurts so much.
As she was fading into unconsciousness, she seemed to feel a dazzling light approaching her from not far away, and a flicker of yearning arose in her heart.
Was it to rescue her?
"Jing Yun, what are you doing?" Amidst the Empress's exclamation, the dignified Crown Prince waved away the cane about to strike the young girl, picked her up, not caring that the bloodstains on her back and buttocks had already stained his spotless moon-white brocade robe.
"Mother, let this be the last time," Xue Jing Yun raised his eyes, his refined and handsome face wearing an unprecedentedly cold expression.
The Empress retreated a few steps. If not for a palace maid supporting her, she would have probably fallen to the ground.
Although his tone was the lightest and most indifferent, it made the Empress feel a pressure she had never felt before.
This feeling was only something she had seen when the Emperor of Xue was young.
Her son had grown up, grown to the point where he could bear everything for the Xue Kingdom.
"Empress, are you alright?" Xue Lan asked.
The Empress turned to look at Xue Lan and asked, "Is this your cousin?"
Xue Lan trembled. At this point, was it still that important? What was important was that the Crown Prince seemed to be very different towards this Xue Ning.
An Ning woke up to find it was already daylight. As she was about to get up, the pain from her back made her feel terrible.
God, it hurt so much.
She couldn't help but grimace.
"Lie down for a while longer. You don't need to do anything today." Xue Lan entered with medicine, her expression unreadable.
An Ning looked up at Xue Lan and said apologetically, "Sister Xue Lan, I've caused you trouble."
Xue Lan placed the medicine bowl on the table and said angrily, "I saved you to help me, not to cause me trouble."
"I'm sorry," An Ning said apologetically.
"The Empress is no longer pursuing the matter. Xue Ning, you should still be cautious with your words and actions in the future, perhaps that will save you."
"Thank you, Sister Xue Lan, I'll remember," An Ning lowered her gaze. Yesterday, seeing Xue Yan in critical danger, she couldn't help but do these things. For some reason, perhaps she was too kind and couldn't bear to see someone die along with their child in front of her.
"I hope you truly remember," Xue Lan looked at her deeply and then left.
An Ning sighed and wanted to reach out for the medicine bowl but found she couldn't reach it. If she stretched a little further, it would surely aggravate her wound. Just as she was about to retract her hand, a porcelain-white, slender finger picked up the medicine bowl.
She looked up, and when she saw the refined, handsome face so close, her body trembled, "Crown... Crown Prince..."
"Don't move, lie down obediently." The Crown Prince walked towards her bedside.
An Ning exclaimed, "Crown Prince, you cannot. I am a servant..."
"You still know you are a servant? Do you have the awareness of being a servant?"
His voice was light and faint, yet it carried an indescribable feeling.
An Ning trembled, looking at the Crown Prince before her in confusion. He was both familiar and strange in her impression.
"Open your mouth." He handed the soup spoon in his hand to her lips.
For some reason, she opened her mouth, and the medicine entered her mouth.
"It's so bitter," she couldn't help but say.
"Good medicine tastes bitter," the Crown Prince's voice was somewhat cold.
An Ning dared not say anything more. After a bowl of medicine, she felt only bitterness in her mouth.
Suddenly, something sweet entered her mouth.
She chewed instinctively. It was a preserved fruit.
The sweet taste filled her mouth, dispelling much of the original bitterness.
"In the future, if you encounter any trouble, you can come to me."
His voice was very light, as if speaking of clouds and wind, yet it carried a trace of heaviness.
It was so heavy that it pressed on her heart, lingering long after.
"At that time, I didn't think that much," she really hadn't thought that much. She only wanted Xue Yan to give birth safely and had not considered anything else.
As for offending the Empress, she hadn't considered the consequences, nor did she know why she did it. It was probably an inner compulsion that drove her to do so.
"Rash in your actions, not considering the consequences, not like her at all."
An Ning was startled and couldn't help but ask, "Who is she?"
What she saw were a pair of luminous eyes, like the vast starry sky.
He looked at her, and she felt as if he wasn't looking at her, but at her soul.
After a long while, he withdrew his gaze and said, "Rest well!"
He left.
The Crown Prince had left.
An Ning looked thoughtfully at the place where he had left.