The Prime Minister's Darling novel Chapter 1414

Chapter 1414: 687 Firm as a Mother (Extra Update)

Falling from such a high place, if he didn’t die, he would be crippled.

The crown prince was always accompanied by hidden guards, of course, they wouldn’t allow him to be injured. A hidden guard lurking nearby, with a swoosh of light work, flew over, caught the crown prince, and launched an instinctive attack on everyone who posed a threat to him.

He struck a palm toward the princess.

The crown prince’s face changed drastically, "Stop!"

But it was too late; the palm had already been thrown, and the princess was hit by the hidden guard’s palm wind. First, she slammed against a stone table before heavily falling to the ground, blood even spilling from the corner of her mouth.

"Young master!"

A palace maid’s cry of alarm came from not far away.

It turned out that the little palace maid couldn’t find the princess in the Sleeping Palace, worried that she might wander off and cause trouble, so she quickly came out to look for her.

She also notified several eunuchs patrolling nearby, so a total of five people came.

The five didn’t see how the crown prince fell, but they did see the former princess being struck and spitting blood by a hidden guard by the crown prince’s side.

Everyone was stunned. What was the crown prince doing? Why did he let his hidden guard injure the former princess? And why did he dismiss all the palace maids around? Was he planning to deal with the former princess in secret?

If they had not come looking, would the former princess have already suffered at the hands of the crown prince?

They thought of the princess’s assault at the Imperial Mausoleum. Could it be—

"You..." the crown prince looked at her coldly, "Shangguan Yun, you are ruthless!"

...

"That’s the situation," Gu Chengfeng said to Gu Jiao, "The princess has lost her memory; she can’t even remember her own son’s name, sometimes it’s Zhang Qing, sometimes it’s Li Qing, she gives a different name to whoever asks. It’s unclear how she provoked the crown prince in the evening, causing the crown prince to attack her in the Imperial Palace. The incident of the princess being attacked initially had no useful leads, in other words, the people of the crown prince did it too cleanly, not leaving a single clue. But with what happened today, the suspicion on the crown prince has greatly increased!"

"Is the crown prince such an impatient person?" With the sovereign in the palace, the crown prince really dared to be so brazen. Why bother with an assassination in the first place? Was it because he thought he wasn’t exposed enough?

Gu Jiao felt that there was something strange about the whole affair.

"Who’s there!" Gu Jiao’s eyes sharpened.

"It’s me!"

Xun Fengxian’s voice came through.

"Come in." Gu Jiao withdrew the Begonia Needle in her hand.

Xun Fengxian sheepishly pushed the door open, carrying a tray of freshly cut chilled melons and fruit, and said with a smile, "Just sliced."

She set the fruit tray on the table, "If there’s nothing else, I’ll leave now."

"Wait," Gu Jiao called out to her.

Xun Fengxian turned around, her smile sycophantic, "What would you have me do, young master?"

Gu Jiao asked, "What do you think of the matter just now?"

Gu Chengfeng gave Gu Jiao a surprised look.

Xun Fengxian quickly waved her hands, "What matter? I haven’t heard a word!"

Gu Jiao pulled out a small knife.

Xun Fengxian, terrified, collapsed to her knees, supporting herself on the table, "I’ll talk, I’ll tell everything!"

Gu Jiao sliced a piece of fruit, looking at her with an odd expression, "Hmm?"

Xun Fengxian glanced at her little knife, then at the thinly sliced fruit, and was instantly dumbfounded.

You, you just wanted a slice of melon? I thought you were going to slice me up!

Now that the truth was out, she could no longer hide it.

Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead with her handkerchief, Xun Fengxian said with a nervous chuckle, "I didn’t hear much, just that you two were discussing matters about the princess and crown prince. If you ask me what I think, I believe the crown prince was responsible for the action."

"Would the crown prince be that foolish?" Gu Jiao inquired.

"Of course the crown prince isn’t that foolish, but all the palace maids saw it, didn’t they? It was indeed the crown prince’s guard who injured the princess." Even though Xun Fengxian also felt that it was inconsistent with the crown prince’s usually steady nature, facts spoke louder than words, and what was witnessed in person could not be faked.

Gu Chengfeng stroked his chin, pondering, "Could it be a ploy of the princess, for instance, deliberately attacking the crown prince to provoke his hidden guard to defend him?"

It seemed that he had read too much about old sacrificial rites; he almost had the Thirty-Six Stratagems memorized to a tee.

Xun Fengxian shook her handkerchief, "Then you are uninformed. I’d rather believe the crown prince lost his patience than believe it was a ruse by the princess because—"

As she spoke, her expression suddenly became serious, "That is the proudest woman in all of Dayan."

She was the princess who did not beg for mercy even when publicly executed.

Under a barrage of whips striking her, she endured being beaten until her skin broke open on Jinluan Hall, under the scrutiny and mental torment of all the civil and military officials. Despite the dual agony of body and spirit, she did not shed a tear, did not cry out injustice, did not say a single word about the pain she felt toward her emperor father.

If she were willing to bend her pride and beg the sovereign for forgiveness, how could she have fallen into such a wretched state?

Unable to remain a princess, at least a princess would do, but she preferred to be stripped of her status and confined for life rather than bow her head and show any sign of weakness.

This is who the princess was.

Xun Fengxian sighed, "How could such a princess resort to self-harm as a strategy? It is a method she would utterly disdain. To make her break her own pride is more painful than killing her. Perhaps I can’t make you understand, alas, I am at a loss for words. In any case, if she really has done this, then she must have something very, very important to protect, something more valuable to her than her own life and dignity."