MY PRINCE HUSBAND HAS SEVEN WIVES AND I AM HIS FAVOURITE!
Chapter 168: What are you saying?

Chapter 168: What are you saying?

The other man turned sharply towards the soldier, making him flinch. His eyes, dark and bottomless, burned with a murderous glint, as though weighing the soldier’s worth in mere moments. The intensity of his gaze could cut through bone.

"What do you mean? What are you saying?" His voice was low but sharp, a blade poised at the soldier’s throat.

The soldier gulped but steadied himself. "Think about it, my lord. She is the only woman, apart from the palace maids, who was with the prince at the time. After the fire broke out, all the maids were sent away before them. When they walked toward the hideout, it was just the two of them. And when the ambush happened, there were no guards, no servants. Even Wei Ling and Deng Mi were not present. Only the Seventh Consort was there with him. Doesn’t it only make sense that the woman we’ve been searching for is none other than Hua Jing?"

Things had indeed been suspicious ever since that day. The prince had no one else beside the seventh consort by his side at the time of the ambush.

The prince had been out of breath and unconscious lying on the cold snow and the man who had survived the ordeal had said that a woman had sprung out of now and saved the prince from death!

They were already very close to achieving all their dreams. The plans that had taken years had been completely destroyed with a single woman that they did not know anything about!

A heavy silence followed. The man, seated like a king even in the dimly lit room, let his mind turn over the soldier’s words.

Hua Jing? That weak, meek girl whom everyone in the palace disregarded?

He had been watching the Crown Prince’s marriage closely. It had come out of nowhere.

But from what he had heard, the Seventh Consort was an unremarkable noblewoman, quiet and unassuming. The reports painted her as someone who could not even raise her voice, let alone take a life.

She had suffered very much when she was still a child after her mother’s death. After all, she was just an illegitimate child who had been born unluckily.

Many people had bullied her when she was still a child especially her step sister and her friends who would mock her greatly and this had affected her communication with the outside world.

So how could such a woman...

There was no way that woman was the same woman that was being described by the men who had survived the ordeal back then

Yet the woman who had ruined his ambush, who had killed his finest assassin, was something else entirely. She had been fast. Lethal. Dangerous. The complete opposite of Hua Jing.

And yet...

The man frowned. That night, after the Emperor’s decree, he had personally gone to the hideout where Zhao Yan and the others had gathered.

He had been ordered to investigate everything that happened up until the point where the prince was ambushed not knowing that he was the mastermind behind everything.

It was foolish but still they needed that to hide what they had done.

The memory played in his mind: the faint embers of a ruined palace still smoldering, the officials murmuring amongst themselves, and her.

The Seventh Consort’s gaze had been different. Not the gaze of a woman weak and frightened, but one filled with cold calculation. She had seemed suspicious, aware.

Could it be...?

He had dismissed her at the time, but now, after hearing the soldier’s words, something clawed at his mind.

Could he have overlooked something? Was this woman not as ordinary as she seemed?

The man’s lips curled into a cruel smirk. If she was indeed the woman, then they had a problem.

"If she is the one," he finally said, voice dripping with cold amusement, "then we must put it to the test."

—

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the palace, Madame Lin and Madame Qiao stormed into the Yard of Grace, their robes disheveled and their faces filled with fury.

The First Consort sat by the koi pond, elegantly feeding the fish, her silk sleeves flowing like water around her. She glanced up at the two women, her brows furrowing at their undignified entrance.

"What happened? Did you teach her a lesson? Why are you here?" she asked, her voice calm but expectant.

Madame Lin’s chest heaved. "That outrageous woman! That impudent, lowly—!"

"Calm yourself," the First Consort cut in, setting her dish of fish food aside. "You mean the Seventh Consort? What did she do?"

Madame Qiao clenched her fists. "She humiliated us! She threw us out like common servants! That maid of hers, Xia Lin, dared to touch us! It was an outright insult!"

The First Consort’s serene expression hardened into something far more dangerous. The koi fish swam lazily in the pond, oblivious to the seething rage that was now taking root.

"Is that so?" she murmured, fingers tapping lightly against the armrest of her chair. "That woman thinks she can humiliate you... and by extension, humiliate me?"

She stood abruptly, her expression unreadable.

She had wanted to use this move to ensure that that wench understood her place in the palace and that she had the backing of The Empress but who would have thought that Hua Jing did not even care!

She even chased away the Empress’ own maidservants!

What sort of audacity was this?

Then, without warning, she flung the dish of fish food onto the ground. The small pellets scattered like tiny beads, some landing into the water, causing the koi to swarm greedily.

Madame Lin and Madame Qiao both flinched.

Then, without another word, the First Consort lifted the hem of her silk robes and strode forward, her presence commanding. "Come with me."

The maids around her instantly straightened, hurrying to follow.

Madame Lin and Madame Qiao exchanged glances, eyes wide with curiosity and a tinge of apprehension.

"Where is she going?" Madame Qiao whispered.

Madame Lin swallowed, her face pale. "I don’t know... but if I had to guess, I’d say she’s going to see the Empress."

Madam Qiao’s eyes widened, "The empress?"