Who is spreading rumors that my filial piety towards them has changed?

Now this woman has actually appeared in Chu Mingkong's group. Wan Hua is wary of her because of past experiences, and he always feels that she has come to take his son away from him again!

Empress Pei's figure was as ripe as a peach, plump and full, which contrasted sharply with Consort Wan's graceful figure, which was as slender as a willow in the breeze.

She sensed Consort Wan's subtle hostility and did not want any entanglement with her. However, she was not a pushover. Even when facing the Emperor, she was scheming to bite back at the imperial family. How much more so now?

Empress Pei revealed a gentle smile that was both captivating and enchanting:

"I never expected to see Consort Wan here. I heard you disappeared after leaving the capital with Minister Wan. I didn't expect you to be hiding in Xiling, far away from the turmoil of the capital. How enviable!"

Chu Mingkong, who was about to step forward to greet Consort Wan, froze. The atmosphere seemed inappropriate for him to go over there...

Feng Ying and Zuo Qiuchi watched from the side. As someone who had once abducted the Empress from the palace, Feng Ying naturally had some knowledge of the superficial information about the royal family.

She said to Zuo Qiuchi:

"When I was spying on the Tianji royal family, I couldn't understand why the emperor could be so calm, like a stagnant pool. In the past, the concubines of the Yueji royal family were not lacking in poisoning, slander, and assassination. I never expected to finally see the empress and the imperial concubine fighting each other."

"The Yueqi royal family is so lively?" Zuo Qiuchi exclaimed in surprise and curiosity. "Tell me more."

Chu Mingkong: "..."

Can you two behave yourselves? You could talk somewhere else!

Chapter 175 Only this Empress is Worth Being Wary Of

Chu Mingkong knew he couldn't just stand by and watch. Just then, more and more people gathered around out of curiosity, so Chu Mingkong found an excuse to step between Empress Pei and Consort Wan.

"Alright, that's enough with the greetings. Let's head to Tianya Tower first. Are we going to stand here like monkeys for everyone to watch? Besides, everyone's had a long and tiring journey, and we've been in the spaceship for so many days. Let's not keep everyone waiting."

Seeing that the crowd was indeed growing, the two elegant and beautiful women didn't want to linger outside any longer and gave each other a soft hum. Empress Pei went to find Jin Yu, while Consort Wan returned to Princess Chu's side.

Seeing this, Elder Ding, who had been hiding in the corner, felt it was time to step forward and said to Chu Mingkong:

"Your Highness, we old fellows heard from Princess Chu that Your Highness is preparing to return, so we quickly had people tidy up all the unused rooms in the City Lord's Pavilion, and also had the maids clean up Qingxin Mansion and several of the Princess's residences."

Thinking that His Highness had officially returned and could stay wherever he pleased without waiting for someone to tidy up, and now it seemed that everything was just right, even with many people, it wouldn't be a problem. If you have any orders, please feel free to contact me at any time!

Chu Mingkong glared at the chief elder with annoyance. This guy had just stood there watching for so long without saying anything earlier!

Elder Ding was shrewd; who would want to get involved in such a mess? Naturally, he would wait until things had calmed down before stepping in as a useless peacemaker, lest the fire get to him.

If it were just the women in the group arguing amongst themselves, that would be one thing. But now that Consort Wan, their superior, is also involved, they can't act recklessly. The elders still have their ways of dealing with people.

Now that someone had come forward and said that accommodations had been arranged, it was inappropriate to remain standing there any longer. So, the group of women, led by their maids, entered the pavilion one after another.

As a son who had been away from his hometown for a long time, Chu Mingkong naturally had to follow the Princess of Chu and lead the way. He would occasionally turn around to see if anyone had fallen behind, linger among them for a while, and then return to the opposite side of the group to lead the way.

Jin Yu wanted to stay by Chu Mingkong's side and make her presence known, so she said to Empress Pei:

"Mother, I'm going to Mingkong's side. I'll stay with you later!"

Empress Pei glanced at the Princess Consort of Chu beside Chu Mingkong and said to her daughter:

"You're not allowed to go!"

"..." Jin Yu pursed her lips sullenly and muttered, "Don't drag me into your arguments, I'm not arguing with you..."

Because there were many people, Elder Ding did not accompany them; in situations with many female relatives, it was sufficient for a maid to lead the way.

He lagged behind and spoke to another elder:

"Wow, look at this spectacle! It's truly impressive. No wonder Your Highness was in such a hurry to return to the capital last time. Even after deducting the time spent on the journey, Your Highness has been back for over a month. It seems you've practically stolen back all the top beauties in the capital."

"I just took a look, and it really was a bit too much. Adding to the fact that Consort Wan was stolen and hidden in Xiling before, it can be said that all the beauties in the palace were brought here. The two women who pinched Princess Jinyu's cheeks, one is Princess Yongzhen, and the other is the second young lady of the Shangguan family who is naturally intelligent. She has been to Xiling once before, hasn't she?"

"What's wrong with your memory? Didn't we already say that the Emperor bestowed the title of Princess Yongzhen upon her to go on a marriage alliance? Princess?"

"I don't know! I just finished working on the paper stickers. How could I have so much free time to gossip with you guys? What did I miss? Tell me!"

Gossip, no matter what era it is from, there are always people willing to listen. But if it's something that people have only recently grown tired of talking about, then nobody wants to talk about it anymore.

"Go talk to someone else, I don't have time, I have a ton of things to do!" Elder Ding waved his hand.

"However, the news about the Princess of Chu and Consort Wan has been kept secret for so long. Now that they've openly walked out of Tianya Tower today, it's impossible to hide it anymore!"

"If you can't hide it, you can't hide it. If His Highness really wanted to hide it, he wouldn't have come so openly. He would have had the women wear veils and come back late at night."

The fact that the Princess of Chu had become the city lord of Tianya City had been suppressed. The people of Xiling only remembered a person in full armor who shattered a monk's Vajra body with a single sword strike, and the Xiao family who left in defeat.

Because Xiao Chengren, the head of the Xiao family, caused a scene at Qingxin Prefecture after his defeat, many people knew about the break between Princess Chu and the Xiao family. Later, some people speculated that the person in the City Lord's Pavilion was Princess Chu.

However, the whereabouts of the Princess of Chu and Consort Wan were kept secret, and they always appeared in public with veils when they went out. All the speculations were never verified, and gradually no one cared about who the new city lord in the city lord's pavilion was.

Even the most gossipy ordinary people only want a peaceful and stable life.

After so many things happened, Tianya City was still able to maintain normal operation, and the lives of ordinary people were not greatly affected. Who would still wonder who the city lord was?

Now that the Princess Consort of Chu has gone out to welcome her son's return, it will be difficult to suppress the news.

But it doesn't matter. Compared to the city lord's true identity, Chu Mingkong's return is probably what the common people are more concerned about.

----------

The group of women were led to the City Lord's Pavilion one after another, and the usually quiet pavilion became unusually lively, but this liveliness was tinged with a hint of tension.

The hall, which was unusually crowded, was bustling with activity as the women found seats and settled down.

Princess Chu sat in the seat of honor, which was originally the seat of the city lord, with the seats below for guests. However, Princess Chu felt that this was not the seat of the city lord, but the seat of the clan matriarch. The number of women brought back by her son Chu Mingkong alone was frightening, enough to support several branches of a clan.

Princess Chu's gaze swept across the crowd, secretly pondering which of these women were her son's girlfriends and which were their girlfriends' family members.

The former Empress Dowager Zhen was probably taking care of Princess Yongzhen when she brought her back.

The other two wives of the Cui family from the capital were probably brought back for refuge out of respect for Gu Jungui, and Gu Jungui was an elder whom Mingkong had been close to since childhood, so there was no problem with that.

Zuo Qiuchi was his master, and she took good care of him in the capital. It was perfectly reasonable for Chu Mingkong to bring her back to Xiling. As for the blindfolded female Taoist, she was probably an accomplice. Chu Mingkong hadn't made eye contact with her the whole way... Oh, she was blindfolded, so she couldn't make eye contact. She seemed to be alright.

That alluring woman with exotic charm...

Princess Chu gazed at her, and some long-forgotten memories gradually became clear. This seemed to be the dancer and assassin who had supported Mingkong at a banquet many years ago.

So many years have passed, and I'm still by his side?

There's definitely something wrong with this, but given the years of their relationship, it's hard to say anything about any connection with Chu Mingkong, so we can only ignore it.

The remaining young women included Princess Yongzhen, Princess Jinyu, the second young lady of the Shangguan family, and Mingkong's childhood sweetheart, Wei Qingning.

If it's only four, that's acceptable...

However, Empress Pei sensed something was amiss. She always deliberately avoided Mingkong's gaze, and sometimes even glared at him.

This seemingly cold and distant relationship is actually quite telling; the Chu Princess knows Chu Mingkong's personality best.

If there wasn't some close relationship between them, he wouldn't have tolerated her much if she dared to give him a hard time. Why would he have taken her away from the capital and always been so tolerant of her temperament?

After a brief moment of thought, the Princess of Chu identified key individuals to be wary of, and then first inquired about Gu Jungui's whereabouts:

"Jun Gui, back then, Ming Kong and I had a falling out due to a misunderstanding. It was truly thanks to you taking care of Ming Kong that I was able to do so. No wonder that after Ming Kong returned last time, I kept thinking about going back to the capital to bring you back. Your name is truly well-chosen, protecting my Ming Kong and ensuring his safe return. It may be inconvenient to come and go freely from Tianya Tower, but from now on, you can treat Qingxin Mansion as your own home!"

When the topic of taking care of him came up, Gu Jun Gui smiled slightly, but the image of "taking care" of Chu Ming Kong while wearing stockings and secretly tasting Ming Kong's thing while taking a bath came to mind.

Gu Jun Gui felt guilty and ashamed at the Princess of Chu's sincerity, feeling that he had been a bad elder. However, it was also an unexpected turn of events; he hadn't anticipated that the materials he bought from the Immortal Treasure Pavilion would be such strange things...

“Princess Consort Chu, you’re being too polite. It’s nothing. After I married into the Cui family in the capital, I went through such a ordeal. People gossiped that I was a jinx to my husband. I was afraid that my bad luck would bring misfortune to Mingkong as well. Besides, Mingkong has kept me company in the capital. It’s not that I’m taking care of him, it’s that he’s taking care of me.”

Gu Jungui then introduced Zhong Feihuang and Feng Keqing. Since the Princess of Chu did not know them and had no connection in terms of status in the past, there was nothing to talk about in depth. So she simply said some polite greetings and thanked the two sisters-in-law for taking care of Mingkong. After that, there was no further discussion.

Zhong Feihuang and Feng Keqing breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, the Princess of Chu hadn't noticed anything amiss. Gu Jungui's way of taking care of them was just inappropriate, but they had indeed been mingling together, even having a threesome at the cold pond in Xiaoxiang Qin Academy, and Gu Jungui had caught them red-handed, which was quite embarrassing.

Princess Chu originally wanted to steer the conversation toward Empress Pei, but since Chu Mingkong's teacher was present, especially since he had done Chu Mingkong a great favor, she could not treat him lightly in terms of etiquette.

“Miss Zuo, you and Mingkong didn’t spend much time together, and then you were separated for a long time. I didn’t expect you to remember the bond between master and disciple and take such good care of Mingkong. I can’t express my gratitude enough. From now on, just treat Xiling as your own home.”

And Wind Maiden, I never imagined you could stay by Mingkong's side for so many years. Your dance back then was so spectacular that it made me incredibly angry. Now that all the misunderstandings have cleared up, whenever I think of Wind Maiden's dance, I can only admire it.

This can be seen as a strategic retreat, where the speaker points out his own past mistakes as a form of self-punishment, hoping to deter the other party from pursuing the matter further.

In other situations, this might be considered gaining an advantage in words, but at this moment, Princess Chu was sincerely apologizing. Since this woman was a close confidante of her son, it would be good to manage the relationship well. She didn't want the other woman to have any lingering resentment, which would cause Chu Mingkong to harbor resentment towards her as his stepmother.

However, Feng Ying wasn't one of those people who cared much about worldly rules; her words were often somewhat critical and unforgiving. She smiled and waved her hand dismissively.

"It's alright, it's all in the past. Mingkong was so cute and innocent when he was little. I even felt guilty after playing with him, so it's only right that I dance for him to save face~"

Princess Consort of Chu: "......"

--------

P.S.: I'll repay one chapter now, and we'll calculate how much more I owe tomorrow...

Chapter 176 Let's skip this topic! (2/38)

As soon as Feng Ying said this, he attracted a lot of hatred, and unfriendly gazes gathered around him.

The women present had all had some kind of unusual contact with Chu Mingkong's infant form, but in any case, it was Chu Mingkong who had grown up and then shrunk back to a smaller form, so the nature of their relationship was different. Yet this woman actually had a special close relationship with Mingkong when he was a child.

He was just a child back then. The indignation in those gazes, seemingly criticizing the woman for having a problem by targeting a little kid, was actually more about dissatisfaction that the person wasn't herself!

Feng Ying was completely indifferent to Chu Mingkong's worldly relationships, and naturally wouldn't care about the opinions of these women. She shrugged nonchalantly.

"You can't blame me for that. When we met, Xiao Mingkong acted recklessly and started a fight. Later, I discovered that there was this little guy in that desolate border region who no one paid any attention to. What's wrong with me taking advantage of him a little?"

Those present were more or less aware that Chu Mingkong had been at odds with the Princess of Chu for a very long time, and that they had only recently reconciled.

At present, Princess Consort Chu can still maintain the status of a mother in front of them, but because of the issues of that period, Gu Jun Gui still has to consider her status as a princess consort to some extent. There are two people who don't need to care about her, their mother.

One of them was Chu Mingkong's master, Zuo Qiuchi, who had never mistreated him. When he was neglected in the capital, she was the only one who protected her disciple.

The other is Feng Ying, who can be considered a woman who had direct or indirect conflicts with the former Princess Consort of Chu. Back then, the Xiao family finally managed to invite a group of top-notch female dancers to support Xiao Fengnan, but Feng Ying messed everything up, and also gave Chu Mingkong, who was practically in prison, an extra foreign beauty to support him.

She was the kind of woman who directly exploited the weaknesses of the Queen Consort of Chu.

Fortunately, these two women were on different tracks and had no interest in competing with each other. Otherwise, it would have been a huge problem if such an advantage had fallen into the hands of someone else!

Especially Empress Pei...

Zuo Qiuchi didn't care about others' reactions, only saying with a hint of dissatisfaction and disdain:

"When did this happen? How come I don't know about it? You can't be making this up!"

"Mingkong didn't tell you about me?" Fengying was surprised, as she thought Zuo Qiuchi knew.