Being close, Yun Ran clearly caught a fleeting flash of disgust and disdain in her eyes, and couldn't help but feel a bit sympathetic towards Nangong Mo.
[Birdie, do you think if I bully her, Nangong Mo will hunt me down?]
[Does he look like a straw boat to you?]
What??
Yun Ran was stunned for a moment, then realized the implication of the Immortal Bird's words. She couldn't help but twitch her lips, turned silently to glance at Nangong Mo, and seriously replied with two words: [Not at all.]
Nangong Mo: "..."
Lin Yanran adjusted her mood, looked up, and with an appearance of frail pity, gazed at Yun Ran, about to cry, "Sister, I..."
"What? Of course, you didn't want to. After all, you begged me to marry him."
What???
Lin Yanran was stunned and forgot what she was originally going to say.
"Wasn't it you who cried, saying that Prince Qin had long been in battles across states, that his personality was cruel and brutal, full of murderous aura that you didn't like, and that you would rather become a nun than marry him? You even knelt down, crying, and begged me to save you. You haven't forgotten, have you?"
"???"
"!!!"
Lin Yanran was shocked for a long time before finding her voice, "You're talking nonsense! These are baseless!"
Yun Ran blinked her eyes, a bright yet cold smile appeared on her lips.
"You also said that Prince Qin preferred blue flowers, not red makeup, and had a fondness for male beauty."
Lin Yanran: "?!"
Nangong Mo: "..."
He didn't know about anything else, but this sentence was certainly something this little villain said herself.
The man slightly narrowed his eyes, staring at the girl's slender white neck, his eyes deep, dangerous, and unfathomable.
Yun Ran inexplicably felt a chill, quietly shrank her neck, and timely received a reminder from the Immortal Bird:
[Isn't it true that no man can tolerate being slandered as preferring men?]
[Hmph! Anyway, the one he likes is Lin Yanran, and now he realizes he's married the wrong person. Given the number of people around, he can't act out now, but who knows if he'll eliminate me later! Since that's the case, I'm not afraid to offend him a few more times.]
[Seems quite reasonable. This bird has no argument.]
Yun Ran raised her chin, slowly extended a hand towards Lin Yanran.
"Moreover, didn't you say that as long as I dared to marry Nangong Mo, you'd give me a thousand taels of gold as a reward? Now I've fulfilled my promise. So, where's the money?"
Lin Yanran: "???"
Staring at the hand before her, Lin Yanran couldn't recover for a long time, hardly daring to believe her ears and eyes.
When did she ever say those things?
This little b*tch, who has always been a timid yes-man in front of her, when did she become so sharp-tongued and audacious?
Does she really think she's a princess now that she's married into royalty?
The next moment, Lin Yanran turned to face Nangong Mo, holding a pitiful, helpless look.
"Your Highness, Yanran doesn't know why Sister suddenly became like this, speaking nonsense and acting crazily, but Yanran has never said or done those things. I beg Your Highness to believe me."
However, Nangong Mo didn't even lift an eyelid, sitting there lazily, striking and aloof.
As if he didn't hear her speaking at all.
Lin Yanran felt a bit embarrassed, but more so, she felt furious and humiliated.
He's just a cripple!
How dare he treat her like this? Willingly speaking to him was already a favor on her part!
Yun Ran blinked somewhat unexpectedly, her gaze shifting several times between Lin Yanran and Nangong Mo.
[Hey, Birdie, is Lord Dog acting out of love turned into hate?]
[From this bird's observation, not quite.]
[Then he's just pretending to be aloof! Appearing calm on the outside, like a lofty flower, but crying his heart out on the inside!]
Nangong Mo barely noticeably squinted his eyes, casting a chilling glance at Yun Ran.
Suddenly, he felt like watching her cry her heart out, how to achieve it? Make it happen?
"Your Highness..."
Lin Yanran, reluctant to give up, squeezed out a tear, but as soon as she opened her mouth, Yun Ran shouted her down.
"What 'Your Highness'? Are you summoning a ghost? Hurry up and pay back the money!"
At this moment, Lin Qianqiu finally snapped back to reality and walked over to Yun Ran with a furious roar:
"You insolent thing! Talking nonsense! Not only have you committed a grave mistake and refuse to repent, but here you are fabricating stories and slandering Yanran! Utterly incorrigible! How did I ever father such a rebellious daughter!"
Filled with rage, Lin Qianqiu raised his hand to slap Yun Ran.
Yun Ran's eyes turned sharp, just as she was about to retaliate, a gust of fierce wind swept by, knocking Lin Qianqiu to the ground.
Lin Qianqiu sat on the ground, looking furiously in the direction from where the wind originated.
He saw Nangong Mo's handsome yet icy face, filled with shock and anger, "P-Prince? You..."
"Is my princess someone you can touch?"
The man's voice was cold and low, each word like ice, laden with a thousand weights of murderous intent, an overwhelming pressure that made it hard to breathe.
Lin Qianqiu was being stared down by his cold yet vacant blind eyes, his heart racing uncontrollably, an involuntary layer of cold sweat forming on his forehead.
"Prince Qin, I-Old Minister..."
After a moment of surprise, Yun Ran walked two steps toward Lin Qianqiu and looked down at him with disdain, her face smug.
"Looking for silver on the ground? Didn't you say I was making things up and slandering you all? Then produce some evidence!"
Lin Qianqiu's face turned blue with anger.
"You..." This unfilial girl!
"What do you mean 'you'? Is everyone in the Minister Mansion just filled with incompetents? That a weak girl like me could deceive the entire household and swap daughters? Laughable! Do you even need me to spell out who's really making things up?"
At this point, the surrounding onlookers were whispering among themselves, reaching a consensus:
"Though they're each sticking to their own story, making it hard to distinguish truth from lie at the moment, there's no way a marriage involving a prince and a minister's daughter, with such a grand ceremony, could be pulled off by just one person's deception."
Seeing the discourse breaking away from their expectations, Lin Qianqiu, no longer caring about losing face, hurriedly got up from the ground and bowed to Nangong Mo:
"Prince Qin, please understand, do not believe this ungrateful daughter's one-sided story. She intends to evade guilt, twisting facts maliciously..."
His speech was cut off by a voice as cold as ice.
"Minister Lin, my princess is not someone you can slander."
Lin Qianqiu's heart skipped a beat. His palms started to sweat, "Prince..."
"Additionally, the one thousand taels of gold owed to the princess, give it to her."
As soon as these words were spoken, not only Lin Qianqiu and Lin Yanran were dumbfounded, even Yun Ran was stunned.
She had just made it up, but Nangong Mo actually believed it?!
"Your Highness, this is just the rebellious..."
Catching those eyes as cold as a thousand-year-old pond of darkness from Nangong Mo, Lin Qianqiu was startled, and immediately changed his words.
"Your Highness, this old minister came without carrying such a large amount of gold."
"Feng Xuan, escort Minister Lin back to fetch the gold."
"Yes!"
Seeing a tall and handsome black-clad guard, appearing like a door god before him, Lin Qianqiu: "..."
This is robbery! Daylight robbery!!!