Chapter 280 Qingge’s Apology

Chapter 280 Luo Qingge Apologizes

He cupped his hands towards Luo Qingge, but his attitude was not respectful. "Princess Jiu, please calm down. I did not intend to disturb your rest, but the emperor has ordered us to arrest whoever insulted Consort Li and beat up the Tenth Princess within the palace. Let me and my men go in and search—just do me a favor."

Upon hearing this, Luo Qingge was so stunned that her jaw dropped.

"What did you say? Consort Li was scolded and Luo Qianxue was beaten? Who is so capable as to dare hit these two tigresses? She's really something!"

Zhao Defa: "..."

Is that the point? The point is that he suspects Luo Qingge of harboring a culprit!

Zhao Defa took a deep breath. "Princess Jiu, the person has not been found yet."

Luo Qingge frowned, looking totally speechless. "If you haven't found her, go look for her. Why are you at my Feiyue Palace?"

She added, "By the way, when you find her, let me know. I'd like to make friends with whoever fought those tigers."

Lianye in the room covered her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

With acting skills like that, it's a shame she didn't become an actress!

Clearly, her mistress was right there in the same room, separated only by a door, yet Luo Qingge managed to deflect the blame.

Zhao Defa had almost run out of patience. The more Luo Qingge and Linglan blocked him from entering, the more he believed that Madam Cai was inside.

Thinking of this, his tone turned cold and hard.

"Reporting to Princess Jiu, someone just saw that the culprit we are looking for headed toward your Feiyue Palace."

"For the safety of Your Highness, please step aside and allow me to lead my men in for a search, to clear your name."

As she finished speaking, Luo Qingge walked up to Zhao Defa and swiftly raised her hand, slapping him across the face.

"How dare you suspect me?"

The slap was crisp and loud, carrying an air of authority that made everyone present gasp.

Commander Zhao was slapped by the Ninth Princess?

Zhao Defa was stunned. When he came to his senses, his face twisted with rage, anger blazing in his eyes.

"I am the emperor's man. For the Ninth Princess to strike me is to show total disrespect for the emperor!"

Luo Qingge snorted. "Don't use the emperor to bully me. I am the emperor's own daughter. At best, you're just a bootlicker by his side. Do you think he values you more than me?"

Zhao Defa's face darkened visibly. He remained tight-lipped, knowing that answering such a question would only make him look foolish.

Luo Qingge continued, "I told you the person you're looking for is not here. If Commander Zhao still doesn't take your men away, then you'll all be court-martialed!"

"You are the commander, so the punishment might be light for you, but that's not necessarily true for your men!"

"If anything happens to them, you'll be the one to blame, Commander Zhao."

After speaking, Luo Qingge glanced at Laifu, the young eunuch of Feiyue Palace.

"Laifu, go to the Eastern Palace and tell my brother the Crown Prince that Commander Zhao is bullying me in Feiyue Palace, showing no respect for me. Tell him to come stand up for me."

"Yes, Princess," Laifu said respectfully, and turned to leave.

But Zhao Defa's heart dropped.

He had forgotten that Luo Qingge had the Crown Prince's backing.

And the Crown Prince, Luo Jingshen, commanded 50,000 troops of the Longyue Army in the capital, meant to keep both him and Prince Qi's maternal grandfather, Jiang Yongcheng, in check, preventing Prince Qi from becoming too powerful alone.

The other 150,000 troops were directly under Emperor Jingyang.

Although Luo Jingshen had only fifty thousand Longyue troops, this force was still nothing to sneeze at.

Because these men were all trained by Prince Ye, Luo Junhe, each one valiant and skilled in battle, capable of fighting a hundred enemies each, fierce and unyielding.

Every prince in the capital wanted that army, but Emperor Jingyang only gave it to Luo Jingshen.

If Luo Qingge really called upon Luo Jingshen to intervene, even if Zhao Defa got off easy today, he'd pay for it another day.

And he still had a wife and family to consider; Zhao Defa couldn't take that risk.

Thinking of this, Zhao Defa took a deep breath, clenched his fists, and said respectfully to Luo Qingge:

"My men must have been mistaken. The person I'm after isn't here at your place. I'll be going now."

With that, he ordered, "Let's go!"

After the Imperial Guards left, Laifu returned from outside and asked Luo Qingge.

"Princess, should I still go to the Crown Prince?"

"Go find him? I just said that to scare him. Who knew he would be so easily frightened?"

Luo Qingge hadn't expected Luo Jingshen's name to be so useful at a critical moment.

Zhao Defa wasn't even afraid of the Empress, but the moment she casually mentioned Luo Jingshen, he got scared.

This just proves some people are pushovers who only bully the weak.

But Luo Qingge also knew that even if she really sent Laifu to the Eastern Palace to call Luo Jingshen, he'd most likely not come, making up all kinds of excuses to avoid it—let alone stick up for her!

She saw no brotherly affection from Luo Jingshen, only annoyance and impatience.

Luo Qingge never had any expectations of Luo Jingshen. She felt that their personalities clashed, and it was fine to just stay out of each other's way.

But using his name to scare people was pretty handy.

Luo Qingge told Laifu and Linglan to stay outside, then pushed the door open and went in.

Inside, Madam Cai started to kneel, but Luo Qingge reached out and stopped her.

"Madam Cai, what are you doing? Please get up."

Madam Cai was helped up, and she looked at Luo Qingge with gentle eyes, deeply moved.

"Thank you, Princess Jiu, for protecting me and my maid. I am immensely grateful."

She had heard everything clearly from behind the door; several times Zhao Defa had wanted to force his way in, but Luo Qingge had blocked him each time.

Luo Qingge waved her hand as if to brush it off. "Madam Cai, you are too formal. If anyone should be grateful, it's me—I should be thanking you."

"Earlier, Heir Xie saved my life outside. He risked his life to take care of those assassins for me. Now, helping you out of this trouble is just common decency. You don't have to stand on ceremony with me."

Madam Cai, however, completely ignored the rest of what Luo Qingge said. At that moment, all she could think about was that her son had saved Luo Qingge's life.

So did that mean they had known each other for a while?

Madam Cai excitedly grabbed Luo Qingge's hand.

"Zheng'er truly saved Princess Jiu? When exactly was that? Does the princess still remember?"

Luo Qingge thought for a moment and said to her, "It was about half a month ago. My Eighth Imperial Brother, Heir Xie, and I had a barbecue at my Third Sister-in-law's place during the day. After we finished eating, it was getting late, and I didn't have any guards with me. So my Third Sister-in-law suggested that Heir Xie escort me back to the palace."

"On the way, we were ambushed. Many assassins came—they were targeting me. At the time, I thought I was surely doomed. Thanks to Heir Xie being by my side, both my maidservant and I got away safely."

At this point, Luo Qingge felt a little embarrassed. She pursed her lips before speaking softly:

"Madam, you are Heir Xie's mother. There's something I need to say sorry to you about."

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