Imperial Husband Chapter 26

Outside the palace gates.

Ping'an's anxious heart finally settled when he saw Li Jin appear. "Your Highness, you're finally out. You're not hurt, are you? Did His Majesty the Empress... did he..."

"Nothing at all, Ping'an. Let's go back." Li Jin glanced amusedly at Ping'an and boarded the carriage.

When Li Jin was invited to the side hall by Gu Rushuang, he feared Ping'an, with his simple nature, might accidentally offend someone if left alone in the palace, so he had instructed him to wait outside the palace with the coachman to watch the carriage until he returned.

As for Ying Yuan, Li Jin had managed to temporarily persuade him and was no longer blocked from leaving the palace.

"Ah... yes..."

Ping'an hurriedly followed, not daring to continue asking those questions.

Li Jin lifted a corner of the carriage window curtain, thoughtfully looking out at the somewhat deserted streets. "Ping'an, we're running low on medicinal herbs. Go to the pharmacy later and get some more."

"Yes, Your Highness. This servant will go right now."

Ping'an responded and immediately got off the carriage, rushing off energetically towards the pharmacy.

"I said later."

Li Jin lightly patted his forehead, shaking his head with a mix of helplessness and amusement.

Before long.

The carriage arrived at the Prince's mansion. Li Jin stepped down unhurriedly. Not long after he entered the mansion, Wei Shiwan appeared before him. "Jin'er, you're back?"

Wei Shiwan and Li Ruoyan were accompanying Wei Rong. Judging by Wei Rong's expression, she had clearly been waiting here for some time.

Li Jin met Wei Shiwan's gaze. "Does the Successor Princess Consort have business with me?"

"Li Jin, how are you speaking?" Wei Rong's face tightened, her brows knitting together in clear displeasure. "Shiwan is your mother. Calling her 'Successor Princess Consort' so disrespectfully, is that the manners Gu Ruolan taught you?"

"Exactly." Li Ruoyan enjoyed seeing Li Jin embarrassed and deliberately fanned the flames. "Grandmother, I think Li Jin is clearly deliberately opposing Mother, with ill intentions."

Wei Rong's anger was instantly stirred. "How dare he?"

She always knew Li Jin was an ungrateful white eyed wolf.

Li Jin looked at Wei Rong. "Grandmother, my mother is the legitimate Princess Consort of the Prince of Dingbei, the younger sister of His Majesty the Empress. The Successor Princess Consort is merely a successor wife. You want me to call the Successor Princess Consort 'Mother'? Aren't you afraid His Majesty the Empress will find out?"

Wei Rong's face immediately darkened. "Are you threatening me?"

"Grandmother, you seem to misunderstand the respective statuses involved. Your grandson has no choice but to state it clearly. I ask you not to do things that would place Father in a difficult position." While responding calmly, Li Jin's gaze fell upon Li Ruoyan. "Elder Sister, is calling me directly by my name the etiquette the momos taught you?"

[Momo (嬷嬷): a term of address for an elderly female servant, nanny, or a respectable elderly woman, particularly common in historical Chinese contexts]

To deal with someone like Wei Rong, who bullied the weak and feared the strong, Li Jin did not bother with lengthy arguments and directly invoked the authority of the figures she feared. As for Li Ruoyan, the opportunistic brat, there had been even less reason to give her face.

Sure enough.

Li Jin simultaneously bringing up Gu Rushuang and Li Shiyun made Wei Rong back down. But Li Ruoyan didn't understand this and only knew that Li Jin was deliberately mocking her for having no manners. Her eyes instantly reddened.

Soon after, Li Ruoyan put on an act of having suffered a great insult, covering her face and weeping. "You... you... Grandmother, please uphold justice for your granddaughter... your granddaughter..."

In reality.

Li Ruoyan didn't shed a single tear, she was purely pretending to cry, her goal being to make Wei Rong teach Li Jin a proper lesson.

In her heart, she thought with full malice: Li Jin, who gave you the nerve to mock me? I won't let this slide.

Wei Rong couldn't swallow the anger of being threatened by Li Jin, intensified by Li Ruoyan being made to cry by him. Gnashing her teeth, she said, "Fine, fine, you Li Jin. Not only do you refuse to call Shiwan mother, you dare to talk back to me and insult your own elder sister. This is simply rebellion. Someone! Take Li Jin to the ancestral hall and make him kneel in reflection for one night. No one is to let him out without my order."

"Mother, this is inappropriate." Wei Shiwan quickly spoke up to stop Wei Rong from making a foolish decision. "Jin'er's body has only recently recovered. Punishing him like this might cause problems."

This useless fool who does more harm than good, aren't you just rushing to give people grounds to say I, as his mother, am unkind?

Wei Shiwan appeared obedient on the surface, but in her heart she was cursing Wei Rong.

If nothing else, they were still within Gu Rulan's mourning period. For Wei Rong to have said such things was practically digging a pit for her to fall into. Walls had ears. If that matter had reached Gu Rushuang's knowledge, the good reputation she had worked so hard to build would have been ruined.

"Isn't he perfectly fine? Don't tell me I, as his grandmother, can't even punish a grandson?" Wei Rong looked Li Jin up and down with a sour expression, clearly believing his illness had long since healed and he was now just feigning sickness to prevent her from punishing him.

"But Mother..."

Li Jin interrupted, "If Grandmother wishes to punish grandson, grandson naturally accepts."

Wei Rong's face stiffened. She had thought Li Jin would say something more to threaten her, and she was prepared to counter, but she never expected Li Jin to actually agree.

Did I hear correctly?

"Your grandson will go to the ancestral hall to kneel now." Without waiting for Wei Rong to speak, Li Jin headed straight for the ancestral hall.

"He... he..."

Li Jin's sudden initiative left Wei Rong stunned, momentarily at a loss for words.

Wei Shiwan was practically at her wit's end with this pig of a teammate, Wei Rong. "Mother, it's true that Jin'er is unwell. Before the Prince left, he specifically instructed me to take good care of him. If you make him kneel in the ancestral hall all night like this, what if something happens?"

Wei Shiwan's citing of Li Shiyun wasn't groundless, Li Shiyun had indeed given those instructions. After all, Li Jin's status was different now. If something happened to him not long after his enfeoffment as heir, it was guaranteed to make Ying Zhengjing suspect Li Shiyun had ulterior motives, while also offending Gu Rushuang.

Wei Rong was initially startled by Wei Shiwan's words, but then it occurred to her that she was the highest-ranking elder in the mansion. Why shouldn't she be able to discipline a junior like Li Jin who showed her no respect? She immediately stubbornly said, "It's just one night, what could happen? Besides, he's the one who said he would go kneel. I didn't force him."

Li Ruoyan detested Li Jin and supported Wei Rong. "Mother, you worry too much. I think Grandmother's decision is excellent. Someone like that needs to be taught a proper lesson, otherwise he'll think he can walk all over us."

"Yan'er understands me best."

Wei Rong found Li Ruoyan's words much more agreeable and was very pleased, immediately casting the potential consequences to the wind.

"..."

Wei Shiwan was utterly speechless.

Damn it. Things have reached this point. I must find a way to fix this and extract myself from the situation.

Wei Shiwan didn't continue to dissuade them, but she was already thinking of countermeasures in secret, afraid the consequences she feared would truly come to pass.