Chapter 242: Chapter 242: Not a Scoundrel... Your Husband

After a moment of hesitation, Li Yong said, "How about we let the madam go in and take a look?"

The Crown Princess Consort was inside, and with the situation unknown, it was inappropriate for a group of burly men like them to enter.

If they heard something they weren’t supposed to, given how much their master cared for the Crown Princess Consort, there was no telling how he would punish them.

All things considered, the only person who could go in to check on the situation was the Zheng Family matriarch, Cui Lingyao’s mother.

Liu Rong thought it over and ultimately opened the courtyard gate.

Worried for her daughter, the Zheng Family matriarch hurried into the courtyard, walking toward the main house completely unsuspecting.

Not a single lantern was lit. The courtyard, shrouded in twilight, was deserted.

The Zheng Family matriarch’s face was pale, terrified she would hear her daughter’s agonized screams.

But the courtyard was dim and silent.

It was only when she reached the front steps that she began to hear stirrings from within.

The canopy bed was rocking rhythmically.

A man’s hoarse, muffled grunts were barely audible, punctuated by a woman’s impatient scolding.

Cui Lingyao propped herself up on the soft bed with one hand, her waist and hips gripped firmly by the man behind her. She was on the verge of tears from frustration. "My arm is getting sore. Let me turn over."

"Alright..." Xie Jinbai coaxed her in a husky voice. "Just a moment longer... almost there..."

’Liar!’

’He’d been saying that all afternoon.’

’As if she didn’t know the seductive powder only lasted for four hours!’

’He must have overcome its effects long ago!’

Cui Lingyao couldn’t take it anymore and finally snapped, "You bastard!"

"Not a bastard,"

Xie Jinbai kissed her beautiful back, patiently correcting her. "It’s ’husband.’ Call me husband, and I’ll be quicker..."

"Be a good girl... call me husband..."

The high and mighty, audacious Crown Prince, even while afflicted with an aphrodisiac, was still patiently whispering sweet nothings to the young woman beneath him.

His voice was gentle, laced with indulgent affection.

’There was none of the brutal, mindless assault she had imagined. Instead... it was incredibly seductive.’

The Zheng Family matriarch stopped dead in her tracks, her hand flying to her mouth as she gasped.

Inside, Xie Jinbai’s movements faltered, his gaze instantly turning ice-cold.

With a flick of his wrist, he snatched Cui Lingyao’s hairpin from the pillow and sent it flying through the window.

A moment later, a woman’s cry of pain rang out.

Cui Lingyao knew that voice all too well.

Her eyes shot open. "That’s my mother!?"

The Zheng Family matriarch cried out in pain once more.

This time, Xie Jinbai recognized the voice as well.

Outside the courtyard, the Changping Marquis heard it too. His face fell, and he lunged for the gate, only to be blocked by Liu Rong. "Stop, my Lord Marquis! No one knows what’s happening inside. I dare not open this gate again without an order from the Crown Prince."

Inside the room, Cui Lingyao threw all caution to the wind and scrambled to run outside.

"Don’t rush!" Xie Jinbai grabbed her by the waist. "I’ll go out first. You get dressed before you come out."

Their lovemaking, already leaving him wanting, had been cut short. He was filled with a pent-up frustration he couldn’t vent. But the person he had likely just injured was his mother-in-law—and he’d done it with his own hands.

’I wonder how badly she’s hurt...’

Xie Jinbai’s heart clenched, and a vein throbbed on his forehead.

’What in the hell was Liu Rong doing?!’

’He can’t even guard a single gate, and now he’s gone and let someone in.’

With his mother-in-law outside, it wouldn’t do to be undressed. Xie Jinbai quickly threw on some clothes and strode out the door.

The courtyard was dark.

The Zheng Family matriarch lay on the steps, clutching her shoulder.

A hairpin had shot straight from the window. As a sheltered woman with no martial abilities, she had been completely defenseless and unable to dodge. It had pierced her squarely in the shoulder, the wound more than an inch deep.

Fortunately, she was still conscious.

Seeing her son-in-law emerge, the Zheng Family matriarch said urgently, "Yaoyao is with child! Your Highness, you mustn’t be reckless and harm the baby in her womb."

Xie Jinbai was speechless.

He had a good idea of what had happened. After glancing at his mother-in-law’s shoulder wound, his brow furrowed deeply, and he bellowed, "Liu Rong!"

The courtyard gate was thrown open, and the yard instantly devolved into chaos.

The Changping Marquis was the first one in. Seeing his wife injured, he rushed to scoop her up in his arms.

Li Yong led them to an adjacent room.

Cui Lingyao, having fumbled into her clothes in the dark, was just about to go check on the situation when she ran into Xie Jinbai returning at the doorway.

He wrapped an arm around her waist, stopping her from leaving.

He lit a candle.

The bright candlelight dispelled the room’s darkness.

The sounds from the adjacent room were just loud enough to be heard clearly.

It was her father, calling for a doctor.

Cui Lingyao was frantic with worry. "I’m going to go see."

"I already checked. It’s nothing serious, just an injury to her shoulder."

Xie Jinbai pulled her onto his lap. Seeing how her clothes, hastily donned in the dark, were disheveled, he reached out to straighten her collar. "It’s all men over there," he said. "It wouldn’t be appropriate for you to go out looking like this."

After their long afternoon together in bed, her cheeks were flushed, her hair was a mess, and even her eyelids were red and swollen.

Her bright, almond-shaped eyes glistened with unshed tears and lingering passion.

Anyone with eyes could see the recent passion she’d been involved in.

More to the point, she had been so thoroughly ravished that her legs were still trembling.

Xie Jinbai was not about to let his beloved be seen by other men in such a state.

But that was her own mother. How could she not worry?

Seeing that the arm around her waist wouldn’t budge, she grabbed at his neck in a fit of anger. "You dare harm my mother! I’ll kill you!"

Xie Jinbai said, "...I didn’t know it was your mother."

’He’d thought some impossibly audacious fool was spying on them from outside.’

He hadn’t held back with that throw; it had been meant to kill.

’Thankfully, it only hit her shoulder.’

’Otherwise...’

A wave of fear washed over Xie Jinbai, and he hugged her tighter. "You have to be reasonable. You can’t blame me for this."

He whispered, "It was Liu Rong who let her in without authorization. I’ll let you decide how he should be punished."

Cui Lingyao’s lip twitched.

’She wasn’t stupid. She guessed that Chen Minrou must have been the one who told her parents she was pregnant, and they had come to check on her out of concern.’

’As for Liu Rong...’

’You could only say he’d been put in a difficult position.’

Just then, amidst the clamor, there was a knock on the door.

Li Yong’s voice came from outside. "Your Highness, Doctor Chen has arrived."

’The Imperial Physician is here.’

Cui Lingyao said quickly, "Go help my mother first."

"Your mother has the household doctor looking after her. Doctor Chen is a master of gynecology; he’s here for you."

When it came to her health, Xie Jinbai would not yield an inch. Seeing that she was about to argue, he lowered his head and silenced her with a firm kiss. "Your mother would want the same thing," he said. "If you won’t listen to me, will you at least listen to her?"

Cui Lingyao was speechless.

’How could anyone be so tyrannical?’

Xie Jinbai smiled at her, then carried her into the inner chamber. He lowered the bed curtains, tucked her under the covers, and only then called for the Imperial Physician to enter.

The scent of their lovemaking still lingered in the air.

When Li Yong led the men in, he didn’t dare venture into the inner chamber.

Only Doctor Chen and two junior physicians bypassed the screen and entered the inner chamber.

All of them kept their heads bowed and their eyes downcast, not daring to so much as glance around.

Cui Lingyao extended her wrist.

Another round of pulse diagnosis began.

On his way over, Doctor Chen had already heard the full story—that the Crown Prince had been drugged and had dragged his newly pregnant wife into their chambers.

He had arrived holding his breath, fully prepared to face a tempest of bad news.

But the moment he felt her pulse...

...the tension visibly drained from his face.

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