Sheng Huai’an’s gaze fell on the stubborn face of the woman.
The black ink smeared on Jiang Rongyin’s fair face. She lowered her head and said this, then fell silent.
“The Sixth Princess damaged her colleague’s book, and the Ninth Princess attacked her colleague at the Academy of Learning. So you are all punished by copying the Analects ten times as a small punishment to serve as a warning.”
Upon hearing Sheng Huai’an’s words, Jiang Xueping’s eyes widened immediately: “Sir! The one who made the mistake was clearly Jiang Rongyin…”
“A wild goose leaves a trace as it flies by, and the wind leaves a sound as it passes by. Everything a person does leaves a trace.”
“If the Sixth Princess wants me to thoroughly investigate this matter, that’s not impossible.”
Sheng Huai’an’s lips curved slightly, but his gaze toward Jiang Xueping carried a hint of pressure.
Jiang Xueping’s eyes darted away for a moment, but she ultimately said nothing more.
And so the farce at Xuezhi Hall came to an end.
Sheng Huai’an assigned the homework and then let them leave.
When Jiang Rongyin came out of the Xuezhi Hall, she saw Jiang Xueping glare at her fiercely.
“Princess, what’s wrong with you?”
Bao Yin looked at Jiang Rongyin’s messy hair and how her light green dress was stained with ink.
Are they here to go to school or to fight?
“It’s alright, let’s go back to Guanghua Hall.”
Jiang Rongyin stretched out her fingers and wiped her face, her hand covered in ink.
However, she felt much better.
Jiang Xueping had been bullying her at the Xuezhi Hall for more than a day or two, and Jiang Rongyin usually endured it because she didn’t want to make a big deal out of it.
“I’m actually quite happy.”
Jiang Rongyin’s eyes curved slightly as she smiled at Bao Yin.
In the bright and clear spring, the young woman’s relaxed eyebrows and eyes seemed to hold delicate dappled light and shadow.
Bao Yin hadn’t seen Jiang Rongyin smile in a long time.
It seems that the princess has never felt so relaxed and carefree since His Highness the Crown Prince returned.
The two returned to Guanghua Palace, where Baoyin helped Jiang Rongyin bathe and then went out to fetch her a change of clothes.
Jiang Rongyin rested her head on the bathtub, closed her eyes comfortably, and called out, “Baoyin.”
The footsteps approached slowly, unlike Bao Yin’s lightness, but Jiang Rongyin didn’t think much of it.
Someone grabbed Jiang Rongyin’s arm, which was draped to the side.
“You hit me too hard, it hurts.”
Jiang Rongyin frowned, then opened her eyes in an instant, and Jiang Yun’s dark eyes were right in front of her.
He sat on the flower stand next to the bathtub.
The man was tall, and the flower stand, which was half a person’s height, completely blocked Jiang Rongyin’s view when Jiang Yun sat on it.
Seeing Jiang Rongyin open her eyes, he shrank back, trying to pull his arm away.
Jiang Yun smiled faintly, her fingers loosening and then tightening again, pulling the person in front of her.
He bent down, his gaze sweeping over Jiang Rongyin’s body underwater: “You got into a fight with Jiang Xueping at the Xuezhi Hall?”
Jiang Yun’s gaze shifted back to the scratches on her fair face.
Although Jiang Rongyin was a formidable fighter who dominated Jiang Xueping, she still managed to avoid getting hurt completely.
Her wet hair clung to Jiang Rongyin’s face, steam rising from it, and then dripping into the water with a soft thud.
“Is Your Highness going to punish me because of the Sixth Princess?”
Jiang Rongyin’s throat tightened. Just how many people had Jiang Yun planted? It hadn’t even been an hour since the incident at Xuezhi Hall, and he already knew about it.
“He should be punished.”
“To prevent Xiao Jiu from being arrogant and causing trouble all the time.”
Jiang Yun released her, his eyes turning cold.
The light and shadows that streamed into the room in spring seemed to turn gray and white in that instant; she was never the one to cause trouble.
Jiang Rongyin lowered her eyes: “She touched my things first.”
A book and an inkstone Jiang Rongyin could overlook these things.
But what Jiang Xueping wanted to see was her humiliation, her being ridiculed, and her dignity being trampled underfoot.
This is what Jiang Rongyin cannot tolerate.
“I knew your temper was getting worse.”
“She’s a princess, and what are you?”
Jiang Yun’s hand landed on Jiang Rongyin’s head, his fingers running through her dark hair.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Rongyin looked up to meet Jiang Yun’s gaze, but she did not reply.
A pair of wet eyes, stubborn and unwilling, yet unable to resist.
“I was able to stay because of Your Highness’s kindness…”
“You are my little Jiu, nothing more.”
Jiang Yun interrupted Jiang Rongyin, the word “counterfeit” being abruptly cut off in her throat.
Jiang Rongyin turned her head away; she was nothing.
She is neither Jiang Yun’s Xiao Jiu nor the Ninth Princess of Dayong.
She is herself; she is Jiang Rongyin.
“You don’t need to go to the Academy tomorrow.”
Jiang Yun said this in a calm voice. After he went to Jiangnan and came back, she had many different thoughts.
“Why? I… I mean, my studies aren’t finished yet…”
Jiang Rongyin turned her head, wondering what she had just said that had angered him again, that he had actually deprived her of the right to attend classes at the Xuezhi Hall.
“Not only do you not need to go tomorrow, you don’t need to go before the archery banquet either.”
Jiang Yun stood up, and Jiang Rongyin watched as he untied his waist belt, the jade stones clinking together and making a tinkling sound.
Then comes the cover-up, outerwear, innerwear…
“But I want to go to the Imperial Academy. If I can’t read, I won’t be able to serve Your Highness well.”
Hearing his authoritative tone, Jiang Rongyin became even more nervous. Going to the Xuezhi Hall was her only chance to contact the outside world.
Wanting to escape the palace and live in the outside world, Jiang Rongyin couldn’t be ignorant of everything.
Jiang Yun took off the nail guard on her wrist, turned around, and walked towards her.
“You served it with your hands?”
The implication is that literacy is irrelevant.
“Your archery and horsemanship haven’t improved this year, but you’ve improved a lot in other areas. Do you want to be used as a live target at the Yan Archery Banquet?”
As he spoke, Jiang Yun had already entered the bathtub, spilling water all over the floor, his gaze still filled with lust as always.
The bathtub was so small that Jiang Rongyin didn’t even have a place to back out, and was directly held in Jiang Yun’s arms.
“Your Highness, are you going to teach me riding and archery?”
Jiang Rongyin’s eyes widened slightly. Jiang Yun lowered his head and kissed her ear: “Qin Shiyan is here too. Didn’t Xiao Jiu have something to say to him?”
Before Jiang Rongyin could speak again, Jiang Yun told her to shut up.
It doesn’t matter. No matter what thoughts Jiang Rongyin has, he will nip them in the bud.
As night fell, when Jiang Rongyin opened her eyes, the dim candlelight flickered back and forth. She pulled the blanket up, and Bao Yin, who was guarding outside, opened his eyes, got up, and came in.
“Is the princess thirsty?”
On the bed, Jiang Rongyin’s back was covered in bruises again, as if old wounds had not healed and new ones had been added.
Hearing Bao Yin’s words, Jiang Rongyin nodded.
When Bao Yin brought the water over, Jiang Rongyin drank the water from her hand.
“What time is it?”
“It’s already the hour of Yin (3-5 AM). His Highness said before he left that the princess doesn’t need to go to the Academy today, and that you should rest well in Guanghua Palace.”
Bao Yin tucked the blanket around her, and her feelings were complicated as she recalled listening to Jiang Rongyin’s crying outside the palace.
Now His Highness seems to be increasingly reckless, even chasing us all the way to Guanghua Hall.
“Baoyin, could you go to the Xuezhi Hall and get me a book?”
“It’s the book that Miss Lin lent me before. I put it under my desk.”
That is the Annals of Pengxi County, Tingzhou.
Miss Lin brought it from Tingzhou.
Jiang Rongyin considered that if she was going to run away, she should run far away, but Tingzhou was thousands of miles away from the capital.
Miss Lin said that the area was uncivilized, the villagers were simple and easy to get along with, so even without her place of origin or travel permit, she could survive in Tingzhou.
As long as the register of place of origin is not used, Jiang Yun will never be able to find out where she is.