I just want to be a princess, no, you want to be a queen

Chapter 246 Lies in Court

According to Dasheng law, women who betrayed their husbands and remarried were required to be tattooed. After this tattoo, they became the property of their first husband. If the first husband still wanted her, she would be his. If not, the current husband could offer a ransom. If the current husband refused, her parents' family would offer to redeem her. If her parents also refused, she would be forced to become a courtesan.

The evidence was conclusive, so the Imperial Censor put down the marriage certificate and asked Tian Qing what she thought.

Tian Qing looked at his beloved girl and said loudly, "I don't want anything. I just want to marry Xier."

His Majesty had hinted at a "yes" to this outcome, and the Imperial Censor slammed the gavel: "Since that is the case, I hereby declare that Daughter Lu is deposed from her position as Princess..."

With a loud bang, the tea tray shattered into pieces, drowning out the censor's voice. Chu Mingzheng angrily said, "Isn't the censor too careless in handling this case?"

The Imperial Censor rose and saluted, neither servile nor arrogant. "A prince who breaks the law is subject to the same punishment as a commoner. I will handle the case according to the law. Your Highness, please do not embarrass me."

That sounds nice. If it weren't for your majesty's instruction, Tian Qing and her son would have appeared here and would have been turned into a pile of rotten meat long ago.

Chu Mingzheng stood up and took Lu Mingyang's hand, holding her waist in his arms, "My princess is pregnant!"

The Imperial Censor was shocked, but quickly composed himself. He bowed and said, "Your Highness, please wait a moment. I will ask you to examine the Princess's pulse."

"How dare you!" Chu Mingzheng shouted angrily, "How dare anyone take the princess's pulse? If you want a diagnosis, go and ask His Majesty for permission. I'm waiting."

After saying that, he pulled Lu Mingyang and turned to leave.

No one from the Censorate dared to step forward to stop it.

Lu Mingyang turned around and glanced at Tian Qing, meeting his gaze, his heart aching with confusion.

In the carriage, Chu Mingzheng hugged the girl beside him and said, "Yangyang, don't be afraid. I'll ask Leng Lingfeng to make you some medicine. The imperial physician won't be able to detect it."

Lu Mingyang looked at Chu Mingzheng dully and asked in a trembling voice, "Your Highness, if one day I betray you, what will you do to me?"

"Yangyang!" Chu Mingzheng was surprised: "Why do you ask that?"

"I don't know." Lu Mingyang held his head, a splitting headache coming on. "I just looked at Tian Qing's eyes and felt that I was bad, really bad."

Chu Mingzheng held the girl tightly in his arms, trying to calm her panic. Lu Mingyang gradually calmed down, opened the carriage curtain, and looked out at the vast world of living beings. But in just a few days, she became the laughing stock of the capital again.

"Your Highness, I want to stay at the Chengyang Marquis' Mansion for a day." She lowered the curtains and wanted to explain, but Chu Mingzheng nodded. This unusual behavior made Lu Mingyang panic.

"Your Highness, you can't go look for Tian Qing. You absolutely can't go look for Tian Qing. His Majesty is waiting for you to go. You must not be stupid."

As long as Chu Mingzheng goes there, he will become a murderer. This is the result that the emperor wants to see most.

Chu Mingzheng said: "I won't go, and you can't go either. You are my woman, and I won't allow you to beg other men."

"I'm not going!" Lu Mingyang nodded guiltily.

Chu Mingzheng raised his guilty face and looked into her eyes, his tears hiding his guilt.

Lu Mingyang opened his hand and tried to laugh at himself calmly, "He has someone behind the scenes advising him, how could he be easily shaken? Who am I? You overestimate my position in his heart. There are no fools like you in this world."

Amid the compliments, Chu Mingzheng gradually lost himself and gently kissed the woman's tear marks.

The carriage turned and stopped at the Chengyang Marquis's Mansion. Lu Mingyang watched the carriage drive away. Even though Chu Mingzheng had sent him back to the Chengyang Marquis' Mansion so smoothly, he still felt uneasy. He took out the dagger named Lu Mo that Chu Mingzheng had given him. This was the first time he used the power he had given him.

After receiving the order, Zhu Cong led the secret guards to take control of the inn where Tian Qing was staying.

However, Chu Mingzheng didn't go looking for Tian Qing. He went to Shoukang Palace instead. The Queen Mother was still furious and refused to let Chu Mingzheng in. Chu Mingzheng knelt on the cold stone steps for two hours.

Xu Pei lowered the window and walked towards the Queen Mother, who was sitting on the couch without touching her food. She reminded her distressedly, "Queen Mother, it's cold in winter. If the young prince kneels down again, his legs will be crippled."

"He's disabled, so what does it have to do with me? Did I make him kneel?" She didn't expect that her grandson, who had always been well-behaved and sensible in front of her, would actually contradict and threaten her for a woman.

The Queen Mother knocked the teacup to the ground and shouted angrily, "Get him out!"

The sound reached the door, and two strong eunuchs came to ask Chu Mingzheng to leave. Chu Mingzheng shook them off and kowtowed heavily, "My grandson is unfilial and deserves death. I only ask that the Empress Dowager see me once."

No matter how hard the bones are, they can't stand up to stone. Chu Mingzheng knocked them down again and again, blood flowing everywhere.

"Empress Dowager, Empress Dowager..." Xu Pei was terrified.

The Queen Mother finally let Chu Mingzheng in.

Chu Mingzheng walked to the Queen Mother and knelt down and kowtowed again, "Grandson has come to apologize to the Empress Dowager."

The Queen Mother looked at the bloody swelling on his forehead and said angrily, "I dare not. It is my old bones that dare to interfere in Prince Ningyuan's affairs without knowing my own limitations. I should apologize to His Highness."

Chu Mingzheng said: "Grandma Huang, my grandson is scared."

"What are you so afraid of?" The Queen Mother spoke with increasing grievance. "I worry about you every day, worrying about you freezing, starving, or being wronged. You're such a jerk! You're threatening me for a woman. I'm truly blind."

Chu Mingzheng crawled forward on his knees and laid on the Empress Dowager's lap. He said in a daze, "In this world, besides the Imperial Grandmother, who else would care about my grandson's life or death? My grandson's life can only threaten the Imperial Grandmother."

"You still know!" All the grievances were relieved by this sentence. The empress dowager hugged the son of her most beloved son and burst into tears.

The crying gradually stopped, and the Queen Mother personally applied medicine on Chu Mingzheng's forehead and put two hot water bottles on his knees.

Chu Mingzheng spoke nervously, "Grandson has something to ask of the Empress Dowager."

"Why did I say you had time to come to my place?" The Queen Mother threw the medicine in her hand away and said angrily, "If it's for that shameless and lowly woman, get out of here right now."

Chu Mingzheng knelt down again. "Grandson dare not lie to the Empress Dowager. I do like her a little. If it were just because of that little affection, I wouldn't dare to bother the Empress Dowager. The truth is, she is pregnant with my child."

The Queen Mother had also heard a little about this matter. Although she was reluctant, she still advised: "Because of her, you have brought so much misfortune upon yourself, and because of her, you have suffered so much gossip. Although having a child is rare, having a mother like this will make you unable to hold your head up high in the future. Zheng'er, you are still young and you will have children in the future."

Chu Mingzheng was shocked. He had never imagined that the always kind and compassionate Empress Dowager could be so cruel as to murder an unborn child. He calmed himself down and cried, "Grandmother, there won't be any more. My grandson's body is such that he can conceive. It's a gift from heaven."

"What did you say?" The Queen Mother was incredulous. "Aren't you cured?"

"Although the illness has healed, some damage is irreversible." Chu Mingzheng continued to make up stories: "Some time ago, the story about my grandson not liking the princess and asking her to take birth control pills was all staged by my grandson. He was just afraid that others would find out and laugh at me.

Otherwise, she is just a woman. How could I let my grandson make my grandmother sad for her? I am too ashamed to speak up. This child is probably my only child. I beg my grandmother to help me.

"No wonder, no wonder." Because Leng Lingfeng had told the Queen Mother about this matter before, and because such private matters were a great shame for a man, the Queen Mother did not suspect that her usually well-behaved grandson had deceived her, and she wept bitterly.

"Grandmother!" Chu Mingzheng called out and reminded her softly.

Wrinkled hands embraced her kneeling grandson, and the Queen Mother sighed, "Grandmother has kept this child for you, but a woman like this can no longer be your principal wife. You should depose her and make Miao'er your consort."

"Grandma..."

"Why, you don't want to?" The Queen Mother looked directly at Chu Mingzheng.

"No!" Chu Mingzheng said, "It's just that my grandson is afraid that she will be upset and hurt the child."

"Then wait until the baby is born!" The Queen Mother made the biggest concession. Chu Mingzheng knew that saying anything more would only backfire, so he took his leave.

The moonlight accompanied Chu Mingzheng all the way to Chengyang Marquis Mansion, but when he got closer, he didn't dare to go in.

There are still ten months left, right?