Chapter 285: [Emperor's Story 37] Falling into the water

"Ah, be careful!"

Chu Jiao immediately rushed forward and pushed the maid next to Yun Wan away, using her handkerchief to help Yun Wan dab the stains on her clothes and body

Her large and unrefined movements took everybody by surprise, patting and beating the stains away, her crude appearance instantly incited Yun Wan's dislike. However, Yun Wan could not allow herself to act discourteously to her in front of everyone's gazes, so she could only stand up and evade her, "Thank you princess, but I will only need to change my clothes."

The reason why she had lost composure a while ago was because when she examined Princess Huajiao from a closer range, she looked a bit too similar to the little eunuch that was by the Sixth Prince's side back then. This caused her to lose grip of the tea cup she was holding in her hand. At this moment, now that Yun Wan was extremely close to Chu Jiao, she felt that this girl was merely a bit similar in terms of appearance to the eunuch in her distant memories, but their manners were completely different.

That little eunuch was androgynouse in appearance and was subservient in nature, and the way this Chu Jiao handled matters was far too casual and the complete opposite of elegant, a big difference between the two existing.

Moreover... One was a eunuch, and the other was a girl. She must've been possessed by a ghost to think that these two were the same people.

A maid supported Yun An as she changed her clothes, and while fixing her lapels, she slowly fell in deep thought, feeling restlessness linger in her heart.

In the past, she used to think that with the Sixth Prince's hostile attitude towards everyone, nothing could ever happen between him and Chu Jiao. However, after finally seeing her appearance today, she felt a bit worried... After all, she knew how special the Sixth Prince had treated that particular eunuch.

However, Consort Rong had already taken care of that eunuch before. Lost in thought, Yun Wan sneered on the inside, anticipating that at best, Princess Huanjiao was just a replacement. However, anger also immediately bubbled up in her heart. It has already been a few years, but that Sixth Prince actually hadn't forgotten that stupid eunuch!

Once the Sixth Prince's group made its glorious return, she was going to straightforwardly ask him whether he was still going to take in such a helpful wife like her or not!

However, that Chu Jiao...

Was truly such an eyesore.

"Ah, young miss, your pouch is gone." Yun Wan's maid took off the waist pendant1 and waistband off of her wet clothes and suddenly realized that the expensively embroidered pouch her young miss usually carried with her was only left with hanging ties.

Yun Wan glanced at the item. That was a gift from her dear father when she celebrated her birthday last year. She heard it had been blessed by a great master, which was why it had never left her body.

"It must have been taken away by someone just now," Yun Wan frowned, becoming even more annoyed with Chu Jiao. "Look for it carefully later on. If you can't find it, you will be the one who's questioned!"

The maidservant acceded her command, panicking to an extreme on the inside. As of now, she could only pray that the pouch was still at the banquet hall. Otherwise, she was going to get flogged painfully again.

On the other hand, Chu Jiao gleefully placed the item she had just snatched into her lapels while inconspicuously throwing the untouched pouch back in the Fifth Princess's seat. At this moment, the maidservant was rushing over to her direction, speedily bending her waist and searching everywhere. The instant she spotted the pouch, her eyes nearly shone, sighing to herself in relief that she didn't need to bear the pain of getting flogged again. She then picked up the pouch and hurriedly ran back to the young miss.

In the banquet, after this small episode had passed, the rest of the event went by without a hitch. The villa had quite a big lake outside, and the group of ladies sat on a boat together, amusing themselves as they enjoyed the ride.

The girls put on deep sisterly smiles on their faces, but their deep implications could be heard underneath their words, which sounded strenuous and troublesome. Chu Jiao was sitting at the side of the boat, minding her own business as she ate and drank with a relaxed manner. Now that she had finally achieved her goal, she was too lazy to keep up a front.

The timing earlier was just right. She deliberately approached Yuan Wan and caused a big ruckus, while also secretly obtaining the object that she had set out for at the start. That pouch actually only had a safety talisman on the inside. The safety talisman wasn't anything special, but in between the two layers of the talisman was a paper that was completely sealed with oil and wax.

That piece of paper was a letter. But, it was no ordinary letter, the contents were about the war's direction against the barbarians, and the stamp of the Southern Barbarian State was on it as well as the stamp of Marquis Weiyuan himself. This letter was the conclusive evidence that proved that Marquis Weiyuan was secretly colluding with the enemy. Before leaving for the expedition, Marquis Weiyuan deliberately didn't tell anyone about the items being hidden in the study, so he transferred the letter to his daughter's pouch. He thought that no matter what, no one would be able to guess that something so important would be placed here.

Indeed, originally, no one would have been able to figure it out, but Chu Jiao wasn't a person from this place.

Chu Jiao lamented that the system 419 finally had some use, but in the next second, she suffered a painful slap to the face. With the sound of footsteps ringing in her ears and before she could even turn her head, she was suddenly pushed by someone out of the boat and fell into the water.

"Ah, someone fell into the water!"

"Quickly, call for help! Save her!"

The clothes she wore absorbed water, turning them wet and heavy. Right before she sank into the water, Chu Jiao saw Yun Wan by the side looking calmly at her amidst this unforeseen event. Several servants were pulling their sleeves up, preparing to go into the water to save her.

She had been careless.

Chu Jiao originally thought that the female lead wouldn't do anything to someone like her, who wasn't a threat, much less try anything at the very banquet she was hosting, but she had forgotten that this face of hers revolted the female lead. Yun Wan didn't need to act herself. As long as those male servants rescued her, as long as her body had been touched by someone of the other gender, she would no longer pose any threat to her.

Chu Jiao smiled cockily at Yun Wan, causing her calm appearance to freeze in place. Yun Wan didn't expect that Chu Jiao would laugh at this moment.

Chu Jiao's upper body was fluttering on the water's surface, but her legs skillfully cut through the water. She felt kind of embarrassed to say that she knew how to swim, leading to the female lead's disappointment.

She quickly reached for the side of the boat but unexpectedly felt someone pulling her feet below the water. It looked like Yun Wan still had another sneaky little trick up her sleeve.

Chu Jiao glanced at the other girls on the boat, who were comfortably watching an entertaining show, and suddenly had a mischievous idea come to her mind.

Alright, since I'm already in the water, it was quite embarrassing for me to be seen by everyone, so why don't we all go down together?

She deliberately sank into the water and used the force from the person pulling at her feet, firmly latching onto the boat's body. Having learnt some internal strength from Imperial Tutor Jiang, the originally small ship quickly started to sway from side to side.

"Ah... What's going on!"

"Help, help!"

"Ah, I don't know how to swim!"

Soon, the sounds of splashes rang in her ears.

Only then did Chu Jiao shake away the person who was trying to drag her down, strategically taking off her heavy coat and swimming leisurely towards the shore. With so many girls falling into the water, the female lead couldn't possibly let her servants 'rescue' just her, right?

The banquet this time was truly entertaining.

This man-made lake was slightly big, and many coral reefs have been specially moved into the lake, transforming it into a somewhat real lake. Seeing that Chu Jiao was about to swim to the shore, a hand suddenly reached her waist and dragged her to the back of a coral reef.

[Completed]