Ning Chen saw how bitterly the Ninth Princess was crying, and it hurt him to watch. He wanted to go over and comfort her.

Heye spread both arms and blocked Ning Chen from coming near.

Ning Chen looked at the Ninth Princess, and a thought rose in him all at once. What would happen if he carried the Ninth Princess off?

Would the Xuan Emperor give the order to have his head cut off?

But he was going to leave the Great Xuan in the end, and once he went, who knew what year he would come back in? By then the Ninth Princess would surely be married, with children old enough to be sent out for the soy sauce. (TL Note: a modern Chinese way of saying a child is old enough to run errands, and therefore that a good many years have gone by.)

The thought of it left Ning Chen unsettled. There was something in it of having his wife taken away from him.

"Actually..." Ning Chen let out a deep sigh and covered his face with one hand. "The Wu Kingdom's woman emperor drugged me and took me by force."

The Ninth Princess, in the middle of crying, went completely still.

Heye stared at Ning Chen, dumbfounded.

Beside them, Jiang Daniu and Tian Jiang stood there like fools.

There was nothing but helplessness in Ning Chen's face. "The Wu Kingdom's woman emperor drugged me and stole a seed off me... By the time I knew about it she was already carrying the child."

The Ninth Princess stared at Ning Chen blankly. "You, you... this... is this true?"

Ning Chen nodded. "Do you think I would make up anything as far-fetched as that to deceive you?"

The Ninth Princess shook her head. "No. You're so clever. How could you be taken in?"

Ning Chen gave a bitter smile. "Princess, even a tiger dozes off sometimes, and a thousand precautions still leave one slip... Only experts and keyboard warriors go a whole lifetime without making a mistake. I can't reach their level — barren and childless and with…