Chapter 122: The Enemy of My Enemy

  Thank you for the pink tickets from ling2277 and the reward of a peaceful amulet from 热恋^^.

  The majestic and beautiful crimson queen's dress, with intricate golden embroidery of intertwined lotus flowers, was worn by Gu Qingyao as she walked towards Qingyun with a clear smile. Her dignified and elegant demeanor, bright eyes, and red attire made her look stunningly beautiful, though less ethereal than when she wore white. The beauty in her now had an added touch of delicate charm. Qingyun was taken aback for a moment before smiling brightly at Gu Qingyao as she approached him, saying: "Ning Wangfei!"

  Upon hearing Qing Jin's address, Qing Yao thought of something and smiled gently and elegantly at her, saying: "Second sister can just call me Yao'er like before, is second sister also here to pay respects to the king with Jing Wang?" As soon as she finished speaking, Qing Yao looked towards Long Han, coincidentally meeting his gaze.

  As soon as Long Han Yuan looked over at her, Qing Yao's heart skipped a beat for some reason. She tried to suppress the excitement that threatened to spill out and smiled beautifully and elegantly back at him, slightly bowing her head to say: "Qing Yao greets Third Brother."

  Long Han looked at Gu Qingyao, who was smiling and bowing to him, his eyes slightly dazed. However, when he inadvertently caught the sarcastic curve of Qingjin's mouth, he came back to himself and said indifferently to Qingyao, "Sixth brother and sister don't need to be so polite."

  When Qing Yao heard that Long Han Yuan had no ups and downs, she stood up, looking at him with some confusion, but found that Long Han Yuan was already not paying attention to her. A faint sense of loss flashed across Qing Yao's eyes, then she thought that this was a public place, and she was already the Ning Wangfei, so she withdrew her gaze and walked to Qing Jin's side, saying: "Second sister, why are you wearing such plain clothes? Today is your first time entering the palace for an audience, shouldn't you wear something more festive?"

  Qing Jin had been secretly paying attention to the expressions and movements of Long Han Yuan and Gu Qing Yao since she saw them, and Long Han Yuan caught a glimpse of Gu Qing Yao's fleeting dazed expression. Although it was brief, Qing Jin noticed it.

  Seeing Long Han's distant and distracted appearance, Qing Jin sneered inwardly with a "I knew it" expression, her mouth curving into an ironic arc. If he had feelings for Gu Qingyao, why didn't he marry her into the Jing Wang Fu instead of pulling her into their complicated situation? How could she not know that Long Han was such a noble person? It's laughable to let the woman you like become someone else's official wife and then marry an unliked woman as your concubine. Just thinking about this, unexpectedly, when turning back, Qingyao caught a glimpse of Gu Qingyao's fleeting look of loss in her eyes, Qing Jin was struck by lightning, so Gu Qingyao also had intentions towards Long Han? Truly laughable to the extreme!

  She was thinking about these things, but unexpectedly Gu Qingyao suddenly spoke to her and said this. When she heard Gu Qingyao's words, Qingjin subconsciously looked towards Long Han Yuan, but saw that Long Han Yuan did not look over at them. Instead, he was talking with Ning Wang Long Shuyuan who had come from the other side.

  She carefully pondered the words spoken by Gu Qingyao, looking at her. She was now only Long Han's secondary wife and not a principal wife like Gu Qingyao. Did Gu Qingyao not know that? Was she saying that she wore simple clothes to remind her that she wasn't a principal wife or to show off her own status as a principal wife? Qingjin scrutinized Gu Qingyao.

  Qing Yao, on this side, after asking Qing Jin's question in a distracted manner, didn't hear Qing Jin's response for half a day. She raised her head to look at Qing Jin and saw that Qing Jin was staring at her.

  It was as if she was still in the Anji Marquis's estate, Gu Qingjin was the high and mighty Di daughter of the Anji Marquis's estate. Qingyao felt a bit uncomfortable in her heart. After marrying Long Shuyuan as his official wife, on the second day, the steward of the Ning Wangfu brought many stewards from the Ning Wangfu to pay their respects to her, handing over the major powers of the estate into her hands, and reporting a series of matters to her. At that time, she deeply understood the difference between her current identity and her previous one.

  At that moment, she felt a little vain and satisfied. She thought of the days in Anji Houfu, and her second sister, Gu Qingjin. Although she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't deny that whenever she faced Gu Qingjin, she always felt a bit inferior. She could never forget the first time she saw Gu Qingjin at Anji Houfu when she returned to Beijing with her father and mother - Gu Qingjin was dazzling and majestic, radiant and proud.

  In the school, the teacher's praise and admiration for Er Jie, the servants in the mansion inadvertently mentioned that Er Jie was actually the legitimate daughter of Anji Hou. For so many days and nights, she seized every opportunity to study, practice calligraphy, and read books, but still couldn't catch up with Qing Jin, feeling frustrated. As a legitimate daughter, just because Er Jie was the daughter of Da Bo, who was Anji Hou, everyone's eyes made her feel inferior to Qing Jin by default.

  Memories stopped here, but now it's already different, isn't it? Now she is the legitimate queen of Ning Wang, while her second sister Qing Jin, who once made her feel inferior, is just a concubine. Thinking of this, Qing Jin lowered her eyes, moved her hands up to smooth out the wrinkles on her crimson red queen's dress, and smiled warmly at Qing Jin: "Second sister, why are you looking at me like that? Is there something wrong with my appearance?"

  Qing Jin heard Qing Yao's words and her eyes sparkled as she smiled back: "No, the Ning Wangfei is dressed very appropriately, there's nothing improper about it."

  Upon hearing Qing Jin's words, Qing Yao gave a charming smile and said in a sisterly tone: "As long as there's nothing wrong with it, that's all that matters. Just now, Second Sister was looking at me like that, making me think I had something wrong with me. And besides, I just said so, from now on, Second Sister can just call me Yao'er, why be so distant? Also, Second Sister and Third Brother are newlyweds too, this set of green clothes looks good but is a bit too plain." After finishing her last sentence, Qing Yao looked at Qing Jin with some disapproval.

  "It's nothing much, I didn't think so, Fourth Sister probably forgot, I'm a side consort, unlike Fourth Sister who is married to the Ning King as the main consort, and can wear the queen's ceremonial attire to enter the palace for an audience." Qing Jin said faintly to Qing Yao.

  Qing Yao's eyes had a sense of superiority and a hint of surprise as she listened to Qing Jin bluntly reveal their current identities, just about to say something.

  "The master's clothes are not plain at all." Hearing the fourth daughter opposite him always targeting this issue and talking to her own master, Yuanyang couldn't help but stand up and interrupt.

  Upon hearing Yuanyang's words, Qingyao came back to her senses and thought of what she had just said and the expression on her face. She hastily retracted the joy in her eyes and replaced it with a somewhat wronged and hurt expression as she looked at Qingjin, saying: "Second sister, I...I...didn't do it on purpose, I simply haven't seen second sister for such a long time, I just wanted to get close to second sister and didn't have any other meaning..." As she spoke, her beautiful eyes looked up at Qingjin with some helplessness.

  Seeing Qing Yao's expression, a sarcastic look flashed across Qing Jin's eyes, and then she looked up at Qing Yao's gaze, understanding and saying: "Of course I understand what my fourth sister means..."

  For some reason, when Qing Jin spoke in such a serious tone, Qing Yao felt a little guilty and shifted her gaze away from Qing Jin's, nodding at her with a grateful expression.

  At this time, Murong's family on the carriage finally lifted the curtain of the carriage and walked down from the carriage.

  Seeing Qing Yao and Yun Danfeng standing aside, Qing Jin walked over and asked curiously: "What are Concubine Gu and Princess Ning talking about? Why did Princess Ning cry?" The implication is that Concubine Gu, as a sister to Princess Ning, how could you make her cry upon meeting. A deeper meaning is that when Qing Jin was the di daughter of Duke An's household, did she often bully the di daughter of Third Uncle, otherwise why would Princess Ning come to greet her and now look so obviously wronged?

  "Third sister, don't misunderstand, second sister didn't say anything to me, it's just that I haven't seen her for a long time and got excited, so I was a bit out of control, there's nothing between us." Qing Jin saw Mu Rong walking over and immediately explained to her while carefully glancing in Qing Jin's direction.

  When Murong heard Qing Yao's words defending Qing Jin, her gaze quietly shifted between the two of them. Although she couldn't see clearly what kind of relationship Ning Wangfei and Gu Qingjin had for the time being, whether it was true or fake, Gu Qingjin, who was slightly higher in status than her, married into the Jing King's mansion as a side consort, whereas her own younger female cousin from her third uncle's family, who was lower in status than her, became the main wife of the Sixth Prince. Murong didn't believe that Gu Qingjin wouldn't have any discomfort in her heart towards this younger sister-in-law who had married up higher than her without any resentment at all.

  She had just overheard the conversation between the two sisters in the carriage, and it was clear that they were not very close either. Mu Rong's mind suddenly made up its mind, and she smiled warmly at Gu Qingyao: "Is that so? I didn't expect Sixth Brother's wife to be a sentimental person like this. I thought Sixth Brother's wife was being bullied by Concubine Gu!" The last sentence was said with some jest by Mu Rong.

  "How can Third Sister say such a thing? Third Sister, you don't know that in the past when I was in the boudoir, the person I liked and respected the most was Second Sister. After getting married, it's been a long time since I've seen Second Sister, and I didn't expect to run into her at the palace gate today, so I got a bit emotional and made Third Sister laugh." Qing Yao walked up close, grabbed Mu Rong Shi's arm and said to her, but from start to finish, she never denied Mu Rong Shi's teasing words about Qing Jin bullying her.

  Murong walked up to Qingyao with a close smile, took her arm and listened to her words. After hearing what she said, he frowned slightly, but in the next moment, he cleverly discovered the key point of Qingyao's words. This time, she was 50% sure that Gu Qingyu and Gu Qingyao's relationship was not as close as she had imagined. After learning what she wanted to know, a hint of excitement flashed in Murong's eyes. The enemy of an enemy is a friend. Since she knew that Gu Qingyao didn't like Gu Qingyu very much either, and Gu Qingyao was Gu Qingyu's sister, she should be someone who understood Gu Qingyu relatively well.

  Thinking of this, she smiled warmly at Gu Qingyao and said: "I didn't expect the sisterly love between Sixth Brother's wife and Concubine Gu to be so deep. Unfortunately, there are no sisters of the same age in my family. I used to think it was nothing, but now seeing the deep sisterly love between Sixth Brother's wife and Concubine Gu, I couldn't help but feel envious!"