"Your Majesty, please calm your anger." Concubine Zhao immediately panicked and knelt down from her seat. She glanced at Feng Jingyang and urgently said, "You wretch, go and check on Miss Zheng's leg injury quickly!"
A flicker of reluctance flashed in Feng Jingyang's eyes, but he quickly suppressed it. He also knelt down and mumbled, "It was my thoughtless words. Please forgive me, Father."
At this moment, Zheng Yan, at the center of the storm, seemed oblivious to the dispute. She just lowered her head and played with the jade pendant in her hand.
When her fingers touched the silk tassel, her eyes softened.
Seeing this, the Marquis of Gaochang simply turned his head away, no longer looking at Feng Jingyang's hypocrisy. He only looked at Zheng Yan with heartache.
Feng Linche snorted. This unfilial son had no idea what the Marquis of Gaochang represented.
Since the decline of the Dingyuan Marquis family, most of the military power in the Great Zhou now was concentrated in the hands of Bai Yizhang, Bai Yihuan, and the Marquis of Gaochang.
For someone like this, if his only daughter was in one's hands, it was like holding his lifeblood. One could turn him into the most useful weapon.
The most ideal state for an emperor, of course, was to firmly hold all the military power in his own hands.
However, the emperor couldn't go to the battlefield himself. He still needed generals to fight for him.
If there had to be someone to be this general, then someone like the Marquis of Gaochang, whose lifeblood was firmly grasped, was the most suitable candidate.
Therefore, arranging such a principal consort for Feng Jingyang, although it was the result of the efforts of Concubine Zhao and the Zhao family, was also tacitly approved by Feng Linche.
Moreover, all the ministers and their female relatives present today had witnessed Zheng Yan's act of getting injured in the foot while trying to obtain the jade pendant for Feng Jingyang.
If Feng Jingyang remained cold - hearted and Feng Linche blindly protected him, it would not only completely anger the Marquis of Gaochang but also chill the hearts of the people present.
Not to mention that the prince and princess of the Western Liang were also sitting at this banquet.
If this got out, he, the emperor of the Great Zhou, would lose all his face.
Thinking of this, Feng Linche coldly said, "Why are you kneeling in front of me? Is it me you should be most sorry to now!"
Feng Jingyang lowered his head. No one could see how ugly his expression was at this moment.
He was already on his knees, and now that Feng Linche didn't let him get up, he couldn't.
But now Feng Linche's meaning was clearly that he should apologize to Zheng Yan to suppress the resentment of the Marquis of Gaochang.
Wasn't this asking him, a noble prince, to kneel and apologize to a subject?
When had he, Feng Jingyang, ever suffered such humiliation!
Feng Jingyang took a deep breath. After a long while, he finally suppressed the anger in his heart and spoke again, "I was rude. Please forgive me, Miss Zheng."
Hearing this, the Princess of Pingyang looked at Feng Jingyang coldly. She was so angry that her voice trembled, "His Highness the Fourth Prince is of royal status, while Yan'er is a subject. Our Gaochang Marquis Mansion can't bear His Highness's apology."
As soon as these words were out, Feng Linche's face immediately darkened.
Asking his own son to apologize was already his greatest concession. How dare the Gaochang Marquis Mansion be so ungrateful?
Did they really think the Great Zhou couldn't do without them?
He sneered and said to Feng Jingyang, "Wretch, is this your sincerity in apologizing to Miss Zheng? Hurry up and kneel and apologize to Miss Zheng!"
The last four words were pronounced by Feng Linche one by one, like boulders weighing on the heart of the Marquis of Gaochang.
The faces of the Princess of Pingyang and the Marquis of Gaochang immediately turned pale.
Kneel and apologize?
Feng Linche wasn't really asking Feng Jingyang to apologize. He was clearly angry.
It was like being splashed with a basin of cold water. Half of the Marquis of Gaochang's anger immediately faded.
"It was Yan'er who was reckless and hurt her foot. It has nothing to do with His Highness the Fourth Prince. Your Highness, please get up quickly. Don't humble yourself like this."
Saying this, he quickly stepped forward and helped Feng Jingyang up.
Seeing that the storm was finally over, Concubine Zhao quickly said to the maid beside her, "What are you standing there for? Hurry up and carry Miss Zheng down."
"Your Highness the Fourth Prince." Zheng Yan, who had been named, finally looked up and suddenly called out.
"What else?" Feng Jingyang frowned slightly and impatiently asked.
"This jade pendant..." Zheng Yan stretched out her hand.
Hearing the words "jade pendant", Feng Jingyang's heart skipped a beat. Somehow, he walked in front of Zheng Yan and looked down at her lying on the ground, "What's wrong?"
"Your Highness the Fourth Prince, Brother Fourth." Seeing Feng Jingyang approaching, Zheng Yan looked up with a smile on her face. She stretched out her hand forcefully, "Here you are."
"What?" Feng Jingyang was slightly stunned.
"Brother Fourth, the jade pendant you wanted. Yan'er has obtained it for you." Zheng Yan said as she opened her palm like a treasure - giver, "Here you are."
Feng Jingyang's eyes stung slightly.
He saw that her once fair and delicate palm was now full of bloodstains scratched by her nails, and above those hideous bloodstains lay the jade pendant she had exchanged for one of her feet.
"You... You're giving it to me?" Feng Jingyang took the jade pendant. For a moment, he couldn't believe it. Then, thinking of something, a surge of anger welled up in his heart, "So you were deliberately making fun of me just now?"
So she had watched him being scolded by Feng Linche without saying a word and only gave him the jade pendant after he had knelt and apologized and made a fool of himself?
Seeing the anger in Feng Jingyang's eyes, Zheng Yan panicked and explained, "No, it's not. I just, I just hoped that when you saw it, you would think of me. So I wanted to leave a bit of my own aura on it before giving it to you..."
But how could Feng Jingyang listen? Just thinking about how Feng Linche had forced him, a noble prince, to kneel and apologize to a minister because of the Marquis of Gaochang and Zheng Yan made him feel unbearably humiliated.
The Princess of Pingyang couldn't bear to watch her daughter keep giving in anymore. She waved her hand and, together with the maids who rushed up, carried Zheng Yan down.
After such an incident, no one had the mood to continue participating in the rest of the banquet.
The atmosphere suddenly cooled down. Everyone lost their previous enthusiasm and just buried their heads in drinking tea and wine.
Bai Di suddenly turned her head and stared at the direction where Zheng Yan had left like a venomous snake.
Although because of what had just happened, no one had the heart to care about Bai Di's loss in the competition.
But after the banquet was over and everyone came to their senses, the fact that Bai Di had lost to the injured Zheng Yan at her own betrothal banquet would surely spread throughout Yongding.
From then on, she, Bai Di, would become the biggest laughingstock in Yongding City!
At this moment, Feng Linche had also completely lost his interest. After forcing himself to drink a few more sips of wine, he left the banquet.
Concubine Zhao had no choice but to announce that everyone could rest on their own. They could either stay in their seats or go to the imperial garden to enjoy the flowers in groups.
"Mother, Sister! Let's go and enjoy the flowers!" Bai Nianming excitedly walked up to Lady Lin and Bai Zheng and pulled Bai Zheng's hand.
Bai Zheng glanced at Feng Linyuan, who was calmly sitting in his seat sipping tea. She smiled and stroked Bai Nianming's head, "You go and have a look first. Sister still has something to do. I'll come later."
"Okay." Bai Nianming pouted but didn't say much. She nodded and left with Lady Lin.
Bai Zheng watched the backs of her family members leave with a smile. When she turned her head, she suddenly found that in just this short while, Feng Jingyang, who had been sitting opposite, was nowhere to be seen.
Oh no!
She had been completely distracted by Zheng Yan's broken foot and almost forgot that she was the most in danger today!