An ugly girl starts off, then becomes a beauty

When it came to entering the palace, Madam Zhaoyu took the lead, followed closely by the newlywed couple Nie Ce and Sang Ling.

Although in the eyes of everyone, Sang Ling, the new bride, suffered the most injustice in the incident of running away from the marriage yesterday, since the two of them were married, they had to stick together and go to the palace to apologize, so they had to go together - although she was unwilling in her heart, she had no choice but to follow the rules.

"Auntie Fang said that mother is investigating the matter of your maid. I will also keep an eye on it." Nie Ce said suddenly while in the carriage.

The reason why he followed Sang Ling to the Marquis' Mansion early in the morning was precisely for this matter.

Admittedly, Sang Ling knew Nie Ce somewhat, and had always known that he was different from those children of aristocratic families. Although he was occasionally naughty, overall, compared to those noble aristocrats who always lectured and bossed people around, he was very humble.

She suddenly looked back, pondered for a long time, and just said "hmm" softly.

The two of them got off the carriage in front of Guanghua Gate. Several palace servants had been waiting there for a long time, leading Marquis Mu Wu and his wife into the palace. Sang Ling was dressed in a low-key manner today. As he passed the front yard of the archway, he could hear some quiet gasps around him.

She had to look back blankly, and the palace servants who had stopped behind her ran away.

Both Sang and Jiang had good genes, and the genes passed on to the eldest daughter of the Sang family were also good. Not only was she outstanding in appearance, but she was also the tallest among women. Even if she didn't want to dress up, she was indeed superior to ordinary people when she put on silk and satin clothes. In addition, Nie Jialang beside her was also eye-catching. He was as tall as Gao Heng, and he had been training in the camp for many years. He had broad shoulders and narrow waist, sword-like eyebrows and bright eyes. When he was not sloppy, he was really majestic.

Ever since the two of them got off the carriage, many eyes were fixed on them.

The further you go inside, the more people stop by.

Sang Ling quickly looked back, trying to get rid of all the attention, and when she raised her head, she saw Nie Ce also looking back at her.

The young man's gaze paused for a while, and he probably knew something, so he held her hand and continued walking forward.

Fortunately, he only grabbed her wrist, and did not touch her fingers in an ambiguous manner. Her heart was moved, but she calmed down in a moment and did not struggle much.

However, I am afraid that the emperor will not be seen today - I heard that he is talking to several ministers.

But even so, the rules had to be followed. Nie Ce still took her to kowtow in front of the Tianmen Palace, and then hurried all the way to Shouchang Palace.

Sang Ling remained silent throughout the whole process. The distance from Tianmen Palace to the old lady's palace was not short. Unless they were the emperor, empress dowager, and grand empress dowager, the rest of the people were not qualified to ride in the palace, so they had to walk.

At this moment, it was almost the corner. The sun shone on the corridor from the southeast, leaving a layer of golden afterglow. There were many palace slaves walking on the road. When they saw Nie Ce, they all stopped to salute, with their knees touching the stone bricks. After bowing their heads, they bent their bodies and passed by quickly.

All the people were present in the main hall of Shouchang Palace. Two young palace maids were massaging the legs of the Grand Empress Dowager at her feet. A crimson curtain hung down from the inner pillars along the sunlight in the room. There were two Boshan incense burners underneath. The Empress Dowager and Empress Wu were sitting next to each, and Madam Zhaoyu was next to the Empress.

Sang Ling and Nie Ce entered through the side door and were helped by servants at the door to change their cloaks and shoes.

Before anyone entered, they could hear laughter and joy inside, and the atmosphere didn't seem too solemn. When the couple entered the hall, the laughter gradually died down.

Naturally, the two of them had to pay their respects to their elders in turn. Sang Ling took a deep breath and watched how Nie Ce knelt, and he knelt in the same way.

"You are so cheeky. After such a big thing happened, you just left without saying a word, leaving a room full of people waiting for you." The Empress Dowager spoke first.

Although he said this, there was no trace of blame in his tone.

Except for the Nie family, everyone else thought that Nie Ce did not run away from his marriage last night, but was really ill and went to Putian to seek treatment from Gao Jialang. This excuse was very appropriate. Nie Ce had been training soldiers for many years and had fought in the battlefield in the northwest. It was common for martial artists to suffer from sudden injuries.

Therefore, none of the nobles in the room had any doubts, and they asked him to come to the palace to apologize, but their words were inevitably full of love.

After questioning, he would ask a few more questions: "Is he feeling better?", "Have you prescribed any medicine?", "What did Gao Jialang say? Will it affect him in the future?"

Nie Ce then replied one by one with shame.

"It's all right now."

"I brought back some medicine."

"It's said that you can just rest for a while, it won't affect your future."

After that, Madam Zhaoyu continued the greetings, smiling at the three ladies, "It was really sudden, who knew the wound would burst open? This wound was from when I saved the governor of Zhangye that year, and the same happened to this child. He left by himself yesterday, thinking he could come back before the auspicious time, and didn't tell us because he was afraid we would worry. Who would have thought that he would miss the time and rush back from Pufeng overnight to apologize."

Madam Zhaoyu was really eloquent, telling lies without blushing or beating her heart. She mentioned the matter of "saving the governor of Zhangye" in her words seemingly inadvertently. In this way, no one would blame Nie Ce.

After all, this was the most important turning point in Nie Ce's career so far. For a young hero who had actually fought against the Turks and defeated them, who in the entire empire, except the emperor, would dare to really embarrass him? Even Nie Taigong only gave him a minor punishment and a major warning.

As for punishment, what can really be done to Nie Ce?

After Yu Zhong declined the invitation to dinner in the palace, Nie Ce and Sang Ling left the palace at early noon, while Madam Zhao Yu stayed in Guangming Palace to continue talking to her sister, the Queen.

On the return carriage ride, the newlyweds didn't say much to each other.

Nie Ce didn't know what he was thinking about yet. Sang Ling also had her own considerations - among the people in the Marquis' Mansion, she only knew Grandpa Nie, Madam Zhaoyu and Nie Ce. She was unfamiliar with the others. The little information she could get was what she heard from the old woman of the Nie family in the house last night: Nie Ce's uncles and their families also lived in the mansion, including his second uncle Nie Zhongxu, his third uncle Nie Shudi, and his fourth uncle Nie Chengyong.

The incident happened in the inner courtyard yesterday. The guests who came to the banquet were all gathered in the front hall. The guards in the marquis's mansion were tight, and it was impossible for them to let anyone into the bride's backyard.

Then the murderer can only be someone in this marquis's mansion.

Or maybe something happened between the servants, or there was a fight between the servants - but the time was too short, if Ya Nu really had an argument with someone, she would have heard it right next to the wedding room. Besides, Ya Nu always kept a low profile, but she had just entered the mansion, so who could she have offended?

Either it was something done by one of the masters here, and he wanted to give his new wife a warning; or it involved some secret affairs in the mansion?

She couldn't help but close her eyes. The sunlight shone through the curtains of the car, and in front of her eyes was flowing blood red. She twitched suddenly, and recalled the cold corpse beside the well last night, and her whole body was cold.

Now that she had truly experienced life and death, she knew the horror of a noble family. Even the Taiwei Mansion was not even one ten-thousandth of what was happening here. Even if Ma Shi’s methods were vicious, they were just like boiling a frog in warm water. Compared to the Mu Wu Marquis Mansion, it was simply dwarfed. At least the stepmother still left her some room to struggle, but this mansion was completely different. However, on the first night she arrived, the only maidservant beside her died in front of her...

"I still have to go to the camp," Nie Ce looked at her, "Today is special, I'll wait for mother to come back and then visit her tomorrow morning and evening."

At this point, even Nie Ce had no choice but to acquiesce to this marriage.

Gao Heng disagreed, and Sang Ling refused to leave, as if he was trying to match them up. He couldn't just run away with the person on his back.

Although he still felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, he had no choice but to go along with it. No matter how close he was to Gao Aman, he was not an idle man. He was busy with this matter all day long - he would go to Jiaozhou to take over the military power next month. If he hadn't finished the work at hand by then, the emperor would have to question him.

He has done his best for this marriage.