After seeing Zhou Siming leave, Tong Yingying set her eyes on Lu Chen.
Although Zhou Siming was unfaithful to her, Tong Yingying was not sad at all. She didn’t think Zhou Siming was good enough for her anyway.
“Your Royal Highness…”
Lu Chen said coldly, “Oh, yes, Miss Tong, Brother Siming lent you 30,000 taels of silver. Please return the money as soon as possible!”
“Come, send Miss Tong back to the Tong Mansion, and by the way, ask Tong Lei to repay the debt for her daughter as soon as possible.”
When Tong Yingying heard this, she almost fainted. 30,000 taels! How could the Tong family get so much money?
Tong Yingying still wanted to say something, but Lu Chen’s bodyguard gagged her mouth and forcibly took her away from the Qiao Mansion.
It was very lively in the Qiao Mansion. When everyone in the garden heard the Crown Prince had arrived, they all sorted out their clothes. When Qiao Jinniang and Lu Chen came in, they saw the beautiful scenery in the garden.
Princess Fulu walked up to Qiao Jinniang and said, “Can you leave the imperial palace? I thought you couldn’t!”
Qiao Jinniang said, “Her Majesty let me come out of the imperial palace to spend more time with my family.”
“What happened outside just now? What was Tong Yingying trying to do again?” Fulu asked Qiao Jinniang.
Qiao Jinniang whispered to Fulu about what happened just now. It happened at the gate and many people passed by, so it would probably spread throughout Chang’an in several days.
Fulu was stunned. “Tong Yingying said she was much more excellent than Qin Miaomiao?! Oh my god, I finally met a woman who is even more confident than me, tsk!”
Princess Fulu felt that she was already confident enough, but she didn’t expect someone to beat her in this aspect.
“Then Qin Miaomiao and Lin Mo’s engagement will probably be annulled.”
Lin Mo certainly wouldn’t marry the woman his best friend loved.
Qiao Ruoyun also heard about the matter from her maid. She was soft-tempered and didn’t know what to do, so she just looked at Qin Shu.
Qin Shu said to Qiao Ruoyun, “Don’t worry, the Zhou family and the Lin family are both reasonable people. Miaomiao’s thoughts are the most important.”
Qiao Ruoyun breathed a sigh of relief. “If it weren’t for Miss Tong’s intervention, perhaps Sister-in-law would have been married long ago.”
…
In the Queen’s palace.
Duke Wu and Mrs. Zhou entered the palace together.
Queen Zhou asked how Old Madam Zhou was going and was relieved when she heard that her mother was doing well. “Brother, you haven’t come to me for a long time. Why did you come today?”
Duke Wu said, “There is indeed one thing. Sister, I want to let Sisi marry the Crown Prince!”
Queen Zhou felt that her cheeks were slightly hot. She had just told Jinniang a few days ago that the Zhou family would not allow any daughter to marry into the imperial palace.
“Brother! I will not agree.”
Madam Zhou hurriedly said, “Your Majesty, are you saying no because she’s not healthy? Although this child is retarded, she is simple and innocent. Besides, I don’t want her to suffer from the pain of giving birth to a child. As long as she has a place in the East Palace, it will be enough. It won’t affect the royal family’s offspring.”
Queen Zhou said, “It’s not because of this.”
Duke Wu said, “Is it because of Auntie’s last words? But Sister, because you want to marry His Majesty, our family surrendered our military power for the sake of you. I’m not saying this to push you.
“I just hope you can understand that Sisi today is just like you back then. She is in deep love with His Royal Highness. Although her intelligence stays at the age of seven, she is already around sixteen to seventeen years old…
“In order to sew a puppet tiger for His Royal Highness, her hands were all punctured by needles. I only have one daughter… I really can’t bear to see her so sad.”
Queen Zhou said, “Brother, Sisters-in-law, let me be honest with you, when Chen’er proposed to his Crown Princess, he made an oath that he would not take any concubines in this life.
Mrs. Zhou almost dropped the cup in her hand. “Your Majesty, how can you just let Her Royal Highness mess around like this?”
Queen Zhou said, “How can you call it ‘mess around’. Are you willing my brother to take a concubine?”
Of course Mrs. Zhou was unwilling. For so many years, Duke Wu didn’t even have a concubine maid.
Queen Zhou said, “The Crown Prince and the Crown Princess are not ‘messing around’. Sisi is still a child, and she just takes Chen’er as her brother. It would be harmful to her instead to let her marry into the East Palace.”
Mrs. Zhou frowned. It seemed that her daughter could only be disappointed.
She didn’t expect that the Crown Princess would have the ability to make His Royal Highness not take a concubine!
On the way back to the Duke Wu Mansion, Mrs. Zhou and Duke Wu sighed incessantly.
Duke Wu said, “No more sighing. Since my sister has refused us, you should persuade Sisi to forget about His Royal Highness. She just wants to play with His Royal Highness too much.”
Suddenly, Mrs. Zhou thought of Zhou Sisi’s hands full of wounds. It didn’t seem that Sisi just wanted to play with His Royal Highness.
“Master, Madam, something happened at the gate of the Qiao Mansion today.” The butler of the Duke Wu Mansion hurriedly came up to greet them.
He told what happened between Tong Yingying and Zhou Siming today and said, “Young Master followed her all the way to the Duke Qin Mansion, but he wasn’t allowed in.”
The corners of Mrs. Zhou’s lips curled up slightly. “Fortunately, fortunately, my son is not blind. What are you waiting for? Hurry up, hire a matchmaker to go to the Duke Qin Mansion to propose marriage.”
Duke Wu grabbed Mrs. Zhou’s hand and said, “The Qin family and the Lin family haven’t canceled their engagement yet!”
Mrs. Zhou said, “Oh, right. I’m going to the Lin family first and ask the Lin family to cancel the engagement first.”
There were already many people who knew about this matter. Mrs. Lin cherished her family’s reputation very much, and would definitely demand to cancel the engagement.
Duke Wu stopped Mrs. Zhou again. “No, it would be rude for you to do that. Even if you want to have a grandson as soon as possible, you don’t have to be in such a hurry.”
“Master, Madam, not good, Miss, Miss fell into the pool!”
Mrs. Zhou hurriedly ran over, only to see Zhou Sisi soaking wet, holding a dilapidated doll in her hand, her eyes were full of tears, and she was trembling helplessly.
“Mother, the little tiger I gave to Imperial Cousin is in the river!”
“Imperial Cousin must be very anxious to lose the little tiger I gave him. I have to go to Imperial Cousin!”
Mrs. Zhou asked the maids what happened to the tiger, and why was it in the pool?
A maid whose job was to sweep the floor came out and knelt down, saying, “I saw this piece of rag when I was sweeping the floor two days ago, which had been trampled on, so I thought it was rubbish, but the dustpan couldn’t contain it, so I simply threw it into the river!”
Zhou Sisi pointed at the maid and said, “You lied. You should be caned! Imperial Cousin cherishes the little tiger made by Sisi very much. You stole it!”
“I’m going to give it back to Imperial Cousin. I’m going to the East Palace!”
Mrs. Zhou quickly held Zhou Sisi’s hand to stop her. “Be good, Sisi. Your clothes are still wet. Why don’t you change before going to the East Palace?”
Zhou Sisi shook his head and said, “No, Imperial Cousin will be sad if he can’t find this doll.”
Mrs. Zhou had no choice, so she ordered someone to bring a charcoal stove and sent Zhou Sisi to the Qiao Mansion. It was Qiao Lu’s birthday banquet today, and the Crown Prince would definitely go to the Qiao Mansion.
…
The birthday banquet.
The girls were playing the game of drumming and passing flowers, and the losers of the game would perform for the guests.
But everyone knew their target was Lu Chen.
Qiao Jinniang glanced at the girl who was dancing hard in front of her and then pointed to the fish on the table, saying, “Your Royal Highness, I want to eat the fish. Can you help me pick the fishbones?”
Then the girl dancing saw the Crown Prince begin to carefully pick fishbones for the Crown Princess.
Seeing the Crown Prince simply turn a blind eye to her waist-folding dance, the girl almost sprained her waist…
