Hearing Yuchi Yan’s voice filled with delighted surprise, Gu Shixiong felt a blockage forming in his heart.

So all his earnest, painstaking advice over the past several attempts had fallen on deaf ears—Yuchi Yan hadn’t taken any of it to heart at all.

He could understand a young man’s interest in beautiful women, but couldn’t Yuchi Yan see who this person was? She was Prince Zhongshun’s woman, and had just given Prince Zhongshun two children!

If she had feelings for him in her heart, then perhaps that would be one thing.

The problem was that she had no feelings for him whatsoever, and was wholeheartedly devoted to supporting her husband and educating her children. Who knew when she might turn around and stab them in the back!

When it came to intelligence and scheming, Yuchi Yan was no match for Qin Yining.

How Gu Shixiong feared that Qin Yining would use a honey trap on Yuchi Yan! He was certain that if Qin Yining so much as moved a finger, Yuchi Yan would eagerly rush forward, and even after being sold out, he’d still help count the money!

Gu Shixiong’s heart was entirely focused on assisting Yuchi Yan in restoring the Great Yan Dynasty, but the emperors of the Yan Dynasty truly grew worse with each generation, exhausting him to the point where he even felt that completing this monumental task might be impossible in his lifetime.

Though Gu Shixiong’s thoughts wandered far, his expression remained silent.

When Yuchi Yan received no response from Gu Shixiong for quite some time, he looked over with confusion.

His face still maintained its excited expression, but when he met Gu Shixiong’s wrinkled face and gazed into his unfathomably dark pupils, Yuchi Yan’s heart felt as though someone had splashed a basin of cold water over it. His original excitement and passion instantly turned to vapor, and he could almost hear the “hiss” of steam.

Yuchi Yan felt displeased in his heart.

He was, after all, a sovereign ruler. Accepting advice was a measure of his magnanimity and conduct as a monarch, but if his ministers didn’t know their proper place and position, constantly challenging his authority, it inevitably carried the suspicion of disrespect.

However, Gu Shixiong was a senior minister who had served three dynasties. Even his late father had addressed him as “Grand Tutor.” Moreover, Yuchi Yan often needed to rely on Gu Shixiong’s wisdom, so he could only suppress his temper and say: “Did Grand Tutor Gu not hear clearly what this king said?”

How dare he still have the face to ask!

Gu Shixiong’s beard bristled with anger. If not for the need to preserve some face for Yuchi Yan in this public setting, he truly wanted to spit in his face.

What hopeless mud that couldn’t stick to the wall!

Gu Shixiong forcibly suppressed his fury and said in a deep voice: “This old man is advanced in years, my eyes are dim, and I cannot see clearly whether that is truly Prince Zhongshun’s consort.”

The distance wasn’t far at all, and this old man could usually see the characters in books clearly, yet now he was pretending to be blind.

With this response, how could Yuchi Yan not understand what Gu Shixiong meant?

It seemed that he, a former emperor, counted for nothing in Gu Shixiong’s eyes. Gu Shixiong didn’t take him seriously at all!

Yuchi Yan had a stubborn temperament. Provoked by Gu Shixiong’s sarcasm, his anger flared, and he immediately strode toward the carriage regardless of consequences.

“Your Highness! What are you doing?” Gu Shixiong asked in alarm, chasing after him.

Yuchi Yan replied: “Since we can’t see clearly, let’s get closer. If it is her, we’ll greet her while we’re at it.”

Gu Shixiong was so angry he nearly rolled his eyes.

At this moment, Qin Yining was observing the situation at the soup kitchen through a corner of the lifted carriage curtain. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed Yuchi Yan striding over with an angry expression, and raised her eyebrows in surprise.

Could it be that Yuchi Yan had discovered that she was behind the soup kitchen?

Otherwise, Qin Yining truly couldn’t think of any reason for Yuchi Yan to come looking for her in such fury.

Jingzhe and the others beside the carriage also noticed Yuchi Yan’s wrong expression and immediately formed a protective circle around Qin Yining with trained efficiency.

Only when Yuchi Yan saw Qin Yining did his fierce expression soften. Looking at her face, which had become slightly more rounded after childbirth, she seemed to have even more charm than before. Yuchi Yan’s heart began racing uncontrollably again, his blood boiling.

“Why is the Princess Consort here as well?” Yuchi Yan forced himself to appear calm.

Qin Yining smiled: “I was feeling cooped up in the manor, so I came out for a casual stroll. Seeing the liveliness here, I stayed to take a look.”

Yuchi Yan smiled: “It’s good to go out and about more often, so you won’t be lonely in the prince’s manor by yourself.” With one hand behind his back, he turned to gaze at the soup kitchen and said with a smile of admiration: “The common people of our Great Yan are all warm-hearted and kind, just look.”

Qin Yining raised her eyebrows: “All people under heaven are the same—human nature is inherently good. However, Prince Zhennan should be more careful. How can this place still be called the territory of Great Yan’s people?”

Yuchi Yan had originally intended to show off a bit, wanting to boast that the common people of the Great Yan Dynasty were more simple and kind than those of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Who would have expected Qin Yining to respond with such a statement?

Yuchi Yan’s original excitement was extinguished, and indescribable anger rose in his heart: “It seems you’ve forgotten who you are.”

“Oh?” Qin Yining said coolly. “Is it Prince Zhennan who has forgotten, or have I forgotten?”

“You are clearly a person of Great Yan, so why do you, like your father, defect to Great Zhou? What benefits has Great Zhou given your family that my Great Yan cannot provide! You are acting for selfish gain, forgetting even your roots!”

“Ridiculous.” Qin Yining sneered coldly. “It was you who submitted a letter of surrender and a memorial of allegiance, willingly becoming a vassal, that forced my father to relocate. How can you now speak as though our Qin family specializes in producing traitors? My father is upright in character—when he commits to something, he does it thoroughly and to perfection. When he served as Chancellor and Grand Tutor of the Great Yan Dynasty, he was thus, and after Great Yan’s fall, when he served in Great Zhou, he also focused wholeheartedly on his duties.

“Instead, I’d like to ask Prince Zhennan—if you truly cared so much about our Qin family and trusted my father so much, why didn’t you call upon him when you left? If I remember correctly, when the former ministers of the Yan Dynasty relocated to Great Zhou, they all received my father’s care before gradually establishing their footing. How is it that when you left, you abandoned my father to bear the blame alone, without considering my father’s feelings?”

“You!” Yuchi Yan was rendered speechless by Qin Yining’s words. After a long moment, he squeezed out: “Your father was wholeheartedly devoted to your husband—how could I trust him!”

“Then I ask the esteemed Prince Zhennan, do you care about your throne, or about the people living in peace and prosperity? Look at those common people!”

Qin Yining angrily pointed at the poor people receiving soup at the kitchen. Word of the soup kitchen had spread, and even more people had come today—there appeared to be five or six hundred.

Influenced by moral teachings, the common people also had principles and backbone. As long as their families could manage to keep the pot boiling and weren’t facing starvation, they would absolutely never accept relief soup. If neighbors or friends and relatives learned that despite not facing death by starvation, they had gone to receive soup, they would be criticized behind their backs.

Therefore, the five or six hundred people currently present were all those who couldn’t get food and were on the verge of starving to death in the depths of winter!

“Look at them—what they need is stable lives, rest and recuperation, not warfare, not the constant threat of their men being forcibly conscripted for battle, not vast fields that the old, weak, women, and children cannot cultivate! The former tyrant used to exploit the people’s lifeblood, using their survival money to create treasures for himself—do you intend to follow his example?”

“You, Qin Shi! How dare you be so insolent!”