Of course Daoist Master Mingxin had never had much trust in Qin Yunchuan. Their correspondence had been a process of continuous probing from the start.

And now it appeared that Qin Yunchuan had never wavered.

Daoist Master Mingxin let out a long sigh.

He and Qin Yunchuan had once been good friends. Later, each served their own master, each harbored their own thoughts, each concealed murderous intent—one couldn’t help but sigh with emotion.

Now that Qin Yunchuan was dead, all of this had completely become the past.

“Notify our people to lie low for a period of time.”

Daoist Master Mingxin decided to temporarily become a simple, mediocre fortune teller.

Having resolved the Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince Qin Yunchuan, who had greatly assisted the Crown Prince, and also enabled her teacher to avoid the crisis of injury and flight, Lin Hao thought of another person by the Crown Prince’s side.

That person was named Fang Chengji. Speaking of it, he had similarities with her teacher—he was a physiognomist.

At this time, Fang Chengji should be just an obscure nobody. At least she had never heard of him. But three years later, Fang Chengji would rival Grand Tutor Qin Yunchuan as one of the two people with the greatest influence over the Crown Prince.

At that time, Emperor Tai’an had fallen ill, and the Crown Prince supervised the state.

She wasn’t clear on what Fang Chengji had done, but three years later when she returned to the capital, she vaguely heard that the misfortune that befell Prince Jing’s household was related to this person.

Heir Prince Jing had protected her in many ways. She had even frightened him into developing a heart condition. She had to do something for her conscience to rest easy.

Lin Hao sent someone to Prince Jing’s manor to deliver a calling card to the young princess, planning to visit Prince Jing’s manor the next day as a guest.

As their interactions increased, she and the young princess grew increasingly familiar. Once at Prince Jing’s manor, requesting to speak a few words with Heir Prince Jing wouldn’t be considered improper.

Unsurprisingly, she received the princess’s welcoming response to her visit. But that afternoon, just as Baozhu was taking several outfits from the trunk to ask Lin Hao which one she wanted to wear for tomorrow’s visit, word came from Prince Jing’s manor.

The princess had something come up and it was temporarily inconvenient to receive guests for the next couple days.

This piqued Lin Hao’s curiosity, but out of respect for her friend, she didn’t send anyone to investigate.

Several days passed this way, and instead it was the young princess who came calling.

Upon seeing Qi Qiong’s complexion, Lin Hao was slightly alarmed. “Princess, what happened?”

Qi Qiong hesitated briefly, but couldn’t help complaining. “It’s all because of my cousin!”

She picked up her water cup and drank several gulps, her expression both embarrassed and annoyed. “It’ll spread sooner or later anyway, so I’m not afraid of you laughing at me. On the day you sent your card, the Crown Prince came, and somehow he got into conversation with my cousin. Now it’s been decided that my cousin will enter the Crown Prince’s manor.”

The actual situation was, of course, far more awkward than what Qi Qiong described.

The Crown Prince hadn’t merely conversed with her cousin—the two had been pulling and tugging at each other, seen by many servants.

Mother had been furious. If she hadn’t stopped her, Mother would have confronted the Crown Prince directly.

At the time, Mother had thought it was the Crown Prince unilaterally acting on lustful impulses, taking advantage of her cousin. But when she privately comforted her cousin, assuring her she would definitely find her a good match, her cousin had tearfully said that many people had seen the Crown Prince take liberties with her, and she had no face to marry anyone else.

Sun Xiuhua was Princess Consort Jing’s own niece. Naturally this couldn’t just be let go. After the palace learned of it, the solution they provided was to grant Sun Xiuhua the title of Attendant and have her enter the Eastern Palace to serve the Crown Prince.

Put plainly, she would be the Crown Prince’s concubine.

Of course, the status and prospects of the Crown Prince’s concubine were far beyond what an ordinary household’s concubine could compare to. This choice was honey to some people, arsenic to others.

Princess Consort Jing was unwilling for her niece to enter the Eastern Palace to serve the Crown Prince. It was true that the Crown Prince’s concubine had prospects, but how many years would it truly take for the Crown Prince to ascend the throne? By then, with the emperor’s harem filled with countless beauties, would every single one have prospects?

More importantly, shouldn’t a girl in the bloom of youth find a young man of suitable status to share mutual respect with?

When she asked Sun Xiuhua’s thoughts, Sun Xiuhua had nodded her head bashfully and pitifully.

Princess Consort Jing gradually came to understand: she was unwilling, but her niece was willing.

Her niece was willing!

Realizing this point, while Princess Consort Jing felt stifled, she gave up the thought of making decisions for her niece.

Each has their own aspirations—one cannot force them.

“Miss Sun and the Crown Prince?” Lin Hao’s expression immediately became subtle.

In her previous life, she had never heard of this matter.

But this life was already different from the previous one. She had her grandmother to rely on and had become friends with the young princess, so the Crown Prince had also taken a different path.

With the Crown Prince frequently visiting Prince Jing’s manor, he’d had opportunities to interact with Sun Xiuhua.

“Miss Sun is truly unfortunate.” Lin Hao shook her head.

She knew very little about Sun Xiuhua. From her own perspective, she naturally felt that becoming a concubine to something like the Crown Prince—that beast in human form—was too much of a waste.

“Unfortunate?” Qi Qiong couldn’t help but sneer coldly. Then, feeling that family scandals shouldn’t be publicized, she changed the subject. “Let’s not talk about this anymore. Ah Hao, how have you been lately? Have you been going out to enjoy yourself?”

“I’ve been quite well lately, often wandering about here and there.” Through Qi Qiong’s reaction toward Sun Xiuhua, Lin Hao understood somewhat.

It seemed that with the Crown Prince and Miss Sun, one was willing to strike and the other willing to be struck.

“Princess, is Heir Prince in the manor?”

Qi Qiong blinked. “My elder brother is home. Does Ah Hao have business with him?”

So it wasn’t elder brother with one-sided feelings after all—there was a chance!

Seeing Qi Qiong smile meaningfully, Lin Hao silently swallowed the words she’d planned to say straightforwardly.

Forget it. Better to avoid unnecessary trouble. She’d just secretly seek out Heir Prince Jing.

“I was just asking casually. My impression is that Heir Prince rarely goes out.”

Qi Qiong sighed. “Elder brother’s bod—”

She suddenly caught herself: she couldn’t say elder brother’s body wasn’t well!

Which young lady would be willing to marry a sickly person?

“Elder brother is deep and low-key. He doesn’t like to go showing off on the streets.”

She really felt bad for second brother, but fortunately there was no need to matchmake between second brother and Ah Hao.

Qi Qiong was in a poor mood and pestered Lin Hao to tell several stories, whiling away time until evening approached before returning to the manor.

Lin Hao knew that Heir Prince Jing had a habit of stealing some leisure time in the depths of the manor garden in the afternoon. The next day she walked to the wall separating them from Prince Jing’s manor, leaped up to climb atop the wall, and quietly poked her head over to look.

She wasn’t disappointed—Heir Prince Jing was indeed there.

Secretly watching the young man with his eyes slightly closed beneath the osmanthus tree, Lin Hao unconsciously curved her lips upward.

Flowering branches extended over the top of the wall, bearing half-withered blossoms.

Lin Hao casually broke off a section of flowering branch and used skillful force to toss it toward Qi Shuo.

The flowering branch floated down lightly beside Qi Shuo, startling the young servant Changshun who was standing guard nearby. “Who’s there?”

The young man’s indifferent voice came: “What are you making such a fuss about?”

“Heir Prince, there’s a hidden weapon!” Changshun vigilantly picked up the flowering branch that had fallen on the ground and showed it to Qi Shuo.

Qi Shuo raised an eyebrow. “This is a hidden weapon?”

Changshun looked around blankly. “This flowering branch flew over! It didn’t fall naturally!”

Unfortunately, he’d just been dozing off and hadn’t noticed which direction it had flown from.

“The wind blew it over. Don’t be suspicious and jumpy. It’s getting a bit chilly. Go fetch me a blanket.”

Changshun reluctantly let go of his suspicions and departed to carry out the order.

Qi Shuo stood up and looked toward the top of the wall.

First time awkward, second time familiar, by the third time there was completely no psychological burden. Seeing Qi Shuo send away the young servant, Lin Hao nimbly flipped over.