“Eat properly.” Xuan Yanyu noticed that Yan Yunning was absentmindedly stirring the bird’s nest congee and pinched her cheek gently.

“Xuan Yanyu, I don’t want to drink any more.” The girl tilted her head up to look at him, her beautiful features arranged into an expression of such pitiable delicacy that she looked unbearably adorable.

“That won’t do.” Xuan Yanyu took the porcelain bowl, scooped a spoonful of congee, and held it to her lips. Yan Yunning saw this and pressed her lips firmly together.

The man raised a single eyebrow, signaling for her to eat.

Yan Yunning slowly looked away, picked up the golden chopsticks, and began busily serving food into Yu Zhi and Qiuci’s bowls as though she had important things to attend to.

Yu Zhi smiled with quiet reserve and didn’t dare touch her chopsticks. From the corner of her eye, she caught sight of His Highness the Crown Prince’s expression souring the moment Ningning placed food in Qiuci’s bowl.

“Thank you, little tangerine.” Qiuci beamed, and whatever Yan Yunning placed in his bowl, he ate without complaint.

Seeing that Yu Zhi’s bowl was already heaped full, Yan Yunning focused all her attention on serving Qiuci. She was afraid that the moment she stopped, Xuan Yanyu would start urging her to eat again — and she didn’t feel like eating at all.

“Little tangerine, you once said the child would acknowledge me as a godfather — did you mean it?” Qiuci asked, his mouth still full of food, words coming out indistinctly.

Yu Zhi’s head throbbed with a pounding ache. Under the table, she kicked Qiuci’s leg without ceremony.

If the Crown Prince’s child were to acknowledge a godfather, that person would undoubtedly be a powerful court official chosen to consolidate the imperial family’s influence — there were no exceptions.

And at present, Xuanzhao had no need of that. Since Prince Xuan ascended to the throne, Xuanzhao had surpassed Qilan by far — to say nothing of the ways in which Xuanzhao still fell short of Qilan.

From the time Ningning had been confirmed pregnant, Prince Xuan had been hosting banquets for the common people — that alone made it abundantly clear how deeply he cherished the child in Ningning’s womb. How would he ever allow the child to call someone else a godfather?

Not to belittle Qiuci — but someone of Qiuci’s standing was even less suitable. If it truly came to pass, it would affect the reputation of the imperial family.

Xuan Yanyu set down the ladle in his hand, his dark eyes fixing steadily on Yan Yunning.

Sensing the displeasure in the man’s gaze, Yan Yunning swallowed. The reason she had said those words to Qiuci right after crossing over was that she had been thinking: in case she could never go home, and Qiuci was still in his simple-minded state, if she married into someone’s household and had a child, she had thought she would have the child acknowledge Qiuci as a godfather.

That way, Qiuci would have someone to look after him in the future. But things were different now — Qiuci had recovered. And besides, she hadn’t even imagined back then that she would end up married to the Crown Prince.

Although the child was hers, she didn’t seem to have the right to have him or her acknowledge someone else as a godfather.

The child’s imperial grandfather would never agree, and the child’s father even less so…

Besides, even if Qiuci were still in his simple-minded state, she could have Xuan Yanyu select a few people to look after Qiuci — there was no need to acknowledge any godfather.

“Little tangerine, did I say something wrong?” He hadn’t thought the child’s standing through either — it had just slipped out.

“There’s… nothing wrong, I suppose.” Yan Yunning stumbled over her words, doing her best to ignore the cold, icy air radiating from the man beside her.

It couldn’t really be counted as saying something wrong…

She had indeed said it before…

As her words fell, Xuan Yanyu’s gaze darkened slightly. “Nothing wrong”?

Did that mean she really did want his child to acknowledge Qiuci as a godfather?

“Good — I’m relieved to hear that,” Qiuci said cheerfully.

“Hurry and eat.” Yan Yunning placed another pair of chopsticks’ worth of food into Qiuci’s bowl.

When you’re eating, stop talking!

The more he thought about it, the angrier he grew. Xuan Yanyu deliberately set his porcelain bowl down with a heavy thud — she was serving food to Qiuci, and now she wanted his child to call Qiuci a godfather?

Yan Yunning turned her eyes sideways for a glance. The man, in the grip of his anger, refused to so much as look at her.

Yan Yunning: [?]

She hadn’t even known him when she said those words! Was he really going to get angry over that?

After waiting a long while and seeing no sign of Yan Yunning coming to soothe him, while she instead laughed and chatted merrily with Qiuci, Xuan Yanyu deliberately scraped the sandalwood chair back with a loud creak, said not a single word to her, and walked out of Qishan Hall.

His intention was perfectly clear — he wanted Yan Yunning to know he was angry. Very angry. And he needed her to come coax him.

“Ningning, what do we do?” Yu Zhi’s expression filled with alarm.

She was terrified that when His Highness was angry, he might give Ningning the cold shoulder. She had lived through days like that herself, and Ningning could not be made to go through the same.

“Don’t worry about him,” Yan Yunning said, cheeks puffed with indignation.

Let him be angry if he wants to!

“Ningning!” Yu Zhi said anxiously, “Go after him quickly. Qiuci and I are leaving the Crown Prince’s Residence at once.”

She could tell it was because of Qiuci that His Highness had grown angry at Ningning.

Qiuci set down his wooden chopsticks.

“There’s no need.” Yan Yunning poured a bowl of soup and placed it in front of Yu Zhi. “You haven’t eaten much either, and your body hasn’t recovered — eat up.”

“Ningning?” Yu Zhi made as if to say something more, but Yan Yunning cut her off with a smile. “Eat.”

Yu Zhi had no appetite left to speak of and took only a token two bites.

She thought that with herself and Qiuci present in the Crown Prince’s Residence, Ningning wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving them behind. So despite Yan Yunning’s urging to stay, she took Qiuci’s arm and left the Crown Prince’s Residence.

“Crown Princess, do you wish to go find His Highness?” Once Yu Zhi and Qiuci had gone, Xiao Wan asked tentatively.

“No.”

Xuan Yanyu was angry, and Yan Yunning was angry too.

She wasn’t even sure what she was angry about — probably that he had walked out of Qishan Hall so suddenly, without so much as a word to her.

Xiao Wan let out a sigh.

——

The Hall of Resplendent Governance.

The man stormed back, slammed his palm down hard on the imperial desk, and the sheets of paper laid out across it all shuddered.

Ye Chen and Ye’an, who had just returned from Prince Xuan’s Palace, were so startled they didn’t dare make a sound.

“Where is Yan Shiyao?” Xuan Yanyu’s imposing aura unfurled, and a murderous gleam swept through the depths of his eyes.

“Your High… Highness, His Majesty said that if you spare Yan Shiyao’s life, he will no longer interfere in the matter of your secondary consort in the future,” Ye Chen said, trembling.

The man narrowed his cold, frigid eyes, and a faint curve appeared at the corner of his mouth. “Lock her in the dark chamber. Let Yan Shiyao choose two punishments.”

Ye Chen swallowed, his throat moving nervously. The punishments in the Crown Prince’s Residence?

And she was to choose two?

Would Yan Shiyao even survive that?

Ye’an was also uncertain of Xuan Yanyu’s intent, and asked carefully, “Your Highness, Yan Shiyao — will you still keep her ali—”

“Get out,” Xuan Yanyu growled low.

Ye’an fell silent, clamped his mouth shut, and retreated with Ye Chen out of the Hall of Resplendent Governance.

The palace doors closed behind them. Ye Chen looked at Ye’an, baffled. “What does His Highness mean?”

“Honestly, how can you be this dim?” Ye’an rapped Ye Chen on the head.

“Oh?” Ye Chen shot back in protest, “If you’re not dim, then why did His Highness tell you to get out?”

He, at least, had not been told to get out today!

Ye’an: “…”

Hopeless.

“What on earth does His Highness mean?” After a silence, Ye Chen couldn’t help asking again.

Ye’an rolled his eyes in exasperation. “He intends to spare Yan Shiyao’s life.”

He himself had also been foolish to ask a question like that — since His Highness had instructed them to lock Yan Shiyao in the dark chamber and let her choose her punishments, it was obvious he intended to keep her alive, yet exact the punishment she deserved for pushing the Crown Princess.

Later, they just needed to instruct the guards to go easy on Yan Shiyao.

If His Highness truly had no intention of sparing Yan Shiyao’s life, he would have said so outright long ago and had her dealt with on the spot — there would be no reason to lock her in a dark chamber first.

Ye Chen pressed his lips together. He wanted to ask Ye’an how he’d figured that out, but feared being called dim again, and so he swallowed the question.

——

As the sun slowly sank toward the west, the man who had been waiting in the Hall of Resplendent Governance for a very long time still saw no sign of his Crown Princess coming to check on him — his heart weighed down with sulky frustration.

“Your Highness, after the Grand Commandant’s wife left the Crown Prince’s Residence, the Crown Princess strolled in the garden with Xiaoyue and Xiao Wan for a while, ate several sour apricots, and has since returned to the inner chamber to rest,” a guard reported.