When a young man gives a hair ornament to a young lady, it carries the intention of marriage, and a comb especially implies a promise to stay together until old age!

A jade backing comb could only be given by a husband!

“You dare give such an item to the Princess!” Cui Jinbai practically ground these words out between his teeth.

Shen Xihe never paid attention to such matters. In her mind, Bu Shulin was essentially a woman and close female friends often exchanged hair ornaments and accessories. Therefore, when Bu Shulin brought this item to find Cui Jinbai, she only thought about its origins, without considering anything else, and certainly didn’t know that Bu Shulin’s first words were about giving it to the Princess.

Bu Shulin was different. She had nearly internalized the role of a playboy, spending her days in pleasure houses. Even after fixating on Cui Jinbai, she hadn’t ceased her romantic affairs. She hadn’t paid attention before, but when Cui Jinbai pointed it out, she finally realized that in others’ eyes, she had a male identity.

Coughing lightly twice, Bu Shulin tried to cover up: “I knew the Princess likes Pingzhong leaves, and when I happened to see this today, I bought it…”

For some reason, she felt inexplicably guilty.

Cui Jinbai said coldly: “To please the Princess, you truly have no restraint. Aren’t you afraid His Majesty will find out and implicate the Princess?”

Bu Shulin had always been a romantic libertine, previously spending many nights in pleasure houses and not returning for days. She had kept a leading courtesan for three years and still protected her. Even after becoming entangled with Cui Jinbai, she hadn’t stopped visiting pleasure houses, though she no longer stayed overnight. She mostly went when invited by friends, unable to refuse their sincere invitations, but no longer allowed the courtesans to get close.

Outside, people said she had changed her preferences and was now remaining faithful to Cui Jinbai. Only Cui Jinbai knew he was just a shield, but he didn’t want to explain, and it conveniently annoyed his father and stepmother, preventing them from meddling in his marriage affairs.

Earlier, seeing Bu Shulin frequently visiting the Princess’s mansion, he had guessed that Bu Shulin’s refusal to marry the princess wasn’t simply about not wanting to, but rather because her heart belonged to someone else – that person being Princess Zhaoning.

Later, he became increasingly convinced of his speculation. Today, seeing Bu Shulin holding the jade backing comb and telling him it was a gift for Princess Zhaoning, he felt an inexplicable anger surge up that he couldn’t suppress.

“Hehe, if you don’t tell and I don’t tell, how would His Majesty know?” Bu Shulin said playfully, reaching out to stroke Cui Jinbai’s chest to soothe him, but Cui Jinbai grabbed her wrist and threw it aside forcefully.

Bu Shulin pouted: “Alright, alright, my fault, my fault. I shouldn’t have secretly given the Princess such an item. I swear I have no improper intentions toward the Princess. I treat her as a sister, and surely it’s not excessive for an elder brother to give his sister an accessory?”

These words finally made Cui Jinbai’s expression soften slightly. His deep eyes stared at Bu Shulin for a moment, seemingly weighing the truth of her words.

Bu Shulin puffed out her chest, looking completely open: “Every word is true. My feelings for the Princess are purely those of siblings!”

As if! Too bad she wasn’t a real man, otherwise she would marry a woman like Shen Xihe – that would make life worth living!

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to – it was that she couldn’t.

Cui Jinbai believed her words and picked up the jade backing comb to examine it: “How did you know it was a burial item?”

“I…” Bu Shulin couldn’t expose Shen Xihe’s extraordinary sense of smell, so she just said, “The Princess said so, so it must be!”

Cui Jinbai: …

He had been somewhat annoyed at how Bu Shulin treated Shen Xihe’s words as imperial edicts, but thinking carefully, perhaps Shen Xihe felt uncomfortable accepting the jade backing comb but didn’t want to directly refuse and hurt Bu Shulin’s feelings, so she found such an excuse.

“Leave the item here. This should be from our dynasty. I’ll have someone look into it.” His attitude was extremely perfunctory.

Bu Shulin wasn’t satisfied: “Someone is robbing graves, and your Court of Judicial Review is so unconcerned?”

“Based on just a statement that it’s a burial item, how can I explain to my superiors? How can I deploy people to investigate?” Cui Jinbai said with a headache.

Bu Shulin wasn’t unreasonable. She grabbed the jade backing comb: “Fine, I’ll watch the silver shop people myself. Once young master catches evidence, I’ll come back to you, giving you proper grounds to act!”

“You…” Cui Jinbai wanted to chase after her, but Bu Shulin moved extremely fast, disappearing from the courtyard in the blink of an eye. At the moon gate, she turned back to give Cui Jinbai a mysterious smile: “Don’t worry, Cui Shitou, I won’t let the Crown Prince know that you have feelings for…”

She silently mouthed the words “the Princess,” then hummed a tune with her hands behind her back, completely missing Cui Jinbai’s face turning green behind her.

In Bu Shulin’s view, the reason Cui Jinbai had been so angry earlier, nearly coming to blows with her, must have been because she gave a jade backing comb – which for a man was equivalent to a token of love when given to a lady. Cui Jinbai had feelings for her Youyou: “He has good taste, but unfortunately…”

Ah, it was destined to be unrequited love.

Thinking this way, she felt fortunate not to be truly male, otherwise she would have to silently love like Cui Shitou, unable to speak her feelings.

“Poor thing… I should treat him better in the future…”

Bu Shulin left the Court of Judicial Review to talk to herself, then went to stake out the silver shop. She felt that since the shop had lied about this matter, they must know its origins, and this couldn’t be the only unclean item.

Daring to upset her and make her lose face in front of Shen Xihe – they would all pay the price!

Shen Xihe didn’t know Bu Shulin had confronted the silver shop. Apart from visiting the Tao residence, she mostly stayed in her mansion, reading books, growing flowers, and when the mood struck, discussing food with Ziyu, researching fragrances with Hong Yu, doing needlework with Biyu, watching Ah Xi and Zhenzhu discuss medicine, or training Duanming.

Previously, people would still send her invitations out of courtesy, but after several incidents, now everyone feared her like a tiger, and she was happy with the peace.

Xiao Huayong handled Prince Xun’s matter very appropriately. In a way that didn’t alarm anyone, Xiao Changfeng discovered Prince Xun’s body and secretly brought it back to his residence. After much hesitation, he still reported it to Emperor Youning.

Prince Xun had committed suicide, which showed he hadn’t betrayed the emperor.

“Xiao Changfeng is no ordinary person,” Shen Xihe sighed softly after learning he had secretly brought his birth father’s remains into the palace.

This move not only put His Majesty’s mind at ease that Prince Xun hadn’t leaked information, but also aroused Emperor Youning’s guilt – Prince Xun had spent his life in military service, yet died so ignominiously in the end. The final point was that with His Majesty’s approval, Prince Xun could be buried in his rightful tomb.

“This also shows that he knew early on that Prince Xun wasn’t dead, and that His Majesty was forming the Divine Brave Army,” Zhenzhu said, lowering her head. “He is indeed the inheritor of the Divine Brave Army.”

Otherwise, Emperor Youning wouldn’t have let him know such secret matters. Zhenzhu then suggested: “Princess, should we arrange people?”

“The beauty strategy?” Shen Xihe understood Zhenzhu’s meaning. “I don’t like using women to achieve goals.”