When the Court of Judicial Review issued the official document, it became a formal procedure that even imperial relatives had to cooperate with the investigation. They couldn’t refuse or ignore it – doing so would either constitute obstruction of justice or contempt of law. If anyone dared to flee, it would be the serious crime of resisting arrest!

Bu Shulin reluctantly stuffed the flatbread into her mouth, wearing a long face as she headed to the Court of Judicial Review.

Since the Court could issue official documents, it certainly wasn’t fabricated – someone had filed complaints against Bu Shulin. It was all about her past misdeeds: how she had seduced other families’ daughters, how she had colluded with a group of young nobles to dine and drink without paying, how she had randomly stolen others’ crickets and fighting roosters…

Every day someone filed complaints against her, Cui Jinbai summoned her to the Court, and every day Cui Jinbai would handle everyone else’s cases first, dragging them out until just before the court closed before dealing with her matters.

These were all his doing – who else could dig up so many of her old cases? Who else could instigate all these people to file complaints?

“What exactly do you want?” Bu Shulin asked, worn down and losing her temper.

“I just want to see you every day.” Cui Jinbai looked up, his gaze gentle.

Bu Shulin: …

This conversation felt so familiar, like back when she used to pester Cui Jinbai every day. When Cui Jinbai had been worn down by her and asked what exactly she wanted, she would bat her eyes at him and say she just wanted to see him every day.

This was karma! If her crimes were unforgivable, just strike her dead with lightning – don’t torture her like this, wuwuwu…

“Cui Zhihe, Cui Jinbai, Junior Minister Cui…” Bu Shulin said with a bitter face, “I know I was wrong. Please spare me, please let me go.”

“If I let you go, who will let me go?” Cui Jinbai still asked in a gentle voice. “Back then, I wasn’t annoyed or bothered by you, but now I’ve fallen for you too. It doesn’t matter if you’re annoyed and bothered by me now – after some time, you’ll surely end up like me.”

She used to always be frivolous, either driving people away with anger or disgust. Now she didn’t dare say anything inappropriate to Cui Jinbai. She felt that if she dared say something like wanting to sleep with him, Cui Jinbai would probably start undressing right in front of her.

Now she was the one afraid of Cui Jinbai!

“If you won’t let me go, I’ll go on a hunger strike!” Bu Shulin threatened.

“When you’re too hungry to resist, I’ll feed you myself,” Cui Jinbai replied calmly.

Bu Shulin: …

“If you keep summoning me to the Court every day, I’ll turn it upside down!” She tried a different threat.

“Go ahead and cause trouble if you want.” Cui Jinbai was extremely indulgent. “If it’s minor, I can suppress it. If it’s major, His Majesty is just looking for an excuse to punish you. If you’re sentenced to death, I’ll die for love with you – if we can’t share a bed in life, we’ll share a coffin in death. Although I still have my father, he has my younger brother to care for him in his old age. It’s just a pity for the Prince…”

“Cui Jinbai!” Bu Shulin was about to break down. “Are you trying to drive me crazy?”

Cui Jinbai stared at her intently: “Even if you go crazy, I won’t abandon you. Perhaps you’ll become more docile then.”

Bu Shulin: …

Never in her life had she regretted anything so much. If she had known this would happen, she should have married the Princess! At worst, she would have just angered the Princess into living separately from her – that would still be better than provoking this madman!

Thoroughly suppressed, Bu Shulin decided to control her emotions and resist Cui Jinbai with silence and ignorance. Cui Jinbai didn’t mind her coldness, still finding ways every day to bring her to the Court, where they would spend whole days in wordless confrontation, testing each other’s endurance.

While Cui Jinbai and Bu Shulin were locked in a mutual standoff, Shen Xihe and Xiao Huayong’s situation was one-sided on Xiao Huayong’s part.

He sent food to the Princess’s mansion as usual, and Shen Xihe accepted everything without returning or reciprocating anything.

However, since that day, Shen Xihe had never gone to the Eastern Palace again. Even though spring had arrived, with occasional sunny days and beautiful spring weather with bright sunshine, Tianyuan felt the Eastern Palace growing increasingly cold.

The gyrfalcon had been dispatched for over two months and brought back a box of northern pearls. Xiao Huayong held the box in one hand while picking up a pearl with the other, lost in thought for a long while, with no one knowing what was on his mind.

Tianyuan didn’t dare make a sound, afraid of angering Xiao Huayong and ending up being the unfortunate one.

“Tianyuan, I miss her,” Xiao Huayong murmured as if still in a daze. He hadn’t seen her for several days.

“Your Highness, the Princess’s heart is like stone,” Tianyuan felt it wasn’t worth it for his master – His Highness treated the Princess so well.

Xiao Huayong suddenly snapped back to reality and rebuked him: “Nonsense, she’s not hard-hearted, she just carries too many burdens.”

He believed every word Shen Xihe had said that day came from her heart, without any pretense or deception. She had said if she were alone, she would seize the moment and plunge into love with him, not questioning the future or consequences.

This meant her heart had moved for him, even if just for a moment. If she didn’t carry such heavy burdens, perhaps she wouldn’t need to be constantly on guard.

Tianyuan: …

He honestly lowered his head, secretly slapping himself.

That’s what you get for being talkative, for being muddle-headed, for daring to disparage the Princess in front of His Highness.

After another moment lost in thought, Xiao Huayong asked, “How has Wang Zheng been these past few days?”

“As Your Highness predicted, Lord Wang was on guard for a few days. This servant deliberately investigated several other princes, misleading him to think Your Highness suspected other princes were behind the Lantern Festival incident.” Tianyuan replied seriously. “Now he has lowered his guard.”

“In a few days at the kickball match, we’ll give Lord Wang a grand gift,” Xiao Huayong said as he put the northern pearl back in the box, his hand resting on the closed lid, stroking the carved Pingzhong leaf pattern. “Then I’ll be able to see her.”

“Yes,” Tianyuan responded. The arrangements for how to proceed had already been instructed.

Every year when envoys came to the capital to pay respects, there would be a spring kickball tournament, divided into the envoys’ team and the imperial team. If the envoys were worried about the coordination among the imperial team members, they could also draw lots to mix the teams.

This was a farewell gathering – after the kickball match, the envoys would gradually leave the capital to return to their countries.

Shen Xihe looked up at the tree branches sprouting new buds: “The kickball tournament is about to begin. We can proceed with Princess Yangling’s matter.”

“This servant will send word to the palace right away,” Zhenzhu responded.

Just then, Qi Pei came to visit, requesting to withdraw one hundred gold pieces. He was leaving the capital, promising to earn one thousand gold pieces for Shen Xihe by this time next year.

Shen Xihe took him to see Xie Yunhuai for another examination. Xie Yunhuai said he had recovered well enough to travel far, so Shen Xihe didn’t stop him, though she still sent two guards to escort him back.

When she returned, Zhenzhu had also come back with the news: “The Empress Dowager is preparing a spring banquet and requests the Princess to enter the palace tomorrow, along with other noble ladies. It seems she wants the young ladies to brainstorm ideas to add entertainment to the spring banquet. Will the Princess go?”

The Empress Dowager had only invited her, not issued an imperial edict, so Shen Xihe could choose not to go.

“I’ll go. I won’t avoid him,” Shen Xihe agreed with a smile.

She would do what she should do and absolutely would not deliberately avoid Xiao Huayong.