“You!” Noble Consort Wu’s face turned dark as she glared at him. “Go guard the palace gates.”

“Yes.” Ye Jian bowed and backed out of the palace hall.

He had stayed inside too long — it was improper.

He had barely pulled the palace doors shut when he came face to face with Xuan Zhaonan.

“My respects to the Fifth Princess.” Ye Jian bowed without complaint.

“Ye… Ye Jian, why do you look so haggard?” Xuan Zhaonan pressed her lips together, then after a moment said, “Come serve at this Princess’s side.”

These past few days she had heard Jing’er mention it — Ye Jian had been tossed about like someone nobody wanted, transferred arbitrarily from place to place. It was too pitiful.

She had come specifically today to find him, though she wasn’t sure what the Crown Prince’s current feelings toward Ye Jian were — would taking him in displease her Crown Prince brother?

Ye Jian managed a weak smile. “Fifth Princess, please do not call this servant Ye Jian anymore. If it reached the Crown Prince’s ears, it would inevitably vex His Highness.”

It had been his own doing — he had disobeyed His Highness’s instructions. If the Imperial Physicians had been unable to produce an antidote, the second young miss of the Yan family would certainly have come to harm. When he administered the antidote to the first young miss, he was not without thought of that consequence.

But he had gambled that the Imperial Physicians could produce an antidote — that way he and Ye Chen would be unharmed, and both the first and second young misses would be safe.

Had he not given the antidote to the first young miss, she would surely not have survived long enough for the Imperial Physicians’ remedy. And he and Ye Chen could not have withstood the wrath of His Majesty the King of Xuanzhao.

A few days ago when Ye Chen had come to see him, he said that His Highness had gone to the prefectural office looking for Murong, had been injured, and had even fallen unconscious. In that instant, Ye Jian had given up entirely — he feared he would never be able to return to His Highness’s side in this lifetime.

His Highness the Crown Prince had never suffered such a serious injury in all his years. He had indirectly caused His Highness to be injured. The fact that His Highness had not punished him was already more than enough — he ought to be grateful.

Xuan Zhaonan sighed. “Understood. From now on you will follow at this Princess’s side.”

“Yes.” Ye Jian bowed once more.

“Jing’er, go tell Noble Consort Wu that this Princess is taking Ye Jian.”

Jing’er: “Understood, Princess.”

Xuan Zhaonan looked at Ye Jian. “Come, follow this Princess back to the sleeping chamber. You have followed Crown Prince Brother’s side for so long — you know him better than this Princess does. Why did you anger Crown Prince Brother?”

Ye Jian’s steps faltered. “Fifth Princess…”

“Never mind.” Xuan Zhaonan tugged at the handkerchief in her hand and hesitated before asking, “A… Aci, how has he been lately?”

He had stayed in her palace for so long — and now that he had been gone for some days, she rather missed him.

Ye Jian: “According to what the second young miss of the Yan family said, Aci has returned to Chaxi Town.”

“Chaxi Town?” Xuan Zhaonan blinked. “Ye Jian, come with this Princess to find Aci.”

Ye Jian’s brow furrowed slightly. “Fifth Princess, when His Highness the Crown Prince had Ye Chen escort you back to the palace, did he not forbid you from leaving again?”

Xuan Zhaonan curved her lips upward. “As long as Crown Prince Brother doesn’t find out, it’ll be fine. And if he does find out, we can always beg Ningning — this Princess heard from Mother Empress that when Crown Prince Brother returned this time, he nearly gave Father Emperor a fright. Imperial Sister is ever so curious about Ningning now.”

Imperial Sister had said that with only one younger brother, and him having been driven mad by someone, she needed to save up more silver — otherwise when Xuanzhao fell into that insufferable Xuan Yanyu’s hands and Qi Lan came to take over, she would need to have an early escape plan ready.

She had urged Mother Empress to ask Father Emperor to delay Crown Prince Brother’s accession by a few more years — for which Mother Empress had given her a thorough scolding. Imperial Sister had then said she hadn’t yet had enough good days, which had so frightened her husband that he dragged her right out of Mother Empress’s palace.

Ye Jian: “…”

Using the second young miss as a lucky charm, were they?

“Hurry back to the palace and pack up — you will accompany this Princess to find Aci.” Mentioning it only made her want to see him all the more.

There was no talking her out of it. Ye Jian fell in beside Xuan Zhaonan, and together they departed the Palace of Prince Xuan.

……

Yan Shiyao’s guest room.

Qi Qingchen looked at Yan Shiyao with a grin on his face, his tone pointed. “You were wrongly accused, weren’t you? Seeing you aggrieved, this Prince suddenly feels quite at ease.”

Serves her right for gleefully helping Xuan Yanyu extort silver from him. Helping Xuan Yanyu to aggravate him.

Yan Shiyao: “…”

She wanted to slap him again!!

“Yan Shiyao, how could you be stupid enough to be framed by someone?”

Ever since Yan Shiyao started behaving erratically, he had found himself involuntarily drawn to her side. Seeing her aggrieved made him want to tease her — the feeling was familiar. Before Zhaonan had appeared, his feelings toward Yan Shiyao had been exactly like this.

He didn’t think he had ever truly liked Zhaonan that deeply. It was simply that no one had ever acted coquettish with him before, and he found it novel.

So for that period of time, Zhaonan’s presence had overshadowed what little affection he already had for Yan Shiyao. He much preferred this version of Yan Shiyao.

Though she was aggravating and sometimes made him so furious he could throttle her, he didn’t like people who were perfectly proper and well-behaved. Spending time with her like this was actually quite entertaining.

“Third Highness, are you any less stupid? How much silver has Xuan Yanyu schemed out of you?” Yan Shiyao scoffed. “And you dare say anything to me? At least I wasn’t swindled out of my silver!”

Pot calling the kettle black — and he had the nerve?

Qi Qingchen fired back, “Xuan Yanyu isn’t dim-witted. Xiaoshi is the one with something wrong upstairs. You got framed by Xiaoshi — isn’t that even worse than being tricked by her?”

“Get out!” Yan Shiyao kicked him in the leg with her embroidered shoe and snapped, “Out.”

“Yan Shiyao!” Qi Qingchen stared at the shoe print on his white brocade robe, furious enough to spit. “Wipe that clean for this Prince!”

Yan Shiyao raised an eyebrow, picked up her tea, and poured it over the smudged spot on his robe, then smiled. “Better now, Third Highness?”

“Yan Shiyao!” Qi Qingchen roared at her.

He took back everything nice he had just thought — it was better when Yan Shiyao was a bit stupid!!

“It… it’s clean now.” Yan Shiyao stammered. “Don’t… don’t be angry.”

The way he looked right now genuinely made her afraid he might kick her over.

Qi Qingchen took a deep breath. After a brief silence, he said, “Yan Shiyao, you deserve to be framed by Xiaoshi.”

“And you deserve to be schemed out of your silver by Xuan Yanyu!” Yan Shiyao hurled her cup at Qi Qingchen and let out a cold snort.

Qi Qingchen’s expression darkened. He must be losing his mind — he had been thinking of sending silver to Xuan Yanyu to have him admit fault to the Emperor on Yan Shiyao’s behalf. He was done with it!!

Outside the guest room, Yan Yunning listened with a look of utter despair.

What?

They’re this loud??

Would the silver she was about to receive… disappear???

Should she go in and try to mediate?

Wait, no — why on earth was her elder sister arguing with Qi Qingchen??

Fallen out of love, have we?

The guest room door swung open, and Yan Yunning found herself face to face with Qi Qingchen’s icy stare. She gave an awkward smile. “Elder Brother Qi.”

Qi Qingchen shot her a glance, said not a word, and left.

“Ning… Ningning?” Yan Shiyao was startled. “Did you just get here?”

Yan Yunning nodded. “Just arrived.”

“Ningning, I was arguing with Elder Brother Qi because I don’t want to implicate him.” Yan Shiyao clutched her hand and explained, “I’m afraid the Emperor of Qi might bring trouble down on Elder Brother Qi.”

She couldn’t explain to Ningning that her feelings for Qi Qingchen had suddenly vanished — she had no choice but to deceive her this once.

Yan Yunning nodded and let out a flat “Oh.”

It wasn’t as if Qi Qingchen was the one who had thrown Xiaoshi into the river — why would the Qi Emperor implicate him?

Her elder sister was talking complete nonsense!

“Ningning, come with Elder Sister to check on Xiaoshi.” Yan Shiyao said.

If she went alone, she might very well be framed again. She wanted to know — why had Xiaoshi framed her?