“She doesn’t?” Wei Qiang was clearly disappointed by Zhaohua’s response.

Zhaohua bit her lip. “What’s wrong with Your Highness?”

“Nothing.” Wei Qiang shook his head, seeming to have lost interest in staying, and rose to leave.

“Your Highness—”

Wei Qiang didn’t turn back. “I’m going out for a walk. You rest well.”

Watching the man disappear around the corner, Zhaohua gripped the doorframe, filled with alarm and uncertainty.

The Crown Prince had now asked twice whether Miss Luo resembled the Princess!

What did he mean by this?

Could he have discovered similarities between “Miss Luo” and the Princess?

At this possibility, Zhaohua felt a chill run through her entire body.

“Consort—” Qing’er called out.

Zhaohua steadied herself and walked toward the low couch as if nothing had happened.

Perhaps it wasn’t that serious. She couldn’t lose her composure.

She had already visited the Princess today. She would wait until tomorrow—tomorrow she would go see the Princess, or perhaps invite Xiu Yue over, to give the Princess a warning.

No!

Zhaohua rejected this idea.

Since the Crown Prince had noticed that Miss Luo resembled the Princess and couldn’t help but come ask her about it, she temporarily couldn’t maintain too frequent contact with the Princess and the others.

Otherwise, even if she continued to deny it, it would make the Crown Prince feel that Miss Luo was connected to the Princess.

If that man connected the dots and realized that the cook Xiu Gu beside Miss Luo was actually the Princess’s maid Xiu Yue, that would be troublesome indeed.

She couldn’t panic.

Zhaohua picked up a cup of tea and took a sip.

Qing’er quickly said, “Consort, the tea has gone cold. This servant will fetch fresh tea.”

“No need. Cold tea helps clear and awaken the mind.”

Wei Qiang walked out of the temporary palace and unknowingly found himself near that tent again.

On the boundless grassland, the tents dotted the landscape like pure white clouds embellishing a green sky.

But only that one cloud captured his full attention.

The meal was clearly almost ready. The enticing aroma drifted far and wide, causing people nearby to pace about with pained expressions.

Knowing it was delicious but unable to taste it was truly miserable.

Wei Qiang walked closer step by step, stopping again at a short distance away.

Those palace servants and guards tactfully halted, each wearing an expressionless face.

In serving nobles, only by achieving the state of neither hearing nor asking could one endure.

Everyone in the palace understood this principle.

Only his trusted eunuch Dou Ren stood silently at Wei Qiang’s side, trying to fathom his master’s thoughts.

“Dou Ren.” After standing for an unknown amount of time, Wei Qiang suddenly spoke.

“This servant is here.”

“Do you still remember the Princess?”

Though Wei Qiang’s voice was soft, it startled Dou Ren.

He had been castrated and assigned to serve the Crown Prince when he was very young.

No—His Highness had still been the heir of Prince Pingnan at that time.

The prince’s mansion maintained a certain number of palace servants, and he was one of them.

It could be said that among people like him, he understood His Highness best.

When His Highness asked about the Princess, he naturally wasn’t asking about the current young Princess of Prince Pingnan’s mansion, but about Princess Qingyang who had passed away twelve years ago.

“This servant naturally remembers.” Dou Ren said in a low voice.

Although people in the Eastern Palace vaguely knew that His Highness had never let go of Princess Qingyang, no one would be so loose-lipped as to mention it.

After all, Princess Qingyang was the daughter of a traitor.

In fact, this was the first time His Highness had asked him about this.

“Have you seen Miss Luo?”

“This servant has seen her.” Dou Ren looked toward the direction from which the aroma drifted.

The young woman His Highness had just mentioned was standing beside the cook saying something.

The cook carefully lifted the lid of the clay pot and nodded slightly.

The drifting aroma seemed to grow even richer.

“Do you think Miss Luo standing by the stove… resembles the Princess?”

Dou Ren started and couldn’t help but look a few more times, yet didn’t dare respond carelessly to these words.

But remaining silent after his master asked a question clearly wouldn’t do either.

Dou Ren kept his eyes fixed on that spot, watching as Xiu Yue carefully lifted the clay pot from the stove using thick cloth padding. Somehow a flash of inspiration struck him, and as if possessed, he said, “This servant actually thinks that cook rather resembles the senior maid beside the Princess who was very skilled at cooking.”

Wei Qiang’s expression changed dramatically, and he asked in a heavy voice, “What was that maid’s name?”

He used to know it, but having not mentioned it for so long, he couldn’t recall it for the moment.

Zhaohua had always been by his side, and Shufeng and Jiangxue had both died at Prince Pingnan’s mansion, so his impression of them was deep—he couldn’t forget even if he wanted to.

But that maid with excellent culinary skills had been forgotten in the depths of his memory along with the fall of Prince Zhennan’s mansion.

Dou Ren bowed slightly and said, “This servant remembers that maid was called Xiu Yue.”

Xiu Yue?

Wei Qiang looked at the cook with her plain, homely features, and his expression changed abruptly.

Xiu Yue, Xiu Gu…

The character “Xiu” was extremely common—out of ten women, probably two would have this character in their name.

But when Miss Luo made him seem to see Luo’er, the situation became different.

Could Xiu Gu be Xiu Yue?

If so, had Xiu Yue, like him, noticed that Miss Luo resembled Luo’er and deliberately approached her? Or did Miss Luo have some mysterious connection with Luo’er, which led her to take in Xiu Yue?

Wei Qiang couldn’t help but take a step forward.

He wanted to confirm whether the cook called Xiu Gu was actually Luo’er’s maid Xiu Yue.

After taking one step, he stopped again and turned back toward the temporary palace.

If he wanted to confirm whether Xiu Gu was Xiu Yue, who would know better than Zhaohua?

Wei Qiang’s return made Zhaohua even more alarmed and uncertain.

“Did Your Highness not dine outside?”

Wei Qiang smiled slightly. “I came back to dine together with you.”

Zhaohua showed a moved expression.

Food was quickly set on the table, and the two ate in silence.

Halfway through the meal, Wei Qiang set down his silver chopsticks and said with a smile, “Yuniang, weren’t you going to learn how to make sour soup fish brain from Miss Luo’s cook? Have you learned it yet?”

“This concubine is clumsy and hasn’t learned it yet.”

“Practice makes perfect. Just have the cook come teach you a few more times.”

Zhaohua nodded. “This concubine thinks so too. This concubine will learn it soon and make it for Your Highness in the future.”

“You’re very thoughtful.” Wei Qiang lifted his chopsticks to pick up a piece of black mushroom, then his tone shifted. “They say culinary skill also depends on natural talent. I remember Luo’er had a maid whose culinary skills were exceptionally outstanding.”

Zhaohua’s hand holding the chopsticks trembled, and her face gradually paled.

“That maid was called Xiu Yue, wasn’t she?”

“Why is Your Highness suddenly asking about these things?”

“I just suddenly remembered.” Wei Qiang gazed at Zhaohua, his tone ambiguous.

Zhaohua’s expression was troubled, and she said in a trembling voice, “Forgive me. This concubine thought of old friends and lost her composure.”

Wei Qiang had been secretly observing Zhaohua’s reactions all along and couldn’t detect anything unusual for the moment.

Asking directly naturally wouldn’t work.

If Xiu Yue was still alive, she would be someone who had slipped through the net from Prince Zhennan’s mansion. Given Zhaohua’s deep sisterly bond with her, she certainly wouldn’t admit it.

Fortunately, Zhaohua would continue to interact with Xiu Gu in the future. If Xiu Gu truly was Xiu Yue, when the two were alone together, they would inevitably reveal some telltale signs.

He just needed to have someone quietly keep watch.

Both harboring their own thoughts, they found the meal utterly tasteless.

As night fell, the two lay side by side on the couch. After chatting for a while as usual, the man’s light, even breathing soon filled the room.

Zhaohua turned her head to look at him.

The man was approaching his thirtieth year yet remained extraordinarily handsome.

The years had made him shed his youthful inexperience and become deep and changeable.

Just like today’s subtle shift in his attitude toward her, and those heart-stopping words.

Suddenly, the sleeping man furrowed his brow.