I started as a concubine, and I made the crown prince cry with my delicious food.

Liu Ruyan lay on the ground, completely stunned.

The scalding soup splashed onto the back of her hand, sending a burning pain through her, but she couldn't feel it.

All she felt was a chill coming from above, a chill that made her feel as if she had fallen into an ice cave from head to toe.

She slowly raised her head.

He met Xiao Jingshi's eyes, which were burning with raging anger.

That wasn't the impatient, aloof indifference she'd seen before.

It was a look that mixed extreme disgust, contempt, and raging fury. As if she were some kind of filthy, disgusting garbage.

"Your...Your Highness..." Her lips trembled with fear, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably. "I...I didn't mean to...I just...I just saw how hard you've been working these past few days and wanted to bring you a bowl of calming soup...I've been waiting here for a long time, and my legs were numb, so...that's why I accidentally fell..."

She was still trying to defend herself using her usual "weakness" rhetoric.

However, Xiao Jingshi didn't even have the patience to listen to her finish.

He didn't even bend down to help her up; he just looked down at her, his voice so cold it could shatter ice.

Stop with your pretentious act.

"Miss Liu," he said, emphasizing each word, "I have always believed that women from prominent families in Jiangnan, even if they lack talent, should at least understand the meaning of 'propriety, righteousness, integrity, and a sense of shame.'"

"But you," he looked at Liu Ruyan, who was sprawled on the ground, disheveled and utterly wretched, his contempt deepening, "in the dead of night, disheveled, waiting outside a man's room, and engaging in such a despicable act of throwing yourself at him. Is this how your Liu family raised you? What do you take a woman's reputation and dignity for? As a bargaining chip to curry favor with the powerful?"

Every word he said was like a sharp knife, stabbing deeply into Liu Ruyan's heart.

She had never been so mercilessly humiliated in public.

"I...I didn't..." she cried, shaking her head, trying to explain, but found herself unable to utter a single word.

"You don't?" Xiao Jingshi sneered. He suddenly felt that it was a waste of his breath to say another word to this kind of person.

He originally intended to have someone drag her away, but at that moment, Ye An'an's image reappeared in his mind once again.

He thought of Ye An'an.

That woman also cared about him.

But her concern was shown in preparing dried meat and sauces for him to eat on the road, and in writing him the epidemic prevention manual that could save countless lives.

Her concern was genuine, warm, and powerful.

Instead of resorting to such underhanded, self-righteous, and disgusting methods as this woman in front of me.

An indescribable rage surged forth from the depths of Xiao Jingshi's heart once more.

He felt that Liu Ruyan's behavior was not only insulting to herself, but also to his feelings for Ye An'an.

Did she think that Xiao Jingshi was the kind of man who would be tempted by beauty and such despicable means?

Did she think that the person in his heart could be easily replaced by this ordinary woman?

This is simply the greatest desecration of the relationship between him and Ye An'an!

"Listen to me." Xiao Jingshi's voice grew colder, carrying an undeniable resolve. "My heart already belongs to someone else."

"My concubine, she may not be like you, putting on airs with playing the zither and brewing tea. But she is a hundred times, a thousand times, more intelligent than you, kinder than you, and more honest than you!"

"In my heart, she is a one-of-a-kind treasure. Someone like you isn't even worthy to carry her shoes!"

"So, stop with your ridiculous and pathetic thoughts. Don't try to test my limits with your dirty tricks anymore. Because you don't deserve it."

After saying that, he didn't look at the woman on the ground again; she was ashen-faced and completely dumbfounded.

He took a step back, as if looking at her even once more would dirty his eyes.

"Changting!" he called out coldly towards the other end of the corridor.

"Your servant is here!" Changting, Xie Zhao, and Lu Chengyuan had actually been alerted by the commotion, but they dared not come over. Upon hearing His Highness's summons, Changting hurriedly ran over.

He was also taken aback when he saw the messy scene before him.

"Drag her back to her room." Xiao Jingshi pointed at Liu Ruyan on the ground, his tone filled with disgust. "Tell her to leave my group first thing tomorrow morning. I don't want to see her again."

"Yes, Your Highness."

"And another thing," Xiao Jingshi added, "I need to wash this land thoroughly with hot water ten times! I think it's very dirty."

After saying that, he slammed his door shut, cutting himself off from everything outside.

In the corridor, only Liu Ruyan, who was lying on the ground, trembling and unable to cry anymore, and Xie Zhao and Lu Chengyuan, who were standing beside her, looking at each other in shock.

They were all completely stunned by what His Highness the Crown Prince had just said.

They knew that His Highness the Crown Prince was protecting the Consort, but they never expected that he would protect her to this extent.

Dragons have scales that cannot be touched; they will surely enrage you.

Today, they witnessed it with their own eyes.

Ye An'an, the Crown Prince's concubine, is the Crown Prince's most sensitive and untouchable symptom.

Whoever touches it dies.