After the milk ball arrived, the father who had no heirs had a string of good luck.

The maidservant didn't quite understand: "Huh? What's so exciting?"

Li Ji beckoned to her with her finger, and when she came to her, she handed her a plate of peeled grapes: "Keep them chilled, and take them to Rui Rui when she comes back."

"Master!" the maid stamped her foot. "Were you even listening to me?"

Li Ji looked at her head with an expression as if she were looking at an idiot, and sighed deeply: "Tell me, do you think someone of my status is qualified to be a prince's principal wife?"

The maid still didn't understand and shook her head in confusion.

Her mistress was the daughter of a royal merchant and was not qualified to be the prince's principal wife.

Li Ji spread her hands: "Then that settles it. Even if I manage to become a princess, I won't actually become one. I'll just be a stepping stone for other women! So why should I even bother?"

The maid choked.

That makes so much sense, I can't argue with it!

Li Ji continued, "So, even if there's no princess consort, another woman will become one. It's never my turn, right? Besides, can you guarantee the new princess consort will have the same good temper as the current one? If the new princess consort has a bad temper, like those court ladies who forbid concubines from doing this or that, and establish a bunch of rules, wouldn't I be asking for trouble?"

Maidservant: "!!" Oh right!

"Alright, go on, stop showing off your clever brain in front of me!" Li Ji waved her hand, thinking her maid was a bit stupid.

She is not stupid.

Even if you can't win the prince's love, there's no need to make things difficult for yourself, right?

Maidservant: "..."

...

Not long after Qin Zhiyan returned to her own courtyard, Zhang Ji's maid, Hongxia, came to remind her to be careful of Consort Gu.

It was obvious that she had found out who the cleaning maid who had been gossiping about her was.

Qin Zhiyan frowned: "Is Consort Gu that kind of person?"

Most importantly, she saw that Consort Gu didn't like the prince either, so what reason did she have to be jealous of her?

Hongxia said, "Your Highness, you should still be careful."

"I understand. Please thank Consort Zhang on my behalf!"

After Hongxia left, Granny Xu frowned and said, "Your Highness, we cannot sit idly by and wait for our doom."

"After all, she was just passing on messages; she didn't do anything too serious."

Qin Zhiyan lowered her eyes, feeling somewhat distressed: "She is, after all, the prince's concubine, so it's only natural that she'd vie for his favor. Try to remind the prince to visit her courtyard more often; hopefully, she won't do anything foolish..."

Granny Xu, exasperated, said, "Your Highness..."

"No need to say anything more, Granny."

Qin Zhiyan interrupted her, suppressing her discomfort, seemingly trying to persuade the nanny, and also trying to persuade herself: "I am the prince's wife, it is my duty to appease the ladies in his harem, and if necessary, I will even arrange for the prince to take in a few more concubines. If I do my duty and manage the harem well, the prince can focus on the affairs outside without any distractions. If I do not do a good job, it will only be the prince who will be troubled."

Xu Mama was extremely helpless and sighed, "It is truly a blessing for the Prince to have such a virtuous wife as you."

"I am very happy to be married to the person I love..."

Qin Zhiyan recalled Situ Che's company yesterday, and the discomfort in her heart was dispelled by sweetness, even her eyes filled with tenderness.

...

National School Superintendent.

When Tang Rui stepped into this place again, she received a warm welcome from Situ An.

At the same time, she also received the resentful gazes of Situ Qiang and Situ Jin, as well as a polite nod from Situ Wei.

Tang Rui smiled at her, ignoring the siblings, and sat down next to Situ An: "Little Imperial Uncle, it's been a long time, I've missed you terribly."

"I miss you so much..." Milk tea!

Situ An chuckled, glanced at Situ Qiang and Situ Jin, and whispered, "You haven't come these past two days, and neither have those two siblings. Later, I heard from Mother that Father Emperor said that if you don't come to the Imperial Academy, they aren't allowed to come either."

"Oh? Is that so..." She didn't know that.

No wonder Situ Wei keeps going to the Prince Li's mansion.

Situ An: "Father really dotes on you; he's not even this good to me."

"..." The emperor doesn't love me; he clearly loves my father.

It's just a case of loving the house because of its owner.

If she weren't Situ Che's daughter, the emperor wouldn't have doted on her!

Tang Rui saw things very clearly, and so did Gu Nanyu, who scoffed and once again spouted wild words: "The Emperor governs the world with benevolence and virtue, and Prince Li has devoted himself to the Great Xia. How could the Emperor not love him more? It's laughable that some people have no self-awareness, are incompetent and immoral, and are like clowns jumping around, insisting on competing with Prince Li."

Situ An looked speechless: "Could you please say less?"

You can't feel comfortable if you don't subtly criticize the Crown Prince for a day, can you?

Tang Rui looked at Gu Nanyu, her round, dark eyes full of curiosity: "Gu Nanyu, you seem to really dislike Uncle Crown Prince?"

Gu Nanyu said calmly, "Princess, you're overthinking it. There's nothing to it."

Situ An tugged at Tang Rui's sleeve and whispered in her ear, "This kid was kidnapped by human traffickers when he was a child. I heard it was the Crown Prince who ordered it."

Tang Rui was stunned: "Why would Uncle Crown Prince do this?"

Is it really that heinous to let child traffickers abduct children?

Seeing that Gu Nanyu wasn't looking this way, Situ An continued, "The Crown Prince is envious of the Prime Minister's power and wants the Prime Minister to take sides, but the Prime Minister is a well-known royalist and has never agreed."

Tang Rui understood.

Therefore, the Crown Prince turned his attention to Gu Nanyu.

The two crickets were unaware that Situ Qiang was staring at them with a sinister gaze.

When noon arrived, Tang Rui happily ran to the cafeteria.

Her lunch went well this time, without any surprises.

Miaozhu took out the dishes from the food box one by one, and finally took out a large paper package and opened it. Inside were hot meat buns.

"Wow!" Tang Rui exclaimed, her mouth watering. "Miaozhu, where did these steamed buns come from?"

Miaozhu smiled innocently: "I... I heard from Granny Rong that the princess has a big appetite and was worried that she wouldn't have enough for lunch, so I just sneaked out to buy ten meat buns. Princess, try them, these buns are especially delicious."

"Great!" Tang Rui picked up a bun, took a bite, and her eyes lit up instantly: "Braised pork filling? So delicious!"

The meat was very fresh, and every bite was bursting with juice.

"I'm glad the princess likes them. I'll go buy a few more after school!"

"Okay! I'll have your nanny give you the money when we get back."

"Running so fast, are you a reincarnated starving ghost?" Situ An also sat down, and his servant brought out all the dishes and arranged them.

However… compared to the five or six dishes in front of Tang Rui, he only had two dishes and a bowl of rice.

Situ An was speechless: "Can you even eat that much?"

"Sure!" Tang Rui was too embarrassed to say it, as she didn't have enough for herself.

At home, she usually eats seven or eight dishes at each meal, but here she only eats five or six, because the food container is too small.

Luckily, Miaozhu was thoughtful and bought her steamed buns, otherwise she would have gone hungry.

Gu Nanyu calmly picked up his food box and sat down.

He also had quite a few dishes, five in total, plus a bowl of rice.

Situ Anfu admitted, "You two have eaten way too much!"

"That's why I'm tall, and you're so short!" Gu Nanyu said mercilessly.

Situ An choked for a moment, then pouted unconvinced, "You're only a head taller than me, I'll grow taller."

"Won't I grow taller?" Gu Nanyu glanced at him sideways and started showing off her food.

Situ Qiang, who was carrying a food box and looking for Gu Nanyu, saw that Gu Nanyu was sitting with Tang Rui, and her face darkened.