On the night of the broken engagement, the paranoid prince came to me crying and asking for my statu

Fu Jingrong leaned close to Su Kang's ear and whispered something. In Su Kang's eyes full of shock, he straightened up, his face, which was not at all like a young man in his twenties, with an attitude of "you must cooperate" written all over it.

Su Kang came back to his senses, and even his tone was no longer as respectful as before, "This matter concerns my son's lifelong happiness and the future safety of my family. Please forgive me for not being able to obey your order."

Fu Jingrong seemed to have expected Su Kang to have this attitude. He said calmly, "What if I say that I asked you to come back?"

...

The palace banquet arrived as scheduled.

Su Sui'an was dug up early in the morning.

Amid her continuous yawning, Liu'er and Mei'er finally helped her dress up.

Ji Lanshuang even warned her, "An'er, it's better to be at home than to be in the palace. Don't act like a spoiled child."

Ji Lanshuang had already known about Su Sui'an's rejection of Gu Xiuyan.

When the emperor first granted the marriage, Ji Lanshuang had no special feelings for the young heir to the Duke Gu's Mansion.

But her daughter liked him, so even though she knew that the young man didn't like her daughter and didn't respect her daughter, she could only turn a blind eye.

Ji Lanshuang was very pleased that her daughter had come to her senses and dared to reject Gu Xiuyan openly.

But once you enter the palace, things are completely different.

Ji Lanshuang had never had the opportunity to enter the palace before, and almost everything she knew was pieced together word by word by the servants who had served in the Marquis' Mansion before.

Those ladies from high-ranking families and concubines in the harem always like to do some little tricks and use some little tricks in secret.

When attending a palace banquet, if everything is done properly, it's fine. But if you accidentally offend a noble and are tricked by someone, it is very likely that the palace banquet will turn into a funeral banquet.

Even more exaggerated, it is possible that because of an inappropriate palace banquet, all nine clans would be executed, and that would really be her fault...

The more he thought about it, the more scared he became. Ji Lanshuang's palms even began to sweat.

Su Sui'an couldn't help laughing, "Don't worry, mother, I'm not one of those people who can't tell the difference. I know how to handle the situation."

Seeing that Ji Lanshuang still held her hand tightly, she patted Ji Lanshuang's hand again, "The palace banquet is not as terrible as those servants say, that if you attend a palace banquet, your entire clan will be executed... It's not that exaggerated, it's not like reading a storybook."

As he spoke, Su Sui'an winked at Ji Lanshuang.

Su Jinchi, who was standing aside, had no idea what his mother and sister were talking about.

But seeing her mother's worried face, Su Jinchi, who was still eating snacks, put down the snacks in her hand, came to Ji Lanshuang, hugged Ji Lanshuang, and smiled flatteringly, "Mom, Chi'er will protect you and me."

"Come on, you little brat, it's good enough that you can protect yourself and not make mother and sister worry." Su Sui'an glanced at Su Jinchi with pretended contempt.

Su Jinchi suddenly felt that she was looked down upon, and she pouted and complained, "Sister, you are going too far."

"Who makes you the youngest? If not you, who should I bully? Lululu..."

Su Jinchi waved his short arms to hit Su Sui'an, but Su Sui'an teased him like a monkey, hitting and dodging. Finally, Su Jinchi could only pout and squeeze onto Ji Lanshuang's knees to sit down, "Mom, my sister bullies me every day."

"Okay, okay, stop making trouble. Sister is not bullying you. She likes you and is teasing you." Ji Lanshuang looked at Su Sui'an helplessly and dotingly, and the latter stuck out his tongue mischievously.

After hearing the commotion from the siblings, Ji Lanshuang actually felt relieved.

Except for Su Kang who rode a horse, Su Sui'an, Ji Lanshuang and Su Jinchi set off in a carriage.

Outside the palace gate, a low-key ebony carriage was waiting.

It was not until Su Sui'an and his party got off the carriage and walked past the ebony carriage that the ebony carriage moved.

But it did not attract the attention of Su Sui'an's family. When they passed by the ebony carriage, they did not even look at it.

Mu Xiaoxiao wanted to wave and say hello to Su Sui'an's family in the carriage, but was stopped by Fu Jingrong.

"No, son, didn't you ask us to wait here just to say hello to An An? Why did you stop me when I raised my hand to say hello?"

Fu Jingrong's eyes flashed with helplessness. "Now there are so many people around, it's good enough for us to know that they have entered the palace smoothly. When we go back to the palace banquet, mother, you can find another opportunity and send two confidants to secretly protect them and their daughter."

When it comes to things like palace banquets, we are not afraid of accidents happening to men, but we are afraid of women being suddenly framed.

Su Jinchi followed Su Kang, and with him and his father on the men's side, it was naturally much safer than the women's side.

Mu Xiaoxiao immediately patted her chest and promised Fu Jingrong, "Don't worry, son, with your mother here, no one can touch your wife."

Whenever Mu Xiaoxiao made such a promise, Fu Jingrong's face would almost have the words "I don't believe you" written on it.

...

After entering the palace, Su Sui'an and her daughter were separated from Su Kang and his son because the seats for men and women were different.

Under the guidance of the palace maid, Su Sui'an quickly sat down in a position that was neither too far to the front nor too far to the corner.

Fortunately.

This location is safe.

It is not too high, which means that even if the emperor gives rewards, he will not give too much. If the rewards are just in line with the rules, it will not become a thorn in everyone's eyes.

It won't be too far behind, which means that the matter of Su Sui'an and others separating from the Changping Marquis' Mansion without authorization has been passed over.

The emperor implicitly allowed Su Kang to separate from the Changping Marquis' Mansion.

The Marquis of Changping's Mansion, which was always the first to arrive at the palace banquet, was the last to arrive this time.

Others may not know the reason, but Su Sui'an understands it very well.

In the past, her family lived in the Changping Marquis Mansion and her mother had been supporting the entire mansion with her dowry.

Now that they have moved out, it is naturally impossible for them to support each other as before. Lack of money is not the biggest problem. The problem is that Hong has been imprisoned in Fuyao Hall due to mental disorder. The Hong family almost severed their relationship with the Changping Marquisate because of Hong's affairs.

Behind the Hong Mansion is the Taifu Mansion...

Having lost the Hong family, the Yue family he could rely on, Su Qishun was no longer as comfortable in the court as before.

In addition, since Liang was in charge of the family, the servants' monthly wages were the first to be affected. As the monthly wages were reduced, those old servants who wanted to make some money by purchasing could not take advantage of it and naturally became lazy.

It's no big deal to be found out if you're lazy, and you won't be punished, so more and more servants are lazy...

A vicious circle is formed.

Without looking at Su Qishun and Su Jincheng, just by looking at Liang and Zhao Qingwan wearing half-worn clothes and slightly outdated headgear at the palace banquet, one can roughly get an idea of ​​how the Changping Marquis' Mansion has been living recently.

Even though he was rejected when he wanted to make peace, Su Qishun couldn't help but step forward and exchange greetings when he saw Su Kang.

However, before his hand could reach Su Kang's shoulder, Su Kang gently dodged to the side.

"Lord Su, respect yourself."

Looking at Su Qishun again, even though that smiling face was exactly the same as in his memory, Su Kang still couldn't greet Su Qishun with a smile like he did in his previous life.

After all, in his previous life, it was with this smiling face that he did cruel things to him, his wife and children.

"Second brother, if it was your own women and children who were making trouble, it would be fine, but you are doing the same. But what should I do?"

Su Qishun's smile froze and his tone was quite helpless.

It looks like an elder brother's tolerance and pampering of his disobedient younger brother.

In fact, the two words "brother" that he just said were equivalent to bringing up the old marquis and his wife in disguise.

Such tea talk would be no problem if it could deceive Su Kang in his previous life.

But...

Su Kang went to hell and came back step by step on a bloody road. He also knew the truth about most of the things. How could he be willing to be used by Su Qishun again?

"Brother, there are some things you can't say casually."

Su Kang had a polite smile on his face, but his smile didn't reach his eyes at all. "If it weren't for my wife constantly taking out money from her private treasury, I'm afraid the income and expenditure of Changping Marquis' Mansion would still be in deficit. You can see how much I have paid for Changping Marquis' Mansion over the years. Now my wife and children left Changping Marquis' Mansion because they were wronged, and it was you who agreed. How come you said they were just fooling around?"

At this point, Su Qishun could no longer keep the smile on his face.

"Second brother, what do you mean by this?"