Cypress Boat Floating

The prince stood in the garden with a gloomy face, unconsciously crushing an innocent flower in his hand. Soon, the flower melted into a red juice under his destruction, staining his hand.

Li Muqian, who was far away, saw the prince, and with a charming smile on her face, she twisted her waist and slowly walked behind him, stretched out her hand to hold his arm, with a look of surprise, "Your Highness, how come you have time to come to my place today."

She tried to suppress the joy in her voice, but it was obvious that it wasn't working very well.

The prince stretched out his hand and held her in his arms. Li Muqian leaned softly in his arms. Before she could be happy for a few seconds, she heard the prince say, "Today, father called the second son over, and went to have dinner with Concubine Shu with him." There was a hint of anger in his voice, and the hand covered with flower juice was raised and pinched her face fiercely.

Not to mention that the prince is a man, not to mention that he is a man with some martial arts skills. The strength of his hands is not something that a weak woman like Li Muqian can withstand. In a blink of an eye, Li Muqian's pretty little face has gradually changed under the strength of the prince's hands. She can't breathe and her cheeks are painful.

The prince seemed unaware of her situation. When Li Muqian's face gradually began to turn purple, he suddenly let go of her hand, and Li Muqian knelt on the ground.

"Your Highness... Your Highness, this..." Li Muqian, who was freed, had a pale face and a few tears in the corners of her eyes, but she controlled her tears very well and looked at the prince with a delicate and charming look.

But the prince did not feel the slightest bit of pity for her appearance. He just squatted down and looked at Li Muqian coldly, and said to her in a ruthless tone: "You'd better not let this matter involve me."

After saying that, he waved his hand and stood up and left.

Li Muqian was left alone on the cold ground, feeling the chill.

In the corridor not far away, Lin Youqian, who saw everything that happened here, sighed, took an umbrella and walked up to Li Muqian.

It started snowing, as if Li Muqian was not miserable enough. Snowflakes fell on her head and penetrated into her clothes. Her body was cold but her heart was even colder. Or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say that she was scared.

Li Muqian knelt on the ground and stretched out her hands to greet the falling snowflakes. The snowflakes were blocked by an umbrella before they fell on her hands.

Someone came over to her, she looked up at the umbrella above her head, and her gaze shifted from the umbrella to the person holding the umbrella.

"Are you here to laugh at me?" Li Muqian withdrew her hand. The expression on her face was no longer the delicate and weak look of a little white flower. She withdrew her gaze from Lin Youqian and said coldly.

When Lin Youqian appeared at this time, she didn't think that this person came to see her with good intentions.

Lin Youqian didn't react to her attitude, and squatted down regardless of the dirt on the ground, staring directly into her eyes, with no expression on her face. This was the first time Li Muqian saw such a look in Lin Youqian's eyes, a look of contempt, disdain, but hatred.

Seeing Lin Youqian's contemptuous eyes, Li Muqian became even more angry. She was a concubine's daughter, and had to be inferior to the legitimate daughter in everything since she was a child. She didn't have what the legitimate daughter didn't have, and she didn't have what the legitimate daughter had. She grew up with humiliation. She had seen too many legitimate daughter's eyes since she was a child, and she thought she had finally gotten rid of it. But now Lin Youqian's eyes reminded her of her life before she married into the Eastern Palace, and anger surged in her heart for a moment.

"What do you mean?" Thinking of this, Li Muqian spoke to Lin Youqian even more unhappily, but in fact, she was jealous and envious in her heart. She wished she was also a legitimate daughter and could have the confidence that Lin Youqian had.

"When you first thought of asking me to do this, you should have thought of this result." Lin Youqian seemed like a different person at this time. She was no longer the Lin Youqian who ate vegetarian food and chanted Buddhist scriptures and let her arrange everything. The sharpness in her eyes scared Li Muqian.

"You know?" Li Muqian didn't realize that what she said had already shown some signs of retreat, and her voice was trembling.

Li Muqian always thought she was very smart. Before she entered the palace, Lin Youqian had been chanting in the Buddhist temple. The prince was only more respectful to her based on their superficial husband-wife relationship and the fact that he needed to rely on her family.

After she entered the palace, Lin Youqian had always been polite and never found fault with her. She would also take the initiative to let her handle the affairs of the Eastern Palace. She always looked indifferent.

In Li Muqian's eyes, she was like a rabbit that had strayed into a wolf's den. The rabbit was completely unaware of everything and only knew how to do its own thing. Sometimes, this poor rabbit even cared about the wolf that was about to eat her.

This made Li Muqian feel that she was a woman who was too kind, who did not understand palace fighting and who would only let her be manipulated. However, she had not thought that Lin Youqian was the daughter of General Lin, and her mother was the daughter of the previous prime minister. How could a woman with such a wealth be completely unaware of these things?

Lin Youqian reached out and brushed off the snowflakes on her head. "I know everything you've done since you entered the palace, and I won't hold it against you. Do you know why I'm telling you this now?"

Li Muqian shook her head ignorantly.

"You really shouldn't think of using me to hurt my friend." Lin Youqian still had a blank expression on her face, but every word she said frightened Li Muqian. "Wei Wangshu is my good friend, and you actually thought of using me to hurt her. Is it because I gave in that you feel fearless?"

As she spoke, Lin Youqian reached out to wipe away the tears from her eyes. "Since you came to see me last time, I didn't take it seriously because you didn't do anything. But you actually dared to gossip about me outside. If anything happens to Wangshu, I think your role as a concubine will be over."

After saying that, Lin Youqian threw down the umbrella and got up and left, regardless of Li Muqian's current mood or what she was thinking.

Li Muqian looked at her leaving back, her nose feeling slightly sour for a moment, and she felt very uncomfortable. She thought she had finally found a way out. She seduced the prince with her beauty. After entering the palace, she found that the crown princess was a person indifferent to fame and fortune. She thought she had made a name for herself and even the crown princess could be manipulated by her. But she didn't expect that she was the one being manipulated.

"Hahahahahahahahahahaha" Li Muqian was filled with sorrow, but instead of crying, she laughed. She threw away the umbrella that Lin Youqian left on her and let the snowflakes fall.

A crystal clear teardrop fell on the snow and disappeared without a trace.

"Miss, is this okay?" Zhimei asked cautiously behind Lin Youqian. She naturally knew about the friendship between her young lady and Princess Qin, but was it worth it to give up the appearance she had disguised for so long for the Princess Qin?

"Zhimei, you know, I only regret why I married into this family." Lin Youqian stopped and looked at the snowflakes falling on the plum branches in the distance. Her voice was very soft, as if it came from far away, but every word fell into Zhimei's ears: "Wangshu and I have been friends since childhood. If I hadn't married the prince, we might still be able to eat together and visit temple fairs like before. We could also talk to each other when we encounter problems. But now, we can only look at each other from a distance in the mansion not far away."

"Miss..." Zhimei wanted to comfort her, but didn't know how.

After meeting the prince for the first time, Lin Youqian tactfully told her father that she wanted to marry the prince. Her father was reluctant at first, but later the emperor granted her marriage to the prince, and the marriage could not be refused. Lin Youqian had to get married amid her parents' worry.

However, after she actually married the prince, she discovered that she wanted to marry the prince of her imagination, not the real one.

At first, the prince was indeed very kind to her, but she also knew that he was only interested in the power of her mother's family. With her mother's family around, the prince had to give her some face no matter what.

But she also knew that this was not what she wanted after all, but things had come to this point and she had no choice. She could have lived a good life, but who knew that her good friend Wei Wangshu would marry the prince's rival, the King of Qin.

The prince knew that he and Wei Wangshu were good friends, and he had hinted in his words that he wanted her to use this relationship to spy on the situation in the Prince of Qin's Palace, but she didn't want her pure friendship to be tainted by the fight between men.

So he had no choice but to become a monk, chanting Buddha's name in the Buddhist temple every day to avoid it all, but he didn't expect that he couldn't escape it after all.

"Wangshu..." Lin Youqian absentmindedly repeated Wei Wangshu's name, wondering if possible, could he give himself another chance.

The snow fell heavier and heavier, gradually covering up all the traces on the ground, and the people who came could no longer see the way to retreat.

......

The Xianwang Mansion was in perfect order under Huaixi's arrangement. The Concubine Shu also took this opportunity to arrange a banquet for the mansion.

Following Concubine Shu's arrangement, the opening banquet of Prince Xian's Mansion arrived amid everyone's anticipation.

Many people came to the opening banquet that day. Even the Crown Prince, who wanted to kill Lu Ci Qiu, came with his Crown Princess and presented a small gift. Lu Ci Qiu accepted his gift with a fake smile and kept him for dinner.

Lu Zhixing and Wei Wangshu came to Lu Ciqiu's mansion early in the morning to help. As brothers and sisters-in-law, they were indispensable.

When she met Wei Wangshu again, Lin Youqian had a lot to say to her, but she couldn't say it in this situation.

Wei Wangshu smiled at her, winked at her, and told her not to be impulsive and to talk about it later. Only then did she feel at ease and followed the prince to the table.

Lu Ci Qiu and Lu Zhixing were still receiving guests at the door. A lot of people came. The list of these people was basically decided by Lu Zhixing and Shufei. There were not many people that Lu Ci Qiu really knew.

The banquet was held smoothly. Everyone ate and drank. No one came to make trouble. Nothing happened. Everything was perfectly controlled by Lu Zhixing. Lu Ciqiu just had to be a puppet and accept everyone's toasts. Of course, based on his alcohol tolerance and the last time Ye Jianqing told him not to drink, he replaced all the wine in his hand with water, at least to ensure that he would not get drunk.

After everyone had left, he collapsed in exhaustion on the chair. The scene before him was a mess, but he was too lazy to call for help, nor did he want anyone to clean it up for the time being.

Ye Jianqing, who was unable to openly appear at the banquet due to his status, saw that everyone had left, so he came out from the side, walked to his side, and poured him a glass of water: "You must be exhausted."

"Tired." Lu Ci Qiu was more than tired, he was so tired that he couldn't even move. He really couldn't imagine that a mere banquet at the opening of the mansion could cause so much trouble. He was obviously not that tired before his rebirth, and this time it was all handled by Concubine Shu and Lu Zhixing. He had done very little, so why was he so tired?

“Then don’t you think that before your rebirth you were just an ordinary prince, but now you are a great contributor to flood control, and everyone will definitely come to curry favor with you.” Ye Jianqing said with a smile.

Lu Ci Qiu struggled to get up from the chair and looked at her: "Have you eaten?"

"I ate." Ye Jianqing was not stupid. How could she let herself down? She still had to eat three meals a day.

In winter, it always gets dark faster. While the two were talking, it was already dark outside and the lights in the palace were turned on.

It was already dark. Lu Ci Qiu stood up from his chair and pulled Ye Jianqing to go out. "Come on, I'll take you to see something."

Ye Jianqing looked confused but still followed him, "Where are you going? What are you going to see?"

"You'll know when you get there." Lu Ci Qiu turned around and gave her a mysterious smile, refusing to reveal anything.

When the two of them walked out of the hall, Huai Xi had already ordered someone to put a tall ladder next to them. Lu Ci Qiu let go of Ye Jianqing's hand and climbed up the ladder to the roof. After he climbed up, he lay on the eaves and shouted to Ye Jianqing below: "Come up quickly!"

Ye Jianqing then began to climb up the ladder, although she had no idea why Lu Ci Qiu suddenly wanted to take her to the roof.

After the two of them sat down, Ye Jianqing asked, "What is this for?"

Lu Ci Qiu put his hand to his mouth and hushed.

Suddenly, there was a bang in the distance.

Ye Jianqing looked up and saw a gorgeous firework blooming in the sky. The fireworks looked extremely beautiful in the inky sky, and there were so many fireworks that it was hard to keep up.

The fireworks were very beautiful and Ye Jianqing couldn't take her eyes off them. She hadn't seen fireworks for a long time and she was very surprised.

Lu Ci Qiu supported his head with his hands and looked at Ye Jianqing with his face sideways. Because he was happy, Ye Jianqing's eyes had already smiled into crescent shapes, and her little mouth was slightly open. The light from the fireworks shone in her eyes, making her eyes look black and bright. She was watching the fireworks, and Lu Ci Qiu was watching the fireworks in her eyes.

Lu Ci Qiu leaned close to her ear and whispered, "I didn't take you to see the fireworks during the Chinese New Year. I'm making up for it now."

This was another belated New Year's gift from him, which should have been given to her long ago. However, he got drunk on New Year's Day and prevented her from seeing the beautiful fireworks. Now he wanted to make up for it.