Being an emperor is not something he can do, so he can only rely on his connections.

This restaurant is located in the market town, not far from the Marquis' Mansion, and can be reached in a few minutes.

Zhang Jingwei asked around, and Huangfu Ling went to the second floor, where a young man and Jiuer ordered a table of wine and food and were waiting for her.

Zhang Jingwei was utterly shocked. Holy crap! Is this prince really that extravagant? He wants two women for himself!

None of this matters anymore. What matters is why his wife would agree to such a drinking party?

Zhang Jingwei sneaked up to the second floor like a thief and checked each private room one by one. They were all empty except for one that was tightly closed.

Zhang Jingwei was looking through the window. As the saying goes, if you want to catch an adulterer, you have to catch two of them. He decided to check the situation first before rushing in. He imitated what they did in TV dramas, dipped his saliva in it, and poked a hole in the paper-pasted window.

Zhang Jingwei vaguely saw a man and two women talking happily. He changed his angle and looked at the other side. The man was actually the princess dressed as a man. He suddenly felt relieved. He was not interested in listening to the gossip between girls. He wanted to leave, but he heard a sensitive topic coming from inside.

The princess's eyebrows arched, her almond-shaped eyes widened, and she said coquettishly, "Why? I personally asked you out, but you refused to come out. You had to ask me to bring up my brother's status as a prince before you came out!"

Huangfu Ling's face flushed red with shame when she heard this, like a ripe apple. She bit her lower lip and said in a sweet voice, "Yanran, you are so naughty! How can you tease me like this?"

Jiu'er, who was standing by, covered her mouth with her hands and chuckled softly, then interrupted, "In my opinion, Sister Ling'er and your brother, the prince, are simply a match made in heaven!"

The princess nodded proudly, echoing Jiuer's words and continuing, "Isn't it? Look at that Jingwei, he's just a scholar. While you two don't have children yet, you'd better cancel this marriage! You are only fifteen years old this year, in your prime, there are plenty of outstanding men in the world for you to choose from!"

Jiu'er chimed in, "That's right, that's right. Although Zhang Jingwei looks like a scholar and has a bookish air about him, the key is that he makes himself stink all day long. If you sleep with him at night, you'll be terribly uncomfortable!"

Zhang Jingwei, eavesdropping outside the door, happened to overhear this conversation and was startled. He instinctively raised his arm and sniffed his underarm, and sure enough, he detected a faint, unpleasant odor. He had accidentally fallen into the pond a few days ago, and since then, he'd been so busy that he hadn't properly cleaned himself. Thinking of this, Zhang Jingwei blushed, feeling a surge of regret.

Huangfu Ling said coquettishly, "Sister Jiuer, please don't say such nonsense. He and I really didn't sleep together."

Jiu'er blinked and said jokingly, "That's even better. Since we're not actually husband and wife yet, it's much easier to break off the relationship. It's clean and simple, without any hassles!"

The princess at the side quickly interrupted, "If you become my sister-in-law, I promise to be obedient and law-abiding, and do my best to help you take care of the children every day."

Huangfu Ling turned her head and pouted, "Humph, I don't care about being your sister-in-law. Even though he's a live-in son-in-law, he's still my husband after all. I've decided to be with him for the rest of my life."

Jiuer couldn't help but ask curiously, "Oh my, what's so good about Zhang Jingwei? What exactly do you like about him?"

Huangfu Ling's face flushed slightly, and she said softly, "How about you listen to a poem he wrote a while ago?"

The princess immediately became interested: "Oh? What kind of poem is it? Tell me quickly."

Huangfu Ling then began to recite softly: "Have you not seen the Yellow River's water coming from the sky, rushing to the sea and never returning..."

When Huangfu Ling finished reading the entire poem Zhang Jingwei had written that night in the brothel, the princess' eyes widened and she asked in disbelief, "Did he write this poem?"

Jiu'er sneered and interrupted, "He certainly wrote it, and it's a poem dedicated to the courtesan!"

When the princess heard this, she was so angry that her eyebrows raised: "He actually wrote a poem for that courtesan, how can you tolerate this?!"

Huangfu Ling said excitedly, "Of course I couldn't bear it! I cried so hard at that time, but he is my husband! No matter what, no one can take him away from me!"

The princess on the side sighed helplessly and said, "Oh, sister, you really are..." However, when she said this, the princess seemed to be suddenly at a loss for words, and could not think of a suitable adjective to describe Huangfu Ling's mood and state at this time.

At this moment, Zhang Jingwei, who was standing outside the door, heard Huangfu Ling's true feelings in the house, and a warm feeling surged in his heart, and his emotion was beyond words.

On the other hand, Jiu'er retorted with disdain: "What's that?! In my opinion, he must have copied it from somewhere! He looks like a peasant, not a serious scholar!"

Huangfu Ling argued loudly, "But he's clearly a Yunzhou academy student! This is real honor!"

Jiu'er sneered, crossed her arms, and said slowly, "Humph, that's because he has a teacher who is a Tongzhi! If he had been taught by someone else, I'm afraid he would just be a lonely and disappointed scholar who is ignored by everyone!"

The princess waved her hand to stop their argument and said, "Okay, we are here to do serious business today, so let's not talk about men anymore!"

Zhang Jingwei, standing outside, was curious about the "business" they were talking about. He changed his angle to a point where he could see Huangfu Ling and continued observing. Jiuer pulled out a handful of incense from her sleeve. Huangfu Ling took a pot of wine from the table and poured three cups of it, placing them on the table in front of the window. The princess also placed some fruit on the table. Jiuer began to burn incense, and then the three of them each took three sticks.

The three of them stood in front of the table and knelt down in unison.

"I'm Li Jiuer!"

"I'm Huangfu Ling!"

"I'm Sima Yanran!"

Jiu'er was the first to speak, so she was the one to utter the oath: "Heaven be your witness, today the three of us become sworn sisters. From now on, we will share joys and sorrows, and will never abandon each other, whether in life or death. If I break this oath... now I will say something bad about you, right?"

The princess replied unconfidently, "Isn't that right... I saw it in a book! I also read in a book that you have to cut your hand, drip it all together and drink it!"

Jiu'er was a little frightened. She was afraid that Princess Xue might not know about it. When she heard that she was going to bleed, she quickly shrank back: "Blood..."

The princess tore through the book, but couldn't find the etiquette for women to swear brotherhood. She couldn't help but curse, "That's supposed to be something men do when they swear brotherhood. We women don't need to do that, right? This crappy book... doesn't even mention how women should swear brotherhood!"

Huangfu Ling suddenly had an idea. He took a chopstick and broke it into three pieces. He handed it to them and said, "Let's break off our hair instead. Three strands of hair each, tie them to the chopsticks, and then each of us will keep one piece as a token of our love!"

The princess and Jiuer nodded repeatedly and praised: "Good idea!"

Jiuer continued to recite the oath: "Heaven be your witness, today the three of us become sworn sisters. From now on, we will share joys and sorrows, and will never abandon each other, even in life or death. If we break this oath... we will never be able to have children!"

The princess was shocked and said coquettishly, "What!"

Huangfu Ling smiled bitterly and said, "This is too cruel!"

Jiuer pretended to be arrogant and said, "I am the eldest sister, I have the final say! Second sister, third sister, here are the red envelopes that the eldest sister prepared for you!" Then she took out two red envelopes from her waist.

Huangfu Ling and the princess happily accepted the red envelope and said, "Thank you, big sister!"

Huangfu Ling also took out a red envelope from her sleeve and said to the princess with a smile: "Here, this is the red envelope given to you by my second sister!"

The princess jumped up happily. "Wow! It's so nice to be a little sister! I can get two red seals!"

Huangfu Ling looked at the three glasses of wine on the table and reminded them, "It seems we haven't drunk any yet!"

The princess then remembered, "Yes, I have to drink it all in one gulp. Cheers!"

"Cheers!" The three of them drank a glass in one gulp.