In the novel "Joy of Life," the protagonist wakes up at Li Chengze's residence.

Li Chengze was engrossed in reading it and was just about to send someone to find the author when...

News then spread from the palace that His Majesty would be hosting a banquet at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests the next day.

Meanwhile, the palace sent someone to Li Chengze's residence to invite the Second Prince and Tao Jingyang to participate in the banquet at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests.

"May I ask, why is Tao Jingyang present at this banquet?"

"His Majesty said that Tao Jingyang's courage in fighting against the Northern Qi assassins is truly commendable. Since people from Northern Qi have also been invited to tonight's banquet, Tao Jingyang should naturally be invited to attend as well," the man replied respectfully.

Li Chengze's expression froze as he said to the messenger, "Understood. Please convey my gratitude to His Majesty on behalf of Tao Jingyang."

As he watched the palace servants leave, Li Chengze's expression shattered in an instant.

"His Majesty even invited Tao Jingyang to this banquet. This is not good..." He paced back and forth in the room.

In recent days, although Li Chengze seems to have "stayed away" from the conflicts and hasn't done anything, he still keeps an eye on almost everything, big and small.

He knew that Fan Xian had recently become a rising star.

Fan Xian not only got promoted, but also came into contact with some things in Northern Qi. Even Chen Pingping secretly supported him in investigating Lin Gong's criminal evidence.

This also includes His Highness the Crown Prince, who, I don't know when he realized it, tried to win over Fan Xian during the chaos a few days ago when the Lin family was on an outing.

However, Li Chengze was playing chess with Tao Jingyang at home that day and had no time to interfere with the Crown Prince's "good deed".

The main reason is that Li Chengze himself is not worried. After all, Fan Xian is quite smart, and Fan Xian himself would never agree to the Crown Prince's attempt to win him over.

The only thing that made Li Chengze feel something was wrong was...

This banquet at the Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests also invited Tao Jingyang... Is it really just because of the Northern Qi assassin incident?

No, we need to discuss this with Jingyang.

Li Chengze parted the curtain, lifted his leg, and walked away. He casually slipped on his shoes and went to the courtyard to find Tao Jingyang.

Tao Jingyang was not in the house at the time, but in the storeroom of the mansion.

When Li Chengze found her, she was picking and choosing in the storeroom, filling a small basket with all sorts of pendants, beads, and other items.

Li Chengze unconsciously moved closer to Tao Jingyang, peering in and leaning back as he asked, "Jingyang, what are you doing?"

Their eyes naturally fell on the small basket that Tao Jingyang was holding.

He seemed to understand a little better, and leaned close to Tao Jingyang's back, saying, "If you like these, I'll have someone find you some more tomorrow."

"These things in the warehouse aren't of good quality, and the finished products won't look good either." He said, observing Tao Jingyang's reaction.

Sure enough, Tao Jingyang's hands, which had been picking and choosing, stopped.

After thinking about it carefully for a while, I realized that Li Chengze was right. After all, I was the one who gave him the wind chimes, so I shouldn't have used his materials to make them.

Hmm... I'll go out and buy some myself later.

He then put the small basket aside, turned around, and asked Li Chengze:

"Hey, tell me, what kind of things do you like? Colors...shapes...and so on."

This time, Li Chengze looked completely bewildered, his mouth slightly open and his hand placed near his lips.

She avoided eye contact for a moment, then stole another glance at Tao Jingyang, and said, "I... actually think they look good no matter what, but mainly... it still depends on you."

Looking at Li Chengze's rather serious expression, a suspicious blush appeared on the tips of his ears.

The way he looked at Tao Jingyang seemed to show a hint of evasion, but when no one was around, you could always see him staring straight at you.

As soon as you turn to look at him, he will either turn his head away or lower it. Only when you take the initiative to speak to him will he pretend to have been looking at you before and start talking to you.

I don’t know when it started, but Li Chengze’s eyes always seem to be smiling.

Tao Jingyang looked at the clothes Li Chengze was wearing today. His coat was beige, and the lining was indigo embroidered silk with vermilion.

"Then, let's go with cyan and red." With that, he patted off non-existent dust from his hands.

Li Chengze naturally noticed Tao Jingyang's gaze and saw her glance at his clothes. He looked down at the colors of his clothes: cyan and red.

Then I remembered what Tao Jingyang had said about color matching... Could she be!?

Thinking of this, Li Chengze patted his chest, trying his best to stop thinking about these things.

Oh right, I almost forgot, I have something important to say.

But as soon as he turned his head, Tao Jingyang was about to walk out of the warehouse. Li Chengze quickly approached and said to Tao Jingyang in a very low voice:

"His Majesty is hosting a banquet tomorrow evening. Someone just came to inform you that you are invited to attend as well."

"Didn't you say that His Majesty doesn't like you? So..." It was clear that Li Chengze was somewhat wary of this matter.

However, Tao Jingyang remained indifferent after learning about the matter, while Li Chengze seemed more anxious than she was.

“Jingyang, if you don’t want to go, I’ll go and tell His Majesty in your place. As for the reason, I’ll just make one up.”

Li Chengze's aura seemed to have returned to how it was when we first met.

The atmosphere was gloomy and overcast, with no trace of joy in sight.

Tao Jingyang simply comforted him, saying that they would have to meet sooner or later, and there was no need to hide from each other.

But seeing that he was still in a bad mood, I patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry."

Tao Jingyang's eyes flickered; what she really wanted to say was, "Don't be afraid."