"Giggle..."

Zhuang Jing raised her phoenix eyes, covered her mouth and said with a smile:

"Are you really stupid or are you just pretending? It was too late when Young Master Yuan stepped onto the attic just now. He and I drank tea and talked about Taoism for more than half an hour, and then the two of you chatted passionately for more than an hour. This... this is Chang'an now.

Is there almost a curfew in the city?"

"Ah, then I have to go back quickly, there are many things to do tomorrow morning!"

Yuan Zhi was startled and quickly stood up to go back.

"Wait... Mr. Yuan, how are you going back now?" The fifth lady stretched out her hand and grabbed his sleeve, saying in a deep voice.

"It's okay! I have a special pass, and they don't dare to detain it." Yuan Zhi said with a grin.

Making an international joke, who dares to detain the noble master of the country, Jin Wuwei!

"No, although they won't detain you, they have records, so it's still inappropriate..." The fifth lady emphasized, hesitating to speak.

Yuan Zhi thought about it in a blink of an eye and felt that what the fifth lady said was reasonable.

The dignified prince who oversees the country came down from the brothel in the middle of the night. It is indeed indecent to spread the news and it will bring disgrace to the royal family.

"Well, I will stay and continue to have a deep chat with the Fifth Madam. There are indeed some unsolved mysteries. Then please Miss Zhuang Jing to make us a pot of tea and let us talk thoroughly. Also, give me the downstairs

The two brothers arranged to take a nap nearby."

"These are all fine. Don't worry, Mr. Yuan. As for the tea, I'll ask Xiao Qing to bring it to you later. However, you don't have to talk all night. If you are tired or sleepy, just rest on the soft couch in the inner room. Anyway,

I'll rest next door and won't bother you again."

As she said that, Zhuang Jing gave the Fifth Madam an ambiguous sideways glance, and went downstairs with a twist of her waist.

"You are the only one who knows how to talk..."

The fifth lady's face turned red and she scolded Zhuang Jing's back.

She turned around, brought a bowl of lily and lotus seed soup in front of Yuan Zhi, raised her eyes and said softly:

"Your Highness, eat it while it's hot! It's late at night, so you must be hungry too."

"Okay, let's eat together. There are many things to do tonight. Let's talk clearly."

"Um…"

At this time, the fifth lady, like a little woman, glanced at the prince tenderly, lowered her head and started eating with a silver spoon.

After nearly two hours of conversation, the fifth lady suddenly felt that the prince in front of her did not look like he was more than six years younger than her. Instead, he looked like a twenty-two-year-old young prince, but rather like a mature man who had gone through many vicissitudes of life.

It’s not about appearance, it’s mainly about mind.

In front of him, she looked like a little woman.

Thinking of this, the fifth lady couldn't help but feel her cheeks turn red and her heart feel warm.

Since she committed herself to the old thief Cao Qichang at the age of fifteen, in order to satisfy the old thief's perverted and obscene tricks, she has been living quietly, but she has endured the humiliation and burden.

On the surface, she is the first of Cao Qichang's four most beloved concubines. In the eyes of others, she is extremely beautiful, but in her heart, she is actually extremely painful and depressed.

She was a legitimate princess of the Southern Dynasties, and ended up becoming a plaything on the bed of a powerful official of the enemy country.

Her character and aspirations are completely different from those of her mother, Zhang Lihua, the former Queen of the Southern Dynasties, but she has always been submissive.

The Yuan family, Cao family, Guo family, etc., in principle, share the hatred of subjugation of the country and the hatred of killing their father, and they are irreconcilable with each other.

Therefore, conceptual disapproval is depressing and painful in her inner world.

Now, people like Prince Ning and other branches of the Yuan clan are sharpening their knives secretly, buying people's hearts everywhere, recruiting troops and horses, and have been disobedient for a long time.

The Cao family is by no means a good person. Although it has been severely hit, its economic foundation and local forces are still very strong. It is very likely that the Cao family will join forces with other forces to cause trouble again.

Then Cao Qichang is getting old. How many years does he have left to live when he reaches his sixties?

With him here, the Cao family can still maintain a balance with the Crown Prince. If something unexpected happens to him, based on the analysis of the characters that the Fifth Madam sees now, Cao Yanchun, Cao Yanqiu and others are definitely no match for the Crown Prince Yuan Zhi.

Cao Yanchun and his like have great ambitions, but they lack Cao Qichang's vision and strategy.

If Cao Qichang dies in a few years, these unnamed concubines will

She became the woman that Cao Yanchun and his brothers fought or divided among themselves.

If Cao Yanchun and the others fall again, they will eventually be unable to escape the fate of becoming slaves, or continue to become the playthings of other men.

This is not the life she wants.

For more than ten years, she had hoped for the rise of the Southern Dynasty royal family and the Jiangzuo Alliance, but things went wrong.

Eighteen years have passed, and with countless assassinations and failed efforts to instigate rebellion, all the original elite loyalists of the Southern Dynasties have died.

The key is that the Jiangzuo Alliance does not have a strong armed force of its own and relies on other warlord forces. Even if it succeeds in the end, it will only be a wedding dress for others.

If you don't do it right, you'll fall back into the vicious cycle of being a dog and a rabbit.

She couldn't see where the hope was for the Jiang Zuo Alliance?

Who can she and her mother rely on to survive in this conflicting world?

But recently she saw a glimmer of hope, and a powerful and intelligent crown prince appeared in front of her.

Perhaps, the prince who can inherit the throne in the future is the man she can truly rely on for the rest of her life.

Thinking of this, the fifth lady, who was both beautiful and intelligent, couldn't help but raise her eyes and take a few more glances at Yuan Zhi, who was concentrating on eating and drinking.

She believes that all aspects of her condition, whether it is appearance, ability to charm or mental ability, are definitely no worse than Cao Feiyan.

Since Cao Feiyan can confuse the prince, she must be able to do it.

Looking at the prince's resolute and handsome face, the fifth lady's little heart started to beat loudly, just like herself when she first fell in love more than ten years ago.

At this time, the maid Xiaoqing came upstairs, brought a pot of freshly brewed tea, and successfully brought two empty bowls down.

Yuan Zhi picked up the teapot and quickly made the tea himself. Then according to the gentleman etiquette in modern society, he first poured tea into the fifth lady's teacup, and then himself.

"Have a taste. How does this tea make you?"

But at this time, the fifth lady was shocked by the prince's behavior.

This prince who grew up in the north is so proficient in tea ceremony and can make tea?

She was very flattered, "No no...Prince, how can I let you make tea? This..."

The normally eloquent fifth lady blushed and turned into a clumsy-tongued little woman who stuttered and missed words.

She couldn't snatch the hot teapot, she could only blush and watch the prince's actions.

Mrs. Jing Wu's words reminded the prince.

At this time, it is still a class society where men are superior to women, but this is not a modern civilized society. There are no gentlemen here.

How come the prince knows the southern tea ceremony?

Yuan Zhi put down the teapot and explained with a slight smile:

"Gu Zai met the female official and made tea in the palace...Today in front of the fifth lady, you are just a fool, but you dared to risk your life and asked me to meet here. You also told many little-known court battles, which made Gu Mao suddenly enlightened.
Chapter completed!