When Qiao Jinniang left, she did not forget to tell Liu Cuihua, “Fourth Aunt, you must be careful of them. Your grandson is only a month old. Don’t let them kill him on the road.

  “Otherwise, I can only choose the grandson of Fifth Uncle. Although that child is a little older, he is quite smart!”


  Liu Cuihua was indeed a little flustered when she heard this.

  Qiao Ergou and other Qiao clansmen were certainly unwilling to put the issue to rest when they saw that they would get no benefits.

  But Liu Cuihua certainly wouldn’t flinch. Her father-in-law was the previous patriarch of the Qiao clan. He purposely chose Liu Cuihua as his daughter-in-law because he thought Liu Cuihua was a good choice for his timid son.

  Aunt Qiao, Qiao Yun’er and other women of the Qiao family came to Qiao Laosi’s house, only to be scolded by Liu Cuihua.

  “My dear Yun’er, why are you and your ill-intentioned family keep staring at the Qiao family’s properties? Even Qiao Jinniang can’t get Myriad Taste. What makes you think you can?

  “Your useless brother slept with so many women, but only had two daughters. If he dies, your family will be extinct just like Qiao Yu’s!” “And you, Qiao Guixiang, you’ve been married for more than 20 years. What do the Qiao family’s matters have anything to do with you? You were no longer a member of the Qiao family since a long time ago!”


  Qiao Yun’er trembled with anger and blurted out, “Liu Cuihua, let’s see how long you can be happy! It’s not certain whether your grandson can arrive at Chang’an safely or not!” Liu Cuihua was startled, “What are you going to do? If you dare to take action against my grandson, I will not spare you!” Liu Cuihua and Qiao Laosi hurried back to Lin’an, fearing that Qiao Yun’er would do something to their grandson. And Qiao Jinniang seemed to be quite satisfied with Qiao Laowu’s grandson. What if Qiao Jinniang chose that child instead of her grandson…


  No, she had to find a way to get rid of Qiao Laowu’s grandson to avoid future troubles.

  The heir to Qiao Yu hadn’t come to Chang’an yet.

  The mighty royal hunt had begun. It was already winter, and many beasts were hibernating.

  However, the beasts in the paddock were specially kept for the nobles to hunt. Otherwise, if the animals all hibernated, the hunt would be meaningless.

  Zheng Xiao was resting at home, and Qiao Ruoyi stayed to take care of Zheng Xiao. She had no interest in hunting.

  Qiao Jinniang went to the paddock with Fulu. Unlike the spring hunt when she was full of aggrievance and hatred, now she was riding on the wide official road with Fulu and others freely and happily.

  Fulu caught up with Qiao Jinniang and said, “You cheated. Your white horse is a new tribute horse. How can our horses compare to yours?”


  Qiao Jinniang said, “But I just learned to ride a horse.”


  Fulu asked Qiao Jinniang, “I saw you worrying about Myriad Taste a while ago. Why don’t you care now?”


  Qiao Jinniang said, “I’m still worried about Myriad Taste, but worrying about it isn’t going to solve anything, so I might as well be hunting here. This is my first time hunting.”


  “County Mistress, His Royal Highness asks you to go to his carriage.”


  An eunuch said to Qiao Jinniang. She hadn’t seen Xi’er for a long time. She missed him so much, so she went straight to Lu Chen’s carriage. Lu Chen’s carriage was very spacious. It was covered with a white cashmere blanket, and a charcoal brazier was burning under the small tea table in the middle.

  It was warm inside the carriage.

  When Lu Chen saw Qiao Jinniang come in, he took her hands and said, “You just recovered from a disease. How dare you ride a horse outside on such a cold day?”


  Qiao Jinniang said, “It’s not cold to ride a horse. I’m wearing a mink fur cloak! Where’s Xi’er? Why didn’t Xi’er come?”


  “I didn’t bring him over this time.”


  Qiao Jinniang wondered. “Why, isn’t it pitiful for him to be alone in the East Palace? If I knew he didn’t come, I wouldn’t come either.”


  Lu Chen was warming Qiao Jinniang’s hands with his own and said, “This time the hunt is at the royal hot spring villa, and next door is the imperial mausoleum. You complained that Prince Mediocre’s existence dirty your eyes. Then let’s get rid of him so that we can have a clean Spring Festival.” More importantly, although he and Qiao Jinniang were married, he wanted to give Qiao Jinniang a real wedding.

  In their wedding, although he was the Crown Prince, he would still have to call Prince Mediocre Fifth Brother and salute him with Qiao Jinniang, which was really disgusting. Qiao Jinniang said, “Won’t it be very dangerous?”


  Lu Chen asked, “Are you scared?”


  Qiao Jinniang shook her head. “No, the wicked should get their retribution.”


  Just as the case with the Qiao clansmen who coveted her properties, although she didn’t want to hurt innocent children, her scheme wouldn’t work if the Qiao clansmen were not evil.

  But she knew the Qiao clansmen too well. They would never let her scheme go to waste.

  Qiao Jinniang said, “I’m afraid that Xi’er will be bored in the East Palace alone.”


  Lu Chen approached Qiao Jinniang and said, “Yes, he is too bored alone. We can give birth to a little boy or girl to accompany him.”


  “Hmph, that’s not what you said a year ago.”


  Qiao Jinniang remembered that in the autumn of last year, her period didn’t come and she thought she was pregnant again.

  But it turned out she wasn’t, and she couldn’t help but feel a little disappointed.

  After giving birth to Xi’er, she and Lu Chen were extremely careful, so it was almost impossible for her to get pregnant again. But she still wanted to have more children. However, Lu Chen said that Xi’er was still young and needed the love of his parents.

  And he said that they shouldn’t give birth to another child until Xi’er was five or six years old. At that time, Qiao Jinniang thought it made sense, but now when she thought about it, she realized that he was just afraid that if she was pregnant, he would be unable to touch her for about a year!

  Now he wanted to tempt her to enter the East Palace as soon as possible with this excuse. Hmph, in his dreams!

  This time, the paddock was in the royal manor, and the palace was much better than that in the spring hunt. The late emperor often came to soak in the hot spring here in winter.

  wa

  Qiao Jinniang encountered a troublesome matter. The manor of the Zheng family here was granted to the Zheng family by the Emperor. Since the Zheng family was exiled, the manor was taken back. Duke Anyuan Mansion had a manor here, but Qiao Jinniang had left the Duke Mansion with Zheng Xiao, so she couldn’t live there.

  Qiao Ruoyun had no say in the Qin family, so she couldn’t lend her a house.

  Qiao Jinniang wanted to buy a house nearby, but no house was for sale here.

  Fulu had several courtyards here but she refused to lend her a house.

  Fulu said, “Jinniang, I don’t dare to offend my imperial cousin. You are husband and wife, and it’s not against the rules for you two to live together. Even those annoying imperial censors won’t say anything about it.”


  If the imperial censors impeached them for this, maybe the Crown Prince will immediately ask the Emperor to make Qiao Jinniang the crown princess, which neither the Crown Prince’s hostile faction nor the Crown Prince faction would want to see.

  After all, the hostile faction was afraid that Duke Anyuan would get close to the Crown Prince, while the Crown Prince faction was afraid that the Crown Prince would give Qiao Jinniang the position of crown princess.

  Fulu said, “There is a separate hot spring pool in the Crown Prince’s residence in the palace. I wanted to marry my imperial cousin, and that hot spring pool was the biggest reason.”


  Qiao Jinniang: “…” Sure enough, Lu Chen couldn’t even compare to a hot spring.

  Fulu said, “You have been husband and wife for so many years. Why are you still so shy? That hot spring is rumored to be very big.”


  Qiao Jinniang was not shy. She was just afraid that she wouldn’t be able to resist Lu Chen’s temptation and would break the promise of making him wait until the Lantern Festival. Last time, if it weren’t for the Qiao clansmen, Lu Chen would have already got what he wanted.

  If she couldn’t restrain Lu Chen even now, wouldn’t she be completely defenseless to Lu Chen in the future?