Xiangrong rarely spoke to others like this, she was normally mild tempered, and was a little timid and cowardly. But with these words being said, even Feng Yuheng felt like cheering for her.

  The young girl finally grew up, no longer following behind her weakly, no longer only waiting to be protected, and things were no longer like the imperial banquet that year where she was slapped at Rui Gate. Xiangrong knew how to fight back now and knew what words to use when attacking the other party to get the best results.

  Just like right now, when Xiangrong said these words, those Madam and Young Misses spouting the filthy remarks got a shock and immediately reflected. This was then they realised that they were only focusing on envy, jealously and hatred, and forgot that when they said these words, there were staining the holy and pure Seventh Prince Xuan Tianhua in their hearts. And in their hearts, smearing Xuan Tianhua was not allowed, they would feel bad even if they did the smearing themselves. Therefore, once Xiangrong spoke up, these people immediately stopped their actions, to the point that they did not even dare to say anything to retort. They simply hated that they could not recite Amitabha a few more times, praying that those words were not heard by the gods, and prayed even harder that these words would not reach Xuan Tianhua’s ears.

  Because of the situation changing in the imperial palace, Feng Yuheng lost the right to enter the imperial palace in advance and did not have the special privileges from before. She could stand in the long queue outside Rui Gate with everyone else, shivering in the wind on this cold day.

  And the ones who lost the special privileges was not just her alone. They only stood at the end of the queue for a while before Xuan Tiange and Feng Tianyu walked over from the front and stood together with Feng Yuheng and Xiangrong. Xuan Tiange spoke without waiting for Feng Yuheng to ask: “I ended up in the same situation as you, the guards did not allow me to enter first. They said I am just a Princess from the imperial family and am not one of the Emperor’s women, so I do not have the right to enter the palace in advance. Even my imperial mother was blocked and it angered her so much that she said she was sick and returned home. There is no point attending this cumbersome imperial banquet. Ah-Heng, if not for the sake of seeing Uncle Emperor, if not for the sake of wanting to see how much he changed with my own eyes, I would have returned with my imperial mother. Participating in this broken imperial banquet is such a grievance!” Xuan Tiange grumbled, circling her arms around the arms of Feng Yuheng and Xiangrong, looking unhappy.

  Of course, Feng Yuheng could understand her feelings, even her, who was reinstated later as the Princess of Ji An felt that it was rather humiliating, not to mention the princess of a country. But what could they do? The imperial place was under Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu’s control. Entering the imperial palace today was like threading on thin ice, it was not as glorious as before.

  Thinking about this, Feng Yuheng spoke to Xuan Tiange and Feng Tianyu softly: “Now is not like the past, let’s sit together when we enter the palace, and you have to be more tolerant of everything, do not get angry. For some things, just listen and observe. If you have any questions, we will talk about it after leaving the palace. Understand?”


  Xuan Tiange frowned, and also asked her softly: “The situation in the palace is very harsh?”


  Feng Tianyu also spoke: “I heard Father say that the current Emperor is a completely different person from before. Sometimes he even felt that someone was wearing a mask and sitting on that dragon throne. Ah-Heng, you definitely know more than us, why don’t you tell us so we are mentally prepared, saving us from making a mistake after entering the palace.”


  Feng Yuheng thought for a while and concluded it was not convenient to explain in detail, so she only said: “The Emperor is still the same Emperor from before, it’s just that he had been controlled by someone using a special method, causing a huge change in his temperament, giving the impression that he is a completely different person. But all of this is not the will of the Emperor, he does not know what he is doing, we are also doing our best to think of ways to salvage this, it’s just that we currently do not have any good ideas. This matter is very troublesome and it’s not convenient to elaborate too much on this. Anyway, both of you have an idea of the situation, just be careful after entering the imperial palace. Especially towards Imperial Concubine Yuan Shu and the Eighth Prince, minimise your contact with them as much as possible, or simply avoid them altogether.”


  Feng Yuheng did not have any intentions of scaring them, it was just that the current situation in the palace was like this. This group of people were the Ninth Prince’s faction and if they were not careful, the other side would proactively find fault with them. Of course, these few people whose were being scrutinised were not afraid of trouble, but in this current situation, it would be best to minimise the number of issues. Everything needs to wait until the danger with the Emperor has been undone, then they can take their revenge and voice their complaints.

  Xuan Tiange and Feng Tianyu frowned deeply, preoccupied in their own thoughts. At this moment, those Madams and Young Misses who had their mouths sealed for a while by Xiangrong seemed to have slowly recovered their spirits. They felt that they might not hold up if they had a battle of words, so they could just be a little more direct. They only disliked this Feng third young miss anyway, so they would just display some show of force, not allowing her to live a peaceful life.

  Therefore, one young miss squeezed in front of Xiangrong, and without saying anything, she aimed at the top of Xiangrong’s shoes and stepped in it harshly. After doing so, she did not forget to push the blame, shouting: “Concubine’s daughter from a pariah family, where are you putting your foot? You almost caused me to fall over!”


  Looking at Xiangrong, her fine embroidered shoes had a mark due to being stepped on and even the decorations on the edge of her dress were shattered, yet that Young Miss was scolding her, saying that Xiangrong placed her foot inappropriately.

  Xiangrong felt wronged and tears started pooling in her eyes. Xuan Tiange wanted to step forward and stand up for Xiangrong but was stopped by Feng Yuheng. But she heard Feng Yuheng raise her voice and tell Xiangrong: “Xiangrong, you are already 14 years old and a grown lady, you cannot wait for Second Sister to make decisions for you for every single thing. Remember this, the principles of our Feng family are, if people do not find trouble with us, we do not find trouble with them. If someone does find trouble with us, then there is no need to hold back, they should be scolded, they should be hit. There is no need to worry about people who can make decisions in the palace finding out, no one will report such small issues to the palace. Because if their Highnesses have to manage the quarrels between little girls, it would be too lowly of them.”


  This sentence caused those who planned to spread Feng Yuheng’s words into the palace to drop the idea. They were afraid that saying too much would cause the Highnesses to feel irritated. It was just young girls outside the palace bickering and fighting, if the Highnesses still have to worry about such things, to put in a bad way, they were just using a cow knife to kill a chicken, it was unnecessary.

  Xiangrong nodded after hearing Feng Yuheng’s words, it was not to the point of fighting with others, but she still looked down at the accessories at the edge of her draped skirt which had been broken by being stepped on and felt some heartache. Then seeing that the skirt edge worn by the instigator also had a piece of decoration, she squatted down and without saying anything, pulled off that person’s decoration. She used more force when pulling, causing that young miss’ skirt hem to have a piece of cloth ripped off, causing her to yelp.

  But this yelp caused a guard who was patrolling to maintain order to shout: “Causing a racket is forbidden outside the palace gates.” This sentence caused that young miss to abandon the thought of fighting with Xiangrong.

  She gritted her teeth in anger, and in her unhappiness, spat out harshly: “You’re not a match for His Highness the Seventh Prince at all!”


  Yet at this moment, another imperial carriage appeared on the road leading to here, approaching at a hurried place. Everyone turned to look and discovered that it was actually the imperial carriage from Chun Palace, the Seventh Prince Xuan Tianhua had gone and turned back.

  Under everyone’s hopeful and confused gazes, Xuan Tianhua got off the carriage. Those Madams and Young Misses who were spouting slanderous remarks earlier fell silent. All their gazes were dazed, looking in Xuan Tianhua’s direction in a devoted manner, the only thing they did not do was to kneel and worship him. But Xuan Tianhua ignored them, walking straight towards Xiangrong, with a lady’s cape draped over this arm.

  When he was close to her, he spoke: “You alighted the carriage too quickly, forgetting your cape in the carriage. You still need to wait outside for a while, be careful not to catch cold.” Saying this, he personally draped the cape over Xiangrong’s shoulders and tightened the straps in front. Then he patted her shoulder, saying: “When the imperial banquet has ended, wait for me outside Rui Gate, I will come over to fetch you and we can go back together.”


  These few sentences caused all the Madams and Young Misses to breath in sharply, thinking if this deity had descended to the mortal world? Why was he being so nice to this concubine’s daughter? Every sentence was vaguely affectionate, causing them to turn red in the face and feel jealous hearing this. They hated that the one having the cape put on and being cared for was not them, if they could receive one caring remark from the Seventh Prince, they would really die happily!

  But it was impossible for Xuan Tianhua to show concern for them. On the contrary, he even gave them a warning because of that earlier sentence. He said: “What kind of woman This Prince wants at my side, it is not your business to say if we are a good match or not.” After saying this, he finally turned and returned to the imperial carriage, and until the imperial carriage gradually leave until it could not be seen, these Madams and Young Misses finally came to their senses, and looked at Xiangrong with even greater jealously, yet they no longer said anything more.

  Xuan Tiange felt it was novel and used her elbow to bump Xiangrong, teasing her: “Damn girl, you actually conquered my Seventh Brother? Why did I not know of such an important matter? Aren’t you doing too good of a job of keeping a secret?”


  Xiangrong’s small face had been blushing since Xuan Tianhua gave her the cape, it was so embarrassing! With Xuan Tiange asking this now, she really wanted to find a hole to hide in. But she finally remembered what Imperial Concubine Yun and Feng Yuheng told her, they said girls should not be too wishy-washy, and have to make their own decisions and be more proactive. So her mind cleared up once again and she looked at the Young Miss who stepped on her shoes earlier, reached out and returned the decoration which she tugged off from the other person’s skirt. When that Young Miss took it, she said: “Just like what all of you know, I am staying at Chun Palace, all of you can exercise your imagination and think about what happened between me and His Highness the Seventh Prince all of you. If all of you are able to bear smearing the purest person in the world, I have nothing to say. In the end, all of this is my choice and has nothing to do with all of you. Rather than being jealous and having a beef with me, it is more important to think about your own affairs. For females, there will always be a day when we get married, only idiots will be worried about other people all day. Today is the first day of New Year, causing an incident is inauspicious, everyone knows this rule, right?”


  These calm few sentences from her caused everyone to become speechless. After that, people were saying, the daughters of the Feng family all had a swift mouth. Feng Yuheng was swift, Feng Chenyu in the past was not bad, and there was still a Feng Fendai who was more amazing, only now did they know that even the weakest one was not to be trifled with as well!

  Finally, the long queue started to move forward orderly. One after another, they handed over their invitations and entered the palace. Finally, Feng Yuheng and those with her also entered Rui Gate. Upon entering the palace, Xuan Tiange spoke: “This imperial palace whom I have been roaming in since young, why does it look so foreign today? Even the air is not as fresh as before!”