Having dealt with Marquis Yongyi, Fang Ruotang breathed a sigh of relief. Adhering to the principle that if she couldn't have a good time, no one else would either, she told the Crown Prince and Ye Wuxia about the disgusting things she had just heard from Xiao Jingzi.

The two women were better at managing their expressions than Fang Ruotang, but they still looked pale and sickly, as if they had eaten something bad and wanted to vomit but couldn't.

Fang Ruotang instantly felt relieved and happily hummed a little tune.

"If something like this happens again, I'll tell you all."

"...There's absolutely no need for that!"

They weren't particularly interested in learning about those people's rich emotional experiences.

Fang Ruotang giggled and said playfully, "That won't do! You're all my good friends, and I want to share good things with you!"

The Crown Prince and Ye Wuxia raised their eyebrows simultaneously and asked, "Good friends?"

Fang Ruotang's smile faltered, and she suddenly waved in one direction, "Wei Xuan, Wei Xuan..."

She ran over like a gust of wind.

The Crown Prince and Ye Wuxia stared at her back with doting eyes, but when they caught a glimpse of each other out of the corner of their eyes, their expressions darkened and their moods instantly soured.

"Your Excellency, Imperial Advisor!"

Wei Xuan chuckled dryly. He already knew that he had been beaten because the Grand Preceptor had informed his elder brother. He wouldn't hold a grudge against the Grand Preceptor for this, but it would be awkward to meet him.

In addition, his family kept a close watch on him after that, and he was not allowed to go out before his wedding, so as to prevent him from making any more mistakes.

Why haven't you come to visit me lately?

“I can’t go out; my parents and older brother won’t let me leave.”

Wei Xuan sounded somewhat resentful when this was mentioned.

"Hehe!" Fang Ruotang laughed and teased, "Serves you right. Who told you to be dishonest? The Emperor had already betrothed you to the Fourth Princess, and you still acted like a fool, offering yourself up to be deceived by Zhao Zhen'er."

“I saw you and Zhao Zhen’er having a secret rendezvous at the teahouse that day, so I notified your older brother. How about that? I’m good to you, aren’t I? If it weren’t for me, you would have made a mistake.”

Wei Xuan: ...

Listen to me, thank you!

“I did not have a private meeting. Miss Zhao asked to meet me, saying she had something important to tell me, so I went.”

Fang Ruotang looked at Wei Xuan in surprise.

Thanks to her occasional suggestions and the Crown Prince's strong cooperation in reforms, the status of women in Dayong has improved. There are even women who have entered the court as officials. In addition to the women who passed the imperial examination last time, there are also women who are famous for their talent and outstanding abilities and have been recommended to enter the officialdom.

Although these women have not yet achieved great success or held important positions, they have indeed gained more options.

But that doesn't mean that a man and a woman meeting in a teahouse won't cause gossip! Especially since they are two people who used to have an ambiguous relationship.

"Given your relationship with Miss Zhao, to put it another way, she is your ex, while the Fourth Princess is your fiancée and your current girlfriend. If you were even a little smarter, when Miss Zhao came to see you, you should have avoided suspicion by having the Fourth Princess go in your place, or you could have invited the Fourth Princess to go with you."

Wei Xuan was stunned, never expecting such a method.

Then, he awkwardly explained in a low voice, "I... I also wanted to see her myself."

Fang Ruotang raised an eyebrow. Seeing Wei Xuan lower his voice and speak to her softly, she followed suit. She even looked around and saw that many people were staring at them while talking, so she lowered her voice even more than Wei Xuan.

"You're not still thinking about her, are you? Let me tell you! Miss Zhao isn't suitable for you. Why don't you take a look at the Fourth Princess? She's just like you. If you really hit it off with the Fourth Princess, you two will be very happy."

Those who are obsessed with love should be with those who are obsessed with love.

"No, I'm not!" Wei Xuan's face turned red immediately, and he simply said, "I just want to know what she wants to say to me, and I also want to ask her if she really has never had me in her heart and looks down on me."

Fang Ruotang tilted her head and asked, "You don't believe me?"

Wei Xuan was both amused and exasperated. "What nonsense! But you have to understand, people sometimes selectively believe certain things. I just want to be a reasonable person and ask her myself. If she really is like that, then I'll cut ties cleanly. I don't want to think about her again and hurt my future wife."

"Oh, I see!" Fang Ruotang scratched her palm, a little embarrassed but also curious. "So what did she say?"

When Fang Ruotang saw them meeting in secret, she assumed that Wei Xuan was just infatuated and wasn't very curious, so she informed Wei Yao.

"She said she liked me, but she had never told me directly because of her pride as a woman. She thought we would have a long future together, but she never expected that the Emperor would suddenly bestow a marriage upon me and the Fourth Princess."

"You believe me?"

Wei Xuan pursed her lips, somewhat embarrassed, and said, "She said she truly loves me, and even if she can't be my wife in the future, she'd be happy to be my concubine, as long as she can stay by my side."

Fang Ruotang frowned.

"You believed it again?"

Wei Xuan stared blankly at Fang Ruotang and asked, "Grand Preceptor, to be honest, I was genuinely happy at that moment, but do you think I should believe you?"

Fang Ruotang's expression was strange. "No wonder your parents kept you locked up in the mansion and wouldn't let you go out. You... think about it carefully! Your future wife is no ordinary person. She is the emperor's daughter, the crown prince's sister, and the fourth princess of the current dynasty. She is not someone you can despise and treat as a concubine while neglecting your wife."

The confusion on Wei Xuan's face vanished, and he said with shame, "How could the Grand Preceptor think of me like that? How could I be such a person?"

"I think you look quite like it." Fang Ruotang pouted and kindly reminded him, "Although you are my friend, if you really lose your mind and do something like favoring a concubine over your wife, the emperor and the crown prince will punish you, and I definitely won't save you."

"Grand Preceptor, what are you thinking? Miss Zhao is already married."

"ah?"

Just as he was getting bored and about to walk away, he paused, his interest piqued, and asked, "What happened? What's this amazing reversal?"

“My elder brother investigated Miss Zhao’s affairs. Many people knew that Miss Zhao was looking for a better job while still employed. All the nobles and dignitaries she used to associate with have distanced themselves from her. At that time, the Zhao family intended to marry her off to another place to avoid tarnishing the reputation of all the daughters in the Zhao family.”

"You've already wavered?"

In Fang Ruotang's view, a person with a "love-obsessed" mentality is someone who is stubborn and goes down a single path to the end.

Wei Xuan said awkwardly, "My elder brother also told me about the Fourth Princess. After realizing she had been deceived, the Fourth Princess acted swiftly to find out the truth and dealt with that person. As a grown man, I should not lose to her."

Fang Ruotang: ...

That's fine.

A princess is indeed a princess.

Even if she stumbles in love, she wakes up faster than others.

As the two were talking, the Fourth Princess arrived.

Because Wei Xuan had been confined to the mansion, the two had not seen each other since the arranged marriage. This was their first meeting since they were to be married after the New Year.