Seeing Hua Ruyu as if facing a formidable enemy, Li Youran also tensed up, abandoned the carriage, and ran inside.

"Come at me if you have a problem, don't touch him!" Hua Ruyu protected Tang Lei behind her like a mother hen protecting her chicks, and looked warily at the man in the yellow robe.

"Let's talk things out, don't fight." Even though Li Youran had never seen a yellow robe before, she knew that only royalty could wear one.

Tang Lei was just a retired soldier. If he had offended royalty, he would have been dead long ago. Li Youran judged from her intuition that Hua Ruyu had definitely misunderstood.

"I never imagined that Vice General Tang would be so lucky with women, having two such beautiful wives at home," the Second Prince chuckled.

"You audacious scoundrel, stop spouting nonsense!"

As soon as the Second Prince finished speaking, Hua Ruyu clenched her fist and rushed forward.

"Miss Hua, you've misunderstood!" Tang Lei hurriedly stood up from his wheelchair and reached out to Lan Huaruyu.

Li Youran didn't have time to think much and hurriedly went to help Tang Lei. She had only one thought in her mind: if this leg were to be injured again, it might not recover well.

"Ah~" Li Youran lost her footing and fell straight towards Tang Lei.

Tang Lei was standing there peacefully on one leg when, unexpectedly, Li Youran, who was eight feet away from him, suddenly rushed towards him and pounced straight at him.

Tang Lei suddenly turned around and hugged Li Youran tightly in his arms. He supported himself on the ground with his other hand, raised his injured leg high, and landed in a push-up position with one hand.

"Are you alright?" Li Youran realized she had caused trouble and hurriedly got up.

As soon as Li Youran moved, Tang Lei suddenly lost his balance and crashed straight to the ground.

Li Youran felt a sudden heat on her forehead, and her mind went completely blank. Having lived for over twenty years and still retaining her first kiss, she had just lost it.

"Um... I didn't mean to." Tang Lei flipped over, his broken leg raised, and sat down on the ground with a thud, looking somewhat disheveled.

Tang Lei's mind went blank. He had lived for more than 20 years and this was the first time he had been so close to a woman, and even kissed her on the cheek!

The Second Prince and Hua Ruyu both looked at Tang Lei and Li Youran, even maintaining the posture they had just adopted when they attacked.

"It seems Vice General Tang has some family matters to attend to. I shall take my leave now," the Second Prince said with a smile, his hands behind his back.

When the Second Prince looked at Li Youran, he felt that she looked very familiar, but the thought only flashed through his mind.

"Vice General Tang, don't forget to give me a reply as soon as possible."

Even after the Second Prince left, his laughter still echoed at the doorway.

"Who was that person who called himself 'This Empress' just now?" In the end, Hua Ruyu broke the awkward silence, saying, "Could it be the Second Prince?"

"Help me up first, we'll talk inside." Tang Lei didn't dare to move around, afraid that the fractured leg would worsen.

Before Li Youran could lend a hand, Hua Ruyu helped Tang Lei up by herself. She then tried to put her arm around Tang Lei's waist, but Tang Lei resolutely refused.

After standing up, Tang Lei sat back down in his wheelchair by himself, then absentmindedly pushed it into the room.

Li Youran felt somewhat awkward, unsure whether to stay or leave. So, after standing in the courtyard for three seconds, he turned and drove away in his carriage.

She felt she shouldn't have come. Did she travel all that way just to deliver her first kiss?

As for why Tang Lei had contact with the high and mighty Second Prince, Li Youran didn't think about it, after all, everyone has their own secrets.

"So the Second Prince's usual carefree and unconventional demeanor was all an act," Hua Ruyu said with a sigh of relief. "Now that the Second Prince can contend with the Third Prince, there's no need to worry about the fate of our nation."

"No, the Second Prince's situation is not favorable." Tang Lei said, and then began to analyze the Second Prince's predicament.

When the Crown Prince was alive, the Second Prince did not have a good relationship with him, so much so that when the Crown Prince died unexpectedly, many veteran officials of the Crown Prince's faction believed that the Second Prince had secretly done something to cause it.

It's hard to say whether the emperor was wary of the second prince, but it's certain that the second prince's mother was of lowly status, which meant that the second prince didn't hold much weight in the emperor's heart.

With a group of old ministers making things difficult for him at every turn and no powerful backing, the second prince had no choice but to pretend to be a carefree hermit with no interest in politics. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have survived to this day.

But those born into royalty either ascend to the throne above all others or become prisoners; there is no such thing as a peaceful life.

The Second Prince came to Tang Lei hoping that Tang Lei would train the 50,000 troops he had secretly hidden.

"Although I don't know whether His Highness the Second Prince is good or bad, there's a saying that the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Tang Lei's meaning was very clear: as long as he could avenge the general, he was willing to serve the Second Prince.

"That hypocrite, the Third Prince, secretly murdered my father in the Crown Prince's army during a lull in the fighting! It would be unthinkable not to report this!" Hua Ruyu roared. "I will personally kill the enemy!"

Tang Lei didn't know how to comfort Hua Ruyu, so he simply sat in his wheelchair and quietly looked out the window.

Li Youran must have had the worst day ever. Before she even got home, she could hear Zhou Yingying cursing from afar.

"Father, Mother, although the five fingers are not all the same length, the area around the palm is all flesh. How can you be so biased?" Zhou Yingying put her hands on her hips and pointed at Li Haoran, saying, "Even if you don't love your daughter-in-law, you should at least love your son and grandson a little!"

“We didn’t get a single copper coin after the family division, and our food supplies are almost gone. There’s no one to look after the children when we go out to work. How can we live like this?” Zhou Yingying continued, “I help my daughter sell steamed buns and my son sell pancakes. No one cares whether we, the eldest son’s family, live or die.”

Zhou Yingying had heard that Li Youran's steamed bun shop was doing very well, and the cooked food was sold out in the evening.

Li Tairan's pancake shop introduced sandwich pancakes, and the queue was two or three meters long.

Looking at himself, all he got was a house that he couldn't eat or drink, and he had no money at all, and his source of income was cut off.

The more Zhou Yingying thought about it, the more resentful she felt. It was one thing for her parents to help the second son's family, but why should Li Youran, as their daughter, also benefit from it?

"Second sister-in-law, what you're saying is shameless. When the family divided the property, you were the one who wanted the house, and you didn't even support our parents," Li Youran sneered.

"And now you come here again, accusing your parents of not helping you with the work." Li Youran said coldly, "Go out and ask around, even the landlord's donkeys don't just work without eating!"

“You don’t support your parents, yet you expect them to do chores for you? How can you be so shameless?” Zhao Lanzhi added.