"I—" Xie Chang'an almost wanted to ask him what was wrong with him, but he held back the words.

How can a man be questioned about his incompetence?

But if he tries to prove he's capable, wouldn't he fall into the little madman's trap?

At this moment, Xie Chang'an strongly suspected that the little madman had also been reborn, otherwise how could he be so good at manipulating people at such a young age?

"Xiao Jinghe, how can you say that about Young Master Xie? He's capable, very capable! He never refused from the beginning, did he?" Ye Jingchen said with a smile before Xie Chang'an could speak.

"Young Master Xie comes from the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion. He'll be a general on the battlefield someday. For him, reciting while running is as easy as breathing, isn't it, Young Master Xie—"

Young Master Xie indicated that he did not want to speak.

If his father hadn't been so ruthless, draining all his strength, running would have been as easy for him as breathing.

But the problem is—

After suffering so much abuse from his father, he could barely breathe!

Ye Jingchen could definitely guess why he was so weak, otherwise he wouldn't have given him the tonic soup yesterday. He even thought that the medicinal soup today was specially prepared for him by Ye Jingchen, but he was too embarrassed to give it to him alone, so he simply let everyone drink it together.

Surprisingly, he was even a little bit touched at the time.

Now it seems that he was just being delusional!

Ye Jingchen is deliberately messing with him, isn't he?!

"It is indeed very simple. I will certainly not disappoint His Highness the Crown Prince tomorrow," Xie Chang'an said with a stern face.

We'll see about that tomorrow!

“Yun Shu, look at how weak Young Master Xie is, yet he can still run. You can too. After all, if you could run even faster, the Marquis of Zhongyong’s feather duster wouldn’t hit you, would it?” Ye Jingchen said to Yun Shu with a smile.

"How did Your Highness know that my father often hits me with a feather duster?" Yun Shu asked, her mouth agape in surprise.

"I'm just guessing." Ye Jingchen smiled at Yun Shu and said, "You're so lively, the Marquis of Zhongyong must really like you and wouldn't want to really hurt you. A feather duster is the most commonly used, most handy, and also the lightest tool to hit someone with."

"Your Highness, you're so clever to have guessed that!" Yun Shu was completely oblivious to the flaws in Ye Jingchen's logic, her eyes sparkling as she looked at Ye Jingchen with admiration.

Looking at Yun Shu's innocent appearance, Ye Jingchen reached out and touched his nose. "It's nothing. Parents always have the same heart. No parent in the world can really be heartless enough to hurt their own child."

He couldn't very well tell Yun Shu that it was his bodyguard who 'accidentally' passed by the Marquis of Zhongyong's residence, 'coincidentally' saw Yun Shu being chased and beaten by the Marquis of Zhongyong with a feather duster, and then 'coincidentally' told him, could he?

Xie Chang'an, who is brutally abused by his father every day: ...

He felt that Ye Jingchen's words were deliberately said to him!

It won't cause any harm, it's just relentlessly causing trouble.

If they don't die, then torment them to death!

“Your Highness makes a good point. Although it doesn’t hurt that much when the feather duster hits me, if I could run a little faster and my father couldn’t hit me, he would be very angry!” Yun Shu, the filial son, said excitedly.

Ye Jingchen: What a filial son!

Having dealt with four people, all that's left are Wu Zemin and Gu Beichen.

"You two will both be taking the imperial examinations in the future, right? Each major exam requires you to stay in a poorly equipped examination hall for three days and two nights. Can your bodies handle it? Do you have enough stamina? Can you concentrate?"

"I'm doing this for your own good!"

Three questions and one exclamation successfully made Wu Zemin and Gu Beichen look ashamed.

In fact, Ye Jingchen had long had the idea of ​​having all the children in Wenhua Hall do morning exercises with him.

Health is the foundation of everything. Whether it's his study companions or his brothers and sisters, they will all be his trusted advisors and capable assistants in the future. If he is not in good health, wouldn't it be easy to make mistakes?

Even in modern society, nine years of compulsory education still requires students to run exercises every morning. That was in a peaceful era. This era is many times more dangerous than that, so children should exercise even more!

Of course, the most important thing is—

If morning exercise is moved to morning reading time, wouldn't he be able to sleep an extra half hour before getting up every morning?

Although doing this would be a bit unfair to Xie Chang'an, at least I could get an extra half hour of sleep.

Given Xie Chang'an's physical condition and endurance, an hour of jogging is nothing to him, just a piece of cake!

But for him, not only will he be able to sleep in for an extra half hour every day, but he will also have many cute little creatures to accompany him through the hardships. The three-headed little creatures must be very cute when they run. Just thinking about it is very therapeutic, and the hardship of jogging will not seem like hardship.

Ye Jingchen sincerely looked forward to the arrival of the next day.

On this day, not only was the Eastern Palace in turmoil, but the imperial court was also in turmoil.

Although the Minister of Personnel was the head of the Six Ministries and had many cronies in the court, the court was not his sole domain. He had many cronies, but also many political enemies.

That morning, many court officials submitted memorials criticizing the Minister of Personnel for failing to properly educate his daughter, allowing her to commit evil deeds, lacking moral character, and being unworthy of his position.

Even Consort De, who was in the inner palace, could not escape the verbal attacks and written criticisms from officials and censors.

After all, Liu Zhixing acted with impunity because his aunt was the emperor's favorite concubine and the head of the harem.

The victims, fearing Consort De's status, dared not make a big fuss about it.

In short, Consort De was not innocent and should pay the price for the evil deeds of her elder sister and nephew.

The emperor really wanted to ask his ministers: Consort De was only temporarily in charge of the palace's food supplies, so how did she become his favorite concubine?

He clearly only favored the Empress; the other concubines were merely pawns used to balance the court and ensure the continuation of the imperial line. How could he possibly favor her?

The emperor was displeased and had no interest in listening to the court officials performing a play in the hall. He directly signaled Zhang Shunde to end the morning court session.

"How is Consort De's investigation going? Is Yichun Palace really so clean?" the Emperor asked after returning to Chengqian Palace.

For Zhang Shunde, there were no secrets in the harem; the only question was whether a secret could be told or not.

There have been quite a few unsavory things happening in Yichun Palace over the years, but Consort De has handled them all very cleanly, leaving no loopholes.

However, it is not without flaws.

Thinking of the box of gold sent by the Ji family, Zhang Shunde considered his words carefully and said something that would not have a wide impact, but would disgust and offend the emperor.

For example, during the years when Consort De was in charge of the palace's food supplies, she received a lot of "tribute" from the concubines and court officials' households.

The emperor had long known that Consort De was secretly accepting "tribute" because he was also a beneficiary, and some of the "tribute" Consort De received went into his private treasury.

But when Zhang Shunde presented those records to him, the emperor was still furious and his face turned ashen.

Because Consort De received so much "tribute," but what she used to appease him was only a drop in the ocean.

Is this how you treat a beggar?!