The news of Li's suicide out of fear of punishment quickly spread to every master in the inner courtyard. Each person reacted differently upon hearing the news.

After ten years of being favored by the emperor, the Li family, who had three children, came to an end.

The Fourth Prince granted special permission to find a burial plot for Lady Li, had her clothes changed, and her appearance prepared. He also selected a dozen or so valuable items he had previously bestowed upon her and placed them in the coffin. Then, he secretly had her buried without informing the imperial family or announcing any funeral arrangements, as if she had never existed. In short, Lady Li was completely erased from the imperial record book; even her death was kept secret. The Fourth Prince only stated that Lady Li had committed an unforgivable crime, and therefore reported this to Emperor Kangxi, requesting that her name be removed from the imperial record book. As for Lady Li's family, the Fourth Prince only wrote a letter, briefly informing them of her sudden death and burial.

The reason the Fourth Prince was so ruthless towards Lady Li was not only because she cursed Yan Yu and the unborn child, but also because the death of the First Prince, Honghui, was indeed inextricably linked to her. Initially, the Fourth Prince only suspected her, but when he moved the Third Prince to the main courtyard, he discovered that the child was completely different from the Third Prince he knew. At first, he thought that Lady Li's punishment had caused the Third Prince to become taciturn, but after several conversations, the Fourth Prince realized that the Third Prince was still deeply grieving the unexpected death of the First Prince.

Because of Li's repeated warnings, and because the Third Prince had been living with her, he had little opportunity to talk about the accident with others. But now that the Fourth Prince had moved him back to the front courtyard, and with Li suddenly being convicted, the Third Prince's emotions became very unstable.

He was only six years old and knew that Li was imprisoned because she had harmed someone, which stirred up the Third Prince Hongjun's memory of the First Prince's "accident".

After repeated questioning and guidance from the Fourth Prince, the Third Prince finally couldn't hold back any longer and incoherently poured out all the tangled memories that had been weighing on his heart. As he spoke, he cried and repeatedly emphasized that he had no idea that the First Prince would fall into the water.

Although the Third Prince spoke of the difficulties, the Fourth Prince's mind was not confused. From the Third Prince's somewhat illogical words, he had already figured out the course of events.

Lady Li deliberately misled the Third Prince into suspecting that the First Prince's skateboard was better than hers. Then, she used this opportunity to have an identical skateboard made for the Third Prince. Afterwards, she encouraged the Third Prince to replace the First Prince's skateboard with the one she had given him. Therefore, the First Prince was actually using the skateboard Lady Li had made that day. This directly relates to Lady Li's "accident" with the First Prince. Afterwards, the skateboard disappeared, and the person who made the skateboard for the Third Prince never reappeared. Considering the above points, it's highly likely that Lady Li tampered with the skateboard.

Having thought all this through, the Fourth Prince no longer felt any affection for Lady Li. This woman had killed his eldest son, caused his own son's personality to change drastically, and was now trying to harm the unborn child. The Fourth Prince deeply hated her and was preparing to order her to commit suicide when he suddenly witnessed Lady Li's suicide out of fear of punishment.

The Fourth Prince spared her life by leaving her body to rot in the wilderness, considering that she had given birth to the Third Prince, the Fourth Prince, and the Second Princess. However, this woman was truly heinous, and the Fourth Prince would not allow her name to remain on the imperial register. After secretly consulting with the Kangxi Emperor, he received approval to erase Li's record, as if the imperial family had never taken this concubine.

The Princess Consort was naturally unaware of the Fourth Prince's thought process, but seeing that he had taken the initiative to remove everything related to Li from the royal family, and had not held a funeral, but only given her a place, she could be said to be quite satisfied.

Li was completely eliminated, but the other one was perfectly fine, and there was no news of her falling ill or being poisoned. The Fujin couldn't help but send people to keep an eye on everything happening in the South Courtyard. Of course, they could only keep an eye on things from the outside. The two maids went out at the same time every day to collect their daily expenses, and nothing unusual happened.

"But no, Lady Niu didn't use that charcoal?" The Fujin was peeling crispy peanuts and feeding the Fourth Prince one by one. As long as a child is treated well, he will quickly become close to that person. Ever since the Fourth Prince was taken away from Lady Li, apart from keeping one personal wet nurse, all the other servants have been replaced.

“Logically speaking, Lady Niu shouldn’t be using it. Before, when the Fourth Prince favored her, her expenses were twice as much as the other princesses. Now that it has been reduced by two-thirds, she should be eager to use it.” Granny Li teased the Fourth Prince with a tiger head.

"Let's take this opportunity to go in and see what's going on~" The Princess Consort reached out and pulled the cute little whip out of the Fourth Prince Hongshi's neck, then straightened it.

"Yes, this servant will go and think of a way." Granny Li handed the cloth tiger to the Fourth Prince to hold, then bowed and left.

After Granny Li left, the Fujin summoned Chunliu and asked her to bring over the record book of the concubines' nights with the emperor during the New Year period.

The princess consort opened the book that recorded the women in the inner quarters who had received the emperor's favor, and ran her hand, adorned with pure gold nail guards, over each page.

Surprisingly, since the East and South courtyards were closed, the Fourth Master has barely stayed overnight in the backyard today. It's understandable that he was tired during the busy Spring Festival period. But what about the month or so before the Spring Festival? Now that the Spring Festival is over, the Fourth Master still seems to have no intention of returning to the inner quarters.

"Take it away~" The princess frowned as she closed the booklet and handed it to Chunliu, who was standing to the side.

It seems the Fourth Prince has a grudge, likely stemming from Lady Niu. Indeed, he was very reluctant to deal with her. Even with witnesses and physical evidence from Lady Niu's courtyard, he still didn't believe she would do such a thing. Although it was true that the Red Flower incident was framed against Lady Niu by Huanbi, bribed by the Fujin (Prince's wife), she suddenly realized that the Fourth Prince might not have truly believed Lady Niu would commit such an act.

Thinking of this, the Fujin suddenly felt very uneasy, even somewhat afraid. Someone like Lady Niu was truly someone she feared greatly.

Lady Li was favored for ten years. Although she felt uncomfortable during those ten years, the Fourth Prince never placed such trust in her.

"Mother, peanuts...!" Little Hongshi couldn't help but pout and say when he saw that his wife had suddenly thought of something and stopped peeling peanuts for him.

To be fair, the Fujin (Prince's wife) treated him very well. From the time he was brought to her home, she personally cared for him, never relying on anyone else. She did almost everything herself. Apart from the wet nurse, the Fujin was the person who had the most contact with the Fourth Prince.