"Of course not!" Shen Weiwan raised her eyebrows complacently, the magnolia hairpin in her hair trembling slightly with her movements, reflecting a cunning flash in her eyes. "She rubbed three layers of skin off her hands, how could she still have the nerve to ask for it? Later, she avoided me when she saw me, as if she had seen a death warrant!"

The palace maids and eunuchs could no longer contain their laughter. Some bowed their heads, stifling laughter, their shoulders shaking. Some pretended to adjust their skirts but were actually wiping tears. Even the stern-faced old maids secretly trembled with their handkerchiefs. Xiao Yu leaned against a pillar, his eyes narrowed into slits as he smiled. The dark hem of his dress swayed slightly with laughter, and the jade pendant at his waist made a crisp sound.

The Queen Mother laughed until she had enough, then wiped her tears and said, her voice still trembling, "A hundred times better than those bookworms! I just hate those timid and sullen people!" Her face suddenly hardened, and she tapped the table with her jade armor. "But once you enter the palace, you can't cheat people. Do you understand?"

Shen Weiwan immediately straightened her back, the pearl tassels in her hair shimmering with light as she moved: "Replying to the Queen Mother, I specialize in cheating three types of people! Aunts who try to steal our family property, Miss Liu who tries to steal our men, and..." She secretly glanced at Xiao Yu, her voice suddenly softening, "Anyway, I won't cheat good people!"

"You little girl!" The Queen Mother was amused and laughed again, beckoning her to come closer. As soon as Shen Weiwan reached the throne, she was held by a pair of warm hands. The skin on the hands was wrinkled with time, but it was unusually strong. The old ancestor looked her up and down, the wrinkles in the corners of his eyes were full of joy, and the red gold hairpin with the word "Fu" on his head shone softly in the sunlight: "You are festive and smart, a hundred times better than Yu'er's sisters-in-law!"

Xiao Yu took a step forward and bowed, a smile still in his voice: "Don't worry, mother, I have already 'trapped' him."

"Go away!" Chen Weiwan glared at him as the Queen Mother slipped a pair of jade bracelets onto her wrists. The bracelets, translucent as spring water and cool to the touch, perfectly accentuated her white wrists. The floating flowers on the bracelets resembled the mist over the Taiye Lake. "This is my gift to you! Go back and tell that old woman Liu that if she keeps causing trouble, I'll send a basin of grains and tell her to rub her hands!"

After leaving Changchun Palace, Shen Weiwan covered her chest and breathed a sigh of relief. The jade bracelet on her wrist made a clear sound: "I was scared to death. I thought I was going to take the needlework test!"

Xiao Yu raised an eyebrow and reached out to brush the petals from her hair. "With your skill in embroidering a phoenix into a roast chicken, I'm afraid the Queen Mother will be furious."

"Your Highness!" Shen Weiwan punched him, but couldn't help laughing. When the two of them reached the edge of Taiye Lake, the setting sun was dyeing the lake surface golden red, and the sound of palace maids chatting and laughing could be heard in the distance. She suddenly remembered this moment in her past life, when she was being coaxed by her aunt into embroidering a wedding dress. The blood drop from the silver needle piercing her fingertip dyed the silk red, and her nose suddenly felt sore.

"What's wrong?" Xiao Yu noticed her strangeness and gently brushed the corner of her eye with his fingertips.

"Nothing," Shen Weiwan shook her head and suddenly pointed to the rockery in the distance, where a gray bird was holding a willow branch to build a nest. "Your Highness, look! Is that the talking starling you mentioned last time?"

Xiao Yu looked in the direction she pointed, only to see her suddenly stand on tiptoe and whisper in his ear, her warm breath brushing against his earlobe: "I just feel... it's so nice to have candied haws to eat in this life."

The evening breeze blew, carrying the distant palace's evening drums, startling a flock of returning crows, clutching the sunset glow in their beaks. Xiao Yu held her hand, the warmth from his fingertips flowing through his bloodstream into his heart. He suddenly remembered her silly look when they first met, holding muddy grains. He couldn't help but laugh, saying, "From now on, I'll take you to climb the palace walls to fish, and carve your jokes into every brick of the Forbidden City."

"That won't do!" Shen Weiwan's eyes sparkled, the jade bracelet on her wrist gleaming in the twilight. "I only tell my jokes to the Queen Mother and you."

"Oh?" Xiao Yu suddenly leaned in close, his warm breath brushing against her ear, startling the hairs on her neck. "Then I'll have to listen to this a few more times, lest I end up counting money after you cheat me one day."

"Your Highness is so clever, the most he can do is trick you into buying candied haws for the rest of your life!"

"Deal." Xiao Yu smiled, the tenderness in his eyes spreading across the shimmering waters of Taiye Lake. He embraced her shadow in his arms, "A lifetime of candied haws, I'll take care of it."

At this moment, in Changchun Palace, the Queen Mother was laughing at the old nanny, slapping her thigh and shaking the teacup on the table: "Look at that girl, she has an idea in her eyes! She is more interesting than Yu'er and his sisters-in-law combined!"

The old nanny smiled and nodded, rubbing her belly, which hurt from laughing. "The Seventh Prince and Miss Shen are truly a match made in heaven."

The Queen Mother twirled her Buddhist beads as a sudden thought struck her. Her jade armor clattered rhythmically against the armrest. "Go tell Liu, if she dares to have any evil thoughts again, I'll hang the account book of her stealing the storehouse key outside the palace gates! Let the whole capital see how her hands are rubbed raw!"

Before he finished speaking, a faint humming drifted in from outside the window. Shen Weiwan's bounding figure appeared at the end of the corridor, counting on her fingers, muttering, "Next time I tell the Queen Mother about my cousin's embarrassing story of wearing an itchy skirt... Yeah, I have to explain in detail how the grass scraps got into the skirt pockets. I guarantee it'll be more exciting than the storyteller!"

Xiao Yu followed behind, reluctantly yet dotingly, his skirt sweeping past the roses beneath the corridor. The petals, startled and falling, chased their shadows as they drifted into the twilight of the Forbidden City. Passing Taiye Lake, he suddenly stopped, looked at his intertwined reflections in the water, and smiled, "Weiwan, do you think our mother would laugh so hard if she knew you threw the venomous snake into An Ruyue's skirt pocket?"

Chen Weiwan turned around, the sunset glow in her eyes shimmering like broken gold: "Then Your Highness must prepare the box in advance and receive it - after all, everyone in the capital knows that the future consort of the Seventh Prince has two things: she can deceive people without blinking an eye, and she can coax the scheming prince into being deceived willingly. This skill is unique!"

Before they finished speaking, the two of them smiled at each other, startling the fish in the pond and turning the golden and red sunset on the lake into tiny sparkles of light.