Chapter 519 is trapped.

Seeing this, Xu Yunzhi almost laughed in anger.

This woman is so rude! She just ignored me like that. I don't know what Yun Yichen saw in her.

Xu Yunzhi rolled his eyes speechlessly and sat down opposite Gu Shuyan without any politeness.

"Bring over my ice."

As soon as Xu Yunzhi finished speaking, the guard immediately brought over the half-bowl of ice he had left uneaten.

"Miss Gu, why would you think of going out on such a hot day?"

Xu Yunzhi waved his folding fan lightly, appearing to be a refined gentleman, but in reality, he had a smug look about him.

"His Highness the Crown Prince's daughter is allowed to go out in public, so why can't my humble daughter go out in public?"

Gu Shuyan looked up and met his gaze, her unspoken message being, "This isn't your home, so why are you interfering?"

"Oh, how can that be the same? I'm thick-skinned and tough, how can I compare to a delicate young lady like Miss Gu?"

Xu Yunzhi made conversation out of boredom, not caring whether Gu Shuyan wanted to talk to him or not.

Gu Shuyan had known Xu Yunzhi for a long time, and seeing his expression, she simply ignored him and took the ice cream that Pearl brought over.

Immediately afterwards, Pearl and Yufei each carried a bowl over and sat down at the other end of the table.

"Hey, what are you two doing?"

Xu Yun was startled and jumped up from the stool.

The three of them looked at him at once, but after just one glance, they acted as if nothing had happened, picked up their iced drinks and took a sip.

"This feels so good." Pearl was always a carefree person, and when the coolness went down her throat into her abdomen, she couldn't help but let out a long sigh.

Seeing Pearl's appearance, Xu Yunzhi immediately showed a disgusted expression. What kind of girl eats like that without any manners?

“Miss Gu, how can your maid be so unruly? How dare she sit down in front of His Highness? This is improper.”

Xu Yunzhi was furious. He, the crown prince of the country, was sitting at the same table with two maids. If word got out, what would become of his reputation?

Gu Shuyan ignored Xu Yunzhi's words and took another bite before looking up at him.

"Your Highness, does this stall belong to you?"

Instead of answering Xu Yunzhi, Gu Shuyan asked a completely unrelated question.

"no."

Xu Yunzhi didn't even think about it. They certainly had businesses in Jin, but such a small stall was not worth his attention.

Seeing his decisive answer, Gu Shuyan nodded in satisfaction. "Then may I ask, Your Highness, is this ice cream sold to customers?"

Gu Shuyan asked, and Xu Yunzhi answered without hesitation, "Of course."

If you're not going to sell this cold dish to customers, are you going to sell it to yourself?

Xu Yunzhi's answer was reasonable, and Gu Shuyan nodded in satisfaction. Then she pointed to Liang Bing in front of the two maids.

“My daughter and her maidservants came here for some shaved ice. We paid for the food, so we are customers of this stall. As customers, we should be treated the same. So, Your Highness, do you think my two maidservants can’t sit down somewhere else?”

Gu Shuyan's words were reasonable and well-founded, and the guests at the next few tables applauded and cheered.

Previously, because of the Crown Prince's presence, they didn't dare to say a word even when eating cold drinks. Gu Shuyan's words finally vented their anger, showing how arrogant the Crown Prince of Jin could still be.

Xu Yunzhi never expected Gu Shuyan to be so cunning; she tricked him with just a few words.

"Miss Gu is right. We are all guests, so please sit down and eat."

Xu Yunzhi felt frustrated, but he didn't storm off. Instead, he sat back down and ate a couple of bites of the cold iced drink.

Gu Shuyan truly admired Xu Yunzhi's shamelessness. Even after things had come to this point, he still wouldn't leave.

But as she herself said, they were all guests, and she couldn't turn them away.

"Miss, I'd like another bowl!"

The bowl of shaved ice wasn't very big. After finishing the last bite, Pearl licked her lips, still feeling a bit unsatisfied.

Gu Shuyan naturally wouldn't put pearls on a bowl of shaved ice, so she nodded and said, "Then let's have another bowl of both!"

Upon hearing this, Pearl happily asked the owner to add three more bowls. Seeing this, Xu Yunzhi couldn't help but remind her, "Miss Gu, although ice cream is refreshing, eating too much of it might not be a good thing."

"Then Your Highness need not trouble yourself."

Gu Shuyan knew that eating too much was bad, but when Xu Yunzhi said it, she couldn't help but want to refute him.

Seeing that his good intentions had been trampled on, Xu Yunzhi simply stopped trying to be disliked and quietly sat down to the side after finishing his meal.

After Gu Shuyan and her two servants had finished another bowl of food, Xu Yunzhi suggested, "I wonder if I would have the honor of accompanying Miss Gu for a stroll?"

Gu Shuyan's real purpose for going shopping was to eat ice cream, not to go shopping. Now that she had finished the ice cream, there was no need for her to go shopping anymore.

So, without caring whether Xu Yunzhi would lose face, she clasped her hands in a fist and said, "This young lady suddenly remembered that she has something to attend to at home, so she will take her leave first."

Gu Shuyan boarded the carriage amidst Xu Yunzhi's bewildered gaze, and then the carriage sped away and disappeared from sight.

"Your Highness, shall we go back too?"

The guard, seeing his prince's discomfiture, looked in Gu Shuyan's direction and silently gave him a thumbs up.

"Go back? Go back where? I'm going shopping, you know?"

Xu Yunzhi glared at the clueless guard, closed his fan, and strode away into the distance.

Upon seeing this, the man sent by the emperor to keep watch immediately reported what had happened.

Upon hearing that Xu Yunzhi had been so harshly criticized by Gu Shuyan, a smile couldn't help but appear on the emperor's face.

"I never expected that Miss Gu would be such an interesting person."

The emperor's words carried a hint of praise, and the eunuch quickly chimed in, "Miss Gu is indeed more interesting than other young ladies from noble families. I don't know if it's because she grew up in the countryside, but she just doesn't listen to anyone."

The emperor took the eunuch's words to heart, recalling the rumors about Gu Shuyan, and couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"It's all thanks to this girl that she married Prime Minister Yun. If it were any other boy, I'm afraid he really wouldn't be able to handle it."

Most importantly, the less respect Gu Shuyan showed to those people, the more it proved that the Gu family did not want to side with anyone.

Now, with the addition of Yun Yichen, who is loyal to him, he can truly hold his position securely.

"Your Majesty is right. The marriage between the Grand Secretary and Miss Gu will certainly be helpful to Your Majesty's grand ambitions."

The eunuch's words, tinged with flattery, were nonetheless pleasing to the emperor.

Little did the emperor know that after Gu Shuyan left, she did not actually return directly to the Marquis's residence, but instead went to a teahouse not far away.

Seeing Xu Yunzhi slowly walk in, Gu Shuyan looked around and quietly closed the door.

"Speak! What do you want from me?"

Gu Shuyan got straight to the point, directly revealing the reason why Xu Yunzhi was at the ice cream stall.