That was all Yang Qing could tell herself; there was nothing she could do about it.

On her way back, Yang Qing encountered two beautiful women, who, though not as stunning as Yang Qing, were still exceptionally beautiful.

"This must be Sister Yang!" The tone was gentle, but the person who said this looked at Yang Qing and her servant with particularly unfriendly eyes.

The person speaking was sent by the Crown Prince's servants when he first arrived in Yangzhou. She was commonly known as a "Yangzhou thin horse," and her status was similar to that of the dancer who served the Third Prince.

Yang Qing frowned: "Who are you?"

Yang Qing naturally sensed that they had come with ill intentions, so she did not stand on ceremony.

"Sister Yang, that's a good question. We're all here, just like you, as you are all the Crown Prince's people. By the way, I came here today with Sister Qi to congratulate you on your marriage. Congratulations on your marriage! We sisters should get along well from now on."

Yang Qing found the smiles on their faces particularly irritating.

"Sister Cheng is right. By the way, I heard that the Yang family is besieged and everyone in the Yang family has been imprisoned. Sister, you must take care of yourself and accept this."

That's like rubbing salt into someone's wound.

Yang Qing did feel pain.

"Have you said enough?" These words were spoken by Yang Qing's maid.

Yang Qing held a high position in the Yang family, and her maid naturally rose in status as well. So, no one had ever bullied their young lady like this before, and the maid couldn't hold back any longer.

Upon hearing this, Qi and Cheng indeed stopped attacking Yang Qing. Qi said, "How dare a servant girl talk back to her master? Guards, slap her!"

Yang Qing, naturally, could not stand by and watch her maid be wronged, so she said, "That's enough, let's see who dares to lay a hand on me."

These words would have been authoritative if Prefect Yang hadn't gotten into trouble, but now that he's in trouble and the situation is unclear, especially with almost all of the Yang family's leaders imprisoned, it's unlikely to end well. Naturally, Yang Qing, the prefect's daughter who was taken in yesterday, is no longer respected.

“Sister Yang, you’ve gone too far. You’ve been tolerating the maid’s disrespect towards us and the servant’s disrespect towards their master. That’s a serious mistake. Didn’t the Yang family teach you that servants should behave like servants? This is so unruly. I don’t even know how they got in here.”

"Alright, Sister Cheng, you can't do that. Although the Yang family's rules aren't great, they can't stop Yang Meimei from having such a beautiful face! I've heard that she's even more beautiful than the top courtesan at Qingchun Pavilion!"

These words were extremely humiliating, and Yang Qing blushed with shame upon hearing them.

Faced with these difficulties, Yang Qing felt somewhat helpless. She knew that going to the Crown Prince at this time would be like adding fuel to the fire, as she had seen his attitude earlier, which was not very good.

Thinking of this, Yang Qing had no choice but to lower her head.

"Since you two sisters know that I got in because of my looks, you should also know that I haven't gotten tired of my looks yet! As for the Yang family, nothing has been decided yet. Are you two really so fearless?"

Yang Qing's words made sense. It was indeed too early to be smug. The two women weren't stupid; they were just blinded by the sudden news. They had already heard that the Crown Prince had feelings for this Miss Yang, so after learning about the Crown Prince's attitude, they couldn't help but come and kick her while she was down.

Now that Yang Qing has reminded them, they realize that it is indeed too early.

The two went back like that, but the impact on Yang Qing was still there. She really didn't expect that the life she imagined would be so different from reality.

Back in their room, Yang Qing couldn't help but shed tears.

"How could this happen?!"

How did the weather suddenly change like this?

The maid didn't know either! She was even more confused.

"Miss, you haven't eaten yet. Would you like me to ask the kitchen to prepare something for you?"

The Crown Prince wasn't a particularly considerate person. Yang Qing hadn't eaten much last night, but she was too busy being shy and nervous to notice. She was too full of love to feel hungry. She hadn't eaten a single bite this morning, and although she was indeed hungry, she really couldn't eat anything.

"No need, you keep an eye on the messages, I'm going to get some sleep."

"Yes, Miss."

After the Crown Prince dismissed Yang Qing, he went out to see Emperor Kangxi.

"Your Majesty, the Crown Prince requests an audience."

Emperor Kangxi had no intention of refusing to see him: "Let him in."

“Zha”

The Crown Prince felt somewhat relieved to see that his father was still willing to see him; perhaps it wasn't as serious as he thought.

"Greetings, Father Emperor."

"Get up, sit down and talk."

"Thank you, Father Emperor."

After the Crown Prince sat down, Kangxi was quite direct: "Want to know about the Yang family?"

The Crown Prince nodded: "My son has just taken Prefect Yang's daughter as his wife, so I must find out what Prefect Yang did wrong."

Instead of replying directly, Kangxi gave him a dossier, the same one that Kangxi and Youqing had both seen before, concerning Yang Limin's concealment of the silver mine and his secret raising of troops.

After reading the dossier, the Crown Prince fell silent. He hadn't expected that Yang Limin, a mere prefect, would dare to do such a thing—concealing the silver mine, mining it privately, and even secretly raising an army and manufacturing weapons. What was he trying to do?

The Crown Prince suddenly felt uneasy, realizing that he had been quite close to Yang Limin.

"Father, although I took Yang Limin's daughter as a concubine, I was unaware of it."

At this point, Prefect Yang of the Crown Prince's Department addressed him directly by his first name, knowing that Yang Limin's actions would surely cost him his official position.

"I know you are unaware of this."

If the Crown Prince had known the truth and still dared to take Yang Qing back as a concubine, Emperor Kangxi would have been the first to not tolerate him.

The crown prince breathed a sigh of relief.

But while I breathed a sigh of relief, I also felt incredibly unlucky. Why couldn't he get anything good in return?

Over the years, he has become restless with whoever he gets close to. He originally thought it was just a matter of recruiting a prefect, nothing serious, but it turned out that the prefect was also involved in things like confiscating property and exterminating families. This made the crown prince feel sorry for him.

It's true that Emperor Kangxi didn't blame the Crown Prince, but it's also true that he was displeased with the Crown Prince's close relationship with Yang Limin in private.

In fact, Emperor Kangxi did not mind his sons cultivating their own people, but the premise was that they could really cultivate people like Yang Limin. Over the years, what dissatisfied Emperor Kangxi the most about the crown prince was that he did not know how to use people or recognize their abilities.

Knowing how to recognize and appoint capable people is an essential skill for any emperor, but the crown prince was extremely poor at this, so it would be strange if Emperor Kangxi were satisfied.

"Go back. I will handle the Yang family's affairs."

The Crown Prince was still somewhat uneasy: "What about Yang Limin's daughter?"

Now the Crown Prince doesn't care about beauty anymore. Yang Limin has done such a thing, so even if his daughter is more beautiful than anyone before or since, it won't matter.

For the crown prince, beautiful women were more of a diversion in life than power. When diversion and necessity conflicted, the crown prince instinctively chose the option that was most advantageous to him.

"You decide what to do."