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Xu Mu pulled her hands away, stared at her, and asked in a low voice: "Sister-in-law Qi, what are they talking about?"

The noise over there wasn't loud, and they were probably at some distance from each other, so they couldn't hear what they were saying.

Song Jin relaxed a little, shook his head and replied: "Mu'er, don't tell anyone about this, including the prince."

Xu Mu seemed to understand, vaguely feeling that it was related to his brother the Crown Prince, but listening to the conversation between the two people, it seemed to be related to his future sister-in-law.

Song Jin held his breath, trying to eavesdrop on more information.

"Woof! Woof!"

In the secret cold palace, the sudden loud barking of a dog startled everyone.

The man and woman who were conspiring both looked terrified.

"who!"

The big yellow dog swung its tail wildly as it turned the corner and barked excitedly at the two people in the pit.

Xu Mu's eyes widened and he whispered, "It's Ah Huang!"

The big yellow dog was a wild dog that roamed around the cold palace. It usually hid from the patrolling guards. He also discovered the big yellow dog accidentally. At that time, it was still a small ball and was fattened up by Xu Mu's feeding.

He has great affection for this big yellow dog.

Maybe she came here because she smelled his scent.

The people outside followed Ah Huang and ran over. Xu Mu quickly shouted at them, "Ah Huang, stop them!"

Ah Huang barked, turned around and rushed back, biting the hem of the palace maid's skirt. There was a scream and chaos over there.

Song Jin seized the opportunity, hugged Xu Muchong and rushed to the dog hole, letting him crawl out first.

"stop!"

A sharp voice exploded behind him, and Song Jin's heart trembled. He ignored the barking of dogs and angry curses behind him, and used his hands and feet to crawl out of the dog hole.

She heard a scream of pain from behind. It was Ah Huang biting the eunuch's right leg. The scream was so piercing and sharp that she couldn't help but turn her head to take a look.

As expected, Ah Huang was biting the eunuch to prevent him from leaving. The palace maid behind him was so frightened that she collapsed on the ground.

Well done!

Song Jin didn't dare to stay, he picked up Xu Mu and ran towards the wide palace road.

*

Song Jin ran to the side courtyard in a hurry. When he turned a corner, a familiar figure suddenly appeared in his sight.

It’s Cui Huaiji!

"My Lord!"

Cui Huaiji supported her and glanced at the eleventh prince in her arms. He frowned slightly and then said as if nothing had happened: "Sprinting is prohibited in the palace."

She really doesn't know this rule.

Song Jin put Xu Mu down, but before he could say anything, he heard him say, "Shi An, take the Eleventh Prince back."

"yes."

Xu Mu waved at her with his chubby little hand and whispered in her ear: "Sister-in-law Qi, I won't tell."

"Yeah." Song Jin smiled.

[She's quite well behaved. She should be safe with the Marquis here, right? How should I tell the Marquis that Yang Chaoxue had tampered with the imperial concubine selection banquet? ]

It’s Yang Chaoxue again.

Cui Huaiji looked down and said, "Miss Song, you look flustered. Are you in trouble?"

The hand that fell on the corner of his clothes clenched unconsciously. Song Jin nodded his chin and moved closer to him: "I just heard someone passing on a message. It seems that they want the prince to choose Osmanthus fragrans as the crown princess."

Cui Huaiji nodded: "I understand. You don't have to worry about this matter. Go back to the Seventh Prince first."

After sending her back to the side courtyard, Xu Nanheng looked at her with a worried look on his face and asked her in a gentle voice where she had been. Song Jin answered perfunctorily, but the other princes and princesses in the courtyard looked at her and Cui Huaiji with something strange in their eyes.

Xu Zhaoran's gaze was the most daring. He looked over the two of them with his eyes wide open. He teased them intentionally or not, "Hey, why did Seventh Sister-in-law come back with the Marquis? Where's Eleventh Brother? Isn't he with Seventh Sister-in-law?"

Song Jin looked at her calmly, "His Highness the Eleventh Prince is tired from playing, so he asked the Marquis to send someone back."

Xu Zhaoran was speechless and secretly glanced at Cui Huaiji, but he was angry but dared not say anything.

Xu Muxi sneered rudely, ignoring her angry look, and walked forward with a smile: "Uncle, why are you here?"

"Let's see the results of your selection." The princes and princesses subconsciously made way for him. He took a look at the top three choices, and sure enough, there was a light yellow osmanthus flower. "Okay, now that you've chosen one, I'll take it away."

Back in the front yard, everyone was looking forward to seeing who would be the Crown Princess.

Crown Prince Xu Guanlin looked around. No one in the plan came to tell him which bouquet Yang Chaoxue's flower arrangement was, but she would definitely be in the top three.

The emperor and empress commented on the three flower arrangements, all of them praising them.

"Mrs. Sheng An is really multi-talented. The Queen and I can't even choose the best one." The Emperor laughed and proposed Xu Guanlin, "Prince, since she is your Crown Princess, you can choose."

"yes."

Xu Guanlin suppressed his nervousness and came to the flower arrangement.

Although he seems calm, he is actually very anxious.

Long time no words

Seeing this, Cui Yuyao above looked at Cui Huaiji calmly. Only when she received the other party's affirmative look did she breathe a sigh of relief.

She looked at him with a smile and urged him gently, "Why don't you say anything, Prince? Can't you choose the first place?"

The three ladies waiting outside the screen were all nervous and expectant.

Yang Chaoxue clenched her handkerchief tightly and stared at the bouquet of osmanthus flowers in front of him.

Why are you hesitating? She clearly sent someone to tell the prince that the bouquet of osmanthus flowers was hers!

The prince was slow to choose the first one, and the emperor sitting above him couldn't help but frown, with a dark light in his eyes.

Remind in a deep voice.

"Prince."

Xu Guanlin was shocked and closed his eyes with great difficulty. He said in a dry voice, "Father, this bunch of maple-leaf iron wire is small and strong, and seems to have a force that is as high as a cliff and soaring into the sky. It must be the best."

“…”

The courtyard fell into silence.

The emperor lowered his eyes and stared at the bunch of maple-leaved iron clematis. It was indeed as the prince said, proud and strong. He nodded with satisfaction and turned his head to look at Cui Yuhuai, who smiled and nodded.

"The Queen and I personally think that the maple-leaved clematis is the best. It's great that the Crown Prince feels the same way!"

"Then reveal the answer, so that I can take a good look at which families these young ladies are from."

Chief eunuch Feng Hai understood what he meant and shouted at the top of his voice, "The first three come in!"

Three young ladies outside the screen walked in slowly.

"Your Majesty."

"No need to be polite!"

Yang Chaoxue's face was pale, and he walked to his flower arrangement as if he had lost his soul.

The emperor took a closer look and laughed suddenly: "Empress, I didn't expect that the first place would be the little girl from the Chang family."

The person standing in front of the bunch of maple-leaved iron clematis was Cui's cousin, Miss Chang Yue from Yinzhou Chang's family.

The Chang family was also quite famous in Sheng'an. His father was the Deputy Minister of Dali Temple, and he had solved many strange cases together with the Shaoqing of Dali Temple. It could be said that the reputation of the Chang family in Sheng'an was earned by his father.

When she was young, Chang Yue often visited Cui Yuyao's place, so the emperor had some impression of her.

Cui Yuying looked at her and sighed: "Yes, Yue'er has grown up so much. Come, let me take a good look at her."

Chang Yue said shyly: "I have met the Empress."

Chang Yue had willow-like eyebrows and eyes, fair cheeks, and a pair of cute dimples when she smiled, which made people like her at first sight. She was not timid in front of the emperor, and her words and actions were also generous and generous.

The more Cui Yuhuai looked at her, the more satisfied she became: "Not bad, Yue'er is getting more and more beautiful."

Yang Chaoxue below had red eyes and the handkerchief in her hand was almost torn to pieces.

The ending is decided. Chang Yue is Xu Guanlin's Crown Princess, and she and another young lady will live in the East Palace as concubines.

A concubine, to put it bluntly, is a concubine.

She was the legitimate daughter of the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, but she had to be Xu Guanlin's concubine. She felt aggrieved just thinking about it.

If it was Brother Nan Heng, he would not let her be his concubine...

Song Jin was sitting next to Xu Nanheng, and saw the momentary heartache in his eyes, and sneered silently.

[You feel sorry for Yang Chaoxue now, but what were you doing before? You want to play both sides, but you don't even consider whether you are worthy of them! ]

She cursed in her heart with all her might, without repeating herself, and Cui Huaiji's eyes welled up and a smile silently crept up his brows.

The next moment, he saw Xu Nanheng pretending to care about Song Jin, and his eyes suddenly turned cold.

[It’s really an eyesore.]

The congratulations coming one after another around him, the faint voice of the heart, did not reach Song Jin's ears.

She was just trying to please Xu Nanheng with a fake smile.

*

Yang Mansion.

Yang Chaoxue smashed the tea sets on the table, then like a madman, picked up a pair of scissors and slashed into pieces the painting of red plum blossoms that she had carefully embroidered for several months.

Her gentle eyebrows and eyes were filled with tears, and her scarlet eyes looked as if they would shed tears of blood in the next moment.

Only rags remain of the red plum blossom scene.

She trembled and kept asking, "Why! Why! I am only one step away from becoming the Crown Princess!"

The ground is full of debris and you will get hurt if you are not careful.

Ningxue dodged the sharp fragments and spoke tremblingly: "Mother, my hand was hurt by the scissors..."

The painting of red plum blossoms was embroidered by Yang Chaoxue for the Seventh Prince. In order to catch up with the Seventh Prince's birthday, she spent several months embroidering at night with lights on to catch up with the progress. Now she cut it just like that. It was obvious that she was very angry.

Yang Chaoxue stared blankly at her embroidery, tears welling up in her eyes: "It's gone, the painting of red plum blossoms is gone... I didn't become the Crown Princess, I let Brother Nan Heng down..."

Ningxue saw that persuasion had no effect on her, so she turned around and went to look for Yang Yanbin.

When he rushed over, the room was in a mess and there was no place to step. If he was not careful, he would be cut by the debris.

Yang Yanbin's forehead twitched. He looked around but didn't see anyone, and suddenly became nervous.

"Asayuki?"

"Father."

The sound came from the roof.

Yang Yanbin's eyelids twitched. He was well aware of his daughter's madness, and hurriedly asked someone to bring a ladder to climb up.

Yang Chaoxue curled up into a ball, staring blankly at the bright moon with her red eyes.

There was a sense of calm madness emanating from his body.

"Chao Xue, there is still hope." Yang Yanbin was most afraid that she would suddenly go crazy and ruin the plan without caring about anything. "Chang Yue is only temporarily sitting on the position of Crown Princess. As long as the Crown Prince's heart is still with you, the Crown Princess will be yours sooner or later."

"If it were His Highness," Yang Chaoxue cried expressionlessly, "he would definitely not ask me to be his concubine."

"I clearly sent someone to pass the message to the prince, why couldn't he make a choice? Who did this?"

Yang Yanbin thought of the news he had just received and said, "It was Song Jin! The eunuch who handed it over said that she found out. It must be Song Jin who told others!"

"Song Jin..."

It’s her again! It’s her again!! It’s her again!!!

Yang Chaoxue's eyes were fierce, like a poisoned blade, and he wished he could cut her into pieces.

"Song Jin, you shouldn't have shown up!"