The next day.

Jiang Muyu woke up and stretched comfortably, but when he turned around, he saw Xia Qingchen with a constipated expression.

"Huh? What's wrong with you? Did you have a nightmare?"

Xia Qingchen glanced at her sideways, rubbed his swollen temples, and said, "You are my nightmare."

Jiang Muyu raised her head and looked towards the empty center of the bed. The pillow that was lying there last night had long disappeared. She asked awkwardly, "Did I cross the line?"

Xia Qingchen sat up, sighed, and said helplessly: "It's more than crossing the line, you are simply overstepping your authority."

"Ah... I'm sorry, Ah Chen, I can't control myself when I sleep."

"Move back to your side hall to sleep tonight!"

Having said that, he walked down from the bed barefoot.

Jiang Muyu looked at his back, smiled slyly, and thought to herself, "Do you think I will be obedient? The bed in the side hall is small and hard, whoever wants to sleep on it can sleep there!"

After the two of them washed up, the palace maids brought them breakfast.

The leading maid asked, "Your Highness, does Miss Zhaozhao need her breakfast to be sent to the side hall?"

Xia Qingchen said: "No need, she can just use it with me."

The palace maid was stunned for a moment before she bowed and left.

Jiang Muyu looked at the table of delicious food. The hungry little glutton immediately became restless. After she sat down, she showed her two clean little hands to Xia Qingchen and said, "I have washed my hands. Can I eat now?"

Xia Qingchen smiled, put a red bean cake on the plate in front of her, and said, "Eat it."

"Okay." Jiang Muyu scooped a spoonful of porridge into his mouth, then swallowed it and took a bite of the red bean cake.

After a while, Xia Qingchen put down his bowl and chopsticks.

Jiang Muyu was eating a piece of unidentified pancake. She turned around and saw that he had stopped eating. After swallowing it quickly, she asked, "Are you full now?"

"Yeah." He nodded, picked up the teacup and took a sip.

Jiang Muyu glanced at the half-eaten food on the table and was shocked: "You prepare so much food here every day, and you just take a bite of each one?"

“Eat until you are 70% full.”

"Then why don't you ask them to prepare two or three kinds of food?"

He shook his head. "My daily meals are rationed according to the rules."

"Uh..." She glanced at the empty bowl of porridge in front of her and asked, "Did I eat too much?"

"It's okay. Just think of it as me feeding it to the pigs."

"Huh?" Hey, could you be more straightforward when you curse at someone?

Jiang Muyu angrily ate two more bowls of porridge.

The prince's eastern palace was very large and had its own garden. After the two of them had breakfast, they sat under a tree in the garden to digest their food.

In reality, Jiang Muyu was sitting aside holding a teacup, watching Xia Qingchen playing chess with himself, holding the white pieces in one hand and the black pieces in the other.

She didn't understand Go at all. She just watched him place the white pieces then the black pieces, then suddenly collect a few and put them back into the bowl, and then continue playing. She couldn't tell who won and who lost.

After watching for a while, she felt a little drowsy.

When Xia Qingchen turned around to look over, he saw that her eyes were half-closed and her little head was nodding like a chicken pecking at rice.

He pulled the half-empty cup of tea out of her hand. She half-drowsily thought that the cup had fallen, and she woke up immediately. She subconsciously reached out to catch it, but missed.

"Hahaha..." Xia Qingchen laughed out loud.

Jiang Muyu realized it belatedly. Seeing the empty teacup on the table beside him, he curled his lips in displeasure, "Achen, you bully me again!"

Xia Qingchen couldn't stop smiling and said, "You were the one who dozed off in the middle of the day and made a fool of yourself. You still blame me?"

She snorted, pointed at the Go board on the table, and said, "You were the one who said you would play Go with me, but you are playing alone here. That's why I am so bored that I am sleepy."

"But you don't know how to play Go, how can I teach you?"

"You can teach me!"

"Go is not something you can learn overnight. It takes a lot of effort to teach you. Besides, you are sure to lose to me with your intelligence. I'm afraid you will lose again."

"You... are talking nonsense. Who is playing tricks?"

"Are you kidding me? You clearly agreed to be my foot-washing maid, but last night I asked you to wash my feet but you found excuses to refuse, and even stole my blanket at night, but you don't act like a maid at all."

Jiang Muyu was speechless for a moment when he was defending himself during this part.

She touched her nose awkwardly, and suddenly an idea came to her mind. She said, "How about this, I'll teach you a new kind of chess. It's very easy and you'll learn it in no time. Then we can play together."

"What chess?" Xia Qingchen looked at her suspiciously.

"You'll know in a moment." She smiled slyly, and collected the chess pieces on the table one by one and put them back into their respective chess cups.

After cleaning up, he grabbed a few white pieces in one hand and a few black pieces in the other, and then said, "The next thing I'm going to teach you is called Gobang. You should follow me and learn it carefully."

Xia Qingchen nodded. He wanted to see what this little girl could do.

"For example, I hold the white pieces and you hold the black pieces, and we play rock-paper-scissors. Whoever wins gets to make the first move. Then whoever connects five pieces first wins."

"Oh." He nodded in understanding, and then asked, "Are there any direction requirements for the five connected ones?"

"East, south, west, north, northeast, northwest, southeast, southwest, eight directions are all fine."

"Okay, I understand."

So the two of them started playing Gobang. At the beginning, Jiang Muyu won several games in a row and his momentum soared.

She became proud and said, "This is so boring. We should add a punishment to make it more fun."

Xia Qingchenrao asked with interest: "What kind of punishment will be imposed?"

Jiang Muyu then asked Maoxian to bring a brush and ink, and said, "The winner can draw a line on the loser's face, how about that?"

Xia Qingchen nodded: "Okay."

However, from then on, Xia Qingchen seemed to have mastered the essence of the game in an instant, and she never won a single game. Her entire face was painted into a big tabby cat by him.

After Jiang Muyu lost for the fortieth time, he finally couldn't help but throw down the chess piece, "Ahhh... I don't want to play anymore!"

Xia Qingchen looked at her angry expression and said with a sly smile, holding a brush in hand: "What? Do you want to avoid punishment?"

Jiang Muyu crossed her arms over her chest and said angrily, "I can't beat you anyway, so do whatever you want."

"Oh?" Xia Qingchen thought for a moment and said, "Why don't we change the punishment? Let's play another round, and the loser will carry the winner around the East Palace. How about that?"

"No!" Jiang Muyu immediately refused, and said with a stern face: "You are a few centimeters taller than me. I am so weak that I can't even carry you, let alone run in circles. That will cost me half my life."

"You've already admitted defeat before we even started the competition?" Xia Qingchen shook his head with a look of contempt, "You're so weak."

"Who said I gave up?" Jiang Muyu immediately slammed the table and said, "Let's play one last round. I don't believe I can't beat you."

"Okay." He smiled brightly and put down the brush.

Just as they were about to play rock-paper-scissors to decide who would go first, Jiang Muyu suddenly shouted, "Wait."

"What's wrong?" He looked at her in confusion.

Jiang Muyu reached out and snatched the chess cup in front of him, saying, "I think I always lose because of the chess pieces. Let's switch. I'll use the black pieces and you use the white pieces."

He curled his eyes and said, "Okay."

So the two of them changed chess pieces and started playing again. This round lasted for a long time. Jiang Muyu almost lost several times but suddenly found a loophole and finally won the game.

She jumped up happily, "Great, I win!!"

Xia Qingchen looked up at her, his eyes rippling with ripples. When no one was paying attention, he raised his hand and brushed his sleeve over the chess cup. A few white pieces quietly fell into the cup.

Jiang Muyu jumped up and down and said, "You lose. You have to carry me around the East Palace. Don't cheat."

"A man should stick to his word." He said, and squatted down in front of her.

Jiang Muyu then lay on his back, pointed forward, and shouted with a smile, "Drive!"

As the sun sets, the red walls and green tiles of the East Palace are filled with the silver bell-like laughter of young girls.

At night, Jiang Muyu still lingered in his bedroom and refused to leave. He finally gave in and let her climb onto his bed.

He stared at the peaceful sleeping face of the little girl beside him for a long time in a daze.

In fact, he knew from the beginning that he should not have anything to do with her. The moment she suddenly appeared in his room, he thought about asking the guards to take her away and deal with her.

But he hesitated. He had never met such a special person before. She would not be as respectful to him as others, nor would she try to curry favor with him once she knew his identity.

Perhaps, as she said, they were destined to be together.