Fourth Master certainly wasn't going to the estate out of boredom, but today was a relatively quiet day for him.
Just a few days ago, the Fourteenth Prince in the palace was envious because the Fifth Prince took the Ninth Prince to a manor outside the palace to ride horses and shoot arrows to relax.
Only now did the Fourth Prince arrange for Su Peisheng to go into the palace and bring the Fourteenth Prince out of the palace.
Although the Ministry of Revenue was not busy today, and there was nothing much to do in the court, the Fourth Prince still had quite a few official documents to review.
However, these were all trivial matters. For example, along with the summer greetings, there were also memorials from various places.
These are all unimportant matters; the Fourth Prince always only reviews them when he has a spare moment, and this time is no exception.
Fu Lu went to the side to grind the ink, so Li Chenjiao didn't have to do it herself.
"Please sit down. Tell Jianyue and Zhenyue to serve you tea and snacks."
Jianyue and Zhenyue were both head maids in the front courtyard, but the Fourth Master did not like to have maids serve him closely. Most of the time, the maids in the front courtyard could only serve tea and water when guests came to the front courtyard.
Two maids entered with their heads bowed and served tea. They didn't say much, and the tea they served was a famous tea. Then they asked Li Chenjiao what kind of pastries she wanted.
Li Chenjiao casually mentioned two girls, but glanced at them more than she did, not out of any real scrutiny, but out of curiosity.
Li Chenjiao glanced at Qiu Hu, not showing any arrogance in front of the two maids, and even asked Qiu Hu to come along to help, since Qiu Hu also knew about her dietary restrictions.
Having recently read many stories about palace maids climbing into bed, Li Chenjiao's extra glances just now were merely a sudden thought of this matter.
It has always been common for princes and nobles to take maids from their own courtyards as concubines, and even now, such stories are still frequently seen because the maids have more opportunities to serve.
Li Chenjiao wasn't suspicious, but she suddenly thought of a story in a storybook. She took a sip of tea, looked at the Fourth Master, and laughed.
Fourth Master was used to it, but because his master was ahead of him, Fu Lu rarely had the chance to serve Fourth Master and Master Li. Hearing Master Li's laughter, he was so frightened that his hands trembled.
However, seeing that Fourth Master didn't even lift his eyelids, Fu Lu didn't say anything more.
The two maids, Jianyu and Zhenyu, quickly served the pastries, which Li Chenjiao politely thanked.
The amount of ice used in the front yard was similar to that in Li Chenjiao's east yard, but Fourth Master was more frugal. In fact, Li Chenjiao's yard used more ice.
Seeing that she wouldn't be leaving the manor anytime soon, Li Chenjiao sent Qiu Hu to go back and instruct Chen Shi and Lin Shi to keep an eye on the Second Princess while she was away from the courtyard.
Indeed, Li Chenjiao had never left the mansion since she entered it, except for the few times she went to the palace to pay her respects to Consort De.
Consort Li naturally had the opportunity to leave the mansion a few times each month, but Li Chenjiao became consort Li just as she was about to become pregnant.
After giving birth, and with summer upon us, Li Chenjiao didn't like going out. Besides, things had been unsettling in the capital lately, so after much thought, the mansion seemed to be the most peaceful and quiet place.
However, since Fourth Master brought it up, Li Chenjiao was happy to go out for some fresh air, as long as it wasn't too hot.
The best thing to do is to spend half a day relaxing at the estate, with the maid picking some lotus flowers from the garden and putting them in the house. In the evening, we can have hot pot under the eaves, and after sweating profusely, we can rest at the hot springs on the estate.
Li Chenjiao knew there was a hot spring on the estate when she last came back, but she wasn't really interested in going then because it was springtime.
Or rather, even though Li Chenjiao had heard the maids and nannies talk about it, she remained silent as long as the Fourth Master didn't mention it.
Even without the Fourth Master's permission, Li Chenjiao could still go to the hot springs if she wanted to.
However, Li Chenjiao thought that it would be most comfortable to soak in the hot springs at the manor in winter.
She glanced at the Fourth Master again; he seemed more relaxed than he had appeared in the main courtyard. Li Chenjiao was more used to this version of the Fourth Master.
Before the Fourth Master looked up, Li Chenjiao hurriedly lowered her head, trying to cover up the smile on her lips.
Fourth Master glanced away, dipped his brush in ink, gave Fulu a look, and then looked at the ice chest in the room as he lowered his eyes to write.
Fu Lu understood immediately, and after grinding the ink, he added some ice.
Fourth Master didn't look up again.
During the days when Li Chenjiao was pregnant and during her postpartum confinement, Fourth Master could tell that she was extremely bored.
Otherwise, she wouldn't have gone to the garden as soon as her confinement period ended. If it weren't for the hot weather, she probably would have stayed in the garden all day.
These past few days, Fourteenth Prince has been begging Fourth Prince, and Fourth Prince couldn't resist Fourteenth Prince's pleas. Also, thinking of Li Chenjiao in the East Courtyard, he simply decided to go out together.
The Fourth Prince had originally sent someone to ask the Thirteenth Prince, but when the Thirteenth Prince heard that it was the Fourteenth Prince who had requested it, he ultimately refused, citing his studies as an excuse.
Since Father Emperor would be heading north later, he would have plenty of time to ride horses and shoot arrows with Fourth Brother.
However, after Li Chenjiao and Qiu Hu left the mansion behind the curtain, Li Chenjiao vaguely saw a pale yellow figure when she got into the carriage.
Li Chenjiao paused, assuming that she had misread it.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
