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The Fourth Prince sighed. He looked at Lady Yin kneeling on the ground. He knew that she couldn't possibly be the mastermind behind all of this, but because of Honghui, he couldn't really touch the Fujin because of this. So he raised his eyes and glared at Lady Ulanara.
When Lady Yin confessed her guilt, the Fujin's heart, which had been pounding with anxiety, finally relaxed a little. However, the Fourth Prince's piercing gaze made her immediately uncomfortable. But the Fujin still had to pretend to look at Lady Yin kneeling on the ground with disbelief, and said in a trembling voice, "Lady Yin, you have really disappointed me."
"Yin, being consumed by jealousy, framed Niu. She is hereby confined to her quarters for a year. Without my permission, she is not allowed to step out of this room. Her allowance is halved, and all those previously assigned to attend to her during childbirth are to be withdrawn. As for the Fujin, for her negligence in managing the household, she is hereby confined to her quarters for a month as a warning to others!" The Fourth Prince stood up, walked past Yin, who was kneeling on the ground, and went to the Fujin's side. He spoke in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "You should take heed of this."
After saying that, he turned and stepped back into the darkness outside without looking back. Su Peisheng quickly followed him out. After they had gone some distance, Madam Yin suddenly collapsed and knelt on the ground, bursting into tears.
The princess stood there like a pillar, not moving. It was Li Mama behind her who stepped forward, tugged at the princess's sleeve, and said, "Your Highness, it's already dark. Let's go back."
The Fujin then came to her senses and said to Madam Yin, who was sitting on the ground crying, "It's all because the Fourth Prince trusted that woman too much, and it's all because you weren't fortunate enough to keep that child." After saying this, she left with the grace and poise befitting a Fujin, supported by Granny Li.
Ye Ying was already in tears. She knelt down next to Madam Yin with heartache, hugged her, and hurriedly comforted her, "Princess, don't be sad. It's just a house arrest. We still have a chance! Ye Ying will always be with you."
For a time, the room in the West Courtyard was plunged into a long period of darkness, and some crying could be faintly heard. From then on, no one associated with the master and servant, and Madam Yin stayed indoors all day.
Doctor Bai never appeared at the Fourth Prince's residence again. It was said that he colluded with Lady Yin to frame Princess Niu and had fled to avoid punishment. The Fourth Prince was sending people to search for him everywhere, but whether he had found him or not was no longer of concern to anyone. The main wife of the Prince didn't usually like the princesses to come and pay their respects to her, and she herself didn't like visiting other people's homes. Lately, she seemed to have exempted the princesses from paying their respects, and she was rarely seen at any occasion.
Before he knew it, the scorching July arrived, and the Fourth Prince was busy again, preparing to extend Emperor Kangxi's term of office. During his month-long absence, he visited nine different prefectures, discovering several problems along the way. If the Fourth Prince were in the 21st century, he would be a complete workaholic. He specifically wrote a report detailing the problems he had observed and submitted it. Sure enough, the issues the Fourth Prince raised caught Emperor Kangxi's attention. Thus began his daily life of working from dawn till dusk, a monotonous routine of 9 to 5, returning home at the hour of Yin (3-5 AM) and not returning until the hour of Xu (7-9 PM).
Fourth Master spent most of his time resting at Lanqin's place after returning home each day, followed by Li Shi, who would visit every few days, and then Wu Shi, Geng Shi, and others. The women in the inner quarters were surprised to find that while Fourth Master used to visit the main courtyard on the first and fifteenth of each month, after the incident with Yin Shi, although he would still go there, he never stayed overnight. Consort Li began to associate with Lanqin, who, out of necessity, couldn't very well keep her out. Geng Shi also occasionally went to talk to Lanqin, Wu Shi stopped bothering Lanqin, Song Shi remained in her room as usual, and Wang Shi remained quiet.
Lanqin was allowed to go to the front yard as usual. Fourth Master even took a look at the sandals, finger guards and skateboard she had put on. He didn't comment on them, but he also didn't say that Honghui and the others were not allowed to play with them.
Tacit consent is permission!
After discerning the Fourth Prince's attitude, Lanqin had been designing games for the eldest prince and his children in her study every day. For example, she divided them into two teams, dressed them in different clothes, and played a game similar to "Counter-Strike." She had described this game to the eldest prince and his children, and it was quite popular with the boys. They strongly urged Lanqin to organize activities as soon as possible. Perhaps because of their daily exposure to Zhu Xi's philosophy, these children particularly enjoyed these kinds of outdoor activities. Lanqin had also attended Zhu Xi's lectures. After one class, she was incredibly impressed by these royal relatives. They were so young, yet they were taking such advanced lessons—more advanced than Lin Mengyao's high school Chinese class—and they were still just a group of ten-year-old children!
"Ziran, do we have any paint?" Lanqin held the slingshot that the Fourth Prince had given him, which she had taken from the First Prince. She looked around and had already figured out how to play an ancient "CS" game.
"Paint?" Zi Ran knew that Lan Qin often used words they couldn't understand, so she wasn't surprised.
"Oh, it's something used for dyeing clothes. How do you get the colors from these fabrics?" Lanqin was used to seeing the maids looking completely clueless.
Zi Ran understood this time and immediately said, "We have to ask the people at the dye shop for that."
Lanqin repeated the word "dyehouse" and then asked, "Then we'll have to ask the head nanny for some and have her send someone to procure some from outside the mansion."
Zi Ran watched Lan Qin mutter to herself, then smiled and said, "Princess, what do you need the dye for? Are you going to dye the cloth yourself?"
Lanqin gave her a mysterious look and said with a smile, "You'll find out when the time comes. Ziran, go find Nianxue and ask her to inform the Fujin that I need some embroiderers from the manor to come over."
Zi Ran responded and left, leaving Lan Qin alone at the desk, writing and drawing with a brush.
Fourth Master returned earlier than usual today. Upon arriving at the manor, he didn't even go to the front courtyard but turned and headed towards the south courtyard. Nianxue was just about to ask the Fujin (princess's wife) for the embroiderer when she bumped into Fourth Master at the door.
"Greetings to Master!" Nian Xue curtsied, wondering why he had come at this time.
"Where is your princess?" Fourth Master's tone was somewhat light, indicating that he was in a good mood.
"Your Majesty, the Princess is in the study. I was sent by the Princess to ask the Princess for an embroiderer," Nianxue said, bowing her head.
Fourth Master waved for Nianxue to leave, then walked into the South Courtyard like a gust of wind, with Su Peisheng following behind, barely able to keep up with Fourth Master's pace.
The people in the South Courtyard hadn't seen the Fourth Master come at this time in a long time, but seeing his beaming face, they all bowed to him in greeting.
Fourth Master waved his hand and headed straight for his study; he needed to share his excitement with someone.
[May 15th is almost here! I hope to continue my efforts to climb the 515 Red Envelope Ranking, and on May 15th, I can give back to readers with a red envelope rain and promote my work. Every little bit helps, and I'll definitely update harder!]
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