Facing the Fourth Prince's gaze, Li Tiao felt even more uneasy than when the palace maids serving Consort De combed her hair.
With a forced smile, Li Tiao tried her best to make it look very ingratiating: "Master, I just didn't have much to say to the young masters, but who knew that our casual conversation would turn to the topic of waist tokens."
To prove that she was telling the truth, Li Tiao put down the skewers she was holding, raised her hand as if to swear an oath, and said to the Fourth Prince with absolute certainty, "Your Highness, you must believe me. I absolutely do not have any of those messy thoughts right now."
The Fourth Prince glanced at Li Tiao and hummed in response, acknowledging her seriousness.
Li Tiao wasn't too embarrassed; she was used to it anyway, and she felt that expressing her attitude was enough.
However, the young princes next to them ate their food cautiously and awkwardly, wolfing it down in a whirlwind. They finished their food in no time, even wiping their mouths with their sleeves before standing up immediately.
"Fourth Brother, please enjoy your meal. I'm all ready."
The Fourth Prince treated his younger brothers very differently from Li Tiao, because he didn't even look at them, only grunting in response.
The young princes felt as if they had been granted a pardon upon hearing the Fourth Prince's "hmm," and immediately took off running.
Li Tiao waved goodbye to the young princes while biting into a skewer, like a lucky cat. However, as she waved, Li Tiao suddenly realized something.
She put down what she was holding again, stood up and ran a few steps, grabbing a young prince with one hand: "Silver!"
The prince who wasn't caught was the sixteenth prince. Hearing Li Tiao's words, he glanced at his older and younger brothers who had been caught, and finally cautiously looked at the fourth prince, who was sitting there calmly and still elegantly eating barbecue.
The sixteenth prince's gaze made Li Tiao belatedly realize something.
Swallowing hard, he slowly loosened his grip...
Afterwards, Li Tiao gently patted the backs of the Fifteenth Prince and the Seventeenth Prince, seemingly to straighten their wrinkled clothes, but actually to threaten them: "Hurry up and give us the money."
The three young princes were afraid of the fourth prince, and also afraid that Li Tiao would stop making them good food in the future. After hesitating for a moment, they still took out the silver they had prepared beforehand.
Li Tiao reached out triumphantly to take it, but the Fourth Prince coughed several times, whether intentionally or genuinely.
The three young princes were so frightened that they quickly put away the silver and ran away.
"Sigh..." Li Tiao wanted to chase after them, but the coughing behind her was still there. She stood on tiptoe and looked at the backs of the three young princes. She was extremely helpless. Before turning around, she rolled her eyes in a very expressive way, showing all her emotions.
It wasn't until she turned around and hadn't looked away, and when she met the Fourth Prince's still distasteful, ambiguous smile, that Li Tiao remembered to stop rolling her eyes.
However, he moved too quickly, and his eyes rolled back as if he were having an epileptic seizure before returning to normal.
Hearing the Fourth Prince's light laughter, Li Tiao was extremely annoyed.
She walked over with a feeling of grievance, picked up the skewers on the plate. They were clearly things that Li Tiao liked, but they felt as heavy as a thousand pounds. She just couldn't lift her arm to put them in her mouth.
"Not eating?"
The Fourth Prince glanced at Li Tiao and asked.
Li Tiao said, "Master, the young masters agreed before that I would make barbecue for them and they would give me money. Why don't you let them give me money?"
"Did you say they shouldn't give it to me?"
"Then why are you coughing?" Li Tiao's voice had an unconsciously charming tone.
"Even coughing isn't allowed?"
Li Tiao was taken aback. Before she transmigrated, she had read some inspirational quotes online. What was that quote?
That's right, only poverty and coughs cannot be concealed.
Although she was taken aback, following the Fourth Prince's lukewarm words, Li Tiao suddenly had a flash of inspiration, leaned closer to him, and once again revealed a fawning smile:
"So, Master, you mean you don't object to the young masters giving us money?"
The Fourth Prince didn't speak, but glanced at Li Tiao.
Li Tiao felt that his silence meant he didn't object, so she became a little "pull her luck": "Then... Master, could you help me go to the young masters and get the money back for me?"
Finally, the Fourth Prince seemed to have eaten and drunk his fill.
He remained elegant, taking the napkin from Su Peisheng and wiping his mouth slowly before lifting his eyelids to look at Li Tiao: "Where did these things come from?"
Following the Fourth Prince's gaze, Li Tiao realized that he was referring to the barbecued meat and vegetables.
"From the small kitchen."
"Did you buy the vegetables in the small kitchen with your own money?"
Li Tiao roughly understood what the Fourth Prince was about to say. She said, "The things in the small kitchen were indeed not bought with my money, but the seasonings and such were all done by me. If I were to go out and open a shop, I would have put in a lot of effort, so naturally I should be paid."
Seeing the Fourth Prince nod seriously after hearing her words, Li Tiao became even more smug: "Right, Your Highness? Although I didn't buy any vegetables, the effort I put in was still very valuable."
The Fourth Prince frowned, feigning confusion, and asked, "What do you call my brothers?"
"My ladies..." Li Tiao realized that things were not going well, but why hadn't she thought of it yet?
"Oh, my lord, a mere servant girl who served you your meal actually asked you for money..." The Fourth Prince shook his head, glancing at Li Tiao with admiration, then looked at Su Peisheng and Hongye, who was serving Li Tiao:
"You two should learn from her. Following Princess Li might just make you incredibly wealthy in the future."
Su Peisheng and Hongye both wished they could just die right now.
Li Tiao was also embarrassed, but even more so, she was angry.
However, the Fourth Prince always ignored her anger, or would either try to appease her depending on his mood.
Clearly, at this moment, the Fourth Prince had no intention of appeasing the angry Li Tiao; in fact, he was somewhat pleased.
Staring at the Fourth Prince's profile, Li Tiao noticed that the corners of his mouth were turned up, which made her even angrier. Since things had already come to this, she figured she might as well vent her anger, so she stretched out her arm, raised her leg, and swung it at the Fourth Prince.
But who knew that the Fourth Prince seemed to have eyes in the back of his head, and suddenly turned around.
Li Tiao was so startled that she quickly pulled her arms and legs back, but she was a little unsteady on her feet. Fortunately, Hongye caught her in time.
"Oh dear, it's so hot today, I'm dizzy." Under the Fourth Prince's gaze, Li Tiao put on an affected act of feigned weakness.
Afterwards, with Hongye's help, he went back to his own room.
Looking down at his shadow at his feet, the Fourth Prince chuckled softly. As he gazed at Li Tiao's figure, which seemed as if a gust of wind could knock her over, the corners of his mouth curved into a wider smile.
Not only did she not get the money, but she was also angered so much that Li Tiao felt that her heart, liver, spleen, stomach, and kidneys were all stagnant.
Even though she was in such a miserable state, there were still people who wouldn't let her go. Consort De even sent someone to find her again, saying she wanted to see her.
Upon hearing Hongye's words, Li Tiao sat up straight with a start: "Quickly tell the master, I'm going to see the Empress alone, and when I come back, I might not be a whole corpse."
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