On the official ship.

After hearing the young county lady's decision, Zhang Xiaojing was surprised and asked, "Are we leaving without saying hello to our godmother?"

Li Chengen was also afraid and said, "Don't worry, if the stick is not hit on you, you don't know the pain, right?"

"Then you stay here by yourself. Xiaojing and I will leave first." Li Mingyue snorted and said, "I'm not the first one to go back to Jinling anyway."

"That's even more unprofitable." Li Chengen said with a bitter face: "If I didn't take good care of you two, I would still get beaten up."

"Since you're going to get beaten anyway, you should know what to choose, right?" Li Mingyue said with a smile.

"Hmm..." The young master stroked his chin in thought, not looking very smart. "That's right, I'd better go with you guys."

Zhang Xiaojing was so confused, thinking that it was too easy to be fooled.

~~

Zhao Garden.

Zhao Liben returned home in a hurry, and it took him a long time to recover before his face regained some color.

"Sir, what happened?" Ye asked curiously while feeding him ginseng soup.

"You are such a troublemaker!" The old man was still fierce and aggressive to Ye. "Give the order to close the doors and windows, and no one is allowed to come in or out."

"Uh..." Ye became more and more suspicious, but seeing Zhao Liben's timid look, she didn't dare to ask any more questions. She put down the bowl of soup and went out to give instructions.

She was just about to ask the maid to call the butler, but saw the butler running in hurriedly.

"Why are you so anxious?" Ye thought to herself, is there something fishy going on here today? Everyone is abnormal.

"Madam, the prefectural government sent... sent someone to tell us to quickly prepare to welcome the princess!" The housekeeper stammered, "I heard that she will stay in our garden."

"Ah?" Ye was so shocked that her mouth couldn't close, but she also understood why Zhao Liben was so panicked.

It turns out that the nemesis has arrived...

"Where are the people?"

"It's on the way."

"Ah, so soon?" Ye clutched her handkerchief tightly and said, "Hurry up and arrange for the reception. I'll go and tell the Master right away!"

"Okay. OK." The housekeeper hurried over to make arrangements.

~~

"What, what?!" Zhao Liben heard the bad news and threw his beloved rabbit-hair lamp to the ground with a snap. He jumped up from the couch and cried out:

"Why are you chasing me home? What are you trying to do? Are you trying to kill me?"

Seeing the usually arrogant man being frightened by the princess, Ye was amused and distressed, and hurriedly supported him and said:

"They're here as soon as they say they are, and there's nothing we can do to stop them. Let's adjust our mood and go greet them."

"I won't go!" Zhao Liben shook his head decisively and said, "Even if I drown, I will jump into the lake from here, and I will never bow to that vicious woman!"

"Then...what should we do?"

"If you can't afford to provoke me, I can afford to hide from you!" Old Master Zhao used the harshest tone and said the most cowardly words.

"Hurry up and ask your brother to come over and welcome the guests for me!"

"What about us?"

"Go to your brother's house first." Zhao Liben gritted his teeth and said, "That woman won't be able to find anyone to show off her power to, so she'll leave naturally."

~~

The main gate of Zhao Garden was wide open, and people from the mansion were waiting on both sides to welcome them. The prefect's carriage and the noble's sedan chair entered the mansion.

When the mansion door slowly closed, Magistrate Lou got out of the carriage. He looked around but could not see any trace of Zhao Liben and his mistress.

Only his cheap brother-in-law, Ye the Salt Merchant, and his wife were waiting on the side with sad faces.

"Where is the old minister?" Magistrate Lou frowned and asked, "The nobleman has come in, why is he still dawdling and not coming out?"

"Well, well..." Ye Xixian felt as if his mouth was scalded by hot oil, and he didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "The old man is not at home, so he asked me to look after the house."

"Bullshit!" Magistrate Lou spat, "I drank with him yesterday, and I saw you two at the dock today. Why are you causing trouble for me?"

"The old man is really gone." Ye Xixian almost cried, thinking that I was deceiving the princess, and I don't know if it counts as deceiving the emperor. But he was still more afraid of Zhao Liben, so he had to bite the bullet and said, "If you don't believe me, search it."

"Why did he leave?"

"Just now." Ye Yanshang whispered.

"He obviously ran away!" Magistrate Lou cursed Zhao Liben's ancestors for eighteen generations, then had to bite the bullet and walk to the phoenix sedan chair.

The eldest princess was sitting in the sedan chair, waiting for Zhao Liben to come and receive her.

After listening to Magistrate Lou's report, she snorted coldly and said, "That's it?"

The victor's contempt is evident in his words.

"That's it..." Magistrate Lou was stunned, wondering why it felt like the two of them had a grudge against each other?

It was all in vain.

No matter what hatred or grudge they have, I should not be caught in the middle. He blamed himself and said, "It's all my fault for not informing you in advance. Mr. Zhao is out. Why don't we go to the Garden of Ten Thousand Flowers?"

"No need." The eldest princess said lightly, and then got off the sedan chair with the help of Liu Shanggong.

She looked around the lush greenery and winding corridors and pavilions in the garden and said indifferently, "I like this place very much. I won't go anywhere else."

"Well, we haven't prepared anything here, so we must have neglected Your Highness." Prefect Lou wanted to make a final effort.

Ning An only glanced at him, and Magistrate Lou shuddered and said, "Yes, yes, if there is any problem, I will find a way to solve it."

"Thank you for your help, Governor Lou." Ning An nodded and walked into the beautiful Tinghe Pavilion by the pond.

As soon as she entered, she saw that the broken rabbit-hair lamp had not been cleaned up yet...

Her Royal Highness the Princess couldn't help but cover her mouth with the back of her hand and laughed strangely at Lady Liu.

"It seems that the old man is frightened. Did I play this trick beautifully?"

"Beautiful." Lady Liu laughed awkwardly. "But Your Highness, why do you have to be angry with old Minister Zhao?"

"This isn't just showing off, this is called taking the initiative." Ning An sat down on the main seat and said with a victorious attitude, "I just want to make that stinky old man give up completely and never dare to ruin my and Zhao Lang's good fortune again!"

Over the past six months, Her Royal Highness the Princess has been in the capital but her heart is in Jiangnan. She has never relaxed her surveillance of Zhao Shouzheng... Oh no, her concern for him.

She heard that Zhao Liben had never given up and had tried to remarry Zhao Shouzheng seven or eight times in the past six months. Fortunately, Zhao was loyal and chaste, otherwise what would be the point of her coming all the way here?

Liu Shang Gong lamented in her heart, why is old Minister Zhao so useless? It has been more than half a year, how come he can't even do such a small thing?

Although it is said that 'one should obey the father when marrying for the first time and oneself when marrying for the second time', you are his father. If you don't agree, won't you cry, make a fuss, or even commit suicide?

If he really couldn't save his face, could he still pretend to be sick? I just couldn't believe that Zhao, the top scholar, would dare to walk around the world with the bad reputation of being unfilial!

Why doesn't he have to continue the relationship obediently so that I can sleep peacefully?

But he still had to say with a common hatred: "Then we have to stay for two more days, otherwise it won't work."

"Why stay for more than two days?" Ning An smiled slyly and said, "This winter, I will stay here for the whole year."

ps. One of today’s three consecutive updates, please vote for me!