Zhao Cong looked at the words on the lantern, first glancing at Lin Qingwan, then staring at Feng'er.
Feng'er stood close to Lin Qingwan and said, "If Daddy glares at her, he can't glare at me, okay?"
Lin Qingwan closed her eyes. This kid is unreliable. He's asking for trouble and making her take the fall.
The oppressive look in Zhao Cong's eyes suddenly dissipated. "Fine. No more New Year's money for tomorrow morning."
Feng'er cried out in pain, "Father!"
Zhao Cong smiled slightly, expecting this kid to cling to his leg and beg with sweet words. He hadn't expected Feng'er to be so promising! Tears welled up in his eyes, but he gritted his teeth and held them back, saying firmly, "As long as Father marries her as the Crown Princess, I don't need the New Year's money!"
Zhao Cong's eye twitched, and he started rolling up his sleeves. "Come here."
"No! Father, you can't hit me. If you're so fierce, the beauty won't agree to your marriage."
Lin Qingwan quickly said, "Your Highness, please stop fooling around."
Zhao Cong lifted his leg, and Feng'er ran around Lin Qingwan, then ran and laughed all over the yard, saying things that were half-understood to provoke Zhao Cong.
At first, Lin Qingwan was nervous, afraid that the Crown Prince would get angry and really hit the child, but later she found that the Crown Prince was also chasing after Feng'er like a child, scaring and playing with him at the same time.
With his long arms and legs, he still couldn't catch up with a child; it must have been a joke.
Lin Qingwan was unaware that her eyebrows and eyes were full of smiles, radiating an unprecedented ease and joy from within.
In the quiet courtyard, amidst the dazzling lanterns, the children running and playing, and the father who was willing to play with them, she suddenly felt that the child was herself, and that running around could make up for the regrets of the past fifteen years.
Feng'er eventually fell asleep in Lin Qingwan's arms, clinging to her neck and refusing to let go.
Zhao Cong tried to peel it off several times but couldn't. His warm fingers brushed against Lin Qingwan's cheek, and the two of them were startled at the same time.
Lin Qingwan said softly, "Your Highness is very sleepy. I'll hold you for now, and put you on the bed after you fall asleep."
Zhao Cong hummed in agreement.
The child was his, and he didn't want to leave her alone, so he sat lazily in the chair and waited.
The room was hot, and he had been busy all day. In addition, things weren't going well at Nuanxin Pavilion. Zhao Cong pinched the bridge of his nose, looking exhausted.
Lin Qingwan came out from the inner room and saw that his eyes were closed. She thought he was asleep, so she tiptoed to close the window. But Zhao Cong suddenly spoke, and she almost got her hand caught in the window.
Zhao Cong stared at her retreating figure, his voice low and somber, "Don't waste your time on Feng'er."
Lin Qingwan's heart skipped a beat; she knew he had misunderstood.
She said helplessly, "Your Highness, the young prince was just joking."
Zhao Cong's eyes were cold. "You want to wait until after the New Year, when people outside will say that I'm entangled with you again?"
Thinking back on her past with Prince Jing, Lin Qingwan felt ashamed of her past and said, "I have absolutely no restless thoughts. I will explain everything to the young prince when he wakes up."
Zhao Cong let out a cold laugh, "I know you're not the type to be manipulated. That madman wants to drain your blood, so you poison his most treasured Blood Lotus. The phrase 'to perish together' is perfectly embodied in you."
He stretched his neck. "I came to Shuiyuan Town to find you. The moment I saw you, I knew you were Jiang Su's biological daughter. You could say I was the one who pushed you back to the capital to acknowledge your family."
Lin Qingwan had long suspected that it wasn't a coincidence, but because she didn't know Zhao Cong well, she couldn't speculate.
"Seventh Brother is returning to the capital and will surely launch a counterattack. The Prime Minister's Mansion was once a great help to him. Even though he believed that Jiang Su betrayed him three years ago, he may still be able to form an alliance again under the influence of self-interest."
"But if he knew that the prime minister's family had been grooming a future princess for him for over a decade, he would definitely retaliate, given his personality."
Zhao Cong didn't hesitate at all, and his honesty was so unbelievable that she couldn't believe it.
But then she thought about it again. He was the crown prince, holding a high position and great power, while she was just a daughter who was not recognized by the prime minister's family. She had gone to great lengths to climb the social ladder but almost lost her life.
There's no point in the Crown Prince hiding it from her.
At least compared to Jiang Su and Prince Jing, saying it directly showed her some respect.
Thinking of this, Lin Qingwan couldn't help but laugh at herself. What was she doing? She was just using people who hurt her. What was there to compare?
“So the reason why Prince Jing treated me differently from the beginning was because he knew that I was of the Jiang family bloodline.” She appeared very calm. “The prince openly protected me and rewarded me. In addition to avenging Jiang Su’s betrayal three years ago, he could also make me willingly risk my life to water the flowers. It was a win-win situation.”
Zhao Cong stared at her, as if trying to see through her calm demeanor to her true emotions. "Prime Minister Jiang deserves a lot of credit for this."
"Although I have no evidence, I suppose he already knew about Seventh Brother's fetish."
“He’s protecting you in the Prime Minister’s residence, which will make your mother, Jiang Zhenlin, and Jiang Yanwan dislike you even more. Sooner or later, you’ll have the idea of leaving the Prime Minister’s residence. Prince Jing is your only ideal choice, so you will naturally approach him, agree to his request, and make him happy.”
Lin Qingwan hadn't thought of this, and upon hearing it, the hairs on her body stood on end.
That was her biological father; even tigers don't eat their cubs.
Lin Qingwan's nails dug into her flesh. She took a deep breath, feeling a familiar pain spread from her lower abdomen to her chest. "Does the Crown Prince intend to use me to turn the Prime Minister's residence and Prince Jing against each other?"
Zhao Cong did not deny it, and stroked the ring in silence for a moment.
"Use your existence to deepen the rift between Seventh Brother and Jiang Su, and take advantage of Seventh Brother's attack on you to create the incident of the Ministry of Works seizing farmland and killing farmers, thereby weakening Prince Jing's power."
He leaned back in his chair, his profile sharp and resolute.
Lin Qingwan understood in her heart that this was the real Crown Prince.
The next second, Zhao Cong's words made her slightly taken aback. He said, "I didn't know that the people Zhao Yan brought to the flower nursery could make flower fertilizer; I only assumed..."
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