Chapter 35 Why Laugh?
"Really?" Mu Jianjian had no intention of confronting this person head-on. As a lowly palace maid, she was confident that she could speak to people in a way that suited them perfectly, praising them to the skies.
"You don't even kowtow and kneel before the princess? Don't you have any sense of hierarchy?" The maid behind the girl stepped forward and shouted.
“So you are the princess,” Mu Jianjian said, of course she didn’t know what a princess was, but she still showed an expression of “So it’s you, I’ve heard so much about you before,” “No wonder His Highness often mentioned you when he was with him.”
Liu Ruozi tilted her head back triumphantly, waved to the maid behind her, and then said to Mu Jianjian, "Don't think you can get away with this. I'm asking you a question!"
You should know that his brother Ji has never called a woman alone before!
"That's because His Highness needs to summon someone to inquire about something."
"What's up?"
"It's about Nuanya. I saw Nuanya dancing in His Highness's courtyard that day. I guess she won His Highness's favor." Mu Jianjian directly shifted the focus of the conversation away from herself.
“Nuanya?” Liu Ruozi immediately thought of the woman who served Ji-gege closely.
"Princess, please don't worry. His Highness is definitely thinking of you the most." As someone who has read countless ancient romance novels, Mu Jianjian has already mastered all kinds of questioning and vying for favor dramas.
"Hmph," Liu Ruozi chuckled lightly before shifting her attention to the woman in front of her. "She was driven out of the palace by Brother Ji and forced to live in this dark prison, serving that good-for-nothing. How pitiful."
Mu Jianjian paused, her reason telling her she should agree with the princess in front of her, but before she could react, she blurted out, "The bottom of the lake is not a dark prison, and the little prince is not a good-for-nothing."
"The dog is quite protective of its owner," Liu Ruozi, already annoyed by jealousy, sneered. "Throw her books down there to air them out?"
Liu Ruozi stepped onto an old book spread out by the lake, saying, "You can dry it all in the sun."
The moment she finished speaking, a maid behind Liu Ruozi waved her hand, and the book that Mu Jianjian had painstakingly carried up from the bottom of the lake flew into the lake.
Some sank to the bottom of the lake, while others floated on the surface.
Without a second thought, Mu Jianjian jumped into the lake with a "plop".
Liu Ruozi was surprised that the woman had jumped in herself. Seeing that the lake had returned to calm, she said "boring" and left arrogantly with her maid.
There was an oxygen-rich barrier protected by a magical artifact leading from the bottom of the lake to the palace, but the rest of the area was solid deep water. By the time Mu Jianjian had retrieved the books one by one, it was already noon.
Her body, devoid of true energy, was extremely exhausted, trembling uncontrollably. Mu Jianjian forced herself to arrange and unfold the books before finally collapsing by the lake.
In the pavilion in the middle of the lake, the little shadow kept saying, "Your Highness, look how kind Yaoling is. She even protected you while drying her books. Why don't you go and help her?"
The boy looked up and saw the woman who was already sleeping soundly by the lake, then lowered his gaze back to the book. "It's a pre-arranged play."
Little Shadow didn't believe it at all. He continued to plead until the boy finally got up.
"Your Highness! You agree!"
The boy did not answer. He walked from the pavilion in the middle of the lake to the only path leading to the shore. His white clothes fluttered in the warm breeze. He stood next to Mu Jianjian, who was already fast asleep.
After transferring his true energy into the woman's body, he dried her soaked and sticky clothes. Just as he was about to stop, the eyes in front of him suddenly opened.
"Thank you, Your Highness," the woman said, her eyes crinkling as she looked at the boy in her clear gaze. "I'm so sorry to have gotten these books wet."
Mu Jianjian sat up and pouted.
Thinking about it now, she was too impulsive. If that princess had a worse temper, they might have thrown her instead of the book.
The boy was dazzled by the cheerfulness and apology in the woman's eyes. He whispered "It's okay" and left, but the little shadow behind him came close.
"Yaoling, are you alright?"
"It's alright." Mu Jianjian shook her head, then noticed the cloth bag in Xiao Yingzi's hand and asked, "What's this?"
Little Shadow scratched his head and chuckled, "His Highness will be sixteen years old in a month, and I'm going to make a blessing for him."
Mu Jianjian looked at the little shadow's perpetually covered face, seemingly wanting to say something but then stopping herself, while the other party noticed her confusion.
"I wear a cloth over my face because my face was disfigured. Everyone rejected me back then, but Your Highness took me in. So I want Your Highness to be safe and happy..." Little Shadow kept mentioning Your Highness.
Mu Jianjian began to think about what gift she should give—if she hadn't returned before the young prince's birthday.
"...Oh right, Yaoling, I need to prepare something later. Could you go and serve the little prince his food for me?" Xiao Yingzi's eyes were full of hope. In the past, he was the only one taking care of the little prince. Now that there was another person, he had a lot more time to prepare.
"Food distribution?" She probably hadn't completely stopped fasting yet. Mu Jianjian blinked. "Where to?"
"Haven't you made any for His Highness? In the kitchen, that palace," Little Shadow looked at her in bewilderment, pointing to a palace in the distance, "I wonder if there are any extra cakes today. His Highness loves cakes."
Mu Jianjian heard his muttering behind her and remembered it.
Looking at the books laid out by the lake, she decided to go get the dishes first, and then put the books away when the sun was about to set.
——
As the sun set, its dim light cast ripples across the lake. A young man reading in the pavilion in the middle of the lake suddenly heard footsteps approaching.
He turned his head and saw the woman in pink carrying food over, smiling broadly in the sunlight.
I don't understand.
Why are you laughing? Are you happy?
What's there to be happy about?
"Your Highness, I've brought you dinner tonight." Mu Jianjian placed the five dishes on the wooden tray onto the stone table, and also arranged the books on it. "I heard from Xiao Yingzi that you like pastries, so I brought some over. They're fragrant, soft, and sweet; I'm sure you'll like them!"
The boy stared silently at the fresh dishes before him, dishes he had never eaten before, and even the steaming pastries beside him seemed completely unfamiliar.
"Why?"
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