After getting married, she spent every night alone in her room; when she asked for a divorce, he kne

Upon hearing this, Sui'er trembled and almost dropped the brocade box in her hand.

Xiao Jinghan sneered, "Such a coward, yet you still dare to betray your master."

"This servant...this servant doesn't understand what the young master is saying," Sui'er feigned ignorance. "When did Sui'er betray her master?"

"Oh? Are you asking me?" Xiao Jinghan sneered. "This morning, your master had barely boarded the carriage when you rushed back to the Prime Minister's residence to inform that crazy woman, Liu Nianxi. Then, that crazy woman went to Donghua Street and caused trouble for your master, didn't she?"

"No, I don't know anything!" Sui'er backed away repeatedly. "I did go back to the Prime Minister's residence, but I didn't inform him, I didn't!"

"Trying to renege on your debt?" Xiao Jinghan asked. "Are you sure you want to renege?"

Sui'er stared at Xiao Jinghan, whose gaze was cold and whose face held a hint of murderous intent, and knelt down with a thud. "Miss, I didn't, it really wasn't me!"

Liu Yuansheng looked at Sui'er with a disappointed expression.

Sui'er: "Miss, don't you believe me either? Why don't you doubt Ying'er? Ying'er is your personal maid too!"

"All Ying'er knows is eating!" Xiao Jinghan said coldly. "Besides, she's always by your master's side, how could she have time to tip you off? I had the location changed at the last minute to see if you would risk it to show your loyalty to Liu Nianxi, and look how loyal you really are!"

Sui'er's lips trembled, but she stubbornly refused to confess. Xiao Jinghan's patience ran out, and he said, "If you still don't admit it, I may use torture."

Sui'er's face turned pale after hearing this.

Liu Yuansheng's face was equally pale. She understood what Xiao Jinghan was doing, and she also knew that there were eyes watching her in the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion; otherwise, how could Liu Nianxi know her every move so well?

But she didn't expect that this person was Sui'er.

Like Ying'er's mother, Sui'er's mother was also a maid who accompanied her mother in her dowry. Ying'er's mother later married Han Fu, the steward of the Prime Minister's mansion. When Liu Yuansheng returned to the Prime Minister's mansion, Han Fu sent the two of them to take care of her.

When she got married, Ying'er and Sui'er became her dowry maids. Although they were maids, she always treated them like younger sisters. She never expected that one of them would betray her.

"Sui'er? Is it really you?" Liu Yuansheng's eyes were filled with sorrow. She had been abandoned and discarded many times before. She never expected that even after coming to the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, a relatively unfamiliar place, she would still be abandoned.

"Miss, please listen to me, I have my reasons!" Sui'er cried, grabbing Liu Yuansheng's skirt. "My younger brother did something wrong at the Prime Minister's residence and was locked up by the Fourth Miss. If I don't listen to her, she'll take her anger out on him! I have no choice!"

Liu Yuansheng watched Sui'er silently, his heart gradually freezing into ice.

"You admit it?" she said. "Sui'er, I'm really heartbroken by what you've done."

"Miss, I was forced!" Sui'er cried. "Miss, please forgive me just this once! I promise I'll never do it again!"

Liu Yuansheng lowered her head, her lips tightly pressed together, seemingly lost in thought.

Xiao Jinghan glanced at Liu Yuansheng, then lifted his robe and stood up. "This is your maid. You can decide what to do with her."

After saying that, he walked towards the warm pavilion, but then heard Liu Yuansheng say in a low voice, "According to the rules of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, I cannot keep you here."

Sui'er stopped crying instantly, and even Xiao Jinghan, who had walked away, stopped and turned around to look at her.

Liu Yuansheng continued, "After tonight, you can leave. Take all your belongings, and I will give you another twenty taels of silver. From now on, our master-servant relationship will be severed."

"Miss! No, Miss!" Sui'er cried out loudly, "Miss, I won't leave! Please give me a chance, Miss! Please forgive me, Miss!"

Sui'er cried and frantically shook Liu Yuansheng's legs, but Liu Yuansheng remained unmoved. "I have nothing more to say." She stood up. "You can leave now. Let Ying'er come in and serve you."

No sooner had she finished speaking than Ying'er rushed in with two nannies and kicked Sui'er in the back.

"You traitorous wretch! You actually betrayed Miss! I even considered you a sister!" Ying'er waved her hand. "Granny, take her away!"

Two old women, one on each side, led Sui'er away. Ying'er patted her chest to comfort Liu Yuansheng, "Miss, don't be sad. You still have me! I would never betray you!"

"This servant despises the Fourth Miss the most! She's clearly not a daughter of the Prime Minister's household, so what's with all the arrogance? She should just find her biological parents and go back home!"

"What if her biological parents are more powerful than Prime Minister Liu?" Xiao Jinghan asked from the side.

Ying'er scoffed, "That has nothing to do with my young lady!"

She winked at Xiao Jinghan, chuckled twice, and said ingratiatingly, "Besides, apart from the Emperor, whose power can rival that of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion! With you, Young Master, protecting her, who would dare bully my young lady!"

Xiao Jinghan remained noncommittal. "Alright, go to sleep now."

Liu Yuansheng turned and bowed to Xiao Jinghan, "Thank you, Your Highness."

"Thank me?" Xiao Jinghan asked with interest. "Thank me for what?"

Liu Yuansheng was unable to answer the question immediately.

Because she seemed to have quite a few things to thank. For example, Xiao Jinghan stood up for her and taught Liu Nianxi and Liu Yunze a lesson. For example, he allowed her to eat tofu pudding and sesame cakes by the roadside. For example, he took her to Yanchunlou to taste delicacies. For example, he helped her find Sui'er, her spy.

She was grateful for Xiao Jinghan's kindness, but didn't know how to repay him. After thinking about it, it seemed that the only thing she could do was to take good care of Yan'er.

"Your Highness has helped me solve many troubles, and I am very grateful." After thinking for a moment, Liu Yuansheng said, "If Your Highness ever needs anything in the future, please don't hesitate to ask."

"You flatter me," Xiao Jinghan said. "We are husband and wife after all, of the same blood, sharing joys and sorrows. Take that maid Sui'er for example, I don't want a pair of eyes watching me all the time. You may not mind, but I certainly do."

"However, I didn't expect you to kick her out. I thought you would punish her severely and give her another chance."

Liu Yuansheng: "No, it won't."

"Hmm." Xiao Jinghan glanced at Liu Yuansheng from head to toe, then said to Ying'er beside him, "Alright, go rock the bed. After you're done, your master and I can go to sleep."

Ying'er stared in disbelief. "Do we still need to rock the bed?"

"Shake it." Xiao Jinghan said impatiently, "Go now."

Ying'er really didn't want to go, but since she had eaten two meals with Xiao Jinghan today, she obediently went to the rocking bed.

She ate a lot and was very strong; she shook the canopy bed so hard it almost fell apart.

Xiao Jinghan only stopped crying when Yan'er next door started crying. He then switched rooms with Nanny Li and went to sleep in the warm pavilion.

The next day, Ying'er woke up early and supervised the two nannies to drive Sui'er out of the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion.

As usual, Liu Yuansheng went to pay her respects to Madam Yuan and the old lady. Unlike before, this time Madam Yuan kept her quiet and asked her many questions, and also subtly reminded her that she should not indulge in lust.

Liu Yuansheng blushed deeply upon hearing this. After returning to Chenxiang Courtyard, she noticed craftsmen coming and going. After asking Ying'er, she learned that the old lady had ordered the previously unused study to be converted into a bedroom, and that Li Nanny and Yan'er should move there. The reason given was that she was afraid Yan'er would disturb her and Xiao Jinghan's rest.

Liu Yuansheng hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

Three days later, the room was renovated, and Xiao Jinghan finished his rest and began his journey to court.

With two people suddenly gone, Liu Yuansheng found it much quieter, with only Ying'er occasionally coming over to chatter away.

She complained that the mung bean soup in the kitchen was bitter, that the gatekeeper was rude to her, and that Yan'er didn't look like Xiao Jinghan at all, suggesting she might not be his child.

Liu Yuansheng advised Ying'er to be careful with her words and actions. Ying'er held back for two days, and then excitedly told Liu Yuansheng that Liu Yunze had been demoted and that the official censor, Lord Yan, had impeached him before the emperor.

Ying'er was incredibly excited when she told this story, but Liu Yuansheng didn't react much because she already knew about it from Xiao Jinghan.

Xiao Jinghan said that her father, Liu Jingyuan, wanted to plead with her on behalf of Liu Yunze and asked if she would agree. She refused without hesitation.

In fact, Xiao Jinghan didn't need to ask her at all. In her heart, the Prime Minister's Mansion had long since become irrelevant to her; it was not her home at all.

It was another early morning. After helping Granny Li take care of Yan'er, Liu Yuansheng took Ying'er out the door.

She wanted to visit the herbal clinic that the old lady had given her.

The location of Baicaotang was rather remote, and it took them nearly half an hour to reach it by carriage.

After disembarking from the carriage, the two entered Guanyin Lane.

The alley was narrow and deep, barely wide enough for two carriages to pass side by side. Ying'er pulled Liu Yuansheng through the crowd before finally arriving at the entrance of Baicaotang.

The old shopkeeper, Xue Bairen, was taking a patient's pulse when he saw Liu Yuansheng arrive. He nodded slightly as a gesture of consideration.

Liu Yuansheng nodded in agreement, then went directly to the backyard to check the herbs she had dried a few days earlier.

Ever since Xiao Jinghan entered the court, Liu Yuansheng would go to Baicaotang whenever she had free time. The staff there were all used to her, and because she was gentle and easy to talk to, she never argued with them. She would just quietly read medical books, dry herbs, or listen to Xue Bairen treat patients. So everyone liked her very much.

I also really like Ying'er.

Ying'er only had eyes for food and Liu Yuansheng. There was only medicine in Baicaotang, not good food, so she asked Liu Yuansheng for some money and ran out to buy some. After buying it, she came back and shared it with everyone.

Today, Ying'er received two taels of silver from Liu Yuansheng as usual, and then skipped out to buy food. When she came back, she found Liu Yuansheng sitting on a bamboo stool, rubbing a few dark things.

She distributed the food she had bought to the waiters and apprentices, then squatted down beside Liu Yuansheng and asked, "Miss, what are you doing?"

While rolling the pills, Liu Yuansheng said, "Yan'er has been a little bloated these past two days. I'll make some pills for him and put them on his navel to help him release the gas."

"Passing gas? You mean farting? Young Master's farts are so smelly and loud!" Ying'er said, taking a bite of sesame brittle. "Miss really treats Young Master like her own child! But when will Miss and the Heir Apparent have a child?"

Liu Yuansheng paused.

"Miss, why did you stop massaging?"

Ying'er stared at Liu Yuansheng with wide, puzzled eyes.

"It's alright." Liu Yuansheng arranged the kneaded pills together. "Let's put them away."

"good!"

Ying'er patted the sesame seeds off her hands and began filling the pills. Liu Yuansheng stood up, intending to ask Doctor Xue a few questions, when a shop assistant came over and said, "Boss, someone's looking for you outside."

Liu Yuansheng nodded and followed the shop assistant to the outside of the clinic. Looking at the unfamiliar man, she asked, "You were looking for me?"

The man stood with his hands behind his back, a very friendly smile on his face. "You're Liu Yuansheng, right?"

"Yes, who are you?"

"You don't recognize me?" the man said. "Take a closer look."

After saying that, he suddenly stepped forward, spread his hands and sprinkled out a large amount of white powder. Liu Yuansheng hurriedly held his breath, but still inhaled a lot of powder, closed his eyes and fainted...