"Pfft, coward!"
Yuzhu was seething with anger as she jeered at Zhan Feng's retreating back.
Looking at this bickering pair, Yun Xi's eyes glinted briefly. She stepped forward, looped her arm through Yuzhu's, and teased in her ear,
"Come on, you've almost burned two holes through Zhan Feng's back! Let's go in. I'm starving!"
Yun Xi pulled Yuzhu towards the courtyard, but Wushuang coldly called out from behind her,
"Yun Xi, your days of smugness are numbered. Just you wait and see!"
So what if she had a more noble status and a more beautiful appearance than herself?
In the end, wasn't she just a concubine of the prince?
Apart from using her beauty to please the prince, she had no real skills. In a few years, she would surely be tired of by the prince.
But Wushuang was different. She had been hand - picked and carefully groomed by the prince, and had served him for many years.
Just from the treasures the prince had bestowed upon her, one could tell that the prince valued her.
As long as she was still useful, the prince would never abandon her!
Looking at the self - satisfied Wushuang, Yun Xi curled her lips and said nonchalantly,
"Then it depends on your capabilities."
With that, Yun Xi strode into the courtyard without looking back.
She had always been someone who avoided trouble, but since the other side had come to provoke her first, there was no use in hiding. She might as well fight back with all her might.
It didn't matter whether she won or lost!
After being hungry for so long and expending a great deal of energy and saliva, Yun Xi was now so hungry that her stomach was growling. She felt closer to the food than to her own relatives.
Watching Yun Xi devour her meal with gusto, Yuzhu looked worried,
"Miss, weren't you against managing the prince's mansion before? Why have you suddenly changed your mind?"
"Is that not okay?"
Yun Xi mumbled with a chicken leg in her mouth.
Yuzhu frowned, ladled a bowl of soup, and handed it to Yun Xi.
"It's not that it's not okay. It's just that your actions today seem a bit hasty. By causing public outrage on the very first day, it will be difficult for you to win the respect of others in the future."
In the past, the miss in the prime minister's mansion had always combined kindness with severity and never resorted to such extreme measures.
This would make the people in the prince's mansion think that she was overbearing and unreasonable. Even if they didn't dare to resist openly, they would surely gossip about her behind her back.
If they pretended to comply but actually went against her orders and deliberately opposed her, in the end, it would be the miss who would be troubled.
If one were to ask Yuzhu how she knew this so well, it was because she had seen too many such cases in the prime minister's mansion!
Facing Yuzhu's concerns, Yun Xi smiled calmly, sucked the grease off the chicken bone, and said,
"That's exactly the effect I want."
This would help her clean up the personnel in the prince's mansion in the future. If they didn't make mistakes, she wouldn't have an excuse to take action!
Hearing Yun Xi's words, Yuzhu frowned even deeper,
"Miss, this servant doesn't understand. Do you mean to deliberately stir up trouble in the prince's mansion and anger the prince?"
Just thinking of this possibility made Yuzhu's head ache.
From last night's conversation, Yuzhu already knew of Yun Xi's determination to leave the prince's mansion.
Yuzhu looked miserable and tried to persuade her,
"Will this work, miss? Shouldn't you think it over..."
She didn't want the miss and the prince to end up as enemies, leaving the miss heartbroken.
Looking at Yuzhu's worried face, Yun Xi was both amused and exasperated. She curled her greasy finger and tapped Yuzhu on the forehead,
"What are you thinking? Do you think I'm the kind of person who takes revenge so easily?"
But Yuzhu rubbed her forehead and nodded bluntly,
"Yes, miss, you've always been this kind of person!"
"Hey!"
Seeing Yun Xi's cute frown, Yuzhu quickly changed her tune helplessly,
"Miss, regardless of your purpose, this servant wants to know why you insisted on meeting everyone in the prince's mansion today?"
In this large prince's mansion, there were nearly fifty servants alone. Yet, the miss had gone hungry just to carefully identify each person and even asked them some questions.
This left Yuzhu utterly confused: They were just servants. Did the miss really need to be so meticulous and interview each one of them?
Even in the prime minister's mansion, she had never seen the miss be so thorough.
Thinking about Yuzhu's question, Yun Xi replied slowly,
"Qi Rong seems to only care about matters in the court and rarely pays attention to the affairs of the prince's mansion. So, when I first entered the Prince Xian's mansion, I saw servants who were even more slack and disorderly than those in the prime minister's mansion. And although the courtyard was magnificent, in some places, weeds were overgrown, and the shrubs and trees were untrimmed..."
"I know that it's not something that can be achieved overnight to manage the entire prince's mansion in an orderly manner. So, today, I just wanted to quickly remember everyone's faces and specialties so that I could make proper arrangements."
Thinking about Yun Xi's words, Yuzhu nodded in agreement,
"You're right. The Prince Xian's mansion does need better management. Otherwise, everyone will just try to slack off, and no one will work hard in the mansion."
Seeing that Yuzhu didn't suspect anything, Yun Xi secretly let out a sigh of relief.
She was a person who disliked trouble. The real reason she had suddenly decided to manage the prince's mansion was not to discipline the servants.
Instead, she wanted to eliminate the traitor!
Although she didn't want to admit it, when she learned that Qi Rong had been poisoned, she felt extremely sad.
Qi Rong had been a street - urchin in his childhood and had fought his way to his current position. She had always thought that no one could threaten him anymore.
However, after this poisoning incident, she suddenly realized that Qi Rong was not omnipotent, nor was he invincible.
He could be secretly attacked, and he even had to hide the news in his own mansion.
This only indicated one thing: The prince's mansion was not safe. There might be spies lurking within.
If Qi Rong's weakness was exposed, he might be seized upon by the enemy and killed!
Living in such a precarious situation, Qi Rong could fall into the abyss at any time!
Although Qi Rong was usually hateful and despicable, she didn't want to watch him get hurt.
So, she had to do something to eliminate some of the threats around Qi Rong!
But to avoid alerting the enemy, she had to hide her true intention from Yuzhu. She needed to establish an overbearing image in the minds of everyone in the prince's mansion to force some people to reveal themselves, so that she would have a reason to deal with them.
It was better to kill by mistake than to let any potential threat go!
In the study, Qi Rong listened to the report from Nightingale, and the corners of his lips instantly curved into a pleased smile.
He never expected that little girl, who was usually so timid and stubborn, would be so quick - witted when he was in danger. It made him marvel.
Thinking of the past, when Yun Xi, with her delicate body, had carried him on her back alone in the snow to seek help until she was exhausted, Qi Rong couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache. At the same time, a warm current surged in his chest, making him feel bathed in happiness.
He just wanted to hold her in his arms right now and never let go!
"Let her do whatever she wants," Qi Rong said indulgently. But the next moment, his eyes turned cold, and he said in a deep voice,
"In a few days, the royal family of Kekeqin will come to the capital. It will surely stir up a storm! You must secretly protect her at all times. Report any situation to me immediately!"
He would never allow her to be harmed in the slightest!
"Yes, Your Highness!"