Residence of Prince Ding.

There were some movements in the residence of Prince Ding, much less the residence of the Crown Prince. Emperor Wen Hui had the heart to give the Crown Prince a favour and let the Crown Prince and HuangFu Hao have good relations, thus HuangFu Hao strut proudly into the residence of the Crown Prince, instead of secretly fearing that others would discover.

It was just that what was discussing in the residence of the Crown Prince was not something that Emperor Wen Hui was able to manage.

The Crown Prince poured some wine for HuangFu Hao and smiled, “How does brother HuangFu find the words that this Prince just spoken?”

HuangFu Hao smiled and did not agree or disagree to it, “You really calculate it very well and let this Prince be the bad person in it and leave a good name for oneself and even carry a beauty back.”

The Crown Prince was not annoyed as he also smiled, “A gentleman is always read to help others attain their aims. This Prince is happy to see Fifth Shen Young Lady becoming your Qin country’s Crown Prince Consort but everyone knows that it is impossible.” The Emperor of Qin was not magnanimous enough to let another country’s official’s daughter be married to his Crown Prince. The Crown Prince Consort title not only represented a female but also represent the power of the female’s family and it would be best if it could help the Crown Prince. Shen Miao, as a person from Ming Qi, would not be able to help HuangFu Hao and needless to say, Shen Xin would not be willing to watch on as his daughter married to Qin country.

HuangFu Hao shook his head, “What is the rush? This Prince did not say that one would snatch another’s preference but…” He looked towards the Crown Prince, “This Prince is not one who like to do good deeds, moreover it is using one’s name to do good deeds and in the future when General Shen hates this Prince, it would be difficult for this Prince.”

The Crown Prince smiled when he heard it. This HuangFu Hao was also a person who understood things so he realised the interests in the matter. Reputation in Ming Qi was something that was useless and moreover it was not a big thing for Shen Miao to marry over. It was just a sentence that could let Emperor Wen Hui and the Crown Prince feel that they owed HuangFu Hao, so what was there against it? Of course how would this good turn be exchanged for? Emperor Wen Hui had no knowledge of it and this matter was solely the Crown Prince’s idea so one had to see how important this marriage was in the heart of the Crown Prince.

“What kind of difficulty does brother HuangFu have?” The Crown Prince asked in smiles.

“It is not a big matter, it would only make you laugh.” HuangFu Hao sighed and gave a worrying look, “Even though I am the Crown Prince of Qin country but every family has its fair share of problems, much less this Prince. Imperial Father treats this Prince extremely well but the few brothers this Prince has are not to be spared of worrying. If there was a day where these brothers fight with this Prince…” He looked at the Crown Prince meaningfully, “At that time, one hope that one would be able to be a powerful force of this Prince.”

The Crown Prince was first startled before he started scolding HuangFu Hao in his heart. Fighting for the heir apparent was something that every country would have, especially in a country where there were a number of Princes. However what HuangFu Hao proposed was that if one day in HuangFu Hao’s fight for the heir apparent in Qin’s Imperial family, the Crown Prince must help him. How could a Crown Prince of Ming Qi help the Crown Prince of Qin country? It was to lend him military power.

HuangFu Hao indeed calculated it well.

HuangFu Hao saw his hesitation and smiled, “What are you hesitating about? Isn’t the matter that this Prince is helping you on just the same?”

The Crown Prince looked at HuangFu Hao without speaking. If it was successful this time and Shen Miao was married to him, then the Shen family would be tied to his Crown Prince residence. With the Shen family’s helping hand, the power of the Crown Prince would only increase greatly and it would become an important role in te battle of the heir apparently. Currently HuangFu Hao helping him with it, wasn’t it also helping him in the fight for the heir apparent?

Like this, the conditions that HuangFu Hao set became not so unacceptable. After all, he would have more to gain in this matter.

The Crown Prince’s heart firmed up, “Alright. Since brother HuangFu draw a sword and render help this time, in the future this Prince would definitely not stand by and watch.”

HuangFu Hao only laughed then and after drinking a few more rounds with the Crown Prince, he said, “You really want to marry Shen Miao?” He looked at the suspicious expression of the Crown Prince and explained, “At tribute banquet, this Prince had seen that Shen Miao did not have a soft temperament. One feared that she have a very strong character instead. Are you so confident in taming her?”

“What does it considered to?” The Crown Prince waved his hands unconcernedly, “No matter how strong one’s temper is, she is still a female. As long as one is a female and married to another, that tempered would be put away. One don’t hide it from you but in the beginning the Crown Prince Consort also had a strong character when entering the Eastern Palace but now still subservient to one’s every wishes. For females, as long as one spares some effort to coax, at the end they would be meek, just like cats.”

When HuangFu Hao heard it, he no longer said anything but snorted somewhat disdainfully in his heart. Princess Ming An’s death till now was still a mystery but HuangFu Hao always felt that the matter was related to Shen Miao. Afterwards one did not know how the matter between him and Fu Xiu Yi was used and now Fu Xiu Yi had to deliberately keep a distance from him. The Shen family was not ordinary so there must be people behind Shen Miao who was guiding. Even though the Crown Prince’s power was not weak, he might not necessarily be able to win when encountering Shen Miao.

However these were irrelevant to HuangFu Hao. He was only happy to watch the play thus after a few more laughs, he pick up the wine cup to drink with the Crown Prince.

At the other end, in the residence of the Minister of Land, Shen Miao had actually replied to the invitation.

It only said that Shen Miao had agreed to Shen Dong Ling’s invitation to appreciate incense but she would also be bringing Luo Tan, the Biao Young Lady of the Luo family, along.

Wang Bi was happy when he saw Shen Miao’s reply and said to Shen Dong Ling, “Didn’t you not say that you sisters did not have much relation? One did not expect that she would actually agree to it.”

Shen Dong Ling was also somewhat surprised but she said with a smile on her face, “It seemed that you have not seen for quite some time. Now there is only two of us sisters left from the residence.” She took the reply from Wang Bi’s hands before taking a closer look.

In all fairness, Shen Dong Ling did not expect that Shen Miao would reply to the invitation and even agreed to come over to appreciate incense. Shen Dong Ling understood Shen Miao that it was impossible for Shen Miao to come due to her cautiousness. It was not very important for Shen Miao to come over to carry out the plans and she write the invitation to Shen Miao so as to prove it to Wang Bi that she had done her best for him and hope that Wang Bi would think of her good points in the future.

But who knew that Shen Miao actually agreed to it.

Shen Dong Ling’s thoughts turned. The reason Shen Miao brought Luo Tan was most probably because Luo Tan knew martial arts and would be rest assured with someone accompanying. Moreover Shen Miao would definitely bring lots of guards around to safeguard Shen Miao’s safety. Since Shen Miao dared to come over, she must had made absolutely safe precautions.

However Shen Dong Ling did not care about it at all because her purpose was not to scheme Shen Miao. Shen Dong Ling pushed Wang Bi, “Husband, since Fifth Younger Sister agreed to come over, it would be easier for an excuse in the future. By calling the Crown Prince and HuangFu Hao over, in the future one could say that HuangFu Hao saw Fifth Younger Sister during the appreciation of incense and fell for her beauty. Matters that came afterwards would be done much smoother.”

“You females do think more thoughtfully.” Wang Bi smiled and hugged Shen Dong Ling’s shoulder, “With such a wife, what more can this husband asks for?”

Shen Dong Ling smiled his teasing but her heart felt a different thing.

Shen Miao had always been good at scheming others and Shen Dong Ling had seen the entire fight between Ren Wan Yun and Shen Miao. At the end of the Shen family, the Eldest household was preserved and if one were to say who was powerful, it was Shen Miao and Shen Dong Ling.

Shen Dong Ling also wanted to see between her and Shen Miao, who was more powerful. To calculate Shen Miao into her schemes, was after all much more interesting than scheming Shen Yue.

Shen Miao, who was being ‘schemed’ by Shen Dong Ling, was playing chess with Xie Jing Xing in the room.

Xie Jing Xing had a good set of chess skills as he stood firmly and fought steadily with Shen Miao. Each steps and plans were different. Xie Jing Xing seemed to have long saw with a glance the plans for the the pieces that she places and knew where she would move next then Xie Jing Xing would block in the corresponding places. After playing for most of a shichen (1 shichen = 2 hours), Xie Jing Xing had won a number of pieces against her but the battle was in a stalemate and it was difficult to tear it apart.

In the past life Shen Miao practice diligently on her chess skills in order to have conversations with Fu Xiu Yi, thus not mentioning she was the first, she could at least be a difficult to beat adversary. However Xie Jing Xing’s moves could fight hand-to-hand and was like an nemesis. Since successfully learning chess, it was the first time Shen Miao wanted to withdraw a chess move.

Seeing that Xie Jing Xing eat up a few of her chess pieces again, Shen Miao said, “Tired already. Don’t want to play.”

“Don’t want to play or cannot play.” Xie Jing Xing said, “Beg me and I will teach you.”

Shen Miao want to laugh in anger by his words. He came over in the middle of the night to look for someone to play chess with him and it was Shen Miao had a good temper as others would had chased Xie Jing Xing out. She said, “Thank you. I don’t need it.” She did not plan to be a Grandmaster of chess so what was the purpose of learning it. However it was a surprise for her in finding out that Xie Jing Xing had such a high level of chess. Other than hearing that Xie Jing Xing was exceptional in the battlefield, one had not heard other areas where he was particularly good at. However after some thinking about it, this person played the world in the palms of his hands so what did such small pieces of chess matter.

She asked, “Your people are all arranged for the matter two days later?”

Two days later it would be the day of the incense appreciation and it was the first time she and Xie Jing Xing schemed others together. Once they schemed, it was for two Crown Princes. If this was spoken, it would make other feel somewhat cold. However Shen Miao did not think anything to it as she had experiences of a Crown Prince. To her the position of a Crown Prince was not a position that was too high to be implicated. Xie Jing Xing also think so since his own Older Brother was teh Emperor and the Crown Prince would be his nephew.

So it seems that it was very suitable for her and Xie Jing Xing to scheme agains the two Crown Princes.

“Rest assure. There is no danger of anything going wrong.” Xie Jing Xing said, “Your horse carriage is also arranged. You really want to go?” He frowned, “It is possible for you not to go.”

“Why not?” Shen Miao said, “Even if I go or not, it does not matter to me. However I wished that they can do it with a little more grandiose.” Shen Miao gently smiled, “If I were to do, they would make the scene more realistic but at the end would only discover that everything is wrong. Isn’t it more interesting?”

Xie Jing Xing said with a smile but not a smile, “So vicious.”

“Is it vicious?” Shen Miao asked.

“Vicious.” He nodded his head and his eyes were shining like clear water and his thin lips hooked up, “But I like it.”

Shen Miao, “…”

Ever since that night, Xie Jing Xing’s words had become even more frivolous but it was only with words as his behaviour was still very respectful with her. Suddenly someone had squeezed into her life and that made Shen Miao unable to get used to it. However she had to admit that with Xie Jing Xing’s presence, a lot of things had become much easier. Apparently things that she would need to be troubled to accomplished would be resolved easily by Xie Jing Xing.

However if one were to continue to rely on it, it would still make one feel uneasy. Shen Miao had not yet learn how to trust another, much less trust a male. She had the courage and schemes for everything like usual but in the matters of romances between male and female, due to the heavy injuries she had sustained before, she was still as clumsy as the child when it happened again. Even if there was someone teaching gently, she was still slow and stupid.

Xie Jing Xing stared at her heedlessly and one did not know what she was thinking about. The chess pieces were just beside her hands as the young female sat gently and in a dignified pose. The lantern light that shone on her made her look soft and graceful, like a lotus that just bloomed.

And his face was handsomely beautiful with dark pupils that were as deep as the night. It was like it was looking at the other party thoughtfully for a while before he suddenly smiled.

“When this matter is resolved, I will marry you Shen Jiao Jiao.”