“Miss, where are we going now?”

“I’m going to see Prince Yue!” Wang Yuxin said irritably. She must interfere with Shao Wanru’s plan. With that, she strode out to the outside. The maid at the palace gate saw her coming and hurriedly saluted her, but she was ruthlessly pushed away and staggered to the ground.

Wang Yuxin was in a bad mood, and she would not care about an insignificant palace maid. She walked out with her maid and didn’t notice the palace maid who fell to the ground looking angrily at her back. Although Han Dan, an excellent palace maid lived at the bottom of the palace, always wanted to get out of here. Apart from her humble background, she didn’t feel much inferior to the beauties here, especially this mean lady. Her father was a scholar for a lifetime and he couldn’t even support himself and had struggled in poverty.

She was a scholar’s daughter, and she was very beautiful. After her father died, she went into the palace. She had seen the glory of the royal family. Even if she was just an ordinary palace maid, she had infinite ideas. She wanted to find a good master. With her good looks and intelligence, she hoped to climb up the ladder if she had the opportunity. Now she had her eye on First Miss and Fifth Miss of Duke Xing’s Mansion. She thought both girls were very promising.

The young lady who came out with a ferocious face just now was not as good as her, and she wondered why she had the nerve to lose her temper in the palace. Han Dan was very annoyed, but she couldn’t do anything now. If there was only one choice, she would go directly to swear allegiance to and assist the lady wholeheartedly, but now there were two choices. She thought she’d better wait. After all, she had heard that if a lady of one important aristocratic family got elected, the other ladies of the same family would lose. If she made the wrong choice, there would be no hope for her.

This First Miss and Fifth Miss were both from the same mansion. She was afraid that only one of them could stay, even if both were the best of all beauties. Of course, when the final candidate was not decided, she had to wait on both of them with all her heart. Thinking about this, Han Dan stood up. She patted the dust on her clothes, looked at Wang Yuxin’s back, and cursed fiercely, “Damn you!”

Then she limped into the palace gate.

Wang Yuxin still didn’t know that she was being cursed by a palace maid she couldn’t care less about. Of course, she didn’t know that this palace maid would be her opponent in the future. She was now full of anger towards Shao Wanru. She wanted to find Chu Liuyue and complained to him about it. After turning a few turns, she came to a pavilion and looked around. As expected, she saw two guards standing in front of the door. She was excited. It seemed that Prince Yue should be there. The reason why she knew this place was that Chu Liuyue had met her when he went to Chu Mansion before. He inadvertently mentioned this place and said that he would enjoy the scenery here when he was free. He had also told her that she could come to enjoy the scenery if she had nothing better to do after entering the palace. In case that she would not know the way, he had especially sketched the route from Chuxiu Palace to here.

She collected herself, stood still to adjust her hair, and asked her maid, “Is my hair messy?”

“It’s not messy at all. You’re beautiful as always!” The maid looked at her and praised.

These words pleased Wang Yuxin. She turned around and walked towards the pavilion. When the two guards saw her coming, they blocked her way with their hands, and asked coldly, “Who are you?”

“I am Director Wang’s daughter, and I am drafting in the palace. I’d like to see His Royal Highness Prince Yue!” Wang Yuxin said softly.

Two guards glanced at her, and one guard said, “Wait a minute!” The guard turned around and walked inside, while the other still stopped in front of Wang Yuxin to prevent her from taking a step forward at will.

The guard who went in to report her arrival came back quickly, and soon he walked out, and respectfully bowed to Wang Yuxin. “Miss Wang, the prince invites you to come in!”

“Thank you!” Wang Yuxin said, feeling proud. As expected, His Royal Highness Prince Yue would be waiting for her here, which made her more confident. She had always felt that she was a promising candidate with good looks. But when she entered the palace, she discovered that there were too many beauties in the draft. Although she was excellent, she was not the most outstanding one. She was no match for the sisters of Duke Xing’s Mansion. Miss Shao had told her that she had no intention of being selected. The girl to be selected from Duke Xing’s Mansion should be Shao Wanru. Therefore, she had a very good attitude towards Shao Yanru. In a short while, the two of them had become intimate friends.

But what if she was not as good-looking as Shao Wanru? His Royal Highness Prince Yue liked her, not Shao Wanru. He had even been waiting for her here. It was such a kind of affection that Shao Wanru could never have. With the favor of His Royal Highness Prince Yue, she believed that Shao Wanru would never enter Prince Yue’s mansion. Chu Liuyue was standing with his hands behind his back at the window and looking at the lake outside. The window was facing the east, and the sun was shining upon it. It looked like he was plated with a gold halo, which made him look increasingly tall and handsome.

The layout of the house was very simple. There was only a desk and a few chairs. It was a casual office place and indeed a place where Chu Liuyue occasionally took a break from work. It was not his at first. Due to the draft, the empress had decided to give Prince Yue, Prince Zhou, and Prince Xin a pavilion near the Chuxiu Palace so that they could occasionally see these beauties. If the general condition permitted, the princes had a certain degree of freedom to choose their women. Of course, the Princess’s position was designated. But if the prince liked it, he could choose one or two girls to enter his house.

Of course, the choice shouldn’t conflict with the Princess’s position.

Chu Liuchen had originally had his pavilion here, so the empress hadn’t arranged it for him separately. Chu Liuyue thought it was very good. When Wang Yuxin came in and saw Chu Liuyue’s tall figure, she immediately lowered her body shyly, and bowed sideways, “Your Royal Highness!”

“Miss Wang, please sit down!” Chu Liuyue turned around. Although the smile on his face was faint, she could see that it was much softer than his coldness and sternness in front of others in the past.

“Thank you, Your Highness!” Wang Yuxin walked over and sat down on a chair on one side with a blushing face and lowered head. She was kneading the handkerchief in her hand restlessly and agitatedly.

Prince Yue was waiting for her here, and he spoke very softly at her, which made her very excited.

“What’s wrong, Miss Wang?” Chu Liuyue asked in a gentle voice as he walked to the main chair, lifted his robe and sat down.

“I…” Wang Yuxin couldn’t say anything for a while. She just felt hot on her face. All the words she had prepared all disappeared when she saw Chu Liuyue.

Chu Liuyue frowned secretly when he noticed Wang Yuxin’s hesitation out of the corner of his eye. He had something to do in a while and didn’t want to waste time on Wang Yuxin. He coughed immediately and introduced the topic. “Have you enjoyed your stay in the palace? If you have any problem, just tell me and I will do my best to solve it for you!”

This was ambiguous. Chu Liuyue had his eye on the strength of her father Director Wang. His rank was not very high, but the Wang family was aristocratic. Apart from him, there were many officials from the family. It seemed that Director’s official rank was not high, which screened out the possibility of Wang Yuxin being selected as the Princess. With Wang Yuxin’s background, she could become his side concubine or concubine, which was originally Chu Liuyue’s plan.

“I’ve enjoyed it, but…” Wang Yuxin said softly.

“But what?” Chu Liuyue still asked in a soft voice. Although he was impatient, his face didn’t show it, He was now much gentler than before.

Wang Yuxin only felt her heart beating faster, and something seemed about to jump out of her throat. She subconsciously squeezed the handkerchief in his hand, and said tenderly, “Most of the ladies are very kind and don’t bully others. We’re all very happy to live together!”

“Someone bullied you?” Chu Liuyue asked with a frown. He didn’t want to deal with such trivial affairs among girls.

When Wang Yuxin was peeking at him, his expression gave her the illusion that Chu Liuyue was angry because of her being bullied, and she was overjoyed immediately.

“No… no one is bullying me!” She raised her hands and shook them to deny it, but the look in her eyes and the expression on her face suggested that she had been bullied and she didn’t dare to speak.

“Tell me who is bullying you?” Chu Liuyue was not in the mood to deal with her and asked bluntly. If it was someone irrelevant, he wouldn’t mind teaching her a lesson secretly.

“It’s… It’s Fifth Miss Shao!” Wang Yuxin wiped away the fake tears on the corners of her eyes aggrievedly with her handkerchief. “She is the granddaughter of Rui’an Great Elder Princess and the daughter of Duke Xing’s Mansion. She…”

Fifth Miss Shao? Shao Wanru? Chu Liuyue suddenly thought of a slender and delicate figure. Now he frowned deeply with some inexplicable annoyance.

“Tell me what is going on? How did she bully you?”

Wang Yuxin had come to file a complaint. After seeing that she had already provoked Prince Yue’s anger, she became even more aggrieved. Thinking of Shao Wanru’s rebuke to her just now, she shed a few tears and her eyes became red. “Fifth Miss Shao scolded me in front of the ladies of their Duke Xing’s Mansion because of her identity, saying that I… that I… would never get selected!” Wang Yuxin cried, “She said that even if I could be selected, in the end… she wouldn’t make it easy for me…”

Of course, she was implying that if Chu Liuyue had to choose between Shao Wanru and her to enter the Prince Yue’s Mansion. If Shao Wanru failed, she wouldn’t go easy on her. If a woman with a vicious nature wanted to hurt a man’s beloved woman, the man would certainly not allow her to have the opportunity to enter his mansion.

Chu Liuyue’s gentleness gave Wang Yuxin an illusion that she was the woman Prince Yue loved most. At least she thought it was the case. She was quite sure about it. If she got selected, Shao Wanru would never be able to enter Prince Yue’s Mansion…