“The tyrant truly is stingy! Giving so little money each month,” Shen Ying couldn’t help but mutter under her breath.
“What did you say, Lady?” Xuerong was startled by Shen Ying’s exclamation about it being so little, but she hadn’t clearly heard what was muttered afterward.
“Nothing.” Shen Ying took back her thought of giving Xuerong a pay raise; she didn’t even have much money herself, so there was no way she could raise someone else’s pay.
She never expected that she, too, would end up in such a state.
Shen Ying buried her head and kept walking forward until Xuerong hurriedly spoke up, “Lady, the Pharmacy Department is this way.”
“Got it,” Shen Ying said listlessly.
Just at the fork in the road as she turned, Shen Ying felt as though her foot had stepped on something. Looking down, she saw a black snake coiled right beneath her foot.
As she looked, the black snake even twitched slightly.
“Ah—”
Frightened out of her wits, Shen Ying shrieked instantly, took several steps backward, and bumped right into someone.
Supported by Xuerong before she could even regain her balance, she heard a stern shout from opposite her: “Audacious!”
Before Shen Ying could see clearly whom she had bumped into, she heard Xuerong say, “Lady, it is His Highness the Crown Prince.”
His Highness the Crown Prince?
Wasn’t that the future little tyrant?
Shen Ying turned her head to look, only to see a child around five or six years old wearing a goose-yellow round-collared robe with gold-thread border trims. The flying crane patterns on the garment shimmered faintly in the light.
The two hair buns atop his head were bound with goose-yellow hair ribbons, and around his round, chubby waist was a leather belt inlaid with jade, exuding the full air of an extraordinarily wealthy young master.
While Shen Ying was sizing him up, he was standing with his small hands behind his back, glaring at her with a solemn face.
Presumably because his little belly was too round, his chubby hands couldn’t quite reach behind his back, yet he was still trying hard to put on airs and strike a grandiose pose.
Xuerong hurriedly tugged at Shen Ying. “Lady, you ought to pay respects and offer greetings to His Highness the Crown Prince.”
Shen Ying immediately raised her hand and waved at the future little tyrant. “Hello there, little ty— I mean, Your Highness the Little Crown Prince.”
How could she possibly know how to pay respects? Although there was a bit of memory in her brain, her own consciousness possessed no such concept.
“Bold! Who are you to behave so rudely to His Highness the Crown Prince?!” the eunuch attendant behind the little tyrant scolded sharply.
Shen Ying stared at the man in curiosity; he looked like an imperial eunuch, and this was her first time seeing one in person.
Seeing her still standing there dazed, the eunuch attendant glanced at the little crown prince’s furrowed brows and shouted once more, “What is your name?”
“My name is Shen Ying.”
Just then, Xuerong also grew anxious, hurriedly bending her knees in a courtesy to the little crown prince. “Reporting to His Highness the Crown Prince, this is Lady Shen from Mingxiu Hall.”
The little crown prince’s gaze paused for a moment. Then he raised his head to size Shen Ying up from top to bottom. When his eyes landed on her face, his dark, shining eyes instantly widened, and his little mouth parted slightly, as if seeing something astonishing.
Right at that moment, the little crown prince suddenly patted the eunuch attendant, signaling him to pick him up. Before, he had to look up at Shen Ying, but now after being picked up, he could see her much more clearly.
The little crown prince gestured for the eunuch attendant to bring him closer to Shen Ying, then reached out his little fleshy hand to gently touch Shen Ying’s cheek.
His odd behavior made Shen Ying feel rather perplexed as well.
Seeing that Shen Ying made no move, the little crown prince originally wanted to touch her again. However, when his gaze fell upon the bruises on her neck, his previously curious expression could not help but turn anxious.
He struggled to get down, and the eunuch attendant carefully set him on the ground. He moved forward a few steps, but as if thinking of something, he paused again and stole a secretive glance at Shen Ying.
The little crown prince assumed he was hiding his actions well, but in the eyes of others, that was not the case at all.
Fortunately, the little crown prince did not know this. He raised his head to look at Shen Ying and asked, “What happened to your neck? Who hurt you?”
Shen Ying touched her neck, sticking to the same story. “No one hurt me. Having nothing to do out of boredom, I was swinging in my room for fun.”
The little crown prince’s brows furrowed even tighter. His original chubby face looked like a little old man’s with his brows knit so tightly.
“How could swinging leave marks on your neck? Could it be that you were swinging with your neck?”
Congratulations, you guessed right!
Though there’s no reward.
Shen Ying had no money right now anyway and couldn’t give this little kid any reward.
The little crown prince’s brows furrowed even more deeply. Swinging with one’s neck—wasn’t that just hanging oneself?
“Are you trying to seek death?”
Shen Ying said nothing. She had never expected this little child before her to be so sharp, guessing it correctly all at once. Clearly just a kid, yet so smart.
Gazed at by the child’s eyes, Shen Ying felt inexplicably guilty in her heart and dared not look at him any longer.
Yet unexpectedly, tears gathered in the little crown prince’s eyes. His mouth moved, and just as he was about to speak, he swallowed his words back down as if remembering something.
“Why do you want to seek death? Are you having a bad time here? Have you never thought…” Meeting Shen Ying’s gaze, the little crown prince turned his head away, trying hard to force his tears back. “You are an imperial concubine, my imperial father’s concubine. If you commit suicide by hanging yourself in the palace, are you not afraid that Father will punish your family?”
Shen Ying paused, turned to Golden Bean, and asked, “What does ‘commit suicide by hanging’ mean?”
Golden Bean was currently licking its cat paw. Upon hearing this, it said, “It means hanging yourself to commit suicide.”
Shen Ying understood.
As for whether it would drag her family down, in the memories she possessed regarding the Shen family, that family had never been good to her. What did their life or death have to do with her?
They didn’t consider her, so why should she consider those people?
Shen Ying did not speak, but her peculiar expression fell into the little crown prince’s eyes as her being utterly reckless and wanting only to seek death. The little crown prince instantly lost his composure, his eye rims turning red.
Seeing his stubborn, brow-furrowing look of trying not to cry, Shen Ying couldn’t hold back after all, bending down to touch the little crown prince’s chubby cheek.
“How dare—” The eunuch attendant behind her was about to scold Shen Ying for her lack of etiquette when out of the corner of his eye he caught the little crown prince’s glare. He instantly swallowed the rest of his words, took two steps back, and lowered his head, not daring to utter another word.
For some reason, His Highness the Crown Prince was treating this Lady Shen so exceptionally.
Among the batch of *Cai Nv* selected into the palace this time, it wasn’t as though no one had tried to start with the little crown prince in hopes of gaining His Majesty’s favor.
Yet only the close-attending servants like them knew that those women had miscalculated; the Crown Prince would never trust them, and His Majesty certainly would not either.
Looking at it now, it didn’t seem like that was the case. He could see that His Highness the Crown Prince was indeed quite special toward this Lady Shen.
His Highness the Crown Prince’s beloved pet, Little Black, had run off, and they had accompanied the Crown Prince here to look for it. They hadn’t expected to see this woman step right on Little Black, causing the Crown Prince to rush over in a hurry and bump into this Lady Shen.
The eunuch attendant took a glance at Little Black, which had already been retrieved, but ultimately dared not look at His Highness the Crown Prince.
Although His Highness was young, his mind was delicate. No one knew what this was all about, but it didn’t look like how he had played tricks on those women who previously took the initiative to curry favor.
Shen Ying didn’t know what was going through the eunuch attendant’s mind; she only felt that the child’s cheek was delightfully chubby, soft and squishy to knead, feeling extremely comfortable to the touch.
She had originally intended to just touch it briefly, but she hadn’t expected the child’s cheek to be surprisingly comfortable. Seeing that the child didn’t show any resistance, she reached out to pinch it again.
It was truly hard to believe that such an adorable child was the future little tyrant.
When Shen Ying let go of her hand, the little crown prince’s secretly upturned lips fell back down, feeling immensely disappointed in his heart.
He had actually been thinking that it would be nice if Shen Ying could hold him.
He raised his head, looking yearningly at Shen Ying. As she bent down before him, the red mark on her neck appeared even clearer.
The little crown prince blinked. “Can you wait here for a little bit? I’ll be back very soon.”
“Sure.” Shen Ying agreed directly.
The little crown prince immediately left with his eunuch attendant.
After watching him leave, Shen Ying felt a bit of regret in her heart. Why had she agreed to wait here for that child? What if the child was tricking her into standing here like a fool?
Hesitating for a moment, Shen Ying ultimately did not leave.
Pacing back and forth on the spot, she remembered stepping on a snake earlier, which had scared her into pulling Xuerong backward. Looking around now, the snake was gone, and she had no idea where it had slithered off to. Shen Ying’s legs felt so weak with fright that she was terrified the snake might pop out from somewhere again.
“Let’s go! Let’s go quickly! There’s a snake!”
“Lady need not worry. That was His Highness the Crown Prince’s beloved pet, Little Black. It was already taken back by the people around His Highness just now,” Xuerong said.
Only then did Shen Ying recall that she had heard other women in Mingxiu Hall saying that His Highness the Crown Prince raised a snake and even liked to coil it around his wrist.
Looking left and right, even though Xuerong said there definitely wouldn’t be snakes here because the palace attendants cleaned regularly, Shen Ying still felt uneasy.
Xuerong was not one to talk much, so Shen Ying could only wait in trepidation while looking around constantly, afraid another snake might come slithering out.
Getting thoroughly bored from waiting, she wanted to leave, but Xuerong persuaded her to wait a bit longer. Shen Ying could only use her toes to kick small pebbles back and forth on the ground for fun.
Fortunately, the little crown prince had not lied to her. He returned very quickly and handed her a jar of ointment.
“Moth— This medicine is good. If you use this medicine, no mark will be left on your neck.”
Shen Ying looked at the ointment in her hand, then reached out to touch her neck. She had never expected that the little crown prince’s quick trip had been to fetch medicine for her.
“Thank you.” Shen Ying was quite touched.
How could such a heartwarming child be the future little tyrant Golden Bean spoke of?
Lying in the system space, Golden Bean sensed Shen Ying’s thoughts, raised its head to look over, and spoke in its usual listless voice, “Of course it’s because going through a severe blow would turn an innocent and cute child into an incomparably cruel tyrant. Host, I suggest you give him a hug, let him feel a mother’s embrace, and influence him with maternal love so he won’t follow in his father’s footsteps.”
Shen Ying felt that Golden Bean’s words made a lot of sense. Looking at the little crown prince before her, Shen Ying cautiously sized him up. Seeing that there was no snake coiled around his wrist, her heart instantly settled with relief.