"Concubine, concubine...... Wake up......"

  Her drowsy consciousness gradually became clear, she opened her eyes to look at the canopy above her bed and asked, "What time is it?"

  "The queen returned, and it was already 6 o'clock."

  "Alright, got it. Help me change."

  She remembered that a month ago, she had become Chu Lianruo and was no longer the abandoned Empress Qin Zhaoxi. She would one day take revenge for herself and her family.

  Chu Lian ordered a servant to tidy up her daily clothes after breakfast, and then ordered Si Wei to write a letter according to what she said. Si Wei was originally the daughter of a poor but talented scholar's family, who could recognize characters and write letters, and had some pride in herself, but in the Zhenzhou Governor's Mansion, she was not valued, otherwise she would not have been assigned as an accompanying maid to this original body.

  Chu Lian glanced at the letter, saw that the words were written neatly and elegantly, nodded in satisfaction, put it in an envelope, and found someone to send it quickly to the General Governor's Mansion of Cen Prefecture.

  She asked King Wang to return to her mother's house for a few days yesterday. In the Great Huai country, there is a custom that on the third day after the wedding, the husband must accompany his wife back to her parents' home. Although Chulian was married by the emperor, she was only a secondary wife, and since the journey to Cizhou was long, this step was omitted. Since it's been a month since the wedding, she can return to her mother's house for a short stay, so her request is quite reasonable.

  King Ling didn't make things difficult for her and readily agreed. At that time, King Ling was sitting behind the desk in Mingyuan Xuan, leaning back on the chair with a slant, playing with the jade pendant at his waist, looking quite leisurely. "Concubine Si misses home so much, but I have important matters to attend to and cannot accompany you. However, my boat has been idle for a long time, let Shiyang escort Concubine back by water."

  Chu Lian thanked Feng Wang, but in her heart, she felt that his words had saved her a lot of trouble. She had another purpose for going to Cen State, and if Feng Wang followed her, some things would be inconvenient to handle. As for what this famous idle prince was busy with, it wasn't something she cared about.

  On the side table was a white porcelain vase with a few peonies that the maid had picked from the garden that morning. She came to her senses and saw that the peonies had been messed up by her, so she withdrew her hand and called the maid to replace them.

  The maid had just taken away the flowers when someone reported that Ru Hua had come to pay his respects. This was the third or fourth time this month that he had come, not bothering about the time of day. Chu Lian would naturally not mind these things, and since he had come, it wouldn't be good to not see him, besides, this person wasn't unpleasant either.

  "Let her in," Chu Lianruo said. The maid went out and soon, the purple-robed Ren Hua walked in, smiling at Chu Lianruo, "What grudge does the concubine have against that peony, to trample it so ruthlessly?"

  Chu Lian didn't respond, but instead thought of something and smiled, "When you mentioned peonies, I suddenly remembered that time you smiled at Mirror Lake Pavilion."

  She sat down in the chair that the maid had placed for her and, hearing this, couldn't help but smile, "I'll just take it as a compliment from Concubine Chu."

  Chu Lian lowered her eyes and sighed, "Not to mention others, I'm really curious about this."

  "Uh-huh," he murmured, thinking for a moment before saying, "Actually, this is nothing. As an actor from a theatrical troupe, it's only natural to portray each role with utmost perfection; otherwise, we'd go hungry, and that would be miserable."

  Chu Lian nodded slightly, "I see."

  "So now Ruha particularly likes to eat and when she sees something delicious, she can't move her legs."

  "Is this the result of being punished since childhood?" Chu Lian thought to herself, but her mouth said, "I've actually made some small pastries here, since you love eating them so much, why don't you take some back with you."