C26

Hao Pingguan knelt down as soon as he entered the door: "Your Highness, this old servant is guilty." Taking the initiative to confess was still better than being interrogated by the prince.

Morong Gan looked at him coldly, "Tell me, what have you done?"

Hearing Morong Gan's unkind tone, Hao Pingguan was even more unsure. On the day of the wedding, the Royal Concubine had accidentally caused him to be hit on the head by the Huailin Pavilion, hence he definitely could not run away this time. He drooped his head and spoke in a terrified voice, "Reporting to Your Highness, the Royal Concubine is here today.

Morong Gan glanced at the pancakes on the table, which meant that this pancake also had its own merits. He had just eaten the pancakes made by his enemy's daughter, but he did not mind about it, he straightened his expression and said, "Royal Consort may not understand rules, but if you have fate, then as the Head Steward, it would be a bit unreasonable."

Hao Pingguan was sweating profusely. "This old servant told wangfei, but wangfei said …" He raised his head and stole a glance at Morong Gan, and braced himself to say, "She's not an outsider, he's the new wife of the prince. He even slept on the same bed the first night."

Morong Gan was drinking his tea, and upon hearing this, he spat out all the water in his mouth. Even if a few of them splashed onto Hao Pingguan's face, he didn't dare to extend his hand and wipe them away.

Morong Gan didn't know whether to laugh or be angry, and what he said was right. They had indeed slept in the same bed the previous night, and he had a very deep impression of what happened that day. Humph! He was treating her like an outsider now.

He was silent for a moment, his fingers tapping on the table as he slowly said, "Since wangfei says so, then don't stop her in the future. If she wants to come, then just let her come."

Hao Pingguan was shocked, can Little Princess move about freely in the Huailin Pavilion? Aside from the two guards, the two maids and he were not allowed to enter. The Prince was not on guard against the Little Princess, so she was, after all, a person of Prime Minister Bai's Mansion!

He hesitated for a moment. "Does Your Highness mean that Princess can walk around freely in the Huailin Pavilion?"

"Yes."

"Anywhere? Including this study? "

Morong Gan laughed, "She already said that he is not an outsider, so I might as well not put up any defenses."

Seeing him smile, Hao Pingguan's face calmed down and relaxed. Seeing that Morong Gan did not wake him up, he probed, "If Your Highness does not have any other orders, then this servant will go and receive them." Since he allowed Little Princess to join the Huailin Pavilion, then he wouldn't be punished, right?

Unexpectedly, Morong Gan lifted his eyelids, made a sound of acknowledgement, and wrote his answer down.

Just as he reached the door, he heard Morong Gan's cold voice, "Next time if you don't report in in time, don't sit on the seat of the Head Steward."

Only then did Hao Pingguan know the reason why he was being punished. The king did not look down on him, so it was impossible for him to get lucky.

Once Hao Pingguan left, Morong Gan put down the pen and took out a secret letter from a pile of documents. It was a letter informing him that the Prime Minister Bai's brother-in-law, Li Gang, had occupied the good land and was bullying the citizens. Morong Gan probably knew that the both of them were not on good terms, so he passed the letter to him through layers of relations.

In the eyes of the commoners, this was a heavenly huge matter, but in Li Gang's eyes, this was not even worth mentioning, who could do anything to a niece from the Noble Consort, a brother-in-law for the prime minister, and a father of a second rank official?

Someone had once passed a bill like this to the emperor, but to the emperor, how could a commoner compare to a prime minister with power? He was just pretending to reprimand the Prime Minister Bai, and had him discipline him strictly before leaving. Now that he had presented it, he would probably end up with the same result.

In other words, the prince had violated the law and committed the same crime as the people, but how many people could actually do so? Morong Gan laughed bitterly, and used a pen to write a few words on the bill, temporarily stopping it.

He wanted to do this, but she could not allow it to get out of hand. Thus, she did not touch Li Gang first. She was looking for an opening from another point of view, and Bai Qianfan was the one he was looking for.

Coming to his Huailin Pavilion for no reason at all, acting like a scoundrel or a thief, that was not a good thing at all. Killing two servants who knew about him, was he going to take his life now?

He might as well invite the Emperor into the fray. When the time came, he would be guilty of murdering the Crown Prince. Even if the Emperor wanted to take matters into his own hands, all the nobles in the imperial court would not agree to this. If they overturned Prime Minister Bai, wouldn't it be easy to take care of Li Gang?

Right now, he really had high hopes for Bai Qianfan, he hoped that the little girl would not disappoint him.

If she wanted to come to Huailin Pavilion, he would open the door and let her in, waiting for her to sneak in to kill him.

As they walked along the road, Hao Pingguan thought that something was amiss. Why did it sound like the prince actually wanted to send Princess Wangfei to join Huailin Pavilion? Could it be that they had shared a bed for the night, and had gotten to know each other? Impossible, with Little Princess's figure, even men wouldn't look up to him.

However, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that his guess was correct. Being by the prince's side for twenty years, this intuition of his wasn't wrong at all.

He didn't know if the Little Princess would go back to Huailin Pavilion, but if the Duke Barbara didn't want her to, wouldn't it be a waste of the Duke's painstaking efforts?

In order to atone for his sins, he turned a corner halfway and went to the Moon Reaching Pavilion, but the servant girl didn't know anything about Bai Qianfan. Originally, he had sent a servant to accompany him every day. However, he lost them all later on, so he was too embarrassed to send more, it would be a waste of his time to send more.

What do we do now? He walked out of Moon Reaching Pavilion and was at a loss of what to do, so he followed Xiao Kuzi to advise him, "Head Steward, let's just guard here with all our might, at noon, can the wangfei still not come back to eat?"

Hao Pingguan recalled the few pancakes Little Princess had grabbed before he left and shook his head in frustration. "The wangfei has food on her body, she can't get hungry."

Xiao Kuzi thought for a while, then remembered again, "Miss Qi Hong's Sophora Flower Pancake has some sesame oil inside it, but it smells nice. Why don't we go into the garden and take a look, maybe we can smell it?"

Hao Pingguan thought for a moment, "I'll be keeping watch here, so go look for the princess, I don't want to miss this opportunity."

Xiao Kuzi agreed. He strode towards the direction of the garden, and after walking a few steps, he saw a person in front of him with his head held high and chest puffed out. The person looked lively like a young sprout in the middle of the afternoon sun. It was Bai Qianfan.

He was ecstatic in his heart. Just as he was about to call out to her, someone shot past him with a whoosh, giving him an old face as they beat up Bai Qianfan. "Esteemed wangfei, where did you get this?"

Hao Pingguan was so warm and polite, Bai Qianfan was startled and overwhelmed by it, "Head Steward is looking for me?"

Hao Pingguan paused, he did not want his to go to Huailin Pavilion, the Duke did not want her to, so he guessed it himself. If he were to smash it and hurt his face, he would probably be whipped.

He changed the subject. "Princess hasn't had lunch yet?"

"Nope," Bai Qianfan said as her eyes shined at him. She thought of the Huailin Pavilion when she saw Hao Pingguan, which contained Qi Hong and many delicious foods.

Hao Pingguan said, "The wangfei left in a hurry in the morning. Miss Qi Hong originally wanted to keep the wangfei for lunch, she said that she wanted to cook the Eight Treasures Duck for you to taste."

"Is that so?" Bai Qianfan's eyes suddenly lit up, and then darkened, "It's a pity that the Duke is back."

This was exactly what Hao Pingguan was waiting for, and he immediately added on, "Your highness knew that you went to the Huailin Pavilion today, and was very happy, and said that the wangfei is not an outsider, you must definitely not stop her."

"Really?" Bai Qianfan shook her oily sleeves, "Then what are we waiting for? Let's go, big sister's Eight Treasures Duck is ready, right?"

Hao Pingguan, "... Come on, this servant will let Xiao Kuzi send you in. This servant has other urgent matters … "

"Go on," Bai Qianfan called out to Xiao Kuzi, "Let's hurry up. I'm really hungry."