Li Ji sat on a tree branch, holding Hua Manman in his arms.

He raised his right hand, using his folding fan to part the leaves and branches in their way.

Through the gap he created, Hua Manman could clearly see the scene inside the private room on the second floor of the small pavilion.

But due to their angle, the people in the private room couldn’t see that anyone was hiding in the old locust tree.

Inside the private room, two people were talking.

Coincidentally, Hua Manman knew both of them: Lin Qingzhi, the Crown Prince’s Liang Yuan, and Li Ying, the Fourth Prince.

Due to the distance and their hushed tones, Hua Manman couldn’t hear them clearly, only managing to catch a few keywords here and there.

She strained to listen.

Just then, Li Ji leaned in and whispered close to her ear.

"Lin Qingzhi is asking the Fourth Prince for help."

Hua Manman glanced sideways at him, a puzzled expression on her face.

Li Ji chuckled. "I can read lips."

’Prince Zhao really knows so much,’ Hua Manman marveled internally.

’As expected of the man who would become the Regent King.’

Back in the private room, Lin Qingzhi gazed at the Fourth Prince, her eyes as tender as water, as if he were the only person in the world she could see.

"Fourth Prince, the Saint has ordered that all of us, the Crown Prince’s concubines, be sent to a nunnery.

But my heart belongs to you, and I simply cannot find peace to pursue spiritual cultivation in a nunnery.

For the sake of our past connection, could you please help me?"

Li Ying stared at her, his dark eyes unreadable.

His expression made Lin Qingzhi’s heart pound nervously.

But for the sake of her future, she steeled herself, knelt before him, and softened her body, pressing her cheek against his leg.

"I know I am unworthy of you and dare not ask for a formal position. I only wish to stay by your side, even as a mere maidservant."

Li Ying stood motionless.

He looked down at the woman seeking his protection and asked coldly.

"What connection have we ever had?"

Lin Qingzhi froze, her eyes instantly welling up.

She lifted her small, palm-sized face. Her beautiful eyes shimmered with unshed tears, and her voice trembled on the verge of a sob.

"Does the Fourth Prince despise me so much that you refuse to even acknowledge our past?"

Seeing her expression, Li Ying was suddenly reminded of when he had been abducted by kidnappers. The little girl back then had worn this same pitiful expression, looking to him for a sliver of protection.

But upon closer inspection, the difference was clear.

Lin Qingzhi’s tears were more of a tool, meant to win pity.

She crafted every expression with precision, ensuring she conveyed her pitiful helplessness without being so unattractive in her crying as to cause revulsion.

But the little girl from back then had been genuinely terrified. Her tears had streamed down her face, and she’d been sobbing too hard to form a single coherent sentence.

Li Ying said slowly, "The genuine article and a fake are different, after all."

Lin Qingzhi’s expression faltered.

Looking profoundly wronged, a tear welled up and slid from the corner of her eye.

"What does the Fourth Prince mean by that? Are you accusing me of deliberately lying to you?"

Li Ying raised a hand and pushed her away, his voice as cold as ice. "You are not her. Stop pretending."

His gesture seemed deceptively light, but the force behind it was surprisingly strong. Lin Qingzhi stumbled and fell to the floor in a heap.

Outside the pavilion, Li Ji whispered into Hua Manman’s ear.

"The Fourth Prince has rejected Lin Qingzhi’s plea for help."

The warmth of his breath made Hua Manman’s ear burn.

Feeling deeply uncomfortable, she instinctively tried to pull away.

Li Ji tightened his grip on her waist. "Don’t move," he murmured. "You’ll fall."

Hua Manman glanced down.

The old locust tree was very tall; they were positioned over ten feet from the ground.

With Prince Zhao’s Qinggong, he would be perfectly fine if he fell.

She, on the other hand, was another story.

One wrong move and she could break an arm or a leg.

Hua Manman didn’t dare move again, sitting obediently in Prince Zhao’s arms.

In Li Ji’s eyes, her docile demeanor was utterly adorable.

He couldn’t resist the urge to tease her, and his large hand began to stroke her waist.

Her waist was a sensitive spot. Her body trembled uncontrollably. She wanted to pull away but didn’t dare, so in the end, she could only lean into Prince Zhao’s embrace and plead in a tiny voice.

"Please, don’t..."

Hearing this, Li Ji’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

’Tsk, this woman is just too alluring,’ he thought.

’As a virile young man, he didn’t have much faith in his own self-control.’

To avoid things escalating, Li Ji stopped his wandering hand and ceased his teasing.

Hua Manman let out a huge sigh of relief, her body gradually relaxing.

In the second-floor private room, Lin Qingzhi’s repeated explanations failed to change the Fourth Prince’s mind.

She didn’t know where she had slipped up, but she knew the Fourth Prince was convinced she was not the person he was looking for.

Seeing the impatient look on the Fourth Prince’s face, she knew that if she continued to pester him, he would leave without a second thought.

Lin Qingzhi could only abandon her plan of impersonation.

She was deeply disappointed, but she didn’t fall into despair.

She had long since prepared a backup plan. If the impersonation failed, she would launch her second plan.

Lin Qingzhi gave a self-deprecating smile and said bitterly,

"Since the Fourth Prince insists I am not the person you’re looking for, I can only accept it.

After all, I have no evidence to prove that I am that person."

Li Ji relayed this to Hua Manman, word for word.

After hearing it, Hua Manman sighed to herself.

’Such a textbook manipulative comment. That’s Lin Qingzhi, all right!’

Lin Qingzhi dabbed the tears from the corners of her eyes with a silk handkerchief, her voice still mournful and helpless.

"The Fourth Prince has clearly decided I am not the one you’re looking for, yet you were still willing to come here and see me.

You must be very curious. You want to know how I knew you were looking for someone, don’t you?"

Her words hit their mark.

Sure enough, Li Ying gave her another look.

Lin Qingzhi continued, "To be honest, not only do I know you’re looking for someone, but I also know many things about the future.

As long as you keep me by your side, I can certainly help you achieve great things."

Li Ying seemed not to have expected her to say such a thing. He stared at her, silent for a long moment.

He appeared to be weighing whether her words were true or false.

On the large locust tree outside the pavilion, Hua Manman waited for a long time, but Prince Zhao didn’t provide any more live commentary.

She couldn’t help but urge him in a low voice.

"What did Lin Qingzhi say?"

Li Ji looked down at her, his gaze profound.

"She said she can see the future."

Hua Manman froze.

’How is that possible? How could anyone in the world really see the future?’

Li Ji also found it absurd.

’Then again, he himself possessed an ability as absurd as the Mind Reading Technique. Compared to that, what was someone else having the power to see the future?’