Qiao Jinniang went to the Qiao Mansion with Lu Chen early in the morning after gaining Queen Zhou’s permission.

The Qiao Mansion was not far from the imperial palace, and it was Qiao Lu’s birthday banquet today, so they didn’t have to be impeached by imperial censors.

When Qiao Jinniang and Lu Chen got off the carriage, they happened to hear what Zhou Siming’s servant said.

Of course, Lin Mo and Qin Miaomiao, who were entering the door, also heard it.

In Chang’an City, there were many girls with the surname Qin, but only Qin Miaomiao was called Third Miss Qin.

Qin Miaomiao widened her eyes and snapped, “Aren’t you Zhou Siming’s servant? What are you talking about?! Zhou Siming, why are you not admitting it? Who didn’t know you fell for Tong Yingying? Don’t even think about slandering me!”

Although there were fewer restraints on women nowadays, love affairs were still very private and couldn’t be exposed.

Zhou Siming glared at his servant and said, “Miss Qin, you can rest assured. I won’t implicate you.”

Qin Miaomiao breathed a sigh of relief.

Seeing the Crown Prince and Qiao Jinniang, Tong Yingying hurriedly came up to salute Lu Chen. “Greetings, Your Royal Highness.”

Qiao Jinniang asked with a smile, “Why are you all standing at the door? It’s so lively here. It seemed that someone gave his jade pendant to the wrong person?”

Tong Yingying said, “Three years ago, when I was still young, my cousin asked his servant to send me a letter and his jade pendant, saying that he had a big crush on me. I was too young to fall in love back then, but I didn’t want to hurt his heart, so I kept the jade pendant and the letter.

“Now I already have a man I love, so I want to return the letter and jade pendant to my cousin, but he doesn’t want to admit it.”

Hearing this, Zhou Siming’s servant stomped his feet anxiously and said, “Oh, my! I was afraid that Miss Qin would be too shy to accept it.

“And I heard that Miss Tong was Miss Qin’s good friend, so I asked Miss Tong to deliver the letter to Miss Qin. I swore I told her clearly. I really don’t know why Miss Tong had such a misunderstanding!”

Miss Qin and Miss Tong sounded completely different.

Was Tong Yingying deaf?

Zhou Siming walked up to Qin Miaomiao and asked, “So, you suddenly started to avoid me, refused to see me, and acted as if you wished you had never known me just because you thought I fell in love with Tong Yingying?”

“Zhou Shizi, please respect yourself.” Qin Miaomiao took two steps back. “I was very young at that time and didn’t understand anything.”

At that time, she was still underage. The Crown Prince disappeared and the imperial court was in turmoil. Her brother was outside all day. At that time, her brother just got married, and her sister-in-law was too shy to deliver him meals alone, so Qin Miaomiao accompanied Qiao Ruoyun to deliver meals to Qin Shu.

So she often met Zhou Siming in the Imperial Guards’ Office.

After the Crown Prince disappeared, Zhou Siming became haggard, and many people said that the Duke Wu Mansion was over.

Queen Zhou seemed to go mad and didn’t allow the Emperor to enter her palace.

At that time, in Chang’an, everyone seemed to be able to bully the Duke Wu Mansion, and Zhou Siming was having a very difficult time.

Prince Mediocre’s party began to make trouble, trying to force Emperor Huilin to make Prince Mediocre the crown prince, and Zhou Siming became their target. Qin Miaomiao couldn’t bear to see them humiliate Zhou Siming, and said something to defend him.

A few days later, Queen Zhou made the Emperor give Prince Mediocre the title of “Mediocre” and banished him to the freezingly cold Northwestern border.

Not only was the Duke Wu Mansion not over, the Emperor even gave Zhou Siming a high-ranking official post, disregarding the obstacles of the ministers, allowing Zhou Siming to enter the East Palace freely and manage the East Palace for the missing Crown Prince.

A year after the Crown Prince disappeared, the court gradually became stable, and banquets increased in Chang’an.

Apart from the absence of the Crown Prince, Chang’an didn’t seem to have changed much. Qin Miaomiao could often see Zhou Siming at banquets, but every time he appeared, he was very cold.

One day, Qin Miaomiao bumped into Zhou Siming who was drunk, and he said to her, “Why haven’t you come of age?”

Qin Miaomiao didn’t know what he meant, but her heartstring was touched at that moment.

After that, however, when Tong Yingying came to the Qin Mansion to attend the banquet one day, she brought a letter from Zhou Siming to her, showing off to Qin Miaomiao how much Zhou Siming was head over heels in love with her.

Qin Miaomiao, who had just come of age, was very angry and embarrassed, thinking that she must have misunderstood Zhou Siming. He actually didn’t mean anything by asking her that question.

So Qin Miaomiao began to hide far away whenever she met Zhou Siming, not wanting to be misunderstood by Tong Yingying.

In order to avoid suspicion, she even showed Tong Yingying the letters between her and Prince Mediocre. She didn’t want to admit that she actually had the idea of marrying Zhou Siming that night.

She was the dignified miss of the Duke Qin Mansion, a well-educated noble girl, and she didn’t want Tong Yingying to know that she once had such a ridiculous idea.

Later, after she learned that Prince Mediocre just wanted to make use of her, she wasn’t really sad.

She insisted on marrying Lin Mo not because she wanted to prove her charm by snatching a princess’ man as Fulu guessed.

But because she wanted to completely forget her embarrassment at that time.

Lin Mo and Zhou Siming were good friends. If she married Lin Mo, it proved that she had no special feelings for Zhou Siming, so she wouldn’t be embarrassed anymore when she met Zhou Siming.

However, Zhou Siming’s servant now said that this letter was for her to begin with!

Then who should be responsible for the embarrassment and shame that she felt when she met Zhou Siming during these years?

Qin Miaomiao was already engaged now, and the spur of love that she had at that night had long been replaced by embarrassment and shame for so many years. Now she really didn’t want to have anything to do with Zhou Siming.

Tong Yingying said, “How could the letter and the jade pendant not be for me? Cousin, I know you are taking Third Miss Qin as an excuse because you don’t want to damage my reputation! I am obviously much more excellent than Qin Miaomiao! My father is an imperial censor and Duke Qin only has a noble title but no real official post.”

The Zhou family’s servant: “…”

Everyone who heard her words: “…”

Qiao Jinniang really admired Tong Yingying’s self-confidence. Although an imperial censor was a high-ranking official, he was nothing compared to a duke.

After all, the title of duke could be inherited by later generations!

Junior Duke Rong looked at Zhou Siming, then looked at Lin Mo, and coughed. “Let’s come in. The banquet is about to start.”

Qin Miaomiao said, “I’m not feeling well, so I’ll leave first.”

Zhou Siming hurriedly chased after her, not forgetting to order his servant to take back the letter and the jade pendant from Tong Yingying.

Tong Yingying still didn’t believe that the letter was for Qin Miaomiao. She thought her cousin must have said this on purpose because he didn’t want to offend the Crown Princess so as not to affect Zhou Sisi’s future in the East Palace!

Junior Duke Rong said to Lin Mo, “Why are you still standing here? Chase after her! Do you really want to be cuckolded?”

Lin Mo opened his folding fan, fanned it twice, and said, “I’ll be cuckolded if I really chase after her!”

Junior Duke Rong also shook his fan and said, “Zhou Siming really hid his thoughts deeply. If Duchess Wu knew about this, she would have cried to death!”

Zhou Siming and Qin Miaomiao were well-matched in family background. If Qin Miaomiao married Zhou Siming as soon as she came of age, their child might have been able to walk by now.

Then Duchess Wu wouldn’t have to worry every day that Zhou Siming was reluctant to marry a wife.