Nan Hua raised her head and saw the troubled Nan Xin. Her dark obsidian eyes were calm without any ripples in the slightest bit. "Princess Yue sure jest. We come at different time because we live in different quarter."
"Oh?" Princess Yue didn't expect for Nan Hua to simply bluntly said her current living condition. Her eyes narrowed. "Why is that, Miss Nan?"
There were several pairs of eyes that were looking in her direction. However, Nan Hua kept her calm as she didn't care about them and only observed their reaction even without looking directly.
"The elders have some disagreement and I as the younger generation didn't fully understand. Please forgive this one for her inability to understand," Nan Hua replied and bowed her head lightly.
Princess Yue's lips twitched.
While Nan Hua was saying that it was her fault for not understanding, wasn't it the same as implying that they were the younger generations and shouldn't pry deeper in the adults' world? Their decision was not their business at all.
Even discussing it would seem impolite.
Feeling slightly vexed, Princess Yue waved her hand. "There's no need for you to apologize. It's not your fault, First Miss Nan. Please sit straight."
"Thank you for your generosity, Princess Yue." Nan Hua then straightened her back and continued to look at the table in front of her. From the corner of her eyes, she could see Princess Yue chose to change the subject.
Some of them didn't understand what happened but they didn't pry deeper.
If Princess Yue didn't want to say, they were not in the position to even infer what the princess wanted to say.
Nan Xin was a bit at lost. She could only stand there foolishly before finding a chair to sit down. Even though she didn't understand what Nan Hua meant with those words, she knew that she was out of trouble.
For now…
Long Xu Nian gripped her hand tighter as she looked at the group in front of her. She wanted Nan Hua to be in trouble but in one sentence, the young girl had dealt with everything. How vexing.
'How can she be good in everything?'
Some other ladies who were staying in the temple came. They all looked quite excited to be able to associate with Princess Yue and kept on flattering her. Only Shangguan Die kept on interrupting from time to time and many ladies would look in her direction due to her beauty from time to time.
It was a battlefield.
"This is a tea party and I have prepared tea for all of you. This is a new type of tea that's brought from the newly conquered area. Imperial Father gave me some of them for taste." Princess Yue smiled brightly.
"His Majesty must have doted on you greatly, Princess Yue."
"To think that we have the honor to taste it."
"Thank you very much, Your Highness. You don't know how lucky we are to be able to be present in this tea party you host."
There were many other similar praise. It looked like the ladies were all battling to know who can give praise faster. Nan Hua also gave her thanks to Princess Yue since it would be impolite to say no.
"Would His Majesty even spare you some?" Shangguan Die asked cynically. Her tone clearly showed that she didn't believe whatever Princess Yue said.
"Miss Shangguan, don't you already know that His Majesty often share the goods he had received. His Majesty is very generous and as his subjects, we all know it very much," Long Xu Nian interrupted from the side.
Shangguan Die sneered. "Have you ever see him by yourself, Lady Long?"
"I'm nothing more than a young lady, how can I have the honor to meet the benevolent Emperor directly? Only Her Highness, Princess Yue could have such honor." Long Xu Nian smiled slightly.
Her words were carefully crafted, saying that she didn't have the right to enter the palace but Princess Yue could. It was the same as saying that she couldn't be compared to Princess Yue just like Shangguan Die was.
Shangguan Die passed another look at Long Xu Nian. "I didn't expect to see you being so front. Are you not afraid of being bitten by your own poison, Miss Long?"
"As long as one was careful enough, there shouldn't be anything wrong." Long Xu Nian was still looking at Shangguan Die and had no intention to back down. After being punished so many times, she had started to choose to grow her influence.
If she couldn't get her grandmother's support.
She would search support from somewhere else and do whatever she could to hang onto it until she could walk on her own.
"Miss Long is right, His Majesty is very kind and benevolent." Princess Yue smiled. "Or do you not want to appreciate tea together, Miss Shangguan."
Shangguan Die snorted. "Since I'm already here, why not?"
"Serve the tea."
The servants quickly moved and served the tea that Princess Yue had prepared beforehand. It was still warm, clearly the sign that the servants were keeping it carefully to make sure the heat didn't dissipate.
Nan Hua watched as Long Xu Nian added some herbs powder into her own teacup. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the tea before her. The fragrance was indeed that of tea, but there was some other smell mixed in.
Hmm…poppy?
The smell was very faint, but Nan Hua was someone who had worked as an assassin for a long period of time. For her, the smell of these forbidden herbs were very familiar.
'She wants to make us addicted to this tea?'
Nan Hua narrowed her eyes as she studied the tea a bit more. The other ladies were also looking at the teacup curiously while giving praise to Princess Yue, such as the tea was very fragrant or something like that.
After a few seconds, Nan Hua finally noticed what it was.
This tea might be good for skin but long term consumption would make women unable to get pregnant. Not to mention, they were all still teenagers or children and drinking this would surely make their period a mess.
…She hadn't had her period yet, though.
"Please taste it, Ladies and give me your opinion." Princess Yue was still smiling brightly.
Shangguan Die was the first to react and flipped the cup before her. She snorted and shrugged. "Sorry, but the taste is too sweet for my taste."
"Is that so?" Princess Yue was staring at Shangguan Die with deadly stare.
From their interaction, Nan Hua could guess that Princess Yue's target was Shangguan Die while the others were only the additional damage. It was just… she didn't like being hit when she was clearly doing nothing.
Nan Hua pretended to sip the tea but the water never entered her mouth as it dropped to her handkerchief. Afterwards, she pretended to wipe her mouth and then watched the group in front of her.
In any case, the teacup in front of her had showed sign of being drank.
That should be enough.
"Your Highness, are you also going to teach us how to make this tea?" one of the ladies asked curiously.
Princess Yue laughed faintly. "I'll only teach you if you can show something in return."
In other words: amuse me.
The ladies were excited and some of them began to propose to create poem, draw a painting, or even play zither for Her Highness. They all brought their equipment when they came here, so it was not a problem.
Nan Hua was still as silent as ever while Nan Xin was fidgeting. While Nan Xin had some education, she clearly couldn't match against the other ladies in this place. Most of them were older and had better education than her.
How could she compare to them?
"First Sister, what do you want to show Her Majesty?" Nan Xin asked as she approached Nan Hua carefully. Since they were in front of others, Nan Hua shouldn't make things difficult for her, right?
Nan Hua raised her head and her dark obsidian eyes were staring straight at Nan Xin. It seemed as if there was an abyss right in front of her, sucking her deep and didn't allow her to look at away. At the same time, chills began to creep from her spine.
It was as if the temperature had grown colder again from the warm of Spring.
"I can't think of anything." Just as Nan Xin felt that it was unbearable, Nan Hua gave the answer. She stared blankly at Nan Hua in front of her but couldn't bring herself to say anything.
The young girl in front of her was clearly only a year older than her but she looked so unapproachable.
"I…I see."
At this time, Long Xu Nian had just presented some precious herbs. She noticed Nan Hua and Nan Xin were staying at the back.. The corner of her lips curled up. "Miss Nan, do you have something to show too?"