I just want to live a good life

Su Nuan ignored Mu Yunting's anger and asked with a smile, "How come Your Highness has time to come to the flower garden today?"

"I came to see what you have done."

"Your Highness, have you also heard that I made these flowers look brand new?" Su Nuan pretended not to hear the sarcasm in Mu Yunting's words and said seriously, "That's great. I was just wanting you to come and see my results, and here you are."

Su Nuan ignored Mu Yunting's disdainful look and pulled him to a rose patch, "Your Highness, look."

"The roses in this patch used to be round and plump, without any beauty. They were planted one next to the other, without any air circulation. It took me almost a day to trim them. Do they look more energetic now?"

Mu Yunting looked at him for a while, his expression changing from gloomy to bright. No one knew what he was thinking. Even Su Nuan held her breath and waited for him to speak.

At this time, Lu Zhu winked at Zhang Shun, who understood and said, "Your Highness, these roses are to be placed on the outermost layer at the flower viewing banquet to serve as a fence. I think it would be more appropriate to let them grow neatly and luxuriantly."

Su Nuan said: "Roses can also bloom beautifully, it would be a waste to just use them as fences."

Zhang Shun said unconvincedly: "The concubine cut them bald, they won't look beautiful no matter where they are placed!"

Su Nuan rolled her eyes at him and said, "What do you know? Cutting it like this will make it easier to put it together to form a nice shape."

"..."

Ignoring the two people's argument, Mu Yunting pointed to the thin chrysanthemum beside him and asked Su Nuan, "What do you think of this chrysanthemum being like this?"

Su Nuan replied calmly, "Everyone knows that chrysanthemums bloom in autumn. Now is early spring, and it is still too early for them to bloom. Now is a good time to trim the chrysanthemums into shape. Although I trimmed them a little smaller, they have a good shape. After a whole spring and summer of growth, they will grow into a perfect chrysanthemum in autumn. But if you don't trim them and let them grow wildly, the leaves will steal the limelight from the flowers when they bloom in autumn."

Although he knew that Su Nuan's words were twisted, she spoke so seriously that Zhang Shun didn't know how to refute her for a moment.

"What the Concubine said makes sense." Lu Zhu suddenly said, "But I am a little worried. These chrysanthemums have been pruned so thin. What if they are damaged and fail to grow in autumn?"

Su Nuan didn't even think about it and replied, "Why worry? We have Zhang Shun here. He is good at keeping flowers lush and strong. If the chrysanthemums don't grow by autumn, it must be because he didn't take good care of them."

"This, this..." Zhang Shun kept saying "this" for a long time but couldn't say anything.

Seeing his flushed face and unable to speak, a smile flashed across Mu Yunting's face. Although it was fleeting, it was still captured by Su Nuan's keen sense. Then she began to talk nonsense even more unscrupulously, commenting on the flowers in the entire flower garden one by one.

Seeing Mu Yunting's lips getting tighter and tighter and his face twisted to try to hold back a smile, Su Nuan felt that her plan was already half successful, and her steps became much lighter.

Finally, he came to those precious peonies. Perhaps because these flowers were so important, Mu Yunting's expression finally returned to normal when he approached them.

From the outside, Mu Yunting could not see any changes on these peonies, because Zhang Shun had told him in advance that some of the peony buds had been cut off, so he had a preconceived idea that there were indeed not many buds on these flowers.

"Xia Qingyan, each of these peonies is a rare species that I have worked hard to find. Not to mention unique, they are rare in the world. I asked Zhang Shun to take good care of them so that they can bloom on the day of my mother's birthday as a gift for me. But now you have reduced many of the buds of these flowers for no reason. If you don't give me a reasonable explanation, don't blame me for being rude to you."

Su Nuan said seriously, "Your Highness, you want to give the Queen a peony as a birthday gift. Do you want to give her a bud or one that has already bloomed?"

"Of course they are in full bloom. It would be best if they were just opened. But..."

"But we have tried for several years but have not been able to make them bloom early. At most, we can make them grow some buds." Su Nuan added, "And this year is the first year for them to grow buds, but because of the cold weather in early spring, the buds grow slowly. I'm afraid they won't be able to bloom on the Queen's birthday, right?"

Mu Yunting did not answer, which was considered as his agreement.

"So, I cut off some of their extra branches and buds so that the remaining buds can absorb enough nutrients and bloom early."

Mu Yunting looked at Zhang Shun, as if he wanted to hear Zhang Shun's opinion on this.

"No need to ask him. Even if he knew there was such a method, he wouldn't dare to try it easily. He was afraid that His Highness would blame him if he failed. Besides, if His Highness waited a few more years, he could also get a few more years of benefits, right?"

Su Nuan said this and glanced at Zhang Shun provocatively.

"Your Highness, I really didn't know there was such a method. If I had known, I would have used it long ago. I would never have dared to let Your Highness wait for several years. Your Highness, please don't listen to the words of the Concubine. I have never received any benefits. Even if you give me a hundred courage, I would not dare..."

Listening to Zhang Shun's non-stop chatter, Su Nuan curled her lips and thought, "What is there to be afraid of when you have Green Bamboo protecting you?" In order to grow these peonies, Mu Yunting invested a lot of money. Even this flower bed exists for these peonies. It costs a lot of money every year to maintain such a flower bed. The profit can be imagined. Zhang Shun got a lot of benefits from it, and then shared it with Green Bamboo.

Su Nuan heard all this from Baozhu. In fact, when Baozhu first entered the Prince's Mansion, she was a gardener, because her family had been gardeners for generations, and Ding Fu recruited her into the mansion just for this reason.

Later, because of those peonies, Mu Yunting built a separate flower garden. Luzhu saw that there was money to be made there, so she introduced her cousin in and squeezed out Baozhu.

The reason why Su Nuan dared to do these things in the flower garden was because Baozhu provided her with technical support.

"Okay, let's talk about your business later." Mu Yunting stopped Zhang Shun from making excuses and asked Su Nuan, "Can you really make these peonies bloom early?"

"Your Highness, would you like me to try?" Su Nuan asked instead of answering.

"What if you fail?"

"If I fail, then I fail. What's there to say? Anyway, they won't bloom early if I don't try, so failure won't have any impact. But if I succeed, then the Queen will receive a special gift, and I'll help His Highness show his filial piety. This is not a small achievement, right?" Su Nuan said as a matter of course.

Mu Yunting did not answer. He just looked at Su Nuan quietly, waiting for her next words.

"So, if this is successful, Your Highness should give me some reward?" After Su Nuan asked this carefully, she quietly observed the changes in Mu Yunting's expression.

"what do you want?"

"I want a fair conversation with your Highness."

After a moment's silence, Mu Yunting said, "Okay, I promise you, if you can make these peonies bloom on my mother's birthday, I will give you a chance to have a fair conversation with me."

"Also, if you need anything during this period, you can go directly to Ding Fu."

This result exceeded Su Nuan's expectations. She was confident that a fair dialogue would help her win better living conditions.

After Mu Yunting left, Su Nuan also found an excuse to send Zhang Shun away.

When only a few people from Duiyueju were left in the flower garden, Meixiang said, "Madam, when Zhang Shun left just now, I saw that he looked at our peonies with ill intentions. Do you think he is doing something behind the scenes?"

"I don't know if he will do anything bad, but it doesn't hurt to be on guard. From today on, Baozhu will be in charge of taking care of these flowers, and the others will take turns watching Zhang Shun and don't let him get close to here."