Oh my god, I became the vicious stepmother of four villains

"I invited you here this time because I wanted to order some pastries. I have ordered all the pastries in your shop." The Crown Princess turned around and talked to Xia Yingying about ordering pastries.

Xia Yingying was slightly stunned, and then said, "Madam, part of the cakes in my shop are made by me. Which part do you want?"

The Crown Princess looked at Xia Yingying in confusion. She bought it all. Didn't Xia Yingying understand?

"I will buy all the cakes from your cake shop tomorrow." The Crown Princess explained again.

"Uh... Madam, I'm afraid this won't work." Xia Yingying said somewhat embarrassedly.

The Crown Princess was dumbfounded. No? No cakes tomorrow? Okay, the day after tomorrow or the day after tomorrow? You can't just not make cakes forever.

"Madam, the cakes in the cake shop are limited in quantity. Some of them will be sent to His Majesty in the palace, and the rest are reserved in advance. There are some cakes in my shop that only I can make, and I can't make so many, so..."

Xia Yingying didn't say the rest of the words, but the Crown Princess understood.

Xia Yingying's pastry shop is limited. She knew that Xia Yingying's pastry business was good, but she didn't expect it to be this good.

But she didn't expect that Xia Yingying, who was already a woman of very high status, would be so hands-on in her business. This was something the Crown Princess had not expected.

"Just bring any cakes you can to the East Palace. I'm not picky."

"Okay, thank you ma'am."

After Lu Ziren and the third prince entered the private room, they saw a young man wearing a golden crown and a dragon robe, with an extraordinary demeanor, who looked three-quarters like the third prince. He was sitting at the chessboard and playing against a child who was about the same age as Lu Haoran, who looked dignified and upright, and had a bit of maturity beyond his years.

But with Lu Ziren's arrival, the man waved his hand, and the child stepped aside and sat on the cushion.

Then he bowed to the third prince Lu Ziren.

When Lu Ziren saw the chess player, he immediately bowed and said, "Greetings to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and His Royal Highness the Grandson of the Emperor."

The prince slowly raised his head and spoke to Lu Ziren.

"General Lu, no need to be so polite. I am really sorry to disturb you and your wife from visiting the lanterns, but I really have something to discuss with you, so please don't be offended, General Lu."

"What are you talking about, Prince? Didn't you ask the Crown Princess to talk to my wife about the cakes? But now that the Crown Prince is meeting me, aren't you afraid that the people in the dark will jump over the wall in desperation?"

"However, thank you, Princess Consort, for taking care of my business. She won't have to worry about her business in the future."

The prince was not unhappy when he heard Lu Ziren's offer. Instead, he said to Lu Ziren seriously, "Of course, this prince is a man of his word. The business with your lady's pastry shop is naturally a long-term cooperation."

"Well, I wonder why the prince wants to see me?"

Lu Ziren did not play Tai Chi with the prince, but directly asked the prince why he came to see him. In fact, Lu Ziren had expected the prince to look for him, but he did not expect the prince to be so anxious.

"It's like this. Recently, many people in the court from the Sixth Prince's side want to take back the military power from the general, and the emperor is also worried that the general has second thoughts, so he wants to find some senior officials in the court to take over. I wonder what General Lu's plan is for this?"

The situation in the court changed drastically because of Lu Ziren's stance. The Sixth Prince and his faction had been eyeing the position of Crown Prince, the supreme throne.

The prince was afraid that they would do something desperate, and now the emperor's health is getting worse.

He wanted to be more cautious. Besides, he had the emperor's approval to meet Lu Ziren today.

"Please rest assured, Prince. Even if the Sixth Prince wants the military power, it depends on whether there is anyone around him who has the ability to take the military power from me."

Lu Ziren spoke with a confident look on his face, and it was obvious that he had already planned for this.

The prince felt relieved when he heard Lu Ziren say this.

"That's great. I heard that the general's eldest son is about the same age as my eldest son. I wonder if you have any plans to send him to school?" The prince suddenly changed the subject.

Although Lu Ziren is now secretly on the same team as him, the prince has also experienced a lot of betrayal, and is still frightened by Lu Ziren's choice and does not fully trust him.

The Sixth Prince did not stop trying to win over Lu Ziren, and the Crown Prince was very nervous.

Therefore, the Crown Prince planned to let the eldest grandson of the Emperor establish a deep friendship with Lu Haoran. This way, their cooperative relationship would at least be more stable.

When Lu Ziren heard the prince's question, his brows furrowed even more.

The people in the palace were treacherous and shrewd. He could understand the prince's desire to drag Lu Haoran into the water, but in his eyes, Lu Haoran was just a child, and he didn't want to implicate his wife and children because of the court.

Lu Ziren naturally understood the situation in the court during this period, but he disagreed with the prince's approach.

"Your Highness, just because I join your sect doesn't mean my children will also join your sect." When Lu Ziren said this, he couldn't help but release a sense of pressure.

The Crown Prince, the Sixth Prince, was a man who had seen the world. He did not make a fuss and spoke calmly.

"General Lu misunderstood. I don't want to take your son as a hostage. It's just that my child has just reached school age. The Imperial Academy in the palace is better than the Imperial College. If your son comes, he will definitely learn more, which will be more beneficial to him."

Lu Ziren didn't say anything. He looked at the emperor's eldest grandson who had a mature face not far away and thought about what happened in his previous life.

In his previous life, Lu Haoran also took refuge with the emperor's eldest grandson. The emperor's eldest grandson and Lu Haoran were close friends who appreciated each other. However, their opponents were too cunning, and both of them ended up badly.

"It's up to you to decide." Lu Ziren frowned.

"Of course. I'm waiting for news from General Lu." The prince said humbly.

"If everything is alright, I'll take my leave. My wife must still be waiting for me."

Lu Ziren bowed to the prince.

"Since General Lu is so anxious, I will not disturb General Lu and his wife from spending the Lantern Festival together. It is inappropriate to bother the general and his wife today. This is my small apology. I hope the general will not despise it." The prince clapped his hands, and a group of palace maids came over holding books on military strategy and a spear made of meteorite iron.

The prince looked very confident, as he had been searching for this meteorite iron spear for a long time.

Lu Ziren wouldn't dislike it.

But Lu Ziren didn’t look very happy. Did he not like her?

Lu Ziren glanced at the spear. He knew that the gift was valuable. However, Lu Ziren didn't care about the spear. He only cared about whether he had given Xia Yingying a reward.

"Is there no woman suitable for this?" Lu Ziren asked casually.

The prince was slightly stunned, and then quickly said, "Yes."

The people below received the prince's signal and went to collect the rewards. This time they received some jewellery, each of which was extremely precious and worth a lot of money.

Lu Ziren looked at it and smiled. He thought Xia Yingying would definitely like these.

"Thank you, Your Highness."

The prince's hands trembled, "You're welcome."

The image of Lu Ziren that the prince had in the morning completely collapsed at this moment. He was not as indifferent as the third prince.

It was also the first time that the Third Prince saw the Crown Prince behave in a somewhat out-of-control manner. It was not the Crown Prince's fault. When he first saw the way Lu Ziren treated Xia Yingying, he thought that Lu Ziren had been possessed by another spirit.

So the Third Prince said to the Crown Prince, "Just get used to it."

"Yeah." The prince forced a smile.

"We went out without a maid, so I'll ask the maids to help me take her back to the mansion later."

"It's natural."

Lu Ziren left with satisfaction, and Xia Yingying had just left.

Because Xia Yingying didn't have many things, she held them herself.

But Lu Ziren looked at what Xia Yingying was holding and took it directly, "Someone will send these back to the mansion, give them to me."

After Lu Ziren handed the gift to the maid, he took Xia Yingying's hand and went out.