Seeing her stop crying, he felt somewhat disappointed.
He suddenly felt that it seemed like a good idea to let her be his wife because he would be able to make her cry as her husband then.
Li Baojia sobbed twice more, and seeing that he was unresponsive, she could only stop. Still, she cursed him in her heart and accused him of being a liar because he had said before that he couldn't bear to see her cry.
Zhao Yi was suddenly shocked.
She bowed slightly to him before leaving. Zhao Yi continued with his business, although it was already hard for him to focus on it now.
She didn't think she'd fail.
She thought nothing would happen if she insisted the purse was sent by accident and added the fact that she didn't intend to compete with them.
She figured she'd take it back next time.
When she went out, Mr. Huang was already waiting outside, and when she saw her eyes were red, he wondered if the prince had said something mean to her.
In his heart, he felt sorry for Li Baojia. "It seems that His Highness is not interested in taking her as his concubine," he thought.
When he went in to refill the tea, he was still thinking about this matter.
He suddenly heard a voice next to him. "I wasn't mean to her."
Mr. Huang raised his head in shock but saw the prince holding a volume of books, looking as normal as ever.
He thought it might be a hallucination.
Mr. Huang carefully held the teapot and left. Zhao Yi stared at his back and lost himself in his thoughts.
Outside the hall.
Seeing her come out with red eyes, Taotao hurriedly went up to her. "Miss, why are you crying? His Highness..."
Li Baojia stopped her. "The wind was strong when I came out. I think something got in my eyes."
Seeing this, Taotao couldn't say anything more but just helped her get into the carriage.
When Li Baojia returned to the courtyard, she saw many people standing outside the house. Nanny Lin was also there, standing beside her mother.
When Nanny Lin saw her, she greeted her enthusiastically, "Miss Baojia, finally. Madam has been waiting for you inside for a long time."
Li Baojia went in and saw her mother sitting at the table, a few years younger than she remembered.
Huang Ru'er, the Grand Preceptor's wife, saw her approaching and stood up to greet her.
She was dressed in a festive robe, wearing the extremely popular woman's bun on her head and a newly-made headdress from Ruyi Pavilion. She asked with a happy face, "Jiajia, my sweet Jiajia, is everything settled?"
Perhaps it was because she had not seen her mother for a long time, and in what seemed like a trance, her mother was standing in front of her, but she felt suddenly flooded with all kinds of feelings.
She flung herself into Huang Ru'er's arms, her face flushed and buried in the side of her neck, and said with tearful eyes, "Mother... Mother... Mommy, I miss you so much..."
Huang Ru'er's heart almost broke when she saw her like that. She wondered what grievances her daughter had suffered from having her call her "Mommy" like a kid.
She held her daughter's red face as she cried and asked, "What happened? Tell me. Is it something His Highness said?"
Li Baojia just shook her head.
Huang Ru'er was a little anxious. "Then, didn't you go to the East Palace today? His Highness has seen you, right? What is going on?"
Feeling the anxiety in her mother's words, she stopped crying and said tentatively, "Mother...is it okay if I don't enter the palace?"
Huang Ru'er pulled away from her. "How could you think that again? What do you want to do if you don't enter the palace? If you enter the palace, you will have the opportunity to rule the world, which is the most prestigious position in the world. So don't you want to fight for it?"
"Now you have an advantage. Your father is the Grand Preceptor, which makes him His Highness's teacher. I'm sure His Highness will take this into consideration. Therefore, he won't mistreat you if you enter the palace."
Then she said, somewhat indignantly, "You're my only child. I don't have a son. So if you don't try to make a name for yourself, what would your father and that bitch Qin Ke think of me?"
Nanny Lin sighed next to her.
She knew Huang Ru'er was a driven woman. She had been married for many years but had failed to procreate once.
Three years had passed, and the Li family had become disenchanted with her. But, on the contrary, Qin Ke had given birth to many children.
The Li family's eldest sons and daughters were all Madam Qin's children. Her eldest daughter, Li Rulan, married Duke Guangpin as his second wife. Now she had become his official wife. She sure married well.
With her success in marriage, her mother's status in the Li family was also better recognized.
Madam Qin, originally a concubine, was now his second wife, making her as important as Huang Ru'er.