Li Ji had his men follow the lead from the wet nurse. The investigation eventually led to one of the officials at court who held a grudge against him.
That particular official made a habit of finding fault with Li Ji, with or without cause.
Li Ji had always considered him a buffoon and never paid him any mind.
He never imagined the man would actually have the guts to harm someone in secret.
Li Ji couldn’t be bothered with the trouble. He simply ordered the official to be seized and thrown into a cell for a rigorous interrogation.
Because of this, during the next day’s morning court session, many civil servants launched a war of words against Prince Zhao. They felt that Prince Zhao had arrested a court official without just cause, an act unacceptable by both reason and law. They demanded that Prince Zhao release the man at once.
However, no matter how much they protested, Li Ji remained unmoved.
The arguing continued until the morning court session ended, but Li Ji still refused to relent and release the man.
The official was surprisingly tough. He refused to confess and sign a statement, no matter what.
After the court session, Li Ji personally paid a visit to the dungeons.
He looked at the official, who was covered in wounds and filth, and could clearly hear the man cursing up a storm in his mind.
Li Ji extracted a crucial piece of information from the barrage of curses—
The official before him had a mentor.
The reason he had plotted to harm Prince Zhao’s son was precisely due to his mentor’s "guidance."
As he walked out of the cell, Li Ji gave an order to Chen Wangbei, who was following behind him.
"Have someone investigate that bastard’s mentor."
"Yes, my lord."
Chen Wangbei paused for a moment before carefully asking another question.
"What should be done with the man in the cell?"
"Since he’s so tough, break his bones, inch by inch. Let him die a slow, agonizing death in despair."
After saying this, Li Ji swung himself onto his horse and rode off into the distance.
Ever since discovering the plot against the young prince, Li Ji had started visiting his son more often, lest anyone think he didn’t care for him.
Even if he still didn’t particularly like his ’stinky son’ in his heart, the boy was still his son, and he wouldn’t allow others to look down on him.
When Hua Qingqing learned that her little nephew was ill, she specially sent people with an Imperial Physician and nourishing supplements to the Prince Mansion to visit the young prince.
But as soon as they stepped through the door, Li Ji had them thrown out.
The group didn’t dare offend Prince Zhao, so in the end, they could only return to the palace dejectedly.
On the surface, Hua Qingqing maintained her gentle and kind demeanor.
She didn’t blame her subordinates, which made them sigh in relief, as if a great weight had been lifted from their shoulders.
But inwardly, Hua Qingqing was quite displeased with Prince Zhao.
’My sister has only one son, yet Prince Zhao can’t even take good care of him. He even let him get harmed by others. He’s completely unfit to be a father.’
Hua Qingqing picked up the Seventh Prince and said softly,
"How about I take you to see your little cousin another day?"
The Seventh Prince had long since heard from his mother that he had a little cousin, so he immediately nodded at her words.
"Okay!"
In the palace, there were only two princes: him and his sixth brother.
But his sixth brother was much older than him, so they couldn’t play together at all.
Therefore, he was very interested in his cousin, who was only a year younger than him.
***
Ever since dreaming of her son, Hua Manman had been on edge for the next few days.
She couldn’t help but think of Li Ji and her son.
It got to the point where she couldn’t even focus on her books.
Today was no exception. Hua Manman’s eyes were on her book, but her mind was filled with images of her son and Li Ji.
She knew she wasn’t in the right state of mind to read, so she closed her book, deciding to go home early for the day.
Just then, her cell phone rang.
The caller ID showed Song Yixian.
Hua Manman slung her backpack on, casually answered the call, and picked up her book with her other hand.
Song Yixian’s anxious voice came through the phone.
"Manman, where are you?"
Hua Manman casually slid the book back onto the shelf, turned, and started walking toward the entrance, replying softly.
"I’m at the library."
Song Yixian urged, "Don’t leave the library. I’m driving over to pick you up right now."
Hua Manman frowned. "Did something happen?"
Song Yixian spoke quickly.
"This morning, your dad... Hua Yusen came looking for me.
Luckily, there was a policewoman with me. When he saw the officer, he didn’t dare to pester me and left after saying a few words.
He hit a wall with me, so he’s definitely not going to give up. I’m afraid he’ll go looking for you."
Although Hua Yusen had been detained by the police, it was only for a few days. He had been released by now.
Until he committed a tangible criminal act, even the police couldn’t do much to him, aside from giving him a verbal warning at most.
By now, Hua Manman had already walked out of the library’s main entrance.
She stopped in her tracks and immediately spotted Hua Yusen standing not far ahead. He was wearing a button-down shirt and carrying a paper bag.
When Hua Yusen saw Manman appear, he immediately started walking toward her, an ingratiating smile on his face.
"Manman, I heard you’ve been coming to the library every day recently. Seeing you study so hard really makes me so proud."
On the other end of the line, Song Yixian was still talking: "Manman, if you see Hua Yusen, whatever you do, don’t get physical with him. He’s now..."
Hua Manman cut her off, her voice cold.
"You don’t need to pick me up. I can handle this myself."
With that, she hung up the phone.
Hua Manman stuffed her phone into her pants pocket and walked straight ahead without a second glance, pretending she hadn’t seen Hua Yusen at all.
Hua Yusen refused to give up and chased after her.
"Manman, are you heading back? Let me take you home. We can even have dinner together."
He followed Hua Manman all the way into the subway station.
Hua Manman queued up for the security check with Hua Yusen standing behind her, chattering nonstop.
"I was in the wrong before. I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad at me anymore, okay?"
Hua Manman was getting closer to the security checkpoint, but the man behind her continued to pester her relentlessly.
It seemed he was really determined to stick to her.
Hua Manman suddenly turned around and headed for the subway station exit.
Hua Yusen was stunned for a moment, then hurried after her.
"Why are you leaving? Weren’t you going to take the subway home?"
Without looking back, Hua Manman walked out of the subway station.
She cut through the crowd, crossed two streets, and entered an old neighborhood park.
There was hardly anyone in the park. It was surrounded by trees and very quiet.
Hua Manman finally stopped.
She turned to face Hua Yusen, who had caught up to her.
Hua Yusen held out the paper bag in his hand and said with a chuckle,
"Why were you running so fast?
I bought you this little cake.
Didn’t you used to love the cream cakes from this bakery?
Your mom always said eating too much cream would give you cavities and wouldn’t let you have too much.
You were so clever, you’d deliberately act cute in front of me to get me to buy you cake.
On my way home from work, I would always make a special trip to bring you a little cream cake..."
Hua Manman cut off his rambling, her tone as cold as ice.
"If I want to eat something now, I can buy it myself. I don’t need your hypocrisy."
The smile on Hua Yusen’s face froze.
He lowered his hand awkwardly. "I’m the one who wronged you."
Hua Manman retorted, "If you know you’ve wronged me, why can’t you just stay away? Why do you have to come and make my life miserable?"
Put on the spot by her words, Hua Yusen couldn’t help but feel a flicker of anger.
A muscle in his jaw twitched. He looked like he was about to lose his temper but forcibly held it back.
"Can’t you speak to me properly? No matter what, I’m still your father."