Xie Jinqian bowed with a dark expression. "Greetings, First Prince."
Xia Qianhui waved a hand. "No need for ceremony. Why are you here with Wanwan? Where are her parents?"
The Xie Jinqian before him was Southern Yue's Second Imperial Prince, with a status much like his own.
He therefore treated him as an equal.
Xia Wanwan lifted her little face to answer. "Daddy, Second Uncle said... he owed me... so he brought me to buy presents..."
"These... these... are all mine..."
Xia Qianhui roared inwardly. Could you please stop calling me that?
But he still wore a cheerful smile. "Wanwan, could you let me take a box into the palace for Imperial Grandmother? She's been craving plum blossom cakes for days. She only sent me a letter today asking me to buy some and bring them in."
Xia Wanwan thought it over. Since Auntie Empress Dowager wanted some, and it wasn't her money anyway...
With a grand wave of her hand, she gave them away!
"No problem!"
"What a good little darling!" Xia Qianhui kissed her chubby cheek. "Remember to go home early. Do you want me to take you back?"
"No need!" Xia Wanwan waved her hand and pointed at the Hidden Guards by the door, telling him not to worry.
Xia Qianhui happily left with the plum blossom cakes.
The sight of this loving father and daughter stabbed deep into Xie Jinqian's eyes!
Why?!
It was bad enough that Xia Siheng was his rival!
Why was this First Prince, who had appeared out of thin air, his rival too?!
He never could have imagined it!
Xia Qianhui was actually Wanwan's biological father!
His sister-in-law had become entangled with the Imperial Family. How helpless she must have felt, facing such a tangled web of relationships!
He could already picture