"Pfft-"
Someone in the crowd failed to hold back and burst out laughing.
Then they clamped a hand over their mouth, reducing it to a muffled chuckle.
Ran Hongyi's entire face flushed red with frustration.
Had he known she was about to expose that stingy fellow Jiao Hongmiao, he would never have jumped out so hastily.
He could have let the little one talk and draw some of the fire away from him!
Ran Hongyi was wracked with regret, but he could only steel himself and meet Miao Xinrong's thoroughly hostile gaze.
"Lord Ran," Miao Xinrong turned around, his reddened eyes fixed on Ran Hongyi. "May I ask what I said wrong to provoke such a reaction from you?"
Ran Hongyi had not listened closely to anything this drunkard had said, but a rebuttal rolled straight off his tongue. "I merely feel that the Little Highness is only three years old. She..."
Before he could finish, Jiao Hongmiao hurriedly cut him off. "Though the Little Highness is only three, she is clever and adorable, lovely without and wise within. Everyone at court has seen it for themselves!"
"I can guarantee that she will never become a lazy, arrogant, extravagant, and ignorant child, as Lord Miao fears!"
His speech rang with righteous conviction and soaring spirit.
Miao Xinrong's muddled mind took a long while to catch up. His eyes suddenly widened. "I-"
When did I ever say I feared the Little Princess would become lazy, arrogant, extravagant, and ignorant?!
Don't spray me with such filthy slander!
Ran Hongyi, whose words had been interrupted, was just as stunned.
He stared at Jiao Hongmiao in disbelief, as though trying to get a good look at what sort of face such a shameless man could possibly have.
That had been his long-awaited chance to