She Doesn't Understand

How was he going to explain this?

Could it be that he had to claim it was an evil creature? That would be inauspicious!

The Fourth Prince could not help but scold the Fourth Princess Consort.

The Fourth Princess Consort felt wronged. How was she supposed to know that this would happen? If she had known, she would not have attended the banquet that day.

Sure enough, the Emperor had heard the news too. He even sent a young eunuch to the fourth prince's mansion to investigate.

The fourth prince was scared out of his wits. He insisted that he didn't know what was going on either. It must be that this crabapple tree was good-looking, energetic, and overnourished. It bloomed just like that.

… This wasn't a sudden bloom. There were flower buds on the tree to begin with, but they weren't conspicuous. No one paid attention, so they naturally neglected it. Then, because of the warm weather, they all bloomed at once…