When we returned to Luoyang Palace again, it was already dark.
Linglong took Xia Sang down to settle down, Pei Yan explained to Fu Xirui, and then accompanied Tao Ti back to Jixian Temple.
Tao Ti quietly walked to the long couch and sat down, her back bent lazily, as if her soul had been sucked out, her eyes were straightened, and she was weak.
It wasn't until a hand holding a celadon cup with well-defined bones appeared in front of her eyes that her pitch-black eyeballs rolled away.
"Come, have a cup of tea." Pei Yanrou said.
"Thank you." Tao Ti took it.
The tea is warm, with a slightly bitter taste and a sweet aftertaste.
Pei Yan sat down beside her, stared at her for a moment, and asked, "Ever since you came out of Prince Mu's mansion, you've been out of your mind, are you still thinking about that?"
Tao Ti glanced at him, pursed her pink lips slightly, and nodded, "Yes."
Pei Yan said, "Don't worry, Zhanping is watching over there, he will handle it well."
Tao Ti hummed heavily, but the heaviness between her brows and eyes was not missing at all.
In the silence, she drank the tea in the cup little by little, frowned with two thin eyebrows, and said worriedly, "Your Highness, today's matter, we have formed a relationship with the Mu Palace... Before leaving, I saw Seeing that the faces of Mu Wang and his wife are very bad, will they jump the wall in a hurry and retaliate against us... "
She still remembered that when Pei Yan took her away, Princess Mu's eyes seemed to be poisoned, gloomy and resentful.
It's really... scary!
Pei Yan was stunned for a moment, it turned out that she was afraid of this.
His tall body leaned over to her side, raised his hand, and pressed her small head with his broad palm.
Tao Ti was still holding the cup in a daze, raised her head in confusion, and looked at him in confusion, "Your Highness?"
Pei Yan's voice was low and sweet, "Don't be afraid."
Tao Ti, "..."
Pei Yan's tone was gentle and calm, and there was a majestic aura of a superior around him, as if everything was under his control.
He said, "Trust Gu, Gu will handle it well."
Tao Ti looked at his deep peach blossom eyes, and her tense heart gradually relaxed.
Since he said he could handle it well, she believed him.
"Your Highness..."
"Um?"
"I believe you."
"it is good."
"Then... can you take your hands off my head, I want to get something to eat."
"..."
Pei Yan was slightly startled, moved his hand away from her little head, and said with a smile, "I'm offended."
It's because her little head is so easy to touch, her hair is smooth and comfortable to touch, and when she is under his palm, she looks extraordinarily cute.
Tao Ti's fair face was a little red, and she stood up as soon as she put the tea cup down.
Pei Yan called her to stop, "I've been tossing around all day today, and I'm tired just looking at you. Let the dining room do the dinner?"
Tao Ti shrugged her shoulders and sighed deeply, "Alright."
Although I didn't see those corpses with my own eyes, but after a little brainstorming, my mood unconsciously fell, and my appetite didn't have much. It's just that she is very hungry, and if she doesn't eat at night, she will be so hungry that she won't be able to sleep.
Pei Yan ordered the dining room to prepare some light porridge, no chicken, duck or fish.
At night, under the candlelight, the two quietly ate some mung bean porridge.
After bathing and going to bed, Tao Ti was obviously very tired, but she still couldn't fall asleep because of tossing and turning.
When she turned over again, Pei Yanyan put his hand on her shoulder.
Tao Ti froze immediately.
He turned towards her, with his arms across her body, in this posture, it was as if he was holding her in his arms, intimate and ambiguous...
Fortunately, she turned her back to him, otherwise, face to face, her body temperature would have soared, and she would have been cremated directly on the spot.
Pei Yan's lazy voice sounded behind her, "Aren't you sleepy?"
Tao Ti didn't dare to move, her nervous voice was a little trembling, "Fortunately... I'm a little sleepy..."
"dishonest."
"...?"
"What are you thinking, tell Gu." He asked.
Tao Ti didn't know how close he was, her arm was around her, and the clear and pleasant smell of cold rosin from his body was also lingering on the tip of her nose, but the two of them didn't touch each other, as if separated by a distance. There seems to be no distance.
Her mind was blank, and her heart was beating very fast. When she heard him ask, she subconsciously replied, "I was wondering how Princess Mu and Prince Mu could be so bad! The more I thought about it, the more angry I became, so angry that I couldn't sleep."
Pei Yan hummed lightly, thinking, the little girl is still too simple, her heart is sinister, there is always something worse than the worst.
Even, he who was lying beside her was not a kind person.
Seeing that her body was tense, he was afraid that she would be tired, so he withdrew his hand, lay flat again, closed his eyes and asked again, "What else are you thinking about?"
Tao Ti breathed a sigh of relief, and said softly, "I'm still thinking about what retribution they will get? Will the son be imprisoned for the rest of his life? Lord Mu is really willing to kill his relatives righteously? Princess Mu will definitely not let it go, right? Your Highness, you said you will make arrangements , then what are you going to do with it?"
She spoke out the doubts in her heart in one breath.
Pei Yan's eyebrows moved slightly, "Want to know?"
Tao Ti said, "Yeah."
In the darkness, he chuckled twice, "At most half a month, you will know."
Tao Ti, "...?"
Not so appetizing!
The man beside him rubbed her hair lazily, and said softly, "Ah Ti, it's time to sleep."
Tao Ti thought about it being in the middle of the night, so she couldn't force him to ask clearly, so she said softly, "Okay, go to bed first."
She closed her eyes, gave up her messy thoughts, and after an unknown amount of time, she finally fell into a drowsy sleep.
After hearing her even breathing, Pei Yan turned over and hugged her from behind.
He hugged her tighter, buried his face in the socket of her shoulder, his eyes were half closed, and there were deep and floating desires in his eyes.
If one day, she finds out how despicable and unbearable he is, and finds out that everything about Jiyue's beauty is just a disguise, a deception...
He didn't dare to think about it any further.
The more I thought about it, the crazier those dark thoughts became.
He suddenly remembered what Uncle Feng said, if you really like her, treat her well, don't be like your father.
Of course he will be nice to her, as long as she stays by his side obediently, don't leave him.
If she were to leave him...
He recalled some distant and vague images—
In the picture, the father and the emperor cried bitterly while holding the mother's body.
The king of a country who is high above and decisive in killing is crying so embarrassingly and unbearably.
Later, the royal father saw him hiding in the corner, waved to him, hugged him and said, "Your mother left us father and son, the royal father is useless, she has to leave, the royal father can't keep her... "
In his memory, the father, the emperor, loved his mother deeply, completely put aside his status as an emperor, and treated his mother as well as he could.
But the queen mother was always lukewarm to her father, and she never seemed to smile at her father.
He was young at the time, so he asked Sister Lan in confusion, and Sister Lan only said, "Your Majesty's feelings are very complicated, and His Highness may understand when he grows up."
Emotional matters are indeed complicated.
For example, at this time, the more he cares, the more he worries about gains and losses.
The night was getting deeper, Pei Yan embraced the limp body in his arms, and fell asleep with his brows furrowed.
...
The news didn't have long legs, but it spread faster than anything else. In just one night, the news that King Mu's son was imprisoned spread wildly, and the people in the streets and alleys were all discussing:
"Great, this villain who bullies men and women finally got his retribution!"
"Yes, good and evil will be rewarded. This time the prince came to our Luoyang to get rid of this villain for us. It's really satisfying!"
"My second aunt's neighbor's third sister-in-law is working in Prince Mu's mansion. I heard that the crown princess first stood up to uphold justice yesterday, so she revealed the matter. If the crown princess hadn't shown up, the twenty or so lives would have been lost." How long do you know how long you will be buried in the well of Prince Mu's Mansion!"
"It turned out to be the crown princess? Then this crown princess is really good, she can fight for us ordinary people!"
"That's right, it's going to be someone else's job, and I'll probably just turn a blind eye and ignore it! Before Xiao Shizi killed a small vegetable vendor under the Sanli Bridge in the street, didn't the vegetable vendor's family go to the government to sue? The officials didn't care about it, and directly drove out the orphan and widowed mother of that family. Alas, I heard that the family was miserable later. The family lost its support. The youngest son of that family had no money to treat him, and died of illness... "
"Hey, the people don't fight with the officials. If the prince and princess hadn't run into each other this time, how long will the Prince Mu's mansion continue to be domineering!"
"Having such a prince and concubine is really a blessing for us people. But I heard that the prince is not in good health. Hey, I hope God will open his eyes and bless our prince!"
Rumors were raging outside, but there was a dead silence in Prince Mu's mansion.
After Princess Mu woke up slowly, she learned that the son had been imprisoned, and almost fainted again.
The woman next to her hurriedly pinched the man and helped her, and she was relieved. She didn't care about dressing up properly, and ran to find Prince Mu after washing up casually.
Prince Mu just came back from the prison, and before he had a sip of a cup of hot tea, he saw the haggard Princess Mu rushing over.
He frowned, and said a little impatiently, "Why don't you take a good rest in the house and run out?"
Concubine Mu's face suddenly collapsed, her eyes filled with tears, "My lord, what should we do now, Xuan'er is our son, you can't sit idly by and let him be abused and humiliated!"
Prince Mu took a deep breath and said to the housekeeper, "Go out first and close the door."
The butler agreed and withdrew.
There were only the couple left in the room, and green smoke slowly drifted out from the animal-shaped incense burner.
Prince Mu said solemnly, "This matter is too coincidental."
Princess Mu stopped crying.
"That Xia Sang, he didn't take revenge early, he didn't take revenge later, but when you invited the princess to come to the mansion, he hurt Xuan'er and made the matter so big... And the prince, he came yesterday too coincidentally..."
Lord Mu said coldly, "I thought about it for a long time last night, and went out to investigate this morning, and found that this Xia Sang is also suspicious. Xuan'er brought her out from Yancui Tower, but this Xia Sang is not a recorded prostitute. She is a maid who has only been in Yancui Building for three days; moreover, how did she know about the dry well in the backyard, and who told her that her sister was thrown into the dry well... "
Princess Mu's eyes widened suddenly, "My lord, what you mean is that there is a ghost in our house."
Prince Mu snorted, "I'm afraid this matter is not just a matter of the inner ghost."
Princess Mu thought about it in astonishment, and after a while, she asked in a panic, "Could it be that the prince discovered something? He knew we were going to attack the princess?"
Prince Mu's face was livid, and he pursed his lips in silence.
After a while, he said in a deep voice, "Don't panic too much, I wrote a letter to Chang'an last night... Even if the crown prince wants to bring Xuan'er to justice, he will have to review it again and again with the Ministry of Punishment and His Majesty. The Zhou family is in Chang'an to take care of it... At least it can be done." Save Xuan'er's life."
Concubine Mu was startled, her lips were bitten and lost all color, she murmured to herself, "Save one life, one life..."
She looked up at Prince Mu with complicated eyes, "My lord, if I save my life, can Xuan'er still be the prince in the future."
The corner of Prince Mu's mouth twitched, and he squinted his eyes to stare at her, "How can a useless person be a prince again."
Princess Mu's blood seemed to be frozen.
Although he had already guessed what the answer would be, but hearing him say it personally, he still couldn't help but feel chilled.
She also doesn't know how she got out of the study.
Looking at the bright light outside, Princess Mu slowly raised her head, her numb eyeballs rolled around, and a burst of strong hatred welled up in her heart.
She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth, "Prince, princess..."
They ruined her son, and she won't make it easy for them!