He Jin's eyes quickly swept between the two of them again, without lingering, and turned away.
He was heading towards the palace.
"Why are you following me?"
Xuyu stared at He Jin's gradually disappearing back, stunned for a moment, and suddenly at this moment, this question rang in her ears.
Slowly, she turned her head and looked at the person in front of her.
Seeing that she kept silent, he soon seemed to realize something and moved closer to her. When he spoke again, his tone was different, with apologetic and soothing words: "Did I scare you just now? I didn't mean to. I thought..." He stopped.
"What are you doing?" Xu Yu finally spoke, and looked in the direction where He Jin disappeared again in confusion.
"Why did he come to Cangshan?"
"He just arrived tonight. My uncle sent him here. His Majesty summoned my uncle to Cangshan to escape the summer heat, but he was not feeling well and could not go, so he sent Uncle He to come here on his behalf to apologize and thank His Majesty the Emperor for his great favor."
This was of course not the whole story of why Pei Ji sent He Jin here. But how could he tell her anything else
After explaining this, Pei Xiaoyuan continued, "Recently, I have also noticed that someone has been monitoring me, or maybe it has started a long time ago. They work in shifts day and night, and they are all veterans. Their actions are secretive, which makes it a bit inconvenient for me. The person who was following me tonight must be here too. Uncle He just happened to arrive, and those who were monitoring me should not know about this yet. So I asked Uncle He to wait for me here. I came here again just to lure the person out and see who it is. When you were following me just now, the other party should have been behind me, but you didn't know it. I didn't expect that one of them would be you."
Xuyu had never expected that the story would be so complicated. She looked around quickly.
"No need to look. The other party must have left." He said, looking at her.
"But I don't understand. If you have something to do, just call me. Why do you have to follow me like this?" He asked after a pause, his tone slightly confused.
"Who do you think is following you?" Xuyu did not answer his question and continued to ask.
He glanced at the dark wild forest around him and said, "I don't know."
He simply responded in a calm tone, but it was clear that he was not sincere.
A thought suddenly flashed through her mind: "Yes..."
She paused.
"I'm sorry, I ruined your business." After a moment's silence, she whispered.
"It's okay." His voice became gentle at this time, "I'm lucky I didn't hurt you by mistake just now."
"Why did you follow me all the way?" he asked again in a low voice.
"Why did you always avoid me after coming back from Xishan that night?" Xuyu was silent for a moment and asked back.
He seemed startled, looked at her, and wanted to say something, but then stopped. Xuyu did not urge him, but just looked at him and waited quietly.
After a moment, she finally heard his steady voice in her ears. It was obviously a well-considered and thoughtful answer.
"Princess, you have misunderstood. I am not avoiding you. It's just that the emperor has been out of the capital these days and things have been busy. In addition, the princess happens to be here with you regarding what happened that night. Allow me to apologize to her as well." He said slowly.
"I was confused for a moment and offended the princess. If my reckless behavior has caused the princess to misunderstand me, please forgive me."