After much deliberation, Yi Shangyun gritted her teeth, made a firm decision in her heart: "Forget it, what's done is done! What's meant to be will be.

Having prepared themselves mentally, they joined the others in settling down to enjoy the wonderful performance on stage.

After a long while, the King of Dongning suddenly asked her without turning his head, "Do you know what the play on stage tonight is about?"

Yi Shangyun was captivated by the lifelike performance on stage, and under the lights, tears welled up in her eyes.

Upon hearing this, she snapped out of her reverie, pondered for a moment, and replied quite fluently, "This play, 'The Weaver Girl,' tells the story of the Jade Emperor's seventh princess. She didn't covet the splendor of the Heavenly Palace, but pitied Dong Yong, a man on Earth who sold himself into slavery to bury his father. She defied the Heavenly Court and secretly descended to Earth to marry him. The seventh princess wove ten bolts of brocade in one night, turning Dong Yong's three-year labor service into a hundred days. When the hundred days were up, the couple returned home, eagerly anticipating their happy life together. However, the Jade Emperor ordered the seventh princess to return to Heaven, thus breaking up this beautiful marriage between Heaven and Earth."

The King of Dongning seemed somewhat surprised upon hearing this, so he turned his head to look at her face for a long time, then turned back and said, "I didn't expect that you, at such a young age, would know so much! Have you seen this play somewhere before?"

Perhaps she was moved by the poignant scene of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl's unrequited love unfolding on stage, or perhaps it reminded her of a past experience—a case of life imitating art, and art imitating life. Now, having lost her beloved, she was so distraught that she couldn't distinguish between the Seventh Princess on stage and herself.

"Your Highness, in Heaven and Earth, are you also quietly watching over Yun'er from some corner, waiting for Yun'er? Your Highness, rest assured, Yun'er will never leave you, wait for me..."

With this thought in mind, Yi Shangyun said with a gloomy expression, "Your Majesty, Yun'er only once read this story in a storybook."

Qi Liaodong Ningguo King remained silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "So, what about your Dong Yong? Where is he now?"

Yi Shangyun immediately came to her senses and looked at the profile of the King of Dongning in surprise, saying, "Your Majesty, what... what are you talking about Dong? What Dong Yong? Yun'er doesn't understand."

The King of Dongning still didn't look at her face, but instead wore a slight smile and said calmly, "I heard you call out 'Your Highness' countless times in your delirium in the Qingxin Palace!"

She paused, then looked up and glanced at Mei Zhixuan, who was sitting quietly to the side watching the scene unfold, and said, "Your Dong Yong... wouldn't happen to be..."

Yi Shangyun followed his gaze closely, and when it landed on Mei Zhixuan, she exclaimed in surprise, "It's not His Highness the Third Prince!"

King Dongning then turned his gaze to his second son, Mei Zhihao, who was also grinning foolishly in his direction, and asked in confusion, "Oh, not the third son... then could it be..."

Upon seeing this, Yi Shangyun immediately denied it, saying, "It's not two..."

If she continued to guess like this, she would obviously not know how to deal with it. So she said in a fit of anger, "Your Majesty is the supreme ruler. Please stop thinking such nonsense and trying to matchmake people! If you continue like this, Yun'er will have no face to stay here any longer. Yun'er will ignore Your Majesty and go back to Qingxin Palace. I will never leave the palace again in this lifetime."

As Yi Shangyun spoke, she turned and took a step to leave. The King of Dongning immediately grabbed her and pulled her back forcefully: "Alright, alright, I was just enjoying the play with you and wanted to play a joke on you! Don't be angry!"

Yi Shangyun was naturally extremely guilty, unaware that she had summoned King Xuanyuan Han of Qin countless times in her dreams in the Qingxin Palace.

After much deliberation, she finally pouted and slowly turned around, saying, "Then Your Majesty promises not to make such jokes about Yun'er again, otherwise, Yun'er will really get angry!"

So the King of Dongning solemnly vowed, "I promise you, I will never joke with you again!"

At this point, Yi Shangyun seemed somewhat relieved and returned to his original position.

At this moment, the King of Dongning stared intently at the stage, his expression suddenly turning serious. Finally, he silently began to analyze, "In expressing their emotions, Dong Yong and the Seventh Fairy's performance was not the typical heartbreak of a married couple, but rather the separation of a loving couple, which made them all the more sorrowful and painful."

Yi Shangyun stared blankly at the stage and said, "Yes! If the Seventh Princess defies the will of Heaven and does not return to Heaven, it will inevitably endanger Dong Yong's life. The sorrow of their separation comes from the pressure from Heaven, their own predicament and resistance to Heaven, and their infinite longing for their lover. All of these are deeply intertwined."

After speaking, he looked down and noticed that the King of Dongning's eyes were also glistening with tears. He seemed to have some hesitation in his heart, but he still asked softly and tentatively, "In your life, has Your Majesty ever had someone you loved but could not have and felt the same pain? Was she... the Empress?"

Upon hearing this, the King of Dongning felt a pang of unease, then chuckled lightly and said, "Hehe."

Then she added, "Love that cannot be obtained?! Yun'er, you will eventually understand that the most painful thing in this world is not loving that cannot be obtained, but obtaining it and then losing it."

Seeing the Dongning King's reaction when he talked about the Empress, he seemed so lonely and helpless. Yi Shangyun quickly comforted him, saying, "Perhaps, not all relationships in this world have a beginning and an end. Sometimes, what you can't let go of is just that you don't want to let go."

Even today, perhaps in the heart of the King of Dongning, although he is also an ordinary person with emotions and desires, he knows even more deeply that he is also the emperor of millions of common people. As a monarch, he has long understood the weight of his mission.

So, he composed himself and finally asked, "Yun'er, I know you come from the Western Qin Kingdom. Tell me honestly, in your heart, there also lives someone like that, right?"

Looking steadily into Yi Shangyun's eyes as he finished speaking, Yi Shangyun could no longer pretend, conceal, or deceive him.

The King of Dongning had already gotten all the answers he wanted from the look in the other man's eyes, so he turned back to watch the performance on the stage and suddenly blurted out, "If I'm not mistaken, the person you have in your heart is none other than Prince Xuanyuan Han of Qin?"

Yi Shangyun immediately explained in astonishment, "Your Majesty, please believe me, Yun'er is absolutely not a spy sent by Western Qin. The reason Yun'er traveled all the way from Western Qin to Dongning is actually... actually because..."

Just then, the King of Dongning suddenly raised a hand to interrupt him, saying, "You don't need to explain to me. I believe you! From the first moment I saw you watching the sunrise at the beach, I have never doubted you in the slightest. So no matter what you do, I believe you!"

However, Yi Shangyun seemed to want to explain something more: "Your Majesty..."

The King of Dongning, however, changed the subject: "Tonight's performance was indeed worthwhile. I think the Empress, she must be a fairy bestowed upon me by Heaven because of its favor!"

Upon hearing this, Yi Shangyun smiled faintly and said, "Yun'er doesn't know if the Empress Dowager is a fairy sent from heaven, but Yun'er does know that when the Empress Dowager closed her eyes, she must have been thinking of the Emperor. The Emperor is the Emperor of millions of people. The people can live without the Empress Dowager who saves them from suffering, but they cannot live without the Emperor who protects them, can they?"

Upon hearing this, the King of Dongning turned around and was stunned. After a moment, he asked, "Yun'er, if in the future you find yourself in the same dilemma as me, what will you do?"

After thinking for a while, Yi Shangyun finally took a deep breath and said, "Yun'er is not an emperor, so I don't know how to make the choices that an emperor should make. But Yun'er feels that if there is such a dilemma in the future, I will definitely choose the common people, just like the Empress Dowager."

Clearly, the King of Dongning was very satisfied and pleasantly surprised by her answer.

For a moment, the two stared at each other, neither of them speaking...

Just then, the old nanny standing behind the Empress noticed the strange looks in the eyes of the two people before her. She rubbed her eyes hard, examined Yi Shangyun's face again very carefully, and hurriedly leaned down to whisper in the Empress's ear, "Your Majesty..."

The Empress Dowager, who was engrossed in watching the opera, turned to look in the direction of Yi Shangyun after hearing the old nanny's report, and asked the old nanny, "This girl? Who is she? Why is she standing next to the Emperor? Where did she come from?"

The old nanny reminded her, "Has Your Majesty forgotten that this girl was brought back from outside the palace by the Third Prince that night and personally delivered to Qingxin Palace?"

The Empress Dowager truly couldn't recall, and hurriedly tried to remember while repeating, "Did the Third Prince bring it back?"

The old nanny, her face grim, said in a sarcastic tone, "I heard that our Emperor is very fond of that girl! He always has her by his side to serve him, whether there's something to do or not..."

Finally, the Empress seemed to remember everything and exclaimed in realization, "You mean, that girl is the one the Third Brother brought back that night, the one dressed in men's clothing, who looks exactly like him..."

She looked slowly at the old woman's face, seemingly in disbelief, and for a moment, she was so shocked that she dared not utter the rest of her words.

Just then, the music ended and the audience dispersed.

All the actors came out from backstage together, bowed to the audience in thanks, and the King of Dongning also stood up to leave his seat...