Chapter 83 Return to the Palace

The next morning, Yang Manyan got on the carriage with the help of Xiao Yan, but saw a slender girl chasing after him with her skirt lifted.

She ran so hard that she was sweating and out of breath. "Wait! Wait for me!"

Yang Manyan was slightly startled, and then she and her husband looked at each other in surprise.

Su Qinglan came running over with her personal maid, panting, "I haven't gotten in the car yet!"

Yang Manyan blinked and became more confused.

Xiao Yan was worried that Yang Manyan might lose focus and step on empty air, so he picked her up from the front shaft of the carriage.

At this time, a deep and magnetic voice broke the silence: "I sent someone to call her here."

The emperor rode on a fat and strong horse, looking down at everyone from a high position.

Seeing the Crown Prince and Yang Manyan hugging each other so intimately in front of everyone, his dark eyes narrowed slightly, and a hint of gloom suddenly appeared between his brows.

Xiao Yan remained calm. After letting go of Yang Manyan, he held her hand again without making a sound.

The emperor had a solemn expression and said nothing, with an icy, majestic, and oppressive aura surrounding him.

A breeze blew by, and the lush trees, flowers and plants in the mountains surrounding the palace swayed gently in the soft morning light.

Chang Ying hurriedly came out to smooth things over, and approached Su Qinglan with a wry smile: "Miss Su, your carriage is behind, please follow me."

A few days ago, the emperor promised to arrange a marriage for his niece Su Qinglan.

Just now he suddenly decided to bring Su Qinglan back to the palace first, and wait for the clan office to select some young talents in the capital, and then let her choose her own husband.

Look, Su Qinglan got up in the morning and didn’t even have time to pack her luggage. She rushed over after washing and changing her clothes.

Setting off for the palace, the prince and Yang Manyan rode in the same carriage.

The emperor did not travel with the two of them, but instead led several guards on horseback to the Western Suburbs Firearms Camp for a personal inspection.

Inside the carriage, Yang Manyan lowered his eyes and played with the golden armlet with a hundred blessings pattern on his wrist, lost in thought.

The faces of Su Qinglan, Concubine Wei Shufei and Empress Xu appeared before her eyes one after another like a revolving lantern.

Seeing that Yang Manyan was absent-minded, Xiao Yan lowered his head and kissed her between the eyebrows, "Yuanyuan, what's wrong?"

Yang Manyan's eyes flickered, and after hesitating for a while, he finally pursed his lips and shook his head, "No, nothing..."

However, Xiao Yan noticed all these subtle changes in her.

Xiao Yan's eyes dimmed slightly, and he held her hand, interlocking their fingers, "I wish you would, there's no need to be on guard or afraid of me."

Yang Manyan's heart skipped a beat and he looked up at him.

Xiao Yan stared at her quietly, and said word by word: "Yuanyuan, you can tell me anything. In front of me, you don't have to care about worldly ethics. You can do whatever you want. I said that I will never be angry with you."

Yang Manyan's eyes suddenly became misty and his nose felt sore.

If someone else said this, she would probably just think that the other person was talking nonsense, but since these words came from Xiao Yan, she believed them.

After thinking for a while, Yang Manyan leaned over to the man and whispered, "Don't you think Miss Su looks a bit like someone?"

Xiao Yan was stunned for a moment, then burst out laughing. He really didn't expect that Yang Manyan was so confused about this matter.

He suppressed his smile and asked gently, "Who does Yuanyuan think she resembles?"

"You really don't realize who she looks like?" Yang Manyan put her arms around him, her eyes clear as the sea, full of hope.

Seeing how serious she was, Xiao Yan was slightly surprised and could only shake his head.

He had never interacted with young women other than Yang Manyan, and he never paid attention to their appearance. Although Su Qinglan was his half-sister, he had never looked closely at her appearance.

Yang Manyan felt slightly disappointed, but soon felt relieved.

"In fact, when I first saw Miss Su a few days ago, I felt that her features were somewhat similar to those of Consort Shu. At the time, I thought she was from the Wei family. I never imagined that she was actually the daughter of Consort Renshou Palace..."

Xiao Yan frowned slightly, "You mean, Su Qinglan looks like Concubine Shu?"

"Yes." Yang Manyan nodded repeatedly.

The atmosphere was silent for a moment, leaving only the sound of horse hooves and the wheels rolling over stone slabs.

After a long while, Xiao Yan raised his hand and gently stroked her back. "Don't worry about this matter, Yuanyuan. I will try to find out the truth after returning to the palace. If I can find out anything, I will tell you in detail."

Yang Manyan said "hmm", and couldn't help but imagine what would happen if Concubine Wei Shu saw Su Qinglan...

More than an hour later, the convoy passed through the sparsely populated suburbs and entered the capital through Yongding Gate.

Nearing noon, the streets of Beijing were bustling with activity. Shops were lined up on both sides of the long street, and people were busy and crowded together, with the sounds of shouting and hawking rising and falling.

Unlike the grand imperial carriage when traveling, the motorcade returning to the palace was extremely low-key. It disguised itself as the ordinary family of wealthy merchants and did not disturb the common people.

Yang Manyan opened the curtain of the car a little, looked outside, and his thoughts gradually drifted away.

Her father, Yang Qianxing, passed the imperial examination and became a Jinshi in the ninth year of Chengming. Afterwards, her family moved from their hometown, Gaoyang County, Baoding Prefecture, to the capital.

She had just turned eleven that year.

The Yang family was just a farming and reading family. Several generations before them were all poor people. The family was not well off, and the family expenses often needed to be subsidized by the dowry of Yang's mother, Xue Shulan.

At first, Yang Qianxing was just an editor in the Hanlin Academy, and his seventh-rank salary was only enough for his family to rent a house on the edge of the outer city of the capital.

Who would have thought that the daughter of a "poor Hanlin" who once had no place to live in the capital would one day become a first-class lady in charge of the six palaces?

After looking for a while, she silently lowered the curtain and snuggled into Xiao Yan's arms again.

At this time, he was holding the "Strategies for River Control" in his hand and flipping through it, and subconsciously raised his hand to hug Yang Manyan.

But he soon realized he didn't have the hands to turn the pages.

Yang Manyan burst out laughing and reached out to help him turn the next page.

Xiao Yan also smiled and couldn't help but kiss her cheek.

The majestic and magnificent vermilion palace walls and golden glazed tiles came from afar. The carriage entered the imperial palace unimpeded and stopped outside the Huiyin Gate of the Eastern Palace.

Xiao Yan got off the car first, and then helped Yang Manyan down.

Su Qinglan jumped out of the carriage behind and looked around curiously.

Before the Nanyuan Spring Hunt, Yang Manyan had already begun to take over the inner court affairs, so it was natural that she was now in charge of arranging Su Qinglan's accommodation.

Su Qinglan is nominally the daughter of the governor of Nanyuan and has no marriage contract yet. If she were arranged to live in the six palaces in the east and west, there might be complications.

After thinking for a while, she lowered her voice and discussed with Xiao Yan: "Your Highness, why don't we let Miss Su stay in the East Palace first and make a decision after His Majesty returns to the palace?"

The East Palace is like a smaller version of the imperial palace. In addition to the main hall, there are several courtyards. It is not difficult to prepare a residence for Su Qinglan.

In this way, she could also tell others that Su Qinglan had similar interests to her, which was why she came into the palace to talk to her and relieve her boredom.

Xiao Yan smiled, "Just arrange it if you're willing."

Soon, the news that the daughter of Admiral Nanyuan was moving into the East Palace spread throughout the Imperial Palace.

When she learned the news, Concubine Wei Shu happened to be serving dinner to Empress Dowager Jiang in the Cining Palace.

Queen Mother Jiang smiled, and even the thick makeup couldn't hide the wrinkles on her face. "We haven't even filled the Eastern Palace with people yet, but the Crown Prince has already added people to the Eastern Palace himself."

Concubine Wei Shu was also surprised and delighted.

She didn't care who the new woman entering the Eastern Palace was. As long as her son stopped favoring that bitch Yang, it would be a great thing for her.

But she still said seriously: "Maybe Su really came to the palace to accompany Yang Shangyi to relieve her boredom? It may not be..."

Queen Mother Jiang glanced at her sideways and said, "Why are you pretending? I don't know you yet."

"It's late today. Tomorrow I will summon Yang Shangyi and Su to come and pay their respects. I also want to see what Su looks like."