A woman walked out from the other side of the garden.

She wore her hair in the simplest bun, adorned only by a single white jade hairpin.

She wore a simple red dress, yet she was dazzling and eye-catching.

When he saw the barefoot child on the table, his eyes immediately filled with enthusiasm.

"Ah Yao, so you've been hiding here looking at paintings again."

Ayao was the emperor's childhood name.

But the woman who called him by his childhood name was not the current Empress Dowager.

Her energetic voice made the child at the table turn around abruptly.

The moment he saw her, the emperor's eyes lit up, and his face beamed with a radiant smile. "Your Highness Consort Yu, you've arrived!"

As he shouted, he climbed down from the table, quickly put on his shoes, and ran to the side of Consort Yu.

Two boys, both older than the emperor, followed behind Consort Yu.

The emperor also hurriedly and excitedly greeted them: "Eldest brother, second brother, how is it? Is the school fun?"

The second prince shook his head and said, "It's not fun. Father taught us the same things the tutor taught us a long time ago. It's really boring. I've been feeling sleepy and dozing off the whole time, but my brother is listening very attentively. If you ask me, why don't you come here with A-Yao and look at the paintings?"

The second prince was carefree and unrestrained, while the eldest prince was relatively more composed.

The eldest prince added, "Second brother, you'd better be careful. The tutor has been giving you a lot of attention today. If the tutor complains to Father that you were disrespecting the teacher in class and sleeping soundly, Father will punish you severely."

"Hehe, I'm not afraid at all. Father Emperor is all bark and no bite; he'd never actually hit us."

The eldest prince smiled without saying a word, then suddenly changed the subject of his conversation. With a worried look, he asked, "By the way, Ayao, is your cold better? I saw you weren't wearing shoes earlier, be careful not to catch a chill again."

"It's alright, it's alright, eldest brother, don't worry about me, I'm all better now." The emperor chuckled sheepishly and said somewhat embarrassedly, "I'm too short, I can't see the painting without climbing onto the table, and I was afraid of getting the table dirty with my shoes, so I took them off."

The atmosphere of their conversation was very relaxed and lively, just like a conversation between brothers in an ordinary family.

Everyone was very friendly to the young emperor; in fact, they were quite concerned about him.

Gu Jiangli watched from the side with some surprise.

She thought the emperor's aloof and silent personality was due to his childhood, but now it seems that he was actually lively and cheerful when he was young.

That smile was brighter than the sun in the sky; it was one she had never seen before.

At this moment, the woman known as Consort Yu picked him up and walked back to the table.

She didn't look very strong, but she carried a five or six-year-old boy without any difficulty.

"Can't you see this painting, Yao? It's okay, I'll hold you, then you can see it clearly."

"Yes, thank you, Consort Yu." His voice was clear and crisp, which made Consort Yu smile broadly.

The group approached and formed a circle around the table. "Oh, so Ayao was looking at Tianyu Mountain."

"Does Consort Yu know this place?" the young emperor asked, his face full of curiosity.

"Of course, I know Tianyu Mountain very well. This mountain is cut in half by the Yuejiang River. If you take a small boat and go south along the Yuejiang River, you can see that the cliffs on both sides of Tianyu Mountain are as flat as if they were cleaved by a knife. They are majestic, steep and breathtaking."

"Therefore, taking the river as the boundary, Tianyu Mountain was divided by the people into East Mountain and West Mountain."

“The river in the very center of A Yao’s painting is the Yuejiang River, and the steep mountains on both sides are Tianyu Mountain.”

The young emperor and his two princes listened intently, without even blinking.

The black-and-white landscape painting seemed to come alive with color, revealing the original appearance of Tianyu Mountain and Yuejiang River before their eyes.

The young emperor, in particular, stared at the painting with wide eyes, filled with surprise and curiosity. "Your Highness Consort Yu, is the actual scenery of Tianyu Mountain just like this painting?"

"It's even more magnificent, more majestic, and more beautiful than what's depicted in the painting."

"Have you seen it with your own eyes, Consort Yu?"

"Of course, I used to travel all over the country and saw many beautiful landscapes. The scenery of Tianyu Mountain is indeed impressive, but Yunsheng is a vast country with countless fun and beautiful places like Tianyu Mountain."

The young emperor stared intently at the painting, his gaze gleaming like that of a starving man seeing meat, unwilling to look away.

"I also want to go and see..." he murmured to himself. Neither of the two princes heard him, but Consort Yu did.

Her proud and smug expression instantly turned somber.

But she quickly composed herself and said, "When you grow up, your father will take us out of the palace to travel. We'll see many different sights then. The outside world is much more interesting than the palace!"

"Really? Can we really leave the palace to play?" the young emperor asked excitedly.

"I promise you, I will definitely tell your father that before you come of age, I will take you out of the capital to see the real mountains and rivers."

The young emperor was full of excitement, but soon he became cautious and asked softly, "Your Highness Consort Yu, can I...can I go too?"

Looking at this memory, Gu Jiangli felt a pang of heartache for no apparent reason.

For the young emperor, this was not his biological mother after all, so he was worried that Consort Yu might treat him the same as the other two princes.

Consort Yu was taken aback, exchanged a glance with the two princes beside her, and laughed out loud, "What are you thinking, A-Yao! Do you want to stay in the palace alone and wait anxiously for your elder brother to return?"

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