“That’s not difficult. He actually asked me a long time ago, back when you said you didn’t plan to have children.”

"But he asked how to make him infertile. You two are really..." Bu Li shook his head and smiled.

Because of his father and mother's situation, Bu Li never believed in true love in this world. But looking at the deep affection between the two people in front of him, he felt that... perhaps his mother had just met the wrong person.

After Bu Li left, Gan Qiongying washed up and went to bed.

Because she had tossed and turned so much, she slept very soundly. When Gan Qiongying woke up at noon the next day, she instinctively reached out and touched the person next to her.

Finding that Li Hua was still asleep, Gan Qiongying immediately sat up to check on him. Li Hua was sleeping soundly, but his eyes... hahaha, they looked like a frog's.

Even his handsome face couldn't quite hold up. Gan Qiongying sat on the bed laughing, which quickly woke Li Hua up as well.

When Li Hua woke up, his eyes were sore and painful, and he couldn't open them. Realizing that Gan Qiongying was making fun of him, he simply pulled the blanket over his head and wouldn't come out no matter how much Gan Qiongying called him.

Gan Qiongying didn't force him. She called a maid into the room to help him wash up, and after he finished washing up, she came to find Li Hua and asked him through the quilt, "What should we do? Didn't you say you hadn't finished dealing with your business yet? But looking like this... how are you going to handle things?"

Gan Qiongying laughed as she spoke, teasingly saying, "If His Highness the Crown Prince were to go out looking like this, rumors would spread tomorrow that His Highness might be a demon in disguise. Now he has revealed his true form!"

This joke made Gan Qiongying laugh so hard she almost fell over, after all, she had heard the story of the prince turning into a frog since she was a child, hahaha...

Li Hua buried her head even deeper in laughter at Gan Qiongying's natural and relaxed attitude, but it was precisely because of Gan Qiongying's natural and relaxed attitude that Li Hua also wanted to laugh, realizing that her reaction was really over the top.

But the thought of them having two children... made Li Hua's heart race.

"Get up, I don't mind that you're ugly, you still have to eat." Gan Qiongying pulled the blanket up, and this time Li Hua did not refuse to get out.

After the blanket was pulled off, he covered his eyes with his hands and said, "Don't look at me."

“If I don’t look at you, who else should I look at? I’ll look at the guards in your courtyard. I’m afraid if I look at them too much, you’ll assassinate one of them.”

"Come on, the food is all set out. We've been married for so long, why are you still concerned about your image... You weren't even using your own face when you were with me at the beginning!"

Gan Qiongying's words weren't meant to comfort Li Hua, but by sheer coincidence, Li Hua quickly recovered. A short while later, Bu Li came back to take Li Hua's pulse, then said mysteriously, "No wonder some people say love is the best medicine in the world..."

Knowing that Li Hua was alright, Gan Qiongying was completely relieved, and the two continued to eat, play, kiss, and hug as usual.

No one mentioned the child. Gan Qiongying dared not bring it up again, and Li Hua... still couldn't believe it.

However, during the next few days when Li Hua was busy, he wore a mask most of the time. It was black and covered with animal patterns embroidered with gold thread, which made him look more wild.

That night, Gan Qiongying made him wear a mask in a very wild way, and the two spent an exceptionally wild night together.

The day the two left Jinchuan, the sky was cloudless, a rare and beautiful sunny day, and the sunshine felt warm on their skin.

Zhongli Zhengzhen has fully regained his status as the Crown Prince, and is now able to walk legitimately in the main courtyard of his Crown Prince's Palace and enter and leave the palace normally.

However, he still had spies left by Li Hua around him, and he needed Li Hua's people to send him the antidote every two months, otherwise he would die from intestinal perforation.

After Li Hua left, the huge boulder that had been pressing down on him suddenly fell, and Zhong Li's initial joy turned into a sense of emptiness.

He did not give Li Hua any gifts. From beginning to end, their relationship was one of coercion and forced cooperation. Li Hua never tried to establish any brotherhood with him, only talking about using and obeying him.

However, Zhongli Zhengzhen developed an uncontrollable dependence on him. If someone can take care of everything for you and easily transform things into something you could never do yourself, you can't help but feel awe and admiration for them.

Especially since this person is your blood brother.

In fact, Zhongli Zhengzhen had countless more opportunities to rebel later, but he did not do anything to disobey Li Hua again.

At this moment, in the palace, he saw his father and mother, and embraced them, weeping. He listened to his father and mother cursing and complaining about Li Hua.

Zhongli Zhengzhen pushed his mother away for the first time and couldn't help but ask them, "If I were the weaker one in the womb, would you... have killed me?"

During the months that Emperor Jinchuan and Empress Jinchuan were imprisoned in the palace, their eyes were filled with love and trust for Zhongli Zhengzhen, who had grown old and gray from worry.

Even Zhongli Zhengzhen couldn't understand why the Emperor and Empress treated the children born from the same womb with such drastically different attitudes.

The Emperor and Empress of Jinchuan naturally did not answer the question. Instead, they said with some reproach, "Do you also believe what that wretched child said?! Are you going to help him to blame your own parents?!"

Zhongli Zhengzhen would not stand on Lihua's side to oppose his father and mother, but... he just wanted to ask.

If he had been the one who was thinner and weaker, would Li Hua have received such sincere love and favor from his father and mother?

Li Hua is so intelligent; he will surely be a beloved Crown Prince, the only choice to be supported by the court officials. Even as a hostage, he will be able to fulfill his father's expectations, manipulating events at will and seizing control of the Southern Zhao kingdom.

If he were the weaker one, and he broke his leg and was sent out of the palace by the nanny... would he be able to live to adulthood?

Zhongli Zhengzhen was never as smart as Lihua, not because he was born in the palace and was pampered as a child, but because... once the two of them were reading a letter sent by their subordinates.

He hadn't even finished reading a single page, but Li Hua had already read several letters and quickly grasped the key points, then picked up her pen to reply.

He could easily strategize and win any situation from afar, and the only thing that could make him lose control was Princess Duanrong. But if Princess Duanrong hadn't been like a guiding light, leading him to the mortal realm, how could Zhongli Zhengzhen have possibly defeated him?

Zhongli smiled genuinely at his father and mother, and even felt a lingering fear in his soul, thankful that the frail person back then wasn't him...

If it were him... that would be truly unthinkable.

After Zhongli Zhengzhen reunited with his parents, before they could even exchange a few words, his father, the emperor, began plotting to ambush and kill Li Hua.

Zhongli Zhengzhen, who had never disobeyed her father and mother, suddenly overturned the table that night, spilling soup and delicacies all over the floor.

He looked at his father and said, "Father, have you forgotten... that throne was one he gave up, not because he was not strong enough or incapable of holding onto it, which is why he fled in disarray!"

"You unfilial son! You've been corrupted by that cursed star! I only regret that I didn't kill him with a single blow back then; he would have surely died by my hand!"

The Empress chimed in, and Zhongli looked at the two of them in disbelief... Once a rift appears in one's heart, every little thing will cause a greater tearing and shock.

Once he imagines himself as Li Hua... as the one who has been abandoned, he can't stop.