When he came out of Taiji Hall, the ugly time had passed. It was late at night and the dew was thick. Pei Yuan walked to Changqiu Palace for only an incense stick of time, and his clothes were stained with dew.

He walked to the corner of the palace wall. A palace servant saw him and ran to the hall to report: "Your Majesty, the Fourth Prince is here."

Baoning stood up immediately and ran out without even putting on her coat. The queen wanted to hold her back, but couldn't, so she hurried after him.

"A Yuan!" Bao Ning threw herself into Pei Yuan's arms. The coolness on his body made her shiver. Bao Ning ignored the coldness and grabbed his hand and asked, "How is Yuan Zi? Half an hour ago, someone came and forcibly took him away. Mother was worried and sent people to the Taiji Palace to check, but the Taiji Palace was heavily guarded and could not be entered."

The Queen also asked anxiously: "Yes, what's going on? It's an adult's business, why do you arrest a child?"

"He's fine now. A nanny has taken him to bed. Mother, don't worry." Pei Yuan held Bao Ning's hand in his palm and led her into the palace. While persuading the Queen, he said, "Your Majesty is weak, it's late, and things have calmed down. You should go to bed quickly. I will take Ningning home first. After she rests for a few days, we will come to see you together."

The Queen frowned and said concernedly, "It will be dawn soon. Why don't you stay here for one night and leave after dawn?"

They entered the palace. A sharp-eyed palace maid brought Baoning's clothes. Pei Yuan naturally took them and put them on her, and declined, saying, "Thank you, Queen Mother, but Baoning is used to her bed. She will not sleep well if she changes places. I will not keep you tonight."

"That's fine." The queen was a little disappointed, but she quickly cheered up and said to Nanny Qiushi, "It's autumn now, the night wind is cool, go get another cloak of mine. Baoning's stomach is still uncomfortable, get another hand warmer, hurry up."

Pei Yuan thanked the queen. Baoning was very tired. When she put her mind at ease, she felt sleepy and leaned back in Pei Yuan's arms and dozed off.

The queen stared at her, a smile unconsciously appeared on the corner of her lips, pointed at Baoning's eyes, and said to Pei Yuan, "Look, Ningning is about to fall asleep."

"She always likes to be sleepy." Pei Yuan held her to his chest, lowered his head and glanced at her, and said softly, "She can't wake up every day. She stayed up late tonight. I guess she will be delayed for two or three days when she goes back."

The Queen's voice also became softer, and she said sympathetically: "She is still young, only a dozen years old. She will have a chance to grow taller if she gets more sleep."

Pei Yuan rubbed Bao Ning's face and smiled: "I guess it's difficult. She is lazy. I usually tell her to jump more, but she doesn't. She just sits or lies down. What's the use of eating a lot and sleeping a lot? The flesh grows sideways. Her chin used to be pointed, but now it's blunt."

The Queen excused her: "Our Ningning is beautiful. Look at this little nose and little mouth, how pretty! No matter tall, short, fat or thin, she looks good."

"Don't let her hear it." Pei Yuan stared at Bao Ning's face with his eyes downcast. His voice was so gentle that even the queen couldn't believe it. "She likes people to praise her the most. If she knew you praised her, her tail would fly to the sky."

The queen smiled silently. After a long silence, she said, "I feel relieved to see that you are doing well. Che'er has been missing for almost a year. There is no news. I know that your majesty sent people to look for him. He said he was in the Qilian Mountain area. But later, there was news that they only found a jade pendant that Che'er had worn, but no sign of him. Qilian Mountain is full of bandits. Che'er may have... After all, he was injured when he disappeared."

"If he's alive, you must see him, if he's dead, you must see his body, otherwise don't believe any news." Pei Yuan interrupted her, "Mother, I will go to Qilian Mountain in person in a few days and will definitely bring my eldest brother back to you. Before that, you just need to take care of yourself."

The queen smiled and said, "I scared myself."

Pei Yuan didn't know how to comfort her. He was not good at comforting people other than Baoning. He paused and said, "Let Baoning come to accompany you in a few days."

Nanny Qiushi came in with something. Pei Yuan woke Baoning up, wrapped her in a cloak, and said goodbye to the queen.

...

Baoning was really exhausted.

After she knew that Yuanzi was fine, she relaxed and felt sleepy and wanted to sleep. Later, she was so dazed that she didn't know how she got home. She only remembered Pei Yuan carrying her from the carriage back to the room, taking off her shoes, and wiping her face and hands.

He was clumsy and dropped the basin on the ground once, making such a loud noise that Ah Huang next door woke up.

Pei Yuan angrily scolded the dog, and she was unhappy too. She criticized him a few words, and Pei Yuan shut up.

She had no memory of what happened afterwards. When she woke up again, it was still dark.

Pei Yuan lit a dim light beside her and sat cross-legged to pick a pomegranate.

Baoning blinked her eyes and saw that he was holding a small knife in his hand and carefully peeled out every seed in the pomegranate and put the flesh aside. He seemed to have been doing it for a long time. The pomegranate seeds piled up into a small mountain. He was so focused that he didn't even notice that she had woken up.

Bao Ning felt sweet inside, she rubbed her butt towards him, hugged his waist and asked, "Is it for me?"

"Are you awake?" Pei Yuan looked at her, smiled and continued to work, "Does your stomach still hurt?"

Bao Ning felt it carefully and replied, "Much better, just a little uncomfortable."

"That's good." Pei Yuan rubbed her hair, "Have a meal later, then take a nap, you will be fine tomorrow morning. Now go wash your face, go for a walk outside, and stretch your muscles. Does your waist feel sore after sleeping from sunrise to sunset?"

"Then give me a massage." Baoning threw herself into his arms and rubbed her cheek against his shoulder. "My legs are sore too."

Pei Yuan pushed her forehead away with his fingers in disgust. "You haven't washed your face for a day, and you still have the nerve to rub it on other people's white clothes. Aren't you ashamed?"

Baoning stopped rubbing, feeling guilty but stubborn. "Even if I don't wash my face, it's cleaner than your clothes."

Pei Yuan glanced at her, pushed the table away, patted his legs and said, "Come here, let me massage you."

Baoning happily leaned over again, facing the direction of the table, looking at the bowl of pomegranates, and asked knowingly, "Are the pomegranates for me to eat?"

"It's for feeding the piglets." Pei Yuan pinched her buttocks, "Put your hands down, don't grab them yet, wash your hands later and then eat."

Bao Ning still felt sweet in her heart, and felt that her Pei Yuan was really getting better and better and becoming more considerate. He even peeled pomegranate seeds for her. What a nice thought!

Bao Ning pretended to be embarrassed and declined, "Oh, why bother, just hand it to me. Seeing you are tired, I feel bad."

"I'm not tired, as long as you enjoy the meal." Pei Yuan patted her waist slowly, "There is a pomegranate tree in our South Courtyard. I usually don't go there. I just heard about it from Aunt Liu today. Chen Jia and I went to pick it together. Don't tell me, picking pomegranates is quite interesting. Planting flowers and grass should be quite interesting too. I will try it when I have free time. But I can't plant those colorful ones. It's embarrassing and looks feminine."

Baoning snorted and said, "You think too much. Great poets all like flowers and plants. Peonies, chrysanthemums, plum blossoms, etc., have been praised for thousands of years."

"I'm not a great poet." Pei Yuan said, "You can either not plant flowers or grow something practical. Chen Jia told me that leeks are easy to grow. Newbies can learn to grow leeks. It's simple. And that thing can be grown one after another. Planting two rows is enough to eat for a whole summer."

Baoning thought for a while: "It's up to you. As long as you have fun."

Pei Yuan pinched her legs and chatted with her: "I didn't notice Chen Jia before, but today I find that he talks too much."

Baoning closed her eyes . Asked: "What's wrong?"

Pei Yuan said: "He and I walked together, and he talked about his mother all the way. He said his mother was hardworking and simple. He was the youngest son, and she loved him the most. When he was a child, she took him to the mountains to pick pig grass and feed pigs. She said that pigs were black and strong, with heads as big as millstones, and they would bite people. But his mother is old now, over 70 years old, and he and his brother have made some achievements, so they don't raise pigs anymore, and they are raised in his brother's home."

Baoning looked at him and smiled. I don't know why, Pei Yuan told her seriously that Chen Jia raised pigs, Baoning thought it was so interesting.

She was touched by Pei Yuan's thoughtfulness in peeling the pomegranate today, and followed his words and asked, "What else did you talk about?"

Pei Yuan said, "His brother's letter to him arrived yesterday, saying that his mother is old and has a greedy mouth and likes to eat sweet things. She didn't have many teeth left, and his sister-in-law didn't let her eat. The old lady was greedy, so she stole the pomegranate and peeled it herself. As a result, she didn't feel happy for long after eating it, and there was a sound of "crack" - the remaining two teeth were broken, broken by the seeds."

"..." Bao Ning's sweetness disappeared. She turned over and sat up, asking Pei Yuan suspiciously, "So you peeled my seeds because of Chen Jia's mother's teeth?"

Pei Yuan had already figured out some experience. When he heard Bao Ning's tone, he knew that she must be unhappy. Although he didn't know why, denying it should be able to calm her anger a little. However, her guess was indeed true.

After hesitating for a while, Pei Yuan said hesitantly, "Really?"

Bao Ning asked back, "Am I asking you, or are you asking me?"

"Why are you arguing?" Pei Yuan held the bowl in his hand and handed it to Bao Ning, "It's just a pomegranate, either you eat it or you don't. What does this have to do with Chen Jia's mother's teeth? Why don't you try one first? If it's sweet, you eat it. If it's not sweet, I'll eat it."

Bao Ning glared at him, "

It's not sweet." "Aren't you lying?" Pei Yuan handed the bowl to her stubbornly, "You don't even taste it, how do you know it's not sweet?"

Bao Ning said, "What's the difference whether the pomegranate is sweet or not? My heart is not sweet anymore."

Pei Yuan frowned and cursed, "What's the problem!"

He tried to think about what went wrong, but couldn't think of it. Pei Yuan thought, why not continue to talk about something Bao Ning likes to hear? Why did she laugh when she heard it just now?

Pei Yuan remembered, he sat upright, held Bao Ning's hand, and patted her to comfort her: "Ning Ning, how about we talk about Chen Jia raising pigs when he was a child?"

Bao Ning looked at him in shock.

Pei Yuan tried to make his tone as cheerful as possible, giving Bao Ning a relaxed and happy feeling: "Just now, I mentioned that Chen Jia and his mother went up the mountain to cut pig grass... Do you know what pig grass is? Look at the name of pig grass, it must be something pigs like to eat. Well, let me measure it for you, it's about this high and this thick... Haha, it's so interesting! Isn't there a mountain in the suburbs of Beijing? There may be pig grass growing on it. When the weather gets cooler, we will go pick some and go home to make soup..."

Bao Ning snorted: "Eat the pig grass yourself!"

She sat up and put on her clothes . After she put on her shoes and clothes, she was about to go out: "I want to eat noodles tonight."

Pei Yuan called her: "I haven't finished my story yet, don't you want to listen?"

Bao Ning said: "I want two eggs in my noodles."

She walked out while talking, and Pei Yuan couldn't stop her, so he had to call Madam Liu: "Madam, please take care of the princess and tell her to take it slow. She hasn't recovered from her illness yet, so don't go out to get cold."

Pei Yuan wiped his hands and wanted to continue peeling pomegranates, but he was worried, so he grabbed Bao Ning's clothes and chased after her... Before he took two steps, he saw a stack of folded paper falling out of it.

The paper was old and looked like a letter.

Pei Yuan narrowed his eyes.