Prince Rui's Palace.

Su Xu knew that he was in trouble this time, so he humbled himself and said all the nice things he could. Only then did he take Qin Songya back home despite Qin Songfeng's stern face.

"Princess, you have suffered. I promise to teach Concubine Lin more in the future and let her be careful with her words and actions. Please forgive her this time."

Qin Songya sneered in her heart, but her face still looked sad.

"I am also at fault. I shouldn't have left the palace in a moment of anger and made Your Highness worry. As for Concubine Lin... forget it. I don't want to see her recently. I hope Your Highness will understand."

Su Xu nodded repeatedly, "It's okay, I have already punished her with house arrest, and I will not disturb the princess's rest."

He was relieved. As expected, the princess came from a famous family, was dignified, elegant, and generous.

Even though she had an accidental miscarriage due to Li'er, she only went back to her parents' home in a bit of a tantrum. He coaxed her and she came back immediately. She even didn't mention punishing Li'er for his sake. This is what a good wife should do.

Thinking of this, he felt somewhat dissatisfied with Lin Mengli. After all, this was his first child, and he was gone just like that. He felt uncomfortable no matter how he thought about it.

That night, he went to the courtyard where Lin Mengli lived. His original intention was to tell her not to make the princess angry recently, but as soon as he entered the courtyard, he was thrown into her arms.

"My Lord, I thought you didn't want to care about me anymore!"

In the end, he burst into tears with tears in his eyes.

Su Xu originally wanted to say something to her, but when he saw her like that, his heart softened.

He reached out his hand to wipe away her tears. "Okay, stop crying. If I really ignored you, would I still be able to speak well of you in front of the princess?"

Lin Mengli choked up, "It's really not my fault! The princess reached out to teach me a lesson, but I dodged it. The princess didn't stand firmly and fell! I didn't even touch her with a finger!"

Su Xu didn't say anything.

Lin Mengli looked incredulous, "My Lord, you don't believe me?"

To be honest, ever since he met Li'er and saw her hire someone to frame Ning Xihua in Linhua Palace, he no longer believed her words without asking for reasons as before.

During these days of marriage, although he was still as affectionate and loving to her as usual, he always felt that something was missing.

Seeing that he was silent, Lin Mengli cried even harder, with tears streaming down her face, looking so pitiful.

"Your Highness, do you still remember the promise you made to me? For you, I even lost my self-esteem. It's only been a short time now, and you don't believe me anymore?"

Seeing that she changed her address in a hurry, Su Xu couldn't help but think of the past days between them.

At that time, Su Bi had just returned to China not long ago, and his father rewarded him with the Linhua Palace and the Wei Garden, as if all eyes were on him.

Since childhood, I was taught by my mother that I was the most suitable to inherit the throne, but now I seem to have become a joke.

It turned out that he was not the most honorable and favored prince. He had to pay respect to his elder brother, whom he had rarely seen, because he was the crown prince.

Even though he was both civil and military, and had been praised and affirmed by his father, he could not replace him as the crown prince, simply because he was born out of wedlock, while Su Bi was the legitimate son of the empress.

Why? He was obviously much better than his elder brother who came back from Ryukyu and was sickly, so why should he be inferior to him? Just because of the ridiculous distinction between legitimate and illegitimate children?

Just when he was most in denial about himself, he met Lin Mengli.

He didn't remember which minister hosted the banquet, but he followed the arrangements of his mother and grandfather and went to the banquet just to establish good relationships with these ministers of lower rank.

During a break in the banquet, he went to the yard to get some fresh air, but ran into a group of women bullying a little girl.

"Don't think that you are something just because your father brought you to the banquet today. You are just a concubine's daughter. You have wild dreams all day long and want to become a phoenix?"

The little girl was pushed to the ground. She looked weak but her eyes were unusually bright.

"So what if I'm a concubine's daughter? Isn't it because the master praised me a few times that you are jealous that I am better than you? What right do you have to bully me? Just because you are the legitimate daughter and I am a concubine? This is ridiculous!"

"How dare you talk back!" He said as he was about to attack.

But he appeared, grabbed her and helped the little girl up.

When he introduced himself, the people who were surrounding him scattered in fear, leaving only the little girl looking at him with admiration.

"You're awesome!"

Later, he learned that the little girl was Lin Mengli, the concubine's daughter of a doctor in the Ministry of Personnel. Because of her low status, she was often bullied in the mansion.

He suddenly felt that Lin Mengli had his shadow.

Although she was born out of wedlock, she was proficient in music, chess, calligraphy and painting, much better than her legitimate sisters. Although she was bullied, she never gave in and always fought back stubbornly.

He wanted to help her, just as he would help himself.

So he deliberately showed his importance to her in front of everyone, gave her gold, silver and jewelry to solve her embarrassment, and intimidated her sisters to make her life easier.

As time went by, the little girl grew into a graceful young lady and became more and more attracted to him. He also liked her talent and tenacity, so he naturally came together with her.

After that, even though a noble lady like Ning Xihua pursued him hard, he never wavered. He just felt that Ning Xihua was too high and mighty, and not as gentle and charming as Lin Mengli.

But now, everything seemed to have changed. He couldn't tell what had changed, but he always felt that the relationship between him and Mengli was not the same as before.

Su Xu came back to his senses, looked at Lin Mengli's red and swollen eyes, and remembered that he had forced herself on her when she was drunk before marriage, and he was really sorry for her.

He sighed and gently caressed Lin Mengli's charming face.

"It's my fault. Don't cry. It's just one child. It's gone. Can Li'er give me another one in the future?"

Hearing Su Xu's gentle coaxing, Lin Mengli slowly wiped away her tears.

Her face flushed and she looked shy, but she still looked at Su Xu with admiration with tears in her eyes, as if her heart and eyes were filled with him.

She knew that Su Xu liked her like this the most.

Sure enough, Su Xu wiped away her tears with pity and leaned over to kiss her...

In the main courtyard.

"Princess, the prince is staying at Concubine Lin's place again."

Qin Songya slowly picked up the wick with a sarcastic look on her face.

"Follow the prince."

…

The continuous rain does not tell you that spring is gone; the clear sky does not tell you how deep summer is.

It had been raining intermittently in the capital for a month or so, and it finally cleared up recently.

As soon as the weather clears up, the temperature rises and summer comes quietly.

On this day, Ning Xihua, who had always suffered from the summer heat, was taking a nap in the waterside pavilion. With a handkerchief on her face and the lake breeze blowing around her, she felt very comfortable.

But someone insisted on disturbing her peace.

The scarf on her face was half lifted up, and before she could even open her eyes to complain, someone blocked her mouth with lips.

The kiss was so passionate that the gentle Ning Xihua couldn't bear to ruin this beautiful moment.

With her eyes still half-covered by the scarf, she silently responded to the tenderness from her lover.

After the kiss, Su Bi simply picked up Ning Xihua, climbed onto the bed, and gently put her in his arms.

“I’ve wanted to do this for a long time.”

At that time, she had just arrived at the Linhua Palace. During her nap, she was annoyed by the cicadas' chirping outside the room, so she put a handkerchief over her face and spread it across the imperial concubine's couch, like a picture of a sleeping crabapple tree in spring.

He lifted the handkerchief and wanted her to sleep in the pavilion, but the moment he lifted the handkerchief, he just wanted to kiss her delicate and tempting lips.

Now that his dream has come true, he cannot help but sigh at the wonder and gift of fate.

Ning Xihua glanced at him coquettishly and said angrily, "It turns out that you have been planning something bad for a long time!"

Su Bi laughed and looked at her with tenderness in his eyes.

"Yes, beauty brings joy to the soul and the heart."