Chapter 61 I Came to See You

This is what Chu Ran thought, and he also planned to do so.

But on the next day, when Fuer's body was pulled out of the well, Chu Ran could no longer hold back.

He didn't know how Fu'er died.

Maybe he jumped into the well and died, but the more likely possibility is that he was forced to death by someone.

Many people heard the news that a palace maid had jumped into a well, and they all went to see the excitement.

Chu Ran stood outside the crowd, watching from a distance, but did not dare to step forward.

He was afraid to see Fu'er's death, and he would think of the beautiful look of Fu'er when she smiled at him every time he saw her. However, now, the little palace maid who would hide in the corner and cry secretly has turned into a cold corpse, lying here alone.

Chu Ran was in a bad mood because of Fu'er's death.

When he was in a bad mood, he liked to drink a little wine, but servants in the palace were not allowed to drink, so even if he wanted to drink, he only dared to drink secretly.

But soon, he no longer had the qualifications to be in a bad mood, because the emperor issued an edict, assigning the task of supervising the construction of the pagoda in the city to Li Dingning.

This was the first time that the emperor assigned Li Dingning a task. The task was not big and not difficult, but because the emperor attached great importance to it, if he could do it well, he would still be able to gain a lot of favors in front of Emperor Chengwen.

Concubine Li was naturally very happy. She had always felt that her son was not doing his job properly, but she doted on Li Dingning and could not bear to control him, so she could only raise Li Dingning in a pampered way. Emperor Chengwen probably knew what kind of person Li Dingning was, so he had never given Li Dingning the responsibility of handling the affairs of the court. But now, Emperor Chengwen probably wanted to train Li Dingning, so Concubine Li repeatedly told Li Dingning to do this job well and not to make any mistakes.

Only Li Dingning was unhappy.

He lived such a comfortable and free life that he was unable to accept the tasks assigned by the emperor.

But no matter how unwilling he was, he could not disobey the imperial decree, and with Concubine Li urging him on, Concubine Li told Li Dingning that he had to leave the palace in person tomorrow morning at the latest. At the same time, Concubine Li also asked Chu Ran to make preparations, because this time, Concubine Li planned to let Chu Ran go with Li Dingning.

Since Chu Ran had to leave the palace early tomorrow morning, Concubine Li allowed him to leave his duty early today.

Not long after Chu Ran walked out of the gate of Qiluan Palace, people from Zixia Palace came to his door.

The visitor said that Concubine Xi wanted to see Chu Ran for something.

Chu Ran was a little confused. Although he did have some blood relationship with Concubine Xi, Concubine Xi and his adoptive father gave up on him after he started working for Qiluan Palace and never looked for him again.

What kind of evil trend was this that made Concubine Xi, who had ignored and despised him for so many years, suddenly take the initiative to look for him?

Why are you looking for him? I don't think it's a good thing.

But the other party was the master after all, and Chu Ran couldn't refuse, so he had to go.

But when he went to Zixia Palace, Chu Ran did not see Concubine Xi. Instead, he saw the palace maid who served Concubine Xi.

"What are you doing here?" When the maid saw that it was Chu Ran, she asked in a bad tone.

"Didn't Concubine Xi come to me and say she had something to say?"

The head maid asked, "You are from Qiluan Palace, why would Concubine Xi want to see you?"

Chu Ran became more and more confused.

No?

But judging from the expression of the chief palace maid, Concubine Xi indeed did not pass it on to him.

What's going on? Did the eunuch just convey the wrong message?

"Hurry up and leave." The maid frowned and said, "When Concubine Xi comes back later, she won't be happy to see you."

Chu Ran didn't want to see Concubine Xi either, so he didn't say anything more and just turned around and left.

The next morning, Li Dingning took Chu Ran out of the palace and went to the place where the pagoda was being built in the city. The foundation of the pagoda had just been laid. How high would the pagoda be and how complicated would it be? A simple small pagoda might take a few months to build, but if the structure was complicated, it would probably take two or three years to build.

The responsible official next to him was introducing the structure of the pagoda and the approximate construction time limit to Li Dingning. Li Dingning got bored after listening for a while, so he waved his hand and called Chu Ran over.

"What do you want to say? Tell him. I'm thirsty. I'm going to drink some water first."

After saying that, Li Dingning left Chu Ran and walked away alone.

Seeing that Li Dingning had left, the official had no choice but to communicate the matter with Chu Ran according to Li Dingning's wishes.

Chu Ran spent the whole afternoon listening to the officials talking about the pagoda. But by the evening, Li Dingning had not returned yet. Instead, he sent a eunuch to come and tell Chu Ran, "The Fifth Prince has returned to the palace. But before he left, he asked me to send you a message saying that if there was anything going on, you should help him deal with it first. You don't have to return to the palace tonight. He will come tomorrow morning."

Li Dingning said that he would come early the next morning, but in fact, Li Dingning did not arrive until the afternoon.

But when he came, he just sat down and drank a sip of tea. He didn't even listen to what Chu Ran said before he left in a hurry.

Chu Ran looked at Li Dingning hurriedly returning to the palace and couldn't help but sigh.

This continued for several days.

Chu Ran finally understood that the emperor had given the task of supervising the construction of the pagoda to Li Dingning, and then Li Dingning threw the task back to him, leaving him alone.

But what can Chu Ran do to him?

Chu Ran could do nothing but conscientiously and diligently complete the tasks assigned to him by Li Dingning.

At first, Chu Ran was busy and confused because he had just taken over and needed to familiarize himself with the project. After a few days, Chu Ran had a good understanding of it. In fact, he was here to supervise the construction project on behalf of Li Dingning. He didn't need to do most of the work himself. He only needed to give Chu Ran the raw materials when they were delivered to see if they met the construction specifications and whether there was any shoddy work. As for the on-site construction, he didn't need to keep an eye on it all the time.

In this way, Chu Ran had a lot more free time. After gradually getting familiar with the place, Chu Ran felt that he seemed to have more freedom here than in the palace.

And with Li Dingning's permission, Chu Ran now basically sleeps outside the palace every night and rarely returns to the palace. He will only go back if there is something important in the palace that requires him to go there in person to handle it.

On this day, Chu Ran went to the construction site as usual. He stared at the site for a while, and when he turned around, he saw a carriage parked outside.

Normally, there would be carriages passing by this place from time to time. Chu Ran shouldn't have paid too much attention to it, but he had ridden in this carriage not long ago and knew who it belonged to.

Chu Ran stood outside the carriage, looking at Li Fu's face appearing in the carriage, and asked, "Did the prince just happen to pass by here?"

"No." Li Fu said, "I came here specifically to see you."