While Anke was being all lovey-dovey, Qing'er was also radiating pink bubbles.
Qing'er kept glancing at An Ke and then at Han Xiang, not giving up on either side of the melon.
While enjoying the gossip, Qing'er still felt somewhat uncomfortable. After all, she was standing far too close to Ji Chu. So close that Ji Chu's warm breath was hitting the back of Qing'er's neck.
Qing'er felt extremely uncomfortable. Apart from the princes she had grown up with, she had never been this close to any of them before. The tips of her ears quietly turned from pink to red.
Ji Chu wasn't interested in the melon; instead, she carefully observed Qing Gege's reaction. Seeing Qing Gege smiling at Princess Yong'an and Fu'ertai, Ji Chu knew that Qing Gege and the princess had a very good relationship. This reaction was definitely because she was happy for the princess.
Looking at Consort Xiang and the others, Ji Chu saw only mockery on her face, and knew that the princess had come to watch the show. But no matter what expression the princess wore, Ji Chu found her extremely adorable.
How could Qing'er not feel that burning gaze? She just endured it without saying anything.
Meng Dan and Han Xiang were unaware of An Ke and Qing Er's presence, nor were they aware that they were being watched.
Meng Dan was still there, raging helplessly and extremely agitated, "Hanxiang, you don't like that emperor, so why are you still being favored by him?"
Before, when he saw Hanxiang crying, he would only feel heartache, but now, he only felt annoyed. He just wanted to understand why, he just wanted to know the truth, what was there to cry about? Meng Dan became more and more annoyed.
Mondan even began to wonder why she was crying in front of him. He couldn't recall the scene where he had just been pressuring her.
Hanxiang had promised Anke she couldn't directly deny it, so she didn't. She also wanted to see clearly what kind of person Mengdan really was.
But Meng Dan was too furious right now, and she felt that she should give him time to calm down.
Little did she know that her taciturn attitude would only ignite the raging fire of anger in Meng Dan's heart.
Seeing that she remained silent, Meng Dan suddenly slammed his fist into a nearby tree. Blood seeped from his fist, but he seemed oblivious to the pain, continuing to smash the tree with all his might.
Tree: What sins did I commit in my past life to meet a madman like you in this life?
Hanxiang still cared for Mengdan and couldn't bear to see him harming himself like this. She quickly stepped forward and hugged Mengdan's waist, tears streaming down her face as she pleaded, "Mengdan, don't do this."
Meng Dan was furious at this moment, and he could no longer listen to Han Xiang's words. He just pounded on the big tree with bloodshot eyes, shouting as he did so.
Tree: Destroy this world that is so cruel to me.
"Meng Dan, do you really have to do this?" Han Xiang asked, tears streaming down her face. She stopped trying to stop him and silently took a few steps back. Since she couldn't stop him no matter what, why should she desperately try?
Meng Dan was momentarily at a loss. He had originally intended to stop him properly so he could punch the old tree again. After a while, he pretended that Han Xiang had pulled him back, but now that no one was playing along, he felt a little embarrassed.
"Hanxiang, I just love you too much and care about you too much." Meng Dan grabbed Hanxiang, feeling that if he didn't stop her now, she might leave him.
No, he has nothing left but Hanxiang. If you were to abandon him now, he would truly have nothing left.
He was originally a fallen nobleman. Based on his former glory as a nobleman, he could have lived a peaceful life for the rest of his days. However, he still refused to give up on Hanxiang. No matter what, he wanted to elope with Hanxiang, so he spent almost all the money he had from selling his property.
Now, in order to come to Beijing to rescue Hanxiang, he has spent all his savings. He has no other choice but to go down this path to the bitter end.
At first, he was very confident, believing that since Han Xiang loved him, she would never be touched by the old emperor. But now, since Han Xiang hadn't denied it, it meant that she had already been favored by the old emperor.
Thinking of this, Mondan felt as if he had swallowed a fly. All of this was caused by Ali and Djokovic.
If Ali and Khoja had married their daughter to him earlier, they would surely be living happily among the Hui people now. Why would they have had to travel thousands of miles to Beijing, offer their daughter away, and be separated from their father?
Ali Khoja: Can you resolve the internal strife within my Hui community, or the threat posed by a small border state?
He doesn't even think about the Hui people; all he thinks about is his own love and romance.
"Hanxiang, why don't we escape now? Let's stop worrying about the Hui people. We can travel and explore to the ends of the earth." Mengdan was still imagining a beautiful future. "We'll build a small house and have a lovely son and daughter. During the day, I'll teach our son to hunt, and at night you can teach our daughter to read and write."
Mondan was lost in his own beautiful fantasy, and a big smile appeared on his face.
But then Hanxiang suddenly spoke up, "What about the Hui people? What about my father?" Yes, this was the thing Hanxiang couldn't bear to part with at the beginning, and now she was just back to the difficult situation of choosing one of the two.
“Didn’t I tell you? We’ll do it the same way we eloped back then. You won’t be a princess, and I won’t be a nobleman. We’ll just run away to a place where nobody knows us. We’ll live a carefree life. Isn’t that wonderful? Isn’t that what we’ve always wanted? As for your father, he’s still a Hui king. I don’t think that old emperor will make things too difficult for him,” Meng Dan said selfishly.
Hanxiang closed her eyes in disappointment. "No, Mengdan, you know I can't do it."
"Hanxiang, do you really want to go back to that palace again? You saw how difficult it was to leave the palace this time. If you have to wait until next time, who knows when?" Seeing Hanxiang's attitude and hearing her words, Mengdan felt his heart sink to the bottom.
Meng Dan was extremely unwilling. "Are you going to abandon me again? For the sake of the Hui people?"
“Mengdan, I told you, that wasn’t abandonment.” Hanxiang shook her head, crying, her face full of pain. “It was out of sheer helplessness and desperation. Now, the Hui people are facing both internal and external troubles. Without the assistance of the Qing Dynasty, the Hui people will not be able to overcome this crisis.”
Meng Dan's eyes were bloodshot, but he still waited for Han Xiang to finish speaking. "This time we came out thanks to those two princesses. If we hadn't gone back, those two princesses would have also met with death. They were sent down by the true god Allah to protect us. We can't push them into the abyss. I can't do that."
Yes, Granny Fang's words kept echoing in Hanxiang's mind, and the dream she had that day served as a wake-up call for her.
If her leaving the palace leads to the execution of the two princesses, then she should just stay in the palace and live out her remaining years there.
This was her responsibility and mission, wasn't it? Why sacrifice so many innocent and vibrant lives?
Mondan felt only pain and complained to her, "You can have anyone in your heart, but can you think about me? We've eloped so many times, but we haven't escaped because of the hounds around your father."
“But now, we are in the Qing Dynasty, and your father has not brought those hunting dogs. If we escape now, the chances of escaping are very high. Besides, these two princesses are the daughters of that old emperor. Even tigers don't eat their cubs, so how could he kill his own daughters?” Meng Dan tried to reason with Hanxiang.
"Moreover, your father alone could quell the internal strife among the Hui people, and the threat from small border states is nothing to fear. Although the Hui people are small, they will not be bullied by others." Meng Dan spoke with conviction, but he was actually quite guilty inside.
This was a way of masking his unease with a loud voice. The Hui people have neither the vast territory of a small border country nor the large population. Now, being threatened, they can only swallow their anger.
But what if they are ready to fight and want to take a piece of the Hui people? In that case, the empire will collapse, and no one will be spared. His father will be the first to be humiliated by a small border country.
"I just learned the palace rules a few days ago. If you take a concubine out of the palace, you will be beheaded at best, and your entire family will be exterminated at worst." Hanxiang said with a sob in her voice, "Since you asked them to convey the message to me, they are our benefactors. How can you abandon them like this?"
"Yes, they are my benefactors. If I hadn't met them at the Huibinlou that day, I wouldn't have been able to get into the palace to deliver the message to you. But they came to me on their own, which means that even Allah is helping us escape." Mondan felt that this was Heaven sending them to assist them, so their fate had nothing to do with him.
"Hanxiang, don't hesitate any longer. While they are still far away, if we leave now in the carriage, we can get out of Beijing very quickly." Meng Dan's eyes were filled with madness. He felt that he could no longer control his temper and wanted to knock Hanxiang unconscious with a slap, then carry her onto the carriage and drive away.
But reason prevailed in the end. Meng Dan knew that if he did that, he and Han Xiang would only be a resentful couple for the rest of their lives.
"I don't care that you've been favored by that old emperor, and you shouldn't care about anyone else either, okay?" The more you care about something, the easier it is to say those words. Meng Dan is a typical example of this.
He outwardly appeared calm and collected, but inwardly he was agonizing. At the same time, he felt resentful. He was the one who met Hanxiang first, and he was the one betrothed to her. So why wasn't he the one who consummated their marriage?
Hanxiang could hardly believe her ears. The princess had said the same thing: if she didn't deny it, and Meng Dan assumed that the emperor had favored her, he would say he didn't care and then ask her to care about him more.
Hanxiang was somewhat skeptical at the time, but now, looking at Mengdan who had fallen into madness, Hanxiang felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave, her whole body chilled to the bone.
Meanwhile, in the distance, Fu Erkang and Xiao Yanzi realized it was getting late and headed towards Hanxiang's direction.
Most importantly, Ziwei and Xiaoyanzi feared that if the Emperor went to Baoyue Tower and couldn't find Consort Xiang, he would be furious. Currently, neither she nor Xiaoyanzi had regained the Emperor's favor.
The palace was already fraught with danger; if he were to be accused of abducting a concubine, the crime would be even more serious and unforgivable.
Ziwei longed day and night for her father to visit Shufangzhai more often, just as he had for Xiaoyanzi, to see them more often, and to talk to them more.
When she was a palace maid, she watched how kind and gentle her father was to Xiao Yanzi in the Shufangzhai. But after she became a princess, her father rarely stepped into the Shufangzhai anymore.
If she had never seen it or obtained it, perhaps Ziwei wouldn't have had such a deep obsession. But she clearly saw her father's profound love back then.
Although he was an emperor with supreme power, he was still the father who would laugh heartily at Xiao Yanzi's words, feel heartbroken when Xiao Yanzi was hurt, and confront the empress when Xiao Yanzi suffered a loss.
Such treatment, all of this, had only briefly appeared on Xiao Yanzi's life, but it hadn't even lasted for Ziwei. Ziwei couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
The Emperor was very kind to Anke, and he was also kind to Xiaoyanzi at times, but when it came to Ziwei, his daughter, he was extremely cold towards her. Ziwei was jealous, very jealous.
"Meng Dan, forget about me. Go find a woman who loves you back. You two can stay together happily." Han Xiang wiped away her tears and said calmly.
Hanxiang seemed to have accepted her fate and was preparing to return to the palace to accept her future life with equanimity.
"What do you mean by that? What about you? Are you going back to the palace to serve that old emperor? We've known each other for so many years, are your feelings for me going to fade so quickly?" Meng Dan became even more frantic after hearing Han Xiang's words of advice, and he grabbed Han Xiang's arm again.
"We can't do anything about this situation. I'm already the Emperor's Consort Xiang, so it has nothing to do with Hanxiang anymore. Hanxiang is in the past. Mengdan, forget the past and look forward." These words were originally spoken by Anke to Hanxiang, but Hanxiang didn't expect that she would use them to say to Mengdan.
"How can I forget? Our friendship has lasted so long." Meng Dan felt dizzy. "Hanxiang, I don't believe you can be so heartless. Since you won't leave on your own, then I'll take you with me."
Hanxiang sensed something was off about Mengdan's words and quickly looked up. "What are you doing?" Hanxiang was about to back away when Mengdan struck her down with a palm strike.
This scene happened to fall into Xiao Jian's eyes. Although he also wanted to embarrass the emperor and even kill that dog emperor, this was not a good time.
Hanxiang was taken out of the palace by his sister. If she cannot return unharmed, the emperor will hold her accountable later. Meng Dan cannot be allowed to do this.
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