The next day, Jixian Palace.

Tao Ti has been in a daze since waking up.

Her jet-black hair was obediently hanging down, she was hugging the pillow, her eyes were empty and her face was confused.

Last night, he hugged her, was it real? It couldn't be a dream.

The elegant and light scent of cold pine on him, his strong arm muscles, his warm embrace, not as cold as his fingertips, and his strong heartbeat, thump, thump, thump... She remembered all these very clearly.

This was definitely not a dream!

If the dream were so realistic, she would eat the pillow right now.

So, when a man hugs a woman, it should mean love, right?

However, Pei Yan seemed to be so gentle and kind to everyone. Yes, he did have some intimate actions towards her, but could it be because they were familiar friends that he was more casual?

Or maybe they had been sleeping in the same bed for so long that he treated her like a human pillow? Or maybe he was just a brother to his sister?

Tao Ti, who has been single since birth, hugged the pillow tightly in her arms, supported her cheek with one hand, and fell into deep thought.

Alas, it would be great if Qiongqi or Ah Chan were by her side at this time, at least they could help her analyze what to do next.

“Ahhhhhhhh, this is so annoying—”

Tao Ti's face was wrinkled into a little bun, and she rolled back and forth on the big bed, hugging the pillow.

Linglong, who was guarding outside, heard the sound and thought something had happened to her Crown Princess. She rushed in to check and saw the Crown Princess lying on the bed in a state of disarray, her fair skin tinged with a faint pink.

"Crown Princess, are you... feeling uncomfortable somewhere?"

“…”

Tao Ti raised her little head from the quilt and looked at Linglong with her dark and bright eyes.

Should I ask Linglong? But Linglong is Pei Yan's person, and if I ask, I don't know if she will tell the truth.

But she was really feeling very pent up right now, and she really wanted to find someone to talk to and help her vent.

After thinking for a while, Taoti rolled out of the bed neatly, with a strand of hair standing up on his head. "Linglong, I want to ask you something, tell me the truth!"

Linglong was startled and nodded, "Crown Princess, you go ahead."

Tao Ti bit her lip, took a deep breath and asked, "Does His Highness... like me?"

That's it?

Linglong blinked and said without hesitation, "Yes, of course His Highness likes the Crown Princess. I have never seen His Highness treat other women so well."

Tao Ti frowned and said, "There is no other woman around him."

Linglong choked. That’s true.

The prince has always been a clean man, without any romantic affairs. When he met those noble ladies, he always observed etiquette and never overstepped the line.

Tao Ti held her face in her hands and sighed softly.

Linglong asked in confusion, "Why did the Crown Princess suddenly ask this?"

Tao Ti shook her head and said "It's okay", but she couldn't help thinking, if he really liked her, why didn't he tell her?

If he didn't say it, did it mean that he didn't like her that much? Or maybe he was concerned about his health and still remembered the divorce letter they had signed?

Then again, even if he said it, how should I respond?

Does she like Pei Yan?

Tao Ti, who was caught in a bunch of problems, couldn't help but sigh again. It's too difficult, love is really too difficult!

………

Pei Yan was busy outside that day and night and did not return to the palace for dinner.

Tao Ti breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the awkwardness of the meeting had been avoided, but afterwards, she felt an inexplicable sense of loss in her heart.

She washed up early in the evening and went to bed early. When she woke up the next day, her bed was empty.

She had been holding it in for the whole morning, but couldn't help but ask Linglong, "Did the prince come last night?"

Linglong replied, "It came late at night and left early in the morning. Your Highness asked the servants not to disturb your sleep, Crown Princess."

Tao Ti pursed her lips and said nothing, thinking: That hug the night before last, could it be that he really just treated her as a pillow?

She lowered her head and pinched her arms, then her legs...

It's soft and slippery, and really easy to pinch.

Tao Ti fell into confusion and depression. She didn't know what it felt like to "like someone" and "be liked by someone".

She thought about it so much that she wanted to run up to Pei Yan and ask him directly, "Do you like me, the kind of love between a man and a woman?"

But what if it was just my own wishful thinking? Wouldn't that be very embarrassing? And Qiongqi had said that girls should be more reserved.

After thinking about it for the whole morning, she still couldn't figure out the reason, so she simply stopped thinking about it, got up, performed a set of Ba Duan Jin, and went to the kitchen to prepare food.

At night, Pei Yan came back.

Two days and one night later, when they met again, Tao Ti was still a little nervous. She avoided his gaze and did not dare to look into his eyes.

Compared to her discomfort, Pei Yan was as calm and composed as usual, as if the person who secretly hugged her that night was not him.

The two of them sat face to face, each eating a bowl of braised chicken with rice.

Cut a plump and tender three-yellow chicken into small pieces, melt the rock sugar in oil, fry the tender chicken pieces into beautiful sugar color, then add wine, ginger slices, garlic cloves and other seasonings, put in potato cubes and mushroom slices, simmer on low heat for a quarter of an hour, then add green and red peppers for seasoning and color, then you can collect the sauce and remove from the pot.

The stewed chicken is shiny and coated with rich sauce. The chicken is tender and tasty. The mushrooms have absorbed the soup and are extremely fresh and fragrant. The soup blooms between your lips and teeth when you take a bite.

The best thing is the potatoes in the braised chicken. The potatoes are stewed soft and have a soft texture. They are mixed with the salty and sweet soup and the crystal clear rice.

The aroma of rice mixed with the aroma of meat was rich and delicious. Tao Ti finished three bowls of rice in a row and couldn't help but sigh: Braised chicken is really a rice killer, this combination is really amazing!

After eating, she brewed two cups of white peach jasmine tea. The peach cubes were made from the dried peaches she had bought earlier. She brewed them with dried jasmine flowers, added some fine locust flower honey, and stirred gently. The fragrance filled the air, sweet and refreshing.

Pei Yan put down his chopsticks, picked up a handkerchief to wipe the corner of his mouth, and smiled warmly at Tao Ti, "The food cooked by A Ti is still delicious. The delicacies we had in the restaurant yesterday are not as good as this simple bowl of stewed chicken with potatoes."

Taoti, “……!”

He smiled at her like that again!

Under the long table, her hands gently squeezed her thighs. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Stay calm, hold steady, don't panic!

"Well, as long as you're full." She responded softly, pretending to be nonchalant as she picked up the white peach jasmine tea and drank it.

Pei Yan saw her expression clearly, but he was not in a hurry. A hunter who was too impatient would easily scare away his prey.

He said softly, "Ati, we should leave Luoyang on the 28th. You can start packing your boxes in the next two days. If you have anything else to buy, hurry up and buy it."

Tao Ti tilted her head and thought for a moment, "Twenty-eight, that's the day after tomorrow."

Pei Yan hummed for a moment, and then said, "Tomorrow night, Prefect Sun has arranged a farewell banquet on the Luo River pleasure boat. I may be back late..."

Tao Ti was startled and looked at him in surprise, "Your Highness, won't you take me with you?"

She thought that since she attended the welcoming party, she should also attend the farewell party, right?

Pei Yan was slightly stunned and looked at Tao Ti. Under the light and shadow, her bright eyes and eyebrows showed a hint of grievance.

He lowered his eyes slightly, rubbed his brow with his slender fingers, and the words "no" on the tip of his tongue turned in his throat and finally became, "You want to go?"

Tao Ti clearly saw his hesitation and couldn't help feeling a little depressed.

Sure enough, he didn't want to take her there at first?!

Thinking back to the fact that he had been leaving early and coming back late these past two days, and that he hadn't even brought me to this farewell party -

Tao Ti concluded: He was deliberately avoiding her!

This realization made her even more depressed. No wonder people on the Internet often said that men were pigs. Pei Yan was good-looking, but... he couldn't hug her, so he had to stay away from her.

Pei Yan had no idea of ​​her rich train of thought. Seeing that she was silent, he thought she was unhappy because she couldn't go out to play, so he said, "If you want to go, that's fine... Wear more clothes tomorrow. It's cold and dewy on the pleasure boat, so be careful to keep warm."

Tao Ti couldn't describe her mood at the moment. She nodded her head lightly, and went straight to the clean room in the side hall under the pretext of taking a bath.

Pei Yan sensed the little girl's strange emotions, his black eyes narrowed and his thin lips pursed slightly.

After pondering for a moment, he called Linglong and asked her some questions.

Linglong reported Tao Ti's daily life truthfully. At the end, she hesitated for a moment and said awkwardly, "The day before yesterday morning, the Crown Princess suddenly asked me, Your Highness, do you like her..."

Pei Yan's eyebrows jumped, and the corners of his mouth unconsciously straightened. He asked, "What do you say?"

Linglong, "Of course I like it!"

Pei Yan: "...How did she react?"

Linglong thought for a moment and said, "The Crown Princess didn't say anything, she just sighed and sat on the bed for a long time with a sad face."

Pei Yan, "..."

Sigh? Frown?

Could it be that she was so disgusted by his liking?

Linglong lowered her head quietly. She felt that both the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess had been acting a little strange recently, which made her a little confused.

After a long silence, Pei Yan calmed down and said in a cold voice, "Linglong, you must stay by the Crown Princess's side on the pleasure boat tomorrow. No matter what time, protect her. Do you understand?"

Linglong was stunned for a moment. After all, she had been with Pei Yan for many years, so she immediately understood the deep meaning of his words. She hurriedly shrugged her face and bowed, saying, "I obey your command."

…………

The next day, after waking up from a nap, Tao Ti sat in front of the dressing mirror and began to dress up.

Today she was wearing a lilac jacket with brocade patterns, a lilac tube top with auspicious cloud patterns, and a silver-white gauze skirt. Her long hair was tied into a bun, and she wore several dignified and elegant hair accessories. She looked like a lilac bud about to bloom after the rain, with a slender waist, and a graceful and gentle demeanor.

In the warm dusk, a carriage with a precious canopy stopped at the gate of Jixian Palace.

Tao Ti was about to get into the car when a cold, slender hand opened the curtain. Then, Pei Yan, wearing a light green robe with a grape pattern, leaned forward to come out.

Tao Ti realized something, her big watery eyes widened, and she hurriedly said, "Your Highness, just sit down. I can get up by myself, no need for your help."

Pei Yan frowned slightly.

Tao Ti lifted her skirt with one hand, grabbed the carriage door with the other, and strode forward.

Although the action was a bit rough, it finally went up.

She was feeling a little proud, and with her hand on the hem of her skirt she tried to lift the curtain. Unexpectedly, as soon as she took a step, her foot stepped on the slightly long hem of her skirt, and she fell forward.

"--ah!"

“…”

Linglong, who was outside the carriage, was startled when she heard the Crown Princess's cry and asked hurriedly, "Crown Princess, what's wrong with you?"

The prince's sharp and hoarse voice came from the carriage, "It's okay, let's go."

Linglong was confused, but didn't dare to ask more questions.

Fu Xirui, who was standing by, seemed to understand something. He smiled softly, waved his whisk, and whispered, "Let's go!"

The carriage rumbled along, moving steadily through the palace alleys in the dim light.

Inside the carriage, there was a strong atmosphere of ambiguity.

When I used to watch TV series with my mother, every time I saw the heroine fall on the ground, her mouth would be like a magnet and she would kiss the hero. Tao Ti would inevitably complain: Tsk, what a cliché!

However, at this moment, she finally realized what it meant: art comes from life, but life is far more bloody than art——

She didn't kiss Pei Yan, but it was even more embarrassing than kissing!

The carriage was spacious, and she fell directly on his chest. Then, her body slid down by inertia... until she knelt on the carpet, and her face was facing between his legs.

The atmosphere seemed to freeze.

At that moment, Tao Timan's mind was filled with thoughts: Ah, I'm dead, don't save me, just dig a hole and bury me, I have no face to live.

It was so awkward that she could have dug out a Luoyang Palace with her toes.

When people are in extremely embarrassing situations, they tend to be unusually calm.

So when Pei Shen stretched out his hand to pull her up, she cooperated very well and even said "thank you" subconsciously.

Pei Yan, "…You're welcome."

Tao Ti sat down quietly, her little face frowning, and turned to look out the window.

Pei Yan did not say anything, and the silence in the carriage continued until the carriage stopped at the Luo River Pier.

Before getting off the car, Pei Yan gently called her, "Ati."

Tao Ti's back stiffened.

Please, please, don't mention what happened just now, otherwise she will be so ashamed that she will jump into the Luo River.

She turned her head stiffly and gave another dry laugh, "What's wrong?"

Pei Yan moved towards her and reached out to touch her little head.

Tao Ti hid subconsciously.

Pei Yan's hand paused in the air.

Those beautiful peach blossom eyes looked at her for a moment, then lowered their eyes. Their long eyelashes cast a small shadow under their eyes, as if hiding the dullness and loss of being alienated.

"Your hair is a little messy, I just want to help you trim it."

"I-I see..."

When Tao Ti saw him like this, she felt as if she had bullied him. She couldn't bear it, so she obediently moved her head over and said, "Then you take care of it."

Looking at the little head that was voluntarily raised under his palm, the gloom in Pei Yan's eyes turned into a dark black, and his thin lips curled up silently.

He helped her tidy up her messy hair, his movements were gentle and delicate, as if he was treating a priceless treasure.

Soon, his voice as cold as gold and jade sounded above his head, "Okay."

Tao Ti couldn't look in the mirror, so she reached out and touched it. When she felt that there was no problem, she was about to get off the car.

This time, Pei Yan got there first, speaking in a serious tone with a bit of parental authority, "Ati, wait for me to go down and help you."

Tao Ti knew that she had just made a fool of herself. She had no confidence at this moment. She pouted her rosy lips and replied softly, "Okay..."

Pei Yan got out of the car and extended his hand to her.

Although she wanted to keep some distance from him and reduce those little intimate actions that could be easily misunderstood, she had no choice at this moment.

The soft little hand was placed on his palm and was soon tightly wrapped by his warm big palm.

After getting off the carriage, he did not let go, but led her towards the pier naturally.

The officials had been waiting at the dock for a long time. When they saw the Crown Prince and Crown Princess coming hand in hand, they hurriedly bowed and greeted them respectfully.

After a brief greeting, Pei Yan and Tao Ti were escorted onto the pleasure boat on the shore like stars surrounding the moon.

This pleasure boat is divided into two floors and is extremely gorgeous, with beautiful lights and rippling water. The restaurants on both sides of the Luo River are prosperous, with strings of lanterns hanging. The night breeze blows gently, bringing the sound of beautiful singing.

The seats on the lower level were for ordinary officials. Pei Yan and Tao Ti sat together in a spacious box on the second level. Accompanying them were Prince Mu, Sun Fuyin and his wife, and several other high-ranking officials and their wives.

When Tao Ti first saw Prince Mu, she was still a little surprised: his own son was in prison, and as a father, he still had the mood to come out and deal with it? But then she thought again, he was the governor of Luoyang, and if he didn't come to the farewell banquet for the prince, it would be a disrespect to the prince.

No matter what level one reaches, one has to have no alternative, unless one sits on the supreme position. But... who can guarantee that being an emperor will be free of constraints and worries?

Tao Ti was thinking about this when she heard Prince Mu apologize, "The princess has caught a cold and is not feeling well, so she was unable to come. Please don't mind, Prince and Princess."

Pei Yan nodded slightly, as if he was unaware of the situation, and greeted him gently.

Everyone sat down with smiles on their faces and enjoyed themselves happily.

The sounds of piano, drums and stringed instruments were melodious, the wine was in high spirits, and with the appearance of dancers, the atmosphere of the banquet became more lively and exciting.

When the dance was over, Pei Yan picked up his wine glass, a little tipsy, and said to Prince Mu and Prefect Sun with a smile, "Would you two like to go outside with me to enjoy the breeze and the night view of the Luo River?"

Prince Mu and Prefect Sun hurriedly agreed and stood up to go out.

Tao Ti also wanted to follow, but before she stood up, Pei Yan pressed her shoulders heavily.

Taoti, "......?"

Pei Yan's dark eyes were deep as he stared at her intently, but his tone was gentle, "It's windy outside, it's the same if you open the window to enjoy the view."

Tao Ti was a little confused and a little aggrieved. She also wanted to go out and take a look. The view outside was so wide, which could not be compared with that through the window.

But Pei Yan looked at her with a power that could not be questioned.

After a moment, she had to compromise, "Okay."

Pei Yan narrowed his eyes, raised his hand and rubbed her head, "Be good."

The Crown Prince went out with Prince Mu and Prefect Sun, and the rest of the officials followed them. For a moment, only a group of women were left in the private room.

When the men were here just now, they were reluctant to speak. Now that the men are out, they start to flatter Tao Ti one after another.

Tao Ti was still immersed in the depression of Pei Yan's hot and cold attitude towards her, and she forced herself to be alert and deal with the female relatives below.

Not long after, there was a sudden roar of fireworks shooting up into the sky outside.

Tao Ti raised her eyebrows. Could there be a fireworks show?

As soon as this thought came to my mind, I heard panicked shouts from outside, mixed with the metallic sounds of swords clashing.

"Someone come, there's an assassin!! Protect the prince!"