One evening at dusk, as darkness fell, a servant suddenly entered to announce something.
"Your Highness, the tutor of the Imperial Study says he needs to speak with you and requests that you come over now..."
Hongli asked curiously, "Sir? Did you say what it was about?"
The servant shook his head and said, "This servant doesn't know either. The master only said that he had something to say to the prince..."
The attendant accompanying Hongli advised, "Your Highness, why don't you go tomorrow? It's already dark..."
Hongli went to get his clothes, saying, "Perhaps the master has a question for me. We even discussed it today. It's nothing... I'll be right back..."
Hongli changed his clothes and prepared to go out. His attendant followed behind with his head down. Hongli stopped, turned around and said, "You stay here. I'm afraid Mother will come back to see me, so you can give her an answer."
The attendant was still worried: "But..."
Hongli laughed and said, "What 'but'? I'm not an filial son. Besides, someone's leading the way, isn't there? Alright, alright, I'll be right back..."
After saying this, Hongli left the Prince's quarters and followed the young servant all the way through the Imperial Garden to the Imperial Study.
Suddenly, halfway there, the servant clutched his stomach and stopped, saying in pain, "Ouch, my stomach hurts so much..."
Hongli bent down and asked with concern, "What's wrong? You were fine just now..."
The servant, his face flushed, said, "I'm so sorry, I need to use the restroom..."
Hongli had no choice but to look at the dark road ahead and say, "Alright then, hurry back and I'll wait for you here..."
The servant clutched his stomach with one hand and pointed ahead with the other: "Your Highness, the Imperial Study is just ahead. If Your Highness is in a hurry, you can go there yourself. I will definitely apologize another day..." After saying that, he scrambled away.
Hongli had no choice but to proceed in the dark, hoping to get to the Imperial Study as soon as possible. However, just as he reached a corner, he bumped into a young eunuch. The eunuch was walking quickly with his head down and crashed heavily into Hongli's arms. Hongli felt a sharp pain in his chest and shrank back a step.
"Who are you? Why aren't you watching where you're going?" Hongli shouted angrily, clutching his chest. Fortunately, the pain subsided quickly, and Hongli didn't pay much attention to it.
The young eunuch was so frightened that he knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly without saying a word.
When Hongli saw him, he thought that perhaps he was mute, and his heart softened immediately. The darkness made it hard to see his appearance, and the little eunuch kept his head down, trembling with fear.
"Alright, just be more careful next time. I'll let you go today. Raise your head so I can see..." Hongli told the little eunuch at his feet to raise his head, but the little eunuch lowered his head even further. Hongli was about to reach out to check when the little eunuch immediately stood up and ran away.
As the figure receded into the distance, Hongli angrily roared into the shadows, "Hey... why are you running away? I'm not going to eat you, am I? That's strange..."
Without thinking it over, and worried that his teacher was getting impatient, Hongli had no choice but to give up and head towards the Imperial Study.
It was quite late when Hongli finally returned. His attendants were relieved and asked as they helped him change his clothes, "Your Highness, what did the master want with you?"
Hongli patted his shoulders and arms wearily and said strangely, "It's strange, when I went to the Imperial Study, the teacher had already left. Perhaps I was delayed on the way and the teacher couldn't wait and left."
The next morning, a palace maid knocked on the door, but Hongli did not answer. She pushed open the door and went inside, only to find that Hongli was deathly pale and had already fainted...
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