The three men, each accompanied by their entourage, arrived at the entrance of Xinghuachun Pavilion, only to be stopped by several guards.
"What do you mean by this?" Hongshi asked the guard.
"Your Highness, this is the Emperor's order. No one is allowed to leave their resting place. The Emperor has said that no one is allowed to leave. Please return, Your Highness!" the head guard said expressionlessly.
They were dressed in armor bearing the Bordered Yellow Banner, the very imperial guards directly under the emperor's command. They answered only to the emperor himself; no one else could command them without the emperor's authorization. Even though Hongshi was the eldest son of the Fourth Prince, he was helpless at this moment.
"Did you hear that? Some people are still having wild ideas! Humph!" Shuzhen glared at Xueying, took off the handkerchief from her chest and flicked it, then turned and walked back.
“Cousin Xueying, as you can see, Father Emperor seems to have his own plans. We should stay here and not go out,” Hongshi said to Xueying.
"Brother Guard, what about our meals?" Xueying didn't respond to Hongshi's question, but instead asked the guard.
"Don't worry, someone will bring it in. Please go back!" the guard said.
Having no other choice, Xueying took A'luo's hand and led her inside. The two of them stopped in a small garden in Xinghuachun Pavilion.
"Princess, please don't think about it anymore." Seeing that Xueying was unwilling to give up, A'luo knew that she must be thinking of other ideas.
"A-Luo, let's see if there are any other doors here," Xueying said, unwilling to give up.
"Princess! Do you really have to go?" When A'Luo heard this, she almost fainted. She knew that her princess was not one to give up easily.
"I can't do anything if I stay cooped up in the room. Besides, Consort Xi has always been good to me, and I really want to go see her," Xueying said.
"But I don't know if there's a side door here," A'Luo said helplessly.
"How would we know if we didn't look for it!" Xueying said.
Meanwhile, Hongshi followed Shuzhen into his room.
"This younger sister is really a case of 'a girl grows up and leaves home'; she hasn't even married the fourth son yet, and her heart is already with him," Shuzhen said with a displeased expression.
“She had already betrothed her to my fourth brother as a secondary consort. It’s only natural that she would go and visit Consort Xi,” Hongshi said.
"Your Highness, are you still siding with her?" Shuzhen glanced at Hongshi with displeasure. Hongshi understood the meaning behind that look perfectly well. At that moment, he secretly wished more than anyone that Consort Xi would never wake up.
"You should go and pray to the Bodhisattva to bless Consort Xi," Hongshi said, giving Shuzhen a suggestive look.
Meanwhile, Xueying and her servant had already found a side entrance. In fact, the Yuanmingyuan was so large that although the Seventeenth Prince had followed the Fourth Prince's orders and sent guards to guard all areas and prevent people from moving around freely in the garden, it was impossible for him to completely control the situation.
“Princess, even if we reach the shore of Fuhai, there won’t be any boats to take us there. Penglai Island and Yaotai are now heavily guarded, like an ironclad fortress,” A’Luo said.
"How will we know if we don't go and see?" Xueying said, ignoring A'luo's repeated attempts to dampen her enthusiasm.
However, when they actually arrived at the shore of Fuhai, just as A'luo had said, they couldn't get on the ship at all, and therefore couldn't go to Pengdao Yaotai to visit Lanqin.
"What are you doing here?" A man's voice suddenly rang out from behind.
When Xueying and her servant turned around, they saw that it was Hongzhou.
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