*
The person praised by Nan Qing as "like a celestial being" was none other than Jun Beichen, the deposed crown prince of the Great Yan.
Jun Beichen, the eldest son of the late empress, was made crown prince of the Great Yan Dynasty at the age of 5, but the late empress passed away when he was 12.
Not long after, the crown prince contracted a serious illness, which damaged his health, leaving him weak and frail.
Throughout the entire Great Yan, who doesn't know that the current Crown Prince knew the Five Classics at the age of five, could write essays at eight, and at ten, his treatise on governing the country shocked all the scholars in the world?
Unfortunately, fate was cruel to this talented man; at the age of fifteen, the Imperial Medical Academy determined that he would not live past the age of twenty.
Although he is now twenty-one years old and has not failed to live past twenty as the Imperial Medical Academy had said, he still takes medicine every day, and his body is so weak that he can barely breathe with every step.
Perhaps the Yan emperor still cared about his reputation, so he didn't actually demote him to a commoner and exile him thousands of miles away.
However, he was still stripped of his title as crown prince, given only the title of idle prince, and exiled to Lingnan, a place of exile a thousand miles away. He was ordered not to return to the capital without imperial decree, which was not much different from exile.
Jun Beichen stepped down from the carriage, glanced subtly at Minister Liu and Grand Tutor Xie a few times, and then looked at the city gate behind him. His seemingly pale face held a pair of indifferent eyes.
Just as he was about to turn back to the carriage, his peripheral vision caught a glimpse of a face that was both heroic and delicate.
That face wasn't exactly stunningly beautiful, but for some reason, Jun Beichen felt his heart involuntarily skip a beat when he saw it, as if a thin thread had tugged at it.
Jun Beichen turned his head slightly and asked Qingbai behind him in a soft voice:
Who is that person?
Qingbai looked in the direction his master pointed and saw a woman he had never seen before, but he recognized General Shi who was next to her.
But weren't his master and the Shi family also acquainted...?
"Master, the lady next to that person is General Shi and his wife. She should be the eldest daughter of the Shi family, Shi Nanqing, who has been raised at the border."
Upon hearing this, Jun Beichen briefly shifted his gaze from Nan Qing to General Shi, but after only one glance, he turned his attention back to Nan Qing.
Yes, the Shi family was also implicated by him this time and is on the list of those to be exiled.
However... he remembered that when he was young, his mother had told him that she would marry the daughter of her best friend to him as the crown princess, and Madam Shi was his mother's best friend.
Presumably, his "little crown princess" refers to this Miss Shi...
Jun Beichen twirled his fingers behind his back, and even his bloodless lips curled into a faint smile.
He was very satisfied with the Crown Princess that his mother was going to introduce to him.
"Go and invite the Grand Tutor to the carriage. Tell him I'm going to walk by myself and that he should sit down and rest properly."
"yes!"
Although Qingbai did not know what his master meant, he still obeyed the order and turned to go to Xie Taifu to invite him into the carriage.
Their master had actually made preparations long ago. This time, he was just going with the flow and leaving the capital first. The entire escorting and exile personnel had actually been replaced with their own people.
However, apart from Grand Tutor Xie, Minister Liu, and their sons who were working for the Crown Prince, no other family members or other people in the household knew the inside story.
Jun Beichen straightened his robes and smoothed his dark hair, making sure everything was in order before walking towards General Shi and his entourage. He went directly to the side of Nan Qing and Madam Shi and called out:
"Aunt Hui,"
Madam Shi, who was speaking quietly with Nan Qing, looked up when she heard the voice and was slightly surprised to see Jun Beichen.
Her maiden name was Bai, and her given name was Liu Hui. The way she was called Aunt Hui was the way Yu Shu had asked the young prince to call her when she visited Yu Shu in the palace.
Madam Shi hadn't heard anyone mention her maiden name in a long time. Hearing "Aunt Hui," a trace of nostalgia flashed through her heart, but she quickly bowed and said:
"This humble woman greets Your Highness the Crown Prince."
Jun Beichen immediately raised his hand to stop Madam Shi's bow, and then gave a wink to the escorts beside him. Soon after, the knots binding them were untied.
Seeing that Nan Qing rubbed his wrist and his face was no longer so irritated, he smiled gently at Madam Shi and said:
“Aunt Hui and my mother are good friends. When I was young, my mother often told me some interesting stories about you two. However, Aunt Hui has always been at the border and rarely in the capital. Although we haven’t seen each other for many years, please don’t become estranged from me, Aunt Hui. I’m sure my mother also hopes that I can get closer to Aunt Hui.”
As he was speaking, General Shi, who had just arrived, also walked in from the side. General Shi, who was also about to bow, was stopped by Jun Beichen.
"General Shi, you are too kind. This time, the Shi family has also been implicated by me. Jingyuan feels guilty towards the Shi family!"
Jun Beichen's already pale and sickly face was tinged with sorrow, and his thin and frail body swayed a few times before Qingbai behind him caught him.
Seeing the Crown Prince swaying precariously, as if a gust of wind could topple him, Shi Huaiyuan panicked and waved his hands repeatedly, saying:
“What are you saying, Your Highness? I know. This is all Zhou Jingshu’s scheme, and also…” At this point, Shi Huaiyuan sighed heavily and stopped speaking, but the others all understood his unspoken meaning.
After saying a few more words of comfort to General Shi, Jun Beichen turned to look at Nan Qing, who had been standing silently to the side, and asked Madam Shi:
"This must be Sister Nanqing, right?"
Speaking of her daughter, Madam Shi, who had just been frowning, immediately put on a smile. She turned to look at Nan Qing and said with a smile:
"Yes, we met when you were little, but you were very young, so you probably don't remember."
After saying this, she patted Nanqing's hand and reminded him, "Nanqing, quickly call out to His Highness the Crown Prince."
However, before Nan Qing could speak, Jun Beichen hurriedly spoke up.
"Sister Nanqing, there's no need to be so polite. Besides, I'm no longer the Crown Prince. Aunt Hui, you don't need to address me like that anymore; just call me Jingyuan."
"And so is my sister Nanqing. She calls me Brother Jingyuan. Come to think of it, we're practically childhood sweethearts."
For some reason, Jun Beichen suddenly felt a strange sense of satisfaction when he said the words "childhood sweethearts".
It's as if... some regret has been filled in at this moment.
Nan Qing looked helplessly at the chosen one in front of her, who, although somewhat frail, was still incredibly handsome and spoke with the gentle grace of a breeze and the bright moon.
Although he is very good-looking, but... what's with the childhood sweetheart thing?
She remembered that she went to the border when she was four or five years old, and had never returned to the capital since.
As expected of a chosen one, that mouth of his is truly eloquent!
However, at her mother's prompting, she obediently called out "Brother Jingyuan".
Jun Beichen's gaze was involuntarily drawn to Nan Qing, but he dared not be too obvious, so he could only suppress the flutter in his heart...
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