Seeing her like that, Lu Anyuan knew she was having a nightmare. He walked over, hugged her shoulders tightly, and stroked her back little by little.
"Yixing is a good boy, purring fur, you won't be scared."
"Pfft! I'm an adult now, why do I need to use these childish tricks?"
"You're having this nightmare, why don't you just roll out of bed?"
"I think so too. Maybe it's because I'm a good person. Even if I dream, there are gods protecting me and keeping me from falling."
Seeing that she was now in the mood to joke, Lu Anyuan naturally felt relieved. "I always feel like you seem to have changed a little, just recently."
Xu Yixing was startled, but his expression remained calm: "What's changed?"
"I can't explain it, but I feel like you're more, more like a woman?" Lu Anyuan racked his brains to describe this feeling, and as expected, Xu Yixing despised him.
I just feel sorry for you having to be alone in the future. I've been nice to you recently, and you've become complacent, right?
"So I used to look like a man?"
"That's not the case. Never mind. It's good this way anyway."
Xu Yixing was greedy for Lu Anyuan's embrace and kept hiding in his arms and refused to come out. When he looked out the window, he saw a sea of white.
"Is it snowing?"
"Yes, it started snowing late last night. It's not so bad in Beijing, but at the Xiaoling Mausoleum, the snow was almost calf-high overnight. It was a hassle to get back."
"Have the other princes returned? Did the emperor say when to let them leave?"
"There is no clear order, but judging from the situation, I guess we should wait until the snow melts." Lu Anyuan pricked Xu Yixing's forehead with his stubble. Under normal circumstances, he would have cleaned it up, but he was exhausted these past few days and hadn't had time to do it when he came back this morning, so he just used it to tease her.
"Get out of here!"
"Hahahaha, I'm just hoping they leave, but why are you so anxious to get them out?"
"Alas, I just want to see you quickly become the Crown Prince, so I can rest assured... and become the Crown Princess."
Lu Anyuan had no suspicion of his own intentions, he just felt that the second half of the sentence was very much to his liking. Who would have thought that in the not too distant future, one day in a dream, he would be shocked to realize that the second half of the sentence had been modified and was not the original intention.
"Don't worry, even if we can't conceive a child for the time being, I will definitely not let my father replace you. You are my only wife, no one else will do."
Xu Yixing's eyes were filled with tears and he buried his head tightly in his neck. Well, well, I just hope you can always be as happy as you are today.
Lu Anyuan just went home to sort things out and then hurried back to the palace. Now he is the regent, and although he no longer has to worry about funerals, he still has to deal with government affairs on a daily basis.
As soon as he left, Yingwu came in to report, "Our people went to Chengping Street today. There aren't any liquor stores there, only restaurants, and the drinks there are pretty ordinary. I wonder if the tavern you're looking for has any special features?"
"You guys are really quick on your feet." Xu Yixing could actually have expected this result. The code word given by his uncle might not have any special meaning and was just used to confirm his identity.
"However, there is a house on Chengping Street that was once the private residence of the Second Prince."
"Really?" Xu Yixing's eyes lit up. She had forgotten that before the "Qibei Palace" was awarded, Lu Chiyan had no mansion in the capital. He only had private houses to accommodate his concubines. She didn't expect that there was one in Chengping Street.
"Yes, but who lived there before is unknown. The house has been sealed and there is no new owner yet."
Xu Yixing's eyes moved. Wasn't the Second Prince the culprit behind Chao Guoan's death? Could it be that his son had some connection with his uncle because of this incident? Unfortunately, his uncle refused to say more, and there was probably no definite evidence.
"Send Yingjiu home and take the things Yingsi has prepared to Chao Jianyi. Tell him the deadline is June of next year and let him decide for himself."
Ying Wu pondered for a moment. He felt that this was a bit risky. Why would he use an outsider instead of his own people? But it didn't matter. At worst, if we failed, we could take our master and fight our way out of the capital. The world is so big, who would be afraid of not having a place to stay?
"yes."
Xu Yixing is simply trusting his subordinates. The emperor seems to be feeling unwell and is dissatisfied with him. He might leave a will to divorce him and choose another one. It is better to act first.
After being sick and lying in bed at home for more than ten days, the emperor sent all the princes back to their fiefdoms as soon as the winter month came. He ignored the pleas and reluctance of the concubines and did not even let them celebrate the New Year before leaving.
In fact, Xu Yixing really wanted to see them off on the day they left, but Lu Anyuan used her leg injury as an excuse to stop her from going. That would have been fine, but the Third Prince had been serving the Emperor medicine since the first day he knelt before the Empress Dowager, and even after returning from the Xiaoling Mausoleum, he remained in his clothes, which made Lu Anyuan seem very unfilial.
Unfortunately, the emperor still let him go. It was said that Concubine Gong cried all night at the door of the emperor's bedroom, but still failed to save her poor son. In the end, she wiped her tears and left with her family.
With the princes gone, one obvious change was that the concubines in the palace suddenly became much less interested. Those with sons used to see them regularly, but now that they were gone, the empty palaces were filled with even more people. They also suddenly became more low-key. After all, everyone could see that the Seventh Prince was about to ascend to the throne of Crown Prince, so it was better for them to remain invisible and not cause any trouble for their sons.
Except for the Queen. The Queen had always been aloof, but she had begun to summon Xu Yixing more frequently in the past few days. Whenever she went, she would not care what they talked about. If there was nothing to talk about, she would just let Xu Yixing sit alone without even giving him a book.
Xu Yixing didn't understand what she was trying to do at first, and thought she wanted to use the future empress dowager's money to set some rules for him. However, after going there a few more times, it seemed that this was not the case. Sometimes, the empress even called him over as if it was a task to be completed. She would never see him and would not restrict what he could do in Zhaoren Palace.
So she wondered, was this an order from the Emperor? He was calling her all day, exhausting her so she wouldn't have time to complete the mission with Lu Anyuan at night? But this method was too absurd...
For a whole month, Xu Yixing didn't enter the palace except for a few days when she felt uncomfortable with her menstrual period. Otherwise, she felt like she was permanently staying in Zhaoren Palace. Later, she learned to be smart. Whenever she entered the palace, she would secretly bring some account books, miscellaneous articles, etc., and read quietly under the window. The queen didn't care anyway, so she just treated it as school.
Lu Anyuan frowned frequently about this matter, but he was extremely busy now. Occasionally, when he mentioned it to his father, he was rejected by his father with the words "It is your duty to be filial to the Empress". He had no choice but to comfort Yixing every day.
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