Li Rong rode his horse all the way back to the mansion. On the way, he met Pei Wenxuan who came to pick him up. Li Rong did not ask any questions and led the people directly back to the princess's mansion.

As soon as she arrived at the princess's mansion, she saw people coming and going, seemingly very busy. Li Rong led people into the bedroom and saw basins of blood being brought out. She lifted the curtain and went in, asking directly, "Where is Pei Wenxuan? What happened?"

As she spoke, she saw Pei Wenxuan sitting on the bed. The doctor was bandaging his wound. His face was a little pale. When he saw Li Rong coming in, Pei Wenxuan looked a little surprised: "Your Highness? How come you came back so soon?"

Li Rong saw that Pei Wenxuan was fine, and her expression eased a little. She walked to the bedside, looked at the doctor and asked, "Is he okay?"

"Don't worry, Your Highness," the doctor said respectfully, "The wound did not injure the tendons and veins, and there was no poison. You just need to rest for a few days."

Li Rong nodded and waited aside until Pei Wenxuan's hand was bandaged. Then the servants withdrew, leaving only two people in the room.

Pei Wenxuan looked up at Li Rong and said with a smile, "Aren't you tired after standing for so long?"

As he spoke, he patted the bed and said gently, "Sit down."

Li Rong sat next to him and sighed, "How could you be injured? You are not a child, how could you be stabbed?"

"It's my fault," Pei Wenxuan said softly as he watched Li Rong checking his wounds. "On the way back, a child complained to me. It turned out to be a professional killer who was careless. But don't worry, I've asked someone to investigate and the results should be out soon."

Li Rong responded, and Pei Wenxuan saw her lowering her head. After a moment's pause, he raised his hand and tucked her hair behind her ears, saying gently, "I'm sorry to have worried Your Highness."

"Be careful next time."

Li Rong whispered, then remembered: "Have you eaten?"

"Not yet," Pei Wenxuan laughed, "Your Highness, have you had your meal?"

"Nothing," Li Rong stood up and naturally reached out to help Pei Wenxuan. Pei Wenxuan lowered his eyes to hide his expression and was helped up by Li Rong. Li Rong helped him out of the door and couldn't help asking, "Besides your hand, where else are you injured?"

"There are no other injuries," Pei Wenxuan smiled, "I was just frightened and a little scared."

"You get scared too?" Li Rong was a little suspicious, looking up at Pei Wenxuan and said, "You should get used to it by now, right?"

"Your Highness, I will never get used to matters like life and death." Pei Wenxuan shook his head, "But I just have to face it, so I'll just pretend to get used to it."

Li Rong thought about it and felt that Pei Wenxuan was right. She helped Pei Wenxuan to the table, asked him to sit down, and then asked someone to bring the food up.

Li Rong asked Pei Wenxuan in detail about the assassination, and Pei Wenxuan answered in detail. When the food was served, Pei Wenxuan stretched out a hand to pick up the food, and the soup beside him was not touched at all. He ate elegantly while looking at Li Rong who was drinking soup thoughtfully. He saw that she was absent-minded while eating, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Don't think too much. There are many people who hate me now. This kind of thing will eventually happen. I can protect myself, so leave this matter to me, okay?"

After hearing this, Li Rong came back to her senses and nodded, "Okay."

As she spoke, her eyes fell on Pei Wenxuan's hand holding the chopsticks, and then she looked at the unmoved soup bowl next to her. She paused for a moment, then put down her chopsticks.

"Your Highness?"

"Let me feed you."

Li Rong took the soup bowl beside her, blew on it gently, and brought it to Pei Wenxuan. Pei Wenxuan was stunned for a moment, and Li Rong urged him: "Drink it."

Pei Wenxuan was brought back to his senses. He lowered his eyes and took the white porcelain spoon that Li Rong handed to him.

He liked to drink soup before every meal. He thought Li Rong never paid attention to this, but he didn't expect that Li Rong actually knew it.

She knew that he liked to drink a bowl of soup first, and she also knew that he didn't want to lose manners in front of her, so without one hand holding the bowl, she simply didn't drink the soup.

Pei Wenxuan was fed soup by Li Rong and said with a smile: "I can eat the food by myself, Your Highness, don't starve yourself."

Li Rong responded, took a handkerchief to wipe her hands, and ate a few more bites herself.

After Li Rong took Pei Wenxuan to finish his meal, she heard Shangguan Ya coming over. She helped Pei Wenxuan back to bed, let him rest first, and then returned to the lobby.

Shangguan Ya was waiting for Li Rong in the lobby. When she saw Li Rong coming out, she bowed and said, "Your Highness."

"Are there any clues?"

"I have confirmed Su Ronghua's whereabouts. He had not yet returned to the Su residence when the incident happened, so he should not have moved so quickly."

"It's not him." Li Rong said with certainty, "The Su family would not do such a thing. Su Lin was only demoted, and other members of the Su family were not involved. They would not assassinate Pei Wenxuan for such a small matter."

"Is the Prince Consort okay?" Shangguan Ya glanced at the backyard, and Li Rong nodded, "The knife wasn't poisonous, they were just warning me. If they wanted Pei Wenxuan dead, they would have put poison on the knife, and he would have probably been in trouble by now."

Shangguan Ya frowned as she listened. Li Rong closed her eyes and sat on a chair, pausing for a moment. "They interrogated someone this afternoon, threatened me with a kite in the afternoon, and killed Pei Wenxuan at night. I'm afraid someone in the Inspection Office has leaked the information. They're checking all the people who came in and out this afternoon and investigating their background again."

"yes."

Shangguan Ya was lost in thought. Li Rong looked up at her and asked, "You seem to have something to say?"

"Your Highness," Shangguan Ya pondered and said slowly, "In fact, having come to this point, all they want is to save their lives. Now it's just a warning, but it's already aimed directly at the Prince Consort. If they have the will, the Prince Consort would probably..."

"Just say it straight." Li Rong's voice was flat. Shangguan Ya pursed her lips and said, "I'm afraid that if I'm too strong, I'll break easily. How about taking a step back?"

Li Rong didn't say anything. She looked up at Shangguan Ya. Shangguan Ya was only nearly twenty years old now. It was normal for her to feel jealous when encountering such a thing.

"If they hadn't done anything, I could have let them live."

Li Rong stood up and said, "Now, either I die or they die."

Shangguan Ya was stunned for a moment, then she understood what Li Rong meant and stopped trying to persuade her. She just asked, "What do you plan to do, Your Highness?"

Li Rong pondered for a moment, then said slowly, "They are in the dark, and we are in the light. There is no way to end this."

"What is your highness' plan?" Shangguan Ya tilted her head and waited quietly for Li Rong's instructions.

Li Rong thought for a long time, and finally said: "You go and check first. If you can't find any results, we can only lure the enemy deeper and catch the turtle in the jar."

Shangguan Ya was puzzled when she heard this: "What kind of inducement?"

Li Rong raised her eyes and said calmly, "I."

"Your Highness," Shangguan Ya said immediately after hearing this, "No, this is too risky."

"Won't they take the risk of killing me?" Li Rong sneered, "They have the guts, so they just pretend I don't?"

"Are they the same as you?" Shangguan Ya was anxious. "What are their identities? What is your identity? Your Highness, your husband will never agree with your idea."

"Did I ask you to talk to him?" Li Rong looked at him coldly, "Is it his turn to decide my affairs?"

Shangguan Ya was speechless for a moment, and Li Rong was too lazy to pay attention to her. She waved her hand and said, "Okay, you go back first and check it out. If you can find evidence, it would be best to handle it directly. If not, we can talk about it later."

Shangguan Ya didn't say anything. After a moment's silence, she turned around and walked out, impatiently saying, "I have to go talk to my husband."

"Stop!" Li Rong called Shangguan Ya, "Why are you talking to him?"

"He can't control you anyway," Shangguan Ya laughed, "Can't I just chat with him?"

"Shangguan Ya," Li Rong sneered, "I'll lend you a bit of courage."

Shangguan Ya stared at Li Rong for a moment, then she became a little irritated and waved her hand, saying, "Forget it, forget it. Do whatever you want. It's not my life anyway."

After Shangguan Ya finished speaking, she waved her hand and walked out. Li Rong paused for a while to drink tea in the lobby, got up and took a shower before finally returning to her room.

Pei Wenxuan had not gone to bed in the room yet. He was wearing a white shirt and a blue robe. He was sitting upright at his desk, looking down at a memorial.

Li Rong walked to the door, but she didn't move. She just stood there, looking at Pei Wenxuan quietly. When that person didn't speak, he was like a painting, a landscape, waiting there quietly and gently, giving her the courage to return.

Pei Wenxuan picked up the pen and wrote two lines, then he realized there was someone at the door. He raised his head and looked towards the door, and saw Li Rong standing in front of the door, blocking the night light of the courtyard behind her, and looking at him silently.

Pei Wenxuan stared at Li Rong. After a moment, he put down his pen, waved at Li Rong, and said softly, "Your Highness, the door is cool. Come and sit here."

Li Rong heard the words and came to Pei Wenxuan's side. She sat down following Pei Wenxuan's movements and smiled gently: "What are you writing?"

"I just took a look at the news reported by the informant," Pei Wenxuan looked at her, "did you have a quarrel with Shangguan Ya?"

"When will you change your habit of revealing other people's secrets?"

Li Rong sat down, leaned lazily on the table, and cast her eyes on Pei Wenxuan's hand: "Does your hand still hurt?"

"If I say it hurts, Your Highness, can you help me blow on it?"

Pei Wenxuan raised his hand, and Li Rong smiled and raised her fan, pretending to hit him. Pei Wenxuan did not move, and looked at Li Rong with a smile. Li Rong's fan fell half an inch above the wound, but could not fall any further. Pei Wenxuan stretched his hand in front of her and continued, "Your Highness, blow on it, and it will not hurt."

"Are you a child?"

Li Rong didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Pei Wenxuan sighed, "Alas, Your Highness really doesn't care about me."

Pei Wenxuan withdrew his hand. Li Rong glanced at him and saw that Pei Wenxuan looked resentful. She laughed and raised her hand, saying, "Give me your hand."

Pei Wenxuan stretched out his hand, and Li Rong placed his hand in her palm, looked at it carefully, and then looked up at him: "You, a vulgar man, have beautiful hands, a bit of fairy spirit."

Pei Wenxuan smiled without saying anything. Li Rong hesitated for a moment. Pei Wenxuan was wondering what she was hesitating about when he saw her lower her head and blow gently on his hand.

The breath she exhaled was somewhat warm, spraying into the palm of his hand, and then moving all the way up to the wound on his body.

The temperature was so tingling that Pei Wenxuan's eyes darkened. He looked at Li Rong, who was bowing her head for him. Li Rong blew on him like a child, then raised her head to look at him and asked innocently, "Is it better?"

Pei Wenxuan said nothing. His gaze first fell on Li Rong's eyes, then slid to the tip of her nose, and then stopped on her lips.

Li Rong was a little confused: "Pei Wenxuan?"

Pei Wenxuan laughed when he heard this: "I thought Your Highness would not take it seriously."

As he spoke, he pulled his hand away from Li Rong's. Li Rong stood up and said casually, "When I was a child, I bumped into something and it hurt. My mother blew on me like this, and after that, I really didn't feel the pain that much."

"That's natural."

When Pei Wenxuan saw Li Rong stand up, he stood up as well. When Li Rong heard him stand up, she turned around and helped him up.

Pei Wenxuan had never been taken care of by Li Rong like this before. He did not show it on his face. He followed behind Li Rong and whispered, "Someone is willing to blow on your wound, which means someone cares about you. No matter if the wound hurts or not, I am always happy in my heart."

"You sound so pitiful," Li Rong turned around and gave him a sidelong glance, "as if I've been very bad to you and you need someone to love you."

"Your Highness is of course very kind to me." Pei Wenxuan came to the bed while talking to her. Li Rong helped him take off his coat and then went to bed. Pei Wenxuan watched Li Rong get into the quilt, walked to the bed, turned off the light, and went to bed as usual.

His left hand was injured, but his right hand was intact. After Li Rong lay down, after a while, she heard Pei Wenxuan say: "Your Highness, sometimes I can't help but wonder, what would it be like if you were a wife?"

Li Rong remained silent. Pei Wenxuan said to himself, "Your Highness should also be a good wife and a good mother. After all, although Your Highness seems to be decisive in killing, she is actually very gentle. When Your Highness took care of me just now, I felt like I had my own family."

Pei Wenxuan said this and secretly went to see Li Rong.

Li Rong listened to Pei Wenxuan's words for a long time, and then she said slowly: "There shouldn't be much difference."

Li Rong said, squinting at the bed curtains: "I don't like things that affect me. No matter whose wife I am, I should be the same as I am now."

"How come?"

Pei Wenxuan turned to look at her: "Your Highness, if you like someone, everything should be different."

After hearing this, Li Rong smiled softly after a long while: "But I don't know what love is, and I don't like someone. Of course," Li Rong turned around, facing away from Pei Wenxuan, and lowered her voice, "I don't expect anyone to like me."

Pei Wenxuan was stunned. He found it hard to understand: "Your Highness, why don't you expect others to like you?"

"I have a weird temper when it comes to relationships," Li Rong closed her eyes. "It's hard for someone to like me, and even harder for someone to like me for a long time. I know myself well, so I won't think too much about it."

"Why would Your Highness think so?" Pei Wenxuan comforted her, "Didn't I like Your Highness very much in my last life?"

"My feelings towards you are different from yours." Li Rong said calmly, "The word 'like' is too heavy for me. For you, that might be what you feel towards me. But for me, it's too difficult to like someone."

Pei Wenxuan listened quietly, and at that moment, he seemed to find some differences between himself and Li Rong. He didn't know why, but he remembered that when they got married, Li Rong was only 18 years old.

At that time, Li Rong was much more open than she is now, and she would not hide many of her emotions. Now, more than 30 years have passed, and he didn't know why, but when he heard Li Rong talk about these things, he felt that Li Rong was no different from when she was 18 years old.

She seemed to be still that little girl, walking with him in the harem and telling him about her past.

"Everyone in the palace calls me Princess, but I know they all say I have a weird temper and they don't like me."

"But I don't care about their likes. If they don't like me, that's fine. Do I still need to care about them?"

"Have you seen the Beiyan Tower? It was built by my father for my mother. They say that it was because my father loved her so much, but I don't think so. It was just a momentary affection between a man and a woman. It can't withstand any storms. How can it be called love and affection?"

…

When Li Rong said these words, he was only in his early twenties. He actually did not understand the true meaning of Li Rong's words. He just followed behind Li Rong, listened to her quietly, and smiled and comforted her a few times: "Your Highness, it's all over."

He thought Li Rong just loved to talk to him about the past, but now he thought that Li Rong was just asking him for help.

The eighteen-year-old Li Rong was telling him what kind of relationship she wanted and what kind of person she was. She held herself carefully and said to him, Pei Wenxuan, please learn how to love me.

This may sound a bit rude, but perhaps giving others her most cowardly side is Li Rong's greatest sincerity.

But he doesn't understand.

The age of 30 taught him to understand the human heart. Looking back, he felt the pain.

He thought that after so many years, Li Rong really didn't care about anyone anymore, just as she said in prison. But as he got to know her better, came into contact with her, and touched her, he finally understood that her arrogant and phoenix-like attitude was just another kind of abandonment after extreme disappointment.

After all, Li Rong had never received complete love in her previous life.

Whether it was him or Su Rongqing, they both let her down in the end.

And she never showed any of it, neither love nor hate was ever really imposed on him or Su Rongqing.

Realizing this moment, Pei Wenxuan's heart suddenly surged with great pain and bitterness. He couldn't help but get closer to her, gently placed his hands on her body, and didn't care about the pain on his wounds, and held her in his arms.

Li Rong lowered her eyes when he hugged her like this, and laughed softly, "It's too cold in winter, Master Pei, do you think I'm a heater? Hugging me from time to time, you don't seem to be as reserved as before."

Pei Wenxuan held her in silence. After a long while, he said, "Your Highness, it's not difficult."

Li Rong was stunned for a moment, and then she heard Pei Wenxuan whisper, "Your Highness, it's not difficult to find someone who loves you wholeheartedly."

Li Rong didn't say anything. As she listened to Pei Wenxuan's words, she first found them ridiculous, then felt a sense of unspeakable regret, which finally turned into confusion and expectations that she was almost unaware of.

She subconsciously wanted to speak.

She really wanted to ask, how could it not be difficult to obtain something that she had never obtained or someone that she had never met in her entire life?

But she didn't say anything. She would have asked these questions when she was younger, but now she doesn't ask them anymore.

It doesn't matter.

She doesn't care.

In Pei Wenxuan's heart, Li Rong's silence was a delay that was thirty years late.

It was not because he was rejected by Li Rong, but because he realized that he had left Li Rong alone for thirty years.

He suddenly felt a great impulse. He should tell her, just like she told him that Pei Wenxuan was a good person and that Pei Wenxuan could like someone else.

He also wanted to tell her, whether she refused or accepted, he wanted to say something to her.

Li Rong, there is a person who likes you, likes you very, very much.