Diaoyutai is surrounded by water on all sides, with an island in the center and a pavilion on the island.

In the pavilion, the eldest princess was asking Zhao Hao about his well-being.

But somehow, the topic kept turning around and around, and the focus didn't seem to be on him.

"Child, have you been living alone with your father all these years?" The eldest princess sat beside the couch, her concern evident in her words.

"Yes, it has been like this since I can remember." Zhao Hao thought to himself, but I only started to remember things at the beginning of the year...

"Oh, you and your father have suffered so much." The eldest princess sighed and said, "How can a family be without a woman to take care of it? Your father is only thirty-six, has he never thought of remarrying?"

Zhao Hao thought to himself, how come you know my father’s age better than I do?

He answered vaguely, "I don't know much about my father's affairs."

"I heard that he is engaged to the daughter of Zhou Jijiu, who works at the Imperial College in Nanjing." The princess was so eager to get more information from Zhao Hao that she accidentally let the secret slip.

Liu Shanggong on the side started coughing.

The princess then changed her words and said, "When I was chatting with the ladies, I heard them mention that the daughter of Zhou Jijiu's family was engaged to the second son of Zhao Shilang's family."

"Child, you know, those ladies just like to talk about these trivial matters." She looked at Zhao Hao with some guilt.

"Yeah." Zhao Hao nodded obediently, thinking to himself that you are the eldest princess, so whatever you say is reasonable.

"What happened next?" Even at this point, the princess still didn't give up and asked, "I heard that Mr. Zhao retired from the imperial examination and returned to his hometown. Didn't he decide on a wedding date with Zhou Jijiu before he left?"

Zhao Hao knew that the princess would not let him off unless he revealed some information, so he could only timidly say, "It seems that... the engagement was cancelled..."

"Really?" The princess was delighted when she heard this. Lady Liu quickly coughed again. She then covered her mouth and held back her laughter.

“Haha, what I mean is, it’s such a pity, haha, it’s really sad, hehe…”

"Yes." Seeing that the princess was so happy that she was about to fly, Zhao Hao thought to himself, if you knew that my father even refused Zhou Jijiu's buy one get one free offer, wouldn't he be so happy that he would die?

But his face showed no trace of what he was thinking. He just nodded along, as if he was still in the dark.

At this time, the palace maid came in and reported that Mr. Zhao's father had come to pick him up.

"Ah?" The princess' body trembled, her face flushed, and she suppressed her inner excitement and said, "I...I will go to see him right now."

Zhao Hao deliberately stood up and said he wanted to go together.

Unexpectedly, the princess stretched out her hand and pushed him back to bed, covered him with a blanket, and said with a kind smile: "When I saw you, my child, I liked you from the bottom of my heart. You are still sick, you can't just die like this. How can you not stay for ten days or eight days to recover?"

"Uh..." Zhao Hao was at a loss whether to laugh or cry. Well, I've become a hostage...

The eldest princess has spoken, so how can there be room for negotiation?

Zhao Hao had no choice but to lie back on the bed and watch her go to see her father happily.

At this moment, his admiration for someone was as endless as the surging river.

~~

The princess left the waterside pavilion, and Lady Liu hurriedly followed her, reminding her in a low voice, "Your Highness, you were mesmerized just now."

"What are you afraid of? He is still a child and can't understand." The princess said indifferently:

"Even if you understand, so what? Is it right for a child to interrupt in matters between adults?"

Upon hearing this, Lady Liu couldn't help but sigh inwardly, thinking that Her Highness had gotten too carried away and it would be useless to say anything now, so just let her be.

He then went ahead and expelled all the palace servants from Qinglu Hall, and then personally led Zhao Shouzheng into Qinglu Hall.

From the moment Zhao Shouzheng approached Diaoyutai, his throat was smoking, his hands were sweating, and his feet felt like they were stepping on cotton.

He didn't see the scenery along the way. If it weren't for Lady Liu leading him, he would have fallen into the icy lake...

Before we knew it, we arrived at Qinglu Hall.

Liu Shanggong looked back at the distracted Zhao Shouzheng and sighed inwardly, "What a sin."

Then he pushed open the palace door silently and whispered to him, "Zhao Xiaolian, His Highness is waiting for you inside."

"Oh." Zhao Shouzheng nodded quickly. Just as he was about to step in, he remembered what he was here for. He spoiled the mood and asked, "Where's my son?"

"Your son is fine, he just fell asleep due to overwork. I'll take you to see him after seeing His Highness." After hearing this, Lady Liu looked at Zhao Shouzheng with new eyes. She didn't expect that he would still think about his son at this time.

"Okay." Zhao Shouzheng nodded again, then lifted the hem of his robe and stepped over the high vermilion threshold of Qinglu Hall.

Behind him, Lady Liu slowly closed the door and stood guard outside the hall herself.

~~

In the Qinglu Hall, the brocade curtains were lowered and smoke was curling from the brass warming cage. Princess Ning'an, wearing a pearl-covered brow band and a pink flowered jacket, stood there quietly, staring at the man who slowly walked in.

The person who often appears in my dreams...

Zhao Shouzheng also stared at the priceless princess, his lips trembling and unable to speak.

Looking at that gentle, honest and down-to-earth face, the eldest princess finally burst into tears and couldn't help but cried out in a trembling voice.

"Zhao Lang..."

"Ning An..."

Zhao Shouzheng had shallow eyesight to begin with, and when he saw the eldest princess crying like a pear blossom in the rain, he also started wiping his tears.

He walked forward while crying, trying to wipe away her tears like he did in the past.

But when he was within two steps of Ning An, Zhao Shouzheng's feet seemed to be rooted there.

If he could be closer to her, he wouldn't have hidden himself that time in Xiao Penglai.

"Zhao Lang, I finally see you again." As she cried, the princess's pity disappeared and she became overjoyed. She looked at Zhao Shouzheng with her watery eyes and said, "I'm not dreaming, am I?"

Princess Ning'an's deep affection almost overwhelmed the entire palace. Zhao Shouzheng sighed deeply in his heart, then bowed deeply and said, "I pay my respects to Her Royal Highness the Princess."

Ning An saw that he was reluctant to step forward, and thought that it would be the same if I stepped forward myself.

Unexpectedly, just as she was about to take a step, she heard Zhao Shouzheng's words.

The princess was stunned for a moment, then stepped forward and stretched out her hand to help him up, forcing a smile and saying, "Zhao Lang, don't be so distant. Ning An will always be the crying little girl in front of you."

"I was too ignorant back then and did so many impertinent things to the princess." Zhao Shouzheng shook his head, not daring to look Ning An in the eye, and said, "Now that I think about it, I really deserve to die."

"That's not what Zhao Lang said at the beginning..." Ning An felt sad when he heard it, and smiled sadly, spreading his palms. He revealed the semicircular jade pendant that he had been holding tightly in his hand and said, "What did you say when we asked Lu Zigang to carve this jade pendant?"

"Now that we have families and children, why do we still talk about the past?" Zhao Shouzheng lowered his head even lower. "What we said when we were young cannot be taken seriously."

"You don't remember, but I do." The princess' heart was broken when she heard this. Her eyes were red and swollen, and she tried hard to hold back her tears as she spoke word by word:

"Jade is divided by people, and people are united with jade!"

Hearing these eight words, Zhao Shouzheng felt like he was struck by lightning and almost lost his position immediately.

"Where is the jade pendant? Take it out..." The eldest princess stretched out her hand in front of him, almost begging.

Although she had suffered when she was young, Jiajing compensated her doubly after Empress Fang's death, and Longqing always granted his sister's requests, which had long made Ning An develop a domineering personality, but now she can ask for help in such a soft voice.

One can't help but sigh, that damn love is such a stupid thing that makes people dizzy.

“This…” Zhao Shouzheng had no idea where he got the willpower from. He shook his head with difficulty and said, “So many years have passed and things have changed. I don’t know where it went…”

ps. The fifth update, 4500 votes plus more, asking for monthly votes and recommendation votes~~