I quickly pushed and pulled my brother, dragging him from Huiyang Palace back to the Twin - Birth Palace.
As soon as my brother entered the door, he said angrily to me, "Quickly tell brother, what on earth did the two of you do yesterday!"
I looked at my brother with an innocent and aggrieved face. "We didn't do anything..."
"Then why did he carry you back last night? And why did I hear that the two of you were hugging and cuddling in the grove yesterday? It's so improper!"
I couldn't help but look up at the sky. What nonsense was this...
I only remembered that I hugged him and cried. I had forgotten everything else. I silently repeated in my heart: I'm heartless, I'm heartless, I'm heartless... I don't want to remember, I don't want to remember, I don't want to remember...
Seeing that I didn't answer, my brother grabbed me and said, "Are you going to tell me or not?"
I immediately pried open his hand and muttered, "Brother, I really have nothing to do with him."
Only then did my brother calm down. Looking at me, he asked again, "Really?"
I nodded frantically. "Really!"
Finally, my brother put his mind at ease. He patted me on the shoulder and said meaningfully, "Xihe, we must stand united. We must never be bought off by him."
I continued to nod. My brother was even more satisfied. Then he dropped a bombshell on me. "Let me tell you, Yu Chicheng is an absolutely despicable and shameless person. Last time when you were taking a bath, it was he who kept saying that you hadn't come out all day and might be in trouble. Brother was worried about you, so he rushed in. Brother really didn't mean to bring him in at that time. It was he who just barged in on his own. I suspect that he planned the whole thing. So you must never forgive him just because he's nice to you for a while!"
Speaking of the bath incident last time, I got angry again. I clenched my fists and said, "Don't worry, brother. I will definitely stand united with you and never waver!"
My brother nodded in great satisfaction. As his nerves relaxed, he began to rub his shoulder and exclaimed, "Ouch, it hurts so much. He punched me just now..."
Seeing this, I quickly went to check for him. "Where is it? Let me have a look."
"Here... here... Ouch, be gentle..."
"Okay!" I carefully rubbed my brother's shoulder. My brother gave me a happy smile. His long eyelashes cast a beautiful shadow on his face. To be honest, I really envied his long and beautiful eyelashes just like Father's.
...
After that fight, there were frequent scenes of the two of them fighting in the palace. Every day, I would hear different maids shouting in my ear, "Oh no, the eldest prince and Prince Yu are fighting again!"
Or -
"No! The eldest prince and the eldest prince are going to tear down the XX Palace!"
At this time, I would calmly say, "Oh, they're fighting again? Then go and tell Father!"
Later, as this happened more often, the maids would answer, "The eldest prince doesn't allow us to tell. He said it's a battle between men."
At the same time, someone else would urge, "Princess, please go quickly. Only you can stop them now!"
Whenever this happened, I really wanted to roll my eyes at the sky...
Because of the little episode between my brother and Yu Chicheng, I didn't think about Qi Yuan for several days. Maybe this was the so - called deliberate avoidance.
I still went to pick up my brother from the place where they were fighting every day. I still listened to my brother complaining about Yu Chicheng every day. It felt just like when I used to teach Xi Yao.
Finally, one day, after my brother had talked himself hoarse trying to strengthen my determination to oppose Yu Chicheng, he switched to another topic. He said, "Xihe, hasn't brother taken you out to play for a long time?"
I looked at him and nodded. "You finally remembered."
He scratched the back of his head and smiled. "I've been too busy fighting recently. I forgot."
I couldn't help but roll my eyes at him.
He continued to smile. "So where does Xihe want to go?"
I thought for a while and then said, "Let's go out of the palace. I want to stroll around the imperial city. The nearby palaces are so boring."
My brother said, "Okay! Anyway, we still have a chance to go out of the palace this year. I'll go and ask Mother for the token."
I nodded and watched my brother leave.
In the palace these days, I had been staying in the Twin - Birth Palace because I was afraid of being reminded of sad things. As my brother said, "I fight with Yu Chicheng also hoping that you can get out and move around more. You'll get bored if you stay in the room all the time!" So it was rare that I proposed to go out of the palace. Naturally, my brother was willing to run errands for me.
According to the laws of the Dayong Dynasty, generally, princesses and princes couldn't go out of the palace at will. But Father and Mother were very open - minded about this. They thought that it was reasonable to regularly observe the people's conditions and have fun with the people. So they didn't forbid us to go out of the palace.
I even remembered that when I was a child, I went out of the palace with Father and Mother. But I was so young at that time. All I remembered was being held in Father's arms and watching the lanterns all over the city. I didn't remember what else I did. Later, when I told Mother about this memory, Mother just said that if I still wanted to go out and play, I had to first learn how to protect myself. So within a year, my brother practiced sword - fighting and I practiced acupuncture. Finally, we managed to win a chance to go out of the palace with an escort.
We had a really good time that time. It was only later that I heard that Mother originally planned to go with us that time. But because of Father's words "We always have to grow up and face everything on our own", she didn't go. But Mother's uneasiness was obviously a bit unnecessary. Because nothing bad happened during that trip. We just took a ride around the imperial city in a fancy carriage and had a look at this prosperous imperial capital under my father's rule.
The prosperity of the imperial capital made me really feel the thriving of this country. When I understood the value I carried, I began to worship Father, who was sitting on the throne and ruling the country with one hand. During that period, even my always - naughty brother was eager to learn, which made Father and Mother very relieved. It was a pity that this situation didn't last long. We were soon corrupted by the luxurious life in the palace. So Father made an agreement with us. As long as we met certain conditions, we could go out of the palace to play. This inspired our interest in learning again.
Mother's attitude towards this was that as long as we reached the learning goals they set, we would have a chance to go out of the palace once a year. And we could choose the time by ourselves. We just needed to ask her for the token after we made the decision.
This year, my brother and I had both achieved the goal early, but we hadn't used the chance to go out. So as soon as I proposed it, my brother went to ask Mother for the token.
I watched my brother walking away. Thinking that I could go out soon, I finally showed a happy smile.
Unexpectedly, just after I smiled, a voice came from above my head. "That's right. You look much better when you smile more."
I was startled. I looked up and saw Yu Chicheng flying down from the roof beam. His robe fluttered in the wind, setting off his cold and stern face. He actually looked quite imposing.