After leaving the out - of - town palace, Yuan Zhao returned to the princess mansion in a daze and locked herself in her room.
An Yi flipped down from the beam and came to Yuan Zhao's side. She carefully observed Yuan Zhao's expression and saw that her face was gloomy, as if she was trying hard to hold back intense emotions.
"Your Highness the Princess, what's wrong? Is there anything I can do for you?" An Yi whispered, afraid that even a louder voice would startle the princess who was immersed in her emotions.
Yuan Zhao curled up on her bed, and the shadow enveloped her whole body.
When An Yi had knelt until her legs were a bit numb, Yuan Zhao finally spoke softly, "An Yi, do you think I've made a mistake?"
An Yi didn't know what Yuan Zhao was referring to, but her life was saved by Yuan Zhao. In her eyes, Yuan Zhao was always right, and her loyalty would only be given to the princess.
So An Yi firmly said, "No matter what Your Highness the Princess does, An Yi will always follow by your side. As long as it's what Your Highness wants to do, in An Yi's eyes, it will always be right."
Yuan Zhao paused for a moment. Tears slid down her cheeks. After a while, she calmed her emotions. A glint of cold light flashed in her eyes as she said to An Yi, "Bring that person here. I want to see him!"
"Yes!"
...
The crescent moon hung high in the sky.
The streets of Shangjing were already deserted. Only the cicadas were still chirping at night.
To avoid attracting attention, Li Tianyun arranged for Shen Qing and Hong Chaoyang to stay in the most remote courtyard of his mansion. On weekdays, he didn't allow servants to get close, so there were only Shen Qing and Hong Chaoyang in this small courtyard.
Wang Wang had been sneaky these days. No one knew what he was up to. Shen Qing and Hong Chaoyang had nothing to do, so they sat facing each other in meditation.
Hong Chaoyang: "Shen Qing, is it really okay for us to be so idle?"
Shen Qing: "What else can we do?"
Hong Chaoyang: "We can go out of the city to help Li Xian and Xue Ling, or go to discuss the next plan with Yuan Zhao. If not... I've heard that the emperor is in poor health. How about we disguise ourselves as divine doctors and go into the palace to treat the emperor?"
Without even thinking, Shen Qing directly refused, "I don't agree with any of what you said. Just stay here."
Hong Chaoyang immediately deflated, "But it's really boring here!"
In her imagination, when she followed Shen Qing down to the mortal world, they were surely going to do something big. For example, she would help Yuan Zhao stir up the situation in the court, use the magic spells she had learned to cure the common people, and become a great hero in the eyes of the people.
But they had been here for several days. Besides arranging for Li Xian and Xue Ling to set up magic formations to disrupt the nearby towns or going to chat with Yuan Zhao, Shen Qing had taken no other actions.
"What's boring? Isn't this a good chance for you to practice your skills? Have you grasped today's mental cultivation method?" Shen Qing closed her eyes and said in a flat tone.
Hong Chaoyang looked at Shen Qing. Vaguely, it was as if the real Red Butterfly was by her side every day, urging her to practice. This made her shiver instantly.
"I..."
"Shh!"
Suddenly, Shen Qing opened her eyes and interrupted what Hong Chaoyang was about to say.
Hong Chaoyang sensitively smelled that something was going to happen. Her face became excited. After Shen Qing relaxed her wrinkled brows, Hong Chaoyang excitedly asked, "What's going on? Is there something big happening?"
Shen Qing was a bit confused. She had set up her own barrier in Li Tianyun's mansion. If a stranger broke in, she would immediately know.
Just now, she sensed that An Yi, who was beside Yuan Zhao, had come in and taken Li Tianyun away. This puzzled her.
Weren't these two supposed to be sworn enemies?
Why would someone beside Yuan Zhao take Li Tianyun away? This was a bit unreasonable...
What on earth was Yuan Zhao up to?
But it was no use thinking too much. So Shen Qing said to Hong Chaoyang, "Yuan Zhao's people have taken Li Tianyun away. Let's go and have a look."
Hearing it was about Yuan Zhao and Li Tianyun, Hong Chaoyang was a bit disappointed at first, but then she thought of their relationship and became excited again.
"Okay, okay, okay. Let's go quickly!"
Hong Chaoyang was very enthusiastic. She grabbed Shen Qing and quickly jumped onto the roof, dashing towards Yuan Zhao's princess mansion.
Li Tianyun was carried on An Yi's shoulder with his head upside down. The scenery beside him flashed by quickly, making him dizzy and nauseous.
"How can a little girl like you be so strong? Can't you just put me down and let me take a carriage to the princess mansion!!"
An Yi gave Li Tianyun a disdainful look, "Do you think there aren't enough spies in Shangjing? Do you have to expose your relationship with the princess to be satisfied?"
Li Tianyun fell silent. During this period, the people in the Third Prince's mansion and his master had all been arranged to leave the city, which made him relax his vigilance.
After finally enduring the feeling of nausea all the way, An Yi finally brought him to the princess mansion.
As soon as they arrived at the princess mansion, An Yi threw him into the courtyard and then disappeared into the darkness.
Li Tianyun rubbed his sore waist and buttocks and cursed in the direction where An Yi had disappeared.
But in the next moment, when Li Tianyun saw Yuan Zhao hidden in the shadow, he was immediately startled and quickly knelt down, "Your humble subject pays respects to Your Highness the Princess. I wonder why Your Highness wants to see your subject in the middle of the night?"
On the surface, Li Tianyun followed Yuan Tongtian and was a member of the Third Prince's party. In fact, he secretly cooperated with Yuan Zhao. The poison in the sugar cakes was given to Yuan Zhao by Li Tianyun.
Yuan Zhao was dressed in gorgeous princess clothes and wore a phoenix crown. She had an imposing manner. No one would ignore her identity because of her round and cute face.
Yuan Zhao slowly walked out of the shadow and stood in front of Li Tianyun. She reached out and touched the phoenix crown on her head, whispering softly as if in memory, "This phoenix crown is a relic left to me by my mother. Every time there was a palace banquet, Father would always allow me to wear Mother's phoenix crown to the banquet in the palace."
"The world all says that Father loved Mother dearly. After Mother passed away, the position of the queen has always been vacant. Even though a noble imperial concubine was appointed to manage the affairs of the harem, she could never surpass Mother."
"But no one knows that Mother's death... was caused by Father. If he hadn't disliked Mother for losing her chastity and made Mother, who was pregnant, kneel in punishment, Mother wouldn't have died of massive bleeding due to premature birth."
"He dotes on me and loves me only because he remembers Mother's goodness again and regrets why he didn't trust Mother..."
Li Tianyun knelt on the ground, curling up his body. He wished he could bury himself in the soil.
He didn't want to hear these palace secrets. The more secrets one knew, the earlier one would die.
But Yuan Zhao seemed not to notice Li Tianyun's uneasiness and fear. She still murmured the long - buried secrets in her heart.
"Father is the most hypocritical. Mother was just weak because of pregnancy. When she got off the carriage, she almost stumbled over a maid beside her. In a critical moment, a guard picked her up to save her. Just because of this, Father thought Mother was unchaste and abandoned her."
"How ridiculous! It's simply too ridiculous!"
Yuan Zhao shed tears painfully. Her expression was a bit crazy. At first glance, it made people think she had gone a bit mad.