Xiangrong fell sick, rushing through the night and getting caught in the rain, she had a fever that night, being confined to bed the next day, unable to get up.
An Shi asked a physician from Hundred Herb Hall to come over to examine Xiangrong, the illness was a normal one, with a physician from Hundred Herb Hall around, An Shi was not worried.
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It was just that Xuan Tianyi was more anxious, hearing the news from that side, he quickly visited on a swift horse, rushing straight to Xiangrong’s bed, seeing the girl lying on the bed with a flushed face and tightly knitted brows, he suddenly regretted the shrewd idea which he had thought up. If he did not claim that he was sick, Xiangrong would not have travelled over so hurriedly, right? And she wouldn’t get drenched by rain, right? He only thought about himself and caused this girl to fall sick, wasn’t this committing a sin?
He apologised to An Shi: “Madam, it was my fault, I have lacked consideration in this matter and caused this girl to fall sick.”
Because of Xiangrong, Xuan Tianyi was considered a familiar person to An Shi, but no matter how close or familiar they were, with An Shi’s personality, when faced with a prince apologising to her so seriously, she still felt a little embarrassed, and even bowed frequently, saying: “Your Highness the Fourth Prince, you are really treating us mother and daughter too well, we do not deserve this.”
But Xuan Tianyi did not think so, he really felt pained for Xiangrong. As long as he thought about this girl falling sick because of him, he could not stop feeling guilty. He stayed at the side of Xiangrong’s bed, never leaving for the whole day, not eating anything, only under the advice of the servants did he drink water twice. Only until evening time when Xiangrong became a little more energetic and was able to sit up and speak did he feel reassured.
When facing Xuan Tianyi, Xiangrong originally felt very angry, and had any words of complaints and lectures. She even thought of saying, you address me as Master, but since when did I teach you to lie? But after getting sick, all those thoughts were gone, especially when she saw Xuan Tianyi sit next to her bed and watching over her with his gaze filled with concern, she suddenly thought, if she fell sick in Chun Palace, would His Highness the Seventh Prince show this much concern over her?
There was no answer to this question because she had never fallen sick in front of the Seventh Prince. But she had fallen into the water in front of that person before. She still remembered when she was rescued from the water, that person had supported her with his arm and draped a cape over her. Currently, with Xuan Tianyi watching over her, she did feel moved, but thinking about when Xuan Tianhua helped her in the past, she felt tense and agitated, along with feelings of delight.
This, was the difference, right!
It was different, Xiangrong thought, when facing the person she liked, she was careful with everything she did, deliberating every sentence she said a few times before saying it, afraid that the other party would be irritated if she said something wrong. And when facing Xuan Tianyi, it was as if the two were so familiar that they became one family, she did not need to consider anything, saying whatever she thought, doing whatever she wanted, laughing without restraint when she felt happy, stomping her feet and scolding him when she was unhappy. With two completely different situations, she was unable to tell which side of herself did she like more.
“Do you feel any better?” Xuan Tianyi reached out to feel her forehead and Xiangrong moved back on reflex. His hand stopped in mid-air and did not move down any further. Retracting his hand in a bitter manner, he smiled bitterly, saying: “I did not think that it would cause you to fall sick, I’m sorry, I was in the wrong.”
This was a good point about Xuan Tianyi, he would admit it if he made a mistake, and did not feel like he was unable to put down his bearing as a prince. Actually, he was not like this in the past. In the past, he was someone with a huge burden, else he would not have set up an engagement with Bu family’s Bu Nichang and would not have staged an abdication together with Xuan Tianye. It was just that, past events were as transient as a fleeting cloud, for matters which one felt that they would not be able to let go for their whole lives, it would also change in an instant. He put down all the burdens on him, but he did not know if he would be able to let go of this girl who had already entered his heart.
“Go back after you have finished resting!” Xuan Tianyi went against his heart and said this. Even though he was very reluctant, once he saw this girl on her sickbed, he felt so pained that he rather let her go back, not wishing for her to stay longer and suffer here.
Xiangrong stared at Xuan Tianyi, not speaking, but she had guessed most of this person’s thoughts and feelings.
She understood Xuan Tianyi, understood him to the point that she could practically guess his thoughts. But so what if she understood? She had already made her choice, wasn’t that so? Currently, she was someone who had an engagement with the Seventh Prince. Coming to see him, fulfilling her duty, and from today onwards, they longer owed each other anything.
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She lowered her head, feeling rather bad, but she still opened her heart and told Xuan Tianyi: “I do not blame you for tricking me, just do not trick me again in the future. I came to see you, we should say what we should say, after speaking...... I am leaving. Her Highness Imperial Concubine Yun made the decision and facilitated the marriage between me and His Highness the Seventh Prince. Around the later half of the year, she will come to the prefecture and present the dowry to my mother.”
Xuan Tianyi was rather surprised, the matters in Chun Palace had always been secretive and no information could be leaked out. He did not have the ability to inject any spies into Chun Palace or Yu Palace, so what Xiangrong said was an absolute surprise. He was stunned and his throat was a little dry, half a beat later, he still said stiffly: “Congratulations, finally...... your dream came true.”
Xiangrong nodded, “Thank you. It is a dream, I saw the Seventh Prince for the first time when I was ten years old, and my heart had never moved since then. Xuan Tianyi, you might not know, and other people might not know as well, but I know, he is someone I liked ever since I first saw him, he is the first person I liked in my life, no matter what, I cannot let it go. When you and I met for the first time, the Feng family had already changed a lot under Second Sister’s influence, that time I was already very different from before. I had the courage to do things I did not dare to do in the past and had to courage to deal with a prince like you by myself. But when I met His Highness the Seventh Prince for the first time, Feng family was flourishing. For me and my mother, as the Feng family’s concubine and concubine’s daughter, we did not have any status, disliked by my grandmother, suppressed by my father and also bullied by my sisters. That was the darkest period in my life and during that period of time, His Highness the Seventh Prince helped me a lot. He helped me, saved me and was a source of mental support for me. Therefore, to me, he is different from everyone else.”
Xiangrong said these words calmly and also thought of those events in the past, thinking that His Highness the Seventh Prince had sent her fine clothes before, thinking that His Highness the Seventh Prince had reached a helping hand to her when she fell into the water, thinking that after this incident, the Feng manor had treated her unfairly and because Granny was thinking about the care His Highness the Seventh Prince had shown her, these actions were restrained. Then she thought about the night that year where she saw Han Shi appear next to the lake with untidy clothes, after that if not for her mother taking out the name of His Highness the Seventh Prince, the people from the Feng manor might not even attempt to look for her, thinking that she had fallen into the lake and drowned to death!
As she thought to this point, she could not help but smile. Everyone said that His Highness the Seventh Prince was a deity who descended from Heaven and would not have too much interactions with the human world. But between him and her, there were so many past interactions between them that she could remember, and thinking about them now, all of them were this beautiful.
She looked towards Xuan Tianyi again, and not knowing what came over her, she started talking about these things as if she had verbal diarrhea. Starting from when the Seventh Prince and the Ninth Prince sent her Second Sister back to Feng Manor together, for every event that happened, she spoke of them happily, all of them being the incidents which happened between her and His Highness the Seventh Prince. She even spoke about that year where she gathered up her courage to ask for help from Chun Palace and her feelings about stepping into Chun Palace for the first time.
Xuan Tianyi listened quietly, and when he listened until the end, all his doubts were cleared.
In the past, he did not know why Xiangrong was so infatuated with his Seventh Brother. He thought that Xiangrong was the same as the other females, toppling over because of Xuan Tianhua’s deity aura. It was only until now did he understand, there were actually so many stories between the two of them. Perhaps these stories were not considered much compared to other people, after all, if they really had deep feelings for each other, they should have more interactions. But because he knew one of the main characters in this was Xuan Tianhua, was that prince who never concerned himself with matters of this world, so Xuan Tianyi thought, it was already enough. With so many past interactions, for that Seventh Brother of his, it was already enough. And in this world, other than Feng Xiangrong, there was probably no other woman who could enjoy that much care and concern from his Seventh Brother, right?
Thinking about this, his heart actually saw the light and with a loud laugh, he pointed at Xiangrong and said: “Little girl, so you were this lucky. Do you know that, just based on all these events which you described, it would be enough for all the women in the world to become jealous. Your Second sister married Old Ninth, and the hearts of a portion of women have already died because of this, if you marry Old Seventh too, will the women of this world still have something to live for?”
Xiangrong was also amused into laughter by his words, with a “Puchi”, she laughed until half her sickly complexion disappeared. She told Xuan Tianyi: “There will be a woman who will walk to your side one day.”
Xuan Tianyi wanted to say that someone had already walked to his side, but after walking over, that person left again, he tried to salvage it before and used all kinds of methods, but he was unable to keep that person.
“As long as you’re blissful and happy.” He told Xiangrong, “I’m not returning to the capital anymore and will stay in Ji An Prefecture, do not worry, I will take care of An Shi in your place, of course, there is no one here who would give Madam a hard time, this place is your territory in the first place. You should stay with Old Seventh properly and look forward to your grand wedding.”
Xuan Tianyi knew, this time, he had really lost, and there was no way to salvage anything. If he did not listen to the stories Xiangrong told, he might just want to fight for a chance again. But when he heard about these events, he knew, this girl’s heart, he could not get it back. The roots of these feelings were buried deeply, even if he dug day and night, he would not be able to scatter them. So it was better to go along with her feelings, as long as she was happy, that would be the best.
Xiangrong stayed in Ji An Prefecture for five days, returning to the capital after five days. She informed An Shi that she would return when it was autumn, and Imperial Concubine Yun would come along, delivering the dowry personally.
An Shi did not say anything more, her daughter had already grown up and could make decisions about her own matters. As for the final result of this matter, she should not think too much about it! Whether it was good or bad, life or death, all of this was Xiangrong’s own choice. She depended on the Feng family for the first half of her life to live, and finally being free of it now, she could understand Xiangrong’s feelings for wanting to be like her Second Sister in how she made decisions on her personal matters.
Xiangrong took 15 days to return to the capital. Taking more than one month for this two way trip, she did not know that in the capital, the Left Prime Minister Lu Song had been stripped of his position. Even if he had struggled for a few rounds, he could not free himself from the decision made by the Emperor due to the teamwork between the three parties made up of General Ping Nan, Xuan Tianming and Feng Yuheng. This was also the first time the Emperor participated in court affairs after the Gu removal. He also made another decision at the same time, from now on, Da Shun would no longer have the position of Left Prime Minister!
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