"No matter how respected the Kaiser is, he is still a man. Isn't it perfectly justified for a man to protect women?"
"But didn't you just say that following a man is improper?"
Meng Hui lowered her head and muttered as she rotated her thumb in a circle.
The empress dowager choked on her words and pretended not to hear them. She continued, "In short, if you want to leave the palace, ask the emperor to come with you. Either stay in the palace obediently and don't go anywhere else, Dong Xue, send someone to keep an eye on Miss Meng."
"Yes."
After the empress dowager finished speaking, she turned and headed to the rear hall, leaving Meng Hui sighing at her back.
The empress dowager had truly worried herself to death over the emperor's marriage. She felt pity for her parents, but she couldn't push her into a fiery pit of fire.
While Meng Hui was sighing, Dong Xue had already called for a few guards to keep an eye on her.
Outside the palace, the bright fireworks caused Meng Hui's eyes to be filled with color, and she became even more restless.
It's rare to come back to the capital, but don't you think it's too much not to allow people to leave during such a bustling day?
AHH!
After Meng Hui screamed crazily in her heart, she turned around and walked towards the Chengde Palace in large strides. The few guards behind her followed her closely without leaving even a single inch.
Inside the Chengde Palace, the moment Yan Shuo sat down, he heard the attendant report, "Your majesty, the Miss Meng is here."
"Meng Hui?"
Yan Shuo frowned, "What is she doing?"
"Miss Meng said that she would like to invite you to play on the street."
"She asked me to go out and play?"
Yan Shuo frowned even more. What was Meng Hui doing?
"That's right, your majesty. It's Yuanxiao today, so I assume that Miss Meng wants to go out and play. After all, she's always been at the border and has never seen one before."
Only now did Yan Shuo remember that today was Yuanxiao, and recalled how he had pestered Yun Jiao Rong to go out of the palace to play in the past, causing his mood to immediately drop to the bottom.
"Go down and tell her that Zhen won't go."
"Yes."
Not long after the attendant left, Meng Hui came in directly. Seeing Yan Shuo leaning on the table and reading a book, he walked up to him and looked at him with his bright eyes, saying, "Your majesty, let's go out and play."
Her simple and crude invitation made Yan Shuo, who had stopped in his tracks in the book, slowly raise his head to look at her. There was a look of anticipation in her eyes, as if she was waiting for him to say just one sentence.
"If you want to go out, go out by yourself. No one is stopping you. I'm tired, so I don't want to go out."
Who said that no one was stopping me? Your mother, the empress dowager, has sent people to keep an eye on me!
"Your Majesty, the empress dowager said that if you don't want to go out, then you can forbid me from going out. How about you send me to the palace gates and you can come back?"
Hearing Meng Hui's words, Yan Shuo more or less understood in his heart that his mother was doing everything possible to get him and Meng Hui together.
Actually, he had thought about it before, since he was going to establish the future and establish Meng Hui, it wouldn't be wrong for him to do so. However, the words that his royal uncle and the others had said that day were reasonable, so since he was uninterested in Meng Hui, he shouldn't marry her.
Zheng Qing Feng's brain was different from the other ministers who relied on their daughters to climb up the ranks. He would rather look like a white clothed man than borrow the happiness of his daughters to consolidate his own power, thus, that brain of his knew that his daughter marrying him, the Kaiser, was not a happy man, and might actually come to the palace to kill him.
Anything that couldn't be solved with brainpower, Zheng Qing Feng would always use violence to solve.
So on that day, Yan Shuo dispelled the idea of marrying Meng Hui, but once he dispelled the idea, it did not mean that his mother would give up the idea.
Yan Shuo pinched the center of his brows, feeling a headache coming on.
"Your majesty."
Meng Hui suddenly went up to him, lowered her voice, and looked at him with a mysterious gaze, to his bewilderment.
"For what?"
He frowned and kept a distance from Meng Hui, looking at her warily.
"Your majesty, don't you want to go find Rong Er?"
Then, he looked around and said, "Your Majesty, I know what the empress dowager wants. Don't worry, I won't take advantage of you, help me take him out of the palace, I'll help you make an appointment with Rong Er, okay?"
She giggled as she looked at Yan Shuo. Her expression of "I have long seen through you" made Yan Shuo feel guilty.
Ever since Rong Er left the Imperial Palace, he hadn't looked for her again. He had agreed to not disturb her anymore, but now that Meng Hui had mentioned it, her heart started to stir with restlessness.
"Your majesty, do you really not miss Rong Er at all?"
Meng Hui saw that Yan Shuo's expression was slightly relaxed, and continued to work hard.
Yan Shuo hesitated for a moment, but did not say anything, standing up from the table: "Let's go."
Meng Hui howled at the sky in her heart, but her expression was extremely calm. "Go, go, go."
She followed behind Kaiser and out of the Chengde Palace, saying to the guards arranged by the empress dowager, "Did you see that? Go back and tell the empress dowager that there's an unrivalled emperor accompanying me, there's no need to follow me."
"…"
As expected, the guards followed her obediently. The empress dowager had already instructed that as long as the emperor accompanied the Miss Meng, they wouldn't be needed.
Besides, the emperor was surrounded by a lot of secret guards. Security was guaranteed, so the guards left straightforwardly.
Inside the Dragon Gate Academy, Yun Jiao Rong sat in the courtyard for a while before getting up to head back to sleep.
The student in charge of guarding the door walked over to open it. He saw a beautiful lady that he didn't recognize standing in front of him. She had a smile on her face.
"May I ask Miss, who are you looking for?"
"I'm looking for Yun Jiao Rong, where is she?"
"Miss Yun is in the backyard, I'll go report now."
"There's no need to report. Why are you making so many rules? I'm just here to play with her."
When the student was about to turn and leave, Meng Hui had already called out to him, telling her to bring him to find Yun Jiao Rong immediately.
Hearing her tone, it seemed that she was very familiar with Yun Jiao Rong, and the student did not ask anymore, and brought Meng Hui to the backyard.
Yun Jiao Rong heard the commotion outside the courtyard, and turned to look. Seeing that Meng Hui had already stepped into her courtyard, when she saw her, she immediately ran over.
"I knew you weren't asleep yet. Come, let's go out and play. The streets are bustling today. I begged the empress dowager for a long time before she let me out."
She righteously did not betray the Kaiser. Yun Jiao Rong was pulled by her, but he did not move.
When she was young, her relationship with Meng Hui was very good. Later on, after Meng Hui went to the border, it was because the road was very long and the letters were not very convenient. Furthermore, Meng Hui stayed there and barely returned.
But even so, after Meng Hui returned to the capital, the relationship between the two of them was once again as good as it was in the past.