Three Years After Falling Off the Cliff

"Your Highness." Lu Siyue walked to Prince Ning's side and said, "Everyone has entered the inner hall. Let's go in too."

"When did Siyue and Anying become so close?" Prince Ning regained his composure and walked side by side with Lu Siyue: "Why didn't you tell me these things?"

"It happened in the past two months." Lu Siyue smiled with a fake smile: "How can I bother the prince with the trivial matters of the women in the inner house?"
"Really?" Prince Ning helped Lu Siyue over the threshold and let go of her hand: "I thought the princess was hiding it on purpose, just like..."

He lowered his voice and said, "Just like I don't know when the princess and Yun Fuyi have such a good relationship. Under the watchful eyes of the public, I would rather damage my own reputation and speak for her."

"I didn't know that the prince had ever been friends with Fu Yi." Lu Siyue covered her face with a round fan. "The prince is not welcomed anywhere in the capital. If it weren't for Fu Yi's sake, how could the women in the capital treat me so well?"

Prince Ning looked at her deeply and said nothing.
Lu Siyue smiled gracefully, lifted her skirt and sat down, nodding slightly to Princess Kangyang who was sitting next to her.

Since the Cuju match, more and more people from the royal family passed her invitations, and people would take the initiative to talk to her at banquets, so she was no longer treated coldly or embarrassed.

In the past few months since she married in the capital, the Lu family has kept away from her, the royal family members are afraid of her, and Prince Ning only has superficial affection for her, and does not allow her to get involved in many affairs of the palace. The Lu family needs a reputation as a gentleman who keeps his promises, and Prince Ning needs a princess of noble birth, but no one cares about her own emotions.
until……

She looked towards Yun Fuyi until she appeared.

Fu Yi saw Lu Siyue looking at her, so he raised his glass towards her. They smiled at each other and drank from it.

"Fuyi." Cao Sanlang squeezed in next to Fuyi with a wine jug and sat down: "Congratulations on your improved archery skills."

"Get to the point." Fu Yi saw his playful smile and knew that he had something to ask for.

"Do you have anything to do tomorrow?" Cao Sanlang helped her fill her glass with wine. "I have arranged a Cuju match with someone. Come and help me play a game."

"I'm not free tomorrow."

"Fifty taels." Cao Sanlang made the number five.

"It's not about the money, it's mainly about..."

"One hundred taels..."

"Okay, I'll help you play half the game." Fu Yi picked up the wine glass: "It doesn't matter whether it's money or not, it's mainly because of our many years of friendship."
"Thank you, Boss." Cao Sanlang smiled happily, "I knew you wouldn't just stand by and watch someone die."

"Go away." Fu Yi waved her hand.
"Okay!" Cao Sanlang saluted exaggeratedly, turned around and ran with the wine jug in his arms, accidentally bumping into a palace maid. The wine jug in the palace maid's hand was knocked over, and the wine spilled all over the floor, with a lot of it splashing on Cao Sanlang and an envoy.

"Please forgive me, my lord!" The maid was so scared that she knelt on the ground and begged for mercy.

"He was just blind when he walked. It has nothing to do with you. Clean up the ground and go downstairs to change clothes." Fu Yi glared at Cao Sanlang unhappily and said, "Don't be rash at a state banquet."

Cao Sanlang apologized to the implicated envoy, who smiled and said it was okay.

"Miss, we meet again." The envoy smiled brighter when he saw Fu Yi: "I didn't expect that you are the noble princess of Dalong. Thank you for showing me the way last time."

Cao Sanlang looked at Fu Yi puzzledly and asked her with his eyes: Do you know this person?
Fu Yi shook her head slightly.

"Princess, I am the prince of Nanxu. I came to Dalong not only to congratulate your crown prince, but also to stay in Dalong to learn your beautiful culture." Seeing that Fu Yi didn't remember him, the prince of Nanxu explained, "Princess, do you remember that you showed me the way outside Jingzhao Prefecture a few days ago?"

"It's you." Fu Yi nodded politely to him: "Did Prince find Caiyinfang?"

The Nanxu Kingdom is adjacent to the Dalong and Liyan Kingdoms, but it is small and weak, so it dares not offend either the Liyan Kingdom or the Dalong Kingdom. Over the years, it has been trying to please both sides and protect itself.

"Fortunately, the princess showed me the way, and I found it successfully."

"Wangsun's Dalong speaks very well, and his accent is no different from that of our Long Dynasty." Fu Yi looked down at the palace maid kneeling on the ground to pick up the broken wine jug, frowned slightly, and said, "Don't clean it up yet, come with me."

The maid was trembling with fear and said with a pale face: "I obey your command."

She winked at Cao Sanlang and took the maid to a quiet place at the back through the side door.

"Princess, you... you have any instructions?" The maid hunched her shoulders and looked at the silent and deserted surroundings, her voice shaking even more violently.

"No palace servant in the Long Dynasty dares to stick their buttocks out in front of the noble. This is a taboo." Fu Yi took off the shawl hanging from her arm and asked, "What is your purpose in sneaking into the palace banquet?"

"Please forgive me, Princess. I was so scared that I forgot the rules of the palace. Please forgive my unintentional mistake." The palace maid knelt down in fear, banging her head on the ground.

There were footsteps not far away, and the maid said in a crying voice: "Please understand, my lady, I have no intention of seducing you, please forgive me."

Fu Yi looked up at Sui Tingheng and Cao Sanlang who were standing not far away and chuckled.

"Your Highness!" The maid noticed the prince's figure and, with blood all over her face, she knelt down in front of Sui Tingheng and said, "Your Highness, please save me, Your Highness."

Sui Tingheng stepped aside a few steps, not letting the maid hold his legs. "Your Highness." Noticing Sui Tingheng's movements, the maid stopped approaching him and cried, "Please understand, Your Highness. I am of humble origin, how dare I associate with a noble man, but the princess said that I am arrogant and said that I... said that I am lowly."
When she said this, every word the palace maid said was filled with tears, as if she had suffered endless injustice.

Watching the maid's excellent performance, Fu Yi threw the shawl in her hand to Cao Sanlang, bent down, pinched the maid's chin, smiled at her tearful eyes and said, "Although you don't understand the palace rules, you are naturally familiar with the palace's methods."

The palace maid cried without saying a word, and only looked to Sui Tingheng for help with her pitiful eyes.

Sui Tingheng raised his hand towards the darkness, and two guards wearing robes with cloud patterns appeared and walked towards the palace maid with sullen faces.

Realizing that the prince didn't believe her at all, the palace maiden's expression became chilly. She pulled out the silver hairpin in her hair and stabbed Fu Yi.

"Fuyi!" Sui Tingheng's face changed drastically and he ran towards Fuyi.

"You are a man." Fu Yi was prepared, and the moment "she" pulled out the hairpin, she kicked "her" in the chest. The palace maid fell with her head raised, and two round balls of cloth fell out.

Fu Yi picked up the cloth ball and stuffed it into the "palace maid's" mouth to prevent her from making any noise and startling the guests in the front hall. When the guards arrested the man, Fu Yi pulled open his outer robe and saw a flat chest.

"Boss!" Cao Sanlang jumped up in shock when he saw Fu Yi stripping someone's clothes. He used a shawl to cover her eyes and whispered, "Ahem, the Crown Prince is still here. Please restrain yourself."

"Take him to the prison and interrogate him severely. Arrange the female guards in the inner hall. Do not cause any panic before the banquet is over." Sui Tingheng did not even look at the assassin and walked to Fu Yi: "Are you injured?"

"Don't worry, Your Highness. I'm fine." Fu Yi said thoughtfully, "Fortunately, the Queen has cleared out all the forces in the palace. It's not easy for outsiders to sneak in without being discovered."

For people in the palace, caution is ingrained in their bones. No matter how much outsiders pretend to be like them, they cannot imitate the caution and prudence of the palace servants.

"Your Highness." Mo Wen hurried over and whispered, "The wine spilled by the palace maid is fine, but there is a trace of poison on the wine pot, which can make people unconscious for a few days but is not fatal. There are many envoys from various countries today, and this person is most likely brought in by one of the envoys."

Sui Tingheng did not speak. He looked at Fu Yi who was adjusting her shawl and reached out to help her smooth out the wrinkles on it: "Fu Yi, I will accompany you back to the inner hall."
Where there is power, there is never peace.

Fu Yi turned her head to glance at Sui Tingheng. The fake palace maid had said so much just now, but the prince's expression didn't seem to change at all. How could he believe her so much?

After the palace banquet ended peacefully, the assassin's identity was already on the imperial desk.

"Duozhu Kingdom?" Sui Tingheng put the investigation report back on the table: "Duozhu and my Dalong have been friends for many years, and the place is small and sparsely populated, so they don't need to do such a thing."

"I also think it's unlikely to be them." The emperor sighed, "The Liyan Kingdom is eyeing us covetously. They also had a poor harvest last year. If something happens to the envoys of the Liyan Kingdom at the palace banquet, then a war is inevitable."

Liyan is short of food and grass, and Dalong's treasury is empty. Now the two countries are barely maintaining a superficial balance, but both sides know that this balance will not last long.

"Father, the Liyan Kingdom suffered a loss at the hands of Fu Yi today, but he endured it silently, which means he wants something from us." Sui Tingheng said calmly, "If he wants something, he has a weakness. King Liyan is old, but his sons are all ambitious."

"I'll leave this to you." The emperor was most afraid of having to think. He said without hesitation, "At worst, we can just fight them. Then I'll lead the army myself."

Sui Tingheng said with a straight face: "Father, it's late, you should go to bed early."

emperor:"……"
My own child is different. I can directly say that he is dreaming, but I still have to tactfully persuade him to go to bed early.
How can this not be considered filial piety?
After walking out of the imperial study, Sui Tingheng sat on the sedan chair and thought about how when the assassin slandered Fu Yi, she didn't even say a word of explanation.

"No one will hear that."

"Your Highness?" Mo Wen saw the cold and aloof prince suddenly looking at him, and he bowed hurriedly and waited for his instructions.

"If someone slanders you and there is another person present, why would you not want to explain?"

Mo Wen thought for a moment: "Maybe... I don't care about that person's misunderstanding?"

After replying this, he waited for a long time but the prince did not speak. Just as he was about to look up at the prince cautiously, he heard the prince say, "Is there no second possibility?"

"It's also possible... It's also possible that I believe this person won't misunderstand me." Mo Wen suddenly had an idea: "For example, no matter what others say, I only believe what you say, Your Highness."

Sui Tingheng's eyebrows slowly relaxed: "You have a point."

The palace road fell silent again until the sedan chair stopped at the Palace of Seal. Mo Wen bowed and held up the palace lantern to illuminate the way for His Highness. He heard His Highness suddenly ask, "Have you ever received a gift made by someone for you?"

"Your Highness, I am a eunuch. How could anyone give me such a thoughtful gift?" Mo Wen vaguely sensed that something was wrong with the prince: "Your Highness, which gift do you want to see? I remember that several princesses and county ladies personally bought it for you."

Sui Tingheng glanced at him.
Mo Wen felt that the prince's look at him was a little cold, as if he was very dissatisfied with his answer.

Mo Wen swallowed and said, "Your Highness?"
"Nothing." Sui Tingheng touched the purse containing jade beads on his waist and went to the backyard to water the flowers and plants.

It was rare that Fu Yi was willing to spend time carving jade beads for him.

He stroked the leaves gently, wondering when it would bloom.
(End of this chapter)