Hsu Mansion.

Xu Jingzong sat on a chair in the living room, and Xu Jiaoyun stood beside him obediently. Xu Jingzong is over sixty years old, but Xu Jiaoyun is only sixteen this year, and he was born by his concubine, because it is his last child, Xu Jingzong loves Xu Jiaoyun very much.

"Yunyun, yesterday His Highness went to play in the Fuzhong Garden, did you see it?" Xu Jingzong asked lightly.

"I saw it!" Xu Jiaoyun replied flatly.

Suddenly called to the study by her father, she was a little flustered, even if her father doted on herself, but rarely let her go to the study to talk, the study has always been a forbidden place for her father.

"How?" Xu Jingzong asked softly.

"How's that?" Xu Jiaoyun asked puzzled.

"What my father asks is what do you think of Your Highness?" Xu Jingzong said slightly angrily. He didn't believe that his daughter was so smart that she couldn't understand the meaning of his words?

"It's okay, it's just that the body is too thin, the rumors outside are not wrong at all, the prince is suffering from a stubborn disease, and he can't come out of the East Palace all the year round..."Xu Jiaoyun began to chatter endlessly.

Xu Jingzong's face was gloomy, these words had never been rumored in his house, and his daughter didn't hear them much outside, and her daughter suddenly chattered to herself about these words, obviously someone else told her.

"Yunyun, who did you listen to all these words?" Xu Jingzong tried his best to suppress his anger and asked.

Xu Jiaoyun was not afraid that Xu Jingzong would be angry, so she replied disapprerovingly, "This is what Sister Yang told me." ”

"Yang Sijian's daughter?" Xu Jingzong asked.

"Yes, it's Yang Sisi, yesterday she happened to come to the mansion to enjoy the flowers, and met His Royal Highness the Prince, after the prince left, she told me and Sister Yanrong in private." Xu Jiaoyun replied.

"Humph!" Xu Jingzong snorted coldly and said, "Yang Sijian will only flatter, and his daughter will only chew the root of his tongue, so you will have less contact with her in the future." Pei Yanrong is a good girl, you can socialize with her more. ”

Xu Jingzong, as the prime minister, naturally knows the situation in the family of the ministers of the DPRK and the central government, what Yang Sijian's daughter Yang Sisi is like, he has also heard about it outside, but he didn't say it in front of the girl, in fact, the people of Chang'an have a high praise for Yang Sisi, but this just becomes a problem, a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl, and she is not very talented, but she is so appreciated by the people, if there is no problem, it would be strange.

No matter how naughty and willful Xu Jiaoyun was, she didn't dare to disobey Xu Jingzong, so she could only whisper, "Oh, I know! ”

"Tell me, what do you think of the prince?" Xu Jingzong continued the topic just now, this was the purpose of him calling Xu Jiaoyun to the study.

Not to mention that Li Hong is the crown prince, he will be the emperor in the future. Just said that he now has eight iron mines in his hands, and the money he wants to make in the future is enough for Xu Jingzong to marry his daughter into the East Palace. In the past, if he did this, he might still be a little unconfident, but now it is different, he has been the prime minister for so many years, and has accumulated a lot of wealth, and his daughter is married to a prince, he feels that there is nothing unworthy. Isn't the family of today's queen also very ordinary?

"His Royal Highness the Prince, he is a good person, he has no arrogance, he is very kind, but he is a little nervous-" Xu Jiaoyun thought of Li Hong's sudden departure yesterday, and said, "He doesn't seem to treat Sister Yang very much, and his gaze on Yan Rong is very gentle." ”

Xu Jingzong hated that iron could not become steel, and asked coldly, "My father is asking you, what do you say they do?" ”

Xu Jiaoyun saw that her father's face was getting more and more gloomy, so she whispered, "I think he's very good, but he is a little old-fashioned and not fun at a young age." ”

"What does he do to you?" Xu Jingzong still resisted the urge to reprimand Xu Jiaoyun and asked.

Xu Jiaoyun held back for a long time, and then said something like this, "He likes my character very much..."

"Nothing?" Xu Jingzong asked.

"Nope." Xu Jiaoyun replied.

"The prince is fourteen years old this year, and he will choose a concubine in two years, thinking that my father's speculation shows that Niangniang does not want the prince to marry the daughter of the scholar clan, but this gives us a chance." Xu Jingzong said softly, "Yunyun, do you understand what it means to be a father? ”

No matter how stupid Xu Jiaoyun was, he knew what his father meant when he heard Xu Jingzong say this, so he didn't speak, but just nodded slightly.

"If you know, it's good." Xu Jingzong said in a kind tone, "In the future, you will be less greedy for fun, and my father will invite you to invite a few good teachers to teach you qin, chess, calligraphy and female red, you must study them seriously, and strive to learn them within two years." ”

"Daddy-" Xu Jiaoyun was dumbfounded, she finished learning qinqi, calligraphy and female celebrity within two years, isn't this going to kill herself? But Xu Jingzong didn't give her a chance to speak, "Okay, this matter is up to my father, you go down!" ”

"Yes." Xu Jiaoyun was helpless, so she could only exit the study in a low voice.

"Hmph, what a prince, it's just a little brat. Prince, Prince, it's all your fault, if it weren't for you, would my father have forced me to learn these things? Xu Jiaoyun scolded in a low voice as she walked, she had already ruthlessly beaten Li Hong in her heart.

……

Yang House.

"What? You said you saw the prince in Xu's Mansion yesterday? In the living room, Yang Sijian stood up in surprise and asked after listening to his daughter's words. Mrs. Yang, who was on the side, was also startled when she saw her husband's actions, and stood up.

The prince has always disliked banquets, let alone going to banquets at the courtiers' homes. This time, the prince rectified Li Ji, cleared the charge of the Huaxian tragedy, and solved the problem of the Tubo mission. At this time, the crown prince suddenly appeared in Xu Jingzong's mansion, and Yang Sijian, who was a confidant of the Empress Wu and a subordinate official of the East Palace, had to consider the meaning.

"Dad, what's wrong with you?" Yang Sisi asked puzzled.

"Master, are you alright?" Mrs. Yang also asked with concern on the side.

"It's okay, Sisi, you quickly tell your father about the situation of seeing the prince in the Xu Mansion." Yang Sijian suddenly said to Yang Sisi.

Yang Sisi saw that his father was so nervous, so he didn't dare to ask anything more, but told Yang Sijian about meeting the prince in the garden, admiring the flowers with the prince, and then leaving in a hurry because the prince heard his words.

After listening to this, Yang Sijian was silent, but looking at his face, he was obviously a little angry.

After a long time, Yang Sijian spoke, "Sisi, what do you think your father sent people to spread your reputation in Chang'an City?" ”

"My daughter doesn't know." Yang Sisi replied in a low voice.

"It's for the East Palace, it's for the prince, and it's for the princess." Yang Sijian said in a deep voice.

Seeing that Yang Sisi and Mrs. Yang both looked puzzled, Yang Sijian continued, "The prince is frail and sickly, if he chooses a concubine in the future, His Majesty and Niangniang no longer value the family and family, but her gentleness and virtuousness, whether she can take care of the prince and be a virtuous queen." ”

I have to say that Yang Sijian, as a subordinate official of the East Palace, has a deep mind. He has been fighting Li Hong's idea from the beginning, and he is indeed a scheming opportunist.

Yang Sisi seemed to understand something, but he was not very sure, "What does Daddy mean?" ”

"Sisi, our Yang family is not a high-ranking nobleman, and it is not the family of the prime minister of the country, whether you can ascend to the sky in one step in the future depends on your daughter." Yang Sijian said to Yang Sisi. After Yang Sijian said this, Mrs. Yang also understood what her husband meant, so she nodded and said, "Yes, Sisi, since your father has been preparing for you for so long, he must have his plans, and you must not miss this opportunity this time." ”

"This..."Yang Si thought that yesterday in the garden of Xufu, the prince didn't like him very much, so he frowned and didn't speak, but seeing the expectant looks of her father and mother, she could only nod slightly and said, "My daughter won't let my father and mother down." ”

"That's good, that's good." Mrs. Yang said happily. But Yang Sijian listened to Yang Sisi's words, and his face was not happy. Because he knows that his daughter has an opponent now, and the other party is still Xu Jingzong's daughter, whether it is the family background, or the close relationship with the Empress Wu and the prince, he is not as good as Xu Jingzong. However, Xu Jingzong is the prime minister, and his official position is much higher than him, and Xu Jingzong has no way to participate in it. Now the only thing he hopes for is that Pei Judao will not participate in it anymore. Because compared with his daughter Xu Sisi, Pei Judao's daughter Pei Yanrong is better than her daughter in terms of appearance and character. If Pei Judao moves his mind, he is his daughter's real rival.

……

Pei Fu.

The garden is lonely and cold, unlike the garden of Xufu, which is luxurious and full of fragrance. There are only withered branches, only a patch of snow that has not yet melted. Pei Yanrong sat in the pavilion with a desolate expression, his eyes were a little blurred, and he looked very dazed.

Yesterday, since returning home, the prince's pale face has always been in her mind. Not only the prince's pale face, but also the prince's gentle eyes when he looked at her, all of them were deeply seared in her heart.

She didn't fall asleep that night, because all she thought about was the scene when she met the prince in the garden of Xufu. The prince's smile, the prince's sigh, the prince's lonely eyes, and the prince's thin figure.

Pei Yanrong doesn't like to listen to gossip very much, but he has also heard Yang Sisi say a lot of things about the prince, just like the prince has been suffering from a stubborn illness since he was a child and lives in the East Palace all the year round, just like the prince who takes medicine all year round because he is weak and sick...

Thinking of this, and then thinking of the real person he met yesterday, Pei Yanrong's heart was flustered, and there was a faint distress. He was only a fourteen-year-old boy, not to mention that he had been sick and frail since he was a child, and he had to deal with government affairs and take on the heavy responsibility of governing the country so early... Isn't he tired?

Thinking of this, Pei Yanrong couldn't help but sigh.

Are power, wealth, and glory really that important? Pei Yanrong asked himself deeply, what if he let himself choose himself? The answer is to have a man who loves her and can treat her sincerely, and she doesn't mind that...