Xia Taozhi never thought that one day she would sit in the imperial garden of the Chu Palace and listen to a person from the Western Tu Kingdom tell the gossip of the Eastern Chu Kingdom.

What I didn't expect was that Feng Yuanjun, a prince of Xitu, would know so well about the palace secrets of Eastern Chu.

Song Yuanxi, the king of Ling, is the third son of the current Emperor Chu and the most unfavored son.

King Ling's biological mother was born in a famous family, and she was the daughter of the former hussar general Xie Shining, with a prominent status. When he entered the palace at the age of sixteen, he was glamorous, and Emperor Chu was quite fond of it, and was named a concubine, and he was the only one who favored him. Soon after, Concubine Xian was pregnant with the dragon heir, although Queen Xue had a son but was still only a concubine, the palace speculated that if Concubine Xian gave birth to a little prince, the mother must have ascended to the throne with her son.

However, perhaps it was not such a great blessing to enjoy this life, and Concubine Xian had an unfortunate childbirth when she was about to give birth, and she just gave birth to the little prince and died.

Emperor Chu lost his beloved concubine and was grieving.

He hated God for being ruthless and broke up their lovers. not only executed the midwife and a group of palace people who delivered the baby for Concubine Xian, but also transferred this hatred to the newborn little prince.

From childhood to adulthood, Emperor Chu treated the third prince Song Yuanxi extremely indifferently, never ignored it, and did not have this son.

A year after Concubine Xian's death, Xiao Jing, the Marquis of Ningguo, impeached the hussar general Xie Shining on charges of embezzling military salaries in the court. Emperor Chu was furious, dismissed Xie Shining, raided his home, and exiled his family to the frontier.

When one person lands, one person will ascend. The way of kings has always been about checks and balances. After Xie Shining was dismissed and investigated, Emperor Chu promoted Xue Wu, the auxiliary general of Zheng Erpin, to the general of the hussars, and together with Xue Wu's daughter, Empress Xue, who was still a concubine at the time, also ascended to the throne because of the glory of her mother's family.

The father and the emperor are not in pain, the mother concubine is deceased, and the decline of the maternal family directly led to Song Yuanxi's court life in his childhood was very miserable, and he was often bullied by other princes, not to mention, even the palace people dared to bully and scold him at will. The most exaggerated time, the five-year-old little Song Yuanxi was chased by the eight-year-old prince Song Yuansheng, crying and running through most of the palace, and no one in the entire Chu Palace reached out to help.

At last he climbed a big tree and shivered and hid in the tree all night before escaping.

Later, Emperor Chu's eldest sister, Princess Mingzhao, became angry when she heard about this, reprimanded His Royal Highness the Prince, punished a group of palace people, and personally sent someone to take care of Song Yuanxi's daily life and diet, and begged Emperor Chu to allow him to study and practice martial arts with other princes.

Since then, the little prince's fiery life in the Chu Palace has come to an end.

Xia Taozhi smacked her tongue when she heard this, and said, "No wonder Queen Xue is so fearless, this King Ling was too pitiful when he was a child...... I thought that I was born in the emperor's house, and I must have grown up like a child with fine clothes and food, and the stars holding the moon. I can't believe that there is such a thing......"

The tsundere prince sneered, he didn't know what he remembered, and his face was not very good.

After the numbness in her legs subsided, Xia Taozhi only felt a tingling pain in her knees and calves, and it seemed that the injury was not light, in order to divert her attention, she asked, "What about later?" ”

The tsundere prince simply lay down, straightened his legs, put his hands behind his head, looked up at the sky, and continued to speak.

The young Song Yuanxi was very intelligent, extremely talented, and diligent in his studies. Since the enlightenment, he has gradually shown his brilliance, coupled with his words and deeds at a young age, and his appearance is outstanding, so he has been repeatedly praised by the Taifu, who once praised him for "ice glass came into the world, and jade came out of the dust".

For this reason, the crown prince Song Yuansheng often led people to block him outside the study, and it was common for him to be beaten in secret. Song Yuanxi, who was beaten, never cried or complained, but just got up silently, patted the dirt and footprints on his body, and turned his head to practice martial arts even harder.

In terms of martial arts, Song Yuanxi has shown extraordinary talent, with a very high level of understanding, and it only took ten years to start from Zama to master all kinds of weapons. He was familiar with the art of war, and was best at riding a horse and archery, and at the age of 12 he had already practiced the skill of piercing the Yang in 100 steps, and at the age of 14, there was no missing arrow and no golden feathers.

But even so, Emperor Chu still didn't like him.

When he had just turned fourteen, he hastily crowned him king and let him move out of the palace.

In the nineteenth year of King Chuping, the sixteen-year-old Song Yuanxi won the title of "Eastern Chu Martial God" in one fell swoop in the Chujing event "Heavy Building and Picking Stars".

Yu Wen, he is the "Jade Son of Ice Glass", elegant and dusty; Yu Wu is the "Martial God of Eastern Chu" and a well-deserved first person in Eastern Chu.

Between the words of the tsundere prince, there was a faint taste of appreciation, and there was a feeling of sympathy.

Xia Taozhi couldn't help but ask him curiously: "Didn't you fight back then?" Did you stab him? ”

He snorted, squinted at Xia Taozhi and said, "How do you know that I stabbed him?" Little Peach...... You've been looking closely......"

Xia Taozhi blushed and realized that she had missed her mouth, but she still said stiffly: "I didn't see it!" ”

Song Yuanxi admired her expression, seemed to be very happy, sat up, pulled a tender grass in his mouth, and said, "The two countries are at war, and death and injury are inevitable. At that time, we were both commanders of the two armies, and we had a draw on the Weishui River, and both sides were seriously wounded, and I stabbed him once, and he returned me with an arrow. He pointed to his chest and said, "Here." ”

Xia Taozhi subconsciously looked over, and suddenly remembered that they had swapped bodies now, so she hurriedly withdrew her gaze and asked, "But the storyteller clearly said that the battle was the triumphant return of King Ling, why did you say that it was a draw?" ”

Song Yuanxi glanced at her and said, "Are you shameless to be the royal family of Eastern Chu?" Lao Tzu beat them every year, and finally one year their coach went back alive, of course, he had to make a big splash. ”

Xia Taozhi: "......"

Xindao This person is really arrogant.

"However, I heard later that the king of Eastern Chuling couldn't afford to be sick, and Lao Tzu thought that he was beaten by Lao Tzu and couldn't get out of bed, who would have thought that he was poisoned and assassinated?"

Hearing this, Xia Taozhi couldn't help but sigh: Song Yuanxi is really a miserable word with a capital letter! Resisting a strong enemy outside, seriously injured, and poisoned by conspiracy and trickery inside, he lives up to his family and country, but his family and country cannot tolerate him.

The two were silent for a while, each with their own thoughts.

The afternoon sun sprinkled warmly on them, and occasionally a small breeze blew through the delicate flowers and young leaves of the imperial garden, with a fragrance of flowers and plants, which was particularly comfortable.

Song Yuanxi looked at the sky, thinking about the person who was impersonating him in Xitu with his real body at this moment, and he didn't know what kind of situation he was facing.

He thought sarcastically, do you think you've escaped from the wolf's den? But I didn't know that I just entered another tiger's den.

Thinking about it, he became happy in his heart, hooked the corners of his mouth and said, "Little Peach, do you think we should help him take revenge......

The voice fell for a long time, but he didn't hear a response, he turned his head to look, and saw the spring sun shining on the white jade-like face of the girl beside him, and the fine fluff on his face was wrapped in gold, soft and lovely. She closed her eyes, her expression was calm, not at all the spicy appearance when she usually quarreled with him, but now she looked like a lazy little animal, her head hanging lightly, dozing off.

He suddenly remembered the day they first met at the foot of Mibai Mountain, and she was also cowering in the corner, dozing off in a noise. At that time, he would never have thought that the turn of fate would connect him with the dozing little girl, and he will be entangled from then on.

He leaned over, stretched out his hand and gently grabbed her shoulder, and her head leaned on his shoulder, rubbed twice in a daze, picked a very comfortable position, and fell asleep.

***

The twilight was overflowing, Li Huai and Peony counted that the hour was almost up, turned back, and when they got closer, they saw a strange scene.

Princess Ling leaned on King Ling's shoulder and slept soundly, and her saliva flowed over King Ling's shoulder. His Royal Highness the King of Ling was disgusted and regretful.

The two of them were stunned, neither advancing nor retreating, and they stood there very awkwardly.

Song Yuanxi saw that the two people were still there, so he gently hooked his hands and motioned for them to come over. The two of them ran over in a hurry, Peony looked like she was going to cry, her own mother actually showed this kind of sleeping appearance in public, this is the palace! O Palace!

Song Yuanxi asked Li Huai quietly: "Gonggong Li, is there any place around here where I can freshen up a little?" ”

Li Huai immediately said: "Yes, yes, but ......"

He looked hesitant, thought for a while, gritted his teeth and said, "There is no way, please ask Your Highness to follow the servants." ”

Song Yuanxi nodded, turned his head and instructed Peony: "You immediately go to the carriage to get the wound medicine, your mother's leg is not lightly injured, go back quickly." ”

After that, he also stood up tremblingly, picked up Xia Taozhi horizontally, and followed Li Huai.

By this time, the twilight had darkened, and the lights were dim in the distance, and there were many people, and the dinner seemed to be about to begin. Li Huai took Song Yuanxi to avoid the crowd, walked around the path for some distance, and came to a deserted palace. The whole palace was lifeless, and the black lights looked extremely gloomy and dilapidated. He stretched out his hand and gently pushed, and the door of the temple opened with a "creak", and a musty smell of dust came to his face, and there was a damp and rotten smell everywhere.

Li Huai seemed to come often, and easily took Song Yuanxi around the vestibule and came to a room. He familiarly lit the candle in the dark, and the room was dimly lit, and he could vaguely tell that this was a dormitory, clean and tidy, and the bed was placed with neat bedding, which seemed to have been cleaned by someone for a long time.

Song Yuanxi walked to the side of the bed and gently put the person in his arms on the bed. She still slept very sweetly, the flickering candlelight illuminated her face, peach cheeks and cherry lips, very good-looking.

He shook his head amusedly, turned his head and asked Li Huai: "Gonggong Li is so familiar with this place, I don't know whose palace this is?" ”

Li Huai replied honestly: "Back to Your Highness, the minions don't know." The master of the slave said that the old owner of this palace was kind to him, so he often brought the slave here to clean and worship. ”

Song Yuanxi listened, and had some doubts in his heart, but he had no time to be distracted to think at this time, so he had to deal with the matter in front of him first, and he said to Li Huai: "I also have to bother Gonggong Li to run and bring the maid from my house here." ”

Li Huai responded.

There were only two of them left in the room, so Song Yuanxi sat on the edge of the bed and gently rolled up Xia Taozhi's trouser legs, and his heart suddenly felt cold. I saw that the original pair of white and delicate legs were bruised and swollen all over at the moment, and the knees were even more swollen and purple, faintly revealing traces of blood, which looked very seriously injured.

He was silent, with no expression on his face, and after a few moments, he gently lowered her trouser leg and stood up.

Looking around, I saw a painting hanging on the wall of the outer room. He took a closer look, and the painting showed a woman in red, holding a long sword, standing under a peach tree and dancing with a sword. The petals fluttered, lining her figure, and her eyebrows were full of heroism, and there was a sense of déjà vu under a closer look.

He suddenly felt puzzled, and thought about it in his mind, but to no avail. This world is so big, and there are thousands of people with similar eyebrows and eyes, it is not surprising at all. He couldn't help but laugh at himself in his heart, and felt more and more that since he came to this Eastern Chu Kingdom, he had become more and more inexplicable.

Xia Taozhi was woken up by an intermittent sound of sobbing, as if someone was crying softly. She felt a chill in her legs, slowly opened her eyes, and sat up.

Peony was giving her the medicine, and she was startled, and the medicine bottle in her hand almost came out of her hand.

"Niangniang, lie down, the slave is giving you medicine."

Xia Taozhi looked around curiously and asked Peony, "Where is this?" How did I end up here? ”

Peony shook her head: "The slave doesn't know where this is." Gonggong Li brought the slave and maid here, and the slave and maid only cared about giving the mother medicine and forgot to ask. Niangniang's leg was seriously injured, thanks to the ...... of His Highness who came over with Niangniang on the way"

Xia Taozhi was stunned when she heard this, and said in her heart that the tsundere prince still had a little conscience.

At this time, she noticed that Peony's eyes were red, and there were faint tears on her face.

"Why are you crying?"

Peony shook her head, didn't speak, just silently medicated Xia Taozhi.

She had no choice but to ask again, "What about Your Highness?" ”

"His Royal Highness is in the outer room, and Gonggong Li is giving him medicine, and His Highness seems to be injured a lot."

Xia Taozhi silently greeted Queen Xue's family in her heart, and said, "The banquet is about to start, right?" ”

Peony was about to answer, when Song Yuanxi's voice came through the gauze tent: "It's about to start, we have to go." ”

Xia Taozhi nodded, put down her rolled up trouser legs, straightened her clothes, and slowly stood up holding Peony's hand.

There were still bouts of tingling in my legs, but I didn't have any problems walking.

The four of them stepped out of the dilapidated temple gate in the night, and Li Huai led the way in front of them, leading them towards the place where the drums sounded in unison and the lights were brilliant.