The Grand Princess

TGP Chapter 43.1: Double Seventh Festival

"Time has not only changed the Crown Prince, but you and I as well."
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When Pei Wenxuan heard what Li Rong said, he saw that Li Rong's expression looked a bit unusual. He looked at Li Rong from head to toe and couldn't help but ask: "What's wrong with you? Did you get bullied in the palace?"

"What are you thinking about all of sudden?" Li Rong used her fan to knock Pei Wenxuan upside the head, then she turned around and said: "Let's go."

The carriage was waiting outside the palace gates. Pei Wenxuan chased after Li Rong and held the umbrella over her head, a little unhappy as he said: "If you want to say something, then just say it. What are you hitting me on the head for?"

"I wanted to."

Li Rong cast him a sideways glance, making Pei Wenxuan feel a little frustrated: "I've discovered that you're very good to others, but why do you always use your hands and fists with me? Your Highness, you ought to fix this habit at once."

"If something is wrong, one should take a look at themselves first," When Li Rong heard Pei Wenxuan's complaint, for reasons unknown, she felt that her emotions just now had gradually subsided, and she was now only thinking about how to tease the other person, so she decided to preach to Pei Wenxuan on the matter as she got into the carriage: "Think about why I don't trouble others, yet I will only find you to trouble."

"Ahh, this is something I know too well," Pei Wenxuan sighed. The two of them sat down in the carriage. Pei Wenxuan folded up the umbrella, and as Li Rong poured tea for herself, she heard Pei Wenxuan helplessly say, "I can only blame myself for being so dearly loved by others, Your Highness cannot help it, the heart wants what it wants."

Li Rong almost spat out a mouthful of tea that she had just taken. She stopped in time and burst into an involuntary coughing fit as the tea went down the wrong way.

Pei Wenxuan saw her coughing so much and did not continue to joke around anymore. He hurriedly leaned over and gently patted her on the back: "Don't drink tea the next time we're in the middle of a conversation."

Li Rong looked up and glared at him with a pair of beautiful eyes, tinged with a bit of watery translucence of tears from coughing so hard, causing her to suddenly lose her usual imposing aura like a vast body of water in autumn. Seeing that look of anger and annoyance, Pei Wenxuan suddenly felt a shiver of excitement spread all the way from the bottom of his heart to his fingertips. With the touch of the gentle warmth of skin beneath his hand, the sensation returned once again, traveling back and forth and numbing half the bones in his body, his state of mind left shaken.

Li Rong slowly recovered from her coughing fit and saw Pei Wenxuan staring at her in a daze for some reason. She couldn't help but prod at Pei Wenxuan with her fan and suspiciously asked: "What are you looking at?"

Pei Wenxuan returned to his senses in an instant. He calmly straightened up and sat down a bit further away from Li Rong, then he smiled and said: "Nothing really, I just remembered something. Oh right," Pei Wenxuan changed the subject, "What were you doing just standing there in a daze at the palace gates just now?"

Li Rong only smiled when she heard his question and said: "I asked Mother Empress a bit about the banquet in the palace today, and she said it was something Consort Rou had proposed to His Majesty. I'd venture a guess and say that Consort Rou wants to ask for a marriage decree at the palace banquet."

"You were so worried over just that one little thing?" Pei Wenxuan didn't seem to believe it and looked at her from head to toe, "It's not like you at all."

Li Rong was too lazy to take the bait and react. She brought out a Go playing set from the side and only said: "It's getting boring on the road. Let's play a game."