Li Chengjing’s neck was white and slender, enhancing the shape of his Adam’s apple. When the Adam’s apple moved up and down, it was particularly conspicuous.
Li Chengjing suddenly opened his eyes and held the delicate hand. Cheng Yujin was focusing on massaging his temple and didn’t notice anything. She was shocked when Li Chengjing suddenly took hold of her hand.
“Your Highness, what’s the matter?”
Instead of replying, Li Chengjing pulled Cheng Yujin’s wrist and made her sit next to him. It was broad daylight now, and he couldn’t afford her to keep challenging his endurance. After Cheng Yujin sat down, Li Chengjing embraced her waist in one natural movement before asking: “How about you? Is everything okay in the palace?”
Cheng Yujin sighed softly. She suddenly felt a camaraderie from a fellow sufferer.
Cheng Yujin replied: “It’s okay. Today the office of the Superintendent of Rites sent the records of the protocol of Mid-Autumn Festival banquets of previous years. But the records they sent seem to be pretty old.”
Li Chengjing was smart. With just those sentences, he instantly guessed what was happening: “The records from last two years are missing?”
Cheng Yujin nodded lightly. The two exchanged a glance without a word. Li Chengjing was silent for a moment before he finally sighed, “Blame me. If it weren’t for my long absence, you wouldn’t be at such a disadvantage everywhere.”
“Your Highness, what are you talking about?” Cheng Yujin said, “You have just returned to the palace this year, and it is already impressive enough for you to arrange the current manpower. If Your Highness has been growing up in the palace, you will indeed have a better and more comprehensive power under your hand. But if that was so, how can Your Highness marry me?”
Cheng Yujin’s were not exaggerating. She had just entered the palace and had no contacts. If it weren’t for the people Li Chengjing assigned to her, it would be much more difficult for Cheng Yujin even to take a single step. Li Chengjing couldn’t reveal the secret that he had long known his identity, so he naturally couldn’t bring many of his original subordinates to the palace. Normal servants were still okay, but how could he explain the eunuchs?
Fortunately, the Emperor was firmly on Li Chengjing’s side. With the Emperor’s cooperation, Li Chengjing slowly sent his people into the palace starting from last year and placed them in various strategic positions. Even so, most of his subordinates were still outside the palace. From the beginning of their marriage, Li Chengjing had transferred these palace people to Cheng Yujin.
Without Li Chengjing’s careful preparation, Cheng Yujin didn’t have the confidence to accept Empress Dowager Yang’s trap. Although it didn’t change the fact that the task was difficult, as long as she planned cautiously and arranged everything carefully, there was a chance to turn this trap into a counterattack. Li Chengjing blamed himself for not arranging everything, which was truly beyond reason. It was true that Cheng Yujin was biased towards herself with no principle, but she was sensible and wouldn’t make trouble unreasonably.
Li Chengjing couldn’t say anything to refute, because Cheng Yujin was right. If he had never been lost in that mountain flood and had never been stranded outside the palace, of course, he would never go to Cheng family manor and would never know Cheng Yujin. Maybe their fates would be completely different, and Li Chengjing would never know that Yichun Marquis Manor had an eldest young miss named Cheng Yujin.
Li Chengjing seemed lost in shock, but suddenly felt immense gratitude. It was obviously something that had never happened, but mysteriously enough, his intuition gave him an alarming feeling. There were too many coincidences between him and Cheng Yujin. If any of them mistook even a step, they would have never met, nor she would be his wife like now.
For example, in that early spring, he braved the wind and snow to visit the bedridden Old Master Cheng. The road he normally took avoided the ones used by the Cheng family’s womenfolk. If Cheng Yujin and Huo Changyuan were not having a dispute on that road, he wouldn’t see Cheng Yujin, nor would she chase him to Old Master Cheng’s courtyard. If not for that, it would naturally be impossible for the Old Master to ask them to work together to make the embroidered screen. Because of Old Madam Cheng’s animosity, Li Chengjing didn’t often go to Shou’an Hall, but Cheng Yujin rarely went to other places. Even if they did meet in Old Madam Cheng’s courtyard by chance, they would most likely just exchange a nod in passing, like any unfamiliar uncle and niece.
Next, he was often away from Cheng family’s manor because of court affairs, but Cheng Yujin would eventually marry someone else, and since then, their paths would completely diverge. Perhaps after he regained his identity, Cheng Yujin would come to the Eastern Palace for the New Year’s greeting, but only as a courtier’s wife.
Li Chengjing suddenly felt very emotional. He originally thought that fate was unfair to him, but today, he suddenly found out that fate actually favored him so much. Although the path was thorny and full of wind and rain, the crown prince position was still on him despite fourteen years of absence. He wandered outside for many years, but in the last year he spent in the Cheng family, he met the wife of his life.
Cheng Yujin saw that Li Chengjing fell into deep thought. After a long silence, she slowly raised her eyebrows and asked with a smile: “Your Highness, what are you thinking about? Why do you look so serious?”
“I’m thinking about sending Huo Changyuan and Zhai Yanlin far away.” Li Chengjing seemed to be joking, but when his gaze met Cheng Yujin, the look in his eyes was deep and serene, not at all looking like a joke. It was clear that he seriously meant his words.
Lin Qingyuan came to Cheng family’s manor because of him, so Lin Qingyuan and Cheng Yujin originally had no intersection. But Huo Changyuan and Zhai Yanlin, these two people, were most likely supposed to be Cheng Yujin’s husband.
Just a mere possibility made Li Chengjing very unhappy. Cheng Yujin was right here by his side, but Li Chengjing couldn’t restrain his jealousy as long as he thought that Cheng Yujin might have married Huo Changyuan or Zhai Yanlin.
