#shout out to thesilentdarkangel who is reading this in real time as a I update and is such a doll for always commenting and thanking me

[wangsejabin]

Chapter 99

Stepping down from the chariot, Pan'er kept her head hung low.

   She didn't even look at the Prince.

   When she entered the door of the Spring Couple's Cottage, she took a few quick steps inside and asked Aunt Qing where the children were.

   The children have gone to bed and Pan'er is not at ease and probably wants to avoid the Prince, so she went to the children's room.

   The three children slept in the same bed. Zong Yue slept on the outside, Wan Yin slept in the innermost part, and Zong Lin still slept in the middle.

   As soon as Pan'er stood in front of the bed, Zong Yue opened his eyes. He was a child after all, and could not yet act as if nothing had happened, even though he was anxious, like the adults.

   He sat up at once and called out to his mother.

Pan'er made a gesture to him, and the sound was muffled in the latter part of his voice, without waking Zong Lin and Wan Yin.

   "Mother, are you all right?"

   The incident had happened suddenly, when the three siblings of Zong Yao knew something had happened, but did not know what had happened. Fearing that her busy schedule would lead to mistakes, Empress Fu had the children sent back to Jinggu in advance, and when they returned to Spring Couple's Fast, they saw that Mother and Xiangpu had not returned, and after hearing what Wan Yin said when she returned, Zong Yue realised that something might have happened to Mother.

   The three children approached Aunt Qing to find out what had happened, but Aunt Qing had no idea what had happened, so Zong Yue asked someone to call Feng Hai, and only from Feng Hai's mouth did he learn that the Second Uncle had died, but he still didn't know anything else. After staying up for half the night, the three children couldn't hold out any longer before they went to sleep, Zong Yue had a lot on his mind and stayed awake.

   Pan'er sat on the edge of the bed and stroked his son's little head.

   "It's alright, nothing's wrong, don't worry."

   "It's really alright?" Zong Yue was a little unconvinced.

   "It's really fine."

As mother and son were talking, Wan Yin woke up, and as soon as she saw Pan Er, she jumped over and cried, "Mother, you're finally back, I thought something had happened to you. I thought something had happened to you when someone came over to ask questions and I saw how ugly the Crown Princess Mother looked and scolded Fuqiu, saying that she had done something foolish, when Mother had gone with Fuqiu."

   "It's really nothing, isn't your father still here, how could anything happen?" Pan'er coaxed, stroking her daughter's back.

The sound of Wan Yin's crying woke up Zong Lin, and it was chaos, Zong Lin also hugged Pan Er and cried, the sound of his crying almost blew the roof off the room, and brought the Prince here too.

The two little ones cried so much that the prince could not help but smile and want to cry, but he could understand that the incident had scared the children.

He coughed twice and said: "All right, you are all still young, even if something happens outside, it is none of your concern. Rest early, Father and your mother should also go and rest."

Wan Yin poked Zong Lin from behind and Zong Lin said, "But I want to sleep with Mother."

   Pan'er did not dare to look directly at the prince and laughed dryly, "Then why don't I sleep with the children, they are scared today, so keep them company."

   He said to his son, "You're too old to sleep with your mother, have you forgotten what your father told you?"

   "A man cannot grow up in the hands of a woman ......"

   The prince nodded in satisfaction, "You all get an early night's rest, father and your mother will also go and rest."

   He lifted his steps to go outside, and when he saw that Pan'er hadn't moved, he reached out to give her a tug.

   Pan'er pulled back, her eyes glaring at the prince.

   The prince pulled again, and only then did he pull her away.

   Seeing this scene, Zong Yue and Yuan Yuan looked at each other, and then at Zong Ins, who looked dejected, and said comfortingly, "Alright, alright, go to sleep, you have big brother and big sister with you, don't you?"

Zong Lin nodded and lay back down, muttering, "I'm a man, I should sleep alone."

   --.

   At the other end, after leaving the room, Pan'er said, "What do you mean by not growing up in a woman's hands? So this is how His Highness teaches Zong Lin in private, that he doesn't want his son to be close to his mother?"

   The prince did not expect Pan'er to countenance this remark, and thought that she was trying to avoid him, which was why she did not want to come out with him.

   "That is not what I meant."

   "Then what does it mean? Your Highness is clearly looking down on women, what is wrong with women? What's wrong with being raised in the hands of a woman? Can a child be born without a woman?"

   Pan'er left in a huff, and the prince stood there for a moment, thinking before following her.

   When he entered the room, Pan'er was sitting in front of the dressing table unpacking her hair and jewellery. The prince glanced at her in the mirror and explained, "I've told you, it's not what you think."

   Pan'er ignored him.

The prince stood, feeling a little frustrated, and raised his voice to call Fulu to come in to serve him and change. Fulu, who had been listening outside the door, came in with his head bowed. The prince went into the bath and when he came out again, Pan'er was already lying on the bed, facing inwards.

   He reacted now, thinking that her anger was a little superficial.

   Propping his elbows on the bed, he crossed to look at her, her eyes tightly closed, as if she was asleep.

   He let out a laugh, "What are you doing hiding from me?"

Yes, what was she hiding from him for, she wasn’t truly angry, but it was a bit embarrassing to say what was on her mind, and she regretted it. But it's too late to regret what was said. 

 "Is it because of the words I asked you?"   

 On the road, the prince was shocked to hear Pan'er's words and finally understood the meaning of what she had said to Princess Yue that day. After being shaken, his attention was instead focused on the once, asking Pan'er when the once was.

 Pan'er didn’t answer him back, and it just so happened that the matter is temporarily skipped over, because they had returned and now the embarrasing affair was being revisited.  

But that was what Pan'er was afraid of. She rolled over and said, "I'm so sleepy, I want to go to sleep, aren't you sleepy, or should I sleep a bit and get up and talk again."

 She looked at him trying to emphasize the look of 'I'm really sleepy and tired and drained'.   

 The prince turned her over, but she wouldn't let him, but he wanted to look at her face, and they were in a one-on-one position.   

 Somehow they became entwined, this time more seriously than every time before, and the Prince kissed her earnestly, concentrating especially on the top of her shoulders and neck.  

  When they were knitted together, Pan'er's chin rested on his shoulder in a choked voice: "I almost thought I wouldn't come back, that even if I did it would be to certain death. I hated him with a passion and was particularly resentful, so I beguiled him and stuck a hairpin into the back of his neck when he let his guard down, thinking I'd drag a man with me even if I died ......”   

 "Would you say I am particularly bad and ruthless, I tell you women are terrible when they are ruthless ...... I actually killed someone ......"   

 The prince stopped and gave her a serious look, reaching out to wipe the sweat from her forehead and the tears from her face.  

 "Well, it's all in the past, don't think about it."    

But how could it be over, after all, it had happened, and it had been such a big deal, and Pan'er had killed a man with her own hands, and before, because it hadn't been resolved and she had to calm the children and the underlings when she returned, Pan'er hadn't shown anything and had been tense, but now that she had relaxed, her emotions had broken down a little. 

  "Don't think too much, you didn't kill the man, I did, I've wanted to kill him for a long time, I've been holding back for so many years ......"  

  Under the Prince's reassurance, Pan'er slowly regained her composure.  

  Calmed down, she also felt that she was crying in an ugly manner, tugging the quilt and wiping it haphazardly on her face. She tried to shield her face from the Prince's eyes, but the Prince tugged at her quilt, not letting her shield her face and saying that she wasn't afraid of being smothered.

Pan'er was so humiliated that she pinned the Prince down with a push from her waist.

The following was a spring scene ,and just as it reached its peak, Pan'er collapsed and brought her lips to the Prince's ear and said, "That once upon a time, I won't tell you now, wait until later ...... maybe when we're both old, I'll tell you ...... "  

  -- 

   In the Pure One Zhai, the lamp was kept on.The Crown Princess sat in a chair, the hexagonal sheepskin palace lamp on a few tables next to her burning quietly, the scent of tranquilizing incense floating in the room, but the Crown Princess did not feel tranquil at all.  

  Fuqiu knelt at her feet and remained so.  

  She had forgotten how long she had been kneeling, her tears had dried and her whole body was like a wooden statue.

    There were footsteps, and it was Fu Xia who walked in. "Crown Princess, His Highness and Su Liang Di have returned, and went straight to the Spring Couple's Retreat, and the servant girls didn't dare to stop them."

    The Crown Princess sighed and said, "It's just that, with so much going on tonight, I'm sure His Highness is also tired." She said that, but she did not move, and sat for a while longer, seeing that no one was coming, before she stood up.    If she was tired, she should have asked her servants to come and report to her, at least to put her mind at ease, but the Prince had not done so.  

  The Prince Consort felt a little empty inside, and felt that she was too fond of imagining things.Perhaps others didn't know what had happened, but she did, knowing that Prince Chu had died and that it had something to do with Su Pan'er, thus dragging the Crown Prince into it, and that perhaps it had been a set-up against the Eastern Palace, and Su Pan'er had just been mixed up in it.  

  The Crown Princess is not concerned about Su's situation, in her heart, her son Zong Duo is the first priority, the stability of the Eastern Palace is the second priority, and then the rest. But she had never imagined that she would be involved in this matter, and it was all because of Fu Qiu, a foolish person. 

   The reason for this is because of this foolishness. When the Crown Princess moved, Fu Qiu sobbed again: "The servant girl did not expect that Huang Hai would be bribed. He said the Crown Prince invited Su Liang Di to go over, slave servant didn't think much of it, thinking it was just a matter of passing a message, and the Crown Princess was also in, maybe it was the Crown Prince who asked to pass the message to the Crown Princess, and then let the Crown Princess pass it to Su Liang Di, who knows ......"  

  This has been said many times by Fuqiu, so many times that not only is she herself tired of no emotional ups and downs, but the Crown Princess also has no emotional ups and downs from listening to it.  

  The words that should be scolded had been scolded before, and now they were just waiting for the Crown Prince to have an attack.  

  Since Sister Chen left, the Crown Princess has felt that she has become much lighter to the servants around her, and so what if they have been serving her for many years, but they all have their own thoughts.  

  Fu Xia went to pull Fu Qiu, trying to get her to stop crying.   

 The Prince Consort looked back and said, "Come on, don't cry either, there's no telling if this will involve me and the Grand Duke. Go down and rest, I'll go and rest too, it will be dawn if I don't."  

 When the day dawns, there will be endless things to do.   

 The Prince Consort sighed and went to the inner room.