“This servant pays her respects to Responding Attendant Wu.” A maidservant pushed open the door and curtsied. “The Empress Xuan has sent this servant to inquire after Responding Attendant — how does she fare?”

Seeing it was not Prince Xuan who had arrived, Responding Attendant Wu’s taut nerves loosened. She smiled slightly. “I am quite well now — please convey my gratitude to the Empress Xuan for her concern.”

“Then please rest and take good care, Responding Attendant. This servant will go and report back to the Empress Xuan.” The maidservant dipped in a bow and made to withdraw.

“One moment.” Responding Attendant Wu asked with a mild smile, “Where is His Majesty now?”

“His Majesty is in His Highness the Crown Prince’s chambers.” The maidservant answered pleasantly and withdrew from the inner chamber.

Responding Attendant Wu’s expression grew complicated. She was uncertain for a moment whether or not she ought to feel relief. She touched her abdomen lightly. Did His Majesty truly care for the child she carried?

Did he truly?

By now the whole of the Xuanwang Palace was surely laughing at her behind her back — carrying a child of the dragon’s bloodline and still confined to the Cold Palace, having nearly miscarried, and His Majesty not deigning to come and see her even once.

Not coming to see her was one thing, but he had not even sent anyone to check on her!! He was keeping company with the Crown Prince, who had only caught a chill, and could not spare a moment to visit the little imperial son who had nearly been lost — was His Majesty making it clear to the entire Xuanwang Palace that the heir in her womb was of far less importance than the Crown Prince?

Responding Attendant Wu’s guess was not wrong. The whole of the Xuanwang Palace truly was laughing at her.

And everyone was speculating as to why Prince Xuan was behaving in this manner.

Meanwhile, the inscrutable Prince Xuan was at that very moment speaking gently and coaxingly to his beloved son.

Yan Yunning sat to one side eating fruit. The Empress Xuan, for her part, looked on at the two of them with helpless resignation.

“No — this Crown Prince does not consent to Yan Shiyao being given the title of Xuanzhao Princess.” Xuan Yanyu lifted an eyelid and refused outright. “And even less should she depart Xuanzhao one day bearing the title of a legitimate princess.”

Prince Xuan relented. “Then she shall be given the title of Commandery Princess.”

“No…”

Before Xuan Yanyu could finish, Prince Xuan shot to his feet in fury. “I am the Prince of Xuan — I say I will confer the title, and I will confer it. If you defy me once more, I will… I will…”

He could not produce another word. Prince Xuan glared in exasperation at the Empress Xuan. “Do something about your son.”

The Emperor let out a cold harrumph, and flung his imperial robe. Xuan Yanyu, sensing what was coming, had already leaned back in the sandalwood chair just far enough to avoid taking the sleeve to the face. Prince Xuan shot him a look and stormed out of the chamber in long strides.

The Empress Xuan, seeing this, had no time to spare a lecture for Xuan Yanyu. She hurried after Prince Xuan and the two of them left the chamber together.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince.” Yan Yunning held a plum she had taken a small bite from, stepped close to Xuan Yanyu, took his chin between her fingers, and fed it to him.

Not forgetting to add, “It tastes quite good — try some.”

The man screwed up his brow at the tartness. He curved one arm around her waist and drew her into his lap, laughing softly. “If it was any good, would you really be feeding it to this Crown Prince?”

Yan Yunning looked the picture of innocence. “Your Highness the Crown Prince, I swear — this time I genuinely thought it was good before giving it to you.”

This time she truly, truly had not found it unpleasant and then handed it off to him!!

Xuan Yanyu lowered his head, his lips hovering close to hers as he murmured softly, “Ningning…”

Yan Yunning leaned up and gave him a brief kiss, then smiled sweetly. “Your Highness the Crown Prince, I have a question I want to ask you.”

The man paused, charmed into a curve of his lips. “Since when did you learn to ply me with bribes before asking your questions?”

“…?” Grasping his meaning, Yan Yunning traced a lazy circle on his face with her fingertip, her voice soft and coaxing. “Your Highness the Crown Prince, then you had better answer my question properly.”

“Mm.” The man’s throat shifted almost imperceptibly.

Yan Yunning turned the jade thumb ring on his finger round and round, and asked with a gentle smile, “That day you said my father is not my father — what did you mean?”

The Grand Commandant’s wife had mentioned he had gone to the Grand Commandant’s residence, so he must know something.

Xuan Yanyu was quiet for a moment, then said, “Ningning, this Crown Prince went to Qilan and found a way to have Yan Shiyao rescued from the Chief Minister’s estate — it was because Father had mistakenly believed Yan Shiyao to be the youngest daughter of General Yu of Xuanzhao. The youngest daughter of General Yu, from the time of her birth, was betrothed by Father to this Crown Prince as Crown Princess.”

“Father sent this Crown Prince to Qilan to cultivate a bond with her.” At this, the man’s voice paused. He gazed at the girl whose fingertips had caught hold of his ink-black hair and were toying with it idly, amusement passing through his dark eyes. “Your appearance broke this Crown Prince’s original plan.”

Before coming to Qilan, Father had given him two years. So after those two years, regardless of whether Yan Shiyao was willing, he would have brought her back to Xuanzhao and granted her a consort title.

“So it sounds, from Your Highness the Crown Prince’s tone, as though I ought never to have appeared.” Looking up to meet the man’s tender gaze, Yan Yunning pressed a smile to her lips. “I was only joking — please continue, Your Highness the Crown Prince.”

Xuan Yanyu gave a quiet hum and chose not to speak further.

Yan Yunning: “…”

Why had she opened her mouth at all!!

She had just processed what Xuan Yanyu said — Prince Xuan had mistaken her elder sister for the daughter of General Yu of Xuanzhao?

And putting that together with the Grand Commandant’s wife’s peculiar reaction upon seeing her — could it be that she herself was General Yu’s youngest daughter?

Which would mean she had always been meant to be Xuan Yanyu’s Crown Princess?

But then how had Prince Xuan come to mistake one for the other?

“Fafa, this Yan second young lady has such a complicated background?” Yan Yunning directed the thought inward.

Fafa answered with a small smile: “No idea.”

Yan Yunning: “…”

Xuan Yanyu looked down at the girl, watching her small face crinkle in thought. His lips curved slightly. “Have you worked it out?”

Yan Yunning blinked and gave a nod. “Your Highness the Crown Prince, how did you come to know? And how did Father come to mistake one person for another?”

“Tsk.” The man flicked the tip of her nose lightly, his tone carrying a deliberate air of pride. “Could something this trivial possibly escape this Crown Prince’s notice?”

The girl gave a laugh. “Oh, right — how could I forget. Our Crown Prince is ever so clever — even cleverer than His Majesty the Emperor~”

Xuan Yanyu: “…”

“And then? Your Highness the Crown Prince, how exactly did Father come to make this mistake?”

The man tapped his lips with one long slender finger and raised an eyebrow in pointed suggestion.

Yan Yunning wrapped her arms around his waist, leaned up with resigned helplessness, and kissed him again. She then said in a plaintive tone, “Your Highness the Crown Prince, will you tell me now?”

Xuan Yanyu steadied his breath, took a moment to compose himself, then said, “Your father passed away. Your mother fell gravely ill. Fearing that you would be mistreated in the Xuanwang Palace in the days ahead, your A’Niang of the Lu family, following your mother’s instructions, sent you out of Xuanzhao. The jade pendant you wore — the pair to this Crown Prince’s — was given to Yan Shiyao.”

“Your A’Niang of the Lu family had long been acquainted with the Chief Minister of Qilan, so she entrusted the Chief Minister with your upbringing. Father identified Yan Shiyao by the jade pendant.”

“As for this Crown Prince — it was the last time Lu Jin’an staged her death, and I happened to look into her, that I guessed the rest. The day Mother kept you in the palace, this Crown Prince went to the Grand Commandant’s residence and confirmed it.”

At that, Xuan Yanyu lowered his eyes to the girl in his arms and asked, “Ningning, that day while you were in the palace, why did you suddenly leave and go to the medical hall on the east end of the long street?”

Yan Yunning frowned. “I went to a medical hall on the east end of the long street?”

Had she been there?

Why did she have no recollection of it at all?

“Yes — Ye Chen said you went straight from the palace to the medical hall. Afterward your mood was quite low throughout, and this Crown Prince did not dare bring it up.” The man’s gaze held a trace of quiet inquiry.

A guilty Fafa quietly concealed the fact of having told Yan Yunning to go home, and instead restored to Yan Yunning the memories of having gone to the medical hall — and nothing more.

“I…” Yan Yunning pressed her fingers to her throbbing temple.