Pei Wenxuan’s momentary tenderness made Li Rong freeze. Seeing her dazed, Pei Wenxuan couldn’t help but smile, “What’s wrong with you?”

Li Rong stared at his face for a moment, then raised her head, patted his shoulder, and sighed, “My judgment is indeed excellent.”

Pei Wenxuan was quite bewildered, but Li Rong had already grasped her fan and entered her own cell.

Her room had been cleaned. Jing Lan and Jing Mei asked about her needs, and having no other matters, they withdrew.

The two stayed in their respective cells, reading books and studying chess manuals. When idle, they would bicker a few words, and the days passed by.

When evening came, Su Rongqing brought over a food box, handed it and several storybooks to Li Rong, then reported everything that had happened at court in recent days.

Li Rong listened to his report while looking down at the storybooks Su Rongqing had given her. After Su Rongqing finished speaking, she didn’t inquire about court matters and simply said, “These storybooks you gave me look quite interesting. I should be able to finish them in the next few days. Next time, find me some similar ones.”

Su Rongqing was stunned, then agreed, saying somewhat hesitantly, “Does Your Highness have no message you wish me to convey?”

“Nothing,” Li Rong said. After thinking about it, she added, “You needn’t come often in the future. If His Majesty learns of it, it won’t be good for you.”

Having received these words, Su Rongqing fell silent. After a while, he smiled bitterly and spoke gently, “Your Highness is right.”

Li Rong nodded and said nothing more. Su Rongqing stood at the cell door for a moment, then said, “If there’s nothing else, this humble minister will withdraw first.”

Li Rong acknowledged with a sound, her attitude quite indifferent. After Su Rongqing bowed respectfully, he withdrew.

After he left, Pei Wenxuan leaned against the wall and opened his eyes, saying flatly, “Not keeping him to talk a bit more?”

“What would be the point?” Li Rong flipped through her storybook without even raising her eyes. “He’s someone I can’t keep anyway.”

“Li Rong,” Pei Wenxuan leaned against the wall, sitting on a cushion with his knees bent, one hand resting on his knee, the other on his leg, speaking slowly, “Do you truly not want to rekindle your relationship with Su Rongqing?”

“I don’t.”

“Why?” Pei Wenxuan was somewhat curious. “Do you still mind that he killed you?”

Li Rong’s movements paused. For a moment, she didn’t know how to respond. Her feelings for Su Rongqing were far more complicated than those for Pei Wenxuan.

Between them were too many loves and hates, too many entanglements. Between her and Pei Wenxuan, it was only about liking or not liking. But between her and Su Rongqing, it was somewhere between love and hate. She and Su Rongqing guarded against each other, accompanied each other, gave their true hearts, yet were full of suspicion.

It wasn’t that her heart never stirred. She’d even impulsively thought about divorcing Pei Wenxuan, but Su Rongqing made it clear to her that he was unwilling to accept her impulse.

In her last life, she was like a cautiously probing cat testing the world. Every time she reached out, she encountered burning flames. Although Su Rongqing was a gentle and beautiful fire, for her, gazing at the beautiful fireworks from afar might be much better than touching them.

She didn’t speak, and Pei Wenxuan also fell silent. He didn’t know why, but from the moment he realized Li Rong was different from his perception, he wanted to explore Li Rong, wanted to know what Li Rong was really like during those twenty-five years he was absent.

Speaking of it made him uncomfortable, yet he couldn’t help wanting to ask.

After a long while, Pei Wenxuan finally said, “If you can’t figure it out, why not talk to me about it? I’ll help you analyze it.”

Hearing this, Li Rong couldn’t help but laugh, “In matters of the heart, you’re a confused fool yourself. Yet you want to help me analyze?”

“I cannot see the true face of Mount Lu because I stand within the mountain.” Pei Wenxuan felt Li Rong was wrong and immediately retorted, “Just because I can’t figure out my own doesn’t mean I can’t figure out yours.”

Li Rong laughed, feeling Pei Wenxuan was like a doctor who couldn’t heal himself, jumping up and down when his medical skills were questioned.

She was originally too lazy to say much to him, but with nothing to do in prison, she casually chatted.

Pei Wenxuan asked, she answered, speaking in detail about those twenty-five years he wasn’t there, about her life with another person.

Twenty-five years was a long story. They talked from dusk until midnight. Pei Wenxuan listened while she spoke. Occasionally Pei Wenxuan would also talk about his own matters. Li Rong listened and also found it novel.

Light rain began falling at night. Pei Wenxuan was talking about how, because he never had children, his clan suspected he was impotent and desperately wanted to adopt a child for him. Li Rong listened with rapt attention yet felt sleepy. As the pattering rain sounded, Pei Wenxuan suddenly said, “Did you cover yourself with a blanket?”

Li Rong came to her senses in a daze, lazily got up and pulled a blanket from the side, covered herself with it, then continued, “Covered now. Keep talking.”

“Do your legs hurt?” Pei Wenxuan suddenly asked again. Li Rong knew he was thinking about how her legs would hurt on rainy days. She smiled and said, “I’m still young. With this little rain, they don’t hurt.”

“You were young then too.” Pei Wenxuan spoke gently. “Autumn is still prone to pain.”

Li Rong fell silent. She remembered—back then her legs would hurt on autumn nights. At first she didn’t tell Pei Wenxuan. Seeing she always couldn’t sleep at night and looked unwell, Pei Wenxuan inquired and learned it was a lingering ailment from being punished to kneel too long in her youth.

So he learned massage. One night when it rained, as she tossed and turned unable to sleep, Pei Wenxuan got up, covered her properly with the blanket, then pressed point by point on the acupuncture points on her legs, asking softly, “Rongrong, does it still hurt?”

That was the first time she slept peacefully through an autumn rainy night. At that time, she felt in her heart that marriage was actually much better than she had expected.

Thinking of herself and Pei Wenxuan back then, perhaps because those years were too distant, even with the unhappy ending that came later, she still felt some warmth.

Pei Wenxuan, having mentioned this matter, continued to ask, “Did your legs still hurt later?”

“They hurt.” Li Rong sighed lightly.

Pei Wenxuan looked ahead, listening to the light rain, “Su Rongqing didn’t care?”

“He did care,” Li Rong spoke gently. “It’s just that when people age, their health inevitably deteriorates.”

“He still treated you well.”

“He was very good, but there was too much between us.”

The two fell silent. For a moment, they forgot what the original purpose of their chat had been. Li Rong felt drowsy, grabbed the blanket, got up and said, “Let’s sleep.”

Then she got up and returned to bed, wrapped herself in the quilt, closed her eyes, and fell asleep.

After Li Chuan left, the two had nothing much to do—they almost only needed to wait.

Jing Lan would come daily to clean Li Rong’s cell and bring her news from outside. Li Rong had Jing Lan convey her words to the Empress, telling her to cooperate by making trouble with the Emperor, hoping the Emperor would summon Li Chuan back, not caring whether she herself was in prison.

Only if the Empress showed an attitude of not wanting Li Chuan to go to the border would the Emperor believe that sending Li Chuan to the border was beneficial to him, not to Li Chuan.

And the Empress not caring about her was, for Li Ming, also a display of possible discord between the Empress and Li Rong.

Even if it wasn’t a display, it would still be an excuse for Li Ming to drive a wedge between Li Rong and the Empress in the future.

Every day in their cells, the two maintained their health and waited for news. When idle, they bickered and chatted, or found games to pass the time.

Pei Wenxuan read extensively, having dabbled in all sorts of miscellaneous books—even beauty techniques and cats and dogs, he knew quite a bit about. In his last life, aside from daily political struggles, he had also collected much gossip. With nothing to do in prison, chatting about these things, they discovered they were actually quite good topics.

Besides chatting, the two also placed a chess table outside their cells, separated by a wall, reaching out their hands to play chess, or played rock-paper-scissors, guessing games. When extremely bored, they played a game of seeing whose hand was faster.

Li Rong complained that Pei Wenxuan was too strong, so Pei Wenxuan was responsible for dodging while she was responsible for hitting. But Pei Wenxuan was also clever—she almost never hit him. Each time, Li Rong’s hand would strike the ground, hurting from the impact.

Su Rongqing would occasionally come to see Li Rong. Each time he brought storybooks, reported on the outside situation, respectfully—there was really nothing to fault.

At first, Pei Wenxuan’s chest would ache watching Su Rongqing, but thinking he should learn to face Su Rongqing, should learn to be more open-minded and magnanimous, constantly hypnotizing himself, he eased up considerably. At least when they met face to face, he could slightly control his emotions and refrain from opening his mouth to mock.

A month and a half passed in prison. When they entered, the last flowers were fading; in the blink of an eye, they heard summer lotuses were in full bloom.

At this time, news of victory finally came from the front lines. Not only had Li Chuan held the front lines, he had even captured three cities in succession. The Yang family members had been detained and arrested by Li Chuan for colluding with foreign enemies, then sent to Hua Jing along with the evidence.

Li Rong received this news at noon. Su Rongqing got the news at morning court and immediately rushed over to inform Li Rong. Li Rong’s face showed nothing. She lightly tapped her palm with her folding fan and spoke peacefully, “Lord Su is thoughtful. I’m aware of this matter. However, I’m currently still guilty, so I temporarily cannot manage these external affairs.”

Hearing this, Su Rongqing’s expression changed, but after a moment, he lowered his head and bowed respectfully, “As long as Your Highness knows of this matter, this humble minister only came to inform you.”

Li Rong acknowledged with a sound. Seeing Li Rong was still as cold as usual, Su Rongqing withdrew.

As soon as he left, Pei Wenxuan laughed, “Lord Su runs into your hard nail every day. I’m starting to feel a bit sorry for Lord Su.”

“You’d better feel sorry for yourself.” Li Rong, contemplating the next matters, opened her mouth to retort.

Pei Wenxuan shrugged, not particularly caring. Anyway, he was used to being retorted—one more instance didn’t matter.

Before long, Li Rong stood up. Now that Li Chuan had sent the Yang family members over, it was time for her to act.

She went to her writing desk and began thinking about how to write this memorial.

The Yang family’s case had reached the right time. She needed to apply to Li Ming to leave prison and continue investigating Yang Quan’s case. But if this memorial was written by her at this time, she feared Li Ming would become suspicious, thinking she and Li Chuan had conspired to do this.

Thinking left and right, she finally realized she probably still had to ask Pei Wenxuan for help.

She hesitated for a moment, ran to the wall corner, and called to Pei Wenxuan, “Pei Wenxuan, quick, help me with something.”

Pei Wenxuan had long been leaning against the wall waiting for her. Hearing her finally come, he lightly tapped his shoulder with his folding fan and said leisurely, “Your Highness jests. This humble minister is such a pitiful person—how could I possibly help Your Highness?”

“Don’t be difficult,” Li Rong, seeing him taking the opportunity to retaliate, quickly said, “This is serious business. Don’t fool around with me.”

“Your Highness just said this humble minister was pitiful. Now you want to use this humble minister again. This humble minister doesn’t understand Your Highness’s meaning.”

Li Rong understood. If she didn’t lower her head a bit, Pei Wenxuan could probably put on airs with her all evening.

She glanced to the side and saw Pei Wenxuan’s clothes squeezing through the wooden bars. She knew he was leaning against the wall waiting for her. After thinking about it, she reached out and grabbed Pei Wenxuan’s hem.

Pei Wenxuan looked down curiously, then immediately heard a sweet, coquettish voice from next door, “Big Brother Pei~~”

Pei Wenxuan shuddered all over, so startled his fan dropped to the ground.

Hearing the sound of the fan hitting the ground, Li Rong immediately burst into laughter. Pei Wenxuan was quite helpless.

“Li Rong, you can scold people, but you can’t scare people like this.”

“Cut the nonsense. Will you write it or not?”

Hearing Li Rong throw a tantrum, Pei Wenxuan raised his hand to his forehead and sighed, “Fine, fine. This young master is magnanimous and doesn’t quibble with women. Since you called me brother, I’ll help you with this favor.”

As he spoke, Pei Wenxuan emphasized deliberately, “My dear Ron-grong little sis-ter.”