When it was warm but still cold, Mu Rongruo half-leaned lazily on the warm couch covered with brocade.
Outside the curtain is full of spring, and inside the curtain is the companionship of books.
Mu Rongruo held a book of historical records in his hand and read it carefully.
She was covered with a snow-white short-pile wool blanket, and her wet nurse, Mama Zhang, was serving tea and fruit snacks.
The freshly brewed chrysanthemum tea was still steaming. Mother Zhang picked up the teapot and shook it, and the hot steam swirled into a smoke ring in the air, then slowly rose and dissipated.
"The chrysanthemums that were only picked last year were hand-dried by the old slave in a steamer and dried in the sun. They are the most suitable pairing with this dish of taro cakes. Sister Rong, please give it a try."
After saying that, Zhang's mother handed the poured tea to Mu Rongruo.
As soon as Mu Rongruo took the teacup, the dark green satin curtain of the bedroom was opened by a fleshy little hand.
The maid Xiao Ai walked in from the door with a smile on her face wearing an emerald green brocade gown.
Xiao Ai's appearance is not bad, but her figure is a little plump. Besides being greedy, she likes to dress herself up.
However, Mu Rongruo treated her differently from other maids. He rewarded her a lot for all the good clothes, and this girl liked this too.
I change my outfit every day, and I wish I had all those gold and silver hairpins on my head.
Mother Zhang couldn't help laughing when she saw Xiao Ai's appearance.
"This little girl is fourteen years old. She was only seven or eight years old when her parents sold her into the house. She is dark and thin and looks like a little beggar. After joining my sister, she is well fed and clothed. I’ve gained a few pounds and now I’m really enjoying myself.”
Xiao Ai walked to Zhang's mother's side, her smile not diminishing.
"The girl feels sorry for me because I have no father and mother, so she treats me better. Mom envies me for having it, but sister Yan'er doesn't have it. I'll ask the girl tomorrow to give sister Yan'er a few pieces of satin. Why bother to arrange it for me."
Mother Zhang laughed suddenly, poked Xiao Ai's pouty little mouth hard, and said: "You little girl, your mouth is getting worse and worse. I, an old woman, can't afford to offend you. You still have to let me, Yan'er, fix you." .”
When Xiao Ai heard this, she immediately acted coquettishly and begged: "Good mother, isn't it okay that I was wrong? I just ask my mother to say more good things about me in front of sister Yan'er, and I will listen to my mother in the future."
Mother Zhang hugged Xiao Ai in her arms, smiled and pinched her face again and again.
The tender scene between mother and daughter did not last long before it was interrupted by a cough.
The three people in the room looked at each other.
Yan'er, dressed in plain clothes and unpainted with makeup, was standing at the door like a door god, looking seriously at the food on the coffee table.
"The lady just said she had a toothache yesterday. Today, my mother made this sweet taro cake for her. Is she trying to prevent her teeth from rotting?"
Mother Zhang was scolded by her biological daughter and she immediately retracted her arms around Xiao Ai and lowered her head as if she had done something wrong.
Yan'er walked up to Xiao Ai again, looked at the headdress on her head and frowned.
"You were afraid of poverty when you were a child. Now if the lady rewards you, you just show it off. You have precious gold and silver objects in your head. What you know is that the lady loves you, but those who don't know think that we are the Prime Minister. The palace is so extravagant, even a maid is so rich, are you really not afraid of ruining the prime minister's reputation?"
"Sister Yan'er, I...I was wrong..." Xiao Ai stirred the corners of her clothes, not daring to take a breath.
Seeing that the old man and the young man serving the young lady were so unreliable, Yan'er shook her head impatiently.
"You can go out, I will take care of you here."
Yan'er brought the plate of taro crisps on the coffee table to Zhang's mother and asked her to take it out with her. Before Zhang's mother took it, Xiao Ai quickly took it.
"Hey, good sister, I have good teeth, just give me this plate of snacks!"
Yan'er said nothing and waved his hand to let them out.
Xiao Ai got a snack and didn't have to wait on his master, so he naturally ran out of the house happily.
Zhang's mother stole a few glances at her daughter. Seeing that Yan'er had no time to pay attention to her, she went out with a look of disappointment.
Mu Rongruo saw this and felt a little sorry for Zhang's mother.
She took Yan'er's hand and asked her to sit down next to her.
"It's been so long, and Zhang's mother knows she was wrong. Why can't you forgive her?"
Yan'er remained expressionless: "It's not about forgiveness or not. It's my bad fate, and I don't blame anyone."
Mu Rongruo persuaded again: "But when you look like this, Mother Zhang feels guilty and distressed. She is now older and her body is not as strong as before. Her only wish now is that you can talk to her more." A few words, you must not wait until you lose it before you think of this family love."
Yan'er said coldly: "If she cares about family ties, she won't force me to marry someone I don't know at all. She clearly knows that I and Afeng are in love, but in order to make me give up, she actually slandered Afeng He had an affair with Xiaoting. Madam and she were like sisters, so naturally she believed her lies, and drove Afeng and Xiaoting out of the Mu Mansion without checking. I don’t even know where he is now, and whether he will be there in the future. There is still a chance to meet. If the young lady hadn’t protected me back then, I’m afraid I would have been married off casually now.”
Mu Rongruo thought: "I still don't believe that Mother Zhang is that kind of person. Could it be that the guard and Xiaoting in her mother's house are really..."
"Absolutely not!" Yan'er interrupted Mu Rongruo.
"A Feng and I have been committed to each other for a long time. He loves me so much, so how could he fall in love with someone else? My mother only wanted to marry me to a wealthy family, so naturally she looked down on the guards of our Mu family. She was in front of me more than once She said that A Feng was born in a poor family and was not a good match. She dislikes this marriage from the bottom of her heart. "
Mu Rongruo sighed and said helplessly: "After all, she is your mother. Her methods may be wrong, but her love for you is true."
"Miss, please don't worry about our mother and daughter's affairs. If she hadn't helped me, I would have been dead. Now I only know that she is the best to me, and I am only good to her."
After saying that, Yan'er took out a piece of paper from his arms and secretly handed it to Mu Rongruo.
"This is sent by Bai Chuan, the servant next to His Highness the Crown Prince. He said that he would hand it over to the young lady himself."
Knowing that the note was sent by the prince, Mu Rongruo temporarily gave up his thoughts of persuading his son and daughter to reconcile.
She quickly opened the paper, and a line of regular script appeared in front of her.
"The Yi Lan Pavilion in the Liuli Garden is nowhere to be seen at three minutes. - Xiao Yunyuan."
"The prince's brother asked me to go to Liuli Garden to meet him in less than three hours." Mu Rongruo looked happy.
When Yan'er heard the news, a smile finally appeared on her face.
The entire Mu family knew that Mu Rongruo was the only one besides Xiao Ai who liked the current prince.
Yan'er has always felt that she is not sure of her lifelong happiness, and she must help her win the young lady's lifelong happiness.
In the past few years when Xiao Yunyuan and Mu Rongruo met privately, she had always played the role of delivering news.
In Yan'er's heart, a girl's happiness is to make her own decisions, and her parents' orders and matchmaker's words are not as important as her own preferences.
Therefore, when Marquis Jingyuan came to Mu's house to propose marriage, she was the one who went to the backyard to report the news, and she was the one who accompanied the young lady to drive away people with a broom.
"Yan'er, take out the newly made clothes in my cabinet. You can help me see which ones I want to wear to the appointment. Then call Xiao Ai in to help me dress up."
Mu Rongruo put down the book in his hand, walked to the dressing table, and picked up the hairpin ring.
"Miss, don't worry, it's still three quarters away!"
Even so, Yan'er had already taken out a few pieces of clothes from the cabinet.
After picking and choosing, she settled on a light yellow dress embroidered with albizia flowers.
Yan'er picked up the dress and walked up to Mu Rongruo and said, "Now that the weather is getting warmer, the flowers in the Liuli Garden seem to be blooming more. The young lady will look pretty among the flowers in this dress. I will match it for the young lady." A light white fox fur cloak to protect against the cold makes the young lady's elegant and refined temperament, and His Highness the Prince will definitely like her when he sees her."
Mu Rongruo smiled and nodded, holding several bead hairpins in his hand and gesturing back and forth on his head, and finally selected an orchid white hosta.
She urged Yan'er to quickly ask Xiao Ai to come in and help her dress up, feeling excited and happy in her heart.
Not three minutes later, Mu Rongruo brought two maids to Yilan Pavilion in Liuli Garden.
A figure was already waiting in the pavilion.
From a distance, this tall and well-dressed man is none other than Xiao Yunyuan, the current prince who haunts Mu Rongruo.
"Brother Prince~" Mu Rongruo hurriedly walked towards Yilanting.
The two accompanying maids stopped outside the pavilion knowingly and stood in a row with the two guards brought by the prince.
"Aruo, you're here."
Xiao Yunyuan warmly pulled Mu Rongruo to sit down on the stone bench padded with cotton balls, and poured Mu Rongruo a cup of tea that had been brewed.
"Drink some hot tea and warm yourself up."
Mu Rongruo took the tea but didn't drink it. He just apologized hastily: "I'm sorry, brother Prince, I just begged my father for a long time before he allowed me to go out, so I came out a little late and kept you waiting for a long time."
In fact, the Prime Minister did not agree to Mu Rongruo coming to see the prince at all. She begged for a long time but failed, and the meeting time was coming soon, so she had to ask Yan'er to rent a carriage from outside and come secretly to keep the appointment.
"Aruo, it's me who came early."
Xiao Yunyuan held Mu Rongruo's white and smooth little hand, with an affectionate look on his face: "I haven't seen you for a while, I miss you so much."
Mu Rongruo blushed immediately, quickly withdrew his hand, lowered his head and said shyly: "It's cold in winter, and every family in the family does not hold tea parties, so the prince brother and I are not allowed to meet. But now that spring is here, I heard Sister Qinglan say Her family will hold a spring flower banquet here in a few days, and she will naturally have to meet the prince's brother then."
Xiao Yunyuan smiled and said: "I don't know when that will be. Now I think about you very much, but I can't wait for a while."
Mu Rongruo's heart felt warm. When he saw Xiao Yunyuan's tea cup was empty, he quickly refilled him with a cup of hot tea and said, "Brother Prince has A Ruo in his heart, and A Ruo is satisfied."
Xiao Yunyuan sighed, blended with the heat coming out of the teacup, and dispersed.
"I have really wronged you by asking you to wait for me for so many years. Although I have the intention to marry you into the palace, my mother and the Prime Minister have blocked me. Do you understand my current situation?"
Mu Rongruo nodded and comforted: "Dad and brother Yun Huan have a master-disciple relationship, and my mother and Concubine Yao are sisters. Naturally, my family is closer to him, but we will never encourage him to covet the prince. The Queen Mother does not have to worry about this. As for brother Yun Huan and the prince brother, even if they have any quarrel, they are still close relatives. Even if they occasionally have different political opinions, they are all for the sake of the country and the country. Father, he will understand when he sees the sincerity of the prince brother. of."
Xiao Yunyuan said distressedly: "Aruo is still too naive. I intend to have a good relationship with Mu, but he has shut me out several times and I am not allowed to see him. How can I make him understand my sincerity."
"The road is far away to tell the horse's power, and the time is to see the heart. As long as the prince brother is devoted to the country and the people, my father will definitely care about you. The prince brother does not have to worry about being estranged for a while."
"But I can wait, so how can I bear to ask Aruo to wait with me."
Xiao Yunyuan held Mu Rongruo's hand again, with a guilty look on his face.
"You are nineteen years old now, and all the girls you have been friends with of the same age have married and had children, and you are the only one who is still waiting to be married. You put off your marriage at Jingyuan Marquis Mansion for me, but I still can't give it to you. A title. I am really... towards you..."
"I understand, brother Prince, there is no need to feel guilty."
Mu Rongruo smiled and said: "I can wait, as long as I can. As long as the prince's brother has me in his heart, I am willing to wait for the prince's brother to remain unmarried for the rest of his life."
"How could I be willing to let you waste your life for me?"
Xiao Yunyuan looked at the lake outside the pavilion, feeling sad in his heart.
"The rift between my second brother and I caused discord between the Prime Minister and my mother, which caused many obstacles to our marriage. I originally wanted to ask my father to make it happen, but he regarded the Prime Minister as an important minister and trusted him extremely. The Prime Minister didn't I hope that my father will not force me. Now the two of us are like duckweeds on the lake, floating everywhere and unable to control our own destiny. "
After hearing these words, Mu Rongruo thought of Qiao Qingjun, the concubine that the queen forcibly sent into the crown prince's womb last year, and couldn't help but feel sad.
yes! Although they are children of aristocratic families and have had no worries about food and clothing since childhood, none of them can be their own masters in this important matter of life.
Seeing Mu Rongruo's thoughts, Xiao Yunyuan hesitated for a while and finally expressed his inner thoughts.
"Aruo, if...I mean if there is a way for us to be together forever, would you be willing?"
Mu Rongruo was still feeling sad, but after hearing Xiao Yunyuan's words, he quickly raised his head and asked, "What can I do? As long as I can be with the prince brother, Ah Ruo is willing to give it a try."
Xiao Yunyuan became happy when he saw the determination in Mu Rongruo's eyes.
He held Mu Rongruo's hand tightly and said, "It's just that this method may damage your reputation..."
"It harms the honor and integrity?" Mu Rongruo was puzzled, "What method did the prince brother say?"
"It's just... it's just..." Seeing that Xiao Yunyuan had reached this point, he really had no reason to back down, so he continued: "It's just that we put on a show to make both Prime Minister Mu and my father think that we have... already..."
Xiao Yunyuan's face also turned red. He really liked Mu Rongruo, so he didn't dare to offend her.
But don't mention it, if he can't get his woman, the throne may not be so easy to get.
Thinking of this, Xiao Yunyuan said bluntly: "It's just to make Prime Minister Mu think that we are already married. In this way, Prime Minister Mu will definitely not stop our marriage. As long as Prime Minister Mu agrees, he will ask his father for a marriage, and my mother will not Reasons were given against it.”
"What!" Mu Rongruo stood up immediately, with a look of shame and anger on his face: "How is this possible... This method is really... really..."
Mu Rongruo was too embarrassed to speak, and even more angry at Xiao Yunyuan's frivolous words.
She quickly withdrew the hand held by Xiao Yunyuan, lifted up her skirt and walked out of Yilan Pavilion quickly.
"Aruo...Aruo..."
No matter how Xiao Yunyuan shouted from behind, Mu Rongruo did not stop.
When Yan'er and Xiao Ai saw their master walking out of Yilan Pavilion with an angry look on his face, they didn't know what happened.
Seeing that their master was walking quickly, they did not dare to delay and hurriedly followed Mu Rongruo out of Liuli Garden.
