Rebirth of the High Family's Beloved

In contrast to Hua Ci Shu's anger, Empress Xiao Ling was extremely happy when she heard the news.

"Really? Did you hear it right? The emperor really agreed?"

Xiao Ling was surprised and delighted and asked Yin Shuang, the trusted palace maid, for confirmation.

Yin Shuang pinched Xiao Ling's shoulders and said, "It's true. Xiao Guizi, who was on duty at Longchang Palace, heard it with his own ears."

After getting the confirmation, Xiao Ling couldn't suppress the joy on his face, which finally made His Majesty feel relieved.

Originally, she did not agree with her son's proposal to Emperor Tianqing to marry Xiao Yizhen. Although she was her niece, her son was more important in the end.

Besides, the Xiao family is her maternal family. Even if there is no marriage relationship, how could her brother not help her son?

Moreover, this natural blood relationship is both a help and a hindrance.

Emperor Tianqing has always been wary of the princes making friends with court officials. Now that the crown prince is still alive, Emperor Tianqing's most favored heir is still Shen Zhaoyong. If her Yan'er shows her closeness to the Xiao family in public at this time, it will definitely arouse the emperor's dissatisfaction.

But Yan'er insisted on marrying him, saying that no matter whether he was related to the Xiao family by marriage or not, His Majesty would not be less wary of them.

Otherwise, why did she have to marry Hua Cijing to him in the first place? The purpose was to suppress him.

For Shen Zhaoyan, he dared to show his closeness to the Xiao family openly because he was sure that Emperor Tianqing would not do anything to him.

It is true that Emperor Tianqing took a liking to Shen Zhaoyong, but it is also true that Shen Zhaoyong is in poor health. For a country, it is acceptable to have a sickly prince, but if he becomes the emperor, no one can guarantee whether he can live to see the next heir.

Although Emperor Tianqing had three sons, the eldest son was ill, the third son was taciturn and disliked political affairs, but the second son, although ambitious, was also capable.

For Emperor Tianqing, his son is certainly important, but as the ruler of a country, he is first a ruler and then a father. He cannot gamble with the fate of a country.

Emperor Tianqing sat at the desk in Mingyi Palace. He frowned tiredly, took the tea handed to him by Yang Zhao, and took a sip.

He was already very unhappy with Shen Zhaoyan's persistent pursuit of Xiao Yizhen. He rejected her twice just to let his second son see clearly that he knew his intention and let him give up the idea as soon as possible.

But the second son was far more scheming than he had imagined. He had calculated that he would not punish him severely, so he acted even more unscrupulously. Now, at the moment when the prince was choosing a concubine, he even asked Xiao Yizhen to marry him again.

It seemed that Shen Zhaoyan was deeply in love with Xiao Yizhen, and he even proposed to her three times under the emperor's power.

This was undoubtedly just a false appearance created by Shen Zhaoyan to confuse everyone.

All he wanted was the support of Xiao Chengzhang and the civil officials behind Xiao Yizhen.

Emperor Tianqing knew it too, but he wanted to check and balance it, but he was powerless to stop it.

In order to balance the relationship between the court and the central government, he married the youngest daughter of the Hua family to his second son Shen Zhaoyan. He hoped that the loyal and brave Hua family could restrain Shen Zhaoyan and prevent him from becoming an accomplice to the evil.

However, the youngest daughter of the Hua family died in a fire on her wedding day, and after her death, a strange man was found in the bridal chamber with her.

He originally thought that he was overthinking, but now that he saw his second son's unremitting pursuit of Xiao Yizhen, he understood that the reason why the young girl of the Hua family died was probably because she blocked the way for others.

And he, the one who arranged the marriage, became the culprit of all this and he felt guilty towards the Hua family.

Since he couldn't stop them, he would just help them. The only difference was that one did it openly and the other did it secretly.

When Shen Zhaoyong heard this, he was lying on a lounge chair in the courtyard of Chonghua Palace basking in the sun as usual.

The summer sun is particularly scorching, and it is already July, the hottest time of the year.

Everyone else tried to avoid the scorching sun, but Shen Zhaoyong was the only one who exposed himself to the sun.

It's not entirely accurate to say that it was exposed to the sun. Although it was in the courtyard and there were no rooms to block the scorching sun, the vegetation in Chonghua Palace was lush and the sturdy trees that two people could hug together used their crowns as umbrellas, blocking most of the sunlight.

Only a small amount of light passed through the gaps between the leaves, falling in patches and sprinkling on Shen Zhaoyong, turning into streaks of light and shadows.

Since he was sixteen, Shen Zhaoyong has rarely seen sunlight. The coldness of his body caused by illness made him long for the warmth of the sun even more.

Rong Jing stood aside. He was already sweating profusely from the heat and wished he could hide in the house and have a glass of ice drink. How comfortable that would be.

But his master was here, and if he sneaked away to shirk his responsibilities, even though His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had a mild temper, he would not be able to bear the consequences of others taking advantage of this weakness to punish him.

No matter how hot it is, you have to endure it.

Perhaps God took pity on Rong Jing, and a breeze blew from the sky. Although it was also full of heat, it also dispelled some of Rong Jing's heat.

Shen Zhaoyong suddenly sat up and looked at the dark clouds rolling in the distant sky, his indifferent expression tinged with a hint of caution.

It's going to rain.

Maybe the rain has already fallen, if not here, then somewhere else.

He stood up and told Rong Jing, "Collect it."

Rong Jing responded with surprise as if he had been pardoned. He quickly folded up the recliner and trotted into the house.

When I came back, I saw Shen Zhaoyong had already walked into the sunlight. His whole body was covered in snow-white under the direct sunlight, and his fair skin was almost transparent.

Rong Jing hurried over to persuade him, "Your Highness, the sun is too strong, don't burn your skin, go inside."

Shen Zhaoyong raised his hand and touched his face. It felt a little hot from the sun and there was a slight burning pain.

Already got sunburned.

"Go and call the imperial physician, tell him that my face is sunburned and I can't see anyone. Ask him to prescribe some ointment to heal the wound."

"Yes".

Fortunately, the sun exposure time was not long, and the skin on his face was only slightly red. When Rong Jing came running from the Imperial Hospital panting, the redness on Shen Zhaoyong's face had eased a lot.

Rong Jing opened the ointment and applied it to Shen Zhaoyong. A slight coolness penetrated his skin, causing Shen Zhaoyong to frown slightly.

This frown frightened Rong Jingke so much that he stopped and knelt on the ground, "It was my fault that I hurt Your Highness."

Shen Zhaoyong didn't care much, he raised his hand to let Rong Jing get up, "It's okay, continue."

He got sunburned on purpose so that he would have a good excuse not to appear in public and avoid the ministers from complaining when they saw that he was feeling better.

He had heard about Shen Zhaoyan's proposal to Xiao Yizhen, but he didn't care how much support Shen Zhaoyan got because of this. He was just sad for his cousin from the Hua family who had married Shen Zhaoyan. In just over half a year, one of them was old and withered, while the other was holding a beautiful woman.

Those who are not cherished will always be forgotten.

Just like his cousin from the Hua family.