The team moved forward slowly, and Yonghe, who was walking beside her, suddenly chuckled quietly. Mei Li looked at him in confusion, and Yonghe pointed to the front with his chin. Mei Li followed his gaze and saw a horse with its head hung low eating grass by the side of the road, next to it stood an even more dispirited owner. Autumn Spring, who was small in stature, wore a tiny yellow flag on her soft armor, looking like a miniature Eight Banners warrior doll, both cute and laughable, frowning and staring blankly at the passing carriages.

  "Meili jiejie..." He also saw Meili, was about to run over, but caught sight of Jingxuan and Suoyan following behind, his face fell, standing in place with a pouty mouth, looking very wronged and afraid of Jingxuan.

  Jingxuan let out a cold snort, having already caught sight of his hapless appearance. "What's wrong?" He teased, staring at Qiuchuan with a raised eyebrow, drawing out his tone in an impolite manner.

  "Can't keep up with...can't keep up with brothers." Qiuquan muttered in defeat, not daring to look up at Jingxuan.

  "I told you to stay home and play! What are you doing here causing trouble!" Jingxuan scolded, not considering that Qiuchuan was just a nine-year-old kid.

  Qiuquan pouted, on the verge of tears. Jingxuan glared at him, "Enough! You're not even worthy of looking up to! And you still want to serve the Emperor? What a joke! Where's your dignity?"

  Qiuquan was scolded by him until he was choked with sobs, but didn't dare to cry out loud. His small shoulders shook violently as he stammered, "Can't...can't find it!"

  Jingxuan couldn't take it anymore and snorted, "You're not capable of accomplishing anything, but you're great at causing trouble! Follow Su Yan on the carriage ride! Don't let me see you again along the way!"

  "I want to be with Mei Lin sister!" he said in a very small but firm voice, then ignored his own horse and bowed his head, jumping into Mei Lin's carriage like a monkey.

  Meili smiled, but was glared at by Jingxuan.

  "Yonghe, take his horse and give it to the servant up front, arrange a separate carriage for him." He coldly instructed, Yonghe smiled and nodded, got on his own horse, and led away Qiuchuan's horse.

  "If I catch you causing trouble again, I'll send you straight back! " Jingxuan scolded from inside the carriage. Su Yan walked up and pulled his sleeve with a smile, what was he doing getting angry at a child? He had become like a child himself.

  Meili helped Qiuyuan take off his soft armor, and the child shook off the heavy burden, feeling so relieved that he cried. Meili stroked his head with a mixture of sympathy and blame, "Why did you follow me to suffer? I wanted to send you to Chengde alone with your mother."

  Qiuquan wiped away tears with the back of his hand, pouting and saying, "Jingxuan brother went hunting with the previous emperor at the age of seven, I'm already nine! I also want to be as majestic as Jingxuan brother!"

  Meili stroked his neatly braided queue, just like him... okay?

  The little boy was not used to riding horses and got tired early, Mei Li let him lie down, and soon he fell asleep. Mei Li took a fan and gently fanned the wind for him, thinking of the surprise and intimacy when he and Qiu Yu saw her in the arena, it seemed that only these two siblings were so purely happy to meet each other.

  "What about Qiū Quán?!" The indifferent voice had barely fallen when the car curtain was roughly pulled open.

  Meili subconsciously made a "shh" gesture to the newcomer, not wanting to wake up Qiūquán.

  In an instant, she saw herself in Jingxuan's eyes.

  She quickly shifted her gaze, secretly regretting that she wasn't completely at ease, and shouldn't be able to calmly look him in the eye. Why did this sudden encounter make her heart skip a beat? She mocked herself by raising an eyebrow, perhaps he was just too good-looking.

  Jingxuan glanced at the fan in her hand and snorted, "He still has the nerve?!"

  "Let him sleep, he's tired." she said calmly.

  Jingxuan furrowed his brow, slapped the carriage frame with a loud crack, and the horse-drawn carriage, which was already moving very slowly, came to a complete stop. "Is he tired?! Am I not tired too?!" He said in a huff.

  Meili's eyes widened in surprise, and she couldn't help but look at him. She had never heard him speak in such a tone before.

  "What a bunch of useless people, I'm stuck with all these idiots and I've become a nanny!" He complained in a cold tone. Mei Li looked at his resentful face and couldn't help but want to laugh. The young men from the imperial family were all assigned to him by the emperor, supposedly to be trained and promoted, but these young masters were indeed a headache. It seemed... this was the first time he had vented to her.

  He was used to her silence and started pushing the sleeping Qiūquán, "Get up! Get up!"

  Qiuquan was woken up with a resentful face, opened his eyes to see Jingxuan staring at him, like a rabbit seeing a tiger, and quickly hid behind Meri.

  "Get your own car! That one behind is yours!"

  "No... I want to sit with Miori-neesan in one." Akizuki was being playful and mischievous behind Miori's back.

  Jingxuan's patience was exhausted, and he pushed Mei Li away, easily grabbing him and dragging him out. His movements were rough, and he didn't treat Qiuchan like a child at all. "Aren't you uncomfortable?!" he shouted loudly, his eyebrows furrowed.

  "Meili!" Qiū Quán was both angry and frightened, his hand that hadn't been caught by him suddenly grabbed Meili. Jingxuān's strength immediately affected her as well, and at the same time Qiū Quán was flung out of the carriage like a sandbag, she was also dragged to the point of almost falling head over heels out of the carriage.

  Jing Xuan quickly pulled her back, and Mei Li was so frightened that her face turned pale. He pushed her steadily back to the original position. His hand grasping her arm did not loosen, but instead tightened a bit. His hands were long and powerful, completely encircling her slender arm, which hurt a little, and she struggled slightly.

  He furrowed his brow and let go of her hand, she was too thin and too light... Could it be true that the Anning Palace could only have meat once every three days? Those dog slaves must be secretly embezzling their rations!

  Qiuquan, who had been thrown to the ground, began to wail loudly. Jingxuan, already annoyed, kicked him in the buttocks and growled menacingly, "You think crying will help?! You dare cry again?!" Qiuquan was indeed intimidated into silence, his original plan to throw a tantrum and get the ancestors to send someone to ask after him reduced to mere sniffling.

  Autumn's terrified and tolerant eyes suddenly pierced the beauty of Mei Li's heart. How many times did she want to cry but didn't dare, could only let her tears secretly flow into her own heart... No one noticed. She quickly got off the bus, hugged him in her arms, gently patted his back, she knew that when he was wronged and scared, all he wanted was someone to give him a safe and warm hug.

  "Just let him be with me." She muttered in a low voice, her back still turned to him.

  Jingxuan glared at her slender back, snorted and said, "Ungrateful!"

  She just held onto Qiu Quan and didn't look back, he left with a cold face and resentment.

  When they arrived at the place where they could set up camp, the camp had already been set up by the soldiers who had arrived earlier. The women were extremely tired from traveling for several days and the convoy was moving slowly. The servants who came first had plenty of time to prepare everything, including dinner.

  The ancestors need to be cleaned and tidied up before they can be used for dinner, and the Fu Jin Ge Ge also returned to their accounts to rest and prepare.

  Meili didn't feel too tired, so she took Akiizumi to play around the old ancestor's tent. Taking advantage of Akiizumi digging alone in the grass, she looked around and didn't see Yonghe for an entire afternoon, probably being busy with miscellaneous things. Just as she was looking, he came out of a tent, and he also saw her, but didn't immediately walk over, only smiling brightly at her.

  Jingxuan also followed him out of the tent, glanced at Mei Li along his line of sight, and whispered something to Yonghe in a low voice. Yonghe nodded repeatedly and took orders. Finally, he finished his instructions, and Yonghe walked quickly towards Mei Li with a relieved expression, but he didn't leave, coldly watching the smile lingering on Mei Li's lips.

  "Meili jiejie! Look what I dug up!" Chūsen exclaimed, running over with something pinched between his thumb and index finger.

  Yonghe also looked at him with great interest, wanting to see what treasure he would offer. Seeing that his hand was pinching a thick, twisted dark brown earthworm and was about to put it in Meili's slender small hand, his chest churned with emotion, and he quickly stepped forward to intercept him, slapping Autumn Spring's hand, "Take it away! How disgusting!"

  The earthworm was thrown to the ground, and both Mei Li and Qiu Quan looked at him in surprise. He frowned with a look of disgust and hatred, but his face turned slightly pale.

  "Ha!" Meri couldn't help but burst out laughing, "So you're actually afraid of earthworms."

  "Nonsense... nonsense!" Yonghe stubbornly raised his chin, "How can a big man like me be afraid of that?"

  Meili smiled and looked at him, his dying struggle was adorable.

  Qiu Quan shook his head and tail, picked up the earthworm again and stuck it on him, laughing so hard that he almost couldn't catch his breath. "Aren't you afraid? Aren't you afraid?"

  "Back off! Back off!" Yong He frowned and dodged to the left and right, his hands still gripping the hilt of his sword, as if ready to draw it for self-defense.

  Meili burst out laughing, her small face free from worry and restraint, radiating a lively and mischievous glow. Jingxuan's heart skipped a beat as he saw glimpses of the spoiled and carefree girl she used to be two years ago - this was the Meili he was familiar with yet annoyed by. The playful and innocent smile that once adorned her face but now rarely appeared made his heart even heavier. A smile he had previously hoped would glance at him, now bloomed for another man, filling him with an inexplicable pang of jealousy, how ridiculous! She, her smile, were all things he didn't want!

  He opened his eyes, just wanting to go to the old ancestor's camp, and saw Su Ying, who had been re-washed and dressed, walking towards him with a gentle and elegant demeanor. He couldn't help but smile proudly at her, this was the woman he liked, beautiful, delicate, and stunningly attractive at all times. Because of his smile, her eyes flashed with joyful light, she let go of the maid, and flew towards him like a gentle swallow.

  He gently stroked her delicate cheek with the back of his finger... He slightly furrowed his brow, and a thin layer of powder clung to his fingertips. As she gazed at him with sparkling eyes and a bright smile, he couldn't help but recall the smooth, jade-like sensation of pinching another woman's small chin.

  His gaze slid away from the beautiful face that everyone admired, due to her laughter... Mei Li took the earthworm from Akizuki's hand and threw it far away. She turned around and smiled at Eiko, "Alright, young master Eiko, the scary worm is gone." She spoke in a soothing tone, as if coaxing a child, and playfully tilted her head to one side.

  Yonghe originally wanted to argue a few more sentences, but seeing her bright smile, he was suddenly enchanted, staring straight at her and unable to say another word, his eyes filled with tender feelings.

  She was looked at by him and felt embarrassed, her face turned red, so she had to go see the autumn spring.

  Standing beside Jingxuan, Su Ying coughed softly and drew back his attention, "Sister Meili is really brave, I wouldn't dare use my hands to catch earthworms."

  Jingxuan's face sank and he didn't respond.

  "Let's play a game." Meri squatted down and picked up a smooth stone from the ground, Akizuki responded enthusiastically, although he didn't know how to play this game, he still ran around and found several similar stones.

  "A brush." She looked up at Yonghe with a smile, and Yonghe hastily found the charcoal pen on him to give to her. "Will we set up camp here again when we come back?" she asked seriously.

  Yonghe nodded, unaware of what she was going to do.

  Meili wrote her name on the stone, and Qiuyuan also took the brush to write her name. "I always find some fun and play with myself in the Anning Temple, I still like this game." She took the brush again, with a smile mixed with melancholy. On the third stone, she wrote "Will be back".

  "We buried the wishing stones under that tree, and when we come back, if our wishes have come true, we'll dig them up." Meri smiled a bit embarrassedly at Eiko, "It's pretty boring, but having something to look forward to is also a comfort."

  Eiichi's eyes narrowed in pain, he didn't want to be seen by her, and immediately searched around, also picking up a stone and returning with it. He wrote his name on it seriously. Holding both Miroku and Akizuki's hands, they dug a small but deep hole under the tree and buried four stones that read "Eiichi", "Miroku", "Akizuki" and "Will return".

  Su Ying looked around with interest, "It seems like a lot of fun, Jing Xuan, let's also bury a wishing stone."

  Jingxuan coldly watched Meili and Yonghe exchange a smile, letting out a cold snort. "How laughable! If it were really effective, would she still need to go to the Cold Palace?"