When Mu Fengqie arrived at the prison cell, she saw a prisoner in ragged prison clothes, dirty all over and with straw in her hair. Although it was the imperial prison, apart from the strict guards, the conditions here were the worst.
The guard in front was very attentive as he led Mu Fengqie, saying, "Princess, please walk slowly. There are all sorts of things in this prison, so be careful."
"I know," Mu Fengqie replied. Looking at the damp environment here, she knew that Lou Yueying had not been living well.
"Hey, Lou Yueying, someone's here to see you," the guard said as he led Mu Fengqie to the place where Lou Yueying was detained.
"You can leave first. I'd like to have a private talk with her here," Mu Fengqie said, giving the guard a silver ingot. The guard left happily with the silver.
"What are you doing here? Come to laugh at me?" Lou Yueying looked at the well - dressed Mu Fengqie and thought she was here to mock her.
"I'm not that idle," Mu Fengqie said. She noticed that Lou Yueying's eyes were clear.
After looking at Mu Fengqie for a while, Lou Yueying finally said slowly, "Then what are you doing here? Is that ungrateful Yuan Yuchuan dead?" At the mention of this, Lou Yueying burst into crazy laughter. Every day here, she had been praying for Yuan Yuchuan's death.
"No, you're overthinking. The emperor is still alive and well," Mu Fengqie said. But she wasn't sure about his future.
Hearing Mu Fengqie's words, Lou Yueying calmed down. "Then what are you doing here?"
"I just want to ask if you regret it?" Mu Fengqie clearly saw the hatred for Yuan Yuchuan in Lou Yueying's eyes.
Hearing Mu Fengqie's question, Lou Yueying was stunned. She didn't expect Mu Fengqie to ask this. If talking about regret...
"The thing I regret most is that I couldn't marry Brother Jing in my whole life," Lou Yueying said, and then fell silent.
If only her father wasn't Lou Mingkou. But if he wasn't, how could she have the chance to meet Brother Jing? So this was probably the cycle of cause and effect.
She was doomed to be separated from Brother Jing in this life. Thinking of this, a hot tear rolled down her cheek.
"Maybe if you hadn't led a rebellion back then, your ending might not have been like this," Mu Fengqie said. She came to see Lou Yueying today for no special reason, just to have a look at her.
"Humph! It's impossible. Do you know that when I married Yuan Yuchuan, we were already sworn enemies. I know myself well. What's mine must only be mine. No one else can touch it. Otherwise, I'll kill anyone who touches my things by any means necessary." After she entered the Crown Prince's Mansion, she and the Crown Prince quarreled and fought every day.
She also knew that Yuan Yuchuan had no feelings for her. In fact, he even developed hatred for her during their time together. So whether she led a rebellion or not, he would never let her go in the end.
Mu Fengqie seemed to understand Lou Yueying's difficulties, and yet she seemed not to. "Do you know what kind of poison your father gave A Che?"
"I don't know. If I did, I would have already gone to find the antidote," Lou Yueying said. Thinking about this, she felt it was rather ironic.
The man she loved was the one her father couldn't tolerate, while the man she didn't love was the one her father could spare. How ironic! If there was an afterlife, she didn't want to live such a hard life.
She just wanted to find a person she loved and who loved her, and live a simple life without caring about wealth and honor, as long as they could be healthy and safe all their lives.
Mu Fengqie looked at Lou Yueying without saying anything else. She just told her to take care of herself when she left.
"Mu Fengqie!" Lou Yueying stood up from the ground and walked to the threshold. Looking at her, she said, "I know you're good at medicine. I hope you can cure Brother Jing in the future and live a good life with him... Please, I'm begging you..."
Mu Fengqie gave Lou Yueying a complicated look and nodded in agreement. When she left, she made some arrangements for Lou Yueying to make her future life a bit easier.
After Mu Fengqie left the palace, the person following her also left.
"Is that all she said to Lou Yueying?" Yuan Yuchuan was a bit surprised after hearing the report from that person.
"Yes."
"Alright, you can go," Yuan Yuchuan said. Alone in the empty palace hall, he didn't know what he was thinking.
"Qie'er, how was it? Did anyone make things difficult for you in the palace today?" As soon as Mu Fengqie left the palace, she saw Jing Xunche. Judging from his appearance, he must have been waiting for a long time.
"Why are you here?" Mu Fengqie looked at Jing Xunche standing at the palace gate and walked towards him with a smile.
"I was worried about you, so I came to have a look. What if someone who didn't know better bullied you?"
"I'm fine. Let's go back," Mu Fengqie said, feeling warm in her heart when she looked at Jing Xunche.
"Okay." Jing Xunche took Mu Fengqie's hand and got into the carriage.
"I saw Concubine Jing today," Mu Fengqie said. She told Jing Xunche about Concubine Jing. Jing Xunche was very surprised. He didn't expect Yuan Yuchuan to do such a thing.
"I see. The emperor is just digging his own grave. He's jealous of Concubine Jing's maternal family. He wants their help but doesn't want their bloodline to be born," Jing Xunche said mockingly. It had to be said that Jing Xunche was absolutely right.
"If he's so scared, why didn't he just stop Concubine Jing from entering the palace?" Mu Fengqie said. "This has ruined a woman's whole life."
Thinking that the women in the deep palace might end up like this in the future, having no opinions of their own and only being used as pawns by others, Mu Fengqie felt sorry for them.
Jing Xunche understood the emotion in Mu Fengqie's eyes. "You don't need to pity them. They chose this path themselves. Not many of them were forced by their families to enter the palace."
"I know," Mu Fengqie said. "Isn't this the fate of ancient women? Jing Xunche, I hope that in the future, our children can marry the people they like and marry into the families they want." She didn't want her children to go through such things.
"Okay. In the future, let our children make their own choices about marriage. We'll just support them silently from behind," Jing Xunche said. His thoughts were the same as Mu Fengqie's.
"By the way, aren't you afraid that Kong and Mu Rendong will bite you back if something happens to them after you left them in the palace?" Although the three of them, including Kong, were trapped in the palace and couldn't come out at will, Jing Xunche was still a bit worried.
"Don't worry. I have a way to deal with it. I've asked Concubine Jing to keep an eye on them in the palace. As long as they don't cause any trouble, there won't be any big problems."