Peach Blossom.

Tao Ye thought that since they were about to part, no matter what the reason was, Wang Jing should come to see her alone and have a long chat with her.

You know, ever since she brought Yu'er to her side, Tao Ye has hardly had the opportunity to be alone with Wang Jing, let alone have a long talk.

It was late at night, Tao Ye sat alone in the room, quietly feeling the loneliness that belonged to her alone.

Looking at the bright moon outside the window, she would occasionally wonder why she was wasting her best years of youth and staying in ancient times.

Wang Jing wouldn't show up, so she had to go to his door.

“Pah—Pah—Pah—”

The sound of abacus came from Wang Jing's room.

Tao Ye looked in from the window and saw Wang Jing sitting under the lamp, flipping through the account book of the treasury with one hand and moving the abacus with the other.

She pushed the door, and sure enough, Wang Jing's door was still ajar as before, and it opened with a push.

Wang Jing saw this and stopped what he was doing. He looked at Tao Ye with a smile and asked, "You're still awake so late?"

"I'm about to go to Jiankang, and we will be separated for a long time. Don't you have anything to say to me alone?" Tao Ye walked to Wang Jing and looked at him infatuatedly.

"Do you really want to go on this trip alone?"

"Hasn't Father agreed?"

Wang Jing lowered his head, as if hesitating about something. After a while, he slowly asked, "Do you think my father treats you very well?"

Tao Ye smiled and nodded: "From the moment he met me, he treated me like a family member. I grew up without a father, so naturally I longed for fatherly love."

Wang Jing looked at Tao Ye's innocent smile and couldn't bear to say anything more. However, in his opinion, his father's kindness to Tao Ye was mostly out of a desire to use her. For example, he arranged their marriage to gain the trust of Prince Yongchang, and also because Tao Ye was about to go on a long journey...

Before Tao Ye walked into the room, she felt as if she had a lot to say to Wang Jing, but when they met, she didn't know what to say.

She then asked casually, "Why don't you ever come to my house at night? It used to be safer in your house! Now we don't even have a courtyard wall at the foot of this desolate mountain! Aren't you afraid of ghosts knocking on your door in the middle of the night?"

Wang Jing replied: "I'm just waiting for the ghost to knock on the door..."

Tao Ye originally asked casually, but Wang Jing's answer surprised her. She seemed to understand that the "ghost" Wang Jing was referring to was Gillian's soul.

Sure enough, Wang Jing's subsequent explanation made this point clearer to her: "At that time, I thought you were Gillian, and I always thought that you might come to see me at night, so I kept the door open. Later... I knew she was gone, so I kept the door open even more..."

Tao Ye felt a little depressed. When she mentioned the incident of pretending to be Tang Jiao, she recalled many things that happened during the more than half a year she lived in Situ Mansion in Jiankang.

She remembered the night when the princess blinded Qingxing's eye and Qingxing hanged herself, she hesitated to leave Situ Mansion, and then she met Wang Jing at the back door.

At that time, Wang Jing thought she was a beautiful girl and strongly requested to elope with her. At that time, Wang Jing not only forgot that he had a father who was in danger far away, but also made it clear that he wanted to leave his only daughter behind.

When she returned to her original identity as Tao Ye, although Wang Jing treated her well, it seemed that her father's safety and his daughter's emotions were much more important than her?

Thinking of this, Tao Ye suddenly didn't want to talk to Wang Jing anymore.

She said nothing and turned toward the door.

Wang Jing stood up and stopped her: "Are you angry? I'm sorry, I didn't mean to mention her in front of you..."

"Do you care if I'm angry? To you, I'm just a fake!" Tao Ye smiled bitterly. Wang Jing had mentioned Gillian countless times in front of her before, but she had never expressed her jealousy.

She always thought that she shouldn't be jealous of a dead person, but today, she was more than just jealous.

"How could I not care about you being angry?" Wang Jing held Tao Ye's shoulders with both hands, his eyes seemed to be apologizing.

"I'm tired. I want to go back and rest." Tao Ye pushed Wang Jing's hand away and walked forward.

Wang Jing suddenly hugged her waist from behind: "Don't leave tonight..."

Tao Ye turned around and smiled coldly: "Why? It's been four years, why did you think of trying to keep me tonight?"

Wang Jing couldn't answer.

"Is it because I'm leaving and you're giving me some parting charity?"

Wang Jing was speechless.

"Thanks. I don't need it." Tao Ye pushed Wang Jing's hand away again and walked out the door without looking back.

Wang Jing stood there, unable to think of a word to respond.

After walking a few steps, Tao Ye said another sentence, but still did not look back: "Tomorrow you will go to the palace to report to the king and send me to Jiankang to deliver the message. Life in Yongchang is boring. I don't want to stay here anymore. The sooner I leave, the better."

Wang Jing didn't know what to say, so he could only watch Tao Ye walk back to her room.

Tao Ye went back to her room and lay down, but she couldn't fall asleep. She thought about the words she had just said to Wang Jing, as if they were her true words.

Life in Yongchang is really boring!

Yongchang is sparsely populated, and she has no one to talk to. She does menial housework during the day and suffers from insomnia alone at night.

What’s the point of living like this?

Since she followed Wang Jing to Yongchang, she has lived without self. At first, she thought she could sacrifice everything for love. She tried her best to do everything Wang Jing needed, but she felt more and more that it was not worth it.

Being a stepmother is difficult. Is she willing to be a free babysitter forever?

But other people's stepmothers wouldn't live separately after marriage and become a couple in name only just out of consideration for their children's feelings, right?

No...how could she and Wang Jing be described as "in name only"?

Wang Jing is nominally the prince consort! He is Princess Si Yao's husband!

What, then, is her status?

She suddenly had an idea, turned over and sat up, picked up the brush on the table, and wrote two words on the paper - "Divorce".

The writing of that era was too complicated and she didn't know how to write, so she wrote a divorce letter to Wang Jing using the modern writing she was familiar with.

The next day, Wang Jing went to Yongchang Palace again to ask to see Si Yuan and reported to him that Tao Ye was about to go to Jiankang to deliver a message, and Si Yuan agreed.

When Tao Ye received the news, she immediately packed her luggage.

Wang Yi wrote a letter and gave it to Tao Ye, asking her to pass it to the eldest son Wang Dun or the third son Wang Ao when she arrived at the Wang family in Jiankang. The letter explained everything that needed to be done.

Tao Ye packed Wang Yi's letter, some of her clothes, and some things she would need for the journey into a cloth bag, put it on a horse, and then led the horse off.

She actually didn't need a horse on her way back, and although she had learned to ride a horse in the past few years, her skills were not very good.

This horse is just a prop. Because she is in Yongchang, her every move may still be under the surveillance of the King of Yongchang, so she dare not fly into the sky casually.

After Wang Yi and Wang Jing escorted Tao Ye for a short distance together, Wang Yi ordered Wang Jing to escort Tao Ye again alone and he left first.

So only Wang Jing and Tao Ye were left. Perhaps the atmosphere left over from last night was too awkward, so they remained silent for a long time.

Beside them was a golden wheat field, which was planted by Wang Yi himself. The wheat was almost ripe and was shining with golden light under the scorching sun.

After walking along the wheat field for a long time, Tao Ye spoke first: "Your feet can't walk far, so there's no need to send them on."

"I...I have something to say to you." Wang Jing's eyes were as tired as Tao Ye's, because he also had insomnia last night.

Tao Ye stopped and looked at Wang Jing intently, to express her seriousness in listening to what Wang Jing said, and also because she didn't want Wang Jing to walk anymore.

"I thought a lot last night. I owe you too much. I hope I will have the opportunity to compensate you in the future. When my father is safely out of Yongchang and Yu'er has a good home, I will treat you wholeheartedly." Wang Jing's promise was very formal and sincere.

However, what he got in return was Tao Ye's indifferent smile.

"Wait until your father leaves Yongchang safely? Yu'er finds a good home?" Tao Ye nodded. She didn't really want to laugh. "Is this the difference between me and Mantang Jiao in your heart?"

Wang Jing didn't quite understand Tao Ye's meaning.

"I think you should remember that when you thought I was Mantangjiao, you were willing to abandon your daughter, not to mention your father, in order to elope! Now, I have to wait for you to do so many things before I can have a future with you! She is also your acknowledged wife, so am I not as good as her?"

"No... that's not what I meant..." Wang Jing's eyes were filled with panic as he explained, "Back then, my father was still a free man and Yu'er was still a normal child. Now the situation is completely different..."

"Because they are abnormal, you can't even be a normal couple with me?" Tao Ye interrupted Wang Jing.

Wang Jing was suddenly unable to answer again.

Tao Ye continued to ask: "What if your father can never escape the control of the king? What if Yu'er can never get married? Will there be no future for you and me?"

Wang Jing had nothing to say.

Tao Ye took out the divorce letter she had written last night from her sleeve and showed it to Wang Jing.

But Wang Jing didn't quite understand: "What is this?"

Tao Ye suddenly remembered that Wang Jing probably couldn't understand the simple characters of her time, so she read to him: "Divorce. From today on, Tao Ye and Wang Jing dissolve their marriage. This is the evidence. The person who wrote this is "Tao Ye." "

Wang Jing was horrified: "You want to divorce me?"

"Once we return to Jiankang, you will still be Princess Si Yao's consort in name. Our status will not be recognized, and we cannot be considered husband and wife. Then what's the point of our marriage? I might as well divorce you now!" Tao Ye said, and stuffed a divorce letter into Wang Jing's arms.

Wang Jing clutched the divorce letter tightly and shook his head desperately. His expression became more and more panicked. "No! I reflected for a long time last night. I shouldn't have kept you cold just for Yu'er's sake! I have sworn to myself that after returning to Jiankang, I will find a way to reconcile with the princess and officially welcome you into my family... If I can't, I will run away with you. Whether the rest of my life is one or two years, or five or ten years, I will always treat you as the most important person in my life!"

"Then wait until you officially welcome me home. I hope that what you said today comes from love, and not because you owe me a debt." Tao Ye let out a long sigh of relief and handed over the "divorce letter", as if she had unloaded a heavy burden.

"Second brother, take care!" Tao Ye put her hands on her waist, knelt down lightly and bowed to Wang Jing, then immediately mounted her horse and rode away.

Wang Jing was stunned. He never expected that Tao Ye, who had been devoted to him for many years, would suddenly abandon him one day, and her attitude was so resolute!

Looking at Tao Ye's back as she walked away, he couldn't help but chase after her, calling out, "Tao Ye... Tao Ye..."

Even though Tao Ye was not good at horse riding, Wang Jing couldn't catch up with her with just his two feet and a cane.

"My love for you...is not a debt..." Wang Jing finally shouted out the words Tao Ye wanted to hear most.

Unfortunately, the peach leaves are getting farther and farther away and can no longer be heard.

On the empty road, the wind blew up the dust and whistled past Wang Jing. In his ears, he seemed to hear Tao Ye's melodious singing again:

I advise you not to cherish the golden robe,

I advise you to cherish your youth.

The flowers can be folded straight and must be folded,

Don't wait for the flowers to be empty.