A piece of Japanese incense

Feng Zhixu's life seemed to have started at the wrong time.

His father was appointed as the crown prince since the embryonic stage, but he never had the space to breathe on his own and was imprisoned by the imperial power like a chain for his whole life. Between dawn and dusk, he walked on the edge of the sharp blade of power, and every move he made had to be cautious. Amid the suspicion of the king and the undercurrents between factions, he was like a pedestrian drifting on thin ice, and every step had to be calculated. Marriage to him was just a contract to maintain a political marriage.

And Feng Zhixu was the witness of his father's rebellion.

Feng Zhixu's mother was the only daughter of the Grand Tutor and a close friend of Princess Ruilin. She was also childhood friends with Crown Prince Yuancheng and Crown Princess Yan Xunhua.

Feng Zhixu's mother married the Crown Prince on the same day as the Crown Princess.

If the Crown Princess's desire to kill both mother and son originated from the fact that the Crown Prince chose the concubine's palace as his overnight residence on their wedding night, then the fact that his mother gave birth to the grandson before the Crown Princess was undoubtedly the fuse that ignited their friendship. At that moment, their past friendship collapsed in an instant and turned into nothing.

His father, whether it was out of concern for his mother's safety, or his struggle with the Queen, or because he made a mistake and was demoted, anyway, from the moment Feng Zhixu was born, he stayed alone in the imperial city, taking care of the stars of the past generations.

He thought that his life would be unknown, ignored, and he would disappear and slowly decay.

Until he met a man, his fate began to change...

"As I bid you farewell, I hope you won't leave." These are what his mother said when she took his hand and gently placed the jasmine bracelet on his grandfather's coffin.

From then on, he was no longer alone, and his world began to be decorated with lights and colors.

It was many years later when Feng Zhixu finally found Zhi Yihe.

It was the Flower Festival that day, and Zhou Ziheng invited him to go to the western suburbs to enjoy the flowers. Walking in the sea of ​​flowers, every step was on the pulse of spring.

"Ah He! It's your turn to enter the painting! Come back soon!"

Feng Zhixu and his friends looked in the direction of the sound and saw a man holding a paintbrush, with vivid scenes displayed one by one on his canvas. They were attracted by the paintings and walked closer to admire the man painting.

"Here it comes! What did I do just now?!"

In the sea of ​​flowers, a woman seemed like a fairy descending from the earth, her beauty complementing the flowers all over the path. Her skin was like the most delicate white jade, with a faint luster, reflecting the petals, but still maintaining its gentle and innocent state.

Her steps were light, and every step seemed to be on soft petals, without a speck of dust;

Her eyes are deep and bright, as if they can see through all the beauty in the world;

The corners of her lips slightly raised, outlining a faint and elegant smile, and her laughter was crisp and pleasant, like a mountain stream;

Her arrival brought life to the entire flower bush, as if every flower was paying tribute to her and every leaf was singing for her.

Feng Zhixu's breathing became light and cheerful because of her. How come she seemed to have not changed at all, still so quirky and cute.

In the man's control, the brush is sometimes as gentle as a feather brushing across the water, and sometimes as firm as a sculptor's blade penetrating into the wood.

"You think you can stand with me? Get out of here!"

"Why are you chasing me away?"

……

The noisy sound attracted the attention of people around. At first, only a few people stopped to watch, but as the sound became louder, more and more people were attracted and walked towards the source of the sound.

Zhi Yihe naturally would not join in such a lively crowd. He disappeared into the whirlpool of the crowd.

Feng Zhixu took advantage of the brief time when the painter went out to look for someone and put the unfinished painting into his sleeve.

"What do I take it as a big deal? It's just a trivial matter between girls. Let's go." Zhou Ziheng squeezed out of the crowded crowd with a disdainful tone.

"Wait!" Feng Zhixu stood where he was and called out to Zhou Ziheng.

Zhou Ziheng followed Feng Zhixu's gaze and saw that the girl who had just been standing there quietly being painted was now waving a butterfly net and chasing butterflies - bees?

Zhi Yihe ran towards the noisy crowd with a net bag full of bees and butterflies in his hand, shouting, "Make way! Make way! The hornets are coming! Run!"

The crowd was like a flock of disturbed birds, suddenly spreading outwards from the center, instantly evacuating the originally dense crowd.

"Ah! Ah! Go away! Why are you chasing me?!"

"It's a wasp flying towards you! I'm helping you drive it away!" Zhi Yihe said as he hit the woman hard with a butterfly net. Her scream was like a released bowstring, sharply and rapidly cutting through the air.

When Zhi Yihe saw that the woman's face was swollen from being stung, he closed the butterfly net in his hand with satisfaction and left leisurely.

"It's over! That's the daughter of the Minister of Personnel. I don't know how the master will punish you if you hit her like that!"

"So what? I just can't stand her bullying others by taking advantage of her power! Such a large piece of land belongs to her family!"

Feng Zhixu watched Zhi Yihe pass by him, hesitated for a while, finally caught up with her and called her: "Miss, can you tell me your name? Do you remember who I am?"

"My handsome boy, your way of chatting people up is too old-fashioned!" Zhi Yihe didn't care and ran away with a jump.

Feng Zhixu watched Zhi Yihe running towards the man who was painting for her. Both of them were smiling. Zhi Yihe put a red azalea flower in his black hair. The red color of the flower was like a burning flame, making his smile even brighter.

Feng Zhixu stood alone in the crowd, watching them gradually go away. Their figures became blurred, and he felt an unprecedented loneliness and desolation in his heart.

She actually... forgot about him...

When Feng Zhixu heard the news that Zhi Yihe would enter the palace as Ting Zhu's companion, he was so excited that he wanted to do a few somersaults to express his joy.

When Zhi Yihe and Zhi Siqi arrived at the upper study, Feng Zhixu had already been waiting for a long time.

The branches and the tip of her nose were red, like fresh cherries kissed by the Cold Dew. She sniffed from time to time, and tears from sneezing still hung in the corners of her eyes. Her eyes were hazy, revealing a faint tiredness and heaviness.

She sat there, her nostrils flaring, her shoulders shrugging from time to time, and she took a deep breath, trying to wake up the dormant sneeze, but each time she fell just a little short, as if she was chasing a shadow that she could never catch.