The Prince Consort's Beloved

On the ninth day after returning from the hunting ground, Zhuque came back again and brought a dragon-shaped jade pendant for Xiao Luobai.

Xiao Luobai stroked the dragon-shaped jade pendant, his fingers trembling slightly but he was unaware of it, as if he was lost in memories.

For such a long time, he never went to the gate of Zhao's house to see her again, but just sent someone to keep an eye on her.

He also did not tell Li Yuanrou that the woman was not his biological mother, but a personal maid of his mother, the former Queen of the Helian royal family, named Cuizhu.

Back then, Cuizhu abandoned her own son and fled with the two-year-old boy. Cuizhu exchanged her own son for him.

He survived, but her son was buried in the fire along with Xiao Luobai's biological mother.

At that time, Xiao Luobai didn't know this. He had lived with Cuizhu since he was a child and called her "mother."

Cuizhu got separated from her companions when she was fleeing with Xiao Luobai. She had no relatives or friends in a foreign country and got married when she had no other choice.

But the man was a gambler who would beat people when he lost. Cuizhu was humiliated and beaten every day.

The gambler not only beat her, but also the young Xiao Luobai.

Cuizhu was sold. She escaped from the brothel to see Xiao Luobai, and found that the young master she had protected with her life was beaten to death.

After she was caught by the brothel, she found an opportunity to go out and see him, only to discover that Xiao Luobai had also been sold by the gambler and was beaten before being sold. She killed the gambler in anger.

Her patron, the master of the Zhao Mansion, protected her, and she entered the Zhao Mansion as a concubine. Using the Zhao Mansion's connections, she finally found her companions who had fled with her. Their princess, Helian Yueli, had become a bandit and gave herself a nickname, Yao Jinhua.

The Helian royal family could never have imagined that a princess of a country, a once majestic female general, would become a bandit. It was really a good strategy to deceive people.

Cuizhu felt that she was being targeted. She didn't dare to act rashly or reveal any information about Xiao Luobai.

She secretly passed the message to Chifeng Village, and Zhuge Hongzhan came down the mountain and waited for an opportunity to rescue Xiao Luobai. Xiao Luobai was successfully rescued, but he was too young at the time and he did not know the people in the village. When Cuizhu took him away, he was just a baby who could just walk.

He missed his mother and was depressed every day. Zhuge Hongzhan softened his heart and took him to see Cuizhu. Cuizhu was afraid that someone would find Xiao Luobai through the clues, so she scolded Xiao Luobai and the other man and drove them out. At this time, Xiao Luobai didn't know that Cuizhu was not his biological mother.

Xiao Luobai's personality became more and more withdrawn. Unlike an ordinary child, he only loved practicing martial arts. He felt happy every time after practicing sword skills, but there was always a stone pressing on his heart.

He felt like he was sick and sometimes thought that there was no point in living. In this big world, no one wanted him or loved him.

Until he met the little Li Yuanrou, he had a strange feeling, as if he was living for this person.

He didn't understand why until Li Yuanrou appeared in his dreams once a year, sometimes two or three times a year. But the frequency was still too rare and he couldn't even remember the appearance of the person in his dreams. He started to draw it every time he woke up, and so he learned how to paint.

In the dream, Li Yuanrou was in a strange place and she looked very painful.

He saw that Li Yuanrou wanted to eat but had no money to buy it, he saw that she was afraid of the dark, he saw her crying, he saw all her helplessness and fragility. He remembered that little Yuanrou said to him under the osmanthus tree: "Do you have money?" So he learned business.

Yao Jinhua asked him to learn martial arts and political tactics.

Yao Jinhua herself is a martial arts master and also has high hopes for Xiao Luobai.

Xiao Luobai is Zhuge Hongzhan's apprentice, but he has too much to learn and has no time to tend to the flowers and herbs for Zhuge Hongzhan.

Later, Zhuge Hongzhan brought back two more orphans, one was Qingfeng and the other was younger, He Yutian, whose nickname was Xiaotian.

Qingfeng was quite dull, but he had a quiet personality and he also liked practicing martial arts, so he stayed with Xiao Luobai and became his personal servant.

Zhuge Hongzhan accepted Xiaotian as his apprentice to help him grow herbs.

Xiaotian likes Xiao Luobai, but he is too noisy. He hangs around Xiao Luobai calling him brother all day long and pesters Xiao Luobai and Qingfeng to play with him. Xiao Luobai doesn't like him.

Xiao Luobai likes quietness. There is a Li Yuanrou living in his heart. Sometimes when he misses her, he writes poems to pass the time. Over time, he learned how to write poems.

For a long time afterwards, Li Yuanrou never appeared in his dreams again, and he missed her more and more.

He wanted to go to the palace where Li Yuanrou was to find her, so he studied hard and passed the imperial examination.

He had achieved some success in business, and he thought that now that he had money he could go find her, and she would definitely be happy.

He passed the imperial examination as he wished and saw her as he wished, but Li Yuanrou seemed to have forgotten him, and the emperor wanted to match him up with Li Yuanrou's sister, the eldest princess.

Fortunately, he knew that the eldest princess had someone in her heart, so it was natural for him to stay and accompany her and watch over her in another identity.

Li Yuanrou suddenly fell into a coma and was in a coma for a long time. Xiao Luobai felt that he was sick too. He often had wild thoughts and was in a trance. Later, he showed signs of going insane.

Later, he seemed to be heartbroken and refused to eat or drink. Yao Jinhua told Xiao Luobai the truth, hoping that Xiao Luobai would cheer up. Xiao Luobai then realized that Cuizhu was not his biological mother, and the aunt he had always called was actually his real aunt, Helian Yueli, a princess of the Beiluo royal family. And he was the son of the Helian royal queen, Helian Luobai.

The night Xiao Luobai learned the truth, he had a dream. He dreamed of the two of them as adults. He was the emperor and she was a courtier. They fell in love with each other, but before they could be together, he gave up on her because of the struggle for imperial power. He raided her family and killed her entire clan, including her...

After waking up in a startled state, he was sweating profusely. The horror and pain of losing her made him even more terrified. In his heart, he refused to be involved in the royal family. What he wanted most was to be an ordinary couple with her.

If he became Helian Luobai, he would definitely have to go back to Beiluo Kingdom.

He is the crown prince of Beiluo and will be the emperor of Beiluo in the future, while she is the princess of Dai Viet. The two countries have been hostile to each other since the beginning, and there is almost no possibility for them to be together.

If he became Helian Luobai, he would be involved in disputes and power struggles, and he would not be free. After all, the emperor's responsibilities were too heavy, and there were too many things he could not do. Just like in the dream, even if he liked her, he would still kill her family for other reasons, and kill her...

This was not what he wanted. He had been living as Xiao Luobai for so many years, waiting for Li Yuanrou for so many years, learning literature for her, doing business for her, and passing imperial examinations for her.

But the Helian royal family is too far away.

He was not greedy for power, all he wanted from the beginning to the end was Li Yuanrou...

He did not cheer up. Yao Jinhua was very angry and began to dislike Xiao Yuanrou, whom she had only met once. She felt that it was Xiao Yuanrou who made Xiao Luobai become such a person who only cared about love.

Helian Yueli was raised by Xiao Luobai's biological mother. She lived under the care and protection of the imperial sister-in-law, who taught her carefully and regarded her as her mother.

She is carefree and likes to practice martial arts. She has a generous personality and dreams of traveling the world. She has fought in the battlefield and lived a free and easy life. However, the emperor's sister-in-law was killed by a treacherous concubine.

She has now spent so much time and effort for Xiao Luobai that she is even willing to become a bandit and secretly form a private army on Chifeng Mountain.

She took the trouble to plan everything for Xiao Luobai, to help him regain the fame and fortune that belonged to him. She wanted to avenge her sister-in-law whom she regarded as a mother. But Xiao Luobai only had love in his eyes. How could she not be angry?

Xiao Luobai said that he dreamed that Li Yuanrou died, and he became more and more depressed, like a walking corpse, as if he was dead too.

Yao Jinhua was so disappointed with her friend that she became irritable and the whole village was in chaos.

Zhuge Hongzhan felt soft-hearted, not knowing whether he felt sorry for Xiao Luobai or Yao Jinhua. After all, he had sacrificed ten years of his life to save Yao Jinhua, who was still Helian Yueli. As the imperial teacher of Beiluo Kingdom, he even fled the royal family with her and Xiao Luobai.

He gave up another ten years of his life in exchange for Li Yuanrou. Everyone thought he was an old man with a white beard, but in fact he was not old. It was just that his hair turned white overnight after giving up the first ten years of his life.

Li Yuanrou came, Xiao Luobai came back to life, and Yao Jinhua gradually returned to normal, but she was always depressed and felt that everything she had planned was about to go down the drain.

Zhuge Hongzhan advised her to let it go and not force it. He had investigated the fate of Xiao Luobai and Li Yuanrou and knew that they would have a hard life...

Xiao Luobai didn't know all this. He only knew his true identity and that Cuizhu didn't recognize him in order to protect him. She withheld the jade pendant that symbolized his identity for fear that he would go back for revenge and be killed.

Cuizhu promised her master to protect Xiao Luobai and let him be a happy ordinary person, not to return to the Helian royal family or the Beiluo Kingdom, and it would be safer to stay in the Dai Yue Kingdom.

Xiao Luobai didn't want to go back to Beiluo. Cuizhu had been holding onto the jade pendant and now it was returned to him. He couldn't help but wonder if Cuizhu was in danger, otherwise why would she suddenly return the jade pendant to him...

After a long while, Xiao Luobai raised his head and looked at Zhuque and asked, "Did she say anything?"

Zhuque replied: "She told you not to seek revenge and to live well."

Zhuque asked again: "Do we still need to keep an eye on the Zhao residence?"

Xiao Luobai lowered his eyes and thought, then made a prompt decision: "Let Jinghong come back to accompany Jinglei. Jinglei hasn't seen his brother for a long time. Just leave two people from Prince Yun's Mansion to keep an eye on it, and transfer the others to continue to keep an eye on Zhao's Mansion. All the people from the Princess' Mansion will also be transferred to Zhao's Mansion to ensure her safety. You will be responsible for this matter. By the way, pay attention to the news about the battlefield sent back by the escort agency, and report to me at any time if there is any disturbance."

Zhuque nodded, accepted the order and left.

Xiao Luobai looked at the dragon-shaped jade pendant in his hand, thinking that it was time to go back to the village.