Listening to the two of them go back and forth, Hua Manman felt the atmosphere was strange.

In *Palace Intrigue*, the two of them had an adversarial relationship because they threatened each other’s positions. Since their personal interests were at stake, they were naturally like water and fire.

But now, one was a powerless, idle prince, and the other was a neglected, down-and-out prince.

The two of them had almost no interaction, so logically, they should have had nothing to fight over.

But from the looks of it, they clearly couldn’t stand the sight of each other.

’It was truly baffling.’

Li Ying invited them to sit.

But Li Ji didn’t move. "We have other matters to attend to. We can’t linger here for too long."

Li Ying ignored his refusal and spoke directly to Hua Manman, who was behind him.

"There has been something I’ve wanted to discuss with the Princess Consort. Since I have the rare opportunity to see you today, might I ask for a few words?"

Hua Manman immediately thought of the small sachet.

’The Fourth Prince must still be fixated on that sachet. He wants to ask me about it face-to-face and clear things up.’

Seeing the Fourth Prince bypass him to speak directly to Hua Manman, Li Ji was very displeased, and the smile on his face faded.

He didn’t want Hua Manman to have any contact with the Fourth Prince and was about to pull her away.

But Hua Manman tugged on his sleeve.

Li Ji lowered his gaze to her, his eyes questioning.

Hua Manman asked with pleading eyes.

"Your Highness, could you let me have a few words with the Fourth Prince?"

’She had originally wanted to avoid this melodrama as much as possible.’

’But based on how things were developing, the Fourth Prince wasn’t the type to give up easily.’

’Coupled with the power of the plot, this melodrama was bound to be dumped on her sooner or later.’

’If that was the case, she might as well clear the air with the Fourth Prince right now and make him give up completely.’

’Prince Zhao was here, too. With him watching, she wouldn’t have to worry about the Fourth Prince doing anything impulsive or irrational.’

Li Ji heard her inner thoughts and knew she had considered every angle.

But he was still annoyed.

’If he had known this would happen, he wouldn’t have brought her here to eavesdrop.’

’He had originally thought they would see the Fourth Prince in a compromising situation with Lin Qingzhi, which would show Hua Manman what kind of person he really was.’

’Who knew the Fourth Prince would just have Lin Qingzhi touch his leg.’ 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝚠𝚎𝚋𝗻𝗼𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝚘𝐦

’This, on the contrary, only reinforced the Fourth Prince’s image of being uninterested in women.’

’And in the end, it even gave the Fourth Prince a chance to speak with Hua Manman face-to-face.’

’Li Ji felt he had truly suffered a double loss. It was a total backfire!’

Hua Manman knew Prince Zhao’s personality; he was definitely not going to be happy.

She had already prepared an explanation.

In the end, Li Ji just huffed, flicked the hem of his robes, and sat down on a nearby couch.

Hua Manman blinked, quite surprised.

’Did Prince Zhao just agree?’

’That was way too easy!’

While she was still in a daze, Li Ying had already walked up to her.

Li Ji, who had just picked up his teacup, immediately put it back down.

He said with a grim face, "If you’re going to talk, then talk. Why are you standing so close?"

The sourness in his tone almost blew the roof off.

Hua Manman wanted to laugh but didn’t dare.

She forced her lips into a firm line and looked at the Fourth Prince before her, speaking seriously.

"Fourth Prince, I know what you want to ask."

Li Ying stared at her, his gaze as deep as the ocean.

He took out the small sachet he carried with him from his sleeve and asked, word by word.

"Is this yours?"

Hua Manman took the sachet from his hand, examined it carefully, and answered truthfully.

"I don’t remember. I fell ill when I was a child, and after I recovered, I forgot some things. But I did indeed lose a sachet, and the pattern on it was the same as this one."

Li Ying clutched the sachet tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force.

"When... when did you fall ill?"

Hua Manman: "After the Lantern Festival eleven years ago. I caught a chill, developed a high fever, and was unconscious for a whole night."

Li Ying, as if possessed, repeated over and over.

"Eleven years ago, the Lantern Festival... Eleven years ago, the Lantern Festival..."

He couldn’t help but take another step forward, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

"It was you! It was you!"

Hua Manman took a step back, maintaining a distance from him.

Compared to Li Ying’s agitation, she was far too calm.

It was as if she weren’t the person involved, but merely an outsider.

"Perhaps the person you’re looking for really is me, but I no longer remember you.

The memory you can’t forget is one I have long since forgotten.

Whatever was between us was missed long ago."

Li Ying stood frozen on the spot.

It was as if a basin of cold water had been poured over his heart.

Just moments ago, he had been filled with joy at having found the person he could never forget.

Now, that joy was completely extinguished.

Hua Manman said, "I am a married woman now. The Prince treats me very well, and we will spend the rest of our lives together. I believe that you, Fourth Prince, will one day meet the person you’re meant to spend your life with as well."

She avoided looking at Li Ying’s pale face and walked straight to the small brazier used for boiling tea.

She tossed the small sachet into the fire.

"No!"

Li Ying recklessly rushed to the brazier, reaching into the flames to grab the small sachet.

Hua Manman hurried to stop him.

But Li Ying, as if he’d gone mad, managed to snatch the sachet from the fire.

He quickly patted out the flames on the sachet.

Even though his movements were as swift as the wind, more than half of the sachet was still burned away.

The once small and exquisite sachet was now burned beyond recognition.

Li Ying stared at the ruined sachet lying in his palm, his eyes red-rimmed, and said nothing for a long time.

Several blisters had formed on his fingers from the flames. They were bright red and looked very painful.

Seeing this, Hua Manman actually felt a twinge of guilt.

She said softly.

"What’s past is past. Keeping this won’t do either of us any good."

His voice trembled. "It may be in the past for you, but for me, it was the only warmth left in my life."

Hua Manman tried to console him. "You have to look forward. You’ll meet someone better than me in the future."

But Li Ying just laughed self-deprecatingly.

"There won’t be anyone else."

In truth, Hua Manman wasn’t very good at comforting people.

Those last few sentences were the best she could do.

She didn’t know what else to say, so she could only remain silent.

At that moment, Li Ji stood up. "Manman, let’s go."

"Okay."

Li Ji walked forward, took Hua Manman’s hand, and led her out.

Li Ying was still staring at the ruined sachet cradled in his hands.

Once they had left, he was the only one left in the private room.

His mother was of humble birth, which meant that from the moment he was born, he was destined to be scorned.

His life was filled with nothing but wind, frost, rain, and snow.

And he had to struggle to survive amidst that blizzard.

The appearance of that little girl was the first ray of sunshine in his life.

Even though that ray of sunshine quickly vanished, it still left a warmth in his heart.

He thought that as long as he could hold on tightly to that bit of warmth, there was still hope of seeing light in his life.

But when he finally found that person, he discovered she had long forgotten him.

All that supposed warmth and light had been nothing more than his own wishful thinking.

In the end, he still had nothing.