She used to send Doudou to the Empress’s side and then embroider flowers in the garden, playing games with the palace maids for a while, but now the Dowager Empress had said there was no need to send Doudou over, so the task of acpanying Doudou fell on her.
To be honest, she found it quite boring to spend every day with a little brat, so she let the palace maids supervise his safety, letting him run around freely within a safe area. It didn’t matter if he fell; the only concern was ensuring he didn’t eat the dirt on the ground.
If it weren’t for having seen ants and some unknown insect eggs in the dirt before, Nangong Nini would have thought it wouldn’t be a big deal for Doudou to eat a bit of soil.
Watching Doudou was boring, and not watching him was equally dull. Nangong Nini felt she needed to find something to do. Her specialty was painting, so she simply had the palace maids fetch some paintbrushes and colors for her to paint with.
Initially, she wanted to paint a picture of Doudou crawling about the garden, but as she began to paint, a thought suddenly surfaced in her heart, “I wonder how Yeguo is doing? Has a war started in Dajin?”
Ever since the Crown Prince consoled her by saying that Dajin wouldn’t start a war, she had relaxed; however, with no definitive oute, she remained quite worried about Yeguo.
Thus, the person she was painting shifted from Doudou to Yeguo.
It was Yeguo as a young man, with heroic eyebrows and eyes, a straight nose, thin lips, and a sharp facial contour that exuded uprightness.
After Nangong Nini finished the painting, she couldn’t help but gaze dumbfounded at Yeguo’s portrait, and as she looked on, she began to recall many things from her childhood.
Back then, she loved swordplay and always pestered Yeguo to teach her. He was indifferent to everyone else, but he treated her extremely well. After finding out that they were not real siblings, she even considered marrying him when she grew up.
But after all, it was just a naive sentiment of a young girl’s. Now, the person she loved the most was the Crown Prince, but her feelings for Yeguo… those feelings remained very strong, caught between kinship and love, prised of trust, dependence, and admiration. He was someone irreplaceable in her life.
Nangong Nini was so engrossed in the painting that she didn’t realize the Dowager Empress had arrived at some point.
The Dowager Empress herself had grown tired of taking care of her grandson. She had said Nangong Nini shouldn’t bring Doudou over again, but after just a few days, she couldn’t resist the longing for her grandson. Feeling too embarrassed to ask Nangong Nini to bring him, she came over herself.
After the Dowager Empress arrived, Nangong Nini’s palace maid was about to remind Nangong Nini, but the Dowager Empress waved her hand, signaling no need for formalities, so the maids dispersed to either side.
As the Dowager Empress approached and saw Nangong Nini’s portrait, she was momentarily taken aback, “Nini, what are you doing?”
Nangong Nini was startled by the Dowager Empress’s voice. She hurriedly got up to pay her respects and tried to put away the portrait, but it was too late—the Dowager Empress had already picked up the portrait from the stone table and began to examine it closely: “Crown Princess, why are you painting the Fourth Prince?”
Fourth Prince?
Nangong Nini’s hand trembled momentarily.
Yes, after marrying into Dazhou, the first time she saw the Fourth Prince, she thought he looked a lot like Yeguo, especially from the profile; they were virtually identical. Indeed, in this world, there are many people who resemble each other. For example, in the military camp, there were many who looked quite similar, whether it was the side of the face or the mouth and nose. So, Nangong Nini didn’t delve too deeply into it; feeling that the Fourth Prince was familiar was enough for her.
Now that the Dowager Empress had made the same remark, Nangong Nini suddenly had a thought: Could there be a connection between Yeguo and the Fourth Prince?
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