Court Lady Yi was Li Yu's mother and a Nanny to the Prince. She had breastfed and raised the two boys herself in the palace as the Prince had no mother.
The Prince had always accorded her great respect and regarded her his mother. As soon as the Prince requested her to cover for them to leave the palace, she obliged without second thought. Though she had made feeble attempts to dissuade the Prince - which obviously fell on deaf ears.
'do not worry, we will be back before nightfall' the Prince had assured her.
***
Prince Lee and Li Yu arrived at the Town in great spirits, disguised in commoners clothes; but their aura could not be concealed.
They looked around with great astonishment.
As they walked around the market square with no particular destination in mind, a pickpocket who was trying to hide away from a group of thugs who had been looking out for him ran into them.
"hey you! watch it!" the young man's brain definitely didn't register that it was he who bumped into these people
"what?" Prince Lee couldn't believe his ears as he dusted off his clothes
He thought in his mind 'is this the behaviour of people in Town?, this brat clearly ran into us, I would teach him a lesson if i wasn't disguised right now'
"I said watch it!, now out of my way! move it" the young man raised his head to reveal a fair and neatly carved face
"looking good for a trouble maker huh?" the Prince wouldn't just let him go. He grabbed tightly on his wrist
"what do you want..., I have to leave"
"hahaha, what could I possibly want? maybe an apology?"
"aishhh... apology ..." he immediately swallows the 'my foot' he had wanted to complete the phrase with when he saw one of the thugs approaching them
"fine, sorry" the young man made it brief
"doesn't that sound so insincere and short?, Yu, what do you say?" the Prince had started enjoying the game of delaying this troublemaker and turned to Li Yu to ask him the most lewd question
"aishhh... damn... go away" the young man definitely could not risk one more minute at the scene and pushed the Prince out of the way.
"eihh, that brat! pray i don't catch you!" the Prince was really pissed off
"Please calm down your highness..."
"sshhh" the Prince put a hand to his lips "no one must hear you calling me that out here"
"My apologies"
"come, let us go to the popular inn for a drink"