127 I Would Send You Back

That day, Prince Lu Wei entered the palace with a mixed feeling. The prince was anxious. The Emperor had summoned him into the palace just after the Crown Princess proposed marriage with him. He did not know how he should answer if the Emperor asked him about it. After all, Prince Lu Wei had not given much thought about the matter.

Yesterday, when he returned to his room, Prince Lu Wei had found a letter from his grandmother. When the Prince asked around, the servants said that no one came to deliver a message. Then, it could only mean that the people sent by his grandmother was too skilled that he could sneak into his room without any of the servants and guards noticing. Or, one of the servants and guards were his grandmother's people.

The letter from his grandmother was brief. She only wrote that she knew his situation with Qian Rong. If Prince Lu Wei wanted to return to their clan, all he needed to do was to leave the bamboo emblem at a stationery shop at the eastern side of the city. Then, his grandmother will arrange for people to take him back to Sui Country.

Prince Lu Wei did not know whether he wanted to return. Sui Country was the place where his mother grew up until she was a fifteen. Back then, when his clan was massacred, his mother, along with a few others escaped to Qian Rong. Once his mother met the Emperor of Qian Rong and had him, she never returned to the place where she was born and raised.

However, his grandmother had sent letters to her frequently, assuring his mother that the others who stayed in Sui Country live well. In the prince's memory, he had only seen his grandmother twice.

When his mother was chosen to accompany the Emperor to visit a state in Qian Rong, his mother's maidservants would help to let the mother and daughter secretly.

Prince Lu Wei snapped out of his thought when he heard the shrill voice of a eunuch announcing his arrival. After a minute of waiting outside, the eunuch ushered him into the Emperor's study.

When he entered the study, the Emperor was sitting behind the table. His hand was holding a brush, and his attention was on the paper.

"Your Majesty. May you live long and prosper," Prince Lu Wei cupped his hands and bowed to greet.

The Emperor of Da Cheng did not make a sound and continued his job. Only when he put down the brush on his hand did the Emperor raised his head to look at the prince. "You can be at ease."

"Thank you, Your Majesty."

The Emperor of Da Cheng circled his table and descended from the stairs. He glanced at Prince Lu Wei and said, "Come with me."

Prince Lu Wei bowed again. "Yes, Your Majesty."

Soon, he was taken into a smaller room. On the center of the room were a round table and two stools. There was a pot of hot tea and a few snacks on the table. The windows were opened to let the wind come in. Outside, Prince Lu Wei could see the beautiful scenery of a small lake with a few pear blossom tree around it.

"Have a seat," the Emperor said. He poured tea into two cups and gestured the prince to drink from one of them. "Do you know why I called you here today?" the Emperor asked after a while.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty. I don't." Prince Lu Wei could think of several reasons why the Emperor summoned him into the palace. However, it would not be wise for him to guess merely.

The Emperor reached for the cup but did not take a sip from it. "Your brother, the Emperor of Qian Rong has sent out a letter to me," the Emperor spoke slowly. "He wanted me to return you to Qian Rong and had sent along for an envoy to accompany you back."

Prince Lu Wei frowned. He had heard from the Princess that his brother wanted Da Cheng to return him to Qian Rong. However, the prince did not know that his brother had sent an envoy to pick him up.

Qian Rong tried their best to be diplomatic by sending an envoy. This way, Da Cheng had no other way but to let Prince Lu Wei returned to Qian Rong with the others. However, if Prince Lu Wei refused to return, then Qian Rong will definitely accuse Da Cheng as keeping Prince Lu Wei as a hostage.

The Crown Princess was not joking when she said that a war between the two countries could start because of him.

"At the beginning, I only allow you to stay in Da Cheng because we were partly responsible for your injuries. However, once your injury healed, you were only able to stay in Da Cheng this long with the Crown Princess protection," the Emperor said. He let out a long sigh before he continued. "I don't wish to let this matter implicate my daughter and Da Cheng in any way. If it were up to my decision, I would send you back. You are a guest of the Crown Princess. Therefore, I wanted your opinion. What do you think? What are your plans?"