CH 102

Seeing Wei Chongrong’s expression turn very serious, Jun Hua naturally became worried. He waited for a while, and seeing that Wei Chongrong didn’t say what was in the letter, he couldn’t help but ask hesitantly, “What happened? Is it bad?”

Wei Chongrong clutched the note tightly and frowned: “At the end of last month, Zhuxia suddenly went to invade Nanyue. In less than half a month, it already conquered six cities. According to this trend, it will directly reach Jing’an, the capital of Nanyue.”

“Zhuxia invaded Nanyue?” Jun Hua murmured, repeating Wei Chongrong’s words, puzzled: “What does it have to do with us?” 

Zhuxia and Nanyue were both neighbours of the Great Yan in the south. At the end of the Yuanzheng dynasty, they took advantage of the chaos in the Central Plains to occupy a lot of territory. But since the Great Yan had been established, its focus had always been on the northern border, and it had not invested too much in the southern border.

The southern border was mountainous and belonged to a kind of place that was easy to defend and difficult to attack. Moreover, both Zhuxia and Nanyue were very self-aware and took the initiative to pay tribute to the Great Yan to avoid the war. Otherwise, with the Great Yan’s national strength, even if it felt that the gains from the war in the south weren’t worth the losses, in case it really had to start, it wouldn’t be difficult to destroy Zhuxia and Nanyue. However, it wasn’t necessary. Compared to Zhuxia, Nanyue was obviously more obedient and would never act rashly. Zhuxia was bold, but unfortunately the price of provocation was to lose the six counties of Yizhou, which made Zhuxia very passive.

Wei Chongrong remembered that Jun Hua had no knowledge of the events of Tai’an and hurriedly explained: “In the 3rd year of Tai’an, the eldest sister of the current emperor, Princess Yunmeng, married the Crown Prince of Nanyue, Ruan Shao. In the spring of last year, the monarch of Nanyue died and the Crown Prince succeeded to the throne, and Sister Kou became the queen of Nanyue.”

“In this way, it is highly likely that Nanyue will ask His Majesty for help?” Jun Hua thought for a while and came to this conclusion.

Wei Chongrong paced back and forth in the yard and pondered for a long time: “It should be the case. Nanyue has always been obedient to us, and it is Sister Kou’s husband’s family. It is impossible for the Great Yan to ignore it, either out of family love or out of reason. But I feel that the timing of Tuduo’s attack is a bit subtle.”

When he was in Yizhou, Tuduo didn’t make a move on Nanyue. Instead, he sent troops to Honghe County and was beaten to the ground. Wei Chongrong had just returned to the capital less than a month ago, and Tuduo was about to attack Jing’an. Obviously, it wasn’t an impulse, but prepared a long time ago. 

“What do you mean?” Jun Hua didn’t know enough about the current situation on the southern border and could only guess, “Are you worried that His Majesty will be unwilling to send troops?”

Zhuxia and Nanyue were separated by Xiaoluo and didn’t share a lot of borders, while the northern part of Nanyue consisted of the four counties that belonged to Qiongzhou during the reign of Emperor Shenwu. It was necessary for the Great Yan, as a suzerain state, to maintain the balance in the southern border, and it would be better if it could take the opportunity to recover the lost land.

Wei Chongrong shook his head and said helplessly: “His Majesty’s heart is unpredictable, how can I know what he’s thinking? Let’s see what happens.” It was a matter of the overall situation. Even if Wei Lan didn’t like him and didn’t want to give him a chance to make achievements, he still had no reason to refuse what was beneficial to the Great Yan.

Seeing that Wei Chongrong refused to say any more, Jun Hua didn’t ask again. It wasn’t up to them to decide how to deal with this matter anyway.

That afternoon, Jun Hua didn’t take a nap, thinking that if Little Monkey’s guess that they switched every time they fell asleep was true, then tomorrow morning, it should be Little Monkey who woke up, just in time to go home without worrying to reveal any flaws.

Unexpectedly, on the day of visiting the parents, Little Monkey didn’t appear, and Wei Chongrong and Jun Hua were stunned.

How could it be like this?

Didn’t we agree about sleep once-switch once?

……

When he thought that he would be going home soon to see Jun Qing and Ji Xin, Jun Hua was not only excited, but more than anything else, he was afraid.

How could there be anyone who understood the temperament of their own child better than the parents? He couldn’t act well in front of Wei Zhao, so how could he hide it from them?

If they found out that he was not Little Monkey, what should he do?

The two looked at each other speechlessly for a moment, and Wei Chongrong was the first to come back to his senses: “Huaixi, hurry up and change clothes, we are going to be late.” Now was not the time to study the rules of switching, it was more troublesome to miss the time to visit the parents.

Jun Hua nodded nervously, subconsciously doing what Wei Chongrong said.

Before leaving the house, seeing Jun Hua so nervous that he could barely walk, Wei Chongrong comforted him: “Huaixi, it’s alright. They are your father and daddy. If you really don’t know what to do, just follow your instincts. Act like you did during the sword dance.”

The swordplay yesterday was obviously the credit of Little Monkey, where could Huaixi learn that?

Hearing this, Jun Hua felt a little relieved and managed a somewhat forced smile.

Due to the large number of gifts they carried, Wei Chongrong and Jun Hua didn’t ride horses, but took a carriage back to Wang Changning’s residence. The two houses were very close and it took just a stick of incense to arrive. Wei Chongrong didn’t have time to tell anything to Jun Hua and just focused on comforting him.

In his previous life, Jun Hua had never been to Wang Changning’s residence. When he was sensible enough to remember anything, the Great Yan no longer had the title of Wang Changning.

Fortunately, Wei Chongrong had the idea of drawing a map of Wang Changning’s residence for Jun Hua yesterday just in case, lest he go back to his own house and can’t even find his own courtyard. In that case, they really wouldn’t be able to explain anything.

Even if they had never met before, the bond of blood was inherent. The first time Jun Hua saw Ji Xin, he recognised him immediately.

He really wanted to control his expression so that no one could see the clues, but he couldn’t control his tears.

In terms of how much they loved Jun Hua, if Ji Xin ranked second, Wei Chongrong wouldn’t dare to rank first. Without the existence of this precious son, Emperor Xingzu would have never allowed Ji Xin and Jun Qing to get married and be together when he was alive. Therefore, Jun Hua’s significance to Ji Xin was not exactly the same as Ji Hui. Ji Xin hated that there was such a Wei Chongrong who loved to grab his son away from him since he was a child. While Jun Hua respectfully called him Father Wang, he would chase Wei Chongrong and call him Brother, how could Ji Xin be happy in his heart?

Later, Ji Xin went to Yizhou, and Jun Qing followed with his two sons. Ji Xin thought that with thousands of li between them, his son would never think of that brat again. But he never expected that Jun Hua would take Suyun Pill without telling him.

Although Ji Xin had never taken Suyun Pill, he had seen how uncomfortable Jun Qing was back then.

Two days ago, when Wei Chongrong came to welcome the bride, if Jun Qing had not stopped him, Ji Xin would have wanted to beat up the brat.

It was difficult to resist the urge back then, and after waiting for two days, finally his son and son-in-law returned to visit. As a result, his son hadn’t spoken yet when tears rolled from his eyes. Ji Xin was so distressed that he rushed over and took his son into his arms.

“Son, tell your father, did that brat bully you? Don’t be afraid, your father will protect you.” If his son also supported him, his long-cherished wish of many years to beat up Wei Chongrong would be fulfilled. Ji Xin was filled with excitement.

However, Jun Hua was startled by Ji Xin’s actions and froze, not knowing what to say, and his tears miraculously stopped.

Ever since he was a child, he had been alone, no one had ever held him or kissed him. Even though Wei Su loved him, his status as the emperor was there, so it was impossible for him to express his affection in ways other than giving generous rewards and delicious food.

There were many people serving Jun Hua, but they were all obsequious, only pleasing him, but not caring about him.

The first time he was held by someone was thanks to Wei Yang. Although there was no evidence, Jun Hua knew that the person who dared to throw him into Kunming Pond in Shanglin Park must have been instructed by Wei Yang. No one else would have had the guts to do so.

Wei Yang didn’t want to kill him, because apart from Jun Hua and Yi Yin, who also had no family, there was no one else around him he could turn to. The infantile little emperor ordered someone to make a fool of Jun Hua, most likely because he had accumulated years of instabilities in his heart and was about to be driven mad if he didn’t vent.

Indeed, compared to him, an orphan who had no family ties with Emperor Xingzu, Wei Yang, the son of the emperor, was snubbed enough.

Before Wei Yang’s people could watch enough of a good show and fish him out, Wei Chongrong jumped into the water first and rescued him.

In his previous life, due to premature difficult birth, Jun Hua was weak and sickly since he was a child. Even if the water in Kunming Pond wasn’t very cold, soaking in it for a while was enough to make him sick for three days and three nights, burning to the point of not knowing anything. The only thing he remembered was that someone was with him and held him.

But after he recovered from his illness, Wei Chongrong was never so close to him again.

At this moment, being hugged by Ji Xin, Jun Hua stiffened at first, but quickly relaxed and replied: “No one bullied me, Father…” He thought it would be difficult for him to speak, but when he really met his parents, it came naturally, without any hesitation.

“Really?” Ji Xin was half-convinced, looked at Jun Hua’s face carefully and found that the end of his eyes were a little red, but his expression was very vivid. It really didn’t look like he was being bullied, so Ji Xin sighed a little reluctantly: “It seems that I have no chance again…”

Wei Chongrong was standing next to him and heard the conversation between father and son clearly. He knew exactly what Ji Xin meant by “having no chance”. He hurriedly saluted and said, “Father-in-law, can we go inside and talk?” 

Jun Hua also noticed the faint smell of gunpowder between the two of them, and said with a smile: “Father, let’s go in first.”

Ji Xin put his arm around his son’s shoulders, glanced back at Wei Chongrong and walked to the house. Wei Chongrong looked at the sky speechlessly and followed in. Back then, before they were officially married, it seemed that Ji Xin hadn’t looked at him this badly. How time has changed, ah!

Compared to Ji Xin, who was so anxious that he came out to greet them at the door, Jun Qing and Ji Hui were obviously more relaxed, but their eyes still lit up when they saw Jun Hua enter the room. Ji Hui stood up and called, “Brother, Brother Hua…”

Jun Hua raised his head and looked at Jun Qing intently. For Ji Xin and Jun Qing, his feelings were completely different. Although both of them died early in the previous life, Jun Qing was the one Jun Hua missed for a lifetime, while Ji Xin was the “other father” he only learned about yesterday.

Seeing that Jun Hua was a little lost, Wei Chongrong quietly walked up to his side, reached out and held his hand, and whispered in his ear: “Huaixi, it’s time for us to pay our respects.” Many years ago, when he saw Wei Zhao again, he felt just like Jun Hua felt at this moment.