C9

I didn't dare to stop on the way back to Wangyou Pavilion. Grandma was wondering why I came back so early. I said that I was tired and no longer had the interest to go to the Kaji Palace.

Sitting alone in front of the window, facing the moon, I wrote down what Yang Liang had just said: "The mountain has a west China wood and a west China tree branch." I placed it on the desk and weighed it over and over again.

Anyone could understand that Yang Liang must have found someone he liked, but he didn't know who the "monarch" was. After thinking for a while, he felt a little apprehensive. Could it be?

How can that be? I am his future sister-in-law, the fact that I was brought into the palace was already destined for me. It's not like he doesn't know, or perhaps I was just overthinking it.

At this point, I also felt that I was thinking too much. I wadded up the silk cloth with words written on it, threw it away, and prepared to bathe and sleep.

As I expected, the next day when we met Yang Liang, he was still the same cynical expression as before. Seeing that Lijun couldn't recite the poem and was punished by her teacher, he still made a face at us, gloating over our misfortune as well as throwing stones at us from the bottom of a well.

In the afternoon, he was summoned by the emperor to translate the Turkic letters. He was a knowledgeable man who was fluent in many languages. Whenever a different race came, it was always he who did the translation. Naturally, we were on vacation, so I arranged to have lunch with Li Jun before kicking the shuttlecock.

Since it was still early in the morning, I leaned against the couch and took a nap. I didn't expect that I would fall asleep in the evening. Seeing the sun was about to set, I hurriedly got up from the couch and called out:

"Dog, has Li Jun ever come here before?"

Doggie, who had been dozing by the door, got up when I called to him.

"Never seen it."

That's right, if Li Jun were to come, she would definitely wake me up. Could it be that she also overslept?

It shouldn't be, she never had the habit of taking a nap. She always said that the palace was not peaceful, and that during the day, when she slept, she would always be pressured by ghosts.

I paced back and forth in the hall, looking out of the palace from time to time.

The dog saw that my eyes were looking out, so he said,

"Princess is worried about Princess Lijun, why don't we go over and take a look?"

That made sense. I changed my clothes and took the dog straight to the palace.

Sounds of hammering came from inside the hall. Most of the antique jade artifacts were injured, and all of the palace maids and eunuchs kneeled on the floor. The cat urgently knocked on the door and called out:

"Princess, why don't you open the door? Princess, your servant begs you …"

I walked over in surprise. I had never seen Li Jun so angry before. I lowered my head and asked a palace maid who was kneeling on the floor,

"What happened?"

Before the palace maid could reply, the cat, hearing my voice, turned around and ran to me.

"Princess Yu Jian, please hurry up and persuade our princess. She did not eat nor drink; she had locked herself in the hall for half a day."

I helped the cat up and asked her why. The cat refused to get up, holding my leg and crying like rain.

"If the Emperor were to send the princess to the Turkic marriage alliance, it would be an unspeakable suffering to marry her in the wild lands of Turkic. Princess Yu Jian, the empress has always doted on you the most. The cat was sobbing.

I was shocked. Yesterday, I witnessed the vulgarity and brutality of a Turkic. Why would he send his best sister to Turkic today? He felt both pain and pity in his heart. For a moment, his mind was in a mess, and he didn't know what to do.

Everyone in the underground palace looked at me blankly. The cat was at a loss on what to do. She looked at me pitifully with a hopeful gaze, probably hoping that I would go to the empress to plead for mercy.

The empress has always been very pampered. If she wasn't helpless, she wouldn't have been willing to marry so far. If I went to plead, would there be a chance for me? The way is for people to think of it, first pacify Lijun before going to the empress, think of this, I knock on the door to call Lijun.

Lijun refused to see anyone, so I stood outside the hall and talked to her through the door until my mouth was dry and the hall was quieter. Then I heard her sobbing.

After a while, when the crying stopped, I became even more worried. Seeing that Li Jun refused to open the door, I ordered the eunuch to pry it open. The door opened, and Li Jun was no longer in the hall. I looked up just in time to see her bright red skirt disappear around the corner of the stairs.

I carefully walked around pieces of broken porcelain tiles to the attic. Li Jun set the study on top of the attic and said that if I opened the back window, I would be able to see the Golden Unicorn Pool. Although it was far away, it had a unique atmosphere. I came here often, of course, and after sending the palace to clear up the wreckage below, I came in alone.

The back window was wide open, and I could see her back to me. She looked at the Golden Unicorn Pool, not saying a word. As for me, I don't know where to start to persuade her. After all, this isn't something that I can stop.

The wind blew through the window into the attic, causing her long hair and clothes to sway unsteadily. There was a hint of depression in her lively voice, and her voice was filled with sadness that did not match her age:

"Big sister Ling'Er, did you know? "Actually, I am not the Queen Mother's biological son." After saying that, she soullessly turned around. Looking at her swollen eyes which were as red as peaches, I lamented in my heart. I was even more surprised by what she had said.

"My mother told me to go. I only heard about it from the conversation between royal father and mother today." It was as if she had grown up in the past few days. Perhaps in her heart, her status was a lot more painful than going to Turkic and her relatives.

I don't know how many things happened in the half day I slept, but I felt that Li-jun was no longer the princess I envied and doted upon. She was just like me, someone who had such a cherishing life and was forced to travel to a distant place to be with her family.

I should have been luckier than she was. Although I had lost my beloved parents and come to the capital from my homeland, at least the man I had married was a man of my own heart. He was a rare man, and although I had been through many hardships in the years before my life, now I was blessed with misfortune.

"Jun'er," I called out softly. I had already prepared a stomach full of words to comfort her, but now I couldn't say a single word. Since we were all of the same life, I embraced her and held her tightly in my arms.

I wished she would cry on my shoulder, but she did not. Her tears seemed to have run out, and there was a certain resentment in her eyes, but also a certain dullness.

I had intended to go to the queen after comforting her, but now, after hearing from her, I saw no need to go.

As the night gradually filled the study, the palace people under the attic had already begun to turn on their lamps, and the sadness on Li Jun's face was gradually fading. She even smiled at me, but it seemed to me that smile was too pale, too helpless, and a bitter, bitter smile.

"The wind rises to the skies, the clouds fly up, the beauties don't return home!" With her back to me, she stretched out her arms in a seemingly bold gesture and read aloud to the window. The wind rustled her sleeves.

Lijun went home, my heart suddenly hurt, the tears I had been enduring unconsciously overflowed into my face, droplets of it falling on my hair.

Perhaps I shall never see her again. In the distance, the branches of the willow trees by the edge of the Golden Qilin Lake fell into the calm water, like a graceful girl who was lusting after the water and was unwilling to leave. Every willow leaf was filled with signs of parting.

The sound of footsteps from downstairs broke the silence between the two of us. It was the empress's palace maid, Ying Xiu, who came up. She bowed and said,

"The empress sent the two princesses to the Yongan palace for dinner."

"Understood, you can leave first." Li Jun said coldly.

Ying Xiu replied and left. I called the cat up and changed Lijun's clothes. After a while, we both went to Yongan Palace.

After entering the palace, I saw that the empress had already sat on the throne, and when she saw the two of us enter, she smiled and gestured for us to accompany her. I always thought that the empress's smile was the most affectionate one, like my mother's, but today, I always felt that her smile was very cold.

Yes, I can no longer associate her with the Empress, whom I once considered a loving mother. Who doesn't know that His Majesty is obedient to her? If she doesn't agree to marry Li Jun to the Turk, then the Emperor won't force her either.

No matter how much an adopted daughter's blood is, she is not a flesh and blood relative. Why doesn't she send the other princesses to a marriage alliance? It's no wonder that I keep having the feeling that the Queen is even nicer to me than she is to me. It's just that, in her smile and concern, how much of it is true?

When I thought of myself, I was even more speechless. I was actually the biological son of the Emperor, but what was the result? If it wasn't for them ruthlessly abandoning me in the wilderness, if it wasn't for the sake of marriage, I might have never known my past. As for the father and mother who raised me, they became the warmest memories in my life.

"Jun'er, come sit in front of Mother." After hastily finishing the evening meal that was as tasty as chewing wax, the empress summoned Li Jun to her side.

Perhaps it was because she had finished venting her grievances this afternoon, but now that she was sitting in front of the empress, she seemed unusually quiet. Even her movements had become very formal, just like what her mother-in-law had taught her.

"Jun'er, are you blaming the Queen Mother?" the Queen asked, taking Lijun's hand.

"I dare not." Li Jun replied indifferently.

The empress was such a shrewd person, how could she not hear the conflict in Li Jun's words? She probably didn't know yet that she had heard their conversation and already knew who she was.

"Jun'er, do you really not hate your mother?" The empress's eyes became hazy. Perhaps I was wrong, but the mist in the empress's eyes was clearly filled with reluctance to part. Even if she wasn't her own flesh and blood, she still had ten years of kinship.

She smiled, still so pale, a stranger to me, and there was a touch of bitterness in her voice, though I could see she was trying to hide it.

"How could that be? "Wasn't big sister Ling'Er also nine years old when she came to my Big Sui Family? I'm ten years old now, and one year older than big sister Ling'Er." She knew who I was, a child abandoned by her parents, and yet she compared me to her, to prove to the empress that she was no more than an abandoned child, a victim of the peace of the state, a pawn of Big Sui.

The queen turned to look at me, her eyes filled with tenderness that almost dissolved the suspicion I had of her before dinner. Then she opened her mouth and said:

"Yes, the Queen Mother is very relieved that Jun'er can think this way. "Little'er was able to come to my Big Sui River to be with my mother at the age of nine. Jun'er and Little'er are good sisters, so we can definitely be as good as Little Sister."

The Queen's way of consoling me broke the little bit of goodwill I had just recovered from my shock. She was actually comparing me to Li Jun.

"Of course it's different, Little'er was not loved by the empress or father, she lived in the countryside and suffered through all the hardships of the world, and now that Meng Da Sui doted on her and the empress doted on her, she was able to enjoy all the peace and happiness. As for Lijun —" I couldn't help but interrupt the empress's discontent with her words, "Lijun is a pampered beauty, and her sudden transgression is far from being comparable to the wealth of Big Sui.

The queen did not expect me to be so excited, perhaps in her eyes, the excitement should be Lijun. At that moment, the Queen looked at me in astonishment. She didn't say anything for a long time before I continued.

"The empress is the most compassionate of them all. She is still as close to me as a mother and daughter. She must be even more fond of Li Jun. Naturally, she would not emulate the words of the emperor of my South Ridge, am I right?"

I don't know if I will anger the queen by saying this, but since I have already said it, I can't care less. I just want to keep Li-jun.

The empress was at a loss for words, but the empress was still the empress after all. In the blink of an eye, she had returned to her normal state.

"Little'er is right, how can mother not be a pampered woman? It's just that mother also has her mother's helplessness. This is related to the country's politics, and as a princess, it is naturally incumbent on her to take responsibility for the sake of Big Sui."

The grown-ups always treated us little children with these noble words. Perhaps it was because I was not yet grown up that I could not understand the great relationship between kinship and being a nation. All I knew was that I might never see her again.

I turned my face away from the empress. To put it bluntly, I am a child daughter-in-law of the imperial family. What right do I have to point fingers at the state affairs of Big Sui? Yes, I have no right to meddle in anything in the palace. Power, the power that I have always disdained, is the thing that carries the fate of men.

I thought the empress would scold me and even punish me if she sees my anger. However, she didn't.

"In the past, Lord Zhao and the Huns had an intimate relationship, which kept the big man at peace for sixty years." In the past, Lord Zhao and the Huns had an intimate relationship, which kept the big man at peace for sixty years.

I have heard the legend of Lord Zhao's release many times, and every time I have heard it, I would sigh endlessly. I have admired and pitied this woman, and she died in despair in the bitter cold. Remembering the history of the Lord Zhao, my heart stirred as I said to the Queen,

"Since the empress has mentioned the Starlord, I have to say something more. The Starlord isn't really a princess, but a good son chosen to enter the palace. Why shouldn't I follow his example?" Wouldn't it be a double whammy to choose a few beautiful ladies and send them to Turkic? "Why do you have to go to Lijun?"

I thought the empress would at least consider my suggestion, but she sighed and said,

"I also want to do this, but that Turkic is not someone who can be fooled. He is already speaking nonsense in the imperial court today, he must take back a real princess, otherwise he will be through thick and thin. Now that my army is concentrated in the south, I have no time to think about the troubles in the north.

I was displeased. I naturally knew that the army had gathered in the south to exterminate the remnants of the Chen Dynasty, but when had the Nan Chen ever offended Big Sui? Was expanding one's territory really that important? He's acting for the country and for the people, is he really not being selfish?

"The empress's words have already been heard several times in the past three days in the south beam palace. I have already firmly engraved them in my heart." "I am not feeling well, please allow me to return to the palace first." After all, the past few days have come. I have always been very obedient and obedient in front of her.

When I stepped out of the door, I saw Grandma Si Li standing guard at the door. She might have come to fetch me back to the palace. I called out to her and reached out to help her, but instead I saw that her hands were shaking so badly that I was surprised to see her legs shaking just as I took a step.

"Is Grandma sick?"

Nanny did not answer, but dragged me quickly away from the Yongan Palace. As soon as I returned to Wangyou Pavilion, Nanny collapsed to the ground as if she had collapsed.

"Princess, you are too rash. How can you speak to the empress like that? Just now, the old servant's heart had hung in his throat. The empress has always been strict with her rules, so how can she allow you to go against her? I'm afraid that I won't be able to pamper you anymore. "

I smiled disapprovingly. Perhaps it was because I was young and proud, with a high disposition, with a clear desire to be doted on and protected in my heart, yet I pretended not to care at all. Many years later, when I thought of this matter, I still felt a lingering fear.

However, the Queen didn't blame me for that. She still doted on me, and even after all that had happened in the following years, she still protected me. From this, it can be seen that her love for me had reached a level similar to that of a real child.