24 Crash

◎A minister cares about the queen◎

"Then Princess... Princess, are you really ready to elope with Lord Wen? And then what? Have you forgotten everything you said before?"

Rong Pan thought Rong Qianyu was just joking, but unexpectedly she really started packing her bags.

When the marriage decree came down, she was so clear-headed. How could she have fallen into trouble again with Wen Xiaqing today?

He was timid at that time, saying that he didn't care about others and would do his best to stay with her forever, but he was the one who broke his promise first.

Why am I so confused now and still believe him?

She was very worried when she saw Rong Qianyu's determined look, but Rong Qianyu was determined not to give up.

After a moment of silence, a few tears slowly emerged from the corners of his eyes.

"If he's firm, I'll be firm. If he backs down, I'll never mention him again in my life. I want to trust him again."

It is said that those who are involved in the matter are often confused, while those who are on the sidelines can see things more clearly. If you don't experience it yourself, no matter how others advise you, it will be useless. Rong Pan sees it all, but is powerless to persuade him.

Only when you encounter difficulties and suffer pain can you remember the lesson and never make the same mistake again.

"The princess has always been stubborn and determined. Since that's the case, I have nothing more to say. The princess has made up her mind, and I can't change it. I'll go get her a bowl of soothing soup. Go to bed early. I won't say anything more."

After much persuasion, Rong Qianyu was finally persuaded and was able to go back to sleep peacefully.

Rong Pan was extremely helpless. He didn't know what was wrong with Wen Xiaqing that made the princess, who had been extremely disappointed in him before, believe him again in this moment.

She paced back and forth alone. "What should I do? This is courting death. Lord Wen is an outsider, so how can I contact him? Lord Xue..."

"Yuanqing, Yuanqing!" She called out to Yuanqing loudly.

Yuan Qing heard the urgent cry, thinking something serious had happened, and quickly opened the door. "What's wrong, Sister Pan'er?"

"Go to the Imperial Household Department and look for Master Xue!"

"Master Xue is not in the palace today."

Rong Pan seemed to be in a state of darkness before his eyes, "He's not in the palace!?"

"It's the end of the year, and Master Xue has been checking the taxes and silver from the Ministry of Personnel, so he's been staying in his house outside the palace."

"What about tomorrow?"

"I will be off the day after tomorrow. I don't think the Lord will enter the palace tomorrow. Is there anything I can do for you, sister?"

Rong Pan fell straight down on the chair, frightening Yuan Qing. After a long while, she finally said, "It's okay." She waved her hand, "Go and rest."

"What's wrong? What's the matter, Your Majesty?" Yu Xie asked curiously.

"Your Majesty must be looking for Lord Xue." Yuan Qing replied.

"Looking for Master Xue?"

"yes."

"What's the point of looking for Master Xue?"

Yuan Qing stopped talking and said, "Don't ask about the master's affairs. There's nothing else to do. Go and rest."

The next day, at the appointed time, Rong Qianyu, wearing the clothes of a palace maid and carrying a simple luggage, walked from Weixuan Hall in Xiyuan all the way to Xuanwu Gate, the north gate of the imperial palace.

"Why is there no one guarding this route? It's a little too easy. Midnight is the time for the guards to change, so this is too smooth."

But she didn't pay much attention to it, just thinking it was a break between shifts.

He walked quickly with his head down, thinking of the image of Wen Xiaqing in his mind.

Wen Xiaqing once held her hand and made a loving promise, "We agreed to meet at Liuguang Pavilion outside the palace. Wait for me for a moment, half an hour at most, and I will come to find you."

There was a look of doubt in her eyes, "Are you serious?"

Wen Xiaqing pointed his finger to the sky and swore, "I will take you away and we will never ask about anything in the Great Zhou or Rong Kingdom again."

"What if you lied to me?"

"I swear, I won't let go again."

He was so confident, as if he couldn't elope and would die to prove his point. But the more he spoke, the more uncertain Rong Qianyu felt. He had let go first before, but what about this time...

"If you leave me alone again this time, we will be strangers from now on and never see each other again in this life."

She stood alone in the pavilion, muttering to herself, "Wen Xiaqing, I'm gambling my future with you, please don't let me down again."

About an incense stick of time passed, and the cold night at midnight was particularly lonely, with only a crescent moon hanging faintly in the sky.

The dead trees creaked, the sky was filled with broken snow, it seemed extremely desolate, the shining stars were obscured by the dark clouds, and the weather today was particularly bad.

Accompanied by the dim paper lanterns near the palace wall, under the pale moonlight, Rong Qianyu shivered in the cold north wind, her hands and feet were almost frozen.

Even though he was wearing heavy clothes, how could a person who had lived in the south since childhood withstand the biting north wind that howled into his bones at 12:49 am?

She didn't dare rub her hands, for fear that they would freeze if she stretched them out. The north wind blew in her ears, drowning out the sound of approaching footsteps.

Coming from behind, a heavy cloak suddenly covered her shivering body.

She thought it was Wen Xiaqing who came, but when she turned around, she saw a familiar pair of eyes with a clear expression and cold eyes. It was Xue Ji.

The dark gold-embroidered robe he wore today was particularly luxurious. Holding an exquisite red umbrella, he lowered his eyes and asked her, "Your Highness, how can you find the leisure to admire the snow here today?"

"Xue...Lord Xue?" Rong Qianyu's upper and lower teeth were chattering, and she couldn't utter a complete sentence. Her lips were almost frozen.

Xue Ji ignored her and continued, "Your Majesty, are you waiting for someone? Is it that Lord Wen? Your Majesty, don't you know that he has already left for his country today? He must have left the city by now."

He spoke in a very calm and normal manner, as if a completely unrelated third party was stating the facts.

"What!" Rong Qianyu felt a little warmer. "He said he would wait for me. He said he would come!"

Relationships built on deception will never be stable. Rong Qianyu is naturally well aware of this, but she has been creating a sense of reality for herself to numb herself.

Xue Ji tidied her clothes and brushed the fallen snow off her shoulders.

"Your Majesty's face is red from the cold. You've been waiting for a long time, but you haven't seen anything, right?"

Rong Qianyu's eyes were red and swollen, and she was already somewhat demented from the cold. She asked, "Why are you here? Did you come here on purpose to stop me?"

Xue Ji put his hands in his sleeves, took a step back, and looked nonchalant.

"I was just passing by. From a distance, I saw a shivering little hen. I thought it was trying to die in this strong north wind. When I got closer, I saw that the falling snow was about to freeze Her Majesty to death. How long do you want to wait?"

She couldn't let down her guard, thinking Xue Ji was here to take her back, "I won't go back!"

"You are the Crown Princess of the Great Zhou, the future Empress. If you leave, what will happen to the Great Zhou and Rong Kingdom? Wen Xiaqing has already left. He left this morning. He is a man who values ​​the honor of his family more than anything else. He would not dare to elope with the Empress."

"Twice," Rong Qianyu squatted on the ground with her hands clasped on her knees, "Why, he left me behind twice."

Tears fell drop by drop on her red, cold face. At this moment, she completely lost her previous toughness and forbearance, and felt a suffocating feeling like a fish out of water.

The sky was filled with gloom and gray, and the pressure on her heart was like a torrential rain. She was sobbing softly. Wen Xiaqing had once said he loved her heartbreakingly, but he had also abandoned her without mercy.

After going around in circles, I have been deceived and humiliated like a fool for more than half a year.

She closed her eyes tightly, covered her eyes with her red and swollen hands, and trembled all over. She tried her best to stop sobbing, but her tears still could not stop.

Xue Ji stood by and held an umbrella for her. "Is it worth crying for such a person?" he said expressionlessly.

Rong Qianyu was stunned to the side, then suddenly stood up and scolded him: "What are you doing here, to laugh at me? Where have you been all these days? Are you deliberately avoiding me? You thought Wen Xiaqing wouldn't come today, or just happened to pass by, so you came here to laugh at me!"

Although she was not here to see a joke, she came here deliberately. She didn't know that it was Xue Ji who intercepted the news of their elopement and ruined her plan, so she came here with great interest to meet him by chance.

Dress up like this and observe your own achievements.

Rong Qianyu's eyes were red, which made people feel distressed. Xue Ji wanted to wipe away her tears, but raised his hand and then took it back.

"I have official business to attend to. Your Majesty has suffered these days."

Hearing his words of suffering, Rong Qianyu finally couldn't hold back her emotions and burst into tears again.

"Do you know how bad that medicine tastes? I drank it for over a month, and it's like drinking Fu Hua can change my mind. You know I... I've always liked Shu'er. How could I possibly push her into this cold winter? How could I be so stupid as to drag her down with me? Liu got pregnant, and Concubine Liu was so rude, saying I was a hen that couldn't lay eggs, and that it would be better for the master to slaughter me and make soup for the pregnant woman. I can't do anything right, and you can't... even try to please him. He made me kneel on the ground every night when he slept with me, and I just recited the female rules for a month. I'm also a legitimate princess, why should they insult me ​​like this!!!"

This was the true feeling she had endured for two months. She had never suffered such injustice since she was a child.

He tried his best to endure and be humble, but he was still looked down upon.

"Surrounded by wolves, Your Majesty is indeed wronged. You said you had your own plans. Does that mean you're escaping? Are you eloping?"

Ever since their last fight, the two have been holding a grudge against each other. In fact, Xue Ji had known for a long time that she would elope with Wen Xiaqing, and that was why he came here specially to intercept her today.

He hoped that she could face the problem head on, instead of just standing behind her husband to take care of the children like other women, being the so-called good wife and mother who was praised by everyone but had to swallow her anger.

"I've had enough, I've had enough, I've had enough..." She kept repeating this sentence, becoming increasingly weak. "I've really had enough."

Helpless and confused, the heart that had been suppressed for so long was finally released. She pretended to be indifferent and didn't care, but in fact she still held a grudge in her heart.

She resented Fu Hua's indifference and partiality, she resented Cui Rumei's provocation and arrogance, she resented her father for putting herself in danger for the so-called country, and she resented Wen Xiaqing for giving up on her twice for the sake of the family's reputation.

The heavy burden of these identities made her feel suffocated.

"Your Majesty, you can't do this. You are at the mercy of others. Don't you want them to pay the price? If it were me, and they dared to bully me like this, I would make them pay the price, ten times or a hundred times, so that they would never dare to attack me again."

Rong Qianyu looked at Xue Ji helplessly, not knowing what to say.

Impulse always makes people lose their reason and lose their direction.

"When Fu Hua bullies you, make him feel the same way and return the favor. Isn't Liu Zhaoyi a gossipmonger? Then poison her to silence her voice, and if she still refuses, kill her to vent your anger and silence her. Cui Rumei is known for her ability to use her power differently depending on who she supports. So, let her become her enemy."

Seeing him say these words, Rong Qianyu was convinced that the man in front of her was indeed Xue Jiming, as cruel and ruthless as others said, and he was exactly what everyone had said.

"I... I don't want to be the Crown Princess at all. I don't want to pretend to be obedient and submissive, and endure Fu Hua's mood swings. I don't want to..."

"Please stop crying. It's cold, be careful not to freeze your face."

The more she was comforted, the more uncomfortable Rong Qianyu felt. It took her a while to recover. She covered her face with her hands again and cried uncontrollably. While she was feeling sad, Xue Ji gently stroked her back without saying anything more.

"Life is short and life is short. If there is something you can't get over, Your Majesty is gambling with your own future and the comfort of the people. Wen Xiaqing is not worthy at all."

"No one cares about me," she cried aggrievedly, like an abandoned child, "My mother abandoned me, my father also thought I was redundant, and Wen Xiaqing also abandoned me twice."

Xue Ji stood aside, with mixed feelings, "Your Majesty, I care about you." He whispered softly.

"What?"

This time he finally plucked up the courage to wipe away her tears. The moment his hand touched the corner of her eyes, he couldn't help but want to hug her, but in the end he gave up.

He extended his hand and said, "Let's go back first. Don't talk here. Your tears will freeze soon and your face will get frostbite."

"Qingyun!"

"The servant is here!"

"Take the queen to the car and go back to the mansion!"

Rong Qianyu hadn't reacted yet, her face was full of sadness, "What...what am I going back to your house for?"

Xue Ji's tone was unusually gentle at this moment, and he patiently explained, "It's almost midnight, can Your Majesty go back now?"

She felt a little conflicted, always feeling that it was inappropriate, "That's not possible, I can't go back..." It was already late at night, and what would it mean if she just went to the eunuch's house like this?

Xue Ji also saw her worry and said patiently and gently, "Don't worry, we will go to the palace tomorrow morning to escort the queen back to the palace together."