Gu Qian pleaded with He Lin, "Your Majesty, I beg you to allow the Empress to return home to visit her family."

"Don't even think about it!" He Lin naturally refused.

"Gu Qian, I command you to depart immediately and guard the border!"

"There is currently no war at the border, so I cannot comply!" Gu Qian was truly dissatisfied with He Lin's attitude towards his cousin.

"Gu Qian, do you know who you're talking to?"

Gu Qian: "..."

He stared blankly at his cousin, who was both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

Looking again at my junior sister's eyes, I saw the tears she had already held back.

At that moment, he felt utterly useless.

Li Wenshu saw her senior brother's self-blame. She forced a smile, a smile that looked more like a grimace.

She said:

"Senior brother, I don't want to go home."

Li Wenshu felt even more guilty than Gu Qian.

How could she drag her senior brother down with her for her own selfish desires?

"Junior Sister." Gu Qian was heartbroken. He looked at He Lin pleadingly once more, kneeling on one knee.

"Your Majesty, I humbly request that you allow my junior sister to return home to visit her family."

The tears that Li Wenshu had just held back started flowing again uncontrollably.

She looks so pathetic now that even she despises herself.

Is this still her?

Li Wenshu shook her head; she had carelessly lost herself.

"Don't even think about it!" He Lin clenched his fists, but finally softened his tone.

"Gu Qian, out of consideration for our past relationship, I will not hold today's matter against you. Go back now. I promise you, I will accompany Shu'er home to visit her family first thing tomorrow morning. No, we will accompany her together."

After saying that, he pulled Gu Qian up from the ground and embraced him.

"Qian'er, things aren't what you think. I like Shu'er, I like her, but she's always been indifferent to me. She ignores me, you know that."

"Your Majesty, I will not go home." Li Wenshu looked directly at Gu Qian and smiled at him. "Senior brother, let's go. I'm fine."

Gu Qian pushed He Lin away.

"This humble general takes his leave."

The two cousins ​​parted on bad terms in the palace.

"Qian'er." He Lin looked at Gu Qian's back and felt even more sad than Gu Qian and Li Wenshu.

After Gu Qian left, He Lin stayed in Li Wenshu's palace.

He also ordered a eunuch to bring a pot of fine wine from the imperial kitchen.

He took her wrist and sat down with her in the palace courtyard under the plum blossom tree.

"Shu'er, have a drink with me."

Li Wenshu picked up her wine glass, glanced at the plum blossoms in full bloom, and drank it all in one gulp.

She originally didn't drink any alcohol.

Perhaps because she was in a bad mood, after drinking a cup, she leaned against the edge of the bench under the plum tree with a dizzy head.

Her cheeks were flushed, bathed in the afterglow of the setting sun, giving her a unique and poignant beauty.

He Lin sat down beside her, poured Li Wenshu another glass, and then began to sip his own drink.

Li Wenshu drank another cup, as if she had forgotten all her unhappy things.

She snatched the wine pot from He Lin and drank the remaining wine in one gulp.

He Lin did not stop her, but stared at her drunken state.

Even though Shu'er had the idea of ​​running away from him, he just couldn't bear to blame her.

"Your Majesty, did you ever truly love Consort Gao and Consort Hui?" Li Wenshu seemed a little drunk, her voice tinged with the smell of alcohol.

Fueled by alcohol, she calmly inquired for the first time about He Lin's relationship with his concubines.

"Wei Zeng, Shu'er, the only person I, He Lin, love in this life is Li Wen Shu." As He Lin spoke, he picked Li Wen Shu up from the bench and carried her into the bedroom.

Li Wenshu pursed her lips, trying to break free from his embrace, but because she had been drinking, she couldn't break free.

Finally, she fell into a drunken sleep in his arms.

The next morning, as soon as Li Wenshu opened her eyes, she saw He Lin's familiar face.

Looking again, she saw that her head was still resting on his arm.

Li Wenshu asked coldly, "What are you doing here?"

"It was you who didn't want me to leave last night," He Lin said with a smile, recalling the events of the previous night.

"Shu'er, I promised to go home with you today."

Li Wenshu was frustrated; she couldn't remember anything that happened last night.

She repeated what she had said earlier, "I'm not going home!"

She wanted to go home, but she didn't want to go home with He Lin.

She didn't want him to know where she lived.

She thought that once she escaped the palace, even if He Lin wanted to find her, he wouldn't be able to.

After tonight, He Lin felt as sweet as if he had eaten honey.

However, his sweetness only lasted for one day.

Because Li Wenshu's attitude towards him became increasingly cold.

Li Wenshu had been trying to find a way to escape the palace.

She didn't know if her feelings for He Lin had changed, but she was determined to leave.

Just like when she was determined to have He Lin steal her bride.

Even though she felt that what she was doing was wrong.

However, every time she was about to escape, He Lin would always appear just in time.

Her beloved senior brother had already gone to the border because of the renewed chaos caused by foreign enemies.

Even worse, she discovered that she was pregnant with He Lin's child.

This child, just like He Lin before, has firmly captured her heart.

Will she still run away after having a child?

escape!

Li Wenshu nodded affirmatively.

Therefore, her personality is too obsessive.

This indirectly led to the tragedy that followed.

Li Wenshu's indifferent attitude towards He Lin not only displeased the Empress Dowager, who spent her days chanting Buddhist prayers, but also...

Even the palace servants harbored resentment towards her.

However, the Empress Dowager criticized her to her face, while the palace servants didn't even dare to gossip about it behind her back.

He Lin realized that he could never warm a cold heart.

Gradually, he grew tired of his daily attentiveness to Li Wenshu.

He is His Majesty, why is he so eager to please a woman?

He then began to favor Consort Gao and Consort Hui.

Moreover, he also favored many of the young women who entered the palace.

However, his heart was never truly satisfied.

Of course, the selection of imperial concubines was jointly recommended by Grand Tutor Gao and others, ostensibly to ensure His Majesty's continuation of his lineage.

For months, Grand Tutor Gao had been thinking about how to deal with Li Wenshu. At present, he could only think of making His Majesty tire of the old and crave the new.

As for why he believed that His Majesty was fickle and tired of the old,

This can be seen from His Majesty's expressions towards the concubines in the palace and his increasingly distant attitude towards Li Wenshu in recent months.

Day after day, He Lin lost count of how many days it had been since he last saw Li Wenshu.

The news of the Empress falling out of favor gradually spread throughout the palace.

Tonight, He Lin, who was staying in Consort Gao's palace, had his hands on her already protruding belly, but his thoughts were on Li Wenshu.

"Shu'er, if this child is a boy, then he will be my eldest son. As soon as he is born, I will bestow upon him the title of..."

Before he could utter the words "Crown Prince," he realized that the person in front of him was not Li Wenshu, and his words caught in his throat.

"Your Majesty, what title should he be given?"

Consort Gao's smile froze, her heart filled with intense jealousy.

Whenever His Majesty was intimate with her, he would always call her "Shu'er".