Liu Tan was still very calm about Liu Che's reward. He didn't care about the size or richness of the fiefdom. Even if it was a place that was generally recognized as bad, it might not be really bad if he went there. So he was more concerned about when he could be enfeoffed.

He knew very well that this matter might not be so easy. Chen Ajiao would definitely not want to let him go. Liu Che seemed to have a vague attitude, but judging from the fact that he had not yet made him a king, he might not be willing to let him go either.

He originally thought that Liu Ju, who most wanted him to leave, now looked a little strange.

Perhaps in the entire palace, only Lady Gouyi and Liu Fuling really hoped that he would leave.

However, Liu Tan never expected that Liu Che wanted to reward him, but not by giving him a fiefdom or a throne, but by giving him a wife.

Isn’t this outrageous!

Liu Tan had never thought about getting married, even though he knew in his heart that it might be difficult not to get married in this era. But when he thought that Liu Ju had not married either, he felt that he could delay for two more years. He never expected that Liu Che would give him such a "big surprise".

Liu Tan's reaction was so strong that even Liu Che was a little surprised. However, he didn't get angry. He just asked gently, "Why? Don't you like the young lady from the Prime Minister's family?"

Liu Tan couldn't possibly say that he didn't like the young lady at all, right?

He could tell Liu Che that he liked men, but he could never say that he didn't want to marry.

Doesn't liking men count in the Liu family? Even if Emperor Liu Che knew about it, he might just say don't hurt your body. But if he said he didn't want to marry, that would be a big deal.

Liu Tan tried to remain calm and said, "I just felt that since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince hasn't married yet, it would be inappropriate for me to get ahead of him."

Now he was really grateful that Liu Che had never chosen a crown princess for Liu Ju, otherwise he would have no reason to do so.

No matter how many concubines Liu Ju had, as long as he didn't have a wife, he was not married.

Liu Che was a man of few words. He knew at a glance that Liu Tan was making excuses, and could not help but say, "Don't try to play tricks on me. Okay, you don't have to worry about this matter. I know what's going on. Go ahead."

Liu Tan's protest was ineffective and he was kicked out. When he came out, he wished he could faint again and sleep forever!

He had no choice but to run to the Pepper Palace. Chen Ajiao might not be able to influence Liu Che, but Chen Ajiao could reach the Weiyang Palace!

Liu Tan ran to the Pepper Room. Chen Ajiao was happy to see him so lively. However, when she saw Liu Tan's frown, she immediately raised her eyebrows and asked, "What's wrong? Who bullied you again?"

Liu Tan complained, "My father just called me over and told me to get married!"

Chen Ajiao's face darkened. "Huh? Getting married? He never even mentioned such an important thing to me!"

Liu Tan immediately said, "Don't you know, Queen Mother?"

Chen Ajiao snorted coldly, but didn't say much. These days, marriage is decided by parents and matchmakers. But even if it is decided by parents, the father actually has the absolute right to say. The mother can make suggestions and discuss matters, but she cannot make decisions without going through the father, while the father can make decisions alone.

No matter how arrogant Chen Ajiao was, she would not challenge this rule, so she just asked, "Which lady did His Majesty choose for you?"

Liu Tan said, "She's the young lady from Prime Minister Gongsun's family. I... I've never seen her before!"

After hearing this, Chen Ajiao's expression softened: "The Prime Minister's daughter is quite worthy of her."

The daughter of the prime minister can be the princess consort, not to mention the prince's consort. It is not that Liu Che is trying to trick Liu Tan with this choice. In fact, Chen Ajiao thinks this is a very good marriage. After the marriage, Liu Tan will have the prime minister as his assistant, and the prince is now without a wife, so Liu Tan can compete for it.

Liu Tan almost fainted after hearing this. He couldn't help but say, "But I've never seen her!"

Chen Ajiao was not surprised and said, "Then we'll find a way to meet him."

Liu Tan's eyes widened: "What if I don't like her?"

Well, if it’s not “Ruo”, you will definitely not like it.

Chen Ajiao looked at him and said, "After you get married, you can naturally find someone you like. Isn't that what your father did? Listen to your mother and don't be willful. Your wife's family is very important."

Chen Ajiao was furious when Liu Che found someone else, but when it came to her own son, she thought it was natural.

As for whether Momo likes him or not, when she was engaged to Liu Che, no one asked them whether they liked each other or not. It was just that their status was determined long ago, and when they grew up, they had some feelings for each other, but later they got married...

Chen Ajiao didn't want to think about it too much, and just told Liu Tan that this marriage was a good one.

Liu Tan was almost completely desperate. Now that the roundabout way of saving the country through Chen Ajiao didn't work, he could only rely on himself.

He came out of the Jiaofang Palace dejectedly, returned to the Suiyu Palace and sat there in a daze.

When Miao Rui and Big Gao saw his posture, they immediately recalled some bad memories - when they were in the Western Regions, Liu Tan sat like this for the whole day, and then he began to lose weight at a speed visible to the naked eye.

If Li Guangli hadn't taken the blame after they came back, Miao Rui and Bi Gao would definitely have ended up in trouble.

Miao Rui asked cautiously, "Your Highness, are you in a bad mood?"

Of course, Liu Tan couldn't say that he was in a bad mood because his parents asked him to get married. If it got out, it would be bad for the young lady's reputation.

She may not even know anything, but suddenly the emperor takes a fancy to her and wants her to be his daughter-in-law. Then he shows obvious resistance. Nowadays, when people know that the prince wants to refuse the marriage, their first thought will not be that the prince does not want to get married, but whether there is something wrong with the young lady.

Yes, reality is so cruel. No one would think that Liu Tan was wrong. Instead, they would make associations and think that it must be the fault of that young lady.

Liu Tan must refuse the marriage proposal, even before the news spreads, so as not to delay others.

He couldn't even say these words to Miao Rui, so Liu Tan could only force a smile and said, "Nothing, it's a bit boring in the palace, I'm going to go out for a walk."

Liu Tan sat here thinking for a long time but didn't know what to do. It seemed that after thinking about it, the only way was to run away from the marriage, but... the prince would rather run away than get married. This would make the headlines of Beijing gossip for the whole year.

He led his little white horse out of the palace feeling somewhat depressed. He had originally intended to take a casual stroll, but ended up walking in front of the Honglu Temple. He suddenly remembered that he had been living in chaos since his return and had not contacted Lu Xuan. He had no idea how he was doing these days.

Thinking of this, Liu Tan went to the inn where Lu Xuan was staying.

When he got there, he saw a Wusun man sitting at the door from afar. When he looked over, he found that it was Aga Mu.

Aga Mu had been looking bored, playing with his whip. But when he looked up and saw Liu Tan, his face lit up with excitement. He stood up and said in half-standard Chinese, "Your Highness, you're here?"

Liu Tan had a good impression of him, so he smiled and asked, "Where's your little Kunmi?"

Aga Mu said: "I...it was Kunmi who asked me to wait for His Highness here!"

Liu Tan was a little surprised: "He wants to talk to me about something?"

Aga Mu said, "Kunmi bought a very big house a while ago. We have moved there. Kunmi was worried that Your Highness would not be able to find it, so he asked me to wait here."

Liu Tan's eyes widened as he asked, "How many days have you been waiting?"

Then he looked at Agamu and began to count on his fingers. After a while, he looked up and said, "Five days!"

Liu Tan took out a silver pill and threw it over, saying, "Thank you for your hard work. Lead the way."

Aga Mu happily led the way in front and even came over to hold the reins of the little white horse.

Thanks to the docile little white horse, it didn't react at all to Agamu's approach.

Liu Tan let Aga Mu take him all the way out of the imperial city, and then to the eastern district of Chang'an, which was considered to be the place where the well-off families in the entire Chang'an gathered.

The house that Lu Xuan bought was not very big. It was not because he could not afford it, but because land was very expensive in Chang'an, so he had to find a suitable one if he wanted to buy one.

Aga Mu whistled when they were still far away from the mansion. When Liu Tan arrived there, Lu Xuan was already waiting at the door with his men.

Lu Xuan was clearly delighted to see Liu Tan. After taking him off his horse, he said, "I was planning to ask His Majesty to let me see you, but I didn't expect you to come. How are you? Are you feeling better?"

Liu Tan understood that he must have known about what happened before, so he said, "It's fine now. It's just that my mother was worried, so she asked me to keep him for a few more days."

Lu Xuan looked at him seriously for a few seconds and said, "You should take good care of it. It hasn't recovered yet."

Liu Tan wanted to sigh, but then he thought that Lu Xuan was not his trash can, and he didn't come here to complain, but more to express his condolences to the leaders of other countries with whom he had a good relationship, so he suppressed his unhappiness.

However, Lu Xuan had always been very observant of him. From the moment they met, he had realized that Liu Tan might be in a bad mood. However, after spending so much time together, he had finally learned to be more reserved. He didn't ask directly, but said happily, "I'll have someone make some more delicious food and open a jar of good wine..."

At this point, Lu Xuan laughed at himself and said, "Hey, how could I have forgotten that you are the wine king? How can my wine be considered good?"

Liu Tan was amused by his statement and quickly said, "No, but if you want to drink it, I'll have someone send a jar over."

Lu Xuan hesitated: "Your body...why not drink some wine?"

Liu Tan felt like drinking at this time. It was not that he was craving for alcohol, but he had a little idea that getting drunk could relieve his worries. Anyway, he might as well escape for a while, because he couldn't think of any other solution now.

So Liu Tan said: "It's okay to drink less. Alcohol has the effect of strengthening the body."

Lu Xuan was puzzled: "Really?"

Liu Tan said seriously, "Of course it's true. You see, the wine I used before can even inhibit ulcers."

Lu Xuan… no matter how smart Lu Xuan was, he had grown up in the Western Regions. Even the Central Plains, with its most advanced medical technology, couldn't grasp the concept of anti-inflammation, let alone him. However, he thought Liu Tan's words made sense, so he nodded seriously. "If that's the case, wouldn't it be better to drink a little every day?"

Liu Tan almost choked on his own saliva and quickly said, "No, no, no, you can't drink it often. Medicine is three-quarters poison. It's okay to drink it once in a while, but it's not good to drink it often."

The expression on Lu Xuan's face when he looked at Liu Tan was hard to describe, as if he had been confused by Liu Tan. Liu Tan felt a little guilty. He had fooled Lu Xuan into such a state just for drinking.

Fortunately, Lu Xuan didn't bother with him about it. Seeing that Liu Tan was really in good health, he let him drink a little.

What he didn't expect was that Liu Tan, who usually drank lightly, came up and said to him: "I won't go home until I'm drunk today!"

Then, before Lu Xuan could react, he drank the whole cup of wine.

This startled Lu Xuan. He quickly stopped the people from pouring wine for Liu Tan and asked, "What's wrong with you? Why are you drinking so quickly?"

This was how Lu Xuan drank pure liquor for the first time, and he was knocked out.

The strength label of the wine they drank today was C. Liu Tan divided the alcohol content into A, B, C, D and E. A was about 67 degrees, B was 60 degrees, C was 55 degrees, D was 45 degrees and E was 35 degrees.

Class C is already very strong, and Lu Xuan has only recently developed his alcohol tolerance. How could he not know what it would feel like if he took a sip?

As expected, Liu Tan fell down after drinking one glass.

It doesn't seem quite appropriate to say that he was drunk after one drink. In fact, he was drunk, but he didn't fall down and could still talk nonsense.

Liu Tan was not angry when his wine cup was snatched away. He just slumped down on the table and said aggrievedly, "I don't want to get married."