"Your Majesty, it's three o'clock in the morning, time to rest!"

After An Yi left, Nalan Yunzhi, who had no desire to sleep, got up from the bed, walked out of the Zichen Hall and went to the imperial study to review memorials.

"This cat and mouse picture is very good. I bought it."

"But...but what I drew is a tiger descending the mountain, and the one in the lower right corner is a chicken eating rice."

…

"It seems that the current emperor's painting skills are really not that good. You should stop imitating her paintings in the future."

"In fact, the reason her paintings are so sought after is simply because she holds a high position. What people are fighting for is not the paintings themselves, but the value behind them."

…

As Nalan Yunzhi reviewed the memorial, the more he read, the more his face, a girl very similar to Feng Lingyan, appeared between the lines. Nalan Yunzhi, troubled, had to put down the imperial brush dipped in cinnabar, lower his eyes, and hold his breath to concentrate.

"Your Majesty, it's three o'clock in the morning, time to rest!"

Seeing Nalan Yunzhi put down the imperial brush, the eunuch chief Guo Dongbing, who was standing at the door of the imperial study with a silver tray full of badges of concubines, couldn't help but remind him again.

"Old Guo, what time is it now?"

"Your Majesty, it is already midnight."

As Guo Dongbing spoke, he walked slowly forward and presented the plate in his hand to Nalan Yunzhi.

"Your Majesty, you haven't turned over the cards tonight. Would you like to summon a servant to sleep with you?"

Nalan Yunzhi glanced at the green medals in the big silver plate and saw that Ouyang Yuming was at the top of the list. She raised her hand and flipped through the others next to him, including Wang Ziyan, Qin Niantang, Xiao Qingchuan and others. However, after flipping through a few, she felt bored.

"Back off!"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Upon hearing this, Guo Dongbing could only lower his head and eyes, holding the silver tray filled with the badges of the concubines in the harem, he walked away and left the imperial study.

Nalan Yunzhi stood up from the desk, took a scroll from the shelf beside him, and spread it out on the desk. The painting suddenly showed a handsome and extraordinary man riding a horse.

The man in the painting is about sixteen or seventeen years old. He is dressed in a suit of gold brocade, blue satin boots with green soles, and holding the reins. His long legs are astride the Pegasus. He looks unrestrained and unrestrained, and exudes a heroic aura from head to toe.

Looking closely at his face, one can see that he has slanted eyebrows, a pair of bright eyes as bright as stars, a high nose bridge, slightly raised corners of his lips, his black hair is tied up high and fixed with a gold and jade crown, and a red turquoise headband is tied on his forehead. His every move reveals a graceful and elegant demeanor, which is beyond words.

Nalan Yunzhi's bare hands gently stroked the man in the painting, her wise and profound eyes suddenly filled with starlight. Looking around, she felt a sense of endless loneliness in this magnificent and beautiful palace.

"Lingyan, you really have a cruel heart. You just left me like this. It has been sixteen years since we last met." Nalan Yunzhi raised his head and blinked away the tears.

"It seems that my painting skills are indeed not as good as Hua Qingcheng said. Otherwise, I wouldn't have needed to look at the portrait Meng Lishi painted for you and remember you for the past sixteen years."

In the past, Meng Lishi had indeed exchanged skills of music, chess, calligraphy and painting with Feng Lingyan, but at that time, one of them had already become the queen who ruled the country, and the other had become the head of the Si family, one of the four major families in Laifeng Kingdom.

The painting Nalan Yunzhi had brought was from the time when they were competing in painting skills. Meng Lishi had painted Feng Lingyan riding a horse, while Feng Lingyan had painted Meng Lishi dancing with a sword under the moon, which was said to be quite stunning. The two paintings were equally outstanding.

"I ride on the radiant morning sun, the red clouds are magnificent and charming. Purple mist lingers from the east, and the blue sky hides the clamor of dust."

"Yunzhi is the ruler of a country, the emperor of Laifeng. Since your bedroom is called Zichen Palace, Lingyan's bedroom will be called Bixia Palace from now on."

This was what the handsome man in Nalan Yunzhi's memory said to her in his bedroom when he first entered the palace.

"Lingyan, it's not that I intentionally ignored you. Back then, not long after I took power, the month you were due to give birth, not only did a snowstorm hit the north, but rebels suddenly emerged in the southwest, and we also had to face the covetous Lengyue Kingdom. Amidst internal and external troubles, I was... so exhausted that I neglected you."

"Before I personally led the army to the southwest to quell the rebellion, I entrusted you to Yu Ming, your closest friend. Unexpectedly, not long after the army set out, I received news from the palace that you had given birth to an unrelated baby. I immediately handed the task of suppressing the rebellion to Xia Hou Jing and rushed back to the palace to see you..."

"Your Majesty, Lingyan has indeed given birth to a daughter, not a monster. Our daughter has been kidnapped, go and rescue her..."

Nalan Yunzhi still remembered that when she arrived at Bixia Palace, Feng Lingyan, with disheveled hair, pale face and haggard appearance, broke free from the restraints of Wen Gong and the eunuchs, rushed to the door of the bedroom, and wailed miserably as she watched her stride towards her.

"Your Majesty, Brother Queen Feng couldn't accept it for a while and that's why he lost control of his emotions. I hope you can forgive his disrespectful behavior. Yuming is willing to kowtow to you and apologize on behalf of Brother Queen Feng." Nalan Yunzhi wanted to step forward to support Feng Lingyan, but was stopped by Ouyang Yuming who kept kowtowing to her.

"Your Majesty, the place where men give birth is very dirty. As the emperor, you should not get close to it!" When Nalan Yunzhi was about to go around Ouyang Yuming and go towards Feng Lingyan, his legs were held tightly by Ouyang Yuming.

"roll!"

Nalan Yunzhi raised his foot and kicked Ouyang Yuming aside.

"Your Majesty! Honest advice hurts!"

Ouyang Yuming, who was crawling on the ground, shouted again unwillingly, but it could not stop Nalan Yunzhi from striding forward. It was not until Nalan Yunzhi saw the eunuch chief Guo Dongbing holding a newborn black civet cat covered in blood that she stopped moving forward.

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