Chapter 6 I said I would protect you!

The wind has stopped, the snow has cleared, and the clouds have nowhere to be found.

Xiao Xun summoned the imperial carriage.

A welcoming banquet was held in Xuan Shi Hall, where the three reminisced about the past until dusk.

The road was icy, making it much harder to walk than when we came.

Prime Minister Su was reluctant to leave his old residence and returned to Chang'an. He was in a hurry to come to the palace to express his gratitude and had not yet returned to his old home. In the rush he left back then, many old things remained in the Su residence, including some rare ancient books and a few old guards.

“When people get old, they become nostalgic,” he remarked, and therefore, he refused to stay overnight in the palace and insisted on going back to visit.

Xiao Xun did not insist on keeping him.

The Chengming Lodge, which served as a resting place for officials on night duty in the previous dynasty, was rather simple. Moreover, the former Grand Marshal and General Qu Yang often stayed there, and over the years it had practically become his residence. The place was still in need of repair, and all the furnishings bore the imprint of Qu Yang.

He dispatched Imperial Guards to escort him all the way.

However, Su Chan caught a chill on her way here and coughed a few times. She absolutely must not catch another cold.

Xiao Xun then arranged for her to stay in the Moon Chamber of Chang Le Palace, the old palace of the Grand Princess, and ordered the Imperial Physician to prepare a cold-resistant soup before going to examine her pulse.

Su Chan bowed to Xiao Xun and took her leave.

The palace doors opened, bringing a gust of north wind that triggered a series of coughs. Su Chan's shoulders trembled slightly, and her face was as pale as paper.

Xiao Xun looked out at the dim light of the snow, then ordered several more layers of black canopy to be added to the imperial carriage for wind protection, and had the eunuch Li Shun escort Su Chan back.

"Your Majesty has gone to great lengths."

As they were talking, a guard wearing armor made of frost and snow led the Imperial Attendant into the palace.

"Your Majesty, the records of all the palace maids are kept in the Yun Guang Pavilion of the Inner Palace. However, at the end of the second year of Jinghe, a fire broke out there. Although the fire was extinguished in time, it destroyed some of the old records of the palace maids. I have just checked, and the register of Lady Lin, a palace maid from Jiaofang Palace, is among them. Therefore, it is difficult to find out Lady Lin's hometown at the moment..."

The Imperial Attendant lowered his head, and a pool of melted snow slowly accumulated beneath him, reflecting the Emperor's suddenly cold and stern eyes.

Xiao Xun remembered the fire incident.

At that time, he worried that keeping Lin Yuan by his side would arouse the jealousy of Lady Qu and implicate his family outside the palace, so he simply burned the records of the palace servants.

Little did he expect that the fire of the second year of Jinghe would spread to his own eyebrows two years later.

"Enough, step back. Issue the order for the imperial carriage."

After the man acknowledged and withdrew, silence returned to the hall.

The snow he brought in made the hall suddenly feel colder.

A gentle female voice came from beside him: "Is this Lady Lin the palace maid who helped His Majesty block the assassin's knife?"

The word "knife" pierced Xiao Xun's heart.

His hands, which were behind his back, clenched into fists, and the old wounds in his palms throbbed with pain.

One year ago, in the tenth month of winter, at Shanglin Garden.

As Xiao Xun and Lin Yuan strolled through the snow in search of plum blossoms, an unfamiliar eunuch brought them hot tea. Suddenly, he turned slightly, and the wind blew, revealing a blade hidden in his sleeve. The twilight sunlight fell upon it, flashing in Xiao Xun's pupils.

"An assassin!"

In that sound, a long sword sliced ​​through the wind, whistling as it approached the neck. At the critical moment, Xiao Xun grabbed the blade with his bare hands and struck the assassin's arm with his elbow.

The man winced in pain, the knife veering off course, but he still held it firmly in his hand, its cold light aimed straight for his abdomen.

Blood splattered on Xiao Xun's face, and the white expanse before his eyes suddenly turned red.

He did not feel any pain.

Lin Yuan flew to protect Xiao Xun.

A buzzing void filled my ears, with only the dense sounds of horses' hooves and arrows rushing in.

The assassin was riddled with holes by the guards' swords and arrows. Black blood gushed from countless orifices.

The words "Three years of Tian Shou, deposed crown prince, plotting rebellion" were vomited out along with blood.

It doesn't matter anymore, it doesn't matter anymore...

Xiao Xun fell, falling, along with the body in his arms.

Lin Yuan's eyes widened, her pupils filled with Xiao Xun's face, and the light seemed to escape from there.

She raised her hand tremblingly, wanting to show him the small knife clutched in her palm: "I said I would protect His Majesty. I'm sorry, I was too slow, I didn't have time, I didn't have time..."

The small knife rolled away from Lin Yuan's hand.

Darkness descended upon us.

Xiao Xun closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and pulled himself out of his memories.

Su Chan hesitated before asking, "Did this palace maid, Lin, leave the palace without permission?"

“It wasn’t exactly acting on my own initiative,” Xiao Xun said with a self-deprecating tone. “She left a letter, asking me for a favor.”

Su Chan pondered for a moment: "When I heard about this before, I thought that Lady Lin was a resolute and courageous person. It's just a pity that I only heard about her and never met her. Today I returned to the palace, but she left. It's really unfortunate."

"But," she bit her lip and asked, "His Majesty doesn't want her to leave the palace?"

After a long pause, Xiao Xun said, "She doesn't want to come back."

"This Lady Lin doesn't seem to be someone who covets the power and wealth of the imperial family. I admire her even more now."

She smiled shyly and walked to Xiao Xun's side. "As a woman myself, I have also experienced life and death. I know that no matter how indestructible one may appear on the outside, there is always a longing in one's heart to be with one's closest loved ones. Lady Lin must have her own close family and friends. Now that everything is settled and the New Year is approaching, since it is Lady Lin's own choice, why doesn't Your Majesty allow her to go?"

Xiao Xun was confused, his eyes lowered as he pondered the words "the closest person to him".

Su Chan noticed his expression, and her eyes gradually darkened.

At this moment, a palace servant came to report that the Imperial Physician had brought medicine to ward off the cold and was waiting in the confinement room.

When Su Chan left the palace, she stopped under the lintel and turned around.

"Ah Xun".

Xiao Xun looked up.

Su Chan stood in the north wind, her eyes filled with frost and snow, and her eyes slightly moist: "Could you... stay with me?"

*

Lin Yuan jumped off the carriage she had rented from the county residence and arrived at the foot of Huaiyang Academy.

In the distance, a figure appeared, riding a white horse with a silver saddle, galloping towards them.

When her face came into view, she softened, and the frost on her eyelashes turned into tears.

Lin Yu looked at her pale, paper-white face. Before she could even express her surprise or shed tears of joy at their long-awaited reunion, she hurriedly asked, "A-Yuan, what's wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"

"I'm so cold... my stomach hurts from the cold." Her voice quickly disappeared into Lin Yu's arms.

Lin Yu lifted her horizontally and placed her on the horse.

The clatter of horses' hooves trampled over the sounds of reading in the academy, scattering the once orderly recitations and making them drift away.

Many eyes turned to look outwards. Some people recited, "Swallows fly, soaring and swooping," while others read, "The sound rises and falls." Even the teacher who was leading them in reciting the poem suddenly changed his tone, his eyes leaving the book, and his words became, "The daughter is going to her husband's home—may she have a good family."

This sentence landed on the windowpane like a bronze bell, startling even himself.

He scratched his head, rolled up his book, and tapped the bald head of a child who was leaning out of the window.

"Alright, let's call it a day."

The children were overjoyed. The county school suddenly disappeared, but little heads popped up one after another from the grass, behind the tree trunks, and at the base of the walls, looking at the departing white horse.

Who is that woman?

"It must be your teacher's wife, otherwise why would she be so affectionate?"

"But I've never heard of Master Lin ever being married."

"Does the master need to tell you beforehand whether he will marry or not?"

"Master Lin has no wife or children. I thought he was in love with Master He."

The scholar surnamed He did not hear these chattering words.

After that "School's out," he lightly touched the threshold with his toes, and like a cloud, followed the white figure to the house in the bamboo grove. Just as he was about to raise his hand to steady himself by the door, the door was only half-closed, and half of his body fell inside, the book in his hand falling to the ground.

With a "whoosh," he looked up from the books on the ground and met Lin Yu's gaze.

He smiled.

"He Ji, could you please get some hot soup?" Lin Yu had just placed Lin Yuan on the mat, wrapped in his fur coat.

"Ah? Oh, okay, okay." He Ji responded repeatedly, hurriedly turned around and went out, stepping onto the ice and sliding a good ten feet away.

“This is a teacher at the academy, He Ji, who is a year older than you.” Lin Yu introduced He Ji to Lin Yuan, watching his hurried figure disappear into the distance. “He came to the academy a year after me. His family has been doctors for generations.” He smiled and said, “But my father thought doctors were too lowly and wanted him to enter officialdom through poetry and literature. So he came to the academy. He teaches, and also hopes that one day he can enter the Imperial Academy and become a doctoral student.”

Lin Yuan nodded hesitantly.

She wanted to ask why Lin Yu didn't go to the Imperial Academy. He was a student of a great Confucian scholar who had retired from the Imperial Academy. His talent and knowledge surpassed those of many who stood in the court, talking eloquently and pointing out the future of the country. Yet, he chose to come to Huaiyang, which was hundreds of miles away from Chang'an, and live in a secluded academy. Many years have passed in the blink of an eye. The year she entered the palace, Lin Yu also left home. Now, it has been almost five years.

But his father always remained calm and never mentioned that he had entered officialdom through poetry, bringing glory to the family, nor did he ever say the saying, "While parents are alive, one should not travel far." They seemed to want him to travel far, but not to a higher place.

However, she was now in a daze, as if she couldn't hold on any longer, and couldn't utter a single word.

The wind and snow accompanied us all the way, relentlessly.

Originally, when she made up her mind to leave the palace, she held onto her pride, feeling no pain when the wind stung her face, no cold when snow covered her body, and no complaint when the rickety carriage jolted her to the point of feeling like her body was falling apart.

He felt half relieved when he saw his father and mother, and when he saw his brother, the remaining half of his breath was completely released.

Just now, as Lin Yu held her on the horse, and the wind, snow and frost swept past her ears, she remembered a winter day a year ago when she was also held in someone's arms and carried onto a horse.

The sunlight faded, the world lost its color, a vast expanse of white, and only a faint sound could be heard.

“Ah Yuan…I will not leave you.”

The sound was like sparse snowflakes, falling heavily and landing on her face and lips, and she gradually became aware of it.

It's so bitter.

It's so bitter.

I don't know how much time has passed.

"Ah Yuan, Ah Yuan."

She woke up on the couch.

When I opened my eyes, I saw Xiao Xun.

A note from the author:

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