Chapter 36
Regarding the incident in which Princess Anle attacked the Third Prince on her first day in the Shangshufang, neither the Emperor nor the Empress reacted.
After school, everyone returned to their own residences.
"Second brother, when will my mother come back?" Yun Mian lay on the table, holding a brand new wolf hair brush in his hand, and scribbled aimlessly in the air.
Yun Chen picked up his pen and sketched a picture of winter plum blossoms on the paper. Hearing this, he gently put the pen down and said softly, "I don't know either."
"Little Cotton, do you miss your aunt?" He tilted his head to look at the bored little girl next to him.
Yunmian nodded gloomily: "Mom has been gone for several days. I have counted on my ten fingers, but why hasn't she come back yet?"
"Wait a little longer." Yun Chen said, "When my aunt arrives at the border, someone will rush to deliver her letter back. Then we will know how the battle is going at the border and what is happening with my aunt."
“……” Yun Mian stopped talking.
She looked around at the various famous calligraphy and paintings hanging in her second brother's study, thought of what Uncle System had said, and then turned her gaze to her second brother himself.
Yunchen is only seven years old this year, but he already has the noble bearing that a prince should have. He acts calmly, makes decisions decisively, and has a gentle personality yet is resourceful.
Of course Yunmian didn't understand all this. She heard these words from Nanny Qiu Jin last night. Nanny Qiu Jin told her to stay more with her elder and second brothers, and they would definitely protect her in the palace.
Does Nanny Qiu Jin mean that the eldest and second brothers are the two most powerful children in the palace?
Yun Mian unconsciously pressed the tail of the wolf hair brush against her fair cheek. With a little force, the tip of the brush poked a small dimple on her face.
Yun Chen reached out and picked up his sister who was sitting in a daze on the chair. He bent down to straighten her wrinkled palace skirt, then held the little girl's warm hand and slowly walked to the other side of the study.
"Little Cotton, do you know why your aunt gave you the name Cotton?" He changed the subject subtly.
Yunmian shook her head blankly and guessed, "Is it because the marshmallows are delicious?"
Yun Chen: "Marshmallow, what is that?"
Facing her second brother's gaze, Yun Mian shook her head in frustration: "I don't know either. I heard it from other kids."
Yun Chen smiled and said, "I have never heard of it either. If I can find this kind of candy in the future, I will ask someone to learn how to make it and come back to make it for you every day. Is that okay?"
This was a tempting promise. Yun Mian nodded vigorously, and her depressed mood visibly improved.
In front of her, Yun Chen took down a scroll hanging on the wall and spread it on the long table. It was a map.
After carrying his sister to a high chair, Yun Chen pointed to one of the maps and introduced it to the bewildered little princess: "Mianmian, look, this is our country, Daqing, and it is also the country with the most abundant and stable life among the four countries."
"As for your name, it is because outside the southwestern border of our Daqing country, there is a country where the sun never rises and never sets. It is called Nan Ke." After saying this, his finger slowly moved on the map and finally stopped on another piece of territory.
This is Nan Ke.
"In this country, there is a kind of white flower that grows like clouds and white fluff. It is called cotton. Your name comes from it."
Yun Chen said softly, "These flowers will be picked by the common people and stuffed into their clothes to keep warm. They are the most needed supplies for the people of Snowland Country."
His finger moved and then stopped at the area above Daqing: "So the Snowland Kingdom is determined to annex our Daqing and then take up arms against Nankegao."
"What about here?" Yun Mian pointed to the last large plate.
"It's called Tu Kingdom." Yun Chen's voice was slightly deep. "Tu Kingdom has a lot of minerals, and the people suffer a lot from it, but their soldiers are also equipped with the most complete armor. When our soldiers fight against them, they are often not inferior in strength, but they are always easily at a disadvantage in terms of equipment and armor."
"Then where is my mother now?" Yun Mian took in the entire map and searched the border of Daqing Kingdom.
"Here." Yun Chen pointed at the longest border line between Daqing and Tuguo.
"Half a month ago, there was an unusual movement on the border of Tu State. Father originally decided that General Bai Xu of the Bai Family would guard the border, but... Bai Lie is the only child of the Bai Family who has been passed down for three generations. Yun Yi not only used words to lure the Bai Family into taking sides early, but also used the power of the world to persuade them. He was not on guard against Bai Lie, or he was too eager to recruit Bai Lie, so he didn't hide much."
Yun Chen said this, thinking back to Yun Yi's analysis of Bai Lie that he and his elder brother had heard from their father. His eyes dimmed slightly, and he turned his head to his sister who was listening attentively with eyes wide open, and said, "Yun Yi roughly told Bai Lie about the war and changes in the national situation in the next twenty years. Although it was not clear, Bai Lie's grandfather, General Bai Anguo, and several important officials of the father's emperor deduced from the current situation and found that the future seemed to be as Yun Yi said, and the difference was less than one tenth."
Yun Mian understood a little bit vaguely, but did not hear the deeper meaning of his second brother's words.
The system at the side was shocked. Yun Yi just didn't use Yun Mian as a stepping stone to move forward immediately. Yun Yi just had a hard time getting rid of his reversed identity after a new life. Yun Yi was just a little more anxious than his younger self...
But such a big loophole was discovered, and he could no longer hide his abnormality.
I just don’t know if Yun Yi himself has realized the consequences of his eagerness at this moment?
"Mianmian, my father wants to break the fixed situation, so after several discussions, he decided to send my aunt to the battle."
It is about going on an expedition rather than defending, and about taking the initiative to break the deadlock rather than letting the situation develop.
At this point, Yun Chen touched his sister's furry head and said, "So I can only tell Mian Mian that you may not see your aunt for a long time, but I also promise you that when the war stops, if your aunt still needs to be stationed at the border, I will personally take you to the border to find her, okay?"
"Really?" Yun Mian placed her palm on the border that her second brother had just pointed out, her eyes slightly bright, "Will my second brother take Mian Mian to find mother?"
"Of course." Yun Chen smiled and nodded: "When has my second brother ever lied to you?"
"!!" Yunmian stood up straight on the chair, and fell into the arms of her second brother. She smiled and said softly, "Then Mianmian will study martial arts hard and protect her second brother on the road in the future!"
When it was time to go to bed, Yun Mian watched Aunt Qiu Jin carefully turn off most of the lights in the room. After Aunt Qiu Jin left, she said to the system behind the screen, "Uncle System, I won't say today that I will hate Yun Yi and become a bad kid."
The system slowly flew over the screen, staring at the little girl who was wrapped in a quilt and tilted her head to look at it, and asked her curiously: "Then Mianmian will not tell you anymore in the future?"
“Yeah!” Yun Mian nodded and shook her head, then bent her eyes and said softly, “I’ll say something else in the future.”
Say something else?
Anything else?
"Mianmian must practice martial arts hard and become as powerful as mother!"
"Mianmian doesn't want to be a bad kid, nor a little princess. I want to be a great general!"
Young and naive vows are always particularly firm yet fragile. Fortunately, Yunmian is not the type of person who would only do something for two or three days.
She still appeared in the Shangshufang as usual, and as a princess, she was far superior to several princesses and became the only girl who received the prince's education.
Because she knew that this was the equality between men and women that her mother had exchanged her life for her. In this society, her mother had done everything she could just to prevent herself from becoming the forbidden delicacy in the plot who was constantly sent to the Three Kingdoms in the name of marriage.
She didn't like to recite those tongue-twisting words, nor could she compose the beautiful poems that the Taifu spoke.
So the line drawing she used for calligraphy practice was about the art of war.
She read the books of ancient sages, about famous battles and disputes among military strategists.
Except for the tutors teaching in the Shangshufang, the princes enrolled in school, and the Emperor of Daqing, no one knew that their little princess of Daqing did not like red-collar work but preferred swords and weapons.
Sometimes Yun Yi would take the opportunity to approach and test her again and again, but since he made a serious and firm promise that night, Yun Mian would no longer treat him as the protagonist of the world.
She focused on her own affairs, always following her elder and second brothers with Yun Lin, pulling the bow in the martial arts field to see who could hit the most target rings, stepping on the stirrups and being led by the palace servants to walk in the corridors of the palace, begging the emperor uncle to take her and her elder and fourth brothers to worship General Bai Anguo as their master...
Yun Mian was very busy. She had no time to deal with Yun Yi's temptations and acting. She could only spare a very small amount of time every day to miss her mother.
Perhaps in a place where her mother couldn't see, she was slowly learning from her mother and growing up stumbling and bumping.
And she has persisted in this immature growth for three years.
Three years was enough time for the crying little cotton ball to grow into a little girl who could ride a horse steadily.
"Little Cotton, have you heard?" Yun Lin came over stealthily and whispered in her ear, "I heard that the Queen Mother is inviting women from all families to her birthday banquet tomorrow. In fact, it is to find a suitable princess for my eldest brother."
"Prince's Consort?" Yun Mian's eyes lit up, and she lowered her voice to ask, "But my eldest brother is only twelve years old now. It will take many years for him to get married, right?"
"I don't know."
Yun Lin scratched his head and said in surprise, "Anyway, I heard this from my mother. She even laughed at me, saying that my princess might still be being held by a wet nurse and learning to speak. I'm already eight years old, so my princess can't be that young, right?"
"Does Big Brother know?"
"They should know, right?" Yun Lin guessed, "Mother said that this is a lifelong event for each of us princes. I think my eldest and second brothers must know, especially my second brother!"
After studying together in the Shangshufang for so many years, everyone has seen how smart my second brother is and how much he is praised and loved by the tutors, and that's why... it feels even more regrettable.
Yun Mian gently shook the jade pendant she was wearing and said crisply, "Why don't we go and ask? What if Big Brother has a girl he likes? I can help them pass on a message or a gift outside the palace."
So the two little brats excitedly went to find the eldest prince Yun Zhao.
He opened his mouth and asked bluntly: "Big brother, are you going to have a princess?!"
"Brother, is your princess consort pretty? Can she fight? Is she as gentle and pretty as the empress and aunt?"
“Big brother, big brother…”
Yun Zhao: “…”
After stuffing the two little guys' mouths with cakes one by one, he asked with a stern face: "How did you know? We haven't even started yet, don't go out and make a fuss!"
Yunmian was sharp-eyed. After chewing the cake in her mouth, she also shouted loudly: "Big brother, big brother!! Your face is red, as red as a monkey's butt!!"
Yun Lin cried out: "Brother, are you shy?!"
Yun Zhao took a deep breath, and then another deep breath, restraining his impulse to give his younger brother and sister a complete childhood. He grabbed their collars and threw them in front of Yun Chen: "Take care of them. If they keep making noise, the roof will be blown off!"
Yun Chen paused as he was turning the pages of the book and turned his head to look.
The two little guys looked up at their fair and clean little faces, squinting their eyes and smiling obediently: "Second brother~"
Yun Chen: “…”
Yun Chen tapped the two little heads with a pen in a funny way, and said gently: "It's okay to play around today, but don't make such a loud noise at the palace banquet tomorrow. Girls are shy. It won't be too late to congratulate big brother after the mother really makes up her mind."
Yun Lin heard “Don’t make loud noises” and “Congratulations, big brother”.
Yunmian, however, only selectively listened to the sentence “Girls are thin-skinned”.
The little princess' eyes sparkled, and she turned around and pulled Yun Lin's ears: "Yun Lin, Yun Lin, did you hear that? Next time, don't call me shameless!"
Yun Lin rolled his eyes at her: "Whenever you call me Fourth Brother, I will stop calling you shameless!"
Yunmian: "I won't call you that unless you call me Sister Mianmian first!"
"Bah! Forget about it. Even if I jump off the top of a mountain and die, I will never take you as my leader!"
"Then I will be angry! I am terrible when I am angry. I will eat children in the middle of the night!"
"I'm even scarier. I'll eat two kids!"
"Then I'll eat three!"
"I have four!!"
"I……"
Yun Zhaoyun Chen: "..."
It's quite scary. I've never seen any prince or princess competing with each other every day about how good they are at eating children.
If this gets out, people from other countries will probably laugh their teeth off.
"Second brother, why do I feel that these two little guys have only grown in height but not in brains in the past three years?" Yun Zhao lowered his voice and looked at his younger brother and sister with disgust in his eyes.
He waited for his second brother's approval, but after a moment of silence, he saw some...pity in his second brother's eyes? ?
Yun Zhao: “…”
He turned around with a wry smile, and as expected, he was met with two pairs of dark eyes full of murderous intent.
There was another round of chaos. Yun Chen shook his head, picked up the book again, and answered his elder brother's words in his heart.
There are not two but three people who are tall but lack brains.
There are quite a few candidates for Yun Zhao's imperial consort, but all the women of marriageable age who attend this palace banquet have families that have that in mind.
But the harem of the dynasty was not chaotic, nor was there much intrigue. The queen had not thought of letting Yun Zhao marry someone whose family was too powerful. No matter how powerful a person was, could he be as powerful as the emperor? So what was more important was Yun Zhao's own wishes.
When asking this, Yun Mian was also sitting next to the Queen's aunt. She curiously flipped through the booklet prepared by her aunt, which contained portraits and personalities of women from various families, which made Yun Mian completely dazzled.
"Mother... I really can't pick out all of these." Yun Zhao had a rare bitter look on his face, looking at the portraits in the booklets as if he were facing a formidable enemy.
"Besides, isn't it too early to decide now? I'm only twelve years old... I still have to make achievements on the battlefield in the future. How can I have time to get married?"
When the queen said this, she smiled and glared at him, then said softly, "It's just a temporary settlement. We both know what's going on if we settle it early. It will take many years for you to get married. Why are you in such a hurry?"
"...Then please help me choose. From what I saw at the palace banquet yesterday, those women were only slightly bigger than cotton balls. I really can't tell what they are." He began to give up.
"Then do you have any requests?" The queen didn't care, after all, Yun Zhao had this character since he was a child.
Require……
Yun Zhao was in a dilemma again. He frowned and thought for a long time before he stammered, "It would be good if it's a girl. You can choose it."
He is really not picky.
Seeing the half-grown boy running away in panic with a red face as if he was chased by a ghost, Yun Mian fell on the soft couch with such joy that her teeth were showing. The Queen also laughed and scolded him for being ridiculous.
Somehow, the topic turned to her.
When Yun Mian heard her aunt say that there would be such a day for her in the future, she was completely stunned.
"No!" The little girl angrily refused: "Mianmian doesn't want to get married!"
"How can a woman not get married?" The Queen's aunt smiled helplessly.
Yunmian wrinkled her face, unable to imagine what that scene would be like. She was stunned for a long time before she said, "Aunt, Mianmian wants to be a general. She will never get married if she doesn't!"
But how much power can a child’s words have?
No one took this matter seriously, thinking that she was ignorant and didn't know what marriage was all about.
But I didn’t expect that Yunmian actually went to find Yunchen in private.
"Brother, I want to go find mom." The little girl stood straight, her tone unquestionable: "Brother, you promised Mianmian that you would take Mianmian to the border to find mom!"
Yun Chen asked her in surprise: "Didn't we agree to go at the end of the year? It's only June now."
Yun Mian's face suddenly fell, and she said listlessly, "But I feel that the palace is no longer fun. My aunt, the Queen, said that all women in the world must get married and raise children, but I don't want to! I don't want to be a woman in the world, I want to be a general like my mother!"
Yun Chen was stunned for a moment, then laughed: "Are you scared?"
Yunmian nodded slowly: "When my aunt said this, I suddenly felt so scared."
That natural tone, that tone that was supposed to be so as it should be, was like a black cloth without any holes, rapidly pressing down on her head, ready to completely cover her so that she would never see a ray of sunlight again.
Yun Mian was scared, so she instinctively wanted to escape from here and escape from the palace.
Yun Chen ordered someone to bring honey water to Yun Mian. After she calmed down a little, he took her to the desk where they were three years ago.
He took out the map again and slowly unfolded it in front of Yun Mian.
"Did you see that, Little Mianhua?" he asked gently, "The world is so small, and under this sky, people coming and going all accept similar ideas. Even if you leave the palace and go to another place, you will still hear the same words."
Three years ago, what he unfolded to her was the situation among the four countries, the war and the interests.
Three years later, what he unfolded again was a web that was difficult to break free from and difficult to escape from, the constraints that the world imposed on women and the deep-rooted concepts.
Yun Mian asked in astonishment: "...If I go to the border, to the other three countries, or to the other four countries, will I still hear those words?"
"yes."
The moment he nodded, Yun Mian felt creepy.
"Then what should I do?" She once again pressed her hand on the map very hard: "Second brother, what should I do?"
She didn't understand. The child just instinctively felt that all this was too terrible. When the Queen's aunt said that, all the people and women in this world seemed to be copied and pasted by God and had the same fate that would never be escaped.
Yun Mian didn't want to have such a fate. She was only eight years old. She wanted to stay with her mother forever from the age of eighteen to twenty-eight until the year she completed her mission and died, instead of... leaving her mother and becoming a member of another family. For her, that would be too terrifying and suffocating.
"Brother, I just want to be a general like mother. It doesn't matter if I can't be a general, as long as Mianmian can accompany mother forever." The little girl wiped away her tears aggrievedly, not knowing whether she was asking him or the world: "It's just that simple, can't I do it?"
Yun Chen helped his sister wipe away her tears, leaned over to look at her, and his usually gentle voice inexplicably hid a bit of sharpness: "Little Cotton, that's difficult. It requires you to be firm, to become strong, and to have a strong enough backing."
He held the little girl's thin wrist through her sleeve, guided her to put her hand back on the map, and then let go.
"Little Cotton, three years ago, I promised you that I would take you to see your aunt. We will set off tomorrow." He whispered, "Three years later, I will promise you again that no matter who sits on the throne, no matter how the world changes, I will be with you to protect you and Yunlin. You can be the great general you want to be, and Yunlin can make as much money as he can. No one will dare to stop us."
Yun Mian stared blankly at the map in her hand. The map was well preserved, the ink was still clearly visible, and there was also a slap mark from when she playfully slapped it at the age of six.
While staring at the map, my head kept recalling what my second brother had just said.
She is no longer the five-year-old Yunmian, she is already eight years old and can understand a lot of things.
I understand the horror of my aunt's words, the overwhelming fear of fate, and what my second brother just said...how much price I have to pay and how many consequences I have to bear.
"Why?" Yun Mian looked at him blankly, "Second brother, why are you suddenly telling me this?"
She didn't understand again.
"..." Yun Chen smiled gently: "Little Cotton, there are not so many whys and what to do in the world. It's nothing more than a few choices of whether you want to do it or not."
The young prince stared down at the map of four countries on the table and thought of what his father said after his mother's palace banquet last night.
"Chen'er, are you going to give my position to Yun Yi?"
Yun Chen replied calmly at the time: "Besides Yun Yi, there is also my eldest brother and my fourth brother. Father, you are young and strong, so there is no need to worry about the lack of successors."
"Your eldest brother is impulsive and irritable, he hates literature and prefers martial arts; your fourth brother is always out of tune, although he has some cleverness, governing a country does not rely solely on that little intelligence. As for the younger ones... Yunchen, are you sure that any one of them who succeeds to the throne can do as you wish, can protect this country, and can tolerate the existence of your brothers in front of you?"
"Chen'er, I know very well what my sons are like. Don't be naive. Don't let me down."
What did they say next? Yun Chen didn't remember much, he only remembered the two words his father said that enlightened him.
The father said: "Yun Yi is not a good person. The country cannot be without a crown prince for a long time. Rather than letting the younger generations fight for it in the future, it is better for me to decide it early. As for your foot disease... As the Son of Heaven and a father, I can still withstand the pressure for you."
The father said, "Yunchen, it's just a foot disease, don't be afraid."
Thanks to the little angel who cast the mine:
An ordinary convert relies on 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigated the nutrient solution:
Bright people don't fart in the dark, 30 bottles of fluorescent light;
An ordinary refugee has 24 bottles;
en 20 bottles;
Watch the world smoke through 15 bottles;
Nanai is 77 12 bottles;
Cute little pig, 10 bottles of Jiuan;
5 bottles of Tea Mountain's Elk;
2 bottles of AmberTeoh, Xiao Xiaoxue, and Crossing the Stars;
44748071, East ear in the north 1 bottle;
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
