He persuaded him patiently: "Yuan'er, I know that I didn't treat you well in the past, and you feel resentful, but you are still my most trusted son, the only son I trust. Things that belong to you will be returned to you in the future."

Pei Yuan did not respond to him, but raised his eyes and asked calmly: "Your Majesty, how do you want to deal with the Third Prince?"

Emperor Zhou felt guilty for a moment, and tried to calm down and said: "I will follow the laws of our dynasty and will never bend the law for personal gain."

Pei Yuan asked: "The crime of treason, forming a clique for personal gain, and framing loyal people are enough to be executed. If the Third Prince really wants to leave, as his younger brother, I should indeed see him off, and I shouldn't leave Beijing at this time."

Emperor Zhou forced a smile and tried to persuade him: "Your third brother did not make such a big mistake. He did do some stupid things, I have already abolished his position as Crown Prince, but his crime is not punishable by death, as it was all done by his mother alone. I will urge the Palace Administration and the Ministry of Justice to adjudicate the case as soon as possible and give you justice. As for Xiao'er, he cannot stay in the capital. I plan to send him to the southern border to serve as a military prisoner as a punishment and to give everyone an explanation. He will not stand in your way again."

His explanation was so feeble that he did not even believe it himself. He averted his eyes, not daring to look at Pei Yuan.

"In this case, my third brother has suffered an unjust accusation and has to go to fight the enemy. This is such a great injustice. Naturally, I cannot sit in the capital and enjoy my life." Pei Yuan said with a smile, "Now the Huns are attacking the northern border, and Qilian Mountain is also plagued by bandits, making the people miserable. Dai County's garrison commander Su Wei attacked Qilian Mountain several times, but suffered heavy casualties and failed to take it down, and the people were in a panic. The New Year will be here in a few months. If the bandits are not eliminated, the people will be disappointed in the garrison. The most important thing for a frontier town is the unity of the military and the people. Once the people are in chaos, the city will be lost."

Emperor Zhou "I will send a message to Qiu Mingshan immediately and ask him to go fight."

Pei Yuan bowed and said, "General Qiu may be able to find time to wipe out the bandits in his busy schedule, but I'm afraid he won't have time to find the whereabouts of the prince. The prince has been missing for nearly a year, and there is still no trace of him. It must be that the people who are looking for him are not doing their best. I am willing to take responsibility for this!"

Emperor Zhou was speechless. He could not find any reason to stop him. He moved his lips and sighed and asked, "Do you have to go?"

Pei Yuan acquiesced. Emperor Zhou asked again, "Then when are you going to come back?"

Pei Yuan replied, "I will come back after I finish my work."

Emperor Zhou was silent for a long time. He was really old, his cheeks were sagging, and he looked ten years older in the past few days. Most of the hair on the back of his head was white.

He nodded helplessly: "Okay."

"Your son has one more request for you." Pei Yuan said, "The little grandson is now being fostered in the Empress' palace, but the Empress is sick and weak, and I'm afraid she can't spare the time to take care of him. Yuanzi has lived with your son for a long time and they have a harmonious relationship. I can't bear to see the little grandson suffer so much at such a young age. Please allow your son to be brought to your side so that you can always pay attention to him." Emperor

Zhou did not hesitate too much. He was eager to please Pei Yuan, and Yuanzi was just a bastard of a son he didn't like, so he was not important.

He immediately agreed: "You can come and pick him up tomorrow."

...

When Pei Yuan returned home, it was not yet noon, and the kitchen was still cooking. Baoning had placed a row of small pots under the eaves and was opening the lids one by one to look.

Before he got close, Pei Yuan smelled a foul smell in the wind.

He walked over with a frown: "What are these?"

Bao Ning said with a bitter face: "They are garlic sprouts. I soaked garlic in water and cracked an egg yolk into it. People say that garlic can sprout and grow into garlic sprouts. What's the matter? It's all smelly in just seven days. How can I eat it?"

"Only a shithead can eat this." Pei Yuan pinched his nose and saw Bao Ning was about to take off another lid, so he stopped her immediately, "Don't open it. You will get a sour smell all over yourself. How can you eat? Hurry up and take all these away!"

Aunt Liu came over and asked people to move all the small pots down.

Pei Yuan took Bao Ning to wash her hands and scolded her: "I think you are stupid. You got an airtight porcelain jar and covered it with a lid. How can the garlic not stink? If you don't know how to make it, you should ask others or use less. You messed around and made a lot of it. Isn't that a waste?"

Bao Ning was not convinced: "Other people's pickled eggs are also made of porcelain and soaked in water. How come the eggs don't stink?"

Pei Yuan hissed: "Are you stupid or am I stupid?"

Bao Ning muttered and went to wipe her hands: "Who is stupid knows it in his heart."

Pei Yuan pulled her back: "Put more soap beans, wash it and then put it in the water. It has to be cleaned up. The smell is not washed off, it still stinks, are you kidding me?"

Baoning was also angry, wiping the water on his hand on his front, scolding him: "What's wrong with you, you went out and came back so angry, it's just a few garlics, it stinks, why are you glaring at me, I can't afford it or what! Someone robbed you on the street, or stepped on your feet, and came back to mock me in a sarcastic way, what's the point of scolding me, go out and fight with them! If you want to stink, let's stink together, stink so badly that the dung beetle pushes you away, don't come back to bother me again."

Pei Yuan asked: "What is a dung beetle?"

"It's just a dung shell!" Bao Ning gave him a contemptuous look, "You call it a coccidia, an iron-clad general. You don't know anything, and you still have the nerve to say that I'm stupid. Have you forgotten who cooked for you before? What do you call that? You pick up the bowl to eat, and put it down to curse your mother..."

Bao Ning was arguing with him with his chest puffed out, but in a fit of rage, his lips became smooth, and he said whatever came to his lips. After the words came out, he realized that he was too arrogant and just stopped talking.

Seeing Pei Yuan's increasingly gloomy face, Bao Ning felt guilty and turned around to run, but Pei Yuan grabbed his belt from behind and asked coldly, "Do you dare to say it again?"

"Yuan, I know I was wrong. I will think twice before I speak in the future..." Bao Ning held his wrist and begged for mercy in a low voice, "I haven't washed my hands yet. Can I go wash them now?"

"You're used to having such a bad temper!" Pei Yuan gritted his teeth and pressed her to his chest. He swung his big palm and slapped her buttocks twice. Baoning screamed, and he raised his hand again, "Scream again?"

Baoning didn't dare to scream. She buried her face in Pei Yuan's arms. After a while, she said in a muffled voice: "I won't grow garlic sprouts in the future."

Pei Yuan angrily dragged her out: "It has nothing to do with garlic sprouts!"

Baoning stood obediently. She knew that she had said the wrong thing. She couldn't be arrogant, and didn't dare to look Pei Yuan in the eye. She pulled his hand with trembling eyelashes: "Ayuan, don't be angry..."

Her hands were cold and soft. When Pei Yuan was touched by her, he couldn't get angry at all. With a cold face, he held her hand and walked into the inner room.

"Who taught you this?" Pei Yuan glanced at her, "You know how to make me happy, so you are fearless?"

"How could that be?" Bao Ning denied.

She followed Pei Yuan and sat on the couch, hugged his arm, and changed the subject, asking, "Did you go to the palace this morning? Who did you meet, the Queen or His Majesty? Did you talk about anything important?"

Pei Yuan said, "I met His Majesty, and I asked him for permission to bring Yuanzi back. He agreed and said he would pick her up tomorrow morning."

Baoning straightened up in surprise: "Really?"

Pei Yuan continued: "I also said that the border is in unrest, I am willing to go to the northern frontier and do my best, and he agreed."

Baoning's smile gradually faded, and she felt uneasy: "Why do you suddenly want to go there? The New Year is coming soon, why not go after the New Year and the beginning of spring..."

Pei Yuan did not intend to hide it from her, and said bluntly: "I saw the letter you hid."

Baoning's breathing stagnated, and she was stunned for a moment.

"Don't worry, I'll take care of these. Don't worry, just think of it as an outing to have fun and spend a different winter." Pei Yuan rubbed Bao Ning's hair and said with a smile, "The snow there is thicker than here. Let's go to Feng County. There is a high mountain and dense forest nearby. There may be snow wolves and bears, as well as roe deer. You haven't seen roe deer yet. They look very similar to deer, but they are silly. When a hunter shoots it with an arrow, it not only doesn't run away, but will move towards the hunter. You'll like it if you see what the person who shoots it looks like."

Bao Ning didn't let him lead her astray. She nervously held his hand and asked, "Will Yuanzi come with us? How is Pei Xiao? Will he...?" Will he be executed? If he doesn't die, he will definitely not let it go. Do you still remember what Yuanzi's mother said, that Pei Xiao left Yuanzi behind in order to find Yuanzi's father, and only Yuanzi's father could remove the poison from him..."

Pei Yuan patted her back soothingly: "As long as he doesn't catch up halfway, when we get to Feng County, no matter how long his hand is, he can't reach us. We will pass by Yangmagang."

Baoning had an idea: "I remember that General Qiu left us a token before he left. It was the mobilization token for the guards of Yangmagang."

Pei Yuan nodded: "Three thousand elite cavalrymen intercepting a dying man is like slaughtering a chicken with a butcher knife. It is enough."

...

Knowing that Pei Xiao would be released in three days, Pei Yuan set out two days before him.

Yangmagang is the closest pass to the nine counties in the northern border. If you take a fast horse, it will take about three days to arrive from the capital. Baoning and Yuanzi were both in the carriage. The carriage was not fast, so it took two days longer. They had just arrived at Yangmagang to rest, and the scouts who stayed behind reported that Pei Xiao had indeed caught up with them, bringing about a hundred elite guards.

This was probably all the private soldiers he had left.

Pei Yuan left Baoning and Yuanzi in the city, and he picked up a heavy sword, rode a horse, and walked slowly to the road that Pei Xiao had to pass to wait for him.

In the dark, three thousand elite soldiers had already lurked, waiting for an order.

...

After Pei Xiao was released from prison, he received three pieces of news.

The first was that his grandfather, Grand Tutor Gao, had been detained and would be executed on a chosen day. The Gao family and many of their followers had either died, been imprisoned, or escaped. The second is that his mother, Concubine Gao, has been executed and hanged herself in the narrow dungeon of the Palace Administration Department, and her body was hastily buried.

The third is that his son was sent to Pei Yuan and was on his way to Yanbei.

When he heard the first two pieces of news, although there was sadness on his face, he was more numb as he had expected it. Until his confidant told him that Yuanzi was taken away, Pei Xiao's eyes revealed an uncontrollable panic. He couldn't lose Yuanzi! If even Yuanzi was not in his hands, it would be equivalent to cutting off his life!

When he used Rouge Eyes to frame Pei Yuan for regicide, in order to dispel Emperor Zhou's suspicion, he took the antidote in advance and then drank the cup of poisoned wine himself, but he didn't expect that Gongsun Zhu only gave him half of the antidote in order to control him, causing him to still have residual poison in his body. Now that Gongsun Zhu is dead, the only person who might have the antidote is Gongsun Zhu's son Gongsun Xu. His original plan was to ascend the throne as soon as possible, and then use Yuanzi to lure Gongsun Xu out with great fanfare to get the antidote. Now that the road to the throne has been repeatedly blocked, Pei Xiao is disappointed, but not afraid. He can live for at least another ten years, and there will be infinite possibilities in these ten years. With his means, he is confident that he can get everything as long as he survives.

But if he loses Yuanzi and cannot get rid of the poison, what's the point of ascending the throne?

"How many people are left with us?" Pei Xiao asked his confidant Wu Min beside him.

Wu Min replied: "There are still more than 90 people left who were kept in the dark before. All the private soldiers have been taken. This is the last force we can use to protect ourselves. We cannot expose them unless it is absolutely necessary."

Pei Xiao said coldly: "Take them with you and go north with me."

Wu Min hesitated and said: "Your Highness, but the emperor's order is that you go south as soon as possible..."

Pei Xiao's eyes were red with anger, and he roared: "I said go north with me!"