After washing up after dinner, the two of them lay side by side at night, listening to each other's even breathing. It was clearly no different from usual, but they always felt that something had changed.
It seems that spring has indeed arrived; not only is there a pervasive sense of restlessness, but even the nighttime temperature has risen.
Naturally, Zhao Xiheng didn't feel this way; only Wei Li felt that the spring night was particularly restless.
Zhao Xiheng lay flat. She was full and sleepy. She didn't want to think about anything. Her mind was blank, and she almost sank into a soft darkness.
After a long while, Wei Li suddenly spoke, "Zhao Xiheng, are you asleep?"
He was like a pebble thrown into a calm lake, causing ripples to spread and breaking the surface stillness layer by layer.
Zhao Xiheng responded to him subconsciously while half asleep, but in reality, she knew nothing more.
Wei Li's hand emerged from under the covers and slipped inside Zhao Xiheng's blankets to hook her hand.
Zhao Xiheng was almost asleep and didn't notice anything at all. Even if she had, she wouldn't have had the will or strength to push him out.
Outside, dark clouds obscured the moon, blocking out all light. After the window paper was peeled away three times, even less light could penetrate into the room.
Wei Li could feel the dryness in her throat and the noise in her ears as her Adam's apple moved.
He turned over, pulled her into his arms, brushed his lips against Zhao Xiheng's cheek, and then slowly moved them to her lips, his movements much more practiced than last time. He then nibbled at her lips, tracing their shape with his tongue.
The darkness breeds desire, urging people towards the shadows. Perhaps it's because sight is deprived, so the senses of touch and smell become exceptionally sensitive, or perhaps what is vaguely seen is always more alluring than what is wide open.
He could hear his own breathing becoming increasingly rapid, and the insatiable desire gradually rising in his heart.
Desperate to find an outlet, yet unsure where to find it, they could only kiss each other more and more fiercely.
“Ah-Dan, Ah-Dan…”
He only called her name in his heart, never uttering it aloud.
His fingers slowly climbed up to her waist, slipping inside her clothes to gently caress her slender waist.
Zhao Xiheng eats a lot but doesn't exercise, yet her waist is still very slender and supple; he can grasp most of it with one hand. He touched her lower back but dared not touch anywhere else, only lingering over that small patch of skin.
I don't know if I'm setting a fire on her or on my own heart.
Zhao Xiheng was already quite annoyed that someone was disturbing her sleep, especially since the rough skin on his palms was rubbing against her and his kisses were so fierce that she couldn't breathe. She groaned twice and woke up groggily.
Hearing her movements, Wei Li stopped what he was doing, buried his face in the crook of her neck and remained motionless, breathing heavily to calm his agitation.
Meow~
He turned his head and saw Gou Dan'er sitting on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed), licking his paws and craning his neck, looking at the two of them with a puzzled expression.
Wei Li blushed in the darkness, tightening his grip on Zhao Xiheng's waist. He was determined to stew and eat this little beast sooner or later.
The two of them fell asleep together without realizing it. Zhao Xiheng woke up in Wei Li's arms, where he was wrapped tightly around himself and couldn't break free.
Zhao Xiheng, “…”
Damn it, you old bastard, sneaking into her bed in the middle of the night! Where the hell is his hand? Is it okay to just touch a girl's waist like that?
However, it was warm for the two of them to sleep together, and her hands and feet were no longer cold.
Wei Li nuzzled his head against her neck, then opened his eyes.
For a moment, the two remained silent, neither knowing what to say.
"Zhao Xiheng".
Wei Li suddenly grabbed her chin and kissed her.
Zhao Xiheng's lips were still swollen and painful, even though she was perfectly fine before going to bed last night. She didn't want to kiss him anymore, so she tried to avoid him by pressing her waist down, but the two of them ended up falling onto the mattress together and rolling around in a ball.
Young people who have just tasted the sweetness of meat often become addicted and don't know how to control themselves.
"Young people should know how to exercise restraint," Zhao Xiheng said in a serious tone, spouting nonsense.
Ouch, her mouth hurts when she speaks now, and it even has a backward-reversing effect.
Wei Li pinched her chin, "Where did I lack self-control?" He hadn't even done anything yet and she was already advising him to be more restrained?
Seeing the two of them rolling around and playing around, Gou Dan'er thought it was something fun, so he hopped over and joined in, lying down next to Zhao Xiheng's pillow with his belly showing, and then looking at the two of them with innocent and enthusiastic eyes.
Wei Li, “…”
Zhao Xiheng, “…” Thank you, dear son.
Wei Li told Zhao Xiheng that they were just waiting to die, but in reality, he intensified the forging of weapons and revived the iron smelting sites that had been abandoned in many places.
Liu Huan and Wang Zhiyao both extended olive branches to Wei Li, attempting to form an alliance with him, but Wei Li did not respond to either of them, leaving all his subordinates puzzled about his true intentions.
"I thought Liu Huan was loyal to the emperor and loved his country because he didn't rebel before, but it turns out he was just using the emperor's name as a pretext to satisfy his own selfish interests." Wei Li burned all the alliance documents between the two sides. Liu Huan used the name of a vassal king to do whatever bad things he did, and he just poured out all the dirty laundry on the Southern Zhou. Although this kind of behavior was insidious, it was indeed very convenient.
By mid-March, Zhao Xiheng had thoroughly studied all the books she had acquired, and the simple crops planted in her yard had sprouted new buds; she had achieved some success.
Emperor Zhao Mingjin of the Southern Zhou Dynasty changed his reign title to "Zhengping," which means to conquer the world and pacify the four seas.
When Wei Li told Zhao Xiheng about this, Zhao Xiheng's expression of disgust was obvious.
It wasn't that she looked down on her cousin, but rather that she knew Zhao Mingjin's capabilities all too well. "You're lucky if you can even manage your own territory, let alone conquer the world. You could shove a needle into his skin and he wouldn't bleed."
People really don't need to think before they start talking big.
Liu Huan once again sent envoys to Wei Li to request an alliance.
"If I gain the throne in the future, I, the king, am willing to rule the world with you."
Wei Li answered every question without hesitation, casually tapping the table with his knuckles, glancing at him with an air of arrogance, and then said, "Leaving aside the fact that Liu Huan has a history of discarding his usefulness after it's been used, and I don't trust him, let's just talk about the difference between me and Liu Huan. I am, after all, the son-in-law of Emperor Huiwu and the husband of Princess Jingcheng. If I were to form an alliance with your lord, my wife would be unable to maintain her dignity. She's easily embarrassed, and I don't want to make her lose face."
The envoy couldn't tell whether Wei Li's words were sincere or not, and in fact, even Wei Li himself couldn't quite tell.
He relayed Wei Li's words to Liu Huan verbatim, and Liu Huan snorted coldly.
He thought to himself, "It's possible that Wei Li is making a refusal. But if it's not just a refusal, but something he truly feels, then Wei Li is a hopeless good-for-nothing, lacking ambition and easily swayed by a woman. The current emperors of the Northern and Southern Zhou dynasties are both bullies who prey on the weak and fear the strong. If Wei Li truly considers himself the son-in-law of the Great Zhou, then he's carrying two bloodsucking worms on his shoulders."
In early April, Zhao Mingjin and Zhao Mingchen clashed in Badong County. The two sides were locked in a stalemate for three days and three nights. In the end, Liu Huan, who had rushed to the scene, seized the opportunity and brought Badong County into the territory of Youzhou.
Although Liu Huan was not officially independent and still belonged to the Great Zhou, his rebellious intentions were common knowledge to Sima Zhao.
Zhao Mingjin repeatedly demanded Badong County but failed and had to give up. He then fought several battles in Yinping and Guiyang, suffering repeated defeats and losing territory. In the end, he slunk away and changed his reign title to "An Ding".
Delving deeper, it means, let's stop fighting and live peacefully; I don't want the lost territory.
But as soon as he showed signs of weakness, the wolves surrounding him became even more ferocious, wishing they could devour the entire Southern Zhou.
Zhao Xiheng painstakingly cultivated twelve ginseng seedlings from sixty ginseng seeds. She cared for them like a little princess, and was thinking about how to put up a warm tent in the yard that was both light-permeable and heat-insulating to keep the temperature difference between day and night from being too great.
Wei Li showed Zhao Mingjin's battle report to her. After several battles, morale was greatly low. The soldiers of Da Zhou were extremely passive in both resistance and attack, so each time they suffered no more than ten casualties. Most of the rest surrendered before the battle even started.
The Great Zhou's territory had only recently been fragmented, and the people were still unclear about their affiliation. When the topic came up, they subconsciously still considered themselves subjects of the Great Zhou. Facing the enemies fighting on the battlefield, seeing their familiar faces, they surrendered without much guilt.
However, this harmonious scene will probably fall apart in less than six months.
Zhao Xiheng picked up the battle report and glanced at it, her expression complex.
Zhao Mingjin is truly shameless, especially with his second change of the reign title, which has made him a laughingstock of the world.
Although the world was divided into two Zhou dynasties, the Southern Zhou was still considered the legitimate successor of the Zhao imperial family in everyone's eyes. Not only did he lose face, but he also disgraced all the ancestors of the Zhao family.
Wei Li sat down beside Zhao Xiheng, toying with her hand, and gave a wicked smile, "Little princess, beg me."
"What do you want from me?"
"Please send troops to help your Zhao family restore the rightful rule." Wei Li wrote a five on the paper. "Pingzhou has a total of 500,000 troops, each of them brave and skilled in battle."
It's an obvious fact that neither of Zhao Xiheng's two cousins are capable of being helped. Even if they could be helped temporarily, they couldn't be helped forever; they would only cause trouble and become corrupt. Even if one of them were forcibly put in power, he wouldn't be a good emperor; instead, he would become a burden.
But if Zhao Xiheng were to cry and beg him now to help the Great Zhou restore its rightful rule, Wei Li wondered if he would agree to this thing that could be called the most troublesome thing in the world.
Even he himself didn't know.
He was waiting for Zhao Xiheng to speak before he knew whether he would refuse.
Zhao Xiheng closed her eyes and pinched her brow. "Come on, what grudge do you have against the people of the world that you have to mock them like this?"
Wei Li's stiff smile crumbled. "What, you don't even want the Zhao family's empire anymore?"
"Whoever wants it can have it, whoever has the ability can take it. Since the world can belong to the Zhao family, it can also belong to the Qian family, the Sun family, and the Li family." That has always been her thinking.
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