Su Juan tried to persuade him earnestly, "Look at you, the only son of the Duke of Ping, are you willing to bear the reputation of a playboy forever?"

Xie Xun was silent for a moment, "What's wrong with this?"

Not everyone can be this dude!

Su Juan asked again: "Don't you want to do something big?"

Xie Xun waved his hands repeatedly, "No, no, don't you know me well? I am only suitable for drinking and having fun. How can I accomplish anything big?"

Su Juan's attempt to awaken Xie Xun's ambition was once again blocked by him.

Just when she was about to say something, Xie Xun changed the subject, "When you and Song Qianhang were talking inside today, Liu Xuan seemed to have heard something."

When he and Liu Miaoqing came out, they happened to see Liu Xuan walking away. He thought he must have heard something, so he didn't go in and deliberately avoided him.

Su Juan looked at Xie Xun with a strange look in her eyes, "Oh."

Not only did he eavesdrop, he also wanted to ruin Liu Xuan's reputation, implying that others were also eavesdropping.

Xie Xun: “???” Wouldn’t he be able to eavesdrop?!

Su Juan didn't believe anything he said. There was no one else like him in the whole capital, so how could he possibly eavesdrop!

Xie Xun finally understood that Liu Xuan was a very popular person.

He glanced at Su Juan, picked up the wine jug with some wine left on the table, and pouted at Su Juan as he left, "He is a pedantic person who doesn't know how to adapt. No one in the whole capital wants to be his equal!"

I am a handsome and charming young man with unparalleled looks. Is there any need for me to compare myself with him?

Su Juan: “.”

Are you angry out of shame?

The next day was a day off, and Su Juan went to the palace to have dinner with the Queen. She happened to run into Liu Xuan, and the two talked about some recent official matters.

Halfway through the conversation, Su Juan suddenly asked, "You and Xie Xun have known each other since childhood. Has he always been like this?"

Liu Xuan looked puzzled.

Su Juan: "Now he just wants to drink and have fun all day long, and has no ambitions. When I mentioned it to him last night, he didn't want to talk about it."

She thought that since Liu Xuan and Xie Xun had known each other since childhood, she should know a lot about Xie Xun.

Liu Xuan was silent for a moment, as if hesitating, "It's not always like this."

Seeing that Su Juan wanted to know, he slowly told her.

He remembered that when he was young, he often went to Xie's house with his father. Xie Xun always liked to pull him to practice sword and various gun skills, saying that scholars are good for nothing, and real men should join the army and fight in battles, just like his grandfather and father, to defend their country.

At that time, Xie Xun was very strict with himself. He wanted to be the best at everything he learned. Among his peers who studied martial arts with him, no one could compare to him.

Once, he had an argument with other students in the Imperial College and was punished by the academician for speaking without restraint. Even the emperor knew about this and was sentenced to three months of confinement.

From then on, he lost interest in everything. Not only did he stop going to the Imperial College, he also made a bunch of good friends and spent his days drinking and having fun.

I have advised him many times, but he never listened and never mentioned anything like the great general defending the country again.

Su Juan was surprised, and immediately understood, "So you have been following Xie Xun because you are afraid that he will go down the wrong path of murder, arson, and robbing women?"

Liu Xuan was slightly stunned, then chuckled and said, "No, I just followed him when I had nothing to do."

"He won't do what you said."

No matter how Xie Xun changes, Liu Xuan believes that he will not lose his original heart.

&t;div tentadv>Su Juan smiled, "You are optimistic about him."

Xie Xun, ah Xie Xun, look at how others treat you, and then look at how you treat others, alas.

When dining with the Queen, she noticed that Su Juan ate very little. The nanny nearby saw this and immediately ordered the servants to hurry up and serve the sweet soup.

"Not to your taste?" asked the Queen.

Su Juan shook her head and smiled, "No, it's delicious."

The Queen looked puzzled. "I don't see you use so little on weekdays. Are you worried about something?"

In the past, when Su Juan came to the palace, she ate voraciously, and she was happy to see it, but today the child was obviously absent-minded.

Su Juan had actually been thinking about what Liu Xuan had said.

"Grandmother, do you remember that one year, Xie Xun had an argument with someone in the Imperial Academy, and was not only punished by the scholar, but also by Grandfather?"

The queen was slightly stunned. "Why are you asking this?"

Of course she remembered this, how could she dare to forget it.

Seeing the Queen's reaction, it was obvious that she knew about it. Su Juan said, "It was mentioned by chance when I was chatting with someone today. My granddaughter is a little curious about why he was punished."

The queen was silent for a moment, thinking that her granddaughter should also know about this. She looked at the nanny beside her, and the nanny immediately sent everyone in the palace out and stood guard at the door to prevent others from breaking in.

Seeing this scene, Su Juan probably guessed that Xie Xun's punishment might not be simple.

The Queen asked, "Among the military commanders, do you know which one has been the most popular in the past hundred years?"

Su Juan hesitated for a moment and shook his head.

If it refers to someone who is still alive within the past hundred years, then it would naturally be Duke Pingguo, but what the Queen said was obviously not referring to him.

The queen said slowly, "The commander-in-chief of the Dingbei Army back then, Pei Lianshan."

Su Juan put down the chopsticks in her hand.

"Back then, the Pei family was extremely prosperous. Pei Lianshan commanded a large number of troops and was unrivaled in power among the aristocratic families in the capital. Most of the Pei family members held important positions in the court. As a result, they were subject to many rumors and were feared."

"The Second Prince rebelled, and the Pei family was implicated. No one dared to speak out, but in the hearts of most generals, they did not believe that Pei Lianshan would rebel. They believed that the evidence of the conspiracy case was insufficient, the witnesses were perfunctory, the conviction was too heavy, and the Pei family died in vain. Rumors were everywhere."

"Xie Xun has admired those great generals who fought on the battlefield and defended their country since he was a child. He has heard a lot about Pei Lianshan's deeds. The Duke of Ping's Mansion is just like the Pei family back then. Many people are watching from the dark. Xie Xun was still young at the time, only about ten years old. When provoked by someone, he said something to defend the Pei family. Someone exaggerated the story and reported it to His Majesty, so he was punished."

The queen did not say anything about what happened later, but Su Juan could guess it.

Protecting the rebel party was such a serious crime, and with ulterior motives, the Duke Ping's Mansion at that time was a microcosm of the Pei family. This was intended to plant a seed of doubt in the emperor's heart.

During the three months when Xie Xun was punished and faced the wall to reflect on his mistakes, I'm afraid that at the age of ten, he had already figured out all the pros and cons, and he never dared to step forward again.

He should have grown up to be a favored son of the emperor who was on par with Liu Xuan and Cai Yi, but he took the emperor's heart into consideration, hid his edge, and spent his days eating, drinking and having fun, turning himself into a real wasteful and ostentatious playboy, naughty and untalented. In this way, he dispelled the emperor's suspicion of the Duke's Mansion, forgot what happened in the past, avoided being targeted by those in the court, and preserved the Xie family.

Thinking of Liu Xuan's hesitation just now, Su Juan finally understood at this moment. Liu Xuan might have known all this all along, so he never looked at Xie Xun as others did.

Xie Xun has always carried more responsibilities than Liu Xuan.