Inside Yuhua Pavilion.
As soon as Su Tiyue entered the room, Zhou Lin thoughtfully handed her a clean handkerchief, his voice steady and warm: "Are you cold?"
The spring rain wasn't heavy, but it was blown sideways by the evening breeze, and even with an umbrella, some fine raindrops still clung to her cheeks and the strands of hair on her shoulders.
Clearly, Zhou Lin handed her the handkerchief so she could wipe the fine raindrops from her face.
Su Tiyue took the handkerchief, lowered her head, walked to the octagonal table, and pulled out a chair to sit down.
She didn't take the handkerchief Zhou Lin offered, but instead gently placed it on the table. Her every gesture was neither impolite nor disrespectful to the Prince of Huainan.
Gentle and graceful.
"Your Highness is so mysterious, what exactly do you want to say to me?" As she spoke, she raised her eyes and carefully examined him.
Zhou Lin smiled and walked slowly to her, casually pulling out a chair and sitting lazily opposite Su Tiyue.
He rested his left elbow on the table, leaned his head closer to her, and casually said, "I want to make a deal with Your Majesty."
"What are the conditions?"
Zhou Lin did not answer her immediately, but instead placed his other hand on the table.
At this moment, his left hand was casually resting on the table, his right hand propped up his chin, and his mysterious eyes were staring at the woman in front of him with a wanton and unrestrained gaze.
Zhou Lin spoke slowly: "Before we get down to business, I'd like to ask Your Majesty... is your relationship with Master Xiao really as rumored?"
"What do you mean by that, Your Highness?" Su Tiyue asked him.
"I want to know, are you truly in love, or... does Your Majesty have some unavoidable difficulties in doing this?"
In Zhou Lin's eyes, most of the women in the harem were unfortunate, and those like Su Tiyue, who were beautiful yet weak, faced even greater difficulties. Therefore, when his subordinates and Consort Wan told Zhou Lin that Su Tiyue had an ambiguous relationship with the Grand Eunuch of the Directorate of Ceremonial, he merely thought, perhaps she was forced into it?
Based on Zhou Lin's understanding of Xiao Heye, forcing someone to do something against their will was exactly Xiao Zhangyin's style of doing things.
But how could Su Tiyue possibly admit to these words?
It's important to understand that her status is that of Consort Shu, a concubine of Emperor Zhou Lin. Even now that the late emperor has passed away, Su Tiyue would never admit to having an affair.
Without the slightest hesitation, she replied, "Your Highness, since it's just a rumor, why bother believing it?"
Zhou Lin pressed further, "But as far as I know, your relationship is indeed very good."
"It is indeed very good, and then what? What else does Your Highness want to say?" Su Tiyue did not deny it, but she did not want to continue the discussion, and her voice became much louder: "Is the Prince of Huainan being so aggressive trying to force me to admit that I have an affair with someone else? Is that it?"
"No, that's not it." Zhou Lin hadn't expected the seemingly delicate Consort Shu to be so fierce when angry. He also knew that his words were somewhat inappropriate, so he immediately changed his attitude: "Your Highness, please calm down."
"Can we get down to business now?"
It's so late, and Su Tiyue came to this godforsaken place without telling Liu Wan and Qing Wu, or even anyone else in Yelan Pavilion.
At this moment, all she wanted to do was get back to the point and hear what the King of Huainan was really up to.
“Of course.” Zhou Lin smiled, then took two items out of his sleeve and placed them on the table.
It was that secret letter and the secret edict that the Emperor had just issued.
"What is this?" Su Tiyue looked at the bright yellow imperial edict, her brows furrowing. Although this was not a common item, Su Tiyue could still guess what it was.
This is an imperial edict, or perhaps a secret edict.
"Your Majesty, why don't you take a look at this letter first?" Zhou Lin suggested.
"Is it related to my elder brother?" Su Tiyue felt a growing unease. That was exactly what Zhou Lin's messenger had said; it concerned her elder brother's life and death, and she was urged to keep the appointment on time.
Zhou Lin remained calm and did not answer, but simply gave her a look, indicating that she should finish reading the letter before speaking.
Su Tiyue reached for the envelope on the table and carefully opened it...
The letter contained only a few lines, but those words were enough to make Su Tiyue turn pale and feel uneasy.
When she finished reading the last word, her constricted pupils and rapid breathing indicated that this matter was... very serious.
It got so bad that she began to suspect the letter was fake.
"Is what the letter says true? My elder brother's army and the entire Nanshaping are surrounded by the Rouran?" Su Tiyue's voice was no longer as gentle and melodious as before; her voice trembled slightly, as if she was about to burst into tears at any moment.
Zhou Lin casually reminded him, "Your elder brother has 80,000 soldiers and about 50,000 civilians in the southern border region. The Rouran army has at least 300,000 men."
“If you think about it carefully, even if 20,000 or 30,000 of those civilians were able to fight, it would still be 100,000 against 300,000. This is not an evenly matched contest at all…” Zhou Lin paused and continued, “Furthermore, the current situation is that even if your elder brother is willing to fight, the Rouran will not agree. They plan to trap everyone living in Nanshapingli to death inside.”
Su Tiyue's eyes widened, a hint of fear flashing in them: "What should we do? What did the Emperor say?"
Zhou Lin pointed to the secret decree: "Your Majesty will understand once you see it for yourself."
Upon hearing this, she put down the letter in her hand, and her fingers trembled slightly as she opened the secret decree... In her panic, she couldn't even calm down to see what was written on the secret decree.
Su Tiyue read it over and over again two or three times before she finally understood what the Emperor meant.
She looked at Zhou Lin: "The Emperor ordered the Prince to send troops to rescue my elder brother."
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