Chapter 392: Human Hearts Are More Unpredictable Than Flowing Clouds
A wisp of green smoke rose from the gilded coiled dragon incense burner, and the rich fragrance of ambergris slowly flowed through the house.
Lu Jiangnian was wearing a dark-colored brocade robe with cloud patterns, and the jade belt around his waist reflected the morning light. He stood in the center of the hall like a sharp sword drawn from its sheath.
His eyes and brows were calm, like a deep pool, without a single ripple.
"Your Majesty is wise."
He bowed and said in a calm voice, "It was almost three o'clock last night when I returned home. My wife didn't mention anything else but this matter."
The emperor was reviewing memorials with his red brush. When he heard this, his pen paused. He raised his eyelids and asked with interest: "Oh? What did she say?"
Lu Jiangnian raised his lips slightly, and his cold and hard features suddenly became lively: "Your Majesty, my wife has always been kept in seclusion, and she is more timid than a rabbit."
There were gentle ripples in his eyes. "That day when you summoned her into the palace, when she was questioned by Concubine Liang, her hands were cold and she almost cried out of fear. She had never seen such a fierce person before."
A cool breeze suddenly blew outside the palace, rustling the leaves on the trees outside the house. Lu Jiangnian's voice was particularly clear in the silence: "I asked her if she was too scared to fall asleep after returning home, and she actually said..."
The words came to his lips but stopped, as if he found it difficult to say them.
"Just say it." The emperor simply put down his red brush and leaned forward slightly.
The cup of Junshan Yinzhen tea on the table was emitting steam, with the fragrance of tea and ambergris intertwined together.
Lu Jiangnian took a deep breath, his eyes flashing with helplessness and doting: "She said... because the emperor was present, she was not afraid."
"Why is that?"
The emperor thought of Yuanshi’s pale face that day. It made sense that she was so scared that she couldn’t sleep.
Lu Jiangnian's voice was filled with a hint of helplessness and a hint of doting. "My father often talked about the past when he followed the emperor to fight on the battlefield. He always reminded us to be loyal to the emperor and serve the country. My wife was influenced by him and has great respect for the emperor."
Lu Jiangnian suddenly raised his head, his eyes clear as autumn water: "Sometimes I chatted with her about the past at the border, and she also said..."
Here he stopped abruptly, as if hesitating.
"Hmm?" The emperor tapped the table with his fingertips, his eyes showing more interest.
"She said..." Lu Jiangnian seemed to have made a great decision, but his voice became more and more firm, "She said that the emperor was wise and powerful, and he dared to use a young man like me as the commander of an army."
He looked directly at the emperor and spoke word by word: "In her heart, the emperor is wise and powerful, and can do anything. With the emperor in charge, she will never be wronged. It is the emperor who gives her the confidence, so she is not afraid even if the sky falls."
Just as he finished speaking, the sound of the morning bell could be heard outside the palace, and its powerful aftertaste echoed between the palace walls for a long time.
The emperor was stunned for a moment, then suddenly he clapped his hands and laughed, startling the birds perched under the eaves.
Over the years, the emperor has become accustomed to the carefully crafted flattery of his courtiers. Those gorgeous words are like gilded cages, gorgeous but empty.
And the simple words heard from Lu Jiangnian today were like a clear spring, flowing straight into the emperor's heart.
"Hahaha!" The emperor suddenly clapped his hands and laughed. The laughter echoed in the palace. The wrinkles at the corners of his eyes relaxed, as if he was ten years younger. "I finally understand why you fell in love with her later. This Yuanshi is a wonderful person!"
Lu Jiangnian stood with his head bowed, a barely perceptible smile on his lips.
He thought to himself: My wife is more than just a wonderful person, she is clearly a fairy from heaven who has come down to earth. Your Majesty, I’m afraid you can’t even imagine the ways in which she can manipulate the world.
"She even said something very disrespectful..." Lu Jiangnian pretended to hesitate and lowered his voice a little.
Seeing the emperor signaling to continue, he whispered, "The emperor looks even more heroic and younger than the crown prince."
After Lu Jiangnian finished speaking, he immediately lowered his head, as if he was afraid of being charged with disrespect.
"Pa!" The emperor slapped the table and smiled so hard that the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes smoothed out. At his age, nothing was more beneficial than such praise.
"Someone come here!" The emperor waved his dragon sleeves and his voice was as loud as a bell.
The palace door opened in response, and several eunuchs entered with brocade boxes in their hands. Lu Jiangnian took a casual look. The night-shining pearls of the East China Sea glowed softly against the brocade, the cloud patterns on the Shu brocade seemed to flow, and the imperial Hu brush and Hui ink exuded a faint pine scent...
In a blink of an eye, half of the hall was filled with these treasures, shining brightly under the setting sun.
"These," the emperor pointed at the treasures in the hall, with a rare kindness in his eyes, "are half to thank you for your hard work in investigating the case, and half to calm Yuan Shi."
He suddenly sighed: "At first I thought this marriage was unfair to you, but now it seems like a match made in heaven."
Lu Jiangnian kowtowed solemnly, and when his forehead touched the ground, a complicated look flashed in his eyes.
When leaving the palace, he looked at the clouds floating in the sky. People's hearts are changeable and even more unpredictable than the clouds in the sky.
-
Yaoguang Palace.
Madam Zhaohua was leaning on the carved rosewood chaise longue, her armor unconsciously tapping on the table.
A cup of top-quality blood swallow's tea had already cooled completely and solidified into gelatin, but no one dared to come forward to replace it. The incense in the hall was curling, but it could not dispel the cloud of worry between her brows.
She is having a headache now.
Not for anything else, just for one thing.
Her disappointing son actually fell in love with Liang Yuhua from the second branch of the Liang family!
"Mother!"
The voice arrives before the person appears.
In the past, when Madam Zhaohua heard Murong Jun's voice, she would smile, but now she was very annoyed.
The bead curtain rustled, and the fifth prince Murong Jun rushed in in a hurry.
The mutton-fat jade pendant on his waist jingled, and there were a few flower petals on the hem of his brocade robe, obviously he had just walked quickly from the imperial garden.
The handsome face that resembled Madam Zhaohua was full of determination: "What do you think? Just agree to my son!"
"impossible!"
Madam Zhaohua slammed the table and stood up, and the gold and jade bracelet on her wrist hit the table with a crisp cracking sound.
Her beautiful eyes were wide open, her carefully drawn eyebrows were almost erected, and her chest was heaving violently: "You are really crazy! Now that Concubine Liang is doomed and the second prince is in prison, you don't want to manage your business in the court, but instead you are thinking about the maid of the Liang family's second room?"
Murong Jun lifted the corner of his robe with gold-woven python pattern without any concern and sat down on Xiang Fei's bamboo couch.
He reached out and picked up a candied kumquat from the glass cup and casually threw it into his mouth.
From childhood to adulthood, as long as he set his eyes on something, his mother would always find ways to get it - the Ferghana horse that his father had set his eyes on during the spring hunt that year was originally going to be given to the crown prince, but didn't it end up in his hands?
"Mother~" He dragged out his voice, like when he was a child asking for a toy, "Liang Yuhua is really cute, you haven't seen it..."
"Murong Jun!"
Madam Zhaohua raised her hand to slap him, but stopped before touching her son's cheek. Her nails painted with nail polish trembled slightly, and her voice was more severe than ever before: "Do you know that the whole court is avoiding this matter now..."
She suddenly lowered her voice and said, "You are so eager to jump into the fire pit!"
Outside the palace, the sound of palace servants' footsteps came. Madam Zhaohua clenched the embroidered handkerchief in her hand tightly, her knuckles turning white. "Do you think the position of the East Palace is too hot? Or do you think I have been too successful these years?"
"Mother, you worry too much." Murong Jun brushed his sleeves nonchalantly, a sinister look flashing in his eyes, "The position of the East Palace is just something in your son's pocket."
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