Chapter 47: Why is the bright moon hanging high in the sky, but not shining on him alone? ...
Song Chengnian roared as if he was catching someone cheating. He Wen and Gu Linyuan, who were in the hall, looked away unnaturally, one at the sky and the other at the ground.
Song Mingjiao frowned, looking at his adopted brother who had suddenly gone mad for some unknown reason: "What a disgrace to be making so much noise."
Song Chengnian stumbled over and wanted to grab Song Mingjiao's hand like the other two people, but was rudely shaken off by Song Mingjiao.
"Your Highness, no." He Wen was about to stop Song Chengnian.
"Let me go! This is my brother! You are all outsiders, all of you!"
Song Chengnian pushed He Wen away to block Song Mingjiao's body, and the fierce look he gave him looked more like that of a possessive man than that of an ignorant younger brother.
He Wen felt something was wrong.
Is this the look a younger brother should have?
The charming atmosphere was interrupted, and Song Mingjiao's face turned unhappy. He said coldly, "He Wen, let him go. Let me see what my good brother wants to do."
Song Chengnian, who originally wanted to show off in front of his royal brother and drive away all the wild dogs that coveted his territory, became completely depressed after hearing the impatience in Song Mingjiao's tone.
"Brother Your Majesty, I, your humble servant, simply cannot bear the sight of these two. In your heart, you are as bright as the moon, and the court officials should serve you wholeheartedly. Yet, they dare to covet you! I simply care about you, and I simply cannot bear this."
Song Chengnian expressed his dissatisfaction in front of the other two. This stupid move made Song Mingjiao doubt his choice.
Or should we change the heir? Tsk, but it seems a bit too late to find time to train a new one.
Song Mingjiao rubbed his brows and shouted, "Don't be unreasonable. The Prime Minister and the General are both the backbone of Daliang."
What kind of loyal ministers are they? The kind who take care of the emperor, even to the point of taking care of him in bed?
When Song Chengnian heard Song Mingjiao's appreciation of He Wen and Gu Linyuan, he felt even more indignant, but under Song Mingjiao's cold gaze, he did not dare to interrupt what his brother was saying.
Song Chengnian felt sour in his heart. The tone of his royal brother showed that he had always treated him as just a younger brother, but he didn't want to treat his royal brother just as an older brother!
"You will enter the imperial court in the future and inherit the throne. You will inevitably have to deal with court officials. You can no longer act arbitrarily like before."
Song Mingjiao's words revealed a very significant message. Fortunately, the people present at the banquet were all his confidants and close friends. Otherwise, if the news of the emperor's intention to appoint a crown prince were to get out, it would cause a lot of trouble.
"Royal brother?"
"His Majesty?"
Obviously, none of the three had expected that Song Mingjiao had already started to consider the issue of succession so early, and he openly wanted to pass the throne to his younger brother who was not much younger than him, and his half-brother.
Song Chengnian moved his lips a few times, not knowing how to start. He had clearly gotten a huge bargain, but he still didn't know what was good for him.
——He doesn’t want to be the emperor’s brother’s heir, he just wants to be the emperor’s brother’s man!
"Your humble aptitude is dull, and I do not deserve such great love from my royal brother."
Song Chengnian lowered his head weakly, his eyes losing their luster, and he felt that he had been ruled out.
Blood relationship is his greatest reliance on the closeness between him and Song Mingjiao, but it has also become the biggest obstacle for him to get Song Mingjiao.
"I'm glad you know. So hurry up and work twelve hours a day for me, without any rest! Don't worry about whose hand I touched today or whose face I kissed tomorrow, these are trivial matters that have no place for you to meddle."
Song Mingjiao said unhappily that if time wasn't tight, he wouldn't care what the next heir looked like.
Although he sent Song Chengnian out of Beijing some time ago, he did a great job and could be considered capable.
But Song Mingjiao always felt that his adopted younger brother did not focus on the right path and was just staring at what he was doing all day long. He was already so old, and it was not like he was still weaned.
I don't understand.
However, Song Mingjiao obviously understood another truth: if you want to suppress a thrilling event, you have to suppress it with another more shocking event.
For example, now no one at the party cares about his love life anymore, which is great.
"Take it away, take it away."
Song Mingjiao signaled to Eunuch Zhao to get rid of this dirty brother as soon as possible.
After Song Chengnian left dejectedly, He Wen spoke worriedly.
"Your Majesty is in the prime of life, why does he suddenly want to make the Sixth Prince the crown prince? After all, he is only your Majesty's half-brother."
At this moment, He Wen no longer had the intention to compete with Gu Linyuan for favor. He felt a little uneasy and panic in his heart because of Song Mingjiao's move to arrange an heir so early.
"It's better to settle it sooner rather than later. I won't abandon my own child anyway. Song Chengnian is quite clear-headed outside of my affairs and is not someone who can't be used."
But as soon as Song Mingjiao said this, Gu Linyuan became anxious. He thought there was something wrong with Song Mingjiao's body and even wanted to pull off her clothes to check.
"How can there be no children? Is Your Majesty unwell? I will go and call the imperial physician!"
Song Mingjiao slapped Gu Linyuan's hand away with a headache and immediately stopped his dangerous idea.
Although he did not intend to leave any ties in the small world, he also did not want to be considered an emperor with a hidden illness.
"I just don't plan to take a concubine, what's the matter? Shouldn't you be happy?"
Gu Linyuan pursed his lips: "I am happy."
Song Mingjiao turned to look at He Wen again: "What about you?"
He Wen's expression was complicated, and after a long while he said, "...I am happy too."
"That's all. Okay, let's not talk about this anymore. Today's banquet ends here. I'm tired and need to rest."
Song Mingjiao waved and left without looking back.
Only He Wen was still staring at the emperor's departing back, unable to come back to his senses for a long time.
These days, he was busy spending sweet time alone with Song Mingjiao, and was busy crushing his biggest love rival, Gu Linyuan, and ignored the strangeness of Song Mingjiao.
Looking back now, there were indeed many things that were wrong.
Efficient reforms, establishing a crown prince, stabilizing the borders, and promoting talents, all these signs combined make it seem very much like the emperor is arranging his own affairs after his death.
Gu Linyuan was not with Song Mingjiao for many years, so he did not know. But He Wen was with Song Mingjiao every day and often went to the Imperial Hospital for consultation, so he naturally knew that Song Mingjiao was in good health.
——Then, does the emperor want to abdicate early?
He Wen was puzzled and could only come to this conclusion in the end, but he still had a lingering feeling of uneasiness in his heart.
*
The other side.
Song Mingjiao returned to the bedroom saying he was going to rest, but in fact he was sitting at the desk, reading the report that was sent in at full speed from the southwest.
The bedroom was very quiet, but Song Mingjiao's mind was very noisy.
[Host, the degree of character collapse has reached 75%. ]
[The plot has deviated significantly! Please pay close attention to this.]
[Host! The target is in danger. Their health has dropped beyond the critical value. Please take remedial measures immediately!]
It turns out that during these days, Song Mingjiao's career as emperor was booming, but the original male protagonist Shang Nanxuan was getting worse day by day.
The system often reported the progress of his character's collapse in his ears, which was so noisy that Song Mingjiao wanted to suggest that the system develop a "host unilaterally block the system" function, but it was obviously not adopted.
"Wow, the hero is finally... no, he's actually going to die? I haven't seen him for a few days, and he's doing so badly?"
[Inspecting, host, the male protagonist has been trapped in a bandit den for unknown reasons and is in critical condition. It's not too late for the host to send someone or personally rescue him now.]
Song Mingjiao ignored the system. His focus was elsewhere. "You also have remote monitoring capabilities? With such a powerful skill, why didn't you use it on your beloved host, me, earlier? That way, our battle with the Northern Barbarians wouldn't be so brutal."
The system is silent.
Song Mingjiao sneered, not expecting the system to have any conscience at all.
"Forget it, Tong, let's be reasonable. Have I interfered with Shang Nanxuan's actions these days? No, he just grew up on his own. I assigned him a county magistrate position, which isn't too low, right?"
"He's actually fallen so low as to end up in a bandit den. It's so embarrassing for me to save him! System, you've probably never seen a mission target actually end up in a bandit den. It's such a low act, right?"
Indeed, not at all. Even the system feels, uh, a bit embarrassed.
However, because the system had long given up hope on Song Mingjiao, it did not monitor Song Mingjiao's behavior frequently, nor did it know if Song Mingjiao had any other information to share.
Although Song Mingjiao did not interfere with Shang Nanxuan's life, he did not let him go completely free either.
Tanhualang was just a nice-talking guy, not someone who could truly endure hardship or setbacks. After being sent to a remote village by Song Mingjiao, he had no desire to be an official and only wrote letters to Song Mingjiao every day.
The letter was written in flowery language, with sincere and flattering words, but to put it bluntly, it meant just one thing - he wanted to return to Beijing.
Song Mingjiao read a few letters expressionlessly, then handed them over to his "chief secretary", the prime minister, to handle.
So after that, all the letters sent by Shang Nanxuan were burned to ashes by the man surnamed He, leaving no residue at all, and they never reached the emperor's desk.
[Host, your biggest mistake is not taking any action! ]
Song Mingjiao was too lazy to listen to the system's nonsense, so he directly opened the report he had just received and tried to show it to the system, which had no entity and no brain.
"You said 'unknown reason', right? I'll tell you the reason. Your good hero, even in ancient times, still can't change his temperament."
"After realizing there was no hope of returning to Beijing, he resorted to the small amount of power he still had, bullying the locals, accepting bribes, and oppressing the people, making the already impoverished countryside even more miserable. He provoked public anger and was kidnapped by bandits in the middle of the night. He deserved it."
Song Mingjiao was talking about the content of the report. Although he didn't like Shang Nanxuan, he still ordered the prefect and the secret guards to keep a secret eye on him and report any problems in a timely manner.
The person personally sent by the emperor to "take care of" was kidnapped in a bandit's nest. Zhi Fu was so scared that he submitted a report at night, listing in detail everything Shang Nanxuan had done in recent days, for fear that the emperor's wrath would fall on him.
Song Mingjiao certainly wouldn't blame the local officials for doing their jobs conscientiously. He could only say, "Just accept your fate. There's no hope."
[...The character's level of destruction has reached 80%.]
The system reported again, and Song Mingjiao understood it this time. It must be because he was about to kill the central male protagonist of this small world, so the degree of character collapse would continue to increase.
Most of the bandits are cruel and ruthless, and it is unknown how long Shang Nanxuan can last. Not only does Song Mingjiao not have any attachment to the so-called male protagonist, he even feels annoyed by the mess he has made for himself.
Tsk, I originally thought I could stay for another year or two to arrange things in the court before leaving, but now it seems that there are only a few days left.
"Okay, I'll arrange for someone to collect his body. Don't worry, and don't thank me. When you're almost 99%, remind me again. Bye."
The system also tried to urge Song Mingjiao in his mind, but it obviously had no effect. Only the useless alarm beeped continuously.
*
Because there was not much time left, Song Mingjiao did not go to look for any of He Wen, Gu Linyuan or Song Chengnian.
He locked himself in the Hall of Mental Cultivation and wrote down all the ideas for improvement he had seen during his visit to the ancient world, including the actual conditions inside and outside the capital, and combined them with his own experience.
The candles in the bedroom had been changed several times. Even though it was early spring and no longer as cold as winter, Song Mingjiao was only wearing a shirt with a thin coat on the outside. He leaned over the table, coughed twice, and then wrote something seriously.
Eunuch Zhao came in quietly. When he changed the candlelight, he saw the emperor's slightly tired face and couldn't help but said with concern: "Your Majesty, it's getting late. Why don't you rest first?"
"I'm fine. Add another candle on the right to make it brighter."
Eunuch Zhao hesitated to speak, and finally could only softly let out a "Sigh".
By the time Song Mingjiao finally turned off the lights and went to bed, night had already fallen and a full moon hung high in the sky.
Because Song Mingjiao had been working against time all day long to leave letters for the Daliang court, he was tired and as soon as his head touched the pillow, he was irresistibly overcome by sleepiness.
After an unknown amount of time, the bedroom window, which should have been closed, was suddenly pushed open a crack, and a figure dressed in black night clothes climbed in through the window quietly.
The palace should have been heavily guarded, but this man was too familiar with the palace and the emperor's bedroom, and he had always hidden his edge, so no one could see that he actually had some impressive martial arts skills.
——It’s the Sixth Prince Song Chengnian.
Only two days had passed since the banquet, but Song Chengnian felt like each day was a year long. He spent the whole day in the mansion, thinking of He Wen and Gu Linyuan's intimacy and possessiveness towards his brother, and then thinking of how his brother, for some unknown reason, actually wanted to make him the heir.
Song Chengnian thought of the tone of Song Mingjiao's scolding tone, the cold look in Song Mingjiao's eyes, Song Mingjiao's fair neck, slender fingers, and the red mole at the corner of her eye that appeared and disappeared from time to time, and he could no longer control himself.
He has grown up, and he has never been someone who would obediently call his brother.
He developed a desire for Song Mingjiao that should not exist in the world.
——That was Song Chengnian’s love for Song Mingjiao.
Driven by desire, Song Chengnian ignored the advice and obstruction of the servants in the mansion, and broke into the emperor's bedroom alone in the middle of the night, risking being beheaded.
When he came, Song Chengnian's heart, besides the desire for Song Mingjiao, also contained resentment, jealousy and resentment. But when he saw Song Mingjiao's peaceful sleeping face on the bed, Song Chengnian's heart suddenly calmed down.
Everything, in the end, turned into powerlessness.
Song Chengnian knelt powerlessly beside Song Mingjiao's bed. He no longer had the energy to control his strength, and even thought maliciously:
If only he could wake up his brother, he would find out that he actually coveted his own biological brother in his heart!
His royal brother would surely be furious, and would yell at him, beat him, but he really wanted to see strong feelings towards him from his royal brother, not just a sense of responsibility as an older brother.
"Royal brother, you are so good, so good that so many people in the world covet you. Aside from those two bitches, even when I was in Lingbei, I could hear the people singing praises to you, and when I was in the court, I could see those young officials worshipping you."
Song Chengnian stretched out his hands. Before coming here, he had washed his hands several times in the mansion for fear of defiling his brother.
Now he could finally place his trembling hand on Song Mingjiao's sleeping cheek.
When Song Chengnian's fingers touched Song Mingjiao's soft skin, he almost couldn't control his emotions.
He wanted to immediately pull up Song Mingjiao, who was sleeping soundly on the bed, by the collar, and put the sword beside him to Song Mingjiao's neck, forcing his brother to open his eyes and look carefully:
Song Chengnian is not a good brother at all. He is a man who is enough to threaten his life!
"The people in Yangxin Palace are completely useless. And what's the point of you choosing a general like Gu Linyuan? Can he protect you? Now you can only expose your fragile neck to my hands."
"I am the only one who can protect my royal brother. The ministers are all after fame and fortune, but my royal brother and I are the only ones who are connected by blood. I am the only one who truly cares about my royal brother!"
Song Chengnian secretly wanted to satisfy his desire, but how could he take out his sword? He broke into the palace today without any weapons.
Because Song Chengnian was ready to never return, no matter Song Mingjiao wanted to kill him because he threatened the dragon body or because he coveted his brother, Song Chengnian felt that it was enough for him to be the first person killed by his royal brother's knife.
Before he died, he would forcefully slash Song Mingjiao's finger with his sword, just a little bit, so as not to hurt his brother too much. This way, there would be blood on his brother's hand and blood on his neck, and their blood would be forever fused together.
——Just as in the beginning, they took root and sprouted from the same blood.
In the moonlight, the figure kneeling beside the emperor's bed was trembling and laughing.
Song Chengnian was so excited by the dark desires in his mind that his body even began to spasm uncontrollably.
But in the end, Song Chengnian didn't even want to strangle Song Mingjiao's neck. His brother's neck was too thin, and he was worried that if he used too much force, he would accidentally hurt his brother.
So Song Chengnian's fingers just moved along the hair on Song Mingjiao's forehead, all the way down, touching Song Mingjiao's thick eyelashes, thin eyelids, small nose tip, and soft lips.
Song Mingjiao, sound asleep, the majesty of the emperor he had worn during the day, lay alone on the wide dragon couch. He lay perfectly still in the center, his hands folded on his stomach, the blanket covering his shoulders, leaving only half of his neck exposed.
The whole person even exudes a sense of being obedient and defenseless, forcing Song Chengnian, who had already realized his own heart, to accept his fate again.
"Royal brother, Mingjiao, Song Mingjiao! You were the one who provoked me first. You should have executed me when you ascended the throne. You shouldn't have spared my life at all! That way, you wouldn't have the stain of trying to kill your brother."
While stroking the side of Song Mingjiao's face with his hand, Song Chengnian fantasized: If these places on the face of such a noble and dignified brother could really be touched by his scent, how wonderful it would be. It would be a thousand times better than the so-called position of heir and crown prince!
"But my royal brother, I don't want the position of crown prince, I only want you. I don't want to be your brother, I only want to be your husband."
Everyone can do it, He Wen can do it, Gu Linyuan can do it, even Shang Nanxuan who is dead or gone can do it, why can't he?
Why is the bright moon hanging high in the sky, but not shining on him alone?
*
This was a one-man show that belonged only to Song Chengnian. When the protagonist of the opera finally left in a daze, the bedroom returned to deathly silence again.
In the silent night, Song Mingjiao, who should have been sleeping soundly on the bed, quietly opened his eyes.
Song Mingjiao lay motionless on the bed, staring blankly at the patterns on the carved beams and painted rafters on the roof.
...want to die.
This little brother has really been raised astray, I really can’t keep him anymore!
System! Come out quickly, I want to forcibly leave this world now!
Naturally, the system would not respond to Song Mingjiao. It would rather watch Song Mingjiao suffer a setback than say a word.
Song Mingjiao stared at the void in a daze for a long time. His biological brother in this small world actually had an obsessive desire for this body.
In the end, sleepiness defeated Song Mingjiao. He thought it would only take a few days.
Before, he hoped that Shang Nanxuan could hold on a little longer, but now he wishes Shang Nanxuan would die immediately so that he can leave this world.
So, this time Song Mingjiao was really in a deep sleep and did not notice that the red candles in the bedroom were not the kind he usually used.
When he woke up again, Song Mingjiao only felt darkness and a rustling sound in his ears.
——It’s a chain.
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