Chapter 72 Return to the Capital 3 She has two things that even the Emperor cannot...
Xuan Che's expression made Du Lan take a step back.
That was the determination of an emperor, and also an emotion she was very familiar with, called paranoia.
"Then, Your Majesty, what should we do?"
Du Lan looked around quietly. It was in public and the other party couldn't do anything.
Xuan Che walked around to her, the stubbornness in his eyes becoming clearer. He held her face up and said, "I heard that it's common for women in Loufan to lose their husbands and remarry."
Dulan clenched her fists and glared at him: "I won't allow you to hurt him."
"Why?" The coldness in his eyes suddenly softened. "Is it because he's your husband, or because he's your child?"
He spoke softly, as if to comfort her: "Dulan, I won't hurt your child."
Du Lan's pupils suddenly contracted, and her heart felt like it was pierced by a needle.
She suddenly waved Xuan Che's hand away: "Your Majesty, you can't be so unreasonable."
Xuan Che's hands froze in mid-air. Looking at the undisguised anger in her eyes, he inexplicably felt an itch in his heart.
This was the first time she had been angry since he had known her.
He liked to see her angry. She finally stopped being a goddess with no joy or sorrow.
You must know that anger is a kind of demand. Whoever you are angry at is the one you are demanding from.
"Okay, okay, I get it." He was coaxing her. He really wouldn't hurt her child.
At the night banquet, Chen Jinshi began to be hostile to the emperor on the podium.
To his surprise, the emperor gave him a gentle and kind look in response.
Du Lan changed into the palace and sat next to him. Chen Jinshi could see that she was worried.
In the corner, he lowered his voice and asked her, "Am, do you think he's sick?"
Du Lan's eyelashes trembled and she glanced towards the platform.
"He's not sick, eat your food."
Chen Jinshi didn't ask any more questions and ate two bites of food under her gaze.
As soon as he finished speaking, a eunuch came to the table carrying a food box and said, "Master Dulan, His Majesty, remembering your hard work during the day, has specially asked the imperial kitchen to prepare some milk cakes and sent them to you."
Du Lan looked up at him again, and the man's eyes were so gentle that it was almost weird.
The food box was opened, and the milky white pastries were exquisitely made.
Chen Jinshi's face darkened, and after a pause, he smiled, looked up at the man, and put his arm around Du Lan's waist.
Did that person think that he could provoke him in this way?
In fact, even Xie Qingyue's competitiveness cannot catch up.
He picked up a piece of cake and fed it to Dulan with his own hands, as if to declare his sovereignty.
He whispered to her, "Am, why does he keep looking at you?"
Dulan gently bit the pastry, lowered her head, and her eyelashes drooped as her eyes began to move.
She was thinking of an idea, an interesting one.
Dulan is quite courageous and seems calm, but he is actually very cunning.
Under the table, even Chen Jinshi didn't expect that her hand would suddenly reach into his crotch. Chen Jinshi's eyes widened instantly. This is, this is Am's reward!
He suppressed his trembling body and said, "Am, what do you want?"
Du Lan thought that Xuan Che thought he was in control of everything. He was in a high position and could force her away or continue to pester her.
But Dulan didn't like being manipulated. She wanted to make the emperor on the platform lose completely in this round.
Three days later, Dulan met the emperor in the Cining Palace who came to pay his respects to the empress dowager.
Xuan Che obviously had not given up yet. He stopped her in the imperial garden and talked a lot.
"Xie Qingyue has almost completed his mission in Loufan. I plan to send Chen Jinshi over to finish it off and give him the credit."
"Dulan, after he leaves, I intend to have you stay in the palace and take care of my mother's health all day long."
Du Lan lowered his head and tacitly agreed to his plan.
"Don't worry, when Chen Jinshi returns from Loufan, I will not treat him unfairly. After all, he is the child you have high hopes for."
The paranoia in Xuan Che's eyes dissipated slightly, and a hint of barely perceptible joy appeared in his eyes.
He raised his hand to touch the top of her head, but Du Lan did not avoid it. His fingertips landed on the top of her hairy head. Her fluffy brown curls were woven into a lush head, showing an infinite vitality. Xuan Che was deeply fascinated by this.
Before the summer was over, Chen Jinshi received a transfer order and was about to leave for Loufan.
Dulan filled a carriage with luggage for him and said, "Take it back to Dad and the others. I'm afraid Tuya is about to give birth. I made some donkey hide gelatin for her. Take it with you, as well as these tea leaves and cloth."
Chen Jinshi tightened the hemp rope that bound the supplies, propped his knee against the cart board, and tied a knot neatly: "Don't worry, I'll write you a letter when the time comes."
Before leaving, Chen Jinshi was most worried about her: "You must take good care of yourself."
"I know."
"Protect yourself and the musket."
Until the wheels of the carriage rolled over the road, kicking up a cloud of dust, Dulan stood still and turned to walk towards the palace.
As soon as she entered the palace, she saw a eunuch waiting with a sky-blue cloak in his hand. He hurried forward and said, "Lady Dulan, His Majesty asked me to bring you some clothes."
A hint of coldness flashed across Dulan's eyes, but he still took it: "Thank you, Your Majesty."
That night, Xuan Che summoned his personal female doctor Du Lan to live in a side hall of the Cining Palace on the pretext of "accompanying the Empress Dowager."
She secretly wiped the musket hidden under her pillow. Chen Jinshi left to welcome Lou Fanren's surrender. Except for her husband, the emperor, ministers, and people who were not from her clan were all waiting for that day to come. That was their glory, but it definitely did not belong to Lou Fanren.
Chen Jinshi was a Jinshi and was controlled by the emperor, so he had to do this; Xie Qingyue's entire family was used by the court, so he had to do this even more.
Du Lan was placed under house arrest in the palace by the emperor. For the sake of his own life and to prevent the people of Loufan from being treated harshly by the cavalry, he had no choice but to submit to his fate.
After moving in, Xuan Che often came to her place, sometimes at night, sitting for a while and then leaving, and sometimes he came with memorials and asked her about the customs and people of Loufan.
Except for touching the top of her head that day, he had never touched her.
Du Lan wiped the musket until it was shiny, and the barrel reflected the cold light in her eyes. She gently put it back under the pillow. Just as she made the bed, she heard familiar footsteps coming from outside the hall.
The eunuch pushed open the door and without notifying anyone, Xuan Che came in wearing casual clothes. He ordered someone to put the food box on the table.
"Loufan has just sent us some milk tofu as tribute. Try it and see if it tastes like home."
Du Lan lowered his eyes and walked forward, with no intention of correcting Xuan Che's words "tribute". As long as Loufan had not yet surrendered, the mutual trade should be called mutual trade, not tribute.
Just open the lid and look at the shape.
"It was done by the Taichiwu tribe."
"Yes, I've looked at the map. The Taichiwu tribe is very close to your home." Xuan Che sat at the table, picked up a piece of milk tofu with his fingertips, and slowly passed it to her lips, "Try it."
Du Lan took a bite calmly and listened to Xuan Che say, "I received a letter from Loufan today. I heard that Chen Jinshi is now being hunted down by everyone in Loufan."
"Isn't this just what the Emperor wants?"
Xuan Che said nothing, just looked at her intently.
"But I still don't understand why Your Majesty is so obsessed with getting the Loufan to submit. The Loufan people live deep in the heart of the grasslands, and they don't fight for land or people. If Your Majesty wants to cooperate with our people, now is the best time. If you insist on subjugating them to your territory, I'm afraid some people will be dissatisfied."
Xuan Che spoke to her in a calm and gentle voice, yet still tinged with a hint of imperial ambition: "There is no emperor who doesn't want the world to be united. My approach is already very gentle."
"In the eyes of your majesty, it is a good thing that the world is united. But in the eyes of Lou Fanren, it is a humiliation of being deceived into losing sovereignty." Du Lan raised her eyes and her gaze met his gaze directly.
"Humiliation? What does that mean?" Xuan Che was silent for a moment, then suddenly realized, "Do you know why I love you? Others would be happy or accept their fate if I treated them like this, but you, you would feel humiliated?"
The more Xuan Che thought about it, the more he understood.
"The Loufan people have never been ruled by a monarch, so, Dulan, your backs have never bent."
For the first time in so many days, he couldn't help but touch her face. She didn't avoid it, and her cheek was held in his palm: "Dulan, I'm very curious now. What were you thinking when you knelt down to pay your respects to me? Were you dissatisfied?"
Xuan Che felt that no one kneeling down to worship him was as powerful as Du Lan.
He had seen many people kneeling before him, but only Dulan's kneeling made him excited and made him...
This is the real prey.
The blood in his body began to flow and burn. He loved Dulan, he loved Dulan so much!
He didn't mind at all that she had once had a husband.
Chen Jinshi was her prey, her lamb, and she was his prey.
Xuan Che would not be jealous of his prey, and even thought that Chen Jinshi could exist forever.
As long as Dulan can be conquered by him.
Du Lan glanced at him indifferently, her eyes were so indifferent, as if he had never really caught her attention from beginning to end.
"I am not dissatisfied, Your Majesty."
Xuan Che considered himself a true gentleman, and even though his emotions were overflowing, he did not make any move towards her.
Even the palm of his hand that was supporting her face was just holding it steadily without exerting any force.
Rather than kneading her cheeks to show possession, he expected her to nestle her cheek against his palm and beg for his touch.
He believed that Du Lan must have that side of her, and Chen Jinshi might not have experienced her like that.
Dulan followed the rules during her stay in the Cining Palace. Every day before dawn, she would go to take the empress dowager's pulse and personally prepare nourishing soup for her.
Just after the hour of noon, the people from the imperial kitchen would deliver food on time. Gradually, more and more Loufan flavors appeared. Many foods that were absolutely not available in the capital before were now on her table.
Xuan Che occasionally came over in the afternoon and casually asked her if the dishes she had prepared today were to her liking.
In the afternoon, during her nap, the Queen Mother would mostly use her time to sort out the herbal books in the palace. The bookshelf in the side hall was gradually filled with the prescriptions she wrote.
Xuan Che would flip through these prescriptions in his spare time, sometimes pointing to a particular herb and asking, "Is this 'wolfsbane grass' commonly used in Loufan? I used to think it was poisonous."
"Although wolfsbane is poisonous, it can cure stubborn rheumatism if combined with ephedra and licorice. It is often used by old herdsmen in Loufan." She explained as she folded the written prescription.
Occasionally, Xuan Che would ask her to accompany him for a walk in the Imperial Garden. He didn't talk much, mostly asking about interesting things that happened to him: "What did you often play with your playmates when you were little?"
"Shepherding and studying medicine with my brother."
Xuan Che suddenly changed the subject: "The Loufan tribes are only one step away from submission. I intend to confer upon you the title of Princess and allow you to establish a residence in the capital. It is your responsibility to persuade the Loufan tribes to submit completely."
Xuan Che's voice was calm, but unquestionable, as if he was giving her the supreme reward.
"Your Majesty's love is so great, and Dulan is terrified." Her voice was steady, emotionless, as if what he had just said was of no importance to her. "However, submission cannot be confirmed by a decree or a title. Dulan's words are of little weight, and I am afraid I will fail Your Majesty's trust."
Xuan Che had plenty of patience to wait for her to soften completely, and he looked at Du Lan deeply.
For the next two days, the Cining Palace remained peaceful. Dulan intended to seek help from the Empress Dowager, but the Emperor hadn't done anything excessive. The Empress Dowager feared she couldn't help her, simply because she was concerned with subduing the Loufan.
She became even calmer towards Xuan Che's arrival, even more silent than before. This excessive silence finally made Xuan Che feel a little uneasy.
He thought he had long been accustomed to Dulan's silent and forbearing reaction, so he threw a stone to ask for directions, but heard no response.
He wanted her. This would at least allow him to control her body, a part of her.
But at the same time, his character and upbringing did not allow him to do so.
Xuan Che came to see her more often, and sometimes he would even walk over in between reviewing memorials.
He no longer had those heated conversations with her, but simply stared at her with an almost admiring gaze.
"Dulan," he suddenly said one evening, his voice strangely gentle, "If I offer you the throne of Queen, would you accept it?"
Dulan was a little surprised.
Xuan Che's two concubines in the past are now one named Xianfei and the other named Shufei. Xuan Che has no queen.
Under his gaze, she thought for a moment, then slowly shook her head.
"Why?" Xuan Che was puzzled. "I have also considered this for a long time and am willing to give you this sincerity. You are very good and worthy of this position. When the four seas are united, I want you to give birth to a prince. As for other obstacles and objections, I have ways to deal with them."
Du Lan turned around. She couldn't believe that Xuan Che would treat her like this.
"Could it be that in your heart I am not as good as Chen Jinshi?"
Xuan Che didn't believe that she was loyal to any reason.
"Your Majesty, I'm afraid you're not as young and strong as he is. Besides, Dulan has no desire to compete with the concubines in the harem. Besides," Dulan raised her eyes, a faint smile forming at the corners of her lips, "Your Majesty, have you never wondered why I've been married to him for half a century, yet there's still no news of pregnancy?"
Du Lan lowered her voice, seemingly frank but actually provocative. "Jin Shi and I... the joys of the boudoir are about pleasure, not inheritance. Your Majesty's request that I bear a prince is probably not what Du Lan wants. What Du Lan truly desires, I'm afraid Your Majesty is unable to give."
She glanced down lightly, frivolous and contemptuous.
"Dulan just wants a husband who is young and strong and who makes me happy physically and mentally."
The color drained from Xuan Che's face in an instant, and it was hard for him not to feel furious at the offense and humiliation.
He was indeed older than Chen Jinshi, and the emperor's majesty and pampered life made him still handsome, but he could not match the vigorous and unworn vitality of a young man.
What she denied him was what he originally cared least about, the most basic attraction as a man!
It is unbelievable that he, the emperor, is compared in terms of his attractiveness to women!
In those eyes that were always determined to win, there was now a turbulent wave of murderous intent and desire for destruction.
Du Lan still looked at him with those indifferent eyes, and his loss of control represented the reversal of hunter and prey.
He wanted to tame her? Ha!
Xuan Che grabbed her wrist tightly, and his eyes, which were always calm and majestic, were now red and violent.
That gentle and refined gentleman's appearance was completely torn apart, revealing his true colors.
"I'll show you now whether I can afford it or not!"
He expected her eyes to be filled with panic, but unfortunately, with her face raised, her gaze was still fixed on the frozen lake.
"Your Majesty, in matters between men and women, it's not just about using force that can make a woman happy. Sometimes, force alone isn't enough; it will only hurt yourself and make you a laughing stock."
She seemed to have no fear of his using force, but she just repeatedly reminded him that if he made her uncomfortable, she would ridicule him, and even if he still wanted to do it, he should learn some skills first.
Chen Jinshi had thought of this scene before leaving.
The reason why he left was, firstly, the emperor's order could not be disobeyed; secondly, she had a musket in her hand, and at the critical moment, obedience would cost him his life, so the choice was in her hands; thirdly, although Chen Jinshi had possessiveness, he did not apply the word "loyalty" to her. If she chose to obey, she must have her reasons.
There is a reason behind everything Eminem does.
Chen Jinshi can cry and complain, but he cannot stop it.
The opportunity finally arrived one afternoon.
Urgent military reports from the border, eight hundred miles away, reached the palace, and the situation in Loufan suddenly changed.
Instead of surrendering smoothly, the major tribes united with the troops of Cheshi State in the Western Regions, stationed their troops on the border, and demanded in a tough attitude that the court stop forcing them to surrender and restore equal trade. According to secret reports, Chen Jinshi and Xie Qingyue led their troops to support Suhe, the leader of the Dalan tribe, as the King of Loufan.
News came that Xuan Che, who was always mild-tempered, smashed a fine Duan inkstone in the imperial study.
Over the years, I have experienced both good and bad things, and played both the good and bad roles.
"Good, good Xie Qingyue! Good Chen Jinshi!"
"Come here, arrest all the members of the Xie family. I need to wait for an answer from Xie Qingyue."
The eunuch knelt hurriedly and said, "Your Majesty, the elders of the Xie family are very powerful in the court. They cannot be touched!"
"I can't touch the Xie family, so I'll capture the Chen family!"
"Look at you now. You're so angry that you can't control the situation."
At some point, Du Lan appeared behind him, her face as calm and gentle as ever, but with an attitude of taking the lead.
Xuan Che turned around and laughed in anger: "Dulan, I underestimated you."
"Your Majesty, you are too kind. Dulan is just a little female doctor. How can she toy with Your Majesty?"
"You are rebelling! This is treason! Chen Jinshi is my Jinshi! Xie Qingyue is my subject!" He poked her nose with his finger. "Should I chop off your heads?"
Du Lan shook her head gently: "Your Majesty, I can't."
Her words gradually calmed him down. After he came to power these years, he had lost his original intention.
He originally wanted to win over Loufan only to promote cooperation between the military and civilians on the border so that he could better control the war in the northern border. He didn't know when he started to think about conquering them.
The current King of Loufan is Suhe. In the past, Suhe was ordinary and unknown, managing a small tribe. It is not difficult to imagine why Chen and Xie supported him to take the throne.
Su He is Chen Jinshi's father-in-law and Du Lan's father. With him around, if Xuan Che still wants to ask Lou Fan for help, he cannot touch Du Lan and Chen Jinshi. On the contrary, if he returns to his original intention and treats them in a friendly manner, Chen Jinshi will be his subject, a subject that he can use.
He couldn't touch the Xie family, he couldn't touch the Chen family, and he couldn't declare war on King Loufan for no reason.
Recognizing Suhe, who was related to his ministers, as the King of Loufan was the best solution to stop the loss at the moment and a rational choice for him as a mature emperor.
Xuan Che's surging, almost exploding anger strangely began to subside and sink under Du Lan's calm gaze and the words "Your Majesty, you can't".
He looked at her, the woman he thought he was destined to win, the woman he wanted to soften with his tenderness and rewards. Now she was standing here, never begging for mercy as a weak person, but teaching him in an almost equal, even superior, manner?
His original intention was to bring peace to the North and make Loufan a helper rather than an enemy.
Since when did his obsession with Lou Fan become mixed with a personal, twisted possessiveness of her?
He wanted to subdue Lou Fan just as he had subdued her. He had to use seemingly gentle means, but in reality, a mixture of coercion and inducement, until he could coax the other party into submission.
He slowly lowered the finger that was pointing at her: "Lord Dulan, you win."
"Your Majesty, the process of converting the desert land into arable land is going smoothly. From now on, our troops stationed on the border will no longer have to worry about food and fodder."
"yes."
"My father, King Su He, will help Your Majesty in Loufan and maintain long-term peace in the North through a more stable method."
"yes."
Xuan Che was silent for a moment, as if he was willing to accept this new situation, but he had to lie dormant first and acknowledge the words of the person in front of him.
During this process, her words showed submission and weakness, but unfortunately, her posture was not.
Xuan Che only realized at this moment that he could not tame this woman, from the beginning to the end. Instead, he was...
She has two things that even the emperor cannot deprive her of: dignity and freedom.
On the day when Chen and Xie returned to the capital, Xuan Che, dressed in his imperial robes, personally stood on the city wall to greet them.
He saw Dulan, the untamable woman, wearing a goose yellow dress, the color as fresh as the early spring forsythia, breathtakingly gorgeous.
Her brown curly hair was not neatly braided like when she was in the palace, but was just draped loosely behind her head, fluffy, lush and growing wildly.
Xuan Che's heart seemed to be gripped tightly by something.
He saw her passing by hundreds of officials, passing through layers of ceremonial guards, and running towards the young man Jiang Ling who was riding a white horse and wearing silver armor.
Xuan Che clearly saw that the indifferent expression on Du Lan's face, which always existed in front of him, like the ice on a frozen lake, shattered and melted in an instant.
There was a pure, fiery light in her eyes that he longed for.
The corners of her lips couldn't help but rise up, and the smile grew wider and wider, unconcealed, with an almost innocent and exuberant joy.
Her steps were light and swift, her posture was fervent and reverent, and her long, fluffy hair flew behind her.
Xuan Che stood on a high place, motionless.
He watched her run. The woman beside him would never run like this.
He looked at the unreserved longing and attachment on her face.
It turns out she has this side.
Chen Jinshi opened his arms, his face also showing a huge, gentle ecstasy. In his eyes, there was only her.
Under the gaze of countless eyes and the emperor, Du Lan, like a young swallow returning to its nest, threw herself into Chen Jinshi's arms accurately and without hesitation.
She wrapped her arms around his neck, her fingertips tightly grasping his collar, tilted her head slightly, and without hesitation, stood on tiptoe and kissed him.
She was a wildfire that spread across the prairie, never afraid to suck and grind with such determination, using all her strength to confirm his existence, rather than caring about the eyes of others.
Xuan Che, standing on the city wall, clearly felt the power of that embrace. It was an unbreakable bond that he could never interfere with. He couldn't give her the impulse to throw herself at her lover, nor could he give that young man the arms to bear her full weight.
He couldn't tame her.
Not from the beginning to the end.
Instead, she used this scene to deliver the final and most thorough blow to his heart.
He slowly turned around and stopped looking at the dazzling scene. His face beneath the crown was expressionless, only filled with bottomless silence.
It would be great if he didn’t become an emperor in his next life.
The emperor praised Chen Jinshi and Xie Qingyue for "pacifying the northern border and concluding a solid alliance." They had a keen insight into the situation in Loufan, followed public opinion, and maneuvered skillfully, ultimately persuading the various Loufan tribes to abandon their confrontation and enthrone the wise leader Su He. Based on their kinship ties, they signed a peace treaty with the imperial court that was beneficial to both sides. They were considered great heroes, and a banquet was held in the Hall of Supreme Harmony to celebrate their success.
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The author has something to say: I set the timer wrong, so I didn’t post it last night. Sorry.
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