Chapter 25

The capital of the Great Zhou Dynasty was not very peaceful.

The study in the general's mansion was brightly lit, but there were only two people in it, one was General He Fei, and the other was his eldest son He Yin, whom he had high hopes for.

"Yin'er, please take a look at the letter from Xiyuan first."

The young man who was called stepped forward respectfully and took the letter from him.

He Yin read the letter twice carefully, and said to himself, "The assassination failed... Hui Lin and his queen were unharmed. This..."

He Yin raised his head and looked at He Fei who was sitting there peacefully, "Father, Xiyuan's military force is strong. We asked King Ning to find such a powerful assassin to assassinate us and we were still unharmed. Why don't we give up King Ning and make friends with King Xiyuan directly——"

"Yin'er!" He Fei threw the cup and said angrily, "I have high hopes for you, not to teach you to act without thinking!"

Seeing that He Yin seemed to be intimidated, he slowed down his tone and said, "It's impossible for Hui Lin to befriend us."

"Don't try..."

"His queen is Qi Xinglan!"

"What? Qi Xinglan? Wasn't he exiled to Southern Xinjiang?"

He Fei snorted coldly, "If that were the case, it would be great. During his exile, someone might have wanted to do something unkind to him, so he ran away. Later, he might have met Hui Lin who was away, and was taken back like this."

"Qi Xinglan was such a smart person, how could he not know that the collapse of his Qi family was related to me."

"His identity must not be exposed. Otherwise, if Hui Lin attacks Da Zhou under the pretext of redressing the queen and conspires with Shen Fuxuan, we will be powerless to resist."

He Fei also thought about it, why didn't Hui Lin take the opportunity to attack Da Zhou? Even he himself couldn't think of a better opportunity than now that the old emperor had lost the support of the people.

However, he had never discussed these with He Yin. In his mind, Yin'er really didn't have such a mind, but was good at listening to advice and not listening to flattery, and was capable of great responsibilities.

"And that Prince Ning is extremely stupid. Even if we help him gain power in Xiyuan, he will only be used by us. We might as well give him a hand."

He thought he was speaking with sincerity, but when he looked up, he saw He Yin standing there with a frown on his face. "Yin'er, what's wrong?"

He spoke slowly, his tone still filled with entanglement and pain, "Father, is it impossible not to start a war? The emperor is incompetent, and our He family can become emperor even if we directly rebel."

"Stupid!" He Fei was so angry that he almost died. How could he have such a simple son? "Even if he gets the throne without proper reason, he will be infamous in the future. What I want is a legitimate throne."

That's why he pulled King Haning. When he becomes King of Xiyuan, he will definitely turn Xiyuan upside down with his stupidity and foolishness. Then it will be impossible to attack Da Zhou again.

By then, with He Fei around, he will naturally be able to unify the two countries and gain the trust of the people. Only then can the current emperor be made to "abdicate voluntarily ashamed of being the emperor."

"Go back and think about it carefully," He Fei said again, "Yin'er, for the sake of the Great Zhou and the He family, we have no other way to go."

He Yin looked like he had no choice, so under this kind of teaching, he became indecisive between betrayal and obedience.

He Yin thought, he wanted good for the Great Zhou, but he also wanted good for the He family. There was no conflict, but was there really no way to have the best of both worlds?

"It seems like there is really nothing left. My father has done so many wrong things. The young and smart prince who fell into the water. The Qi family who has made great contributions and served the country loyally... It seems like there are too many things to count. The He family has no way out... no way out..."

As He Yin was thinking this, he didn't know whether he could see the road or not. He thought the mud at his feet was just the spring rain.

Suddenly there was a "bang" in the river.

"Hurry up, someone, the young master has fallen into the water!"

"Ah? How did the young master fall into the water? Someone, come and save him!"

Fortunately, the lake water was not very cold at this season, and after He Yin was rescued, he only caught a cold and had a fever for a few days.

......

"He Huaiyang fell into the water?" Shen Tinghan asked with a smile.

As soon as the people from the Shen residence got the news, they told Shen Tinghan.

"It's absolutely true. It is said that after the general had a talk with him, I heard that Master He fell into the water but didn't know how to call for help. It was only after the servant who was sweeping the floor saw him that he called for help."

The Shen family member who reported the news took a look at Shen Tinghan before he dared to ask: "Sir, is Mr. He..."

He pointed to his head and asked, "Are you stupid?"

Are you stupid?

When Shen Tinghan thought about his past interactions with him, he felt that he was worse than an idiot.

"It's a pity that he was taught by that treacherous minister all day long, but his ideas were different from his own. He will have problems sooner or later. It's better to be really stupid."

They naturally couldn't hear Shen Tinghan talking to himself, and they were afraid that the Master had ordered them to do it, so they could only ask him: "What did the Master say?"

Shen Tinghan realized that he had just said what was in his heart accidentally, and waved his hand and said, "It's okay, everyone go down."

He glanced at the messenger boy again, raised his eyebrows, pointed at him and said, "Go and claim your reward. The news you sent this time is very useful."

"Yes! Thank you, sir!"

Before long, Shen Tinghan was the only one left in the room. He was playing with the teacup in his hand, thinking about something unknown. He made a "tsk" sound, flicked his sleeves, and stood up to go to the desk.

Spread the letter paper flat and use a paper weight to spread it out, then pick up the pen and start writing.

It was taken away by a special messenger not long after.

"It must be kept secret."

"Don't worry, sir. I promise to deliver it to the person."

......

Qi Xinglan has been quite comfortable these days, but Hui Lin is very concerned about him, wishing she could feed him and give him medicine herself and take care of him every day.

Qi Xinglan was peeling an orange and teasing Fu Wen, "Fu Wen, you said, I have always been a pushover, and by the time the baby is born, I will be almost useless."

Fu Wen listened carefully, then stood up and adjusted the window opening to a more appropriate level. If the wind was too light, it would be hot, and if the wind was too strong, it would be cold, so she had to keep an eye on it all the time.

"Your Highness, don't think like that. When a woman is pregnant, she is surrounded by people everywhere even when she goes out. Even if she falls, she probably won't be able to fall to the ground. That's too depressing."

Fu Wen pointed to Qi Xinglan and showed him that there were only five or six people arranged by Hui Lin. "You see, this is already very few. The king has found a master to ensure your safety and give you enough freedom. He won't put pressure on you to the point of suffocation. How great."

Qi Xinglan also looked around and nodded with satisfaction, "Not bad, I'm quite satisfied."

"Satisfied with what?"

Before the person entered the hall, the voice came in first. Qi Xinglan immediately recognized who it was. She put away her smile and said, "Hui Lin, why are you eavesdropping on our conversation again?"

The people around had all arrived at Lanquan Palace because Her Majesty the Queen was pregnant, so they naturally didn't know that the King and Her Majesty the Queen had always addressed each other as "you" and "me", and they basically never called each other by honorific titles in private.

Fu Wen was different. She was used to it. Even when she saw the king half-kneeling to put shoes on Her Majesty the Queen, she would not even raise an eyebrow.

As he was saluting, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that a few people behind him were gasping for breath. After Hui Lin called them up, he waved and led them out.

If those people could have left, they would have left long ago. Now they have finally escaped from the sea of ​​suffering and are extremely grateful to Fu Wen.

"Sister Fuwen, why aren't you afraid? When the king came in, I felt like the air was stagnant."

"Don't talk nonsense," Fu Wen first reminded quietly, and then said, "You will also stay in Lanquan Palace for a year. If Her Majesty the Queen still thinks you are good and wants to continue to use you, you can stay in Lanquan Palace to continue to take care of the young master, then enjoy your life."

"You all saw what happened today. The king always responded to Her Majesty the Queen's requests and never spoke loudly, fearing that he would upset Her Majesty the Queen."

"You don't have to be surprised. The king has been treating the queen like this since the wedding. It has not changed in a year. It is definitely not because of the baby in the queen's belly."

"Don't worry about anything else. Just don't complain about the king's scary words today. Don't say them again, especially don't say them outside."

Fu Wen changed the subject again, "But what you said a few days ago about the Queen's kindness, good food, and lenient treatment of servants can be spread everywhere. The King will be happy to hear it and may give you a generous reward."

The first palace maid who complained was terrified and her face turned pale. "Then... Sister Fu Wen, today I..."

Fu Wen thought to herself that she actually yelled at him, and then comforted him, "It's okay, don't say your voice is soft, even if the king heard something, he was very happy to hear the queen praising him today, so he won't care."

The palace maid was young, so she believed whatever Fu Wen said. She was thinking in her heart: It seems that the most important thing is to make Her Majesty the Queen happy. I still have to serve Her Majesty well in the future!

Indoors.

"Lan Er said she was very satisfied with me? How satisfied is she?"

The words were quite serious, but the actions were a bit embarrassing. After the others left, Hui Lin hugged Qi Xinglan into his arms and kissed her twice.

Now she was sitting astride his lap, listening to him whisper in her ear.

"It's just... the workers you arranged are not talkative, are very considerate, know how to handle the work, and have good skills - in short, I just want to praise you for a good arrangement this time..."

Hui Lin's tone seemed a little disappointed when he heard this, but he still kissed his face and lips gently, "Okay, I'll show you something good."

This actually aroused Qi Xinglan's great interest. He immediately got off Hui Lin and stopped clinging to him. He just asked, "What's going on? What's the good stuff?"

Qi Xinglan searched Hui Lin's body but didn't find anything. Just as she was about to look up and ask him about it, her hand was pressed on his abdominal muscles.

Hui Lin's breath was a little unstable, "Lan'er, stop touching everywhere. If something goes wrong, you won't be able to relieve my anger."

Qi Xinglan noticed his change and immediately pulled her hands away from his abdominal muscles, "You, you, you should take it out yourself..."

Hui Lin sighed, resigned himself to his fate and took out a letter from his chest and handed it to Qi Xinglan.

The letter had been in front of Hui Lin's chest for a long time. It was still warm in Qi Xinglan's hand. Qi Xinglan's face was hot. She carefully opened the envelope and asked, "Is it for me?"

"Whatever, I'll open it even if it's not for me."

As soon as she opened it, Qi Xinglan lost her composure. The handwriting was very familiar. In the past, Shen Tinghan had deliberately changed the font to prevent the letter from being discovered. It was exactly the same font on the letter in front of her.

He looked up and saw Lin Zheng staring at him, "This was written by... Shen Tinghan?"

The letter that Shen Tinghan sent a few days ago quickly reached the hands of his other owner after a few days of rapid delivery.

Lin felt a little sad. Lan'er recognized Shen Tinghan's handwriting at once, but she still nodded, "Yes, take a closer look first."

Qi Xinglan finally sat up straight, but before reading the letter, he still asked suspiciously, "You wouldn't have been in contact with him behind my back, right?"

Hui Lin's eyes widened. "I haven't even started to wonder why you could recognize the unfamiliar handwriting he deliberately wrote at a glance, but Lan'er, you're the first to doubt me?"

Qi Xinglan was so amused by this that she quickly comforted her husband, "Okay, okay, I was just joking, you took it so seriously, stop talking, I need to concentrate on reading the letter."

After all, when he was talking just now, he saw that many words in the letter were things that he was very interested in.

After seeing the content, it was true!

"He Yin fell into the water in the middle of the night? How stupid! He is He Fei's son. He Fei wanted him to be the emperor. It's terrible."

"Is the prince of the noble concubine still dead? He is the hope of the Great Zhou. I think the Great Zhou is really on the verge of death. No wonder even He Fei is worried."

"The old emperor has killed another loyal minister. Is the family that has been helping the Zhou Dynasty with flood control for generations destroyed? He will be punished by heaven for doing this! It must have been instigated by that bad guy He Fei. How despicable!"

"Shen Tinghan... is he going to get married?" Qi Xinglan excitedly grasped Hui Lin's wrist and shook it, "He married the young master of the Chen family, who is also a civil official, which is not bad. It's also a noble family that He Fei dare not touch..."

Hui Lin looked at him helplessly, telling herself not to talk to him and to not disturb him while he was reading the letter, but she kept talking non-stop. Hiss - so cute.

It was not until Qi Xinglan finished reading the letter from beginning to end that she noticed his gaze.

Qi Xinglan held the letter to her eyes and couldn't help but shrink back a few times. She said with a bit of guilt, "Why...why are you looking at me like that?"

When Qi Xinglan thought about what she had done, she realized that she had said a lot.

What did I just tell Hui Lin? Qi Xinglan racked her brains to think, oh, let him stop talking.

Qi Xinglan asked him, but he didn't say anything. When he couldn't bear it anymore, he just took action and rubbed it again and again, hooking his hand around Hui Lin's.

"Why...you haven't said anything?"

Hui Lin looked down, but he didn't let go of her hand in the end. He just said angrily: "Ah? Didn't you tell me not to talk and disturb you when you were reading the letter, Lan'er?"

Qi Xinglan knew she was in the wrong, so she took his arm and said, "Hui Lin, are you angry with me?"

Yes, that's right, Qi Xinglan is such a person who dares to be righteous even when he is wrong.

When Hui Lin looked at him, he saw that his lower lip was pouting and his eyes were staring at him, as if he needed an explanation.

Seeing this situation, no matter how angry he was before, he could no longer get angry. Besides, he just wanted to tease Lan'er.

So he reached out and rubbed Qi Xinglan's head again, and said with a smile, "Okay, let's discuss this letter first."

"Lan'er, do you know He Yin?"

Qi Xinglan nodded, "We knew each other before. I still remember that he took great care of me when I was a child. At most, his father, He Fei, didn't like me - or should I say, he didn't like the Qi family."

"It's just that He Fei always taught him nonsense like only the He family can make the Great Zhou Dynasty continue, and that's how he corrupted him."

Qi Xinglan said with pity, pointing to the lines Shen Tinghan wrote about He Yin and showing them to Hui Lin, "Look, they were so stupid that they didn't even look at the road at night and walked straight into the lake."

"If he was born into a family of upright and good officials, he would definitely be a good man who would make a living for the country."

"Of course, he is not a bad person now."

Qi Xinglan felt really sorry about this. Hui Lin also roughly understood the situation and knew that He Yin was most likely not a threat. Seeing this, Qi Xinglan's expression was not very good.

Hui Lin asked: "Then...will he gradually be immersed in the aura of power in such an atmosphere, will he..."

Will he become a complete bad guy like his father?

"will not."

Qi Xinglan, who had been silent at first, blurted out without even thinking when she heard this, "I know him from the past. Even if he can't get better, he won't get worse. At most..."

"At most, he will die in the rotting Great Zhou."

In fact, only the fate of that imperial city was predetermined.

The topic of discussion became more and more serious. Knowing that Qi Xinglan's current physical condition did not allow for great emotional ups and downs, Hui Lin began to think of ways to stop him from thinking about these things.

"Lan'er, it's useless to think too much," Hui Lin thought quickly, "Hungry, we have been in contact since Shen Tinghan came to us last time and told us that he hoped to welcome us in Shangjing City one day."

Qi Xinglan's attention finally came back a little, "Ah? You are really a man who can bend and stretch. You don't mind that he liked me before, but you still want to fight that Da Zhou."

Qi Xinglan gave him a thumbs up and said sincerely, "Hui Lin, you are so nice."

Responding to Lin Wuyu, he tried to guide Qi Xinglan to say what he wanted to hear, "Lan'er, I don't want you to always praise me as a good person... In fact, sometimes what a man needs is the praise and clear admiration of his lover... Do you understand?"

Qi Xinglan looked at him with bright eyes.

Hui Lin saw Qi Xinglan listening attentively and felt that there was hope, so he tried harder to guide her: "No one likes to express love in a subtle way. It makes people guess and it's exhausting!"

Qi Xinglan nodded, and Hui Lin felt that she was adorable to death, but she still didn't give up, "So? Lan'er, what do you want to say to me?"

Upon hearing this, Qi Xinglan straightened up, got out of bed and poured herself a glass of water.

Under Hui Lin's eager gaze, Qi Xinglan smiled secretly and said cunningly: "I'm not stupid, I can guess what you want me to say--"

"I like you, okay, husband?"

"Enough, enough!" Hui Lin immediately became energetic. While Qi Xinglan was about to go back to bed for an afternoon nap, he casually gave her a kiss.

"I'm going to take a nap, how about you?"

Hui Lin's sexual symbol was bulging, and he lay down with Qi Xinglan without any concealment. From beginning to end, Qi Xinglan was the only one blushing.

"It's not a big deal..."

Qi Xinglan raised her chin in that direction, hinting at something. Hui Lin seemed to have just realized what was going on. "Oh, then...what should we do?"

Just pretend to be stupid.

Qi Xinglan didn't expose him, she turned over and pretended to sleep, "I don't care what you do, I'm going to sleep anyway."

Hui Lin was frightened now, and asked tentatively: "No, at least let me hold you while you sleep, Lan'er!"

Qi Xinglan was annoyed by being called so much that he turned around and opened his arms again. Hui Lin was already familiar with his body language, so he took her into his arms, closed his eyes contentedly and wanted to sleep with Qi Xinglan.

"If you dare to press the lucky grass, you can try it!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'll make sure you don't get crushed. Go to sleep, Lan'er."

Hui Lin did what he said. An hour later, Qi Xinglan woke up and found that Hui Lin was still in the same posture as before.

After Qi Xinglan woke up, she moved a little, and Hui Lin was also awakened by the movement.

As soon as he opened his eyes, he met Qi Xinglan's eyes. Qi Xinglan looked at him for a long time, but didn't see his arm move at all.

"What's wrong with you? Why are you so still?"

Lin replied with some grievance, "It's nothing, just my arm is numb..."

Qi Xinglan saw his arm lying across her neck and knew that she must have caused the numbness by the pressure. He looked at her aggrievedly like a big dog, so she resigned herself to lying down and rubbing the muscles on his arm.

"Am I still strong enough?"

Hui Lin was still immersed in the gentle touch of Qi Xinglan massaging his arm. He only reacted when he heard Qi Xinglan speak, "Okay, okay, it feels so good. Even Doctor Yu is probably not as good as Lan'er!"

"Slippery tongue." Qi Xinglan turned over and got out of bed. "Come down quickly when you're ready. Is there no official business in Zichen Palace?"