Chapter 31

Qi Xinglan felt sad as she watched him leave.

"Your Highness..."

Fu Wen came in right after Hui Lin left the house. Seeing that he was quiet, she reminded him.

Even though Fu Wen couldn't hear clearly what the king said just now because she was outside the door, she could still make out a few words.

"It's just a battle. The Xiyuan army has always been brave and will surely return victorious soon."

Qi Xinglan came back to her senses and sat back down, then continued, "That's right, Xiyuan has never lost a battle in many years, I have nothing to worry about, it's just a pity..."

He looked down at his already curved belly and said with regret, "If it weren't for this guy, I would have followed Hui Lin to the battle."

Hui Lin stayed in Zichen Hall until late at night. Although the schedule was so tight that he had little time to rest, he still asked someone to come forward and told the guards, "Except for the men who will go with the army, you must remember to select a team from the rest to guard Lanquan Hall and Chongyun Hall respectively. The queen is pregnant, which is of utmost importance."

This sounded a bit uncomfortable. The head guard looked back at Lin a few times between orders and asked, "Your Majesty, is the situation really so serious this time?"

Hui Lin shook his head. "It's too early to make any assumptions before the battle. I'm just taking precautions to prevent someone from seizing power and harming the baby in his belly if something really happens to me."

The guard heard this and crossed his arms over his chest and said, "I will obey your orders and ensure the safety of Her Majesty the Queen."

*

Qi Xinglan knew that Huilin would not arrive early, so she continued to sleep at her usual time. In the middle of the night, she vaguely felt someone sleeping next to her. The breath was very familiar. Qi Xinglan did not even want to wake up to check, but subconsciously crawled into the person's arms.

When he woke up the next day, he found the bed was empty again. However, he felt it with his hand and found that there was still some warmth on the mattress.

"It looks like he left not long ago." Qi Xinglan said to herself.

Fu Wen heard the noise and came in. Seeing that Qi Xinglan had indeed woken up, she remembered the words the king had left before he left, so she walked closer and said, "Your Highness, the king led the army away a long time ago, but because it was too early, there was no big commotion, and basically no one in the palace knew about it."

Qi Xinglan didn't hesitate, just nodded, "I understand, you can leave first, I still need to wash up."

Fu Wen bowed, and then remembered the new guards inside and outside the Lanquan Palace, so she added: "I forgot to mention that the king specially sent a team of guards before leaving, probably to protect your highness."

Qi Xinglan roughly understood Hui Lin's intention, so she didn't ask any more questions. She just muttered, "Doesn't he believe that he can come back safely? He even arranged guards for me."

He said that he would surely return victorious soon, but he was still a little panicked in his heart and kept thinking about what he had to do to ease the panic.

But just in time, after Qi Xinglan had washed up, someone from Chongyun Palace came to deliver the message, and Fu Wenlian invited the person in.

"Your Majesty, the Queen Mother wants you to come over and talk. Maybe she is bored staying alone."

Qi Xinglan was worried about having nothing to do, "Please don't bother me to make the trip. I'll go right away." After saying that, she straightened her clothes and stood up to leave.

"Queen Mother, Her Royal Highness the Queen has arrived."

As she was talking, Qixing Lan came in and saw that the Queen Mother was sitting upright at the table. "Lan'er, please come and sit down. Come and have breakfast with me."

"I'm just hungry, and I want to thank you, mother, for sending me here."

The Queen Mother had a kind look in her eyes. Noticing that Qi Xing Lanfa's belly was already rounded, she asked with concern, "How are you feeling recently, Lan'er? Is there anything wrong with your body?"

Qi Xinglan swallowed the food and said, "No, this little kid is quite obedient and doesn't bother me much."

The Queen Mother was relieved: "That's great - Lan'er is not adapting well. I'm afraid it will take some time for A-Lin to come back."

"You two are inseparable on weekdays."

Although he was not used to the sudden absence of people around him, Qi Xinglan seemed to want to show his independence, so he said, "It's... it's not bad..."

The Queen Mother saw through everything and teased him in a tone that was meant for the younger generation: "Ah-Lin told me yesterday that you are the one he is most reluctant to part with, and even I have to rank behind you."

Qi Xinglan felt embarrassed now. He glanced at the Queen Mother and saw that she looked normal and her tone did not sound like a joke at all. In his heart, he resented Hui Lin for daring to say anything.

Qi Xinglan blushed and said nothing, pretending to be dumb.

"Mother...Mother, please have a good rest. I'm leaving first..." Qi Xinglan said, and then ran away.

"Let's go. Someone is going to come to my place later."

The Queen Mother laughed, and the lady-in-waiting beside her also laughed: "Your Majesty is still young, and she really can't keep things to herself."

Qi Xinglan walked very fast and the people behind her almost couldn't keep up. Qi Xinglan then realized that there were no people around her. She turned around and saw that they were walking a few steps behind her.

So he thought about stopping and waiting, but when he turned around, someone bumped into him. Qi Xinglan guessed it was a child because only his legs were hit.

"Miss! Miss!" the people behind the child chased after her and shouted.

The child was not very strong and did not hurt Qi Xinglan much, but the servants around the child were scared to death.

After all, as soon as they saw the outfit, they knew it was the Queen who was pregnant, so they knelt down quickly and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. It was my fault that I didn't take good care of the young lady."

"Nothing." Qi Xinglan squatted down, looked directly at the little girl who bumped into her, and pinched her face.

"Sorry, I was in a hurry and didn't mean to bump into you."

The child's eyes were round and he stared at her straight, and his voice was also a childish voice, which made Qi Xinglan laugh immediately. "I'm not angry, and you didn't hurt me. I'm fine."

The child's mother was late for the rape at this time.

Qi Xinglan looked up when she heard the noise. The woman was dressed in gorgeous clothes and was probably a member of the royal family, but Qi Xinglan didn't know her very well.

However, Fu Wen and her friends happened to come up and saw this scene and reminded: "Your Highness, this is the king's cousin, Princess Wenxi, and her little daughter."

Qi Xinglan stood up and greeted the person, "It turns out to be my cousin. You are here to look for our mother, right?"

"So it's my cousin's wife. How many months has it been?"

Qi Xinglan touched her belly and said, "It seems to be three and a half months."

Wenxi nodded and patted her daughter's head, "Ningning, call me auntie."

The child was obviously still very shy. After entwining his hands for a long time, he said sweetly, "Hello, Auntie."

Qi Xinglan was so pleased that she nodded and agreed immediately, "Hello, you are so pretty. I was in a hurry this time. Can I bring you a gift next time?"

The child was so happy when he heard about the gift, he kept saying, "Yes, yes, thank you, Auntie."

Qi Xinglan saw Queen Mother's men coming to pick up the child, and they left after saying a few words.

However, after returning to Lanquan Temple, I did not forget to give gifts to the children. I picked and chose in the warehouse and chose a jade cat to give to Fuwen.

"When you have time, ask someone to send it to Princess Wenxi."

Fu Wen took it and asked, "Your Highness likes your daughter too, right?"

"Who doesn't like a daughter? But it depends on fate." Qi Xinglan said, "But what if the baby in my belly is a daughter?"

Fu Wen agreed with him: "If there is a princess, she must be as beautiful as you, white and tall, with beautiful eyes."

Qi Xinglan nodded, "But you can't have Huilin's personality. If he were a girl, he would be so unlovable."

Fu Wen suppressed a smile, "It's almost September now, and the Chinese New Year will come soon. The little master will be born soon, and we will know who he will be by then. It's cold now, so I think it will be easier to sit during the confinement period."

Qi Xinglan didn't know that she would have to wait a few months before someone would tell her this. "Is it that much trouble?"

"Well, among the common people, some families will calculate the time when they want to have children. The summer is too hot, and both adults and children suffer."

Qi Xinglan got up and went to find a book, then came back and sat down again. "Fu Wen, you go and do your work. I'll read for a while and choose a name for Fu Cao."

"yes."

Everything was peaceful in the royal court, but things were very chaotic on the border.

The Xiyuan troops didn't arrive until the next day, and they were attacked before they had time to rest.

I guess he wanted to take advantage of the fact that they were exhausted from rushing around and defeat their momentum.

The battlefield was very dry, with flying dust, shouts and the sound of swords and knives.

In the first battle, Xiyuan fought quite well.

"We can take a short break, but we can't be too lax. We have to be careful when we take turns patrolling, and there can't be any mistakes."

"yes!"

"Yancheng, Chenzhong...you guys come with me."

"The Xiongnu are so annoying. No matter how hard we fight them, it seems like we can never stop. They always use some cunning tactics. I don't even want to talk about them."

"Ah Cheng."

"arrive."

"You will follow General Chen tomorrow. You are impulsive by nature, so I dare not let you lead the team alone for the time being." Hui Lintou said without raising his head.

"Ah? That's fine too." Yan Cheng didn't dare to refute. After all, it was a fact that he was impulsive.

"Your Majesty, will the Huns take any action tomorrow?" Chen Zhong asked. After all, they had just launched a surprise attack today.

Huilin put down the map, thought for a moment and said, "It's hard to say. Their ideas for operations are always weird."

"But it is necessary to be well prepared. The Xiongnu are coming with great force, and we must not be careless in this battle." The curtains in the tent were open all the time. Hui Lin looked up at the sky and said, "It's getting late. Let's go home first and eat some dry food. We should conserve our energy first."

"Yes, then I will take my leave now."

*

September came in a blink of an eye, and Qi Xinglan went to bed early as usual.

He knew nothing about the battle situation in Huilin, and the less news he had, the more uncertain he felt.

midnight.

Fu Wen heard a scream from inside and rushed in in panic, only to see Qi Xinglan sitting there with sweat all over his face.

"Your Highness...what's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?"

Qi Xinglan nodded, but did not specify what the dream was about. "It wasn't a good dream."

Qi Xinglan wiped the sweat off her face with her sleeve, still feeling uneasy. Seeing Fu Wen's worried look, she said, "You go down and rest first. I'll be fine after a while."

"How can I sleep if you are still frightened?" Fuwen saw that his lips had lost color, and it was obvious that he was frightened.

Qi Xinglan was helpless and laughed: "Then why don't you pull up a recliner and sleep in the room?"

Fu Wen had no choice but to accept the offer, because judging from Qi Xinglan's attitude, if she disagreed, he would probably take it for her himself.

Fortunately, there was someone around, and Qi Xinglan did not have nightmares when she fell asleep again in the second half of the night.