"Tsk tsk tsk, I never expected that such a beautiful woman could exist in a poor, remote northwestern country! This beauty... is unlike any other woman in the world, and I am very fond of her."
Just then, a man in his twenties, dressed in a moon-white brocade robe, slightly overweight, and exuding an air of roguishness from head to toe and even from every pore of his body, walked out of the corridor outside the door. Behind him was a hunched-over servant.
The man leered and narrowed his eyes, gazing longingly at Xuan Yuan Yue's figure as she gradually disappeared into the night. He stood on the doorway, stroking his chin and muttering to himself with great interest.
He paused, then sighed again, his face darkening with the sigh, and said, "It's truly a case of a beautiful flower stuck in cow dung, a lucky break for that idiot third brother. What a pity, what a real pity!"
At this moment, a servant with a sly grin, who had been observing his expression for a long time, leaned close to his ear and flattered him, saying, "Second Prince, don't sigh. With your noble status and the Empress's favor, one day, even the entire Dongning Kingdom will be yours. Let alone a mere woman, what kind of beauty wouldn't you have if you wanted to?!"
The man listened for a moment, seemed somewhat smug, and then chuckled softly.
But then he remembered that for more than a year, the beautiful woman he had seen every day but could never touch was now nestled in someone else's arms, and he couldn't help but turn and yell at the servant with a fierce expression.
"You insolent fool, what do you know! Then tell me, when will I be in charge of Dongning Kingdom? You all make me wait, how much longer am I supposed to wait? Wait, wait, all you know is to wait! I've waited too long, I can't wait any longer!"
"Second Prince, please calm down, Second Prince, please calm down..." The servant realized he had spoken out of turn and quickly knelt down, bowing his head and pleading.
However, the man seemed to be unable to vent his anger at all, so he immediately raised one leg and kicked the servant in the back. The servant was kicked to the ground and dared not get up again.
"Hmph, trash, a bunch of useless trash." The man glanced at the palace maids and eunuchs around him, snorted coldly at them, and then turned and left.
"Your Majesty, the Second Prince has arrived. Just now he..."
Just as the Empress was staring at Xuan Yuan Yue's back, which had already disappeared into the main hall, unable to find peace in her heart, silently gritting her teeth but also sighing at her current helplessness in the face of everything, a palace maid approached and carefully reported what had just happened in the corridor outside the door.
Before the successor could even recover, a loud, clamorous shout suddenly came from outside the door.
"Mother, why did you organize such a lavish banquet for that third prince tonight? This time he has really made a fool of himself in front of all the officials. How am I supposed to face everyone in the future?"
The Empress should have long been used to the newcomer's usual recklessness, impatience, and loudness. Hearing this, she closed her eyes helplessly, as if trying to suppress it as usual.
However, perhaps because she had been harboring too many unresolved issues lately, and felt utterly humiliated, making it extremely difficult to find balance, coupled with the matter the palace maid had just reported, she truly needed someone to vent her anger on, and finally couldn't hold back any longer.
In the vast, silent palace, a thunderous, extremely loud "smack" suddenly rang out.
Instantly, the servants inside and outside the hall knelt down on the ground upon hearing the sound.
It was supposed to be a heavy slap, landing hatefully on the face of the loud, boisterous man who had just entered, and his only son, who had been a disappointment since childhood.
Before the man could react, the empress dowager immediately berated him, "You worthless wretch, who are you talking to? Is this the attitude you should have towards your mother?!"
Caught off guard, the unfilial son couldn't understand why he, who had always been able to act recklessly in front of his mother since childhood, would receive a slap he had never received before.
This was the first time he had ever received such a gift in his life. Without a second thought, he hurriedly covered his aching half-face and looked at the Empress Dowager in utter terror, saying, "Mother, you..."
The Empress interrupted him through gritted teeth, saying, "You worthless thing! I could tolerate your willful and reckless behavior all the time, but I never imagined you would even..."
It seems that even the person speaking finds it extremely difficult to say.
The person standing in front of her at this moment is the apple of her eye, whom she has cherished and protected since the moment she was born, after ten months of hard pregnancy!
But now, such filthy thoughts were lurking inside him, making her feel utterly humiliated.
After a pause, she took a breath and said, "I truly never imagined that you would even go after a married woman. I had no idea that you had become so outrageous. Who do you think you are? You could have any woman in the world you wanted, yet you dared to set your sights on her?"
The Second Prince, Mei Zhihao, who had been in a daze since entering the hall, suddenly came to his senses and immediately glared at the faces of the servants in the hall. The servants were so frightened that they all lowered their heads and remained silent.
However, no one knows where he got the courage. Not only did he not repent or admit his mistake, he also mustered up the courage to openly contradict the Empress in front of everyone.
With a "whoosh," Mei Zhihao lowered his hand from his face, straightened his clothes, took two steps forward to the Empress's side, and declared with great conviction, "So what if I have designs on that Princess of Western Qin? I simply love her. Moreover, I swear that one day I will definitely have her."
"You..." Upon hearing this, Ji Hou turned around abruptly and stared directly into Mei Zhihao's eyes.
Looking into his gaze, which she had never seen before, she felt as if she had never known this seven-foot-tall body that had grown from a piece of flesh that had fallen from her own body.
In an instant, the room fell silent. A mother and child stared into each other's eyes for a long time, locked in a stalemate that seemed to offer no room for negotiation...
The moonlight was setting in the west, and the night sky was dotted with stars.
The cool autumn night lacks the excitement of spring and the passion of summer. Though it is not as cold as the dead of winter, the few colorful fallen leaves quietly wither away. Even so, they are enough to make those who are interested feel fear, for they foreshadow the imminent arrival of the cold winter.
Having left the Empress's palace, Xuan Yuan Yue returned to her only private corner. In the vast and magnificent imperial palace of the wealthy Dongning Kingdom on the Lingkong Continent, in a rather inconspicuous corner...
Compared to her Fenghua Palace in the Western Qin Imperial Palace, her current palace seems quite cramped, because Mei Zhixuan has never been favored by the Empress Dowager since childhood, so she would not arrange a good place for him to live.
But being able to be with the person she loves, no matter how small or crowded, makes her feel incredibly happy.
Home is where there is love.
Fortunately, the maids that her mother arranged to accompany her in her dowry were all girls who had served her since childhood, so the interior and exterior of this small palace were decorated in a way that was somewhat similar to Fenghua Palace.
So much so that she often gets confused and thinks she is still in her own palace in the Western Qin Kingdom.
However, upon waking from the dream, it often amplified her homesickness.
Inside the hall, wisps of incense smoke filled the air.
She sat quietly by the couch, gently waving a round fan with a plum blossom and moonlit night pattern in her hand, her eyes fixed on her sleeping child's face, filled with emotion.
She is no longer the innocent and naive girl she once was, and she has also shed the fearless and impetuous princess temperament she had in the Western Qin Palace.
Now, for the love she once wholeheartedly and recklessly pursued, for her initial choice, she has long since learned the ways of the world in this imperial harem, how to navigate all sorts of complex relationships. As for that so-called love, that good man, he…
Suddenly, she realized that one day in the future, everyone would become the very thing they used to hate.
Time is truly an incredible thing; it effortlessly wears down the rough edges of everyone in the world. Only time is the ultimate winner, the master of everything.
Thinking back on everything that has happened over the past year or so, the painful moments and the sweet ones...
She gazed silently at that adorable little face, thinking to herself that when she was born like this child, her father or mother must have cared for her with the same love she had now.
Her thoughts were a jumble of emotions, but when she thought of her father and mother, her heart ached and tears instantly welled up in her eyes.
Just then, her maid Jinlan came in carrying a cloak. She pouted and complained as she draped it over Xuanyuan Yue's shoulders.
"Princess, our Third Prince is really something. It's one thing that he doesn't have time to spend with the young prince and you on ordinary days, but for such an important banquet today, even if he's busy, he should have come back to celebrate with you!"
Even though she had been speaking for quite some time, Xuan Yuan Yue remained completely unmoved.
Jinlan, recalling the many rumors she had overheard in the palaces recently, spoke again with a grave expression: "Princess, since the Northwest War and the fall of the Northern Lie Kingdom, there has been much discussion throughout the Lingkong Continent, saying..."
After hearing Jinlan's words, Xuanyuan Yue's gaze became serious. She then breathed a sigh of relief and finally spoke.
"As the saying goes, 'a tall tree catches the wind.' On the surface, Qin Huangshu's great defeat of Bei Lie seems like a victory for Western Qin, and our territory has been expanded. However, Qin Huangshu's risky move to find Yun'er was too inappropriate, making Western Qin the target of everyone's criticism. Now, the three kingdoms of Lingkong must all have their own plans for Western Qin."
He paused, then slowly rose and sat down at the table, saying with even greater worry, "The thing I feared most is about to happen..."
Upon hearing this, Jinlan seemed to understand, and quietly wiped away her tears. She stepped forward and massaged Xuanyuan Yue's back while saying, "Princess, Jinlan misses home. Jinlan misses home so much. What if one day, if things change between Dongning and Xiqin...?"
Xuanyuan Yue raised her gaze to her sleeping son on the bed, and said nothing more...
With a "thump".
Unexpectedly, Jinlan suddenly knelt down in front of Xuanyuan Yue, tightly hugging her knees, and choked out, "Princess, how could things have turned out like this..."
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