"What resurrection pill?"
Tuoba Hong exhaled a deep breath and explained, "She said it was given to her by a Taoist priest she met by chance in the Western Qin Kingdom, who said that the Rejuvenation Pill could help her regain her memory."
"What kind of Taoist is she? Why does she want to regain her memories? Isn't it good as it is? Doesn't she just want absolute freedom? I've already given her that, what more does she want? Why does she want to go back to the past?"
Tuoba Ze glared furiously at Yi Shangyun's closed eyes, slamming his fist heavily on the edge of the bed beneath her as he spoke angrily.
The only candle in the entire tent, which was already flickering in the wind and emitting a very weak light, was suddenly extinguished by a gust of wind that stirred it up, but it stubbornly held on.
Already troubled and depressed by the recent string of defeats that felt like seeing ghosts, Yi Shangyun's current state and the fruitless search for the Western Qin guardians made it seem as if nothing could ease his mind.
Upon seeing the light in front of him suddenly dim and flicker, Tuoba Ze felt even angrier, as if the candlelight was deliberately working against him. He could no longer hold back and exploded like a firecracker.
"With such dim candlelight in the room, is my Northern Lie really doomed to perish? Is it that we can't even afford to light candles anymore?"
Upon hearing this, Tuoba Hong, who was standing nearby, was furious that Tuoba Hong had even uttered such words about the destruction of the country. He glanced at the flickering candlelight, which seemed to be trembling with fear, and quickly stepped forward to explain to Tuoba Hong.
“Your Majesty, please calm down. You are unaware of the reason why this tent is so dimly lit. It is because Wule dislikes bright light.”
"Dislikes bright light? Is it because it's too bright?" Tuoba Ze said, giving him a sidelong glance. "What do you mean, dislikes bright light? Is it because it's too bright? I think the problem isn't with the light itself, but with her mind. She's clearly still hopelessly in love with that Prince Qin, Xuanyuan Han. Afraid of the light, huh... Hmph..."
Looking at Yun Anjing's calm face, he snorted coldly, then got up, put his hands behind his back, and strode to the center of the tent. He loudly summoned the guards standing outside the tent and gave them orders.
"Someone, light up this entire tent, inside and out, for me. I want to be able to count every single hair on her head. Go now!"
"yes."
After the two guards came in to receive their orders, they carefully began to light lamps in various places.
Tuoba Hong looked anxious, opening his mouth as if he wanted to say something, but seeing his uncontrollable rage, he knew he wouldn't listen to any advice. He could only let the guards illuminate the tent as if it were daytime in a short while.
Tuoba Ze seemed quite satisfied with the effect, nodding repeatedly.
The guards withdrew, and he slowly turned to the side, his face cold and stern as he said resentfully towards the bedside, "It seems I've been too accommodating to you all this time, indulging your every whim. Since that's the case, don't blame me for breaking our gentleman's agreement!"
Upon hearing this, Tuoba Hong glanced at Yi Shangyun in surprise, then looked at Tuoba Ze's face and asked, "Brother, what do you want to do?"
Tuoba Ze thought for a moment, then said calmly, "Take her back and lock her up. Order people to keep a close watch on her and take good care of her. Don't let her come out and do these things again."
Tuoba Hong was shocked: "Your Majesty, you must not! Wule, she is not the kind of woman who can be kept in captivity. This will drive her crazy."
Unexpectedly, Tuoba Ze was completely unyielding and said even more resolutely, "Even if he really went mad, it's better than being half-dead like this. My mind is made up, there's no need to say more."
Tuoba Hong still wanted to try to secure the freedom she desired, and hurriedly explained, "Your Majesty, you don't know, but actually, she's quite calm now. If it weren't for me..."
As she spoke, a moment of hesitation flashed through her mind, but she continued, "If it weren't for the fact that the hundred-day window for the Rejuvenation Pill is almost over, at which point she would revert to her former appearance, and given the relentless searching for her by various forces on the grasslands, she would have decided to regain her memories to confront everything and stop running away. That's why..."
Before he could finish speaking, Tuoba Ze had already gritted his teeth and suddenly turned around to glare at him, interrupting him completely: "Shut up! Didn't you hear what I said? My mind is made up, and you are not allowed to say another word."
“If Your Majesty insists on doing so, then please forgive me for not agreeing. In any case, I will absolutely not agree to Your Majesty doing this. Wu Le is not a horse or a sheep on the grassland, to be locked up or released at will. She is a living person with blood, flesh, thoughts, and feelings. How can you be allowed to mistreat her at will?”
Seeing that he was so willful and arbitrary, Tuoba Hong also made his firm stance clear without backing down. He flicked his sleeves, turned his face away angrily, stared at Xiang Yiyun's face, and said nothing more.
The conversation between the two reached a complete impasse, and for a moment, the tent was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
After an unknown amount of time, Tuoba Ze finally sighed deeply, turned around and stepped forward. His hand froze in mid-air for a moment before he slowly placed it on Tuoba Hong's shoulder from behind, patted it lightly twice, and spoke softly.
“Brother, I’m doing this for her own good. Look at her, ever since she came to the grasslands, she’s been quiet and withdrawn, barely eating or sleeping. She doesn’t seem to care about her health at all. If this continues, something bad will happen to her sooner or later. I’ve gone to great lengths to bring her back to the country, so why would I harm her?”
After speaking, he remained silent for a while in front of Tuoba Hong's broad back. Only after subtly noticing that Tuoba Hong's body moved slightly did Tuoba Ze let go of his hand and walk to the only rough table in the tent to sit down and continue speaking.
"Now, those who come to the grasslands to search for her are nothing more than Xuanyuan Han's spies who are still unwilling to accept the news that she is dead. These people are just like the wild grass that can never be burned out on my great grasslands, they are truly despicable!"
As he spoke, he couldn't help but get excited again, and slammed his hand heavily on the table in front of him once more.
The table, which could barely be called a flimsy piece of wood and was made from materials that Yi Shangyun had personally gathered from the forest, could not withstand his palm strike. It was instantly shattered and fell to the ground in pieces, some still intact and others completely cracked and ruined.
"What kind of nonsense is this?" Tuoba Ze was furious.
Tuoba Hong stared blankly at the mess on the ground and said woodenly, "Apart from the medicinal herbs necessary for treating patients, she refused to accept anything from our Northern Lie royal family. Therefore, everything in this room was made by her own hands using materials she found herself."
As he spoke, he paused and glanced around the tent, noticing the numerous holes everywhere: "Even this dilapidated tent was obtained by trading her last remaining savings for scraps from a herder family she had treated. The herder, grateful for her life-saving act, refused to accept her money and offered it to her, but she resolutely refused, until later when she fainted by the lake and was nearly attacked by a pack of wolves..."
Remembering the lonely, helpless, and inhumanly difficult days that Yi Shangyun spent here after learning that Tuoba Ze was actually the eldest prince of the Northern Lie Kingdom, she felt a surge of anger and ran away.
Especially fortunately, he found her in time on that dark night, after a long day of treating patients, she was hungry, exhausted, and homeless. Finally, she collapsed from exhaustion by a lake.
Beside her, a pack of hungry wolves lurking in the shadows of the forest cast menacing green eyes at her...
Even now, thinking about this still fills Tuoba Hong with dread. For a moment, he was speechless.
After a moment, Tuoba Hong took a breath and said to Tuoba Ze, who was also stunned, "If I hadn't deliberately concealed my identity from her, I'm afraid I wouldn't have been able to get close to her, let alone protect her."
Unexpectedly, Tuoba Ze remained obstinate and said, "This woman is truly incurable. But that's precisely why we must protect her. You saw it with your own eyes; her medical skills are nothing short of miraculous. With her, none of the nobles on our grasslands will ever suffer from illness again."
Tuoba Hong shook his head, looking at his face in surprise: "Why doesn't Your Majesty understand even now? In her heart, there is no distinction between high and low, noble and lowly. Here, the phrase she said most often to the herdsmen was 'A doctor's heart is like a parent's.' In her eyes, whether noble or commoner, everyone should be protected by the country and receive treatment when sick, instead of being discriminated against or abandoned by the country. She also..."
Before he could finish speaking, Tuoba Ze impatiently cut him off: "Alright, no need to argue anymore. Since ancient times, the grasslands have been ruled by men, and the relationship between nobles and commoners has always been the same. How can there be equality? If it weren't for the strong support of the nobles, wouldn't my Northern Lie royal family be nothing but an empty shell, with nothing left?! Besides, aren't we risking our lives every day to protect this land to safeguard them? What more do they want?"
“Brother…” Tuoba Hong still wanted to argue, but Tuoba Ze stopped him sternly: “Enough, I came to you to discuss more important matters, not to discuss matters of rank with you. As a prince, what kind of behavior is it to run wildly across the grasslands following a woman around all day? Do you know? The 160,000-strong army of Western Qin, personally commanded by Prince Xuanyuan Han of Qin, is marching in a mighty force straight toward my Northern Lie Kingdom!”
Upon hearing this, Tuoba Hong exclaimed in surprise, "What?!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com