"Tuoba Ze is an extremely wary person, and he hides his true nature very well. If Third Brother suddenly goes to find him like this, based on my understanding of him, even if you find him, you will have no chance of actually seeing him!"
As Mei Zhixuan was pondering, Mei Xiyuan suddenly made another request: "I promise I will bring him back to you from Xiqin, but before I leave Dongning, let me see the Empress Dowager!"
Upon hearing the sound, Mei Zhixuan immediately came to his senses.
Clearly, every step he takes now is being led by the nose by the woman in front of him.
So he tried to refuse by saying, "What if I, the prince, don't agree?"
Mei Xiyuan said with absolute confidence, "Since you, my royal brother, are not sincere, then let's just forget about it. Let's cancel this deal. At worst, we'll both suffer heavy losses and see who loses more..."
For a moment, Mei Zhixuan was so angry that his teeth itched. He couldn't do anything about her, and in the end, he could only nod in agreement: "Alright, this prince agrees!"
He also warned her, "Don't even think about playing any more tricks, or I, the prince, will make sure you die a horrible death..."
Upon hearing this, Mei Xiyuan smiled in a way that was hard to decipher.
That night.
In a corner of the palace, the palace remains the same.
But those who now live in the palace have long since shed their fine clothes and adorned themselves with jewels.
At this moment, dressed in a simple blue robe, holding a string of Buddhist prayer beads, he is chanting incantations, devoutly accompanying the ancient Buddha under the lamp.
Inside the hall, wisps of incense smoke rose.
After receiving permission, Mei Xiyuan practically ran all the way here.
By the dim candlelight in the hall, his gaze fell upon the figure he had longed for day and night, a figure he felt incredibly close to.
He instinctively grabbed the doorframe with one hand and froze on the spot.
His body began to tremble, and he could no longer take a step.
It felt like everything had been so hard-won, and tears seemed to be welling up in my eyes.
After an unknown amount of time, a trembling voice finally rang out: "Mother..."
Upon hearing the sound, he felt his heart skip a beat and suddenly opened his eyes.
Yet, she still felt as if she were sleepwalking, just like countless times before, but she couldn't help but slowly turn her head towards the direction from which the sound came from behind.
Suddenly, Ji Hou stared wide-eyed at the direction where Mei Xiyuan was standing, completely stunned.
He spoke haltingly, as if he couldn't even speak properly.
"My son..."
"Is it really you?"
"Is that you back?"
"You're really back?"
Hearing the sound.
Finally, Mei Xiyuan could no longer hold back and stepped over the threshold, rushing towards the Empress.
He hugged the Empress tightly, tears welling up in his eyes instantly, and said excitedly, "Mother, your son has returned!"
"Your Majesty, I am finally able to see you again."
"Your Majesty, I thought I would never see you again in this lifetime."
While gently stroking Mei Xiyuan's soft, black hair, the Empress Dowager said with great joy, "I heard someone in the palace say that you have returned to the country. I didn't believe it at first and thought I was hallucinating. I didn't expect it to be true."
After a moment, Mei Xiyuan slowly released her embrace, carefully examining the Empress's attire and the many white hairs that had grown at her temples, and asked, "Mother, what happened after I left Dongning? How did you become like this?"
The Empress Dowager helped Mei Xiyuan sit down and said slowly, "This is a long story. My son, please sit down and I will tell you slowly."
After listening to the Empress's explanation, Mei Xiyuan clenched her fists tightly.
Finally, he muttered angrily, "I knew it must be her. That bitch Yi Shangyun, just wait and see how I deal with her later!"
The force he exerted was so great that even his fist seemed to crack.
At this moment, the Empress Dowager suddenly asked, "By the way, how have you been getting along with the Prince of Qin these past few years? Has he treated you well? Why did you come back alone?"
For a moment, Mei Xiyuan was caught off guard and genuinely didn't know how to answer her. She quickly avoided eye contact and stammered, "I..."
He quickly thought to himself, "After Lu Yuan's commotion, everyone in the palace knows about my being divorced and sent back to the country. I'm afraid the Empress Dowager will find out sooner or later. Rather than letting her hear the news from others, I'd better tell her myself."
With this thought in mind, Mei Xiyuan decided to tell the truth about the matter.
Suddenly she stood up, and then, with a thud, knelt down heavily in front of the Empress.
The Empress Dowager was clearly startled by his actions and asked, "What are you doing? What happened?"
Mei Xiyuan took a deep breath and finally mustered up her courage.
He then confessed and apologized, saying, "Mother, I am sorry. It is my fault for being useless and failing to win the favor of Prince Qin, Xuanyuan Han. Now that we have divorced and I have returned to my country, I know that I have no face to see you, Mother. I hope you will forgive me."
Upon hearing this, the Empress Dowager also stood up abruptly and exclaimed in surprise.
"What did you say?"
"Divorce and return to China..."
"You and that King of Qin..."
"how so?"
Mei Xiyuan was also quite helpless about this.
Unexpectedly, instead of defending and comforting her, the Empress Dowager was furious and even uttered a curse: "Useless, truly useless, how could you be so incompetent..."
Thinking of Mei Zhihao, who was still in a daze, the Empress was almost driven mad by the brother and sister she had given birth to: "Neither of you two is useful, it's infuriating!"
In an instant, the Empress Dowager, overwhelmed with anger and frustration, felt dizzy and as if she were about to faint, and her body began to sway.
Upon seeing this, Mei Xiyuan hurriedly reached out to help her up, but the Empress Dowager ruthlessly pushed her away, saying, "Get out of here, I don't need your help!"
He continued to berate her: "How have I taught you since you were a child? How could you not even win a man's heart? What use are you? A princess of a nation, you traveled thousands of miles to marry a foreign ruler, only to be sent back untouched. You have utterly disgraced the royal family."
Reflecting on her life, the Empress lamented, "I had hoped you would make up for my regrets, but I never imagined you would be even worse than me."
The Empress Dowager was filled with anger and thought: "You..."
Are you really trying to drive me crazy?
Seeing the Empress's anger, Mei Xiyuan almost begged her to hug her leg tightly and said cautiously, "Mother, please calm down. Your subject has really done your best."
The thought of the culprit who caused her humiliation today filled her with hatred: "It's all her fault. If she hadn't used her seductive arts to seduce the King of Qin and interfere, how could I, with my talents, have failed?"
Then, as if realizing something from those words, she asked, "Who...is the 'she' you're talking about?"
Mei Xiyuan gritted her teeth and said, "It's Yi Shangyun!"
Then, puzzled, she asked, "Who is that person?"
Mei Xiyuan said indignantly, "She is Princess Yongning, personally bestowed by Father Emperor. She and Prince Qin were already acquainted before I married into the Prince's mansion."
Then it dawned on her: "So it was her?"
Looking back, the memory remains vivid: "This person was truly remarkable; even I was no match for her."
Mei Xiyuan said confidently, "Don't worry, Mother, I will definitely avenge this."
Upon hearing this, the Empress slowly looked at Mei Xiyuan's face.
At this moment, Mei Xiyuan handed the imperial edict she had brought to the Empress Dowager, saying, "Your Majesty, I have important business to attend to and will be away for a while. Please keep this edict safe. When I return, the three of us, mother and son, will have a good life. We will never be separated again in this life!"
The Empress, unaware of the edict's contents, grasped the document, which appeared to be extremely difficult to obtain, and asked, "You said you're going out? Where are you going?"
Mei Xiyuan took a deep breath and said, "Revenge for grudges, grievances for grievances. All these things should come to an end."
At this moment, the Empress seemed to understand what Mei Xiyuan was saying, but she didn't know what to say to her.
In Mei Xiyuan's heart, how much she wished the Empress could say something to him, even just a word or two of comfort.
But when they arrived, the Empress Dowager ultimately said nothing.
Mei Xiyuan was extremely disappointed.
After performing a final kneeling bow to her, he said, "Mother, take care..."
He got up, turned around and left without looking back.
Watching Mei Xiyuan's departing figure, the Empress felt a mix of emotions and silently looked at the imperial edict she was clutching in her hand.
He slowly opened it, his eyes falling on the writing on it, and his eyes widened in disbelief.
"this……"
"This is……"
"What exactly is going on?"
Several days later, in the Western Qin Kingdom.
The Prince of Qin's Mansion.
Seeing Cheng Liang rush back from outside, Xuan Yuanhan asked in a deep voice, "Have you found out who those spies who have recently infiltrated the city are?"
On the way back, Cheng Liang felt something was amiss, so he replied, "Your Highness, I have already investigated and found out that those people all came from Longhu City in Dongning Kingdom."
Xuanyuan Han was genuinely surprised by this result, and while pondering, he repeated, "Dragon Tiger City..."
Cheng Liang nodded and continued, "According to the latest news from our people in the Dongning Palace, the ephedra that was stolen from us was reported to the court by Lu Yuan, the young city lord of Longhu City, after he found out the truth."
Xuan Yuanhan hurriedly pressed, "Then who exactly hijacked that batch of ephedra?"
Cheng Liang hesitated for a moment, then said, "At first, we all thought it was Tuoba Ze who did it. But in fact, it was Princess Yongle!"
Xuan Yuanhan was indeed somewhat surprised: "It's her?"
"How could she have such methods?" Xuan Yuanhan was also deeply puzzled.
Cheng Liang said, "I heard that after Princess Yongle left the palace, she met Tuoba Ze through Miss Lu's introduction and formed an alliance with him. Tuoba Ze then helped Princess Yongle arrange for his own people to do it. The purpose was to use this opportunity to bring down Mei Zhixuan, whose foundation was still unstable."
After a pause, Cheng Liang suddenly remembered something important and said, "Today we also learned that it seems a very important person will be coming to meet with them in the next few days."
"An important person?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com