"Why does it have to be me and not my brother? Isn't my brother more suitable for this? Father, you know I never wanted to take your place."
The old king stared at his gleaming, bright, and stubborn eyes, his breathing suddenly quickening, and he couldn't help but cover his mouth and cough heavily again: "Cough cough cough cough, cough cough cough cough..."
Tuoba Hong hurriedly got up and went to pour tea. The old king suddenly felt something strange in his hand, so he gently moved the large hand covering his mouth away and saw that it was a mouthful of foul blood that he had just coughed up.
He paused for a moment, afraid that Tuoba Hong would see it when he returned, and quickly hid the hand behind his back.
Tuoba Hong quickly returned and helped him slowly drink a cup of hot tea. He then patted his back to help him catch his breath. Seeing that he had finally calmed down, he spoke apologetically.
“I’m sorry, Father, I didn’t mean to disobey you. I’m just dedicated to the study of herbs. I hate endless killing and plundering. Do you think I, Hong’er, really have the ability to protect this grassland?”
The old king, having caught his breath, said, “In the vast land of Western Qin, there is an old saying: ‘Nothing is difficult in this world if you set your mind to it.’ This shows that in the world, there is no such thing as easy or difficult, only whether you want to or not. As long as you want to, even the most difficult things can be accomplished.”
As he spoke, his gaze met Tuoba Hong's melancholy eyes with unwavering determination. He said, "The so-called romance and love, with the passage of time, will eventually turn into these calm and uneventful years. All the initial passion and romance will vanish completely. 'A good man's ambition lies in all directions.' Only when you truly possess this entire continent will you know how vast and wonderful this world is, and only then will you truly live a life worthy of a man."
Unexpectedly, upon hearing this, Tuoba Hong lowered his head and murmured in a low voice, still feeling extremely suppressed: "But in this life, Hong'er only wishes to have one person's heart, and to stay together until our hair turns white!"
As soon as he finished speaking, a last glimmer of hope suddenly rose in his heart. Perhaps if he persisted one more time, he could change his father's mind. So, he suddenly raised his head and looked into the old king's eyes with pleading eyes, saying almost begging, "Father, please grant Hong'er's wish. My brother is a thousand times, ten thousand times more suitable for this position than I am."
The old king looked at him silently for a while, then slowly said, "Your elder brother is indeed brave and skilled in battle, but he is ruthless and cruel, and has lost his benevolence. As the ancient sages said, 'He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world.' Only a benevolent person can win the hearts of the people and is the best candidate to be the ruler of our Northern Lie Kingdom, so that we can develop Northern Lie into a stronger nation. Therefore, the only person who can shoulder this great responsibility is you. Your father believes that you can definitely do it."
Finally, even this last glimmer of hope was quickly and completely extinguished, leaving him with no choice but to give up again, his gaze falling helplessly.
Seeing this, the old king said meaningfully, "Your father is old, but you have a long road ahead of you. What you are experiencing now, your father has also experienced. My child, it's time for you to grow up! Your father cannot accompany you for a lifetime, nor protect you for a lifetime. But the path you will take in the future will certainly be your own choice. If the person you are infatuated with does not have her heart with you, what will you do? Think about it, Wule, does she really treat you the same way you treat her?"
“She…” Tuoba Hong suddenly raised his head, but was unable to speak again, silently turning his gaze to the empty space.
Clearly, he could not answer with certainty. The hesitation that had appeared on his face since he entered the room, the melancholy and insecurity on his face when he talked about Wule, and the reluctance to speak—all these actions revealed the helplessness in his heart, which the old king had all witnessed.
But then, Tuoba Hong suddenly came to his senses, looked curiously at the old king's face, and exclaimed in surprise, "'What Hong'er is experiencing now, Father has also experienced...' Could it be... Father also... Who is she?"
The old king looked on with a long, drawn-out expression as he recalled, "That was a long, long time ago. Speaking of which, she looked almost exactly like Wule. So much so that when your brother brought Wule back, and Father first saw her on the grassland, he really thought she was her. She was a kind-hearted girl from Dongning. She once saved Father's life."
"The same as Wu Lechang? A woman from Dongning Kingdom? She saved Father's life? Hong'er, how come I've never heard Father mention her before?" Tuoba Hong was clearly stunned.
The old king was also lost in deep memories of the beautiful past: "She is the woman who has been hidden in my father's heart all his life. My father has never mentioned her to anyone. How could you know?"
"What exactly happened?" Tuoba Hong seemed very interested. He never expected that someone like his father, who had spent his life on the battlefield, would have such a tender and unforgettable love, keeping a woman silently hidden in his heart for a lifetime.
At this moment, the old king suddenly threw off the covers as if he wanted to get up from his bed. Tuoba Hong quickly reached out to support him and said with concern, "Father, what do you want to do? Your body is very weak and you need to rest in bed. It's best not to get up."
Although the old king wore a smile on his face, he was extremely sad and reluctant to part with his family. As he got off the bed with Tuoba Hong's help, he said, "Father has been lying on the bed for too long. I feel like my whole body is about to fall apart. I want to get up and move around a bit. While I still have a little strength, I want to take a good look at this beautiful grassland and etch it into Father's mind."
His voice trembled slightly at the end. Upon hearing this, Tuoba Hong felt a pang of sorrow well up in his heart. He lowered his head, trying his best to suppress his grief, and helped the old king step by step out of the tent.
Outside the tent.
Nearby, in the heart of the grassland, several cormorants and water birds circled low above the lake, slicing through the water like arrows, playing with the sparkling waves.
On the lakeside, a leisurely brown horse grazes with a wild, reddish-brown pony, the grass rippling in waves.
The sun shines on the earth, and the vast grassland is like a green silk ribbon, decorated with wildflowers in their best form, and scattered with flocks of sheep dotting the fabric.
White clouds tumbled in the azure sky, stretching endlessly with the distant mountains and merging hand in hand with the horizon.
The old king gazed intently, almost greedily, at everything before him, and sighed silently, "What a captivating, free, beautiful, and mysterious land this is!"
Although Tuoba Hong, at this age, could not fully appreciate the old king's sentiments, he too gazed at the scenery before him in a daze.
After a while, the old king slowly sat down on the ground and said in a low voice, "That year, my father went to travel to the wealthy Dongning Kingdom. Unexpectedly, a terrible plague broke out in Dongning Kingdom, which almost destroyed the country. At a time when the entire Dongning court was at a loss for what to do, a woman suddenly appeared in the countryside. She miraculously developed an antidote and saved the whole country. Of course, that included my father."
"And then what happened?" Tuoba Hong asked.
"Later, because she saved the entire Dongning Kingdom, and by a series of coincidences, she eventually became the Empress of the Dongning Kingdom. But then..."
As the old king spoke, his brows furrowed more and more deeply, and his face revealed an endless coldness.
"What happened next?" Tuoba Hong asked anxiously, as if he had already sensed something bad was about to happen.
The old king suddenly became solemn, even clenching his fists: "Later, I heard that she was about to give birth, and despite her pregnancy, she went to the Western Qin Kingdom for some reason. In the Western Qin Kingdom, in order to... in order to save that young child, King Xuanyuan Han of Qin was forced off a cliff by bandits and died!"
"What?" Tuoba Hong stared at him wide-eyed, stunned.
After a long silence, the old king seemed to finally calm down. He let out a long sigh and said, "To love someone is to hope that she can have a better life. But if I had known earlier that she was powerless to protect her, I would never have done anything... But now, it's too late to say or do anything."
Suddenly, he shifted his gaze to Tuoba Hong's profile, who was gazing thoughtfully at the scenery before him, and said with a silly grin, "Back then, Father could only silently help her search for medicinal herbs everywhere, to accomplish what she wanted to do, and to heal the sick. Yet even so, Father was still very happy. It seems that in this long life, there was nothing happier than being by her side in Dongning."
So this was the tenderness his father held deep in his heart. Tuoba Hong couldn't help but feel a pang of emotion at the depth of his feelings. But then he thought to himself, "So how can you expect your son, Hong'er, to do what your father himself cannot do?"
For a moment, the old king stared blankly at his son's face, not knowing how to answer him.
He sighed softly, then took out a waist token from his person and handed it to her, saying, "Yes, it's precisely because your father couldn't do it that I hope you can, because you are stronger than your father. You are much braver than your father was back then; at least you had the courage to tell Wu Le your feelings. Your father's days are numbered, and I have told you everything that should and shouldn't have been said. This military token and this entire grassland—I entrust them all to you."
As soon as he finished speaking and placed it in her hand, he covered his mouth and coughed heavily again: "Cough cough cough cough..."
"Father, Hong'er..." Tuoba Hong had almost no chance to refuse. As soon as he took the object that the old king forced into his hands, he was filled with mixed feelings.
The old king coughed as he waved to him: "Go, since you promised your brother, you must keep your word. Don't let the people of Beilie be disappointed in the royal family!"
"Father, if Hong'er leaves, what will happen to your health..." Tuoba Hong asked worriedly.
"This old body of mine won't die anytime soon, so you can go in peace. Your father will be waiting for your triumphant return," the old king said, forcing a strong voice.
"In that case, please take good care of yourself, Father. Hong'er will definitely return soon."
The old king smiled and nodded at him, and Tuoba Hong then got up and slowly left.
"Someone, go and find out what's going on at the border."
No sooner had Tuoba Hong gone than the old king summoned the hidden guards outside the tent with a cold expression and gave them orders.
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