Blood-painted Rivers and Mountains
Lu Xingshuang looked at the bright yellow figure that was so close.
His tone was disdainful, but his eyes were gentle: "You are an emperor, and you want to imitate the picture book and play the role of suicide for love. Am I wrong to scold you?"
Qin Huaijin returned to his bed and sat down, complaining, "Without you, I know how long I can remain emperor. Rather than end up with a father and son being killed, I'd rather earn a reputation that will live on for generations."
Lu Xingshuang finally chuckled: "That's my fault."
Qin Huaijin lowered his head: "Xingshuang, to be honest, I don't like Qin Shu either. I really don't like him."
He murmured, "It's not that I don't like it, but sometimes I wonder... if I had his temperament and skills when I was his age, wouldn't you have to work so hard?"
He smiled with relief: "I, maybe I envy him."
Lu Xingshuang shook his head, as if thinking seriously: "Don't be envious."
She looked at him with a smile in her eyes: "If you were really like him back then, I probably wouldn't look down on you."
Qin Huaijin suddenly became like a child who had been given candy, showing off with a bit of youthful spirit: "The book 'Xizhou Female Heroes' that you loved the most back then was actually drawn by me."
Lu Xingshuang turned and asked him softly, "Then why don't you paint?"
Qin Huaijin looked at her, his eyes full of words.
He murmured, "...I don't know how this will end."
What should I paint? I should paint the heroine in bright clothes and riding a fierce horse, trapped on the throne, and stained with power politics in the ink-stained court all her life.
The scholar who made a promise in his life compromised with the aristocratic family time and time again, and had three palaces and six courtyards, but still failed to protect his child.
No matter how ugly the street picture book is, it shouldn't have such an ending.
Qin Huaijin looked up at her. This lord of all the lands in the world, with childish uneasiness, mustered up the courage to ask for an answer.
He asked, "Xingshuang, do you regret it?"
He saw the other person smile, his eyes gentle: "It doesn't matter. It's you, that's enough."
Qin Huaijin finally felt relieved. He lowered his head and smiled: "Xingshuang, give me eighty coins and I will sell you a painting."
He said, “I’ve figured out how the book is going to end.”
He looked at her, as if looking back at an old dream of mountains and rivers: "It's a chivalrous spirit, you will definitely like it."
Suddenly, a strange blood-red color rose in the sky above Shengde Temple.
Within a thousand miles, the air was like solidified amber, completely encasing all disturbances. Blood surged from Shengde Temple like a tide, sweeping across the entire battlefield.
The sound of evening drums is deep, and the melodious Buddhist chants are so gentle that not a speck of dust settles.
···
They met in a drizzle.
The sudden rain fell on the bluestone slabs of the town, wetting the white clothes of the woman on the bridge and soaking the paper of the scholar under the bridge.
Lu Xingshuang found the scholar's flustered look really funny, so she held up an umbrella over his painting.
The wind was so strong that a painting was blown up by the wind and landed on her clothes, and the ink stains turned into mist and rain.
Qin Huaijin hurriedly put away his brushes, ink, and painting tools under his umbrella. He made a living by selling paintings. It was pouring rain, and he couldn't even afford to apologize, let alone have dinner.
The young man looked up, feeling rather embarrassed: "Let me give you a painting."
He really draws well.
The woman in the painting has a smile on her face and a heroic spirit that leaps out of the paper, as if she could walk out of the painting.
Lu Xingshuang looked at him for a long time, then suddenly smiled and said, "How much do you charge for painting per year? I'll pay double. Come with me and travel the world."
Qin Huaijin nodded.
From then on, the scholar and the heroine traveled together and traveled around the world.
She rode her horse and he followed her, and they captured the landscapes, human nature, and conflicts in the martial arts world they saw, stroke by stroke, in their paintings.
She would send those paintings back home, and would also look through them at night, telling stories with great joy.
Late at night, Qin Huaijin often sat alone under the lamp, painting the chapters he had never told her.
She is the protagonist, traveling around the world with a sword in hand, free and easy.
The heroine herself became a loyal reader of this illustrated biography, but she didn't know that the author was right next to her.
One day, Lu Xingshuang was flipping through a new volume when she couldn't help but complain, "Why is there suddenly a scholar here? A female knight should be free and unencumbered, wandering freely and alone."
When Qin Huaijin heard this, his heart ached. His lips moved slightly, but he just whispered: But I like you too.
The words were so soft that only he could hear them.
Lu Xingshuang didn't hear these words, but in her heart, she had already drawn the scholar who always followed her silently into her own world.
Life is unpredictable and fate plays tricks on us.
On that night when rain was hitting the banana leaves, news came from the palace: the previous emperor had passed away, and the country was leaderless.
He was surrounded by murderous intentions, and he had no choice but to give it a try, both for his life and for the woman he had fallen in love with.
That night, he confessed to her: "I am not an ordinary painter, I am the son of the King of Li."
Lu Xingshuang's reaction was unexpected: "I also have a secret I haven't told you. I am the princess of the Western Palace."
Lu Xingshuang asked him, "Do you want to be the emperor?"
Lu Xingshuang responded to him: "West Mansion cannot help you, but I can."
They looked at each other and smiled.
The fine clothes and the galloping horses have turned into jade palaces and golden towers.
The scholar and the female knight were trapped in the court from then on.
Qin Huaijin was an emperor who became emperor late in life. He did not understand the art of power, but was also good at it.
His queen, born in the Western Palace, had been influenced by her family since childhood and was good at scheming and understanding the situation. She became Qin Huaijin's right-hand man and his most solid support in the court.
The writing of "The Heroines of Xizhou" was stopped on the day Qin Huaijin ascended the throne.
He was afraid that she would feel regret when she saw him again. He was even more afraid to ask the question that had tormented him for years: Do you regret it?
The old people in the palace would occasionally talk about the past and say: Your Majesty, you were once so high-spirited and vigorous.
Whenever Qin Huaijin heard these words, his heart ached.
Time flies and my hair turns white.
At the end of the story, the scholar picked up his pen to finish the story, and three thousand alien tribes were wiped out in one day.
It was a blood-painted landscape. Within a radius of a hundred miles, the mountains and rivers were dyed in ink, and the blood became a painting.
He said, "Xingshuang, look, this is the story you like."
···
The last page of the scroll——
It is a small town, a bluestone bridge, a figure in white looking back and smiling, and a scholar standing under the bridge holding an umbrella.
As if nothing has changed.
Finally, they returned to the time when they first met.
···
Chaos, nothingness, consciousness seemed to be torn apart and reassembled, Ren Xuan felt that he had been floating in the chaos for a long time.
When he opened his eyes again, what he saw was not a bloody battlefield, but a simple yet familiar military tent. What he heard was not the sound of fighting, but the gentle sound of wind and sand hitting the tent.
Is this... the Yunzhong Marshal's Mansion?
Ren Xuan sat up suddenly.
There were hurried footsteps outside the tent, the tent was opened, and a general with a stubble on his face rushed in.
Jiang En's eyes instantly turned red, and tears rolled down his face uncontrollably: "General, you are finally awake!"
Ren Xuan was speechless for a moment.
Ren Xuan's mind was in a mess: "Jiang En, how long have I been unconscious?"
Jiang En wiped his tears, his voice trembling with excitement. "Ever since that day...that day when you attempted suicide and failed, you've been in a coma for over half a year..."
Ren Xuan suddenly looked up, his eyes sharp. Why did he come back again?!
Where’s my partner?! Where’s my partner who’s so big?!
No, no, Ren Xuan breathed a sigh of relief and forced himself to calm down. He only asked one question: "Jiang En, how did the late emperor die?"
Jiang En was stunned for a moment, but finally answered honestly, "The battle of the late emperor at Shengde Temple is known to everyone in the world. Three thousand elite alien warriors attempted to assassinate the emperor, but the late emperor stood firm, neither retreating nor dodging, and held the fort alone."
Jiang En's eyes were filled with reverence. "The late emperor stood alone at the frontier, unleashing the forbidden technique of blood-painted landscapes, and perished alongside the aliens. In that battle, not a single one of the three thousand aliens survived! That blood-red barrier enveloped the area for three days and three nights. By the time it dissipated, the late emperor had already..."
Jiang En's voice deepened. "The Emperor's death brought grief to the whole world. Thinking about it now still moves me."
Ren Xuan sighed in his heart. Qin Huaijin had been a waster all his life, and in the end, he got a chance to go down in history.
He narrowed his eyes slightly - the past was changed by him.
Suddenly, Ren Xuan realized an important question: "Where is Lu Wenzhong?!"
He's been lying down for half a year, so Lu Wenzhong wouldn't have been killed by Lu Xingchuan, right?!
Jiang En replied truthfully, "On the seventh day of your coma, Lu Wenzhong had someone from the Lu family rescue you."
As if he had thought of something, Jiang En turned around and took out ten pieces of paper. "By the way, General, on the night the Lu family kidnapped someone, someone left these ten pieces of paper for you."
Ren Xuan unfolded it, and on the plain paper appeared three words faintly: 'You commit suicide?', along with a symbol resembling flowing water.
Ren Xuan suddenly felt refreshed.
Is Lu Shian really concerned about him? Is Lu Shian really concerned about him? ! !
I woke up from a dream, not knowing what had happened in the past few years.
But his love life hasn't slowed down at all.
The letter was a disposable one-time letter. Ren Xuan picked up his pen and wrote back a few hundred words.
First, he explained the "misunderstanding", then shamelessly put the blame on the emperor, and finally asked subtly if he could have a chance to meet and comfort him.
Ren Xuan was in a very good mood for a moment, and finally he had the mind to care about the Dog Emperor again.
Ren Xuan raised his eyes: "Where is His Highness?"
Jiang En now looked as if he wanted to say something but hesitated, his brows furrowed, as if he didn't know how to start.
Ren Xuan's heart tightened, "What happened?"
Jiang En sighed, "General, the Fang family of the Southern Mansion has come to propose a marriage again. His Highness has been claiming illness for less than a week."
Ren Xuan raised his eyebrows: "Claiming to be sick?"
Ren Xuanxin finally understood that this bastard emperor was pretending to be dead again.
Ren Xuan casually asked, "What about Prince Lu?"
But Jiang En's expression became even more difficult.
Jiang En hesitated for a moment, "The Crown Prince and His Highness...had a quarrel."
Ren Xuan almost jumped out of bed, "Fight? What are you fighting about?"
Jiang En shook his head: "I don't know the details, why don't you ask yourself."
Ren Xuan closed his eyes, raised his head and sighed.
I'm floored, Qin Shu. How come every time I open my eyes, you're acting out a script?!
Dog Emperor, do you know how to fall in love?!
...
Yunzhong, the commander’s base.
Ren Xuan's eyebrows twitched a few times as he looked at Qin Shu, who was said to be "seriously ill" lying on the couch.
Qin Shu had a pile of memorials to review, so how could he look sick?
Qin Shu put down the teacup and said calmly, "I know you're awake, but I'm also sick and can't go see you."
"I'm here to see you," Ren Xuan cut straight to the point. "I just woke up and heard Jiang En say you and the prince had another fight. Are you two not pretending this time?"
Qin Shu froze, almost dropping the teacup, and his expression suddenly turned cold: "Mind your own business."
This was the first time Ren Xuan had seen Qin Shu so angry. In the past, even if Qin Shu was unhappy, he would have maintained a calm exterior.
Ren Xuan couldn't help but ask, "Don't tell me, are you really planning to marry the princess of the Fang family? Is Prince Lu arguing with you about this?"
Qin Shu turned around abruptly, almost gritting his teeth: "Who wants to marry that crazy woman Fang Ci!!"
The revered and precious Prince Xiang slammed his fist on the table. "That crazy woman Fang Ci told Xiyun... I want to open a harem... I want to keep male favorites... and I want to reduce the power of the feudal lords! She spoke so confidently and seriously! I don't know what tricks she used to write the heart-testing tablets, but she didn't get any backlash!!"
Ren Xuan started laughing.
It's normal that you didn't get retaliated against. You've done everything, Dog Emperor.
Ren Xuan could already imagine Qin Shu's expression at that time.
It must be—ah? Me?
This blame came from the sky and fell on Qin Shu's head all at once.
Ren Xuan: "Your Majesty, have you explained?"
Qin Shu was silent for a moment, then whispered, "Xiyun said he needs to think about it."
Ren Xuan: "..."
Qin Shu raised his head, his eyes filled with a rare look of confusion and helplessness: "Ren Xuan, did I really do this?"
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