Chapter 1114 Wenquxing Descends to Earth
The begonias in the courtyard were in full bloom, but it seemed as if it was the spring hunt of that year. Caiwei held up the hare she had just hunted and smiled at them, "Add some extra food tonight!"
Xiao Zhan picked up the military report and asked in a deep voice, "What is the current situation in the North?"
The deputy general knelt on one knee and said, "Before Marshal Lan was seriously injured and fell unconscious, he ordered us to close the city and defend it. Now we are following the order to defend the fortress. But the barbarians from Tianshui challenge us every day under the city. Those dirty words..."
The young general suddenly stopped, his knuckles turning white as he clenched his sword tightly. "I am incompetent and allowed those scoundrels to insult Marshal Lan's family. Fortunately, the general is still awake, otherwise how could he face them?"
Jiang Xue waved her sleeves lightly: "I understand, you can go and rest."
When the footsteps disappeared at the end of the corridor, she looked at the bronze bell swinging at the eaves and suddenly chuckled: "Yun Che, do you remember the time when the Mobei Wolf Riders besieged the city..."
"It's eight hundred miles away, and I will go with you."
Xiao Zhan interrupted, the candlelight flickering in his eyes. Tianshui's vicious plan of besieging the city and attacking the heart seemed to be aimed at Lan Feng, but in fact it was to force out the regent princess who lived in seclusion.
He knew very well the methods of that madman Huangfu Shang.
Jiang Xue's fingertips passed over the Tongguan Fortress on the map, and her eyes fell on the northwest corner: "Before we set off tomorrow, I need you to go to the palace to stabilize the cabinet."
She suddenly raised her eyebrows: "As for Mr. Yun, I remember that he just got a white jade chessboard?"
As dusk fell, Yun Zhen rushed into the study, smelling like medicine. His usually cold face was rarely tinged with anger: "Your Highness should know that you can't stand the wind and sand outside the Great Wall now!"
"Mr. Yun, have you ever heard of the Snow Wolf in Shuobei?"
Jiang Xue leaned against the soft couch and played with the jade pendant: "When they are injured, they will walk to the snow mountain alone."
She suddenly smiled and said, "But I am different. I want to bring a doctor with me."
Yun Zhen looked at the secret military letter unfolded on the table and suddenly laughed softly, "Your Highness, are you trying to force me to become a suspect of treason?"
The moonlight filtered through the window, casting the two men's confronting figures on the blue brick ground, like chess pieces fighting on a chessboard.
"You worry too much, sir."
Jiang Xue picked up the silver scissors and lit the candle wick: "I just want to invite you to watch a good show - to see how my eldest son Yin teaches the barbarian to shut up."
The flames burst into starlight in her pupils, making that smile look like a tempered blade.
Yun Zhen let out a low laugh: "Is this really considered a choice?"
The young man's relaxed brows made Jiang Xue's breathing pause. His drooping hair in the twilight was exactly the same as the man deep in her memory. Even the warm lines at the corners of his eyes seemed to bear the shadow of Jiang Ke.
"Of course."
She picked up the teacup and tapped the table. The sound of the celadon porcelain colliding shattered her trance. "Voluntarily agreeing and being forced to go along are always different situations."
The dark sleeves brushed against the rosewood table. The young man half-leaned against the window lattice and looked at the gradually rising mist in the courtyard: "It's time to set off now."
The dark red tassel brushed across the back of his hand, and he lowered his eyes and grasped the jade pendant in his palm - this broken body had long been branded with the same fate Gu, and without the person in front of him, it would be nothing more than a walking corpse that would not survive for more than three days.
The copper bells on the eaves suddenly rang. Jiang Xue looked at the burning sunset in the sky and said, "We will set off at dawn tomorrow."
When Xiao Zhan stepped into the mansion in the last rays of sunset, the aroma of chestnut chicken was already wafting from the dining room.
When he washed his hands, there were a few osmanthus petals floating in the copper basin. He casually pinned the petals, which were soaked with morning dew, on his wife's temples:
"All the important officials of various ministries have been properly settled. Heng'er signed a military order in the imperial study this morning, saying that he would double the amount of money in the Ministry of Revenue when you and I return."
"That's just like his personality."
Jiang Xue picked up a piece of mandarin fish with the bones removed and put it into her husband's bowl: "But that child never takes care of himself. You should let the secret guards..."
"Replace the head chef of the imperial kitchen with one of ours as soon as possible."
Xiao Zhan interrupted the conversation with a smile, took out a bright yellow silk from his sleeve and unfolded it: "Heng'er is very worried about it, and said that he wants to take Yaoyao and Zheng'er to live in the palace temporarily."
The silver chopsticks paused on the edge of the jade bowl, and Jiang Xue looked at the children playing in the corridor: "Alright. The Dali Temple raided the Duke Chen's mansion the other day, so there's no guarantee that there won't be some fish that slipped through the net."
She suddenly reached out her hand to smooth her husband's frowned brows: "It's just hard for you. You have to take care of the military affairs in the North and take care of us all these years."
"Then the lady must take good care of herself."
He placed his warm palm on the back of her slightly cool hand: "When the country is stable, I will take Xiaoxue to travel all over the twelve states and make up for the spring and autumn moons that we have missed in these years."
When the palace gates were about to close at midnight, a gilded carriage rolled through Suzaku Street.
Jiang Xue looked closely at her baby son in her arms under the light of the glass lamp. The three-year-old kid was curled up in a ball on the brocade quilt, his eyelashes still stained with tears from crying before going to bed.
Her fingertips gently brushed across the child's slightly wrinkled brows, and a bitter taste suddenly rose in her throat - the memorials on the desk had been piled higher than the child over the years, and she couldn't remember the last time she coaxed him to sleep.
"Zheng'er memorized the entire Thousand Character Classic last night."
Xiao Zhan pulled his sleeping daughter into his arms, half of the bandages showing through her moon-white undershirt: "This morning, she insisted on showing it to the secret guards, and ended up dropping her inkstone and crying loudly."
Jiang Xue burst out laughing, and the tears in her eyes turned into stars.
Scattered snow flakes floated in from outside the carriage curtain. She placed Lan Zheng's small hand on her cheek and looked at the peaceful sleeping faces of her husband and daughter beside her. Suddenly, she felt that the thirty-pound peacock cloak on her shoulders was not so heavy anymore.
Jiang Heng had been leaning against the carved door frame for a long time, his fingertips unconsciously stroking the gilded bronze rings until a few familiar outlines emerged in the night.
The young man walked quickly through the winding corridor, the corners of his clothes fluttering in the night wind, creating dark green bamboo patterns: "Aunt, cousin."
There was excitement hidden in his deliberately lowered voice.
Jiang Xue stuffed the hand warmer into his palm, and the jade beads made a clear sound when they collided: "I must entrust Yaoyao and Lan Zheng to you tonight."
In the arms of the guards behind her, two little children wrapped in fox fur were sleeping with red faces.
Those blood-stained military newspapers were once insignificant words on his desk, but now they formed a long river of blood before his eyes - the young man suddenly realized that a stable and prosperous era was built with the blood of his loved ones.
"The twelve shadow guards will take turns guarding the side hall throughout the day."
Jiang Heng tightly grasped the tiger talisman in his sleeve, and the golden cloud pattern was burned into his palm: "Aunt is going to Yanmen Pass..."
His throat seemed to be choked by the northern sand. He hated this immature body so much. He was able to review memorials until the middle of the night, but still couldn't reach the breastplate under his armor.
The warm palm landed on the top of his head, carrying the scent of the wound medicine commonly used by soldiers on the border.
"Our little Qilin is the God of Literature who has descended to earth."
Jiang Xue smiled with her eyebrows curved, clearly a fragile woman, yet she managed to turn the heavy burden of mountains and rivers into something as soft as her fingers.
The sword at her waist suddenly trembled, waking up her sleeping younger sister. The baby's weak cry pierced the silence of the palace walls.
The young emperor took the swaddling clothes in a panic and hummed a nursery rhyme awkwardly.
When the crying gradually subsided, the tips of his ears were already red as blood: "I...I don't need to be coaxed!"
The candlelight stretched his shadow very long, but it still couldn't reach the territorial map on the wall.
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