Chapter 1095 Thunder, Lightning, Rain and Dew Are All Graces from the Emperor
Lan Feng interrupted the conversation, and covered his son's curled fist with his bony palm: "As for me..."
He suddenly tilted his head to look at the fluttering ginkgo leaves outside the window: "Every time I see Ah Zheng's dimples, it's like I see Xiao Wei asking me why I didn't accompany her to the Lantern Festival that day."
The smoke from the copper stove rose up, weaving a fine spider web between Lan Feng's brows.
Xiao Zhan noticed that he always held the child with his left hand and kept his right arm at a subtle distance.
"The sand from the north will scratch a child's face."
Lan Feng suddenly chuckled and wiped the saliva from the corner of Lan Zheng's mouth with his fingertips: "Besides..."
When he raised his eyes, they were as clear as a tempered blade: "Wait until I have killed all the thirteen tribes of the Western Rong, and then I will personally teach him how to draw the bow and shoot the eagle."
Jiang Xue took the swaddling cloth and paused: "What if this child wants to be a musician or a painter in the future?"
"Then prepare the best Jiaowei Qin for him and look for Wu Daozi's authentic work."
Lan Feng stood up and straightened his clothes, turning around amid the jingling of his jade pendant: "I only hope that when he is eighty years old and looks back on his life, he can smile and say, 'I never wasted my youth.'"
Xiao Zhan was silent for a moment and then responded solemnly: "I understand. From now on, Xiaoxue and I will try our best to let nature take its course and let Zheng'er take the path in life he should take. But things in this world are unpredictable..."
His unfinished words carried the solemnity of the impermanence of the world.
Lan Feng lifted up his skirt and bowed, his black skirt casting a dark shadow on the ground: "This promise is enough."
When he stood up, the corners of his eyes were slightly red and his Adam's apple rolled heavily in his neck.
Jiang Xue and Xiao Zhan looked at each other. Lan Feng's thanks were like a heavy jade seal pressing on their hearts.
However, they are willing to treat this entrustment as the most precious token, even if they have to spend the rest of their lives to protect it.
"Lan Feng."
Xiao Zhan tapped the table with his knuckles to change the subject: "From what you just said, are you going back to the northwest?"
"Wait for Grandfather..."
Lan Feng's voice suddenly became hoarse, and his fingers holding the teacup turned pale on the porcelain wall: "We will set off after the old man is buried in peace."
He looked at the last remaining leaf on the dead branch outside the window and said, "This journey is thousands of miles away. If it is not for the state's summons, I will never return to Beijing again in this lifetime."
Jiang Xue looked at the swaying tassels of lanterns under the corridor, and seemed to see the young man in blue riding a horse on Chang'an Street in the past.
Now there are two new graves hidden under the battle robe, and a bloody oath lurking outside Yanmen Pass.
After the figures of the uncle and nephew of the Lan family disappeared outside the hanging flower gate, Xiao Zhan held his wife's slightly cold hand and asked, "Do you remember the old archery competition in the training ground?"
"At that time, he shot off the jade hairpin from my temple and threatened to compensate me with ten golden hairpins."
Jiang Xue stroked the sword marks on the window frame with her fingertips: "Now it's like a green bamboo bent by the snow. It's still straight, but there are cracks everywhere."
When she turned around, the pearl on her hairpin swayed slightly: "We can still rely on each other, but he..."
Three days later, the white banners in the Lan Mansion were as white as snow. Jiang Heng stood in front of the mourning hall and looked at the straight figure.
As the sandalwood scent lingered, he recalled the time when he was a child and heard the tutor tell him about the victory in Mobei. At that time, he always fantasized about meeting the legendary silver-armored god of war, but he didn't expect that the first meeting would be like this.
"Lan Qing, please stay."
After dismissing his attendants, the young emperor suddenly bowed deeply and said, "I want to apologize to you."
Lan Feng took a half step back in shock, and the jade belt buckle on his waist hit the altar with a crisp sound: "Your Majesty, please forgive me."
"What the Queen Mother did..."
Jiang Heng clenched the secret book in his sleeve tightly, his nails almost digging into his palm: "Although it was not my order, I must pay for my mother's debt..."
This reminded Lan Feng of what Jiang Xue had said in a villa outside the city a month ago: "The new emperor will not tolerate even the slightest grain of sand in his eyes."
Looking at the red corners of the young emperor's eyes at this moment, he finally understood why the eldest princess was willing to devote all her efforts to assisting her half-brother.
"Thunder, lightning, rain and dew are all grace from the Lord."
Lan Feng inserted three incense sticks into the copper censer, the smoke lingering between his brows: "Your Majesty, since you are willing to let the truth see the light of day, it is the greatest grace for the Lan family."
"I heard that you want to entrust Zheng'er to your aunt?"
Jiang Heng looked at the child who was folding gold ingots in the side hall. The child still had a hemp rope tied in his hair. "If you need anything, you can submit a petition to the palace at any time."
In the morning mist of Jinling City, Lan Feng knelt on one knee to perform the military salute, and the black iron wrist guard made a clear sound when it hit the blue bricks: "If Zheng'er stays in the northwest, I will not be at ease."
"Don't worry."
Jiang Heng tapped the gilded cloud pattern on the table with his fingertips. "My aunt is well versed in military classics, and my cousin once taught students in Kunlun Mountain. If I follow them, I can inherit the literary tradition without wasting my martial arts foundation."
The jade ring refracted a golden glow under the morning sun. "I have already asked someone to prepare his name for the Imperial Academy, and when he reaches the age of tying his hair..."
Lan Feng's Adam's apple moved slightly: "Thank you, Your Majesty, for your grace. But I have an appointment with the princess..."
He looked out the window at the newly sprouted willow buds: "When Xiaowei was dying, she clutched the embroidery frame and said that she hoped Zheng'er could choose the way to live that made him happy."
The scales of the armor rose and fell with his breathing, casting tiny shadows on the blue bricks.
When the tung blossoms of late spring fell all over the palace roads, Jiang Xue leaned against the rosewood table and saw Lan Feng coming towards her in the dew.
The black cloak swept across the bluestone steps. When he took off his sword, the bronze scabbard at the end of the scabbard collided with the ebony table, waking up the baby curled up in the pile of brocade.
"The journey is thousands of miles."
Jiang Xue handed the warm medicine to the maid, wearing a peacock-patterned brocade robe over a plain white shirt and said, "I heard that Beidi has changed to a new wolf-tooth arrow?"
Lan Feng stroked the child's eyebrows with his rough fingertips, where a small mole that usually showed a smile appeared: "I have just obtained the black iron from the Western Regions."
He took off the azure jade hanging from his neck and stuffed it into the swaddling clothes: "Wait until the border market reopens..."
The second half of the sentence was scattered in the sudden cry of crows.
Xiao Zhan used silver scissors to trim the white crabapple in the warm room. The flower juice stained his fingertips like solidified blood: "Three days later, the Waking of Insects will come. It will be the auspicious time to set off."
He suddenly lifted the swaddling clothes above his brows, and the baby giggled and grabbed the silver hair on his temples: "Look, these eyebrows and eyes are exactly like a smile."
When Lan Feng touched the ground with one knee, his armor made a tearing sound, but he froze when he met the child's clear eyes.
He took off his breastplate and gently placed it on the table. The bronze mirror reflected the new scars on the corners of his eyes. "This thing has been soaked in hundreds of herbs from the northern desert. It can prevent miasma."
When the baby suddenly cried, Jiang Xue caught a glimpse of the faded hairband wrapped around Lan Feng's wrist - it was the one that Xiao Wei wore when she was a 15-year-old, and it was dyed with madder to create a love knot.
The morning breeze rolled up the curtains, and she watched Lan Feng back out of the warm room, leaving wet boot prints on the blue bricks with every step, as if he wanted to crush the spring scenery of Chang'an City under his iron armor.
Dusk spread through the carved window panes. Jiang Xue paced back and forth holding the crying baby in her arms, tapping Lan Zheng's back with her fingertips and humming a lullaby from the Jiangnan water town, but to little effect.
Xiao Zhan suddenly rolled up his black sleeves to his elbows, revealing the black jade beads on his wrist: "Let me hold you and see."
As soon as Lan Zheng fell into the embrace with the scent of pine wood, his sobbing gradually became weaker.
Xiao Zhan stroked the baby's red ear with his knuckles and whispered, "Northwestern soldiers used to use this method to calm their warhorse foals."
Before he finished speaking, the little kid grabbed his falling hair and giggled.
"This child is naturally related to you."
Jiang Xue looked at the image of her hair entangled between her pink knuckles, and suddenly remembered that it was these same hands that firmly held the new life on the day she was due to give birth.
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