231 Chapter 231
◎A new life after returning to the underworld.◎
The queue at Naihe Bridge is always very long. Even the reincarnation of the greatest emperor in history has to queue up in order.
When Li Ying led Li Chengqian over, Ying Zheng and Fusu, Liu Che and Liu Ju were playing mahjong, and Li Shimin was spinning in circles with his hands behind his back.
Li Shimin stopped only when Li Chengqian finally appeared.
Li Ying did not follow. He had now officially started working and had a lot of things to do. Li Chengqian walked over slowly by himself.
"Greetings, Father." Li Chengqian bowed meticulously.
Li Shimin looked at his eldest son who had regained his youthful appearance, feeling deeply moved, and finally just patted him on the shoulder.
"You've done a great job over the years."
Li Chengqian accepted the affirmation, nodded and said with a smile: "Thank you."
While they were dealing with each other in this official manner, a game of mahjong just ended over there.
"Your Majesty..." Fusu was a little helpless, "Why are you feeding cards to your son again?"
Liu Che smiled and said, "Didn't you feed your father the cards in the last round? This is fair."
Seeing this, Li Chengqian went over and saluted the two Qin and Han emperors. He casually placed his hand on Liu Ju's shoulder and said with a smile, "You seem so leisurely. How long do you have to wait before you can get in line?"
The efficiency of the underworld has always been very slow. It takes several years to go through the procedures step by step from the trial, and the number of years waiting in line at Naihe Bridge is usually in the double digits.
Fusu replied, "My father and Emperor Wu will have to wait another three years, and Liu Ju and I will have to wait another twenty or so years, or perhaps thirty or more, depending on when you two plan to get married and have children in your next lives."
This means that they both chose to renew their father-son relationship. Li Chengqian nodded and ignored Tian Khan's eager eyes.
Li Chengqian thought for a moment, then suddenly laughed and said, "Hey, can I apply to jump the queue? I want to reincarnate with His Majesty the First Emperor and His Majesty the Emperor Wu. That way, you two will have to call me uncle in your next life!"
Fusu and Liu Ju said in unison: "You are dreaming!"
Liu Che looked at Li Chengqian and then at Li Shimin. Although he did not say anything, Tian Khan understood what Emperor Wu of Han meant.
You raised a good son.
Li Shimin just shook his head and smiled, with a sad look on his face.
Ying Zheng stood up and said, "Let's go out and talk."
He said this while looking at Li Shimin, but it was Liu Che who responded: "Let's go, you kids can play here."
Liu Ju protested, "Aunt, not counting my past life and my time as a spirit, I've lived for over seventy years in this life!"
Liu Che patted his head and said with a smile: "Oh, even if you are a hundred years old, you are still a child in your father's eyes."
When he went out, Li Shimin breathed a sigh of relief. He and Cheng Qian were not unclose, but they were not intimate enough, and Cheng Qian did not want to be his father and son anymore.
…
Li Chengqian sat down in the seat Ying Zheng had occupied, fiddling with a mahjong tile. He asked curiously, "Who wants to play mahjong?"
Liu Ju took the cards and rearranged them: "I made this for my dad before. He was bored waiting in line, so he took it out to play with it occasionally."
Li Chengqian propped up his chin and said, "But isn't it a bit strange for the five of you to play a four-person game?"
Fusu smiled and said, "After Emperor Taizong came, we usually rotated and did not isolate him. You don't have to worry."
Li Chengqian was speechless: "You are deliberately blurring my point."
Liu Ju laughed: "Waiting in line is so boring, even mahjong can't stop your father. Anyway, there are not many years left in the queue, so just endure it. Wait until he reincarnates first, and then you don't have to worry about it."
The lesson of the past was right in front of him. Li Chengqian felt that he needed to take precautionary measures first to prevent the Khan from making any secret moves again and forcing them to become father and son again.
Twice was enough. Li Chengqian had no regrets. He let go of his first life and lived through the second life, which was already perfect enough.
Li Chengqian looked up at the roof for a while and felt that it made sense. No matter what the Khan of Heaven wanted to do, at least the underworld had an urgent need, which was to send the three stubborn residents away as soon as possible. Now that they had seized the opportunity this time, they would probably not give anyone else a chance to take advantage of them.
"I'll ask Li Ying to keep an eye on it. He's been promoted to a full-time employee, so his authority has increased significantly." Li Chengqian changed the subject, "What's the story behind the emerald? Why are they inlaying gemstones on the roof?"
Liu Ju raised his eyebrows and said proudly, "My burial objects were shipped from South America. Our Han fleet has traveled to almost every corner of the earth."
"Every fleet is like this," Fusu said calmly. "Someone even gave me a polar bear."
Li Chengqian said calmly: "Yes, everyone has one. Did I mention that someone sent me a penguin?"
Liu Ju said, "It was our Han Dynasty that first built the largest ship that could sail the longest distance. Brother Fusu, although you went to sea before me, in terms of shipbuilding technology, our Han Dynasty still leads."
Li Chengqian nodded: "That's right, Brother Fusu, you have to admit this."
"Well, I admit it," Fusu said. "When General Meng Tian crushed the Xiongnu to a pulp, it was only a few years after Emperor Gaozu of Han was besieged at Baideng."
Liu Ju sighed and said, "What's a momentary shame? We have Wei Huo!"
"And!" Liu Ju added, "It's Emperor Gaozu of Han. Please study hard."
Li Chengqian said, "To be fair, Brother Liu, this is Sima Qian's fault."
Liu Ju looked at him and said, "Brother Li, your stance has changed quite quickly."
Fusu laughed and said, "Trying to please both sides usually results in pleasing neither."
Li Chengqian said innocently, "I am trying to mediate from a fair and just standpoint to prevent you from arguing."
Liu Ju exposed him: "It is to prevent us from quarreling."
Fusu nodded and said, "Didn't you just say you have a penguin, Brother Liu, do you have one?"
Without waiting for Liu Ju to answer, Li Chengqian said, "But he has a giant panda. It's a giant panda!"
Liu Ju smiled slightly and said, "Don't you have any?"
Li Chengqian stuttered, "Uh, yes." But he immediately straightened his tongue and said, "The feudal monarch's privileges, aren't they all the same? What's the point of comparing them? Can't we compare them with something else?"
Fusu and Liu Ju immediately sat up straight and prepared for battle.
Agriculture, commerce, territorial expansion...what can't be compared? They are all full of confidence in their dynasty.
…
Liu Che tasted the freshly brewed cocoa and nodded with satisfaction: "Being a ghost is much better than being a human. Ever since I got sick, Er'er has always been controlling me, telling me what I can't eat or drink."
Ying Zheng said: "Before I reached the age of thirty, Fusu tried to make me maintain good health."
Li Shimin coughed and said, "Cheng Qian invited Sun Simiao to take care of our health."
Although Cheng Qian did that more for his mother, Li Shimin did benefit from it. He lived to be 65 years old!
As for Cheng Qian, it must be because he worried too much in his youth. Even though he had always taken good care of himself, he still lived two years less than himself.
Thinking of this, Li Shimin couldn't help but sigh. No wonder Cheng Qian didn't want to be his father and son anymore.
Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly heard Ying Zheng say, "Fusu said that he hopes you can respect Cheng Qian's decision and not act on your own."
Li Shimin was stunned. "Fusu? When did he say that? Was it... was it Cheng Qian who asked him to say that?"
Liu Che shook his head: "Not really, that's pretty much what I meant."
Li Shimin was stunned for a moment, then smiled bitterly and said, "They do understand Cheng Qian."
Ying Zheng said: "You also understand him, but before understanding him, you considered yourself first."
"I..." Li Shimin was speechless for a moment.
Indeed, Cheng Qian no longer has any resentment and can successfully reincarnate and start a real new life.
He wanted to renew his father-son relationship with Cheng Qian, more because he wanted to make up for his regrets and wanted to be a father-son relationship with Cheng Qian again without the interference of the relationship between monarch and subject.
This was Li Shimin's selfish motive.
Once, he thought Cheng Qian wanted to do the same, but... Cheng Qian had already truly moved on.
Li Shimin said sadly: "What has passed can never be made up."
Ying Zheng was not the kind of person who talked much about other people's private affairs, but his son repeatedly requested him to do so, and the First Emperor had no choice but to play the role of an intimate mediator here.
"Cheng Qian is no longer obsessed with the past, so you should stop bothering with it," Ying Zheng said.
Liu Che, who had also been asked by his son, said: "Besides, you have chosen good successors in both of your lives, which is a perfect ending."
Ying Zheng, who had once had a scoundrel heir whom he had not chosen, felt as if an arrow had pierced his chest. He spoke again, "Although your daughter-in-law, your concubine, has ascended the throne, in the end, the Tang Dynasty still belongs to you, the Li family."
Liu Che added, "Yes, your great-grandson will have another Kaiyuan era of prosperity, although the An-Shi Rebellion came not long after."
Li Shimin: “…”
These words don't sound like comfort!
"You two, although one of you was forced to execute the original heir by forging an imperial edict because of your stubbornness, and the other one killed your son's entire family except for a baby due to the framing of a traitor and old confusion, you are now a loving father and a filial son. My son doesn't even want to be my father anymore. It's reasonable for you to have some conscience?" Li Shimin said gritting his teeth.
Ying Zheng blinked, lowered his gaze to look at the lines on the table, and said calmly, "Since you know your son no longer wants to be your father, yet you still want to go against his wishes, it's no wonder Cheng Qian always feels that you have never favored him."
Li Shimin froze. He was about to speak when Liu Che asked, "Do you still want to be Li Yuan's father and son?"
Li Shimin was silent for a while, and finally said: "I understand."
Liu Che nodded to Ying Zheng, and the two men clinked their cups of cocoa. The task assigned by his son was finally completed.
Li Chengqian did not know the specific content of this conversation, but the next day Tian Khan talked to him and told him not to worry, he would not interfere with Li Chengqian's reincarnation.
Li Chengqian was skeptical about this, but fortunately, unlike the last time he spent more than a thousand years in the underworld, this time he only had to wait for thirty-two years.
This time, it is a truly new life for everyone.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com