Chapter 311 Are you still dreaming? Wake up!
When Huang Mian stepped into Ningxiang Palace alone, he saw that the silver charcoal in the gilded bronze incense burner was burning bright red, and the huge palace was as warm as spring.
The interior furnishings are rare and valuable, and fresh fruits, a rare sight in winter, are also displayed on the table.
It seems that although His Majesty ordered Jue La Yun Dan to be confined to his quarters, he did not mistreat her in any way, and she even lived a more dignified life than I, a beauty, have ever had.
A surge of indescribable bitterness and jealousy welled up in Huang Mian's heart, and her fingers unconsciously clenched tighter.
Jue La Yun Dan was standing in front of the window, wearing a thin, bright red round-necked robe.
The window was wide open, and the cold wind, carrying snowflakes, howled in, making his clothes flutter, his hair disheveled, and even his cheeks and the tip of his nose slightly red from the cold.
He seemed oblivious to the cold, simply gazing intently at the gray sky and falling snow outside the window.
Hearing footsteps, Jue La Yun Dan slowly turned her head.
Upon seeing that it was Huang Mian, his eyes revealed undisguised contempt and disgust.
What are you doing here?
One sentence instantly made Huang Mian furious.
Since he entered the palace, Jue La Yun Dan has relied on the emperor's favor and has never given him a second glance. He often makes sarcastic remarks and tramples him underfoot.
This person has fallen to such a state, yet he still dares to be so arrogant!
Huang Mian stopped maintaining the outward appearance of politeness and, without the host's permission, pulled over a pear wood chair and sat down.
Then, with a hint of sarcasm, she said, "Oh, what a refined taste you have, Mr. Chen! In this freezing weather, you still have the mood to appreciate the snow? The outside is almost in chaos because of you, don't you really know?"
Jue La Yundan frowned, thinking that the court officials were still reprimanding him for his past instigation of His Majesty to wage war against Tibet.
"What? Are you so bored you're covered in lice and have nowhere to scratch your itch that you've come all the way here hoping I'll 'stop the itch' for you?"
These words instantly reminded Huang Mian of the beating he had received before, making him even angrier.
"You've been locked up for months, and you still dare to spout such nonsense?"
Jue La Yun Dan scoffed, "Let me tell you, Huang Mian, even if I'm imprisoned now, I'm still better than you. At least... His Majesty once genuinely doted on me, indulged me, and gave me honors that others didn't have."
"And you? You are nothing more than a plaything that His Majesty enjoys for a moment. Once the novelty wears off and he gets tired of playing with you, he will simply throw you aside."
His tone was casual, yet every word he spoke was piercing.
"I advise you not to wander around aimlessly in your spare time, but to look in the mirror more often, so that you don't even know why the Emperor no longer visits you."
After saying that, he looked Huang Mian up and down with a look full of disdain, as if he were looking at something disgusting.
Then he lazily shifted his gaze back to the snowy sky outside the window, clearly indicating that he didn't want to waste any more words.
These extremely humiliating words struck Huang Mian right where it hurt.
"You—!" He was so enraged by these words that he suddenly stood up. "You still think you're that high and mighty Tibetan prince from before?! Let me tell you, Jue La Yun Dan, Tibet has already been destroyed! What kind of princely airs are you putting on with me?!"
"Destroy the country?" Jue La Yun Dan's expression froze instantly.
He whirled around, his eyes fixed on Huang Mian, and demanded, "What...what do you mean?"
Seeing his sudden change in expression, Huang Mian finally felt a surge of pleasure.
He sneered, eager to smash the cruelest truth into the face of this high and mighty man.
"What does that mean? It means that Tibet has been completely crushed by the iron hooves of the Great Qi! From now on, there will be no more Tibet in this world, only the newly established Anxi Protectorate of the Great Qi! And you, Jue La Yun Dan, are nothing but a subjugated slave who has lost his country and his home!"
The words "slave of a conquered nation" instantly drained all the color from Jue La Yun Dan's face.
He instinctively retorted, "Impossible! His Majesty promised me he would help me get revenge..."
"Are you still dreaming? Wake up!" Huang Mian scoffed, interrupting his self-deception.
"The city of Lhasa has fallen, Yangjin has died in battle, and your maternal clan, the Meilu clan, has been exterminated. The whole of Daqi knows this, but you are the only one who has been kept in the dark."
Jue La Yun Dan shook her head subconsciously, "No, the Emperor wouldn't do that to me."
"Wouldn't he do that to you?" Huang Mian pressed on, "Jue La Yun Dan, you don't really think that His Majesty sent troops to Tibet to help you reclaim your homeland and let you go back to be some Tibetan prince, do you?"
Before Jue La Yundan could react, he answered on his own, "His Majesty is merely using you as a pawn! He's using your prince status and the pretext of avenging you to launch a legitimate military campaign to annex the entire Tibetan Empire!"
Jue La Yun Dan's voice trembled, "You're lying!"
"I'm lying?" Huang Mian looked at him with amusement as he was on the verge of collapse. "Why don't you just ask anyone and see if it's true? Oh, by the way..."
As if suddenly remembering something, he added, "Ten days from now, a victory banquet will be held in the palace to welcome General Ru back and celebrate her victory over Tibet!"
Seeing Huang Mian's confident expression, Jue La Yun Dan's last shred of hope vanished completely.
He staggered back two steps, his heels hitting the table leg before he could barely steady his swaying body.
He muttered to himself, "How could she possibly be using me? She was so good to me..."
Even though he had long since fallen out of favor, he still refused to believe that the tenderness and special treatment he had once received were a carefully designed deception from the very beginning.
"She found all the storybooks in the city for me, planted cosmos flowers all over the Imperial Garden for me, and held my hand, teaching me to write the characters of the Central Plains stroke by stroke..."
He muttered to himself absentmindedly, as if trying to convince himself, or perhaps making a final struggle.
“She even… bestowed upon me the title of Imperial Noble Attendant.” He suddenly raised his eyes and looked at Huang Mian. “I’ve checked. ‘Chen’ means the emperor’s palace, a title reserved for the emperor’s most beloved concubine…”
Hearing his almost foolish words, Huang Mian's sense of vengeful pleasure slowly faded away, replaced by an indescribable feeling of shared sorrow.
He interrupted Jue La Yun Dan, a hint of melancholy he himself was unaware of.
"Chen Meiren, do you think... you're the only one who's ever received such kindness?"
Huang Mian turned her head slightly to look at the snow outside the window, her voice ethereal: "Once, His Majesty treated me like this. At that time, a batch of light green soft gauze was newly presented as tribute from Jiangnan, which was priceless. His Majesty said that I looked good in this color, so he gave me all the fabric."
"She said that when she first met me, she was dancing under a peach tree, and the peach trees were in full bloom. Later, she specially had peach trees planted all over my courtyard, so that I could dance for her under the peach trees every day."
He pulled his wandering thoughts back to Jue La Yun Dan, whose face was pale and whose eyes were somewhat bewildered by this "empathy," and his voice regained its calm.
"Look, who hasn't received His Majesty's favor? In this deep palace, each of us once thought we were the most special one."
He sighed softly, “But in reality, we are all just fleeting flowers. Spring peach blossoms, summer lotus blossoms, autumn chrysanthemums, winter plum blossoms... no matter how beautiful or rare, they are only a season’s scenery.”
"Today you bloom so beautifully, and His Majesty plucks you from the branch and admires you in his hands for a few days. But tomorrow, new flowers will steal her attention."
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