"Your Majesty, do you have any further instructions?"
"Come for a walk with me."
******************
Dawn always comes earlier in the wilderness.
The light drives away the haze of the long night and pushes the boundaries of light further.
Xiao Nanhui climbed the slope with his head down and panting. When he looked up, he could see the man two or three steps ahead, wearing a thick fox fur cloak, which was rolling in waves in the wind.
An hour ago, she had just come down from this broken hill, and now she had to climb up again.
The emperor had spoken, demanding her to accompany him. She had to follow him wherever he went. If anything happened to the emperor, Ding Weixiang might even skin her alive.
There is simply no way to reason.
Su Wei didn't say anything. The rough sand of the desert brushed against his cheeks, and he didn't even try to block it. He only stopped occasionally to cough softly.
Finally, there was no way forward. Xiao Nanhui felt as if he had been pardoned and quickly spoke out to explain the fact.
"Your Majesty, there is no way forward."
Su Wei didn't say anything, but turned his back to her and looked towards the sky in the east not far away.
There was a ray of red light there, ready to emerge from the horizon.
Xiao Nanhui blinked. This was the second sunrise they had watched together.
Neither she nor Xiao Zhun had ever seen the sunrise.
Although she had followed him on marches since she was a teenager and had endured countless nights, Xiao Zhun never gave her the time to stop and take a second look at those countless dawns and sunrises, so she just passed by him quickly with a quick glance.
Being in a situation like this with just two people, in an atmosphere so quiet and isolated from the world, was something they had never experienced before.
Therefore, the circumstances of life are sometimes really hard to explain.
After she finished expressing her inner feelings, she suddenly remembered the scene at sunset when she left Bijiang.
Because of many strange things, she did not report the matter immediately. Now is a good opportunity to speak out.
After all, the man in front of her was moody. He seemed kind now, but later he would accuse her of "knowing about the matter but not reporting it". She couldn't afford it.
"Your Majesty, I, your servant, have a matter which I have not been able to make clear to you."
Su Wei's back remained silent. She hesitated for a moment, feeling that the words had already been spoken and could no longer be swallowed back.
"I met An Lu in Bijiang before. He seemed to be colluding with the Bai family. I also discovered that he seemed to have mastered some kind of secret technique, which was somewhat similar to the miracle Zhu Tingmao mentioned..."
"Let me ask you, do you believe in the existence of so-called miracles in this world?"
Su Wei suddenly interrupted her.
This was the first time he called her "I" instead of "Gu" after revealing his true identity.
But this only put Xiao Nanhui in a dilemma. She wasn't foolish enough to think she could presumptuously speak, so she had no choice but to bite the bullet and stammer, "As Your Majesty has said, these are mad words and cannot be trusted."
Su Wei turned his face slightly, and the wind blew away his long hair that was tied behind his head. The hair brushed across his eyebrows, blurring his expression at the moment.
"My mother is the one he calls eternally youthful. Even now, in her thirties, she looks the same as she did a decade ago. But do you know what the fate of such divine favor is?"
Xiao Nanhui was stunned.
She had heard a little about the emperor's biological mother. She only knew that she was once favored, but later because of her unusual appearance, she was rumored to be a demon, and ultimately ended up in a very miserable way.
If it was Yao Yi or Jixiang standing in front of her at this moment, she could just pat them on the shoulders, give them a bear hug, say a few words of comfort, and finally get them drunk.
But the person in front of her was the emperor, and she had never faced such a situation.
Not to mention her, perhaps hundreds of court officials in Tiancheng had never faced such a situation.
In a flash, she suddenly remembered what the person in front of her said that night at Baiyao Pass.
Only now did she begin to understand why he hated the idea of immortality so much.
"Your Majesty once said that eternity is an illusion. It's precisely because beauty will eventually fade that we cherish the present moment even more. Isn't that right?"
Her words were blown away by the wind and scattered everywhere. She didn't know how many words fell into the man's ears.
The next moment, Su Wei suddenly turned around and took a few steps closer to Xiao Nanhui.
They were already standing very close to each other, and now they were almost face to face.
She forgot to move her feet for a moment. When she looked up, she could almost feel the man's breath, with a cool smell, surrounding her tightly.
"How about I tell you a secret?"
He changed back to the title, but his tone did not have the majesty of a king, but rather sounded like a child who was still ignorant of the world.
His eyes, which seemed to be smiling but not smiling, suddenly became lively at this moment. The morning sun shone brightly behind him, making even his temples look lively.
"My mother was a burden to others. The mad person that people talk about is not her, but me."
Xiao Nanhui stared at the dark pupils. A faint halo of light lit up two fires in them, which gradually spread like wildfire with the strong wind.
"Xiao Nanhui, are you afraid of being alone?"
The man was exposed in the golden morning light, and even the fine hairs on his face were clearly visible.
At this moment, he seemed to have shed all the gloominess and disguise, and no trace of conspiracy or calculation was left. He became approachable, warm and real.
He didn't wear a hairpin today, but only tied a brocade ribbon around his hair.
The wind grew stronger, causing the brocade ribbon to flutter.
As if possessed by a ghost, she reached out and grabbed the ribbon that was about to float away.
After a pause, she stood on tiptoe and tied the ribbon back into the emperor's hair.
"There are tens of millions, if not millions, of people who fear Your Majesty, and I am no less. Therefore, I am not afraid."
There was fine sand flying in the wind, as if it was going to blind someone's eyes.
The emperor lowered his eyelashes slightly, concealing the emotions hidden within.
"Xiao Nanhui, remember what you said today, and don't regret it in the future."
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