Later, I'll have someone plant those century-old apricot trees from the Imperial Garden in the Regent's Palace courtyard, choosing a spot under the eaves where they can see the moon.
Place another bamboo chair under the eaves, and when the flowers bloom next year, the pink and white petals will cover the stone steps. Let her sit on the bamboo chair and smell the fragrance of the flowers in the moonlight.
No need to think about the apricot blossoms in the northern border region anymore; they are soft, representing my hidden desires within the land.
I gazed at the sunlight outside the palace. The golden light fell on the dragon patterns on the imperial robe, making the dragon scales seem to come alive, and even the jade pendant on my chest seemed to radiate warmth.
Suddenly, I felt that the dragon throne wasn't so cold after all—because I knew that there was someone under the throne who would shield me from the wind and snow of the northern frontier and teach me how to govern an army.
When I got tired of reviewing memorials, they would secretly pass me a piece of malt candy.
In the Imperial Study, there are Prime Minister Su and Prime Minister Pei, who will help me manage the complexities of the court and remind me that "I must keep in mind what the people worry about and do what the people hope for."
Outside the palace, there are those people who long for better days. They will help me uphold this empire, and the sound of their rough porcelain bowls clinking together will tell me, "Your Majesty has done well."
They would use the harvest shown on the field ridges to tell me, "Taxes have been reduced, and life is sweeter."
It seems that even the heaviest burden can be steadily borne.
As for that bit of cunning and shrewdness, it's probably a required course for any monarch.
As Prime Minister Su said, the best skill is to be able to retain those you want to keep and protect the country you want to protect.
I learned it very well and applied it very well.
The sunlight outside the palace was just right. King Zhao, standing on the steps, looked at me with a smile in his eyes that spread like the apricot blossoms in the imperial garden.
I will protect this land and these people's hearts.
I will try my best to keep those who want to stay.
I never dared to think about what happened afterward.
As if afraid of shattering the moonlight beneath the ice, still warm from her body, and even the last vestige of her thoughts, still carrying the fragrance of Atractylodes lancea, she wanted to grind them into dust.
The wind from the city gate swept it away without a trace, leaving not even an echo.
When that crimson figure exploded between heaven and earth, I was standing by the arrow crenellation at the highest point of the city wall, my fingertips still clutching the dried apricots she had handed me before she set off.
It comes from the 300-year-old apricot tree in the Imperial Garden. The flesh is as soft and sweet as honey, and the pit is so small that it is almost invisible.
The wind whipped the bright yellow hem of the dragon robe, making it flutter loudly. The dragon scales embroidered with gold thread rolled in the wind, stinging my cheeks, but it couldn't drown out the deafening roar that made my eardrums ache.
Like a thunderbolt striking my heart, or like the ice field cracking in the winter of northern Xinjiang, even the patterns on the gray brick walls under my feet trembled, and years of accumulated dust fell down from the cracks in the bricks.
Qin Qianluo, my Regent, the one who taught me how to hold a gun, her palm against the back of my hand, her fingertips repeatedly correcting my wrist posture, saying, "Only when the gun is steady can the mind be steady."
The one who taught me to read maps traced the Yanmen Pass with his fingertip and drew a red circle at the place where "five thousand soldiers were added for winter defense".
With her fingertips rubbing the ink stains, Qin Qianluo said, "This is the people's shield. If we had lost this pass back then, the Xiongnu horses would have trampled into the Central Plains."
The one who would always pull out a piece of malt candy wrapped in oil paper from his sleeve whenever I frowned at the memorials on "investigating corruption"
With sugar icing on her fingertips as she peeled the paper, Qin Qianluo smiled and said, "Let's have a sweet treat first, then we'll tackle the tough stuff. You're the future monarch, you have to be more resilient than anyone else."
It simply dissipated into a sky full of blood mist.
The wind blew on my face, seemingly carrying her usual fragrance, but when I reached out to grab it, I only grasped an empty breeze.
She didn't leave me even a blood-stained hem of her scarlet dress, a strand of hair covered in battlefield dust, or even a single Atractylodes seed that she always carried with her.
The entire country seemed to be shaking.
The dragon flag fluttering below the city gate was askew, and the gilded dragon pattern, soaked in the blood mist, turned a dark red, like cinnabar soaked in blood.
The eaves of the distant palaces swayed like blurry shadows in my vision, and the glazed tiles of the Hall of Supreme Harmony reflected a bloody light that stung my eyes.
Even the dried apricots I was clutching between my fingers rolled into the cracks between the bricks, covered in dust and blood. The sweet aroma mixed with the stench of blood made it hard to breathe.
It felt like a piece of my heart had been ripped out; the pain made my limbs tremble, even my fingertips shook, and my nails dug into my palms, yet I felt no pain.
The air was thick with the smell of rust. Every breath felt like a dull knife slowly scraping inside my lungs, churning my internal organs together.
My eyes burned terribly, and countless tears welled up inside, blurring the world before me into a watery haze.
Her eyelashes were so wet they could be wrung out, and even the distant mountains outside the city gate appeared as gray shadows.
But I held back my tears, not letting a single one fall.
The Regent once said, "Your Highness may cry, but your tears must not blur your vision, nor should they let the officials see that you are panicking."
"In the future, you will be Chengxiao's heaven. If the heavens panic, the people will have nowhere to shelter from the wind and rain, and will only suffer from cold and hunger in the mud."
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