16 praises
◎The prince is so graceful and elegant, why compare with others?◎
"They are all members of the Wei family. Wouldn't they be unable to speak without Wei Ming?"
Xu Qinghe raised his eyes and glanced at him.
He didn't know where this person got so angry with Wei Ming, but he still reminded him in a low voice: "If you want to see me in the future, please be careful and don't be as reckless as you were today."
Looking over with his head down, Wei Che sought her eyes and asked with a smile, "My Lady, are you blaming me for my recklessness today?"
This person was too close, almost confining her in the gap of the rockery. Xu Qinghe was slightly annoyed and said coldly, "I hope that the prince understands that only by acting in a covert manner can our alliance last."
Wei Che smiled softly but said nothing.
How could the two of them be considered allies? It was obvious that he was just willingly doing things for her.
"Princess, I'm here to bring you good news today. Why don't you give me a compliment and I'll tell you the news?"
Xu Qinghe raised her eyes. The other person still had a teasing look on his face, without any trace of lying. Her heart moved slightly.
For her, the only good news was the matter of the surviving families of the Southern Border Army.
Could it be that he found the person?
"Prince..." She lowered her head, thought for a moment, then raised her eyes and said, "Prince is a gentleman, gentle as jade, and truly a young talent."
"Hmph." Wei Che snorted coldly, the smile in his eyes fading a little. "My princess, you don't seem to be talking about me, but rather... Young Master Wei? What? I'm standing right in front of you, and you're still thinking about someone else?"
The two of them had been in the rockery for some time. Xu Qinghe knew that he could not delay any longer, so he stared at the person in front of him several times.
Today, this man was wearing a round-necked brocade robe with silver beads. Perhaps because he entered the palace today, his black hair was neatly tied up with a white jade crown. There seemed to be a dark color under his eyes. She was close to him and could see that he had deliberately used makeup to cover it up.
When the breeze blew by, there was also the refreshing fragrance of spring in the snow on his body.
She cursed him in her heart, saying that a grown man who put on makeup all day long had no masculinity at all.
But he still said: "The prince has outstanding appearance and extraordinary grace. He is different from others. Why should he be compared with others?"
"Is the prince satisfied with what I said?"
A few nice words were nothing compared to getting her to kiss him.
But Wei Che just liked to hear her praise him, even if it was begging for it, he would be willing to do it.
He raised his eyebrows and said casually, "Of course I'm satisfied. The good news is... I've found the person the princess asked me to find."
"Where are they?"
"Didn't the princess seek out that woman earlier to give her money to fulfill her promise? Since I'm the princess's ally, I gave her a hundred taels of gold on her behalf and then sent her away."
Xu Qinghe frowned and stared at him for a while, then suddenly pulled out a hairpin from her bun and used force to pin Wei Che to the rockery opposite.
In the blink of an eye, the sharp end of the hairpin was against his cold white neck.
"Prince Wei, I'm in a bad mood today. I advise you not to tease me anymore."
The girl had cold eyes, and there was obvious anger between her brows.
After all these years, this girl is still so hot-tempered.
"Can you tell me why the princess is in such a bad mood?"
He was still smiling, which made Xu Qinghe angry. She exerted force with her hands, causing the hairpin to pierce his skin, oozing out blood the size of a grain of rice.
"This is not something the prince should be concerned about. The prince only needs to bring the person back to the palace for me."
"I sent someone to the palace for you. Why do you think I have the ability to do that?"
Wei Che, the prince of the Duke of Fuguo, held no official position and was not even an outsider. He only came with the people from the Duke of Fuguo's mansion to pay respects to his aunt, Concubine Zhao, on the first and fifteenth day of every month. Naturally, he did not have such power.
But her aunt, Concubine Zhao, who was in charge of the six palaces, did.
"In February of this year, the palace will release the maids of marriageable age and recruit new ones. Please send them to my palace at that time, my prince."
Her expression grew colder and colder, so Wei Che stopped teasing her and nodded in response.
Xu Qinghe didn't want to keep the blood-stained hairpin, but she couldn't just throw it away there either, so when she went out to look for Nanzhi, she gave it to her and asked her to throw it away.
Nanzhi took the hairpin respectfully.
By mid-February, Wei Che, who knew what method he had used, actually used Concubine Zhao, who was in charge of the six palaces, to send the person to the Empress Dowager's Kangning Palace.
The Empress Dowager's palace was full of experienced old people and did not need to be filled, so Concubine Zhao sent six new palace maids for Xu Qinghe to choose from.
Xu Qinghe glanced at Nanzhi, who understood and stood in front of the six palace maids.
"Lift your heads."
She glanced at them one by one, and when she saw the fourth person, her eyes fixed, and she left without a word. In the end, she only chose three to stay.
Naturally, the new palace maid had to pay her respects to the princess first and be given a name.
During the greeting, the palace maid who was in the fourth position suddenly lost her balance and fell, knocking over a white-glazed plum vase with a lotus pattern next to her. The water in the vase flew everywhere with the broken porcelain pieces, splashing all over everyone.
"How dare you!" Nanzhi shouted, "How dare you frighten the princess!"
The maid immediately knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly: "Princess, please spare me. This servant was careless. Please spare me!"
Xu Qinghe brushed off the branches and leaves that were on his body and looked out the window. The sun was already setting outside, and warm yellow light seeped in through the window lattice, bringing a layer of warmth to the room.
"Everyone else can go down. You will kneel here tonight and learn your lesson."
After nightfall, there was never a light on in Xu Qinghe's bedroom, and Nanzhi was always the only one keeping watch outside.
The palace maid knelt silently at the door. At first she was crying, but later she just lowered her head in silence.
When the fourth watch arrived, the sound of the night watchman's drum was heard outside, one slow and three fast, and Xu Qinghe opened his eyes in the tent.
She lifted the quilt and stood up, hooking the curtain with a golden hook, making a rustling sound.
Nanzhi in the outer room also stood up, helped the still kneeling palace maid to the inner room, and let her sit in front of the princess's bed.
At this moment, the harem was silent, and a full moon in the dome cast a bright light in the courtyard.
The palace maid raised her head and saw the person in front of her clearly in the cool moonlight and the dim candlelight. Then her eyes became hot and she began to cry silently.
Xu Qinghe was silent. He took the girl into his arms and patted her back to comfort her.
Neither she nor Nanzhi had expected that the woman who blocked their way in the street that day was actually a little girl who deliberately tied her hair in a bun to hide her real age.
Judging from her thin appearance, she may not even be fifteen years old.
"Sister Princess, I was being hunted all the way and had to disguise myself as a woman to escape. I knew that the Princess was the only person I could trust in this world, so I went all the way to the capital. The Princess' birthday was my only chance to see her. I had no choice but to stop her in the street, but I didn't want to give those assassins an opportunity..."
An orphan girl escaped numerous pursuits and entered the capital from the southern border. Her journey was full of ups and downs. Only she knew what she experienced along the way.
Xu Qinghe wasn't one for comforting others, but facing the crying little girl in his arms, he still said softly, "What happened that day had nothing to do with you. Even without you, they would have taken action."
The little girl buried herself in her arms and sobbed. When she and Nanzhi heard it, they couldn't help but think of the past.
These are the surviving relatives of the Southern Border Army who have traveled thousands of miles, and they are their only connection with the Southern Border and their past in the capital.
When they were young, they were accompanied by family and good friends, bathed in the warm sunshine and received deep love. But now, they are walking on thin ice in the deep palace. Everything that once was has gone away from them, like the clouds in the mountains after the drizzle, which can only be seen but not touched.
After the girl had cried enough, Xu Qinghe asked her some trivial matters about the southern border army, ostensibly out of concern but actually as a test.
The girl knew it in her heart, so she told him everything she knew.
Finally, Xu Qinghe asked how Wei Che found her.
"I arrived in Beijing and happened to catch the Princess' birthday. I wanted to meet her. The excuse I made up was half true, half false, but I really had no money. Fortunately, there was a treasure shop. The owner was kind enough to let me work there and even let me live in the workshop.
"That day was the first day of the new year, and the shop had already opened. When I went to work, I unexpectedly ran into a group of noble children who came here for entertainment. They insisted that I had hit someone and wanted to claim compensation from me. They also repeatedly teased me. Fortunately, Prince Wei was among them and rescued me."
"Wei Che? How could he recognize you at first sight?"
Even Nanzhi, who had met her before, recognized her from among the six people after seeing each other several times. Wei Che had never seen her before, so how could he recognize her at a glance?
The girl thought for a moment and whispered, "Prince Wei said that he ordered someone who was there to draw my portrait. He has a photographic memory, so he was able to recognize me at a glance."
However, the fact is that Wei Che was also one of the Chinese eyewitnesses that day. He was present when the street was blocked and the attack happened.
Using portraits to find people was a common method, and Xu Qinghe had no doubts about it.
"Then what is your purpose in coming to Beijing?"
This is her ultimate goal of finding the person, and it is also the purpose of this girl coming to Beijing.
The girl suddenly stopped crying and knelt on the ground.
"My name is Lin Xiao. I came to Beijing to fulfill my brother's last wish and to find peace of mind."
"Then..." Xu Qinghe clenched his hands, as if sensing something, and asked softly, "What's your brother's name?"
Lin Xiao raised her head, tears welling in her eyes, but her gaze remained resolute. "My brother is General Xie's deputy general, Meng Chen."
Xu Qinghe's hand suddenly lost its strength, and his hard nails scratched the back of his hand, leaving a bloody mark.
Six years ago, during the battle in the southern border, my father and mother led 50,000 elite troops to encircle the enemy. However, they didn't expect the intelligence to be wrong, and they were actually surrounded and suppressed by the enemy. In the end, no one survived.
The army cannot be without a commander for a day. In the past, the Southern Border Army was under the command of the King of Nannan and his wife, and the person with the most say was Xie Qi's father Xie Huaiyuan. Therefore, the Southern Border Army was temporarily commanded by Xie Huaiyuan from then on.
A year later, someone in the court suddenly accused Xie Huaiyuan of treason and collaborating with the enemy, which led to the death of the Prince of Nan'an and his wife and 50,000 southern border troops. There were witnesses and evidence, and Meng Chen, Xie Huaiyuan's deputy general, was one of them.
Thinking of her brother, Lin Xiao's eyes warmed up again. Seeing the person in front of her was slightly stunned, she knelt on the ground again:
"Princess, my brother was forced into perjury and killed the Prince of Nan'an and his wife, as well as 50,000 Southern Border soldiers. It wasn't General Xie who was responsible."
【Author’s words】
Bug fixing and plot modification
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