Chapter 58: A Thousand Miles to a New Dynasty
Their marriage was decided when they left Qingshui Village. It was delayed because of Zhao Cheng's matter. Now that everything is fine, it shouldn't be delayed any further.
Zhao Yan thought so.
He was the emperor now, and what the emperor said was what he wanted. It must have been easy for him to make Yong Shaolan his empress. He also wanted to give Brother Lan the best things in the world, so that he and he could live happily together in a world of two.
"Is it okay?" Zhao Yan hooked his arm around Yong Shaolan's neck and nuzzled his cheek, trying to get a response from him affectionately: "Stop licking me. I have something serious to tell you."
Yong Shaolan was silent for a moment, then carried Zhao Yan back into the bathtub and let him hold the edge of the tub with his hands.
"abnormal."
Yong Shaolan's silence was equivalent to Zhao Yan's agreement. He couldn't help but start to be distracted. He wanted to pick a better and bigger palace for Yong Shaolan to live in after returning to Taiji Hall. After all, the queen was the master of the harem, so it shouldn't be a big deal for her to live better, right?
Will there be any censors saying that he is extravagant?
Yong Shaolan had made Zhao Yan feel dizzy. He thought it was boring, so he wiggled his hips to get Yong Shaolan to talk to him. "It's all your fault. Last month during the estrus period, I asked you to come back, but you insisted that you had something to do and couldn't come back? I guess you just didn't want to do it during those days."
After washing for a while, Zhao Yan also felt a little distracted. He turned around and looked at Yong Shaolan with his tongue hanging out: "Brother Lan, can we stop playing? I want to watch you."
Yong Shaolan held Zhao Yan's arm and asked him to turn around again. The two stood face to face in the bathtub and kissed a few times, his lips making smacking sounds. "Ha, get out, go back to bed."
…
After taking a shower, Yong Shaolan got out of bed like a clockwork robot, ran some hot water, and wiped Zhao Yan inside and out again. He also considerately applied some cool ointment to him to make his thigh less painful.
"The other hand," Yong Shaolan knelt on one knee on the bed, and Zhao Yan just raised his hand or leg according to his command. Zhao Yan handed his right hand, whose palm was still burning, to Yong Shaolan, and put a hot towel on it, wiping him clean bit by bit.
"Brother Lan, you are so kind to me. You are obedient and gentle."
"..." Yong Shaolan paused, raised his eyelids and glanced at Zhao Yan, who was hiding under the quilt and secretly watching him, "Really?"
"Yes, you knew Zhao Cheng was not a good person before, but you still respected my opinion. In the end, when the truth came out, you just got a little angry and ran away with me. After that, I did a lot of things that I shouldn't have done, but you just scolded me a few times and comforted me with a kiss."
Zhao Yan gently scratched the palm of Yong Shaolan's hand, saying, "Thank you for liking me."
"I swear I'll treat you well from now on and make you the queen, huh..." Zhao Yan felt that saying that Yong Shaolan was the only one in the harem was too heartless. He hadn't planned to have a large harem anyway, and with Yong Shaolan's stamina and equipment, he wasn't sure if he could handle even one. "I don't know what I can promise you, why don't you propose it?"
"Keep it for now," Yong Shaolan threw the towel into the wooden basin and kissed Zhao Yan on the eyelid: "Go to sleep. I will set off for Beijing in a few days. Then you will be able to see your mother."
"Yeah." Zhao Yan crawled into the clean bed and watched Yong Shaolan put on his clothes again. He asked in confusion, "Brother Lan, aren't you going to sleep?"
"There's still something to do in the army, you go to sleep first."
Zhao Yan frowned, thinking, what else could he do so late at night? But Yong Shaolan was a stubborn ass, and since he had already decided to go and deal with the work, there was no point in him saying anything more.
"Then go ahead. I won't wait for you. I'm so tired and I'm going to sleep first." This has been their tacit understanding for the past few months. After being intimate, they would pat their butts and go about their own business.
"Um."
Yong Shaolan closed the door of the wing room, put on his cloak, and walked to the main hall downstairs. Xuanji and Wenquan were already waiting for him.
Xuanji: "Your Highness, all matters in Yujing have been arranged. The Duke of Wei has imprisoned the Crown Prince in Wenhua Palace to ensure his life. He will be executed upon your return."
"Also, the Marquis has stationed troops in the palace. The remaining Zhou family members have been escorted to the Northern Pacification Office. Lord Sun Kuo, who was previously dismissed, has been reinstated."
Xuanji only has military power and is smart in marching and fighting, but Wenquan is Yong Shaolan's most trusted confidant and his external brain.
After Xuanji finished speaking, Wenquan stepped forward and bowed, saying, "Your Highness, the people in the palace have been replaced by ours. Everything awaits your and His Majesty's decision when you return."
Wen Quan emphasized the word "you", but Xuan Ji, who was standing there stupidly, didn't hear it.
Everything is settled.
Yong Shaolan hummed softly, then walked to the window. He gazed at the pure, white world clad in a blanket of snow in the courtyard, a touch of sadness in his eyes. Sixteen years ago, also in winter, his father and brother had led troops to quell foreign rebellion, but unexpectedly died in battle. By now, he had almost forgotten what they looked like. The reflection in his eyes wasn't of a pure world, but rather the melting snow, revealing decaying leaves and the boundless vitality that lay just around the corner.
This is a brand new dynasty that he can control at will.
Yong Shaolan: "Return to Beijing as soon as possible."
…
Zhao Yan originally thought he would have to wait more than ten days before returning to the capital, but on the third day after Yong Shaolan had spoken to him, a group of unfamiliar civil and military officials arrived in Guanyang. Without saying a word, they groveled on the ground, hugged his thighs, and cried loudly, "Your Highness, you have suffered! It is all because of our stupidity that Your Highness has been wandering for so long! Your Highness! Your Highness!"
Zhao Yan didn't know what to say to them, so he could only help them one by one. There were many old ministers in their seventies and eighties among them. If they cried and got hurt, it would be a sin.
As a result, when these people saw him going to support her, they cried even harder and cried for almost half an hour. Then, as if they had discussed it beforehand, they all stood up and asked him to return to the palace to succeed the throne.
Zhao Yan finally got on the carriage and found that Xiao Zhouzi, who had served him before, had also returned. When Xiao Zhouzi saw him, his thin body knelt on the ground and kowtowed: "Your Highness, Your Highness, your servant finally sees you again!"
"I'm fine, hurry up and get up," Zhao Yan pulled the person on the ground to his feet and then boarded the carriage. After the large group had been gone for nearly half an hour, Zhao Yan finally couldn't help himself and lifted the curtain to ask Xiao Zhouzi, who was sitting outside: "Hey, where's Brother Lan? Why isn't he sitting with me?"
"Ah..." Xiao Zhouzi knew everything about Yong Shaolan and Zhao Yan, but now was different from the past. He could only bite the bullet and say, "His Royal Highness Prince Yong is riding a horse in front."
Zhao Yan: "Go call him over to me, I'm a bit bored."
Little Zhouzi immediately made a puzzled expression, as if Zhao Yan asked him to find not Yong Shaolan, but some big star.
Zhao Yan: "What's wrong? Is it not possible? I, ahem, am I not the emperor now?"
"This... Your Highness, you are now the Son of Heaven. It is against the rules for a military officer like Prince Yong to sit with you. It will cause criticism."
When Xiao Zhouzi said this, Zhao Yan immediately understood. He had relied on Brother Lan's Liaodong Army to succeed in his "entrepreneurship".
The emperors in ancient times were so powerful. They were the sons of destiny, so naturally no one could enjoy the same treatment as them. If he let Brother Lan sit with him now, in the eyes of outsiders, to put it nicely, Brother Lan was disregarding etiquette and committing insubordination. To put it bluntly, they would think that Brother Lan was rebelling in his name and treating him as a puppet.
Zhao Yan held his chin with his hand, bored, "Okay, I'll talk to him when we get to the post station this afternoon."
Little Zhouzi was smart and immediately noticed that Zhao Yan was bored, so he took the initiative to talk to him: "Your Majesty, if you are bored, would you like me to talk to you about Yujing?"
"Okay." Zhao Yan knew nothing about what had happened in Yujing in the past six months. "Then tell me about Zhao Cheng. When did he find out that the person going to Northern Frontier wasn't mine?"
"Also, was my Zichen Palace burned down by Zhao Cheng?" Zhao Yan remembered that the letter given by his father was still hidden in the Zichen Palace.
"This..." Little Zhouzi's eyes went dark after dark when he heard this. At the beginning, the deposed emperor asked him to go to the palace to report the news, but he let his prince go. He thought he would be dead if he went back - but for some reason, the deposed emperor did not blame him and kept him in the palace.
Over the past six months... he has secretly revealed a lot of information to King Yong.
Xiao Zhouzi frowned. "When the deposed emperor first ascended the throne, the court was overwhelmed with affairs, and everyone in Concubine Shu's mother's family was a bother. Naturally, he had no time to care about you. As for when he found out, I can't remember exactly."
"Forget it," Zhao Yan clenched his fists in anger. "Zhao Cheng is an ungrateful bastard. He doesn't care about the relationship between father and son at all. Everything he said to me was a lie. I will never let him go!"
Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhouzi finally felt relieved: "Your Majesty is right... As for your Purple Palace."
Little Zhouzi didn't know whether he should say that after his Highness left the capital, the deposed emperor had only lost his temper briefly in Taiji Hall. Not only had he sent back the eunuchs who had previously served in Zichen Hall (the ones left after being killed), he also had the hall meticulously cleaned every day. Even the deposed emperor himself would go to Zichen Hall when he quarreled with the deposed empress dowager. Sometimes he would use the hall's belongings, like towels, blankets, quilts, and other things, and sometimes he would just stay there...
The deposed empress dowager selected many daughters of the Zhou family for the deposed emperor, but the deposed emperor never visited any of them.
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The author has something to say: I'm back, but I'm still stuck. I'll try to update daily. If I don't, please ask for leave in the comment section. Thanks to the baby who returned the nutrient solution and mines to me, thank you!
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