Chapter 54 Chapter 54 Begonia Spring Pond.
The sun was shining brightly. After running a few laps around the racecourse, Lin Zhen's fair face was flushed with life. Sweat was dripping all over her body, but she felt particularly happy and relaxed. The hesitation and uneasiness in her heart were also swept away. She simply said with all her strength: "Your Majesty, I—"
The young eunuch held up a cup of cold tea and handed it to Lin Zhen. Wang Teng said, "Young lady, please drink this bowl of cold tea to cool down the summer heat."
Lin Zhen had no choice but to put the whip aside, took the teacup and took a sip.
The emperor waved his sleeves and pointed to the seat below, "Sit down and rest."
Lin Zhen sat down for a moment before he remembered to return the whip to the emperor.
"How is it? This whip is indeed quite old, but is it still easy to use?" The emperor took it with a smile.
"Most horse whips in the capital are made of jade handles and rattan strips, but this whip is made of red willow wood and woven with cowhide. It has both toughness and heft. While not luxurious, it allows for precise control of direction and force. It's truly a rare and valuable item."
The emperor paused, surprised, and said, "They are indeed father and daughter, with the same vision. When I was crowned Crown Prince by the late emperor, the room was filled with precious gifts, but he chose this horsewhip and asked me for it more than once."
"Your Majesty, in fact, father——"
Wang Teng suddenly stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, please forgive me. I am a fool. I just remembered that the Begonia Spring is nearby. Why don't you take Miss Lin there to bathe and change clothes first, and then report back." "Your Majesty—"
The emperor looked at him with a smile and said, "You are very thoughtful."
"Go." The emperor turned to look at Lin Zhen.
Lin Zhen could only say, "Thank you, Your Majesty."
With something unresolved in her mind, Lin Zhen was so distracted on the way to the Begonia Spring that she didn't even hear what Wang Teng said to her: "What?"
Wang Teng was not angry. Instead, he smiled patiently and continued, "Miss Lin, do you know the origin of this Begonia Spring Pond?"
Lin Zhen forced a smile: "I don't know."
"It was built by the previous emperor for his only daughter, the princess. In subsequent dynasties, the only people who could use this pool, apart from the emperor and empress, were the most favored concubines of their time. In this dynasty, the only one to receive this honor is the former Imperial Concubine Jiang."
Lin Zhen suddenly stopped and looked at him intently.
Wang Teng smiled with relief: "Miss Lin is indeed a smart person. I think she has understood what I mean."
Lin Zhen said solemnly, "Eunuch Wang, you must have taken my letter."
The smile on Wang Teng's face disappeared.
"I'm afraid you've already read the letter, but you've kept it secret and are trying to deceive Your Majesty. What are your intentions, Eunuch Wang?"
Otherwise, why would he repeatedly interrupt her reports to His Majesty?
"I think Miss Lin is mistaken. Whether I have read the letter or not, or even whether the letter you are talking about actually exists, is not important. What matters is not my thoughts, but your Majesty's thoughts."
"Your Majesty appreciates the girl and values her. This is the most important thing." Wang Teng said, patting Lin Zhen on the shoulder.
*
After Lin Zhen took a bath and changed her clothes, she put on the clothes Wang Teng had prepared for her and was taken to the Changsheng Palace to have dinner with the emperor.
When the emperor saw her, his eyes were dazed for a moment, and he smiled and said, "It fits very well."
Wang Teng seemed to assume that Lin Zhen had listened to what he said. During dinner, he did not interrupt the conversation between Lin Zhen and the emperor.
But Lin Zhen didn't mention the past again.
Only the emperor talked incessantly about many things from the distant past, so long ago that Lin Zhen's memory was vague.
She seemed to have met His Majesty when she was young. At that time, he was still the crown prince and would often come to the mansion to discuss current affairs with her father.
Looking at the emperor in front of her, who was immersed in memories and had prematurely gray hair, she suddenly realized that in that disaster, not only did she lose her father, but he also lost his closest relatives and friends.
*
Wang Teng was very satisfied and relieved with Lin Zhen's performance during the meal.
After sending her to the palace gate, Wang Teng turned his head and glanced at the rewards held in the hands of the palace servants behind him - Western riding clothes, rosewood chessboard, mutton-fat jade ruyi, gilded health lock and the horse whip that he was reluctant to give away.
He instructed Lin Zhen meaningfully: "Let the past be the past. All the right and wrong and cause and effect should be scattered along with the yellow earth. Those who are still alive should look forward. Miss Lin, you must remember this and don't let your thoughts go astray."
After saying that, he took a half step back, bowed, and put on his usual smile again.
*
At night, Wang Teng helped the emperor change his clothes and go to bed.
"After staying in this dull palace for a long time, I feel less lively. Do you think I look older?" the emperor sighed.
"Really? Why do I feel like the palace has been quite lively these past two days?"
The emperor stretched his back and said, "It does seem to be quite different from before. I always think back to my youth in the palace. Is it really not because I am old?"
Wang Teng said: "Your Majesty is in the prime of his life!"
The emperor threw his head back and laughed, "However, I really don't resist such a change. On the contrary, I think it's great!"
"Since the Third Prince's rebellion, there hasn't been any happy events in the palace for a long time. We might as well take this opportunity to have some fun."
"What time?" The emperor keenly caught the key words and raised his eyebrows to look at Wang Teng.
Wang Teng saw the smile and anticipation in the emperor's eyes, and he felt more confident. He replied calmly, "This is the time for Your Majesty to enrich your harem. In my opinion, Your Majesty has always been frugal and prudent. If you go to great lengths to hold a beauty pageant, it will inevitably be a waste of money and manpower. Fortunately, there is a suitable age woman in the palace right now..."
The emperor's breathing stagnated, and he squinted his eyes and leaned closer to him: "You are talking about..."
Following the emperor's feedback, Wang Teng became more confident, and even straightened his back a little: "Lin Yunfeng's daughter, Miss Lin Zhen!"
Before he finished speaking, Wang Teng felt a buzzing pain in his forehead.
"How dare you say that! What an idiot!" the emperor shouted.
Wang Teng fell to his knees, holding his official hat with trembling hands, and replied: "I am stupid, I deserve to die!"
The emperor was silent for a long time, then sighed, "It would be wonderful if I had a son like this."
*
After Lin Zhen returned to the palace, he found that the girl who had curled up in the corner last night was still there. Her eyes were full of bruises, and she looked at Lin Zhen with her dark eyes.
Seeing Lin Zhen coming back, she stood up cautiously, clutching the corner of her clothes and said, "Give me three more days, and I'll leave."
Lin Zhen remained indifferent. She continued, "In three days it will be the fifteenth. The palace will change its defenses, and I will escape from the palace then."
"Escape from the palace?"
The girl knew her words would be hard to believe, so she confessed everything: "Actually... I'm not a maid in Qionghua Palace. I'm Princess Zhaoning who lives in Qionghua Palace..."
"I fled this time because I wanted to go back to Mobei to find my father."
"Mobei? Do you know how far Mobei is from the capital?"
Five years ago, His Majesty had specially sent someone to bring her from Mobei to the capital. Naturally, she had no idea how to get back alone, but she refused to give up. "Yes, I really don't know how far it is. I might not even be able to find Mobei... But if I can't even leave the palace, then I'll never get there."
Lin Zhen finally raised her eyes. The girl's eyes were filled with tears, but she looked at her with determination. Lin Zhen's tone was still cold and hard: "The mountain is long and the road is long. It's not as simple as you think. It will kill people."
"So what? Everyone has to die, and I don't want to die in a cage!" She suddenly squatted on the ground, her arms wrapped around her shoulders, and said helplessly, "Although Your Majesty treats me well, I was born and raised in Mobei. My father once said that I was born a daughter of the grassland. The sky there is bigger than within the palace walls, and the grass there is greener than within the palace walls. I like riding horses and shooting arrows in the wind." After a pause, she raised her head stubbornly and said, "This is real horseback archery, not the kind of hunting where you catch a few rabbits and foxes and throw them in the garden."
Perhaps attracted by the scene she described, Lin Zhen was distracted for a moment. She took a deep breath and slowly squatted beside the girl. She took her hand, turned her palm upward, and wrote a few words stroke by stroke, "If you can really escape from the palace, go here and tell the people in the mansion that I am in the palace. They will definitely help you realize your wish."
"Really?" The girl suddenly held Lin Zhen's hand tightly and looked at her expectantly.
Lin Zhen smiled and nodded.
The girl had not eaten for a whole day and suddenly felt very hungry. With Lin Zhen's permission, she rummaged through a pile of exquisite boxes of rewards and fortunately found a plate of food to fill her stomach.
After eating half her fill, she began to play with the gift the emperor had given Lin Zhen. Suddenly, she said, "This riding coat belongs to the eldest princess, right? No wonder the clothes you wore when you returned to the palace today looked so familiar to me. Now I remember that I've seen the eldest princess wearing them before."
When mentioning the eldest princess, Lin Zhen inevitably thought of the princess's mansion and someone in the princess's mansion.
"Are you familiar with the eldest princess?"
The girl shook her head. "She stays on Yueqing Mountain all year round, only coming down to the palace for banquets. She's like a mountain deity, cold and aloof. The only time I saw her was when she was seriously ill and couldn't go to Dian Kingdom for the marriage. A palace maid serving with the princess in Feixue Tower came to the palace and asked me for peach kernels, saying they needed them to nourish her body."
“Peach kernel…?”
"Yes! I forgot to tell you that in the entire imperial palace, Qionghua Palace has the most peach trees!" The girl spoke excitedly and did not notice Lin Zhen's wandering expression.
After a moment, she sighed and said, "Although I don't like marriages, if the princess hadn't fallen ill and had gone to Dian to marry, perhaps she wouldn't have died in the fire because of Prince Chen's treason."
The girl was silent for a moment, then slowly spoke, "...My elder sister also went to marry a foreign prince. Unlike me, she was brought into the palace at birth and was specially canonized as a princess of a different surname by His Majesty. She is the glory of our entire family! But since my elder sister married Ronglu, we haven't seen each other again. But fortunately, my elder sister is doing well in Ronglu. Last month, my father wrote to say that my elder sister had returned to Mobei to visit him. If I could go back to Mobei, maybe I could reunite with my elder sister!"
The girl smiled at Lin Zhen, but she looked at him with a strange expression and asked, "Rong Lu?"
The girl nodded and quickly smiled, "It's a very small country, you may not have heard of it."
As far as Lin Zhen knew, Ronglu was destroyed by the Great Zhou Dynasty decades ago. Lin Zhen did not say anything, but just nodded.
At night, Lin Zhen gave half of his bed to the girl.
Late at night, the girl mumbled in her sleep, "Will I really die...? Can I die later...?"
Lin Zhen turned towards her and patted her back gently: "No, you will return to Mobei alive and see your father... and sister."
*
As the sky brightened, a carriage rushed into the palace gate.
"Your Majesty! General Ji Sui is plotting a rebellion!"
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