Chapter 86: The Nightingale
When Shang Junnian walked out of the dungeon, he was blinded by the bright sunlight outside. He was still holding the bloody dagger in his hand. The blood had dried and stuck to his palm, and the smell of blood lingered between his nostrils.
It turns out that there really is a technique to capture souls in this world. No wonder Lu Yan's personality changed drastically after he woke up, and there was no trace of his former self at all.
Shang Junnian felt as if a thorn that had been rotting and festering in his heart had finally been dug out fiercely. The pain was excruciating, but new flesh and blood had grown where no one had noticed, and it felt itchy and sore.
Lu Yan waited from the first light of day till the dusk fell, but still received no news that Shang Junnian had left the court. Only a group of maids came to untie the ropes for him and helped him wash and bathe, but they did not allow him to leave the room.
"The Prime Minister has ordered that if you step out of this room, we will all be beaten to death. Please have mercy on my life."
These words dispelled Lu Yan's idea of beating up these maids. He could only let others help him wash and bathe, and change into a clean brocade robe. The table had already been laid out with wine and food, which were obviously carefully prepared.
Lu Yan lifted his robe and sat down at the table, pouring himself a glass of wine: "Master Prime Minister, are you not going to see me?"
The maid bowed her head and said, "Don't worry, sir. The Prime Minister must have been tripped by something."
They bowed and left the room together, closing the door.
Lu Yan was not in a hurry. He held the wine glass and drank by himself until the candle on the corner of the table had burned most of the time and time passed quietly until the second half of the night. He finally looked up at the roof:
"Aren't you going to come down yet?"
The man on the roof holding the wine jar paused when he heard this, as if his acupoints were pressed: "..."
Lu Yan twirled a peanut, popped it out with his fingertips, and hit it on the tile with a soft sound. He asked with a half-smile, "Are you coming down, or should I go up?"
He drank all night in the house, and Shang Junnian drank all night on the roof. No one knew what the other was up to.
A figure quietly appeared outside the house and pushed the door open. The slightly stuffy night breeze and cicada chirping outside suddenly flooded into my ears, making even the person seem vivid and real.
Lu Yan's eyes fell on Shang Junnian, and he paused for a moment, then stood up and walked over. In fact, he hadn't figured out how to explain it to Shang Junnian. A lot of thoughts mixed with alcohol were surging in his mind, and he couldn't calm down day and night.
Lu Yan looked at Shang Junnian and asked, "Can you trust me?"
“Blah——!”
It was the sound of a wine altar being thrown aside and breaking.
Shang Junnian suddenly reached out and hugged Lu Yan's neck, and kissed him directly, his teeth knocking against his lips, with a bit of clumsiness, as if he was venting, but also as if he was asking for something. In the end, the smell of blood had overwhelmed the bitter taste of wine.
Lu Yan was stunned for a moment and then closed his eyes. He hugged Shang Junnian's waist tightly, closed the door with his backhand, and stumbled towards the bed with him in the dim candlelight. The two of them fell into the brocade quilt together.
Shang Junnian's eye-catching red shirt was taken off, revealing the hem of his shirt was embroidered with delicate and intricate pine and cypress patterns. Lu Yan once said that he liked this kind of tree the most because it remained green all year round, a sign of longevity.
During the year of separation, Shang Junnian wanted to forget Lu Yan all the time, but he became his shadow. The memories of the past became a sharp knife, piercing his heart again and again in his dreams at midnight.
Lu, Yan.
A name that he could not forget even after being smashed to pieces. Even if others mentioned it casually, it would blow through his heart like the sound of wind echoing in the valley, bringing with it the pain of cutting flesh and bones.
When Lu Yan woke up from the assassination, his personality changed drastically. He would whip servants at the least and kill people for fun at the worst. At one point, he was so strange that Shang Junnian could not recognize him. However, neither the Emperor nor Eunuch He was surprised at all, as if Lu Yan was supposed to be like that. Instead, the Lu Yan in Shang Junnian's memory was the alien that should not have appeared...
"That is how it is, Your Highness."
Eunuch He said this over and over again.
No, he is not!
Shang Junnian retorted coldly, but every time he responded, he only got the flat words from Eunuch He: "Your Highness has always been like this."
It has always been like this.
Everyone is selectively forgetting, only he is trapped in the deep sea of memories, struggling and drowning alone.
The memories were shattered in an instant, leaving only the years spent in the dungeon without seeing the light of day.
Shang Junnian's lips trembled. He seemed very cold and scared. He held Lu Yan's shoulders tightly with a suffocating force and asked fiercely, "Where on earth have you been?!"
His eyes were red and his voice was choked with sobs: "Lu Yan, where on earth did you go that year?!"
During the days and nights imprisoned in the dungeon, Shang Junnian had been thinking about one thing over and over again -
Where did Lu Yan's soul go? !
If the soul has no body to reside in, the only way out is to turn into ashes. Shang Junnian was afraid that Lu Yan's body would be occupied by wandering ghosts, while his real soul would be floating outside. Perhaps a gust of wind or a bolt of lightning would turn him into ashes. By then, what fun would it be for him to return to his position as a high-ranking official?
Shang Junnian hated it so much that he even wanted to kill the evil spirit with a sword. Since Lu Yan couldn't come back and his body couldn't be possessed by others, he couldn't do it.
All he could do was to speed up the demise of the immortals, and then imprison the man in front of him, locking him up in a room, chaining him up with iron chains, for ten years if one year didn't work, until the man returned to his original form, until the real Lu Yan came back...
Lu Yan kissed away the tears from Shang Junnian's eyes, gently brushed away his messy hair, and whispered in his ear: "Shang Junnian, I have always been with you..."
"Always."
They witnessed each other's most desperate times together, lived together, and died together in the fire.
Lu Yan still didn't know whether it was the cause in the previous life that created the result in this life, or the result in this life that created the cause in the previous life. He only knew that his fate was inextricably linked with the fate of the person in front of him and could never be separated.
The Prime Minister's Mansion was in the east of the city, and not far away was the largest theater in Goddess City. The temperature was still a little cold in the early morning, and the maid carried a bucket of water to water the red maple and peach trees in the mansion one by one. She could only hear the melodious and charming singing of actors in the distance, but because it was a little far away, she listened carefully for a while before she could hear what the song was.
Oh, it turns out to be “The Palace of Eternal Life”.
Having gone through all the dead and the living, the immortals and the ghosts, they have become twin lotus flowers in the heavenly palace.
Outside the Prime Minister's Residence, a luxurious carriage stopped at some point, and a young man in a blue brocade robe got off. The guard at the gate obviously recognized him, and not only did he not stop him, he knelt down and saluted: "Greetings, sir."
This person was of noble status, so it was not appropriate to address him by his honorific title, so he had to be called "Young Master".
Zhao Yuzhang waved his fan and said, "No need to be polite. Where is your prime minister? He hasn't been to court for a whole day. Is he sick?"
Since Shang Junnian did not go to court, Zhao Yuzhang felt like he had lost half his brain. Today, there was a lot of noise in the court and no rules were put forward. He simply left the palace in disguise.
The guard spoke vaguely: "The Prime Minister is entertaining a good friend, so I'm afraid he won't be available."
"Friends?"
Zhao Yuzhang's eyelids jumped, thinking that Shang Junnian usually lived in seclusion and didn't have many friends, so he was the only one willing to play with him: "Male or female?"
Guard: “Male.”
Zhao Yuzhang: "Is he handsome?"
Guard: "Very handsome."
"Wow!"
Zhao Yuzhang put away his fan and went straight to the backyard. The fire of gossip in his heart was burning, and he just wanted to quickly see who that man was: Shang Junnian, Shang Junnian, there are many better fish in the sea, why bother to love only one flower, you finally figured out how to find the next one!
Shang Junnian was still asleep in the room, with the curtains drawn tightly to block out the glaring sunlight from outside. Lu Yan got dressed and practiced swordplay in the yard for a while. He was about to go back and wake him up for breakfast when he saw Zhao Yuzhang sneaking in from the moon door outside.
Seeing this, Lu Yan made a sword flower with his backhand, thinking that after searching for a long time, he finally got it without any effort. He was just planning to go find Zhao Yuzhang, but he didn't expect that the other party would come to him.
A half-smiley voice suddenly rang out in the courtyard, frightening Zhao Yuzhang so much that he stumbled:
"It's been a long time since we last met. Prince Yuzhang is still as charming as ever. I haven't congratulated you on your ascension to the throne yet. I will definitely give you the gift later. Please forgive me."
Zhao Yuzhang: “?!!”
This familiar voice, could it be...
Zhao Yuzhang turned around in disbelief, and saw Lu Yan walking down the stairs slowly with his hands behind his back, a smile hidden in his eyes, and the look of disgust in his memory was exactly the same: "Lu Yan?!!!"
Zhao Yuzhang's eyes widened in shock, and he rushed forward: "Why is it you?!"
Lu Yanrao asked back with interest: "Why can't it be me?"
Zhao Yuzhang was so angry that he rolled up his sleeves and wanted to beat him up: "How dare you come?!"
Lu Yan was puzzled: "Why don't I dare to come?"
Zhao Yuzhang was devastated and mad: "What on earth do you want to do?!"
Lu Yan said calmly, "Oh, it's nothing. I'm not young anymore, and it's time for me to get married and start a family. I came to Wuyun specially to ask for the hand of Shang Guoxiang. Brother Yuzhang, remember to come and have a drink at the wedding when you have time."
After he finished speaking, he smiled and patted Zhao Yuzhang's shoulder, looking like they were good brothers.
Zhao Yuzhang was so angry that he was shaking all over. He had never seen someone as shameless as Lu Yan. He grabbed his collar and said, "Lu Yan, do you have any shame? How did you treat Jun Nian after I left Wu Yun? How dare you come to him now?!"
Lu Yan let him grab his collar and said seriously: "The past is like smoke. He doesn't care, I don't care, why should you care?"
Zhao Yuzhang: “You!”
As they were talking, there was a creaking sound, and the tightly closed door was suddenly pushed open. Shang Junnian came out with a coat draped over his shoulders. Seeing the two of them arguing and fighting, he couldn't help but frowned: "What are you doing?"
When Lu Yan and the King of Nanxun were fighting overtly and covertly, he discovered one thing: you must report a complaint quickly, because whoever reports it quickly is right. He ran to Shang Junnian's side and said in embarrassment, "I was practicing sword in the courtyard just now, and I happened to meet Brother Yuzhang and said a few words to him. I don't know what happened to him, but he rushed over and grabbed my collar and wanted to attack me..."
What he said was true, but not entirely true. His evasion of the main point made Zhao Yuzhang extremely angry.
Shang Junnian was obviously not that easy to fool, he glanced at Lu Yan and asked: "What did you say to him?"
Lu Yan's eyes wandered: "I said I would marry you back to Xianling soon and let him drink in our wedding wine."
No wonder he got beaten.
Zhao Yuzhang finally had an idea. He quickly jumped onto the steps and said unconvincedly, "Hey, why did Junnian marry Xianling instead of you marrying Wuyunlai? Xianling is about to be destroyed. For Junnian's sake, I can reluctantly take you in."
After not seeing each other for a year, Zhao Yuzhang's mouth has become poisonous.
Lu Yan did not say anything. He quietly held Shang Junnian's hand under the cover of his sleeve and hooked his little finger. Then he asked with a smile: "Okay, Prime Minister Shang, when are you going to marry me? The betrothal gift cannot be too small."
As for being thick-skinned, Lu Yan is the least afraid of it. No one in the world is thicker-skinned than him.
Shang Junnian frowned and coughed awkwardly, then shook off his hand inconspicuously. Two grown men talking about marriage and marriage, without any shame.
Lu Yan was further delayed.
Shang Junnian let go again, and Lu Yan held on again.
After several rounds of this, Shang Junnian was finally exhausted and turned away, saying, "Come in and talk to me if you have anything to say!"
It was time for breakfast, and the maidservant came in carrying dishes. Shang Junnian was not a person who liked luxury, and he always ate light food. On the table were only a plate of beef dumplings, a plate of pickled vegetables, a plate of blanched cauliflower, and three bowls of white porridge.
Zhao Yuzhang and Lu Yan sat facing each other, staring at each other. If Shang Junnian had not been between them, they would have started fighting.
Shang Junnian paused, regretting that he had not told Zhao Yuzhang about Lu Yan's soul being possessed. The two of them were now like black-eyed chickens, disliking each other. "If you have anything to say, let's talk after breakfast."
Zhao Yuzhang then picked up a meat bun and took a bite. Seeing that Lu Yan didn't move his chopsticks, he said in a sly tone, "Why, the food in the Prime Minister's Mansion doesn't meet the taste of Prince Fengling?"
Without waiting for Lu Yan to reply, he said in a drawn-out voice, "Yes, it can't compare to the delicacies of Fengling Palace. The filling of a duck tongue and bean curd skin bun is only a small piece of meat from the tip of the tongue. Three small buns must use at least hundreds of tongues. Even if you have a bowl of clear soup noodles, the soup base must be made of chicken, duck, fish, lamb, abalone, sea cucumber, shark's fin and fish maw. This kind of clear porridge and side dishes can't compare."
As soon as Lu Yan heard his words, he knew that this guy had often eaten secretly in the backyard kitchen. He deliberately gave Shang Junnian a piece of food with his chopsticks, implying: "In fact, what you eat is not important. What is important is the people you eat with. When I am with Junnian, I am satisfied even if I have to eat coarse food."
＃So disgusting＃
Zhao Yuzhang's face turned pale for a moment, then he slowly exhaled: "Since you like Jun Nian so much, why don't you consider marrying Wu Yun?"
He just didn't believe that Lu Yan could really bring himself to do that.
Lu Yan really said: "I'm afraid I'm going to disappoint Brother Yuzhang."
Zhao Yuzhang gave me an expression that I had guessed: "Why?"
Lu Yan smiled slightly: "My father won't let me marry a poor man."
“Cough, cough, cough, cough—!”
Zhao Yuzhang was almost choked to death by Baozi when he heard this, and he burst into a shocking coughing fit. Even Shang Junnian paused with his chopsticks, and looked at Lu Yan unkindly: "Where is the truth?"
Lu Yan knew something was wrong when he heard this. Was Shang Junnian really planning to let him marry into the family? If the Emperor knew this, he would be furious.
"The Prime Minister is not poor, it is Wu Yun who is too poor."
Lu Yan scratched the bottom of the bowl with the tip of his chopsticks and said something else: "Both are remote places, but Tianshui is spring-like all year round, while Wuyun is bitterly cold all year round. The people are not good at farming and mostly rely on animal husbandry for a living. Many cattle and sheep freeze to death every winter. When food is insufficient, they have to buy food from Tianshui. Add to that the amount of tribute to the immortals, and how much is left in a year?"
Lu Yan said with a worried look: "Brother Yuzhang, I heard that the late emperor was extravagant and wasteful. Your treasury is empty, right? Tianshui has suspended its grain and fodder support. I am really worried that this war will drain the vitality of Wuyun and eventually be annexed by Dongli."
Zhao Yuzhang suddenly raised his head and gnashed his teeth in anger: "Is it you who caused Tianshui to suspend the grain supply?!"
Lu Yan touched his chin and said, "When I was in Zhifengyuan before, I brought him a lot of snacks. Gongsun Wuyou will still give me this face."
Zhao Yuzhang slammed the table, wanting only to scold Lu Yan for being shameless: "When have you ever brought him snacks? It was obviously Chen Ying..."
Before he finished speaking, he suddenly saw Lu Yan looking at him with a half-smile. His expression was very similar to that of the little guard. He felt indescribably familiar. He realized something belatedly and his expression suddenly changed. He stood up in shock: "Are you Chen Yingqi?!"
How is this possible? !!!
Lu Yan did not comment, but deliberately lowered his voice and asked, "Brother Yuzhang, are the meat buns I brought you delicious?"
Zhao Yuzhang: “!!!!”
The maid in the outer courtyard was originally sweeping the floor when she suddenly heard a burst of angry curses from afar. She poked her head inside and saw Zhao Yuzhang walking towards the outside, swearing. He spitted all the way from the Tingfeng Pavilion to the outside of the mansion gate. His curses were as bad as they could be. He was still spitting outside after getting on the carriage and lifting the curtain:
"I just ate a few dozen of your meat buns! I will pick them out and spit them out to you when I get back! You damned liar, you deserve to be exterminated! Shang Junnian, you will be deceived by him sooner or later and have nothing left!"
"What are you looking at! Go back to the palace!"
Shang Junnian was not feeling well, so he did not go to see Zhao Yuzhang off. However, he had sharp hearing and heard some of the unpleasant words. He looked at Lu Yan, who was sitting across the table with a calm demeanor, and said, "He scolded you for not having any descendants, and you were not angry?"
Lu Yan picked up the beef bun on the table and took a bite, then said nonchalantly, "I'm childless, and you can't have a baby."
Shang Junnian glared at him without leaving a trace: "Will the Immortal Spiritual Clan agree that you, a man without any descendants, can be the emperor?"
Lu Yan smiled, and in his uncertain eyes one could vaguely see something called ambition rapidly expanding and fermenting: "They have to agree whether they agree or not. As long as I persuade the three kingdoms to withdraw their troops, and with my father's guarantee, the position of crown prince will definitely be mine."
When King Nanxun ascended the throne in the previous life, Lu Yan had already had enough of having his fate manipulated by others. Rather than waiting until the emperor passed away a hundred years later when there was no one to take charge, it would be better to seize power now.
Shang Junnian slowly raised his eyelids: "Are you so sure that Yuzhang will withdraw his troops? He won't do anything that has no benefit."
Lu Yan thought for a moment before saying, "Luzhou is close to the border between Xianling and Wuyun. It has always been rich in water and grass, and is a place for trade between the two countries. However, it has always been an unowned land. After so many years of fighting, there is still no result. How about giving it to him?"
Shang Junnian pondered for a moment and said: "Exempt Wu Yun from paying tribute for another three years."
With these two trump cards, he was able to persuade Zhao Yuzhang to withdraw his troops in the court and shut up those who advocated war.
Lu Yan slammed the table and said, "Deal!"
When the news reached Zhao Yuzhang's ears, he was naturally reluctant, but Shang Junnian somehow persuaded him to bow his head, and he debated with the scholars in the court and unilaterally tore up the war alliance with Dongli.
When the news reached Dongli, Liu Quedan was very sensitive and smelled something unusual. He raised his head in the dim candlelight, frowning slightly. His originally gentle face concealed the deepness of an emperor: "First, Tianshui cut off the food supply, and then Wuyun tore up the covenant. Is there really such a coincidence in the world? Could it be that the immortals did something?"
Prince Liu stood below and shook his head when he heard this: "The immortals are now powerless and have no skills. What can they do? The spies we sent out didn't get any news either. It's just..."
Liu Quedan raised his eyes: "Just what?"
Prince Liu said in embarrassment: "The Prime Minister of Wuyun State, Shang Junnian, wants to ask for permission to go to Dongli to discuss the alliance in detail."
Liu Quedan exhaled slowly: "He was the one who tore up the covenant, and he was also the one who wanted to negotiate in detail. I want to see what tricks he wants to play, sure!"
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