A few days after Wei Luo's wedding, Wei Min brought A'ruan and their two children back to Beijing. It was not because he did not want to celebrate the New Year at home, but because the emperor was seriously ill and he was afraid that something big was going to happen in the court.
As expected, as soon as Wei Min returned to the Wei Mansion, the Palace Department sent someone to invite the Left Prime Minister into the palace.
When Wei Min was changing into her official uniform, A'ruan held her hand with some inexplicable worry, fearing that the emperor would not be at peace before his death and might cause trouble.
Ever since the emperor became seriously ill, his temperament has changed drastically and he has become a lot more insane. A'ruan is really worried.
Wei Min smiled and took her husband into his arms. Taking advantage of this intimate posture, she whispered to him, "The court is under the control of the princess. Don't worry, I will be fine. If I come back late at night, you should go to bed early. You must be tired from the journey. Don't wait for me."
Wei Min let go of A'ruan and raised his hand to tuck the loose hair that had fallen on his cheek behind his ear.
When Wei Miao came in with his short legs, he saw his parents were hugging him, so he stretched out his short arms and ran towards Wei Min, "Mom, Miao Miao wants one too."
Wei Shu followed behind him, looking up at the two of them.
Wei Min squatted down, took the two children into his arms, one on each side, and said, "If mom comes home late at night, remember to tell dad to go to bed early."
Seeing the children nodding obediently, Wei Min left the house and entered the palace.
On the way, the person sent by the Palace Department took advantage of an opportunity and whispered to Wei Min, "Yesterday, the person in the cold palace tried every possible means to see His Majesty."
The one imprisoned in the cold palace was the former Noble Lord Rong, the biological father of the deposed princess.
Wei Min frowned and asked, "What did the princess say?"
The young servant bowed and said, "The princess said to let him do whatever he wants."
In just a few words, Wei Min had already understood the situation. He did not ask any more questions and kept his head down after entering the palace.
Jiang Kunjun lay half paralyzed on the bed, as if something was stuck in his throat. He asked incoherently, "Has Wei Min arrived? Where is the princess? Where did she go?"
Jiang Wuque had already healed his legs, so he stood by the bedside. When he heard her calling him, he lifted up his skirt and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over and saying, "Mother Queen, I'm right here, I haven't gone anywhere."
Jiang Kunjun panted heavily, his pupils dilated, and asked without any context, "Didn't you go to Northern Xinjiang?"
"The mother and son of the Feng family have too much power, and they have not returned to Beijing for many years in the northern border. I am afraid they have ulterior motives," Jiang Kunjun patted Jiang Wuque's hand and said, "I originally planned to find a wife for the only son of the Feng family and keep him in Beijing...but the eighth son insisted on marrying him. What do you think?"
Hearing this, Jiang Wuque narrowed her eyes slightly and saw that Jiang Kunjun mistook her for the deposed crown princess Jiang Wuyong.
She lowered her eyes, curled her lips and asked, "What do you think, mother?"
Jiang Kunjun shook his head and sighed, "I can't bear it either, she is also my daughter..."
The smile on Jiang Wuque's lips faded and his eyes turned slightly cold, but in the end, between solving the potential threat and his daughter, he chose the former without hesitation.
Jiang Kunjun closed his eyelids for a while, then asked impatiently, "Isn't Prime Minister Wei here yet?"
Wei Min just happened to come in, and hurried over to pay his respects, saying in a loud voice: "Your humble servant Wei Min greets Your Majesty."
Jiang Kunjun took a deep breath and asked in an unsteady voice: "Wei Min, you were trained by me, are you grateful to me?"
Wei Min lowered his eyes and replied, "Of course I am grateful."
Jiang Kunjun said yes three times in a row, "Then I want to borrow two things from you, can you give them to me?"
Wei Min's eyebrows jumped, and he felt inexplicably distressed. He did not agree immediately, but asked carefully, "What do you want?"
"I want your pair of children."
At this time, there were only four people in the hall: Dian Zhongsheng, Jiang Kunjun's mother and daughter, and Wei Min. As soon as Jiang Kunjun said this, the whole hall fell silent, so quiet that even people held their breath.
Wei Min lowered his eyes, his long and thick eyelashes cast a shadow under his eyes, hiding the emotions in his eyes.
Jiang Kunjun's eyes were filled with madness, and his voice was a little excited. He said, "I asked someone to calculate it, and they said that my body needs the hearts of boys and girls to be used as medicine. The boys and girls must be twins, and their mothers must be high-ranking officials. Only such medicine is of the best quality... Among all the civil and military officials in the court, the only ones who can meet these two requirements are the pair of children in your Wei Min family."
Wei Min clenched his fingers into fists at his sides and said nothing.
Jiang Wuque asked, "Mother Queen, the person I calculated for you is probably the one in the cold palace, right?"
The Palace Minister barely managed to curl his lips and whispered, "Your Majesty, how can you believe these things? How can you use the heart as medicine? That is clearly witchcraft."
Jiang Kunjun doesn't care what these techniques are now, all she wants is to stay alive.
After a long time without Wei Min saying anything, Jiang Kunjun asked anxiously, "Wei Min, are you willing?"
"If you agree, I will make you king. In the future, you will have beauties, fiefs, and children."
"Why don't you speak? Have you forgotten that I gave you important advice?"
"Let me tell you, I was just asking you. In fact, when I summoned you to the palace, I had already sent someone to the Wei Mansion."
Wei Min took a deep breath and felt his blood coagulate instantly. He felt cold all over. "A Ruan."
Jiang Wuque hurriedly shook his head at Wei Min and said, "Ayu is guarding the palace gate personally. No one can leave the palace tonight without my order."
She lowered her eyes and said to Jiang Kunjun: "I'm afraid my mother has forgotten that I am the one who has the final say in this palace now."
"Mother, you have been partial to Jiang Wuyong since childhood. No matter how well your daughter has done, you always say with regret that it's a pity that she is a cripple."
"But if I wasn't lame, how could my father and queen protect me and let me grow up safely?"
"The trip to Northern Frontier may seem like a plot by Jiang Wuyong, but in fact, I just wanted to go there on my own."
"Mother Queen, you owe me too much. How dare you ask for the heart of Xin Li's future wife? If he knew about this, I'm afraid he wouldn't even want to call you Grandmother Queen in the future."
Jiang Kunjun's eyes widened, the corners of his eyes were wet, his lips moved twice, but he shook his head, "Old Eight, it was the Queen Mother who wronged you before, now you save the Queen Mother, the Queen Mother will only love you in the future. You can talk to Xin Li, there will be many good wives in the future, the princes of the Jiang family will not have to worry about not having good wives."
Wei Min took two steps forward and said, "Your Majesty, do you want to eat the heart? I will get it for you right away. Please wait a moment."
As he said this, he went out with Dianzhongsheng and Jiang Wuque. Before leaving, he asked Dianzhongsheng to blow out the candle in front of the dragon bed and let down the curtain.
People who are dying cannot stand darkness the most.
When Jiang Kunjun saw that everyone had left, he anxiously slammed the bed, yelled and cursed, and roared like a madman.
The three of them came outside. The Palace Governor looked hesitant and reluctant, "Sir Zuo Xiang, are you really going to bring the child here?"
She had seen both children, and they were extremely adorable.
Jiang Wuque smiled and said, "She is willing to do it, but Ayu and I are not. She just said it casually to find an excuse."
The Palace Minister heaved a sigh of relief, patted his chest and laughed, "You did scare this old minister."
Jiang Wuque and Wei Min sat together on the couch outside, put a small table on the table, and said, "The night is long, I don't know when I can... Come on, let's play a game of chess to kill time."
She was in a relaxed posture, with a smile on her face, as if the person in the hall was not someone she knew.
Wei Min was filled with anger. He held the black chess piece in his hand and dropped it on the chessboard with a snap. He lowered his eyes and said, "I'm afraid that Lord Rong has contacted the deposed princess. Your Highness, as long as Jiang Wuyong is alive, he is a potential threat."
Jiang Wuque nodded, "It's time to get rid of her, lest some ministers make a fuss about her."
Jiang Wuque raised her head, smiled and said, "Doctor Wu said that A'ruan's throat will soon be healed. I will give you and your wife a gift." She placed the white piece on the chessboard and smiled, "Jiang Wuyong's life."
"His Majesty has gone, and the deposed princess was too sad, so she followed him," Jiang Wuque smiled, "It's a natural thing." It was her fault that she and Rong were not at peace. Even at this time, they were still thinking about taking the lives of the two children of the Wei family and making Wei Min unhappy.
Wei Min curled his lips, "I will accept this gift on behalf of A'ruan. Thank you, Your Highness."
While the two were playing chess, the Palace Secretary was waiting on the side, completely ignoring Jiang Kunjun in the hall and the civil and military officials kneeling outside the hall.
Wei Min and Jiang Wuque played two games of chess when the Palace Secretary came out of the inner hall and said softly, "Your Majesty, I am leaving."
Jiang Wuque paused in his chess moves, and after a moment's silence, he withdrew his hand, smiled bitterly, shook his head and sighed. If the Queen Mother had been more open-minded before she died, she, as her daughter, would not have been so cruel.
Jiang Wuque put away the chess pieces and asked the palace official to notify the ministers kneeling outside.
Then, heart-wrenching cries were heard outside the hall.
…
Wei Min was a cautious person, so he deliberately kept Eighteen behind before leaving.
Eighteen knew that the adults had entrusted Lord Wei and the two children to her care. After Wei Min left, she immediately mobilized all the guards in the mansion to patrol around the Wei Mansion all night to prevent anything from happening.
At this critical juncture, you can't go wrong if you are careful and cautious.
It was not until the death knell rang in the palace that Eighteen heaved a sigh of relief and asked Erjiu to tell A'ruan that the master would be back soon and told him to go and rest.
After Wei Min entered the palace, A'ruan felt inexplicably uneasy, as if something was worrying him. He would only feel better if the two children were in front of him.
After dinner, A Ruan took the two children into the room he and Wei Min shared. The three of them sat on the bed and played for a while. When Miaomiao and Xiaoshu got sleepy, he let them sleep there.
A Ruan couldn't sleep, so he lay on the bed with his eyes open and waited.
He didn't remember how long he had been waiting, nor did he know when he fell asleep. Anyway, when he saw Wei Min coming back, it was almost dawn.
Wei Min sat on the edge of the bed, lowered his eyes to look at the two children sleeping soundly in A'ruan's arms, raised his hands and touched their warm faces one by one, slowly letting out the anger in his chest.
Wei Min lowered his head and kissed A'ruan's forehead first, then kissed Miaomiao and Xiaoshu's heads, and raised his hand to tuck the corners of the quilt for the three of them.
Ah Ruan woke up almost as Wei Min got up after kissing her. She saw her sitting beside the bed in official uniform in a daze, and she immediately came to her senses.
Ah Ruan carefully walked around the two children, raised her hands to hug Wei Min's neck, and was held in her arms.
It was an apparently peaceful night, but A Ruan always felt uneasy. It was not until he saw his wife that his heart finally settled down and he felt instantly at ease.
Wei Min smiled and patted A Ruan's back, whispering, "You're not afraid of getting cold."
Wei Min pulled the cloak around A Ruan and carried him to the next room to sleep.
Erjiu was guarding outside. When he saw Wei Min carrying someone out, he thought she was sending the young masters out, but he didn't expect it to be the master.
A'ruan nestled in Wei Min's arms, smiling gently. When Erjiu and the servants saw her, she felt a little embarrassed and buried her head in her arms.
Wei Min laughed and whispered to him, "You are already an old married couple, but Ruan is still so shy."
After putting him in the new bed, Wei Min took off his official uniform with his back to A Ruan and asked him, "Is the bed cold?"
It is already winter now. I even encountered snow on the way back to Beijing two days ago. How could the bed not be cold in this season?
Ah Ruan hadn't slept in such a cold bed in a long time. She was shivering from the cold and curled up in the bed with only half of her head exposed. She thought that Wei Min would come up quickly, and blurted out with a trembling voice, "It's cold."
Wei Min's hands suddenly stopped while he was taking off his clothes. His throat tightened, and he held his breath and turned to look at the person on the bed, and asked in a hoarse voice, "A Ruan?"
A Ruan was tucking the quilt behind her. When she heard Wei Min calling her, she uttered a puzzled "hmm". After she finished humming, she blinked in shock. The corners of her mouth unconsciously stretched to the sides. She suddenly sat up and looked at Wei Min, not even afraid of the cold.
Did he speak just now?
He can speak!
The author has something to say: Wei Min: (rubbing his hands in anticipation like a fly) Come on, come on, sing a song about a slim waist ovo
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If the main story is finished, this chapter will explain the main plot.
I said before I started writing that I wanted to finish writing about Wei Min and A Ruan's life, let them watch their children get married, and then let our old Wei take A Ruan back to his hometown.
So there will be more extra chapters, which still tell the story of the four members of the Wei family. The exact number of words depends on how much you can write (/▽╲)
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