Chen Yu looked at the crowd. There was no joy on his face about ascending the throne. It was too early to be happy. Even if he became emperor one day, he would probably never be able to sleep peacefully for the rest of his life, thinking that the four border prefectures were no longer under his control.

That's the price.

He said: "Mr. Shen will draft the document..."

"No, I'll draft it." Yan Sikong said without questioning, "After I finish drafting it, I'll send it to you for inspection."

Shen Hexuan said: "Okay."

Yan Sikong looked at Shen Hexuan: "This may be the last time we see each other, I hope Brother Shen takes care." The country is left to you.

Shen Hexuan looked at Yan Sikong deeply, and suddenly recalled the scene of the two of them taking the autumn examination together. At that time, they were young and high-spirited, with a passion to serve the country and want to do something great that would go down in history. After more than a decade of ups and downs in officialdom and experiencing all these bloody storms, he could even hardly remember what kind of person he was back then.

He felt a pang of sadness in his heart. He was too lazy to mention any grudges or disagreements at this moment. He just nodded lightly and said, "Take care."

Yan Sikong also looked at Shen Hexuan intently, then he gently pulled the reins and tried to turn the horse around, but Chen Yu stopped him, "Sir."

Yan Sikong was stunned.

"I want to speak to you alone."

Feng Ye said coldly: "No."

Yan Sikong glanced at Feng Ye and said, "Don't worry, Wolf King, go back to the city first."

Feng Ye hesitated for a moment, glared at Chen Yi with a warning look, and retreated with Yuan Nanyu, stopping in the distance to wait for Yan Sikong.

Shen Hexuan also waved his whip and drove the chariot back to the military formation.

Yan Sikong and Chen Yi sat on their horses, facing each other, a dull and eerie atmosphere flowing between them.

"Sir, do you regret it?" Chen Yu suddenly asked.

Yan Sikong smiled: "Which one are you referring to?"

"It's related to me." Chen Yu looked into Yan Sikong's eyes quietly, "You regret teaching me, you regret helping me, you regret betraying me."

"There are so many things I want to regret in my life, but regretting is useless, so I decided not to regret anything."

"Can a person really have no regrets?" Chen Yu mocked, "I guess you must be very regretful. You traveled thousands of miles to Yunnan to help me, the abandoned prince. Now your beloved Wolf King wants to give me the kingdom you fought so hard to conquer."

Yan Sikong looked up at the sky. It was a spring afternoon with a cool breeze and light clouds. He said, "The spy you planted leaked Feng Ye's marching route. On the day he was ambushed, I observed the stars at night and saw a faint purple aura in the southwest. I thought it was Feng Ye, but now it seems to be you."

Chen Yu didn't say anything.

"Everything is destined." Yan Sikong said calmly, "If I hadn't supported you at that time, Fengye's uprising would have been unjustified and would have been besieged by the vassal kings. You two have achieved each other."

"It would be better if he wasn't here." Chen Yu clenched the whip tightly. "If Feng Ye wasn't here, you would be wholeheartedly devoted to me. You and I agreed that I would be the emperor and you would be the prime minister, and we would revive the Dasheng Empire. Do you still remember?"

"I have never forgotten anything." Yan Sikong said, "I also sincerely hoped that you would become the emperor, but unfortunately I should have seen clearly earlier that you are not a puppet who can be manipulated by others."

"Feng Ye got everything I wanted." Chen Yi smiled grimly, "But at least now, I have taken the throne back from him."

"I hope you get what you want, and you can still remember the teachings I gave you, how to be a king, how to employ people, how to govern the country, and how to keep the people safe." Yan Sikong said in a deep voice, "You should listen more to Lord Shen's advice, he is a true minister of the country."

"You know, when I was young, there was not a day that I didn't dream of becoming an emperor. Only if I became the Son of Heaven would people dare not bully my mother and me again." Recalling the unbearable past, Chen Yi's eyes were filled with hatred. "My father didn't want me to be an emperor, and many people didn't want me to be an emperor. So I thought, one day I must become an emperor, and a wise ruler praised by future generations. I want to let the people of the world and future generations see that I, Chen Yi, am born to be an emperor!"

Yan Sikong took a deep breath and said, "Okay, I will watch you in the North and watch you bring peace and prosperity to the people. But if one day you also become a tyrant who indulges in sensual pleasures and favors treacherous villains, then your fate may not be better than that of your father."

Chen Yu looked at Yan Sikong's eyes, which were filled with indescribable complex emotions. He smiled slightly and said, "Sir, do you know who I hate the most in this world?"

Yan Sikong looked at him expressionlessly.

"It's not my father, it's not Feng Ye, it's you." Chen Yu's lips trembled, "When you burned my food and grass, when you chose Feng Ye without hesitation between me and him... After my mother died, you were the person I liked and trusted the most in the world, so I hated you the most."

"So, you want to use my brother to avenge me?" Yan Sikong said coldly, "Do you know that if you dare to harm him, even if you touch him, it will only take ten days to march from Xuanhua to the capital."

Chen Yu laughed softly, and that laughter made Yan Sikong's spine shiver. He said, "Don't worry, sir. I will treat him well. I want you to watch him go south to the capital every year after the autumn harvest, and then wait anxiously for him to come back, wondering if he is in danger in the capital, and living a miserable life just like you. Day after day, year after year, you never know when he will never be able to come back to you again, hahahahaha——"

Yan Sikong's cheeks twitched, but he smiled instead of getting angry: "It's just like you, sitting on the dragon throne, but always looking north with trepidation. You never know when the Feng family wolf flag will wave again in your kingdom."

Chen Yu smiled and said, "You are indeed worthy of being my master. If you and I can meet again in this life, one of us will surely be reduced to a prisoner."

Yan Sikong nodded: "That's right, so it's best if we don't meet in this life."

Chen Yu looked at Yan Sikong deeply, tightened the reins, and the horse stepped lightly on the spot. He lowered his eyelids, turned the horse's head and rode away.

"Mian'er."

Chen Yu's body stiffened.

Yan Sikong looked at Chen Yi's back, and the image of the poor young man crying in his arms appeared in front of him. His heart tightened and he was filled with emotion, and he called out these two words unconsciously.

Chen Yu turned his head tremblingly, his eyes red.

"Do you know why the emperor calls himself 'a lonely man'?"

Chen Yu's thin lips moved, but he couldn't utter a word.

"You will understand when you sit on the throne." Yan Sikong took one last look at Chen Yi, turned his horse's head resolutely, and said the last sentence, which floated into Chen Yi's ears with the wind, "Take care of yourself."

——

After returning to Guangning, Yan Sikong wanted to talk to Yuan Nanyu, but Yuan Nanyu seemed to be deliberately avoiding him and hurried away on the pretext of military affairs.

So Yan Sikong returned to his room and began to draft the relevant documents.

Late at night, Yan Sikong, who had been thinking hard at his desk, suddenly heard a knock on the door.

"Come in."

The door was pushed open and Feng Ye stepped into the room. A maid came in with food, put the tray on the table, bowed, and left silently.

Yan Sikong explained: "I am writing..."

"I know what you are writing." Feng Ye snorted coldly, "Chen Yu has been coveting the throne for 23 years, so these few days won't make a difference. Stop writing and eat your dinner."

Yan Sikong put down his pen, stood up and walked to the table. Feng Ye sat opposite him and looked at him quietly.

Yan Sikong took two bites and asked, "Don't you want to eat?"

"I've eaten." Feng Ye said softly, "I want to watch you eat."

Yan Sikong had lost his appetite, perhaps because of the huge changes that had happened in the past few days, or perhaps he was still thinking about how to write the document, or perhaps it was just because Feng Ye was staring at him intently.

After finishing a bowl of rice quickly, Yan Sikong couldn't swallow any more. He looked up at Feng Ye and said, "I'm full."

"You've eaten too little." Feng Ye glanced at the food and said dissatisfiedly.

"I don't have much of an appetite today." Yan Sikong put down his bowl and chopsticks and asked directly, "Do you have anything to say?"

Feng Ye stared at the person in front of him with naked eyes, and said bluntly: "I want to stay overnight tonight."

Yan Sikong blinked: "Your injury is not healed yet."

"I don't do anything, I just want to sleep with you."

Yan Sikong paused and nodded.

Feng Ye looked at Yan Sikong's embarrassed expression and smiled bitterly: "Serve me until I go to bed."

Yan Sikong stood up, poured the hot water on the stove into the basin, wet the cloth, wrung it dry, and helped Feng Ye wipe his hands and face.

Yan Sikong held Feng Ye's hand, carefully wiping each of the slender and strong fingers, and then those fingers unconsciously entangled his own. Yan Sikong stared at the intertwined fingers motionlessly, as if they were like their fate, intertwined and difficult to separate.

He no longer resisted his fate, because he had spent half his life resisting it and failed miserably. If being entangled with Feng Ye for the rest of his life was his fate, should he submit to it?

Even if he didn't obey his fate, he should at least obey the Wolf King who defended his hometown and gave up his kingdom for him.

"Lord Yan, the eloquent one, can't even speak now?" Feng Ye looked up at him.

Yan Sikong pulled up a faint smile with the corner of his mouth: "I'll change your clothes for you." He withdrew his fingers, put down the towel, helped Feng Ye to unbutton his clothes and remove his shoes, and carefully lifted his legs onto the bed.

Feng Ye sat at the head of the bed, watching Yan Sikong wipe his hands and face, take off his coat, and come to the bed in his underwear.

The two of them looked at each other and slept on the same bed, as if it was a hundred years ago. Those sweet memories of their youth seemed to have happened to someone else. They had been so intimate, but now they were mostly speechless when they looked at each other.

Feng Ye felt sad and he reached out his hand to Yan Sikong.

Yan Sikong held his hand and lay down beside him.

Feng Ye pressed close to Yan Sikong, his breathing becoming heavy.

Yan Sikong asked, "You rode a horse today. Did the injury recur?"

"No." Feng Ye paused and whispered, "Are you only concerned about my injury now?"

"You almost died. This injury cannot be underestimated."

Feng Ye grabbed Yan Sikong's hand and placed it on his chest: "Feel it, my heart is still beating, just like before."

Yan Sikong placed the back of his hand against Feng Ye's chest, feeling the slight tremor, and his body unconsciously relaxed: "Those who survive a great disaster will surely have good fortune in the future, take good care of them."

"Of course." Feng Ye laughed softly, "I wish it could be over right away. You're lying next to me, and all I can think of is your naked, seductive look... Do you know how much I want you?"

Yan Sikong's body, which had just relaxed, tensed up again.

"But I know." Feng Ye whispered, "You are still resisting me. After I have done everything I can, you stay with me just to pay me back for guarding Guangning."

Yan Sikong remained silent.

"I often think back to the things I did to you. I think if someone treated me like that, I would never be able to forgive them in my life." Feng Ye said hoarsely, "Kong'er, can I still see your true heart?"

Yan Sikong took a deep breath and said, "Feng Ye, there is no one or anything in this world that is perfect. Everyone is 'inadequate', so why bother insisting on it."

"Then why don't you fight for it?" Feng Ye held Yan Sikong's hand tightly, as if the person next to him would disappear. "I will do my best to get what I want. Every bit counts."

Yan Sikong felt so depressed that he didn't know how to answer.

For him, Feng Ye gave up something that few people in this world could give up—supreme power. He was shocked and grateful. He could even use his life as a "repayment."

But the only thing he couldn't offer was a sincere heart without any reservations. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but that he couldn't. It was like a person whose hand was burned by fire again and again. Even if the fire was no longer hot, he couldn't reach out his hand without hesitation.

Feng Ye is the only person he has ever loved in his life, but he can no longer let down his guard against this person.