Chapter 57 [57]
【57】/First release
On the beautiful night of Mid-Autumn Festival, the moon is full and the family is reunited.
After feeding the drunk Xiao Jingting sobering soup, Lu Zhiwan remembered that he had not eaten the moon cake tonight, so he helped him to the couch by the window to enjoy the moon and eat the moon cake, completing the ritual of the Mid-Autumn Night.
"Wanwan, I miss Yue Niang." Xiao Jingting leaned lazily in Lu Zhiwan's arms. He didn't like sweets and didn't want to eat anymore after eating half a piece of red bean paste filling.
Lu Zhiwan didn't force him. She raised her hand and stroked the furry head of the man in her arms, her voice soft and gentle, "Yue Niang is a spiritual tiger. She might have already become a deity in heaven."
Xiao Jingting was still a little tipsy, gazing lazily at the bright moon outside the window, his dark eyes narrowed slightly as he asked, "Are there really gods in this world?"
Lu Zhiwan coaxed a child: "Yes, I guess."
Xiao Jingting was silent for a moment, then said, "I didn't believe it before, but if Yue Niang can become an immortal, then I hope it's true."
Lu Zhiwan lowered her eyes. In the warm candlelight, the man's expression was as pure as a clear stream.
Such an expression on such a handsome and mature face has an indescribable fragile beauty that makes people want to protect it.
Realizing what she was thinking, Lu Zhiwan's eyelashes trembled, and she laughed at herself in her heart, "I'm really crazy. I actually feel sorry for a man."
"Wanwan, why are you frowning?"
Two long fingers touched her unconsciously furrowed brows. Lu Zhiwan came back to his senses and lowered his head to meet those black eyes filled with doubt: "Are you unhappy?"
Lu Zhiwan shook his head: "No. I was just thinking about something."
Xiao Jingting: "What's the matter?"
This insane conversation made Lu Zhiwan choke. Glancing at the moon outside the window, she casually made up a story, "I heard that making a wish to the moon on Mid-Autumn Festival night is very effective. I was just thinking of a wish."
Xiao Jingting also looked up at the moon and asked, "Have you thought of making a wish?"
Lu Zhiwan thought for a moment and said, "I hope the war ends soon, the royal army returns victorious, and the world is at peace."
This wish is not made up, but comes from the heart at this moment.
After a pause, she looked down at Xiao Jingting: "What about you, what is your wish?"
Xiao Jingting looked at her, his eyes moved slightly, and then he turned his face away, his voice light: "Me too."
Lu Zhiwan raised his eyebrows slightly, and just as he was about to speak, he heard a soft voice again -
"I also hope Wanwan can be safe and stay with me forever."
A hint of surprise flashed across her eyes, and when she looked down again, the man had closed his eyes in her arms like a sleepy tiger.
Lu Zhiwan burst out laughing.
After a while, she bent down, raised her hands to hug the person in her arms, and closed her eyes calmly.
Xiao Jingting, I hope you get better soon.
You confessed to me that day, but we didn't have time to have a proper relationship yet.
***
Perhaps there really were gods on the moon who heard their wishes. On the seventh day after the Mid-Autumn Festival, victory news arrived from the front lines.
King Xiao Xian of Liaodong took advantage of the heavy rain in Yuzhang for several days and launched a surprise attack on the rainy night. He broke into the city of Yuzhang and captured the King of Yuzhang alive. He returned to the court soon after.
As soon as the good news reached the capital, there was constant cheering and joy inside and outside the court.
But Lu Zhiwan couldn't be completely happy.
Prince Yuzhang was captured, but Zhao Wenshao ran away with Xiao Ningning.
As expected of the male and female protagonists of the original novel, their vitality is comparable to that of cockroaches in Guangdong.
However, Prince Yuzhang was captured and brought back to the capital. After this incident, Yuzhang's power was severely defeated and it was difficult for it to rise again. In this situation, where could Zhao Wenshao escape to?
Like Lu Zhiwan, Empress Dowager Gu also had mixed feelings.
She was not worried about Zhao Wenshao running away, but she heard that the King of Liaodong was accidentally injured during the raid and was stabbed in the waist and abdomen, and the injury was quite serious.
Xing Zhou stayed in Yuzhang to take care of the battlefield and search for the whereabouts of Zhao Wenshao and Xiao Ningning. The King of Liaodong returned to Beijing to recuperate first.
When the King of Liaodong returned to the capital, it was deep autumn.
Seeing that Queen Mother Gu was worried in the palace, Lu Zhiwan couldn't help but say, "If the Queen Mother is really worried, please leave the palace to visit the prince."
Queen Mother Gu was shocked by her bold proposal. It took her a long while to find her voice. She looked at her with a pale face and said, "How can this be possible?"
Lu Zhiwan said: "Why not?"
Queen Mother Gu's lips trembled as she stammered, "I am the Queen Mother, and he is the prince... He is my brother-in-law... If I leave the palace to visit him, it would not only be against etiquette, but if it gets out, it will give rise to a lot of rumors. It's not appropriate..."
"Then go secretly."
Since the palace maids had been dismissed and outsiders were gone, Lu Zhiwan felt a little bolder in her words. She looked at Empress Dowager Gu and whispered, "If you want to visit, there are plenty of ways to leave the palace. The late emperor could disguise himself and leave the palace for a private visit, so why can't you? You are the Empress Dowager, the most honored woman in the palace..."
After a brief pause, she lowered her voice again and whispered, "Your Majesty only has the mental capacity of a five-year-old anyway. He wouldn't even know if you really left the palace."
Empress Dowager Gu was still shocked, and looked at Lu Zhiwan as if he were a rebellious monster.
Lu Zhiwan also knew that what she had just said was too absurd for a woman who was deeply bound by traditional rules. She just relied on the fact that Queen Mother Gu was kind and good-tempered and would not argue with her. Xiao Jingting, who had a mental age of five years older, also obeyed her in everything. In addition, she also sympathized with the experiences of Queen Mother Gu and King Liaodong. Seeing that Queen Mother Gu was depressed, she mentioned this more.
"Please forgive me, Your Majesty. I am rude."
She bowed demurely to the empress dowager, then raised her eyes to take in the expression of the beautiful woman before her, carefully choosing her words: "I simply cannot bear to see you worrying about this matter. Life is but a matter of thirty thousand days, and each passing day is one less. You and the Prince of Liaodong have missed out on a good marriage in this lifetime, which is a great regret. Now that he has been seriously injured in the battle, and we are both in the capital, separated only by a palace wall, you could clearly visit him unnoticed, but various concerns have held you back..."
Seeing that Queen Mother Gu pursed her lips and remained silent, as if intending to move, Lu Zhiwan sighed and said with a wry smile: "It is only when I see Your Majesty in this state that I feel the same way about picking flowers when they are in bloom, rather than waiting until they are gone and pluck empty branches. If I had known Your Majesty would be like this, I should have confessed my love to him when he was conscious. Why did it take until today..."
It is impossible to express the love between men and women to a five-year-old soul.
Empress Dowager Gu heard the regret in her tone, and a hint of melancholy appeared in her eyes. She comforted her gently, "Zhao Fei, don't be too depressed. I have ordered people to search for famous doctors outside the palace. The emperor's illness will definitely be cured."
"I hope so." Lu Zhiwan curled her lips and looked at Queen Mother Gu again. "As for whether to visit the King of Liaodong, it all depends on your wishes. I am just mentioning it, please don't take it to heart."
After saying that, she stood up and said goodbye to Queen Mother Gu.
The crystal bead curtain swayed, and in the magnificent palace, only a room of quiet loneliness remained.
Empress Dowager Gu sat beside the couch, lost in thought. Seeing this, the nanny beside her handed her warm tea and said with concern, "Master, what's wrong with you? Ever since Concubine Zhao retired, you've been so absent-minded."
"Aijia...sigh." Empress Dowager Gu took the fine porcelain cup and stared at the tea leaves floating in the cup. The steam made her eyes moist. "The year the late emperor passed away, Xiao Xian asked me if I was willing to go with him..."
At that time, the palace was in chaos, Xiao Xian was in full control of the military power, and was only one step away from the throne.
He had a way to change her identity and make her his queen.
She rejected his bold and rebellious idea and insisted on helping the only descendant of the late emperor to sit on the throne.
He would never go against her wishes, and would do whatever she wanted.
So she stayed in the palace and became the empress dowager, ruling the country from behind the scenes, while he returned to Liaodong to guard the border and protect the young emperor's territory.
So many years have passed in a flash——
"I have lived most of my life for others, and he has lived most of his life for me..."
The fingers gripping the cup tightened a little, and Queen Mother Gu raised her eyes again, her gentle gaze more determined: "This time, I want to follow my own heart."
The nanny was stunned, having no idea what Concubine Zhao had said to the Queen Mother that would cause her master, who always paid the most attention to etiquette and rules, to have such a ridiculous idea.
She wanted to persuade him again, but Empress Dowager Gu slowly put down the cup in her hand, stood up and went to the inner hall to happily choose clothes and jewelry for the meeting.
Like a butterfly breaking free from its cocoon, its wings spread out, sparkling in the sun.
It is clearly late autumn, but the whole palace is filled with the spirit of spring.
Although she is over fifty years old, it seems as if time has gone back twenty years, and she is still the gentle and dignified young lady of the Gu family in the boudoir of the Gu mansion, who writes poems, paintings and love letters.
*
Lu Zhiwan didn't know that her casual suggestion actually made Empress Dowager Gu take it to heart.
After leaving the Cining Palace, she went straight back to the Yangxin Palace.
Five-year-old Xiao Jingting takes a nap every day, and this is the only opportunity for Lu Zhiwan to go out and get some fresh air. Otherwise, he would stick to her all the time, wishing he could become her human pendant.
Every time she saw him, a big man of over 1.8 meters, leaning against her and giving her a bear hug from time to time, she felt a little dazed, her mind full of questions like "Who am I, where am I, is all this real now?"
Occasionally, looking at Xiao Jingting's peaceful sleeping face, she couldn't help but think, given how clingy this man is, if they really have children in the future, will they still be this clingy?
One clingy guy is bad enough, and if there is another one, she really doesn't want to live anymore.
While he was daydreaming, he had already arrived at the Yangxin Palace.
Yu Mingjiang's injuries had healed for several months and were now fully recovered. Seeing Lu Zhiwan return, he hurried forward to greet her, "Your Majesty, you are finally back. His Majesty woke up early today and has been asking about you."
This sweet burden made Lu Zhiwan twitch his lips and smile bitterly: "I know."
She walked into the hall, around the carved screen, and saw the handsome man in a wide robe and belt, with black hair and a gloomy look on his face, lying on the couch by the window. The brightly blooming maple leaves outside the window made his already cold and pale face even more translucent. His eyebrows and eyes were like ink, and his nose was high and straight. He was truly a picture of a handsome man in the deep palace.
Lu Zhiwan was stunned for a moment until the man beside the couch turned around and looked at her. The moment he saw her, his dull black eyes lit up.
"Wanwan, you're finally back!" He pounced on her like a big aggrieved dog.
The impact of that strong and tall body almost knocked Lu Zhiwan to the ground.
Fortunately, the man still had some sense. He hooked one hand firmly around her waist, leaned down, buried his nose deep in the crook of her neck, and said in a deep, magnetic voice, "I thought you had abandoned me."
Lu Zhiwan: “…”
Why have a child? Just raise him as your son for the rest of your life.
"I just went to the Cining Palace." She raised her hand and patted her back, coaxing her gently: "How could I abandon you? You are my beloved A Yin."
These words that expressed his true feelings greatly filled Xiao Jingting's lack of sense of security.
He held her tightly for a long while before letting go. He took her to the couch and sat down. He then took out the memorials to be reviewed today and looked at Lu Zhiwan with clear eyes, like a good student waiting for his teacher's class. "It's time to get down to business."
"After I finish reviewing these memorials, I can hold her again."
Lu Zhiwan: “…”
As a concubine, she had to take care of the emperor's daily life and accompany him to court to review memorials. She had one job but did two jobs. It turned out that those in power in feudal society were even more vicious than the capitalists.
You can criticize in your heart, but you still have to criticize the memorial. After all, they are tied to the same boat.
The afternoon sun shone obliquely onto the table through the wenge-wood carved windows. Lu Zhiwan and Xiao Jingting sat face to face, one holding a memorial to be read, the other holding a red brush and a jade seal, ready to approve and stamp at any time. They talked back and forth, and the atmosphere in the hall became inexplicably harmonious.
When Lu Zhiwan saw the proposal submitted by the cabinet on how to deal with Prince Yuzhang, his expression became solemn.
Xiao Jingting noticed her strangeness: "Wanwan?"
Lu Zhiwan blinked her eyelashes and looked up at him: "Yeah."
Xiao Jingting: "Is the cabinet's proposal bad?"
"Life imprisonment is indeed too easy for that old bastard. He still has to eat for decades. Isn't that a waste of food?"
"Poisoned wine? Beheaded in public? Cut into pieces?"
After thinking about all the possible punishments he knew, Xiao Jingting handed the decision to Lu Zhiwan: "Wanwan, what do you think?"
"I was wondering, now that Prince Yuzhang has been escorted to the capital, where will Zhao Wenshao and Xiao Ningning hide?"
She didn't care much about how Prince Yuzhang died. After all, although Prince Yuzhang was an important character in the original novel, he was essentially a tool and supporting role. Killing him was not a victory. Only by killing Zhao Wenshao could the confrontation with the gravity of the plot be over.
Xiao Jingting frowned, "The rebels have been defeated. Does it matter where they are hiding?"
In his opinion, without his soldiers and generals, Zhao Wenshao and Xiao Ningning were just two powerless ants that could be crushed to death at any time. They were not worth Lu Zhiwan's concern at all.
Lu Zhiwan couldn't explain the plot's gravity to him, so he just feigned worry and said, "You always said that you should root out the weeds before you can cut them. Perhaps it's because I know they're still missing, but I'm always worried and can't put my mind at ease."
Although Xiao Jingting didn't understand, he would find a way to solve what made Lu Zhiwan worried.
He picked up the memorial with his long fingers and looked at it for a long time. He pondered and said, "Then behead him and show him to the public."
Lu Zhiwan was slightly stunned: "Huh?"
"Prince Yuzhang is Xiao Ningning's biological father. If the rumors about their deep love are true, and her father's head is about to fall, can she bear not to come and see him one last time?"
Xiao Jingting said slowly, "We'll set up a tight net at the execution ground. As soon as Xiao Ningning shows up, we'll capture her immediately. As for Zhao Wenshao... Prince Yuzhang has no relationship with him, so he might not come. But we'll take whoever we can capture, and we'll deal with the rest later."
When Lu Zhiwan heard this, he actually felt that there was some truth in it.
According to the original character setting, Zhao Wenshao is upright, affectionate, loyal, and deeply in love with Xiao Ningning. According to the principle of "when the heroine is in danger, the hero will appear to save the beauty", if Xiao Ningning appears at the execution ground, Zhao Wenshao will definitely be caught!
"I didn't expect that, Ayin." Lu Zhiwan's eyes sparkled as he looked at Xiao Jingting with admiration: "This is a really good idea."
Xiao Jingting was stunned by her praise, and then the corners of his mouth curled up slightly, and his tone was light: "I just thought about it."
"Wanwan praised me!"
This arrogant look of saying one thing and thinking another made Lu Zhiwan burst out laughing.
Xiao Jingting frowned: "What are you laughing at?"
Lu Zhiwan tried her best to suppress the upward curve of her lips. She raised her hand and pinched the man's handsome face, her eyes curved like crescents: "Laugh at our Ah Yin, he's smart and cute."
Xiao Jingting: “……?”
"Isn't that a compliment to me?"
"But she looks so pretty when she smiles, so just think of it as a compliment."
For a moment, the Yangxin Palace was filled with warmth, laughter was crisp, and the air seemed to be filled with a warm and joyful atmosphere.
The next morning, after a morning of court discussions, the Emperor issued an edict:
Prince Yuzhang committed regicide and rebellion, which was a heinous crime that could not be tolerated by heaven and earth. He was sentenced to be executed at Caishikou, Dongcheng, seven days later to restore order in the court.
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