Abandoned
The East Palace was hung with red silk that day, and the atmosphere was full of joy.
"Congratulations, Your Highness! Congratulations!"
"Congratulations."
Liu Ju was wearing a bright red wedding dress and toasting with the guests. His eyes moved among the crowd and he was a little surprised when he saw the pale face.
His uncle was seriously ill, and his cousin had been taking the opportunity to stay indoors, so he thought he wouldn't come today. As if sensing his gaze, Huo Changqing turned around and walked towards him.
"Congratulations on your wedding, Your Highness. May you and the newlyweds live in harmony and live forever together."
He spoke with a gentle smile in his voice, but his dark complexion and frail body revealed that he was not as happy as he appeared.
"Is my cousin feeling better?"
"Nothing serious, just a cold."
He was wearing an old coat from last year, which seemed much too loose on him. Since last autumn, the desert wind and sand had been driving him wild. He had become darker, thinner, and more composed. Liu Ju felt that he was very different from before. Perhaps this was what people called a solemn and murderous aura.
It was because he had personally killed a Xiongnu and escaped death, or perhaps it was because of his deceased wife...
Looking at such a haggard figure, he hesitated. His cousin and his wife were deeply in love. He had fought for his father on the frontier, risking his life. He was eager to achieve great things and help her achieve wealth and honor. In the endless yellow sand of the desert, where the way home was unknown, he relied on that faint hope to break through the sand fog again and again and find his way out of the maze.
He rode his horse for a long time, but all he got was a pile of dry bones. He had nothing left at home. He was left guarding an empty house, feeling pitifully cheated.
"Your Highness, Your Highness?"
Huo Changqing was holding a box and looking at him. He came back to his senses and asked, "Oh, what did my cousin say?"
"Your Highness, why are you looking at me like this? Is there something you want to say?"
His wife was abducted into the palace and slept on the emperor's bed day and night. She was imprisoned and trapped, and she missed him just as he missed her!
He looked up at Huo Changqing and opened his mouth, but he swallowed the words back when they came to his lips.
"Nothing, I just wanted to say... my cousin looks a lot thinner. I hope you take good care of yourself." He paused, "Please... accept my condolences."
Huo Changqing only smiled faintly, seemingly unconcerned. "I came back in a hurry, and I didn't expect Your Highness to get married so early. I prepared the gifts in a hurry."
Feeling somewhat guilty, Liu Ju lowered his head and took the box with both hands. Inside was a pair of jade fish, shaped like a Tai Chi, beautifully carved and lustrous, evidently requiring considerable effort.
"Thank you, cousin. I like this gift very much."
He immediately tied the jade pendant around his waist and said, "Look, cousin, it matches my wedding attire today. Very nice."
Huo Changqing looked at the delighted expression of the person in front of him, but his eyes fell on the sachet next to the jade pendant, but he only lingered for a moment before looking away.
"As long as Your Highness likes it, drink less wine later. I am here, so just give it to me."
"Your Highness, so you are here. I was thinking of giving you a way to avoid drinking, but with General Huo here, it seems I don't have to worry anymore."
Huo Changqing saw a man in blue clothes squeeze out from the crowd. Although he was holding a wine cup, his expression was clear and his eyes were upright, like a green bamboo pushing out thousands of pines and rocks.
"Your Highness, who is this?"
"This is Zhang Yannian, the young master newly appointed by the emperor. He formerly served in the Imperial Censorate and had not yet been transferred when my cousin left for the war."
Zhang Yannian bowed, and Huo Changqing nodded in return, "Master Zhang."
He didn't seem to care too much and had no intention of chatting with him. After a few greetings, he was surrounded by people who came to toast him and left.
"General Huo seems to be different from the rumors." Zhang Yannian said.
Liu Ju said, "What's the difference? Appearance or personality?"
"Everyone says General Huo is more handsome than a woman, and seeing him today is indeed true. They also say he is a young and chivalrous man, lively and energetic, but just now I felt a gloomy and murderous aura that frightened me."
Liu Ju raised his eyebrows, "Really?" He didn't notice it, but there was indeed something different.
"More importantly, there are rumors that he and his wife are deeply in love. I was in charge of the East China Sea coinage case in the past, but when he saw me, he showed no curiosity at all about what happened that day or the details of the incident. It shows that the rumors are not credible."
"My cousin and his wife are indeed deeply in love, but..."
He also found it a bit strange. Yes, this case was full of doubts. How could anyone close to him believe that a woman like his cousin's wife would collude with Gongsun Lin to mint coins and even travel all alone to Donghai County? But when his cousin returned and heard the terrible news, he simply stayed indoors for several days, seemingly accepting his cousin's wife's death as a matter of course.
This doesn't make sense.
Either he was overwhelmed with grief and had lost the ability to think, or he had a vague guess at the truth but feigned ignorance in order to preserve this thin layer of truth that everyone knew was true, a veil that could not be broken, and also a source of honor and favor for the Huo or Wei families in front of the emperor...
Thinking of this possibility, he suddenly felt a little uncomfortable in his heart, even a little nauseous. In his heart, his cousin had always been different from his father, mother, aunt and others. He was young at heart, only five years older than him. He would draw his sword when he saw injustice, and he would stand up for the palace maids when he saw them being bullied and cheer them up.
He felt suffocated by the heavy burden of his mother's shackles. Everyone around him urged him to understand his mother's good intentions, saying that this was the pain that must be endured as a crown prince, or even an emperor. He was the only one who stood up to everyone's preaching and refuted him. He took him to archery and horseback riding, and skipped classes to catch crickets.
He liked and even depended on this cousin more than his mother. He believed that there was something in his cousin Changqing that was completely different from adults, and this became the bond that connected them. But at this moment, he felt as if this bond had broken. He didn't know when. Perhaps it had always been different, perhaps it was after he returned.
Weighing the pros and cons, whitewashing the truth, and covering one's ears and stealing the bell. As a qualified and perfect adult, my cousin did it very well. After experiencing the hardships on the battlefield, he transformed from a cocoon into a butterfly, discarding the ugly shell of willfulness, and flew high with the wings of patience, snobbery, and weighing.
He was already a general. Despite his youth, he had achieved remarkable military success, rivaling the veteran General Wei, and commanded the emperor's respect. His power and glory were his own, as well as granted by the emperor. A mere Hu woman, weighing the two, naturally knew which was more important.
An autumn rain had cooled the weather completely. The palace maids gathered their light summer clothes and began to make a variety of exquisite autumn clothes. They used the remaining fabric to make sachets, belly wraps, and small handkerchiefs. Taking advantage of the good weather, they gathered together, chatting and laughing as they worked.
Liu Che lowered the bamboo curtain in front of her eyes, and the dim light dyed the room yellow for a moment. The sound of rain suddenly sounded, accompanied by the complaints and escape of people outside.
She was already furious, and immediately glared at him mercilessly, "Don't you have anything else to do all day? Have you finished reviewing the memorials? Have you checked your son's homework? Have you found the person who killed you last time?"
Liu Che raised his eyebrows, leaned against the window where she had just been looking, and turned her and the chair over to face him.
"With such a rage, I think the summer is over."
She kicked him in the leg and he felt pain but didn't dodge.
"Shrew!"
This sound seemed to bring back memories of the past, and her eyes were almost spitting fire. Liu Che knew when to stop and quickly admitted his mistake, "Ah, alas, I was wrong, aunt, my injury is not fully healed yet."
"We've been investigating for so long and still haven't found anything. What are you, the Imperial Guards, the Golden Guards, and the Imperial Censorate, all doing? I think we should get up early and hand over this imperial seal to someone else."
"Me? To whom? To Huo Changqing, yours, who has emptied your plans and brought you down?"
Liu Che endured the pain of another kick and spoke with increasing pride, "I thought you were getting smarter, but it turns out you're just hot-tempered and not smart. You thought you could win people's hearts by pretending to be gentle, virtuous, kind, and considerate, and you put in so much effort, being humble and modest. But in the end, they weren't fooled at all, and played dumb to preserve their wealth. In the end, all their plans were in vain."
"Hiss—the wound has really split open..."
Liu Che rubbed his legs, and the darker her face became, the happier he smiled.
"Ah Jiao, how many times has the Empress Dowager told you that a reliable man is as reliable as a sow. Especially for a man of this humble origin, the deep love between young men is nothing compared to fame and fortune."
"Yes, I just didn't listen to the Imperial Grandmother's words, and I fell flat on my face."
This fall naturally fell on him. Liu Che pretended not to understand her meaning, "No wonder, it's human nature to be afraid of death and covet wealth. Ah Jiao, now you see through him, he's not a hero, he's a coward. Knowing that there was something fishy about this matter, he never asked a single question, and only wanted to keep things quiet in order to live in peace. He is truly heartless and heartless, and it makes me feel chilled."
"Have you said enough? Liu Che, you keep calling him a coward, but what about you? You're all the same, using whatever means necessary to gain power, stepping on the corpses of others to climb up. In order to gain the support of various parties and my mother and grandmother, you humbled yourself for so many years. You clearly didn't like me, but you tolerated my arrogance and unreasonable behavior. When my grandmother died, you abandoned me and cast me aside. How can you be a true hero?"
"I was wrong. I was angry for a moment, but you were the one who provoked me first. You and Chu Fu were together day and night, sleeping on the same bed and eating at the same table. Do you care about me? Have you ever thought about my feelings? I didn't cut him into pieces. Killing him with a sword was already merciful. Do you want me to give Changxin Palace to you two and let him be your male lover?"
"Did I provoke you first?" Ah Jiao stood up and grabbed Liu Che by the collar. "It's clearly you who was disloyal and shameless, climbing into Wei Zifu's bed first and even having a child with her. So what if I eat and sleep with Chu Fu? So what if I want to keep a male favorite? You are the Emperor of the Han Dynasty, and I am the Empress of the Han Dynasty. You are allowed to indulge in other women, but I am not allowed to find a new lover?"
"Wei Yun, it was really my drunken mistake. I thought it was you."
"Don't tell me you think I'm disgusted by that. I'm not even remotely similar to her."
"Just that one time, I banished her to the palace. It was you who insisted on taking your mother to the palace to beat people up. Who knew she would get pregnant? If you had taken her to the palace and raised her well, and the child had been delivered to you as soon as it was born, how could it have come to that?"
"Is that what you really mean? You say you owe me something, that you've done something wrong to me, but you don't really think that at all. You think the fault is all mine, that I'm cruel and unreasonable, that I'm stupid and domineering, that I'm relying on my mother's power to boss you around."
"I never said that. I didn't say it was all my fault. We both made mistakes."
She slapped him across the face, and he immediately glared at her, his eyes practically spitting fire. He didn't flinch, his gaze provoking him. Finally, he snorted coldly and walked away.
Ah Jiao pushed over all the bottles and jars on the table, shattering them all over the floor. She slammed the table in anger. She was angry at both Liu Che and Huo Changqing. She had been scheming for so long, but she didn't expect to be defeated by Huo Changqing. She had thought he was different from the Wei family, but it turned out he was just like that.
No, that was true. How could she compare to the Wei family members who were connected to him by blood? The Queen, Wei Qing, the Crown Prince, any one of them was more important than her. He was originally here to succeed Wei Qing and fight for the Crown Prince. They fought bravely to protect the Crown Prince, and receiving her letter didn't affect him in the slightest.
She was really surprised. Everyone still had hope for them, no matter old or young, when it came to interests, they united their front and reached a tacit understanding, weighing the pros and cons, calculating every penny, being smarter and more aware of current affairs than anyone else.
In the middle of the night, the Minguang Hall was brightly lit with candles, and the room was filled with a low pressure. Jiang Chong didn't know why, so he tried to lower his presence as much as possible and placed the tea bowl lightly on the table.
"How's the investigation going into the Shanglinyuan incident?"
Without even looking up, Liu Che spoke in a cold tone. Jiang Chong said, "Your Majesty, the assassin was captured in Nanyuan. His arrows were engraved with the mark of the Huainan Palace. During interrogation, he said that the Huainan King sent him to assassinate you."
"Why come at that time if not earlier or later?" The assassination was a bit sudden.
"I heard that the King of Huainan is extremely dissatisfied with your recent decree prohibiting annexation of salt and iron state-owned enterprises."
"He clapped his hands in approval of the memorial, praising my wisdom and bravery." He sneered, "Then he turned around and shot an arrow through his heart. He truly is my good uncle."
"I'm calling someone to draft an imperial edict?"
"No need. Without solid evidence, he won't admit it. This isn't the only thing I have against my uncle. Go to the East Palace tomorrow and announce the decree that the Crown Prince will be responsible for this year's inspection of salt and iron affairs."
"yes."
Jiang Chong was about to leave when Liu Che called him back, "Have you delivered the medicinal food tonight?"
"It's been delivered." Jiang Chong said, his tongue twirling, his eyes glancing, and then he said, "But Madam didn't drink it, so I'll go and send another bowl."
After a while, light footsteps were heard in the hall. He heard Jiang Chong outside as if he had been bumped into by someone. He cursed softly, then took a deep breath, stepped over the threshold, walked into the outer room, and the bead curtain moved slightly, and he entered the inner room.
"Did you use it?"
Jiang Chong was silent for a moment, "Your Majesty turned off the lights and locked the door, I didn't see it."
The ink on the tip of the pen suddenly turned red. He gripped the pen tightly, his face darkening. Then he threw the pen away, stood up and walked into the tent. "Lights out."
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