Chapter 305 Triumphant Return
Fu'er rushed over in a small figure.
She bumped into Zhou Congxian's arms and hugged his waist tightly.
"Father, you're finally back!"
Zhou Congxian lowered his head and looked at the little girl in his arms who had already reached his waist. His eyes, which had been frozen for a long time, melted instantly.
"Fu'er..."
He bent down, imagining himself lifting his daughter up easily, as he used to, and holding her high above his head.
But when he exerted force on his arm, he was startled to realize it.
It is no longer as light and agile as I remember.
His daughter has grown up.
Meng Shilan finally came to her senses.
She strode forward, her eyes red-rimmed, her voice trembling slightly.
"Fu'er, come down quickly."
"You're a grown woman now, why are you still clinging to your father like this? Your father has traveled day and night to get back, and he hasn't even had a sip of water yet. Come down here."
She reached out, trying to pull her daughter away from Zhou Congxian.
Zhou Congxian raised his hand and gently stopped her.
"Let me hold you for a while."
"If you don't carry me now, I really won't be able to carry you anymore."
This sentence contains too much missed time and unspeakable regret.
Meng Shilan's heart clenched painfully.
While her sister lunged at the "strange man," Little Fatty, with lightning speed, grabbed the last piece of osmanthus candy from the plate and quickly stuffed it into her mouth.
He chewed with his cheeks bulging, curiously observing the man holding his sister as he chewed.
Father?
Is this the father that my mother and sister were talking about, the one who was always fighting bad guys in a very, very far place?
After calming his daughter down, Zhou Congxian turned his attention to his innocent-looking youngest son.
He released Fu'er, slowly squatted down, and looked at Xiao Pangxi at eye level.
He reached out and patted his son's head, as he would pat his daughter's.
"Little Fatty Xi, you've grown so much."
He looked into his son's eyes, which were just like his own, and saw a strangeness and alienation in them. A sharp pain shot through his heart.
He withdrew his hand, trying to make his voice sound gentler.
"Father is back, aren't you happy?"
Little Fatty swallowed the candy in his mouth with force, and then, imitating the adults, he shrugged his little shoulders.
He answered in a very serious manner.
"Come back."
"We have enough houses at home, enough to accommodate everyone."
Meng Shilan was both angry and amused. She stepped forward and gently patted the back of her son's head.
"What nonsense are you talking about!"
She pulled Zhou Congxian up from the ground and led him aside.
Her voice instantly lowered, carrying a hint of solemnity.
"His Majesty's health has been deteriorating lately, and everyone is saying... everyone is saying that preparations should be made."
"And in Yuzhou, Xiao Shu's actions are becoming increasingly arrogant. A few days ago, he even used the pretext of an autumn hunt to secretly mobilize three thousand troops. The memorials impeaching him in the court are almost piling up in the imperial study."
Zhou Congxian listened quietly.
He looked at her furrowed brows and the lingering worry in her eyes.
He held her hand and tightened his grip.
That hand, which once commanded the three armies and shook the world, now carried a sigh of weariness.
"I rode back as fast as I could, without sleep or rest..."
His voice was soft, yet it was like a stone thrown into the lake of Meng Shilan's heart.
"...Is it just to hear you say these things?"
Meng Shilan was stunned.
She was speechless for a moment.
"Then... what should I say?"
Over the years, she has become accustomed to being strong, accustomed to hiding all her emotions behind a calm facade.
Gentleness and weakness were the first things she gave up.
Looking at her bewildered expression, Zhou Congxian felt both pain and tenderness in his heart.
He knew that she wasn't ignorant, she had simply forgotten.
He softened his tone, with a hint of self-deprecation and a barely perceptible sense of grievance.
"For our wedding, it was Sister Guo Fan who performed the wedding ceremony for me."
“I have never heard you call me ‘husband’.”
"Now, we've finally made it back, after a near-death experience, crawling back from a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood..."
He leaned closer, his warm breath brushing against her ear.
"Can't you... say something nice to me?"
With a loud "boom".
Meng Shilan felt as if all the blood on her face had rushed to her ears.
The tips of her ears turned bright red at a speed visible to the naked eye.
She reacted as if burned, abruptly shaking off his hand and glancing instinctively at the children not far away.
"What...what nonsense are you spouting!"
Her voice was urgent and low, tinged with a hint of embarrassment and annoyance.
"The children...the children are all watching!"
Looking at her unusually shy appearance, Zhou Congxian felt all the fatigue and frustration he had felt over the past few days vanish.
He chuckled softly, a hearty and cheerful laugh.
That's enough.
He knew that this woman had long since integrated her armor into her very flesh and blood.
It can't be rushed to get her to take it off.
He continued, echoing her words, his tone regaining its calm and steady quality.
"I know all that you've said."
“My maternal grandfather and my elder brother from the He family have both sent me messages by carrier pigeon.”
"I'd like to say a few more words to Your Majesty before I go to the palace to meet you immediately."
Meng Shilan breathed a sigh of relief when he returned to the main topic.
Yet, a strange sense of loss arose in her heart, a feeling she herself hadn't even noticed...
She turned around, intending to get him two pieces of pastry from the stone table to tide him over.
But when he turned around, he found that the white jade plate was already empty.
She glared at Zhou Congxian with a hint of reproach, then her expression softened with tenderness.
"You too, if you wanted to come back, why didn't you send someone to deliver a message beforehand?"
"So that the kitchen can prepare some hot food for you."
"After traveling such a long way, I'm afraid you haven't even had a proper hot meal."
Their rambling conversations are all expressions of the care and concern between an ordinary couple.
But it soothes the heart more than any sweet words.
Looking at her gentle eyes and the worried expression on her face, Zhou Congxian could no longer restrain himself.
He stepped forward, stretched out his long arm, and pulled her tightly into his embrace.
That embrace, firm and warm, gave her an unprecedented sense of peace.
"ah!"
Not far away, Fu'er saw this scene and let out a small gasp.
Then, she giggled and, like a little adult, quickly stretched out her hands and covered her younger brother's eyes.
"Little Fatty, you're not allowed to look! It's embarrassing!"
As she spoke, she dragged and pulled the still clueless little chubby boy back to the bedroom.
In the courtyard, only the two of them remained, embracing each other.
Zhou Congxian rested his chin on her hair and took a deep breath, as if to etch this warmth, which he had lost and then regained, into his heart.
No rush.
His voice carried an unprecedented sense of certainty and tranquility.
"Now that we're back, everything is just right."
"When I return from the palace, let's open another jar of osmanthus wine and have a good drink."
Meng Shilan buried her face in his chest, listening to his steady and powerful heartbeat, and softly hummed in agreement.
After a long while, Zhou Congxian slowly released her.
Before leaving, he looked at her slightly red eyes and her lips, as delicate as crabapple blossoms after the rain.
He bent down.
Gently, he left a restrained yet passionate kiss on her lips.
"wait for me."
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