Shang Shaoyan stared at him blankly, then her body made a decision before her brain could process it. By the time she realized what was happening, she was already clinging to Qiao Xiuyu.
Shang Shaoyan blushed: "What are you doing here? Cheng Chu is about to leave."
Qiao Xiuyu put one arm around Shang Shaoyan and gently tucked a strand of hair behind her ear with the other, saying softly, "I told him I want to go with you."
He paused, noticing Shang Shaoyan's somewhat surprised expression, and explained with a smile, "Don't worry, I gave him a token from the Northern Zhou royal family, which is enough for him to roam the Northern Zhou border."
Shang Shaoyan tightened her grip on his neck. Qiao Xiuyu wasn't annoyed; he simply patted her back gently and whispered, "I know you don't really trust me. After all, I'm a prince of Northern Zhou, and it's right that you don't trust me... What I'm doing is to put your mind at ease and to be with you all the time. It couldn't be better."
Shang Shaoyan silently got off him, then looked up at Qiao Xiuyu, his eyes filled with an indescribable expression: "You handed the token of the Northern Zhou royal family to Cheng Chu, aren't you afraid of him..."
Upon hearing this, Qiao Xiuyu smiled and pinched Shang Shaoyan's nose: "I believe you. You won't take action against Bei Zhou for the time being."
Shang Shaoyan buried her face in his chest, her voice muffled: "Why do you trust me so much? I don't trust you at all."
Qiao Xiuyu sighed softly and kissed Shang Shaoyan's head with a hint of helplessness: "I love you. I know what kind of person you are, so I'm willing to believe you. It's not that you don't trust me, An'an. You trust me much more than before, otherwise the order you gave to General Cheng just now would have been to kill me on the spot the moment I sent the message."
Shang Shaoyan looked up in astonishment, opened his mouth, and after a long while, finally managed to say, "You heard everything?"
Qiao Xiuyu blushed slightly, then said somewhat uneasily, "I was just about to knock on the door when I overheard Cheng Chu mentioning me, and I couldn't help but eavesdrop for a few minutes. You won't mind if I overheard, will you?"
Seeing Qiao Xiuyu's somewhat uneasy expression, Shang Shaoyan felt a tightness in his chest: "Who's blaming you? Next time I say such nonsense, just come in and question me, okay?"
Qiao Xiuyu looked at Shang Shaoyan with amusement: "Didn't I say? It's not that you don't trust me; you're slowly opening your heart to me. I'm very happy about that, so naturally I wouldn't do something so unreasonable. Besides, you're doing this to achieve your grand ambitions. I'm going to be the Emperor's Consort someday, and for the sake of my future status, I wouldn't do this either, wouldn't I?"
This was clearly meant to amuse Shang Shaoyan. Shang Shaoyan twitched her lips, seemingly trying to smile in response, but ultimately failed. Her eyes reddened slightly, and she glared at Qiao Xiuyu with a hint of anger: "Don't say that. You're the best person in the world. It's my fault for making you suffer..."
Qiao Xiuyu saw that Shang Shaoyan seemed to be on the verge of tears. She panicked for a moment, but quickly and skillfully comforted him, "Didn't you just say that General Cheng has already set off? Let's hurry up and go too."
He led Shang Shaoyan outside, teasing her as he said, "I'm not a good rider, can I ride with you? Like, you sit in front and I'll hold you from behind."
Shang Shaoyan: "..."
She was speechless for a moment: "This isn't very safe. You can sit in front and I'll wrap my arms around you from behind."
Qiao Xiuyu squeezed Shang Shaoyan's hand with a wronged expression: "But this way I won't be able to hug you."
Shang Shaoyan also coaxed him skillfully, "It's okay, you hug me, I hug you, it's the same."
As they spoke, the two arrived at the entrance of the county magistrate's mansion, where two fine horses stood. Without much thought, Shang Shaoyan mounted one of them and then tried to pull Qiao Xiuyu over.
Qiao Xiuyu smiled and nimbly mounted another horse. Then she reached out and pinched Shang Shaoyan's earlobe: "I was just kidding. If we were to ride together, you would sit in front of me. Alright, let's go."
Shang Shaoyan blushed and glared at Qiao Xiuyu, all her previous sadness gone. Her eyes darted around, and then she suddenly spurred her horse away, calling out, "If you catch up with me within an hour, then I'll share a horse with you, okay?"
Qiao Xiuyu's eyes lit up, and seeing that Shang Shaoyan's mood had improved considerably, she immediately spurred her horse to catch up with her: "An'an, could you please let me pass—"
The two rode off in the drizzling spring rain, stirring up gusts of wind that swayed the willow branches and brushed against the crabapple blossoms, their laughter filling the journey.
...
Shengjing.
Seeing that Lin Jing seemed to disagree with his statement about "choosing the country over the beauty," Shang Yunlan had no choice but to change his approach.
"It may seem like just a matter of power and beauty," Shang Yunlan poured Lin Jing a cup of tea, "but it's actually a matter of public versus private."
Upon hearing this, Lin Jing looked at Shang Yunlan with a hint of curiosity: "Could you elaborate?"
“An’an and I don’t have an empire right now. For the past ten years or so, we’ve been living for ourselves.” Shang Yunlan took a sip of tea. “Our parents died in battle, leaving my brother and me to depend on each other. We sacrificed our family for the country and chose public over private interests. Now that we have such plans, we are still in the initial stage. Between public and private interests, we will inevitably face many choices.”
“Take An’an for example—if one day she has to choose between Qiao Xiuyu and the world, An’an will have to consider the circumstances.” Shang Yunlan said slowly, “If it is at the beginning of the uprising, An’an will choose personal interests, and it is better not to do this, after all, holding onto the person in front of her is the most important thing; if it is during the uprising, An’an will weigh the situation and still tend to choose to protect Qiao Xiuyu, because abandoning him at this time will inevitably cause people to waver; if it is at the most critical moment of the uprising, then Qiao Xiuyu will have no choice but to be abandoned.”
He paused, then smiled: "But An'an has never liked making choices. She always tries her best to get things done at once—she once said that only the weak face such a predicament. She is not weak, nor would she do so."
Lin Jing's eyes flickered slightly, and after hearing these words, she actually showed a relieved smile.
"When I heard that Lingxiu had died in battle, I was filled with resentment." Lin Jing's gaze was distant, as if she were recalling something. "At that time, I thought, did she really just abandon you and your brother like that? Did she really just abandon everyone who cared about her and loved her?"
As he spoke, he looked at Shang Yunlan: "Yaochen, you may not know, but your mother used to be carefree and unrestrained. She was not the kind of person who would abandon her children for anything else. But now I understand... Her decision was not right, but it was not wrong either. She loved you, but she also loved her beliefs. She was willing to die in battle."
Shang Yunlan took a sip of tea, thought for a moment, and decided that it would be better to tell Lin Jing about Cheng Lingxiu being killed by the Prince of Nan'an later.
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