Li Xiangjun poured tea for He Yunxiao and casually asked, "I still don't know your name?"
"Zhang Wuji." He Yunxiao invoked the name of his predecessor once again.
"A good name. It sounds very clever," Li Xiangjun said with a smile.
He Yunxiao was speechless for a moment. He always felt that the Emperor of Yan was implying that he was stupid.
He Yunxiao chatted casually with Li Xiangjun, initially unaware of anything amiss, but the more he talked with her, the more uneasy he felt. He Yunxiao realized that, without realizing it, he had gradually separated the "Li Xiangjun" in front of him from the "Emperor Yan" in his memory.
In his memory, the Yan Emperor was a ruthless, cunning, and meticulous ruler. But now, the Li Xiangjun before him was a harmless, intelligent, and cheerful girl, sometimes even a little cute.
He Yunxiao sensed something was wrong. He wasn't sure what would happen if they continued chatting. He just wanted to end the conversation as soon as possible and rescue Sister Jiang's parents. As for Emperor Yan, Li Xiangjun, he would discuss it with Mengbao and Ruobao after returning to Qi.
"If Your Majesty has nothing else, Zhang Wuji will take his leave."
Li Xiangjun rested her chin on her slender hand and smiled, "Your Majesty? Why are you suddenly being so formal?"
He Yunxiao thought to himself: What's with the formality? We're not even that close to each other.
Clearly, Li Xiangjun had no intention of letting He Yunxiao leave. She said, "I found out you took the border map. Aren't you afraid you won't be able to leave this palace? Aren't you afraid that after you leave, I'll change the border defense arrangements and render your map useless? Also, did you not believe me when I said there was poison in the tea?"
Faced with Li Xiangjun's series of questions, He Yunxiao knew she had something to say, so he simply asked, "What does Your Majesty want to say?"
Li Xiangjun replied irrelevantly, "My name is Li Xiangjun. What's your name? Your real name, don't just give me some random one."
"Your Majesty, my real name is Zhang Lingshan," He Yunxiao replied earnestly, trying to deceive the emperor.
"Oh? That's a nice name."
"Hmm." He Yunxiao didn't want to talk to Li Xiangjun any longer, so he switched to his straight-man response mode.
"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Li Xiangjun asked.
“A whole bunch,” said He Yunxiao, a straight man.
Do you have someone you like?
"A whole bunch."
"Really?" Li Xiangjun looked at He Yunxiao suspiciously.
"Um."
Can you tell me?
“There is a Dream Treasure.”
"Anything else?"
"I'm not telling you," He Yunxiao said bluntly.
Li Xiangjun slumped dejectedly at the table. "You don't seem to want to talk to me."
"Um."
"Do you think I'm trying to trick you into telling me something?"
"Um."
Li Xiangjun looked sorrowful. "Actually, I just wanted to find someone to chat with. Look at my palace, there isn't even a maid. All the maids are in the outer hall, and they, along with everyone else outside, think I'm a man. I don't dare let them know I'm a woman, so I have to wash my own clothes when they get dirty, and if they get too small, I have to secretly cut off the men's undergarments they made for me and make my own. You don't believe me? Look at my hands."
He Yunxiao looked at Li Xiangjun's outstretched, fair hand. There were indeed tiny needle marks on her slender, delicate fingers. He Yunxiao was very familiar with these needle marks; his wife, Nanzhu, had many of them on her hands back then.
Thinking of the South Sea pearls, He Yunxiao couldn't help but tease Li Xiangjun, saying, "It seems your embroidery skills aren't that great."
Li Xiangjun bit her lip lightly, her pretty face slightly flushed, and retorted, "Isn't it enough to just make clothes? What's the point of such good embroidery skills? I'll never get married in this life, so even the best embroidery skills are useless."
"Why did you disguise yourself as a man and become the Emperor of Yan?" He Yunxiao couldn't help but ask.
"It was all Grandpa's idea..."
He Yunxiao noticed that Li Xiangjun's mood was rapidly declining; she was clearly thinking about some unpleasant past events.
"I'll show you something." Li Xiangjun stood up, but seeing that He Yunxiao hadn't moved, she urged him, "Let's go."
He Yunxiao looked at her, said "Oh," and then got up and followed.
He Yunxiao was led by Li Xiangjun into her bedroom.
The bedroom has absolutely no girlish style, but exudes an imperial aura. A large, heavy imperial robe hangs on a clothes rack beside the bed, with lifelike golden dragon patterns on it.
Li Xiangjun pulled a locked box from under the bed, opened it, and revealed a thin leather mask.
"The emperors of the Yan Kingdom have changed hands three times, and my Li family is now the next Yan emperor. However, my brothers of the same generation are not up to par, so, my grandfather..."
Li Xiangjun didn't continue, but He Yunxiao had already filled in the blanks in his mind. It was something like her grandfather killing off one of his grandsons, allowing her, his granddaughter, to disguise herself as a man and take the throne of the Yan Emperor.
"you……"
He Yunxiao looked at the dejected Li Xiangjun and wanted to comfort her, but when he thought that this was the Yan Emperor who had started the war, he gave up his intention to sympathize with her.
"Do you know why I wanted to give you the border map?" Li Xiangjun said.
He Yunxiao's pupils contracted: "Could it be..."
"Grandpa always forces me to do things I don't like. I don't like fighting; I've heard that a lot of people die there..."
He Yunxiao asked in utter surprise, "You don't like war?"
Li Xiangjun retorted, "Would anyone actually like that?"
"This..." He Yunxiao was speechless. Judging from her confident assertion, could it be that this war was truly her grandfather's doing, and had nothing to do with her?
Just as He Yunxiao was beginning to waver in his feelings for Li Xiangjun, he glanced at the system's description of Li Xiangjun's personality: [Personality: fickle, suspicious, arrogant]
And Li Xiangjun's favorability rating towards me: [Favorability Rating: 10]
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