klisemfg Chapter 164 Young General: It's getting late, and the mountains and rivers are already winter
Chapter 164 Young General: It's getting late, and the mountains and rivers are already winter
Nangong Yunran's mother was implicated in the witchcraft scandal, but it was not because of the incident with Queen Shen. Instead, she was framed by a concubine at the time a few years later. The old emperor was very taboo about things like witchcraft. When he saw the doll with her name written on it, he instantly became furious and directly ordered her mother to be executed.
The concubine who came later fell and confessed everything she had done in the past, thus clearing her mother's name.
The old emperor obviously had no memory and had long forgotten the appearance of Nangong Yunran's mother, but when he looked at her affectionate and slightly furrowed brows, he vaguely remembered this person.
"You and your mother have very similar eyebrows and eyes."
Nangong Yunran's slightly drooped eyelids concealed the coldness and disdain that flashed across her eyes, and she chuckled, "Yunran remembers that when she was young, she often heard her mother mention her encounter with her father."
Her mother, a very silly woman, loved this heartless man all her life. She knew that the royal family had always been heartless, but she still believed in those vows.
In Nangong Yunran's memory, her mother often held her on her knees, humming songs from her hometown, and looking at the road from the Council Hall to her own palace.
She said: "Your father was a good emperor. He killed many corrupt officials..."
"Ranran, you need to get better soon. Your father promised me that he would accompany me back to my hometown when the time comes. You can also meet your grandparents. They miss you very much."
Her mother knew that this man was unqualified, but in front of her, she still only talked about his advantages, so that she had deep expectations for this man for a period of time in the future.
Unfortunately, she was not Qingyang, and her mother did not grow up with the old emperor as a childhood sweetheart. She was just like a graceful and aloof butterfly that caught the old emperor's eye and was teased by him for a while out of his love.
Nangong Yunran remembered it very clearly. Every time Qingyang fell ill, the old emperor would put down what he was doing and take care of Princess Qingyang. Once, Princess Qingyang went hunting and was frightened and became seriously ill. The old emperor even copied many Buddhist scriptures by hand.
When facing her, he only showed up briefly a few times and then didn't want to see her again. Maybe he was afraid to think of his mother or maybe for other reasons. How could such a proud king admit his mistakes and endure the torture of guilt?
Now, looking at the guilt in the old emperor's eyes and his desire to make amends to himself, Nangong Yunran suddenly smiled.
You see, biased people always know that they are biased. They are not unaware of the harm their bias will bring to other children, but when faced with several children, they still resolutely only care about the child they love.
In fact, she had never been jealous of Princess Qingyang, she was just envious. She used to think that she was in poor health and could not make her father laugh, but later she realized that this man had many sons and daughters and did not need her.
The old emperor narrowed his eyes slightly and recalled things from his youth. That was when he was on a secret visit to find out whether the officials below were pretending to obey the orders and how the people were living. He met Nangong Yunran's mother by chance, and they fell in love with each other, so he brought her back to the palace.
What this palace lacks the most is women, and they are young and beautiful women of noble status. Nangong Yunran's mother was once very popular in the harem. She spoke gently and looked like a soft persimmon. She suffered a lot of torture in secret.
The old emperor's heart moved slightly, and he looked at Nangong Yunran: "Ranran, have you ever resented father in all these years?"
As soon as these words were spoken, everything around fell silent.
Today, Nangong Yunran was supposed to accompany the Queen to relax in the Imperial Garden, but unexpectedly she met the old Emperor and the Crown Prince, so she accompanied them. Later, a noble lady entered the palace, so the Queen left, leaving Nangong Yunran alone to accompany the group for a long time.
She was not in good health. After such a long time, her face was slightly pale and there was a thin layer of sweat on her forehead.
Nangong Yunran slowly raised her eyes, revealing a trace of admiration for her father. She shook her head gently and said, "My daughter has never blamed my father. My daughter knows that my father is very busy and has too many national affairs waiting for him to deal with. My father is already busy enough."
She only hated him, but because of her blood relationship and her mother, she could do nothing about this man. She could only ignore him and use him to make her life better and better.
The old emperor was very satisfied and also found an excuse for himself. He was the Son of Heaven and reviewing memorials every day was enough to make him tired to the point of wanting to vomit blood. How could he have so much time to pay attention to things in the harem?
He just raised his leg and wanted to continue walking, but he saw that Nangong Yunran's lips had lost their color. He paused for a moment and said, "It's too hot today. You just got better. Go back and rest first."
Nangong Yunran breathed a sigh of relief, finally seeing that her face had turned pale, and it was worth pinching himself hard.
"I am very happy to be able to accompany my father."
Seeing that she was not feeling well and wanted to stay with him for a while longer, the old emperor's majestic eyes softened a little, and he said to Nangong Qing: "Send Ranran back to the palace, and then ask the imperial kitchen to prepare some food to cool down."
"Yes, I happen to have a string of red coral beads sent from Liangzhou. They keep you warm in winter and cool in summer. I'll have someone send it to my fifth sister later."
After watching the old emperor leave, Nangong Qing accompanied Nangong Yunran slowly towards the Princess Palace and suddenly said, "I will chat with Fifth Sister for a while, you can leave first."
"As ordered."
The palace maids and eunuchs slowed down their pace and kept a long distance between themselves and the two men, making sure they could see their masters but not hear their conversation.
Nangong Qing walked slowly until he was almost at the Princess' Palace. Seeing Nangong Yunran looking taciturn, he let out a short and quick chuckle from his throat.
"It seems like I have never walked with my fifth sister like this before. Father is getting old after all. He is becoming more indecisive and not as strict as before. He has begun to care about his children."
These words were extremely disrespectful. Nangong Yunran agreed with Nangong Qing's words in her heart. She was reluctant to let go of one and the other, and was afraid that the adult princes would rebel, so they kept checking and balancing each other.
It would be better to cut the Gordian knot and reduce internal friction in the country.
But on the surface, her expression changed slightly, her brows knitted slightly, and she slowly said: "Brother Crown Prince, I will pretend that I have never heard of these words. Don't say such things anymore. If they get out, it will be bad for Brother Crown Prince."
"It's just you and me now. Will the fifth sister spread the news?"
Nangong Yunran shook her head and slightly quickened her pace. When she was a child, she had a serious illness and happened to meet Nangong Qing who was returning from school. It was Nangong Qing who called the imperial physician for her.
Even though Nangong Qing appeared to be very gentle towards his other brothers and sisters, Nangong Yunran had always kept that incident in mind. She knew that the Seventh Prince had a very good relationship with Nangong Qing, so when the Second Prince and his faction were targeting his position as Crown Prince, she intentionally or unintentionally revealed some information.
"As Seventh Brother said, although Fifth Sister has been recovering from illness, she has a very clever mind and sees through everything." Nangong Qing sighed softly, looking at Nangong Yunran carefully, revealing a trace of vulnerability: "Fifth Sister, help me. The position of the Crown Prince looks noble, but there are also many things that cannot be done."
Nangong Yunran felt that the afternoon sun was a little dazzling. She slowly closed her eyes, her voice trembling a little.
"Brother Crown Prince, you clearly know my situation. Now that I haven't even stood on your side, Second Brother's side already doesn't want to tolerate me. Are you trying to push me to death?"
"Why do you think so highly of me, a princess who has no sense of existence in the palace? It's just that I have Xu Jinhuan behind me."
She suddenly opened her eyes and looked at Nangong Qing. She couldn't tell what she felt in her heart. She even felt that she was a little erratic. She could only hear her own voice saying, "General Xu will not help any of you. He only cares about the people of Liguo. Why do you have to involve him? Can't you let him go and let me go? Once he leans towards one of you, neither my father nor the other one will let him go."
Xu Jinhuan holds military power, and the reason she returned to the capital was because her father was wary of him. Once this person favors one of the princes, it would inevitably arouse her father's suspicion that he had the intention of rebelling and wanted to support other emperors to ascend the throne.
Since ancient times, how many emperors were willing to accept old age? Who doesn't think that he is in his prime and can live for decades? Once Xu Jinhuan remains neutral, except for the old emperor, everyone else will want to kill him and seize his military power. Who can guarantee that he will not defect to his political enemies one day?
She was a princess with no background, and her mother's family was not as powerful as those of other princesses, otherwise her life would not have been so difficult over the years, and she would not have had to rely on taking body-damaging medicine to survive.
By then, if these people want someone to take the blame, they can easily push her out. No one will care about her life or death anyway.
Nangong Yunran's eyes suddenly felt sore, and his desire to see his beloved reached an unprecedented peak. Fortunately, his longing was silent, otherwise the onlookers would have been deafened.
She lifted her skirt slightly and walked quickly towards her palace, as if she had passed through the red walls and green tiles, and her young general was standing there waiting for her.
"Princess, you."
Amid the astonishment of the palace people, she quickly went into the study, closed the door, picked up the brush, dipped a little ink on the paper, and began to talk about what she had done in the past few days. Every word she wrote did not express her longing, but the deafening sound of longing could be heard between the lines.
Hoping that the man would return to Beijing as soon as possible, the two of them would walk on the path, chatting from time to time, or they would be in the general's mansion, where he would be reading a military book and she would be talking and humming a Jiangnan tune. Suddenly, she would be startled and ask him if this would disturb his reading.
The young general did not raise his head. His slender white fingers twisted the pages of the book, and his gentle response came: "No, you sing, it's like watching the spring in the south of the Yangtze River is not late."
Such a serious person did not miss any of her nonsense. Some people say that spring never comes late in the south of the Yangtze River, but Nangong Yunran has never been there. In his heart, he always thinks of the misty small town in the south of the Yangtze River that his mother often talked about.
"If you are willing, I will take you there after Chun Heming comes back and I hand over the things in my hands to him." The young man said at that time.
Seeing that Chang Qing had received another letter from the capital, Chun Heming felt so jealous. The resentment emanating from his body was heavier than a ghost at midnight, which made the Lin brothers retreat away.
Lin Sui: "Speaking of which, our military advisor is already quite old, it's time for him to find a wife. But you can't blame the military advisor for being jealous. Look at the brothers in the barracks, who doesn't envy our general? The capital sends us this and that every few days, just because they are afraid that our general will suffer here."
Lin Pingan didn't react much in his heart, but instead smiled, because someone was also thinking about him.
I didn’t feel anything when I was alone before, until I met someone I liked. Then the letters that came to me from time to time were sweeter than winning a few battles and eating a lot of candy.
"It's normal. You people without families don't know how it feels."
Seeing him like this, Lin Sui felt annoyed and angry, and kicked him twice.
他也是知道自家兄长有心上人的事，不过想到对方瞒了自己这么久，恶狠狠的揍了他一顿，知道那姑娘是青楼里面出来的后， 虽然觉得那姑娘和自家的兄弟不合适，但是看林平安这么坚持，也知道他是动了真格的，便不再说什么了。
After learning about the girl's personality and conduct from Changqing, he also accepted this brother's wife. He also thought of spending some of the money he had saved over the years so that Lin Ping'an could marry the girl in a grand ceremony in the twelfth lunar month.
During these days, the girl also made several sets of clothes for Lin Ping'an, and her words showed her deep concern for him. Lin Sui had to admit that he was starting to feel jealous again.
How come my brother can find a wife, but I am still alone and helpless? Isn’t he much more handsome than Lin Pingan?
Of course, Lin Pingan disagrees with this statement.
Seeing Chun Heming kicking the barking dog nearby, Lin Sui had some literary thoughts in his mind for the first time. In Chun Heming's words, they were both wanderers in this world. However, looking at this big man, Chun Heming's desire to write down his feelings at the moment disappeared.
Lin Ping'an also spoke up: "It's really strange. Our military advisor is not bad looking, he can carry heavy things, he can do three things at once, he can recite poems, compose couplets, watch the moon and walk in the snow, etc., but why hasn't any girl written to him?"
"Oh, he was so happy when he received a letter last time, but it turned out that his elder brother wrote to scold him."
"That's not true. The military advisor did have a girl he liked, but he just didn't like her so he declined. Last time his elder brother wrote to him, he mentioned that he had arranged a marriage for him with a well-matched family. I heard that the girl was a well-known local beauty and asked him to go back and see her. He wrote a long article and scolded his brother."