Imperial City, Qixiang Hall.
As dusk fell, the cold wind outside the window kept blowing the withered and yellow vegetation, and the snow on the branches rustled down, melting silently into the snowy mist of the sky.
It was half past the You hour, and the eunuchs retreated one after another with their cold but untouched meals. Zhu Yunxuan stood in front of the case all the time, staring at the map of Dayan spread out on the case in front of him for a long time. A dim yellow lamp was lit beside the desk, and the candle flame was reflected in his bright black pupils, flickering on and off.
The sudden sound of footsteps resounded without warning in the dark and quiet hall. Zhu Yunxuan raised his eyes and glanced at the person passing by, with a look of alienation between his brows: "King Zhao came in, why don't you call someone first?"
Liang Zhen smiled without saying a word, and waved his hands, signaling all the palace guards in the palace to retreat. Zhu Yunxuan's expression turned cold, but he did not object.
Liang Zhen walked slowly to the table, glanced over the table, paused, and said, "Your Highness is so interested that you actually looked at the map."
"Just take a look." Zhu Yunxuan's voice was indifferent, and he slowly rubbed the map under his fingertips. From south to north, from east to west, Dayan's mountains and rivers are all on this small map, but it seems to be heavy. .
"This is the capital city," Liang Zhen approached Zhu Yunxuan, stood shoulder to shoulder with him, whispered almost close to Zhu Yunxuan's ear, tapped his fingertips on the specially marked red spot, paused for a while, and swiped again To the northwest border gate, the voice became deeper, "This is the lonely pass."
Zhu Yunxuan's eyes flickered, and then he heard Liang Zhen's words with a smile, and said slowly: "He Huailing is a capable person, and this time I finally got rid of the barbarians in the north. Your Majesty's heart is very happy. In the past two days, I have used less medicine."
Zhu Yunxuan's tone was still flat: "If your Majesty can be healthy, it will be a good thing."
"Your Highness," Liang Zhen called him softly, the heat from his breath made Zhu Yunxuan feel a little uncomfortable, so he avoided it without a trace, and the smile on Liang Zhen's lips grew stronger, "Aren't you going to visit Your Majesty's bedroom? Imperial Concubine Chen and the Ninth Prince are guarding His Majesty's bedside day and night, and you only go to greet him once in ten days and a half months, aren't you afraid that His Majesty will blame you for being unfilial?"
Zhu Yunxuan was indifferent: "You also know that Concubine Chen and the Ninth Prince are guarding there, so there is no room for me to get in, not to mention, wouldn't you still be there? Compared to me, Your Majesty should be more willing to have you guard over there." let's go."
Not caring about the ridicule in Zhu Yunxuan's words, Liang Zhen still smiled: "How can it be the same, you are his son, and I am just a foreign minister."
"Heh." If it is an ordinary foreign minister, how can he be given the title of the king, how can he walk around in the inner palace at this time, he is always different from other people.
"The imperial physician said that His Majesty may not be able to survive this winter."
Zhu Yunxuan's finger, which was rubbing the map, paused, and a complicated look flashed across his eyes. Liang Zhen got closer to him, and a voice with deep meaning sounded in Zhu Yunxuan's ear: "A few days ago, Zhang Shoufu and the other two cabinet members The old man was called into the palace, what do you think they are going to do?"
Zhu Yunxuan's eyes became darker: "Why do you ask questions knowingly?"
"Isn't Your Highness curious at all?"
"That's the case. Your Majesty may have already made a conclusion in his heart, and he can't change it. What's the use of being curious?"
Liang Zhen chuckled: "That's not necessarily the case, until the end, everything is possible, even at that point, it's up to people."
Zhu Yunxuan looked at him indifferently: "Why don't King Zhao speak directly?"
Liang Zhen looked at him with a smile: "Your Highness, why don't you guess, is the name on it you, or the Ninth Prince?"
Zhu Yunxuan asked calmly, "Why can it only be me or the ninth brother? Don't forget that His Majesty still has six princes."
"Unfortunately, lamentably, in the past, the crown prince was unjustly sentenced to death, and the second highness was condemned for treason. If they were there, I'm afraid it would not be your turn, but now the third highness is dull and stupid, the fourth highness has a disability, and the sixth highness died early." , and the rest are still young, and you are the only son left by His Majesty. Anyone with a discerning eye on the throne knows that either it belongs to the Fifth Highness, your son-in-law, or it is the Jin Guijiu born by the concubine Chen who is loved by thousands of people. As for the prince, why would you want to be the third person, besides, Your Highness, you have already entered the imperial court and you are the son of the eldest son, so the Ninth Highness is still a baby, in my opinion, your chances of winning are very high."
Liang Zhen spoke slowly, and blinked at Zhu Yunxuan's guarded eyes, as if he was talking about something very interesting.
Zhu Yunxuan sneered, almost gnashing her teeth: "Liang, Zhen, you can say what you want, why bother to beat around the bush? Don't you want to be the third person? If your name is written on it, wouldn't it be the third person? "
Liang Zhen shook his head with a smile: "Your Highness, could it be that you are confused? My surname is Liang. Even though I owe His Majesty's great love and I have to be bestowed on the prince, it is not Zhu's family after all. How can I sit in the family of Zhu's family?"
Zhu Yunxuan said, "Okay, since you said that, I'll assume that you don't want it. Didn't you come here today to tell me who the person written on it is? What do you mean by man-made? What do you want me to give you again?"
Liang Zhen narrowed his eyes slightly, looked deeply at Zhu Yunxuan, his eyes darkened, tapped his fingers lightly on the case, seemingly thoughtful, after a while, he suddenly raised his hand, wrapped around Zhu Yunxuan's waist, and pulled him to the in front of you. Zhu Yunxuan's complexion changed, but before he could react, Liang Zhen pushed him down on the table, and the paperweight that was pressed on the map was swept to the ground, crackling and falling apart.
Zhu Yunxuan glared at Liang Zhen angrily: "What are you doing?!"
The other party's tall body was pressed down, and he untied his belt, and his warm breath sprayed on his white neck. Zhu Yunxuan turned his head away in embarrassment, and his eyes were red in an instant: "...you want to humiliate me like this again... me?"
Liang Zhen pressed a light kiss on the side of Zhu Yunxuan's neck, pressed his wet lips to his ear, raised his hand to pinch his chin, and prevented him from avoiding it: "Your Highness, how can this be called humiliation? It is obviously a bliss in the world Every time, you have fun, don’t you?”
After a pause, he said again: "Your Highness, do you want this country? I'll help you, and you can exchange it yourself, okay?"
The hall was so quiet that a needle could be heard. After a long silence, Zhu Yunxuan closed his eyes and said in a hoarse voice, "Don't be here."
Lustful kisses fell on Zhu Yunxuan's face and neck one after another. Liang Zhen didn't listen to him, and raised his hand unhurriedly, peeling off his clothes one by one.
At that moment, even though it was not the first time, Zhu Yunxuan was still pale with pain, and bit her lip hard so as not to cry out.
The candlelight was trembling, Zhu Yunxuan was trembling all over, tears were pouring down like rain, the broken teardrops kept sliding down to the loose black hair, dripping onto the map of the country under his body.
That was Dayan's country, within his reach but out of reach.
Liang Zhen bent down, brushed his lips and tongue across his tightly closed eyes, trembling eyelashes wet with tears, and landed on the red lips that were already bitten and bleeding.
The tip of the tongue violently pried away Zhu Yunxuan's clenched lips and teeth, and drove straight in, sweeping back and forth in his soft mouth, chasing his entanglement forcefully. Saliva mixed together, Liang Zhen tasted the blood on Zhu Yunxuan's lips and tongue, but it aroused his suppressed desire for sadism even more.
The night was getting dark, and the last candle in the hall was extinguished. Zhu Yunxuan's legs were hanging down feebly, flowers as bright as blood bloomed on his snow-white body, and his hair covered most of his face. He just lay there motionless on the table, as if he had lost his breath.
Liang Zhen tidied up the clothes he hadn't taken off, looked at Zhu Yunxuan like this, his pupils shrank slightly. He leaned on him again, brushed off his hair, picked him up, put him in the seat, helped him put on his coat, finally squeezed his hand lightly, and slowed down his voice: "His Royal Highness asked someone to come in and take a bath Get dressed and rest earlier."
Zhu Yunxuan never opened his eyes again, the red corners of his eyes were full of moisture.
The door of the palace opened and closed, bringing in bursts of chill, the sound of footsteps gradually receding, Zhu Yunxuan slipped to the ground, resting his palms on the broken paperweight, drawing a big bloody gash, he didn't seem to notice it, just stayed there Lie there in a daze.
The palace door opened a small gap again, and the eunuch Gao An came in tremblingly with his back bent. Seeing that Zhu Yunxuan was lying motionless on the ground with messy clothes, his palms were still bleeding, he immediately fell to his knees and supported him, crying The voice shouted: "Your Highness..."
Zhu Yunxuan slowly opened his eyes, and there was only a deep hatred in his red eyes. Looking at the helpless and crying personal eunuch in front of him, he raised his blood-stained hand and grabbed the opponent's neck forcefully.
"Your Highness, Your Highness..."
"If you dare to speak out about today's matter," Zhu Yunxuan gritted his teeth and said word by word, "What I hate the most is the servant who betrayed the master, you'd better remember it clearly for me."
"I dare not...cough, I really... dare not...cough..."
At that time, the elder brother of Zhu Yunxuan's mother and compatriot, Zhu Yunjing, the deposed prince, was given to death in prison because of being betrayed by a close internal official. No one in the Qixiang Palace knew that Zhu Yunxuan's most taboo was this.
After a while, Zhu Yunxuan closed his eyes and finally let go of his hand.
Gao An wiped away his tears, got up and helped Zhu Yunxuan into the inner hall to settle down, and then went outside to ask someone to fetch hot water. Without others, he carried the water into the inner hall by himself, poured it into the bathtub, and waited for Zhu Yunxuan to take a bath.
Looking at the mottled marks on Zhu Yunxuan's body, Gao An whimpered again: "Your Highness, you are the first prince, why are you so..."
Zhu Yunxuan leaned in the bathtub, closed her eyes, but her eyebrows could not be stretched.
Why so, why so... From the very beginning, he knew that trading with Liang Zhen was tantamount to seeking skin from a tiger, but he had no other choice. He had already embarked on this path, so he could only keep going, and there was no turning back.