"I have seen my father."
Li Chuan knelt down and gave Li Ming a big gift.
Li Ming watched Li Chuan kneeling on the cold ground. There were only his father and son in the hall. Li Ming was silent. After a long time, he said, "I heard that you were injured, are you okay?"
"Report to the emperor, it's okay."
Li Chuan said it earnestly, and Li Ming was silent. After a long time, he said slowly: "I called you here today because I wanted to have a good talk with you. You and my father and son have not spoken well for many years."
"Yes, Erchen is all ears."
Li Chuan knelt on the ground without raising his head at all. Li Ming listened to his words and said, "You blame me."
"My son doesn't understand what the royal father is talking about."
"I know, you blame me in your heart, and think I prefer Chenger. You are kind and virtuous by nature, and you are from the middle palace. In terms of identity, character, and ability, you should be the best son of me, but I am right. You are suppressing everywhere, so you are already dissatisfied."
"My son doesn't dare to think like this. Thunder, rain, and dew are all kindness to the emperor. I know that the father is just afraid that my son will relax and be a little stricter."
Hearing this, Li Ming laughed. He raised his finger and pointed at Li Chuan. He faltered a few times in the air, and finally turned into a sigh: "You are so similar to me when I was young."
Li Chuan didn't say a word, Li Ming stood up, he took the hem of his clothes in one hand, and slowly walked down from the high platform.
He walked very hard, and it was obvious that he was physically weak. Li Chuan didn't raise his head, so he listened to him as he walked and said: "I used to talk to my father and emperor like this back then. I am different from you. I have six brothers, so I have six brothers. I am always worried about which day I will wake up and I will never be the prince again."
"It took me many years to become the emperor. After I became the emperor, I understood the pain of my father and emperor. Chuan'er, I don't want you to be the prince, it's not that I don't like you, you are actually the one I like the most in my heart. Child, I don't want you to be a prince, precisely because I know that if you become an emperor one day, it will be the greatest suffering in your life."
After he finished speaking, he stopped in front of Li Chuan. Li Chuan could only see the corners of his clothes with gold embroidery. He didn't dare to look up, so he heard Li Ming ask in a low voice, "But now you can't let go anymore. You can only go up. Do you know what is the most important thing about an emperor?"
Before Li Chuan could answer, Li Ming told him, "It's ruthless."
"You and I share the blood of the Li family, and I am the closest person to you. Today I will give you a chance," Li Ming crouched down, and he looked at Li Chuan, "a chance to make you emperor."
Li Chuan didn't say anything, he slowly raised his head and saw that Li Ming took out a decree from his hand.
"This is an edict with your name written on it," Li Ming stared into Li Chuan's eyes, "As long as you promise me, you will thoroughly investigate the assassination case of King Su in the school grounds, and arrest the mastermind behind this. I will hand it over to you.”
Li Chuan and Li Ming looked at each other quietly in the main hall, and the moonlight fell on the black marble floor, flowing like an icy stream.
Li Ming stretched out his edict: "Don't you want it? The throne of Jiangshan is at your fingertips, don't you want it?"
Li Chuan set his eyes on the "last edict", watched quietly, and did not speak.
Li Ming laughed: "Do you think I'm hurting you? Silly boy, I'm paving the way for you. The Shangguan family is already too prosperous, and they are under their control. You will be emperor in the future, and sooner or later, you will have to deal with them. I'm still there. , if you do it, it will be on my head. When you become the emperor, you will move the Shangguan clan, kill your mother, kill your uncle, and your dead sister, Chuan’er, your reputation in the history of the Qing Dynasty will be over.”
"What the father means," Li Chuan said slowly, "if I become the emperor, I will definitely kill my mother, uncle, and sister, right?"
Li Ming didn't speak. After a long time, he lowered his eyes and said, "Chuan'er, as long as you are tough or too weak, you may not be able to reach this step. But you just happen to be smart but not smart enough, weak and not enough. Weak, tough and not tough enough, you are just a slightly smart ordinary person, and I know too well what it feels like to be in this position. If you want to sit in this position, Shangguan, you must die."
"My son understands." Li Chuan took a deep breath, Li Ming showed relief, and was about to speak when he saw Li Chuan raise his hand.
He raised his hand and undid his hair crown, took off the nine-bead hair crown representing the prince, and put it aside.
Li Ming frowned: "What are you doing?"
Li Chuan said nothing, he stood up, took a step back, and then fell to his knees.
"Father, my son doesn't know what he will be like in the future, but now, my son is indecisive, attaches great importance to righteousness, can't have the unsympathetic feeling that an emperor should have, and lives up to his father's attention, and asks his father to forgive him. If the father feels that What the son does is not in line with the way of the prince, if the father and the emperor can abolish it, let him abolish it. It is getting late, and the son will retire."
After speaking, Li Chuan bent down, put his hand in front of him, bowed his head and backed away.
This set of actions was done smoothly, and when he walked out the door, Li Ming finally reacted and shouted, "Stop!"
"Li Chuan, you are a woman's benevolence! I gave you such a great opportunity, you don't want it, what do you want?!"
"I want," Li Chuan turned his back to Li Ming, looking at the dark clouds hoarding in the distance, "to become a different person from the father and emperor."
Hearing this, Li Ming froze in place, Li Chuan stepped out of the hall, and hurried away by the moonlight.
When Li Chuan left the palace, Su Ronghua looked at the tea bowl in front of him, and his own shadow was reflected in the tea bowl. After a long time, he finally calmed down.
"Is this dream real or fake?"
"I've tested it," Su Rongqing lowered her eyes, "really."
"So this is the reason why you and Concubine Rou joined forces, in order to prevent the crown prince from ascending the throne?"
Su Ronghua raised his eyes to look at Su Rongqing, and Su Rongqing responded, "Yes."
"Because you killed His Royal Highness Prince, you were destined to be your enemy, so you gave up His Highness Pingle."
Su Ronghua definitely spoke, Su Rongqing clenched his fists, and after a long time, he still responded, "Yes."
"Isn't it a pity? You already know the future, why don't you try to change it?"
"How to change it?" Su Rongqing couldn't help laughing when she heard this, "Brother, how can I change it? Is it my Su family who is sorry for Li Chuan? Ambition, but reckless ignorance, reckless actions!"
"He is so excited about his achievements, he is about to go on a northern expedition when he comes up, and the ministers are in harmony. He is a minister who is greedy for life and fears death, but I don't know that it is because we know the internal filth of the imperial court. In the end, the national treasury was exhausted, and half of the battle there was no salaries for the army. After that, the south was flooded as usual, and there was no more silver taels for disaster relief.
"He doesn't want to repent, he just thinks it's a family's accumulation of abuses, blindly implements reforms, and causes fires for years. Eighty million, forty million people," Su Rongqing looked at Su Ronghua, "Where do we start to change?"
"He also had the same temper back then. He seemed to be virtuous and benevolent. Brother, I am His Highness Aipingle." Su Rongqing looked at Su Ronghua when she said these words, "But I also have my bottom line."
Su Ronghua didn't speak, he picked up the tea and took a sip.
"Rong Qing, have you been to the north?"
Su Rongqing didn't know why Su Ronghua suddenly asked such a question, he was stunned for a while, Su Ronghua put down the tea bowl and said in a low voice, "You grew up in Huajing, and you haven't been to other places. As far as you are concerned, human life is just a number, one million, Ten million. I have been to the north, when I went there, I saw the battlefield with my own eyes, and saw the people being slaughtered like pigs and dogs. In my heart, I actually had the same idea as His Royal Highness, the big summer must stand up and must go north."
"You can't be in such a hurry."
"When are you not in a hurry?" Su Ronghua looked at Su Rongqing with a steady expression, "You said that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince is disregarding the reality, then tell me, what is the reality?"
Su Rongqing was silent, Su Ronghua smiled transparently: "Actually, there are many aristocratic families, and everyone is reluctant to send troops to protect their own interests, and to protect their own interests, they are unwilling to pay money. The family relationship is so intertwined that it is cronyism and corruption is intractable. I guess the biggest reason for the failure of the Northern Expedition is that the money cannot reach the soldiers in the north at all, but whose fault is this? Is it His Royal Highness?”
"Rong Qing, there's no need to make our reasons sound so grand." Su Ronghua looked at Su Rongqing with a bit of sadness in his eyes, "Admit it, the family is the cancer of Daxia, sooner or later, we will be drowned in the long river of history. , our so-called noble blood is born with original sin."
Su Rongqing looked at Su Ronghua, the two brothers stared at each other for a long time, and Su Rongqing finally said, "Then what big brother means, he will still assist Li Chuan in the upper position, right?"
"I don't help anyone," Su Ronghua put down the teacup, "I just don't want you to get involved in these things too much. If you have time, go out to Huajing for a walk, go to the north to see the battlefield, and go to the south to see the flood. Rong Qing, seeing it with your own eyes and hearing it from others are two different things. Reading thousands of books is not as good as traveling thousands of miles."
"You rest first," Su Ronghua stood up and turned to go out, "I'll go find my father."
Su Ronghua pushed open the door and walked out. At this time, in the princess' mansion, Li Rong laughed softly as she listened to Pei Wenxuan's question.
"Going to Qingzhou, isn't this already decided?"
Pei Wenxuan heard this and sighed: "It seems that I'm still not charming enough to keep His Highness. It's okay," Pei Wenxuan raised his hand and scratched Li Rong's chin, "His Royal Highness is very charming, so please keep His Highness the prince. This side has stabilized, I will resign and go to Qingzhou to eat soft rice."
"Okay, I have three thousand faces," Li Rong laughed, "I'll let you be the boss."
"His Royal Highness," Pei Wenxuan listened to Li Rong's decision, still a little worried, "really gone?"
"Your temperament is not one that likes idle clouds and wild cranes. Staying in Qingzhou, I'm afraid you will be bored."
Li Rong is different from Li Chuan. Li Chuan does not love power and is forced into that position. But Li Rong was greedy for the sense of control brought about by power from the bottom of her heart. Therefore, she should set up a supervisory department if she doesn't care about a good princess. In her previous life, she also wanted to marry a good old lady and quit her job, and she wanted to supervise the eldest princess.
Li Rong leaned on Pei Wenxuan, she held the warm bag Pei Wenxuan gave her, and sighed: "What can I do? I can't fight with Chuan'er. I love power, but with outsiders it's okay to die. Li Chuan…”
Li Rong paused: "Forget it, I'm upset."
"Then you go, or do you go by yourself as you decided before?"
Li Rong didn't speak.
Before, she thought that Shangguanya and Su Ronghua were taking the initiative to seek pleasure out of desire. Although she understood it, she always hated it.
Now that she's finished listening to the whole process, she doesn't even know for a while whether Shangguanya and Su Ronghua are pitiful, or she and Li Chuan are pitiful.
She couldn't even hate it, and there was nowhere to scold her. It was like a destined sense of powerlessness that made her punch the cotton, and in the end she was full of pity and sadness.
"I do not know either."
Li Rong shook her head: "You can do it."
Pei Wenxuan smiled: "Then I'll notify the Shangguan family when you leave the city and let them prepare early."
Li Rong was weak, and responded.
Just as Pei Wenxuan was about to say something, he heard news from outside: "His Royal Highness, my lord, the Crown Prince has come down."
Li Rong and Pei Wenxuan looked at each other, and Pei Wenxuan immediately said, "Go to sleep, I'll pick him up."
"It's better to call in," Li Rong thought for a while, "It shouldn't be a trivial matter for him to come over now."
After all, Li Chuan was still injured. He just met, so he wouldn't come over in such a hurry if he was fine.
Pei Wenxuan responded, but he was worried that Li Rong would be embarrassed, so he had someone carry the screen in and received Li Chuan outside the screen.
As soon as Li Chuan entered the room, he saw the standing screen. Pei Wenxuan smiled peacefully and said, "His Royal Highness fell asleep and didn't want to get up, so he set up a screen."
Li Chuan pretended not to know about Li Rong's estrangement, and he responded with a blank expression. Pei Wenxuan greeted him to sit down and said with a smile, "Your Highness is here now, why?"
"I'm afraid Li Cheng can't do it anymore," Li Chuan said directly. "Tonight, the royal father will call me into the palace and ask me to exchange my sister and the Shangguan clan, and he will let me ascend the throne."
"Oh," Pei Wenxuan nodded. He glanced at Li Chuan's empty head, "Then His Highness must have refused."
"Yeah." Li Chuan didn't say much, "But when Li Cheng died, I was the only heir, and the father and the emperor would not let the elder sister and the Shangguan clan go. My uncle discussed it and figured out a way to get out of the city, when the time comes, my sister will hurry up and arrive at Qingzhou in three days."
Hearing this, Pei Wenxuan shook his hand, and before he could answer, Li Rong's question came from behind the screen: "Let's go tonight?"
"The sooner the better."
"Okay," Li Rong responded decisively, "Then let someone prepare a horse immediately, I will set off immediately, and rush to Qingzhou as soon as possible."
"It's settled like this," Li Chuan nodded, and the sister and brother came back and forth to settle the matter. At this time, Pei Wenxuan finally reacted and said loudly: "No, absolutely not!"
Li Chuan and Li Rong both looked at the sound, Li Chuan frowned: "Why not?"
"His Royal Highness can't run around like this," Pei Wenxuan said with a serious face, "and she can't be rushed. She needs comfort now. Even if she goes out, she can only walk slowly to Qingzhou in a carriage."
Hearing this, Li Chuan couldn't help but teach Pei Wenxuan a lesson: "When is it all, why do you still have so many troubles? Pei Wenxuan, this is an escape for life, not an outing. Sister agrees, but you are still chattering. what?"
"That's right." Li Rong agreed with Li Chuan behind the screen, "Keep things simple, I don't mind."
"It's okay for you," Pei Wenxuan looked at the two of them singing together and became a little anxious, "But Pei Xiaobao can't do it."
"Who is Pei Xiaobao?" Li Chuan was at a loss. When Li Rong heard the title, her heartbeat suddenly beat a beat. She couldn't believe it, and she stuttered a bit when she spoke: "What are you talking about Pei... Pei?"
"That's what you have in your stomach."
Pei Wenxuan stood up, turned his head and entered the screen. He half-kneeled in front of Li Rong, raised his hand on Li Rong's stomach, and looked up at her: "It's right here."
Li Rong stared at Pei Wenxuan for a while. Li Chuan saw that Pei Wenxuan had turned in and suddenly learned that he had a nephew.
Li Rong was in a daze, and seemed to be shocked for a while, Pei Wenxuan couldn't help laughing when he saw Li Rong like this: "This morning the doctor diagnosed you, you fell from the cliff, the fetal gas is unstable, you need to take good care of it, I am afraid that in the morning Saying this affects your judgment, you can't see your heart clearly, so I didn't tell you."
"So," Li Rong calmed down and looked at Pei Wenxuan, "I can't go to Qingzhou anymore?"
"You can't go to Qingzhou, go somewhere closer and pretend to be Qingzhou."
Pei Wenxuan's eyes fell on Li Rong's stomach: "I will solve it as soon as possible."
"It's all settled for you, what should I do?"
Li Rong raised her hand and put it on Pei Wenxuan's, a little embarrassed. Pei Wenxuan smiled: "Take good care of my daughter."
"You know it's your daughter again?"
Seeing Pei Wenxuan's determination, Li Rong couldn't help but feel a little funny. Pei Wenxuan sighed: "It's okay to be a son. A daughter is better."
"that… "
Li Rong and Pei Wenxuan were talking, but Li Chuan held back for a long time, and finally hid behind the screen and opened his mouth.
He knew that Li Rong didn't want to see him, but he still couldn't help it. Seeing the two of them looking over together, he looked at Pei Wenxuan enviously: "That... can you let me hear about my sister's belly?"
"His Royal Highness is thinking?" Pei Wenxuan was at a loss, not understanding why Li Chuan made this request.
Li Chuan was a little shy: "Just... I want to hear how he kicked people."
Li Rong: "..."
After Pei Wenxuan was stunned for a moment, he looked at the seventeen-year-old Li Chuan and was quite speechless.
"His Royal Highness," Pei Wenxuan couldn't help reminding him, "he hasn't had three months."
"Huh? What does it matter?" Li Chuan didn't quite understand, and Li Rong glanced over, "When you were three months old, you were like a stillbirth, what did you kick? Take your brain?"