Let Me Pursue You

Yuan Cixian got a satisfactory answer, and was finally willing to let Lu Shiqing go. She put on her clothes and got up, and sent away the servants who were watching the night to help him.

Lu Shiqing couldn't show his feet before leaving Chang'an, lest she pester him to go with him, so he didn't stop her, and escorted him out of the house like a thief.

The next day, Yuan Cixian arranged tactics for the whole day, and discussed seven escape routes with Caizhi and Shicui. Pulled away the accompanying chess.

At first, she wanted to settle the game perfunctorily, but she didn't expect that the game would last for an hour. Father's interest is particularly high, even A Niang and A brother are also watching the chess enthusiastically. She used hundreds of excuses to escape, and they diverted the conversation every time she opened her mouth. Even when she got up to go to the toilet, she was accompanied by A Niang, but naturally all ended in failure.

Yuan Cixian was not stupid, so she naturally saw the truth, thinking that the plan had been revealed, and she would not be able to go to the Lu Mansion, so she had to wink at Caizhi, and motioned her to go to Yongxingfang, and send a message to Lu Shiqing, telling him don't wait.

When Picking Branches came back and it was near the house, Yuan Cixian felt something was wrong when he saw it, and slipped out again under the pretext of going to the toilet, beckoning her to follow, and when he went outside, he asked her what happened.

He didn't even have time to catch his breath, so he hurriedly replied: "Little lady, the servant girl went to bring a message to Lu Shilang, but he didn't see anyone. Mrs. Lu said that he left Chang'an City this morning to go to work before dawn. Worse."

Yuan Cixian couldn't help being taken aback, and asked, "What kind of important business has to be done on New Year's Eve?"

"The servant girl also found it strange. I thought you must be curious, so I asked a few more questions for you. Mrs. Lu said that this mission was dispatched yesterday, but Lu Shilang didn't explain the details, and kept it secret."

"Did you send it down yesterday?" Yuan Cixian frowned while focusing on the key points.

That being the case, why didn't Lu Shiqing tell her last night, and even promised her to watch the new year.

Isn't this a clear lie?

She turned her head quickly, and then remembered more strange things. Looking back now, Lu Shiqing's behavior last night was indeed very abnormal. Regardless of how things like breaking into the boudoir at night were not in line with his style of conduct, the way he looked at her and the way he spoke that night were different from usual.

He seemed to be rarely in the mood to "fight" with her, and he was mostly silent or obedient. The inside and outside of the words seem to be... It seems a little hard to say, a little struggling.

But at that time, because she failed to catch him for several days, she was eager to force him to propose marriage, and she didn't think much about it.

She recalled all the oddities of the past two days together, her heart was pounding, and she suddenly turned around and ran back to Father's study room. As soon as she stepped through the door, she saw her head bumping into each other and whispering something. The whole family stopped talking and raised their eyes to look at her nervously.

She put her hand on the door frame and looked straight at them: "Father, mother, brother, what are you hiding from me?"

Yuan Yi sighed, and looked at Feng Shi helplessly.

He knew that he couldn't hide Yuan Cixian for long. But in fact, as long as she was not told the truth last night, it would be enough to wait until this hour. It was impossible for her to catch up with Lu Shiqing.

Yuan Cixian clasped the door frame tightly with her nails, and continued to ask: "Where did Minister Lu go? Tell me."

Feng stood up, pulled her hand off to prevent her from hurting herself, and said: "There is a war in southern Yunnan, he went to negotiate peace with Nanzhao and Tubo."

Yuan Cixian didn't seem to understand it for a while, and after a while she was so surprised that she laughed back, and said in disbelief: "Who told him to go, saint?"

"It's his own idea." Yuan Yi answered directly.

She pushed Feng's hand away little by little, stepped forward a little hesitantly, and said word by word: "Is that what you meant?"

Yuan Yi kept silent.

Yuan Cixian laughed suddenly: "Where is that place, what kind of tigers and wolves are there, and what will happen if you go alone, others don't know, don't you also know?" She seemed to understand when she said this, "Or, You forced him to go at all? You don’t want him to marry me, and you think he’s not worth entrusting, so you force him to prove it to you?”

"The purpose of the war in Nanzhao is our Yuan family. In this battle, what the Prince Xiaoju wants is that the saint will be more afraid of our Yuan family, and he wants to cut his own way one day at the end of the big week. He went, for the sake of Yuan family. You went to your home, to alleviate the saint's concerns about you, but you just stand by like this?"

Seeing her sister's bad attitude, Yuan Yu frowned and said, "Cixian, calm down."

Yuan Yi faced Leng Rushuang, looked at her and said, "Who said he went there just for the Yuan family? The south of Yunnan fell, and many people were in dire straits. Since he is a courtier and cares about the world, he should go to rescue without hesitation. "

"Even so, there are many ways to save them, and there are many people who can say that they are good fighters!" Yuan Cixian supported the case with both hands, clutching the edge of the case tightly, and said with red eyes, "Why does it have to be him? He was born and died for Da Zhou, Why did he have to be the one who went through fire and water?"

Yuan Yizhi got up suddenly in a rage: "Why can't it be him? Since as you said, others can die for Da Zhou, why can't he be the only one?"

"Because..." Yuan Cixian choked on being asked, suddenly her eyes became hot, and tears rolled out like bursting a bank.

Yuan Yi sneered coldly: "I will pretend that I have never heard of these outrageous words. You should think carefully about whether you should say it or not." After saying that, he turned and left.

Yuan Cixian stood where she was and wiped her tears with her sleeves, but in the end she wiped more and more and couldn't stop.

Feng Shi sighed, winked at Yuan Yu and motioned him to look at Yuan Yizhi, then took Yuan Cixian's shoulder and patted him lightly.

Yuan Cixian couldn't help it even more. She didn't know what was going on, but she couldn't stop crying. After holding back for a while, she just hugged Feng Shi and cried, "Mother, I just don't want to, I just don't want to." He went... It's not that I don't understand what Dad said, it's not that I don't worry about the people in southern Yunnan, but he went to save them, who will save him?"

The more she cried, the more she couldn't help it: "Mother, my heart hurts... I feel bad... What if, what if he dies in southern Yunnan? Mother, what should I do..."

Feng patted her on the back and said softly: "Yaoyao, Nannan is very dangerous, but why can't you trust him? Your father believes in him, don't you?"

Yuan Cixian froze slightly, then raised her head twitching.

Feng scratched the tip of her nose: "Your father used to go to the battlefield every now and then, when did you see A Niang crying like this? It's not that A Niang doesn't worry about him, but she trusts him more."

"Southern Yunnan is a place of right and wrong, but Aniang has always liked it because it is the place that your father has put his life on the line to protect. Now that South Yunnan is in trouble, how could your father stand idly by? But But he let go and handed it to Lu Shilang, isn't it because he has full confidence in him? If so, why can't you trust your father and Lu Shilang?"

Yuan Cixian slowly stopped crying, and calmed down in the sound of sobs.

"Yaoyao, Mommy knows that you can't accept it for a while, and you want to find an opening to vent, but don't hurt your father's heart. After crying, go and apologize to him. Today is New Year's Eve."

Yuan Cixian nodded: "Mother, I know I was wrong, and I will apologize to Father." She bit her lip after speaking, "But can you sleep with me today?"

Feng couldn't help laughing: "How old are you?"

She pursed her mouth: "I'm weaker than a three-year-old now."

Yuan Cixian apologized to Yuan Yizhi overnight, and when it was over, she stole away Feng Shi outrightly, but she couldn't rest peacefully at night, sleeping and waking up, dreaming of Lu Shiqing barging into her boudoir over and over again.

After she finished talking about the forced marriage, she heard him promise to marry her the next time we see each other.

Then the scene changed, and the sky was filled with white paper money. She saw Lu Shuangyu standing in front of the funeral procession, holding a slender bamboo branch in her hand, her eyes red and swollen from crying.

She wanted to rush over to see who was in the coffin, but she couldn't catch up, and the sound of mourning was getting farther and farther away.

After repeating this several times, she broke out in a cold sweat every time she opened her eyes, as if she had seen an ominous sign. When she woke up the next morning, she found that the bedding was wet.

Probably she was crying in her dream.

Yuan Cixian slumped all night, when he heard the New Year's firecrackers in the neighborhood, he suddenly woke up, and was cheered up by the joyful noise.

She couldn't keep up with Lu Shiqing, but she couldn't sit still like this.

She thought for a while in the room, made up her mind, ran out of the yard suddenly, knocked on the door of Yuan Yizhi's room, and asked him when she saw him, "Father, I remembered something. In the early years, Da Zhou It has not yet weakened to the point where it is now, and Nanzhao occasionally pays tribute to the imperial court, and sometimes you present it on your behalf."

"Once, I saw a piece of rough jade the size of a fist in the tribute, but there was no such record in the gift list, so I wanted to secretly cut it off as a plaything. You said at the time that this piece of rough jade was comparable to the jade of Heshi, It is priceless, not a trifling matter. It was not recorded in the gift list because it was privately used by the second prince of Nanzhao to curry favor with the sage."

Yuan Yizhi's anger has long since dissipated if the father and daughter did not have an overnight feud. Hearing this, he thought about it seriously: "There is such a thing. Why do you ask this?"

"You think, where there is power, there will be struggles. Our Great Zhou was turmoiled by the battle for the throne. Could it be that they in Nanzhao can get away with it? Isn't it just to please our sage by secretly paying tribute, and one day may use this to gain the support of Da Zhou?"

"This incident is enough to prove his ambition, and it also proves that Xiju's side is not clean. At that time we were too lazy to meddle in their Nanzhao housework and chose to sit on the sidelines, but now why not use this incident to remind Xiju to pay attention to him. Fire in the backyard?"

"You mean, send someone to give this piece of uncut jade to Xiju as soon as possible, so as to win Lu Shilang's slight favor. At least, the Nanzhao army will not open fire on Lu Shilang without saying a word?"

Yuan Cixian nodded: "But the question is, where did this piece of rough jade go after entering the palace?"

"Father sent someone to investigate."

Yuan Cixian returned to the courtyard, fidgeting and waiting for the answer. An hour later, he heard the report from picking branches: "Little lady, there is news. That piece of uncut jade was made into a beast carving and placed in the imperial tomb, but there were some scraps left over." , the sage gave it to his children. A small piece of it was given to Princess Shaohe as a jade ring."

She stood up suddenly, licked her dry lips from not having a good night's sleep, and said, "Go to the princess' mansion."