North Journey

The capital, the princess mansion.

Although Qi Ying hadn't returned to Beijing for decades, the great favor of three generations of emperors made the servants of the mansion dare not take half-hearted care of this house.

Now this long-vacant mansion has finally welcomed its owner back, and for a moment, it seems that the past 30 years have never existed.

"Your Highness, this is news from the west."

Zhao An walked through the courtyard shaded by trees, walked quickly to the water pavilion in the mansion, lowered his head slightly, and handed the letter in his hand to Qi Ying.

A pair of well-maintained but inevitably wrinkled hands took the envelope in his hand.After Qi Ying opened the letter and read it, there was a little more thought in his eyes.

She pressed the letter paper under the teacup, stood up, and looked to the southwest.

The Princess's Mansion is the mansion bestowed upon her by her father after he took over the capital. Facing north and facing south, he chose the best location in the noble mansion in the capital.Later, after her younger brother came to the throne, it was expanded several times. The inner lake in the mansion is so wide that it ranks among the top three private houses in the capital.

Qi Ying relied on his martial arts skills, so when he built the mansion, he did not avoid those tall and dense trees like other people, so the mansion has always been shaded by trees.Only in the area of ​​the inner lake, she wanted to open up as far as the eye can see, and only built a bridge and a pavilion in the middle of the lake. At a glance, although it is not as overlooking the entire capital as the Imperial Palace's Star Picking Platform, it is wide enough to relieve the pressure of the capital. cramped.

In fact, she didn't miss the time in Yandi very much. The vastness of the frontier and the prosperity of the capital each have their own flavors.It's just that after all she was used to being free, and the Tongque Chunshen in the capital gradually became her shackles.

She knew that her father had once moved the idea of ​​moving the capital, but the old officials in the imperial court expressed their rebuttals wave after wave.So he could only bury such thoughts in the depths of the palace garden.

After her father passed away and Qi Nan ascended the throne, the air in Beijing became more and more oppressive for her.Marrying Mu Qing is the will of "the sea was once too difficult for water".She has seen colors that shouldn't exist in this world, and even though she knows it's not all love, she can't find the feeling of being tempted anymore.

There is nothing wrong with Mu Qing.The eldest son of the rich family of the Mu family, raised by Zhongming Dingshi's family, no matter how useless he is, he stands taller than most people, not to mention, he does not bear the name of the heir of the Mu family.Except, she didn't fall in love with him as expected.

If the Mu family didn't have the obsession and ambition left by generations, maybe she still had the possibility of developing family affection for Mu Qing.After all, when she experienced the first unbearable nausea that day, what she felt was not pain and confusion, but uncontrollable joy.Even though she knew that this child should not have come to this world at such a time, she was still willing to look forward to his arrival with full of joy.

It's a pity that Mu Qing didn't see that day.Her titular husband had died at the blade of her knife the day before she found out he was pregnant.From then on, this child was only connected by her blood.

Now, the child who was so well-behaved in her arms back then has finally found the person she wanted to protect even if she gave everything.

Qi Ying looked at the calm water with his hands behind his back, at the row upon row of houses, and then at the blue clear sky in the distance, but what he thought of was the familiar and firm handwriting on the letter.

So she smiled softly.

"Zhao An, this time, Yan'er is truly a blessing in disguise."

Zhao An silently bowed his head behind her, His Highness was happy, that was enough.

※※※

Renshou Palace.

This is the residence of the empress dowagers of all dynasties. Since the previous dynasty, there have been women in this deep palace, holding the supreme authority in the world.

Although the Empress Dowager Sun had no intention of competing for power with her son who was in his prime, it was undeniable that the voice from this palace would always have enough influence on Qi Ye.

At this time, the palace fell into a tense and quiet atmosphere because of the master's anger, and the attendants were all serving carefully, for fear that they would get into trouble.

To be honest, since Mrs. Sun entered the palace for so many years, compared with some other willful and domineering concubines, she is not so difficult to serve.Even though the King of Yan was stationed far away at the frontier at that time, he was a prince with a heavy army in his hands. Dayong did not have the custom of marrying high and low. Sun's ability to marry the son of King Yan as the main family must have a comparable family background. .

And she was able to let go of the little girlish thoughts in her heart about Ning Guogong's son, and married Qi Nan, the prince of Yan who was once secretly ridiculed as a "fat pig" by the people in Beijing, for the sake of the family. An ignorant woman with too much emotion.

However, every time she meets Qi Ying, she always finds it difficult to calm down.

When they were young, they didn't actually have any grievances, it was just the occasional jealousy of the youngest daughter's family.But the Sun family is an upstart in this dynasty, and they are no more qualified than those gentry to look down on the royal family, so even if they envy Qi Ying's beauty, they can only bury all their little thoughts in their hearts.

Later, being unwilling was not only aimed at her.Before Sun came out of the pavilion, she had met Mu Qing for several times, from the point of view of love, to the end of ceremony, and the two had occasional conversations. The heartbeat of a friend.

She thought that everything she had done had not exceeded the rules, and she only mentioned something to her mother when her parents began to discuss her marriage, but what she got in return was her father's reprimand.However, her father loved her after all, and after a warning, he secretly communicated with her.The royal family intends to choose sons-in-law for the princess and several princesses of the right age, and the Mu family is well-known on the list, so they can't make a marriage contract with others lightly.

She was secretly annoyed, boasting that her appearance and upbringing were not inferior to the noble ladies of the royal family, but only because of her poor status, she had to wait for them to pick out the rest before she could choose the rest.For a while, even his thoughts on Mu Qing faded away.

Although the Mu family is not considered the top noble family, they still have the capital to refuse marriage to the royal family.Now that the Mu family is putting on such a posture, it is clear that they intend to marry the royal family.

She didn't want others to settle for second best, but she was struck by lightning when she finally received the imperial decree to grant her marriage.Even if she disliked that Mu Qing didn't care enough for her, she was a hundred times better than Prince Yan's son!

However, once the imperial decree is issued, everything is a foregone conclusion.She could only gather up the dowry and marry far away in Yandi, and be the wife of the Prince Yan's son whom she had glimpsed once.

The subsequent changes made the past grievances seem to be tempered before glory.She became the crown prince and concubine, but the son Mu Qing Mu, who had admired him once, was still alone for some reason.

This is probably fate's preference for her...

When she was pregnant again, she looked at the flowing rewards in the palace and thought so.In particular, Qi Ying, who made her secretly jealous a few years ago, after marrying Mu Qing, has not been able to express it until now.

However, all appearances of happiness and beauty were destroyed by the smoke that King Jian brought.

The person she admired when she was young died in the hands of the person she envied the most; the young son she held in her palm like a jewel was kidnapped by his uncle, and finally was thrown to death in front of everyone. In the mud far away from her parents; and her husband, after so many years of married life, gradually began to trust and rely on her husband, shielded the sinner who was weak in protection, and in turn reprimanded her for "making troubles without reason".

"I know that Miss Huang is not wrong, but the child in her stomach is bleeding from the Mu family."

It was the first time in her life that she roared hoarsely, but what she got in return was the silence and a sigh of her husband, the most honorable person in the world.

"Zi Tong, that child's surname will be Qi."

Hearing this sentence, she was finally completely disappointed.It turned out that the emperor not only wanted to protect his sister, but also let this child, who was supposed to be implicated in the Mu family's rebellion, also have the surname "Qi"?

So she regained her former composure, restrained the innocence that had been cultivated in the past years, and began to get closer to her eldest son.

Before Qi Ye's teaching, Qi Nan had been directly in charge of it. Of course, the emperor would do his best to teach his future successor, but what she needs now is a child who treats her like the emperor treats Qi Ying. emperor.

Probably out of pity that she had just suffered the pain of bereavement, the emperor did not have any doubts about her behavior.What's more, what's wrong with the queen being close to her eldest son?

She suppressed the resentment and resentment in her heart, all those negative emotions, and became a queen who mothered the world.Even during the holidays, she never forgets to send greetings to Qi Ying.

The emperor was naturally happy. Even though he had exhausted all his tricks and personally killed his younger brother who had coveted his throne for a long time, he still hoped that the people around him could get close to each other and be harmonious.

She had been pretending for more than twenty years, until her son had grown up and her husband had become an old lion in his twilight years, and only then did she tentatively stretch out her hand for the first time and take revenge on that woman's son.

Sure enough, when the crown prince defended her unconditionally, when Qi Nan knew that his life was approaching, he couldn't do anything to him. Even when he died, he knew that his future self might retaliate further, but he couldn't do anything in advance. Give Qi Ying and Qi Yan some protection.

Of course, Qi Nan didn't want to do anything to his guilty sister because of the past, but he couldn't let his son's situation become unstable because of his own guilt.

So in the third year after she became empress dowager, she finally hinted that her son would attack Qi Yan.

She wanted to ruin Qi Yan's reputation, and let Qi Ying taste the pain of losing her son back then!

but……

Empress Dowager Sun was sitting in the huge Renshou Palace, and beside her was only an old man who had followed her since she was married.

"Qi Ying... is too arrogant!"

The cup was smashed to the ground, and there was a water stain on Zhai Yu's sleeve.