General

Under the night, the palace was brightly lit, and the evening wind in late autumn diffused into Lan Xuan's bedroom from the window edge, flicking the dancing candlelight between the desk and case coldly.

Lan Xuan sat on the soft couch, looking carefully at the mountain of memorials. The chief eunuch brought a new eunuch in to serve him tea, and added some new incense to the white jade incense burner.

The little eunuch knelt by Lan Xuan's table, seemingly a little afraid, the hand holding the tea cup trembled uncontrollably, the cup body rubbed against the cup holder, making a slight collision sound.

Lan Xuan raised his eyes and glanced at the person who changed the tea for him, smiled faintly, and then turned his eyes back to the memorial, but his tone was usual gentle: "New here? What's his name."

"Slave Chunqiu, for disturbing the holy car, the slave deserves death!" He was a little flattered at first, and then hurriedly kowtowed, pleading guilty in a low voice.

"It's okay, let's go down."

Lan Xuan put the memorial in his hand aside, picked up a new one again, and added with a low frown, "Go and call for water, I want to take a bath."

"Yes." Chunqiu bowed and retreated with the cold teacup in hand, the chief eunuch saw that he was serving well and the night was getting dark, so he found a quiet side hall to rest.

……

The heavy carved palace door was slowly pushed open, making a slight "squeak".Lan Xuan didn't raise her head, and wrote a few beautiful small characters on the memorial with her vermilion imperial brush, and said casually in a low voice, "Put it in the inner hall."

The person who came did not make a sound, but his footsteps were getting closer and closer. Lan Xuan thought it was the eunuch delivering water, so he didn't pay attention to look at it, but at this moment, he suddenly felt that something was wrong, and hurriedly looked up.

"Huang...Uncle Huang..." Lan Xuan shook her hand, and the imperial pen fell to the table with a "clack", and the vermilion ink splashed on the memorial, and immediately fainted a dazzling bright red.

Lan Zheng didn't respond either, but lowered his hand to lift his small chin, stroked his rosy lips back and forth with his fingertips, stared coldly at his eyes with sharp eyes, and said in a deep voice : "Today in the court, why do you openly contradict me?"

"...Uncle Emperor."

Lan Xuan's whole body became stiff, her lips trembling and she muttered in a low voice.The amber pupils are reflected in the candlelight, making them more and more beautiful and seductive.

"You know what will happen if you disobey me." Lan Zheng slammed the memorial on the table to the ground, grabbed Lan Xuan's arm with a little force, lifted him, and pressed him on the cold sandalwood table .

"what--"

Lan Xuan gasped in pain, and looked at him with wet eyes full of pleading, "Uncle Emperor...don't..."

"No?" Lan Zheng raised his lips, and while bringing his slender wrists together, he squeezed them tightly in his palms, and said in a hoarse voice like joking, "Do you think, in front of me, you still have the right to say no?! "

"Ah...Uncle Emperor...don't...please!" Lan Xuan struggled desperately, but he couldn't break free from Lan Zheng's grip no matter what. He looked at the man with blurred eyes. At this moment, he just felt His deep black eyes were like an endless abyss, which filled him with fear.

"His Majesty?!"

Chunqiu's panicked prostrations suddenly sounded outside the hall door. He seemed to call for hot water for bathing, but he heard Lan Xuan's exclamation from outside. No one dared to enter the door, so he had to kneel outside and make a sound full of doubts. ask.

"Let him in?" Lan Zheng smiled slyly, leaned over and whispered ambiguously, "Let him see how His Majesty the emperor of Longxiao Kingdom cried and begged for mercy in front of others~"

"No...Uncle Emperor..." Lan Xuan tightly grasped Lan Zheng's arm, desperately shaking her head, her tears-blurred eyes were full of prayers.

The people outside the door froze, and it was only at this moment that they realized that it was the regent who had come to the bedroom, but what he couldn't understand was why the dignified emperor would be coerced by him to come here? !

The people in the room didn't speak, so he couldn't leave alone. He could only silently tense up and kneel outside the door anxiously.No matter what happened in the hall at this moment, he forced himself not to listen to anything, not to think about anything... Now it seems that he has made a big fuss, if he dares to speak out again, it may be difficult to see the sun tomorrow...

Lan Zheng squinted his eyes slightly, looking at his phoenix eyes full of tears because of embarrassment, curled his lips coldly, pinched his chin with his knuckle fingers, and forced him to look up at him.

"Don't try to resist me anymore." Lan Zheng's voice was very low, with a hint of creepy threat, "I don't want to argue with him about today's matter, but you should know that he can stay in the capital safely. It is my favor to be an idle prince."

Lan Xuan's arm, which was resisting him with all his strength, suddenly froze. He stared blankly at Lan Zheng's face with sharp edges and corners carved by a knife. In his tear-filled eyes, two traces of tears rolled down quietly.

……

"There will be no next time, Lan Xuan. If Lan Jing dares to fight against me again, I will send him to hell without you knowing." Lan Zheng threw him on the ground, turned around and walked towards the outer hall. When his fingers touched the door of the gilt palace, he stopped with a face like water, turned his head and looked at him coldly, that gaze... could almost delay life, "When the time comes, don't blame me for not Compliance with the agreement!"

Lan Xuan silently lay down on the cold ground, but her whole body trembled in pain.He knew that in Lan Zheng's eyes, he was just a pet kept in a cage. He could not disobey or resist him. He not only held the world in his hands, but also secretly held Lan Jing's life...

Therefore, I am doomed to always accept and obey...

"Uncle Emperor... Is this really all we can do..."

Uncle...

The painful dream broke the terrifying silence, no matter how gorgeous the palace was, it was already a cage he couldn't break free from.And he, like a bird with its wings broken, fell heavily to the ground, unable to escape, could only bear the pain and curl up in a corner and whine alone...

……

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty..."

The cautious call seemed to sound in the distant sky, and Lan Xuan struggled in the darkness for a long time with a blurred consciousness, and finally opened a gap in his eyes, but the tears at the corners of the eyes seemed to have not dried completely.

He didn't know when he fell asleep on the couch, and the memories scattered in his mind like broken beads.He blinked vigorously, only to see a thin figure kneeling on the side of the couch under the warm sunlight, holding a vermilion lacquer tray in his hand, and there was something in the white jade soup cup, faintly steaming with a wisp of warmth. The hot aroma, "Your Majesty, it's already past noon, you should drink some tonic soup before going to sleep..."

"Well……"

Lan Xuan propped up her body with one hand, but couldn't help groaning in pain, even her mind was still in a mess.He raised his eyes to look at Chunqiu with frowning, only to see that his pale face was full of fear, and the hand holding the tray was trembling slightly in anxiety.

"You said...now...it's already past noon?" Lan Xuan suddenly picked up what he said just now from memory, looking at the bright sunshine outside the window, she couldn't recover for a while.

"Why didn't you wake me up?" Lan Xuan's handsome face was suddenly tinged with anger, and he sat up straight while enduring the pain, and scolded in a low voice, "Then today's morning court?!"

"Your Majesty... Calm down your majesty!" Chunqiu froze all over in fright, and hastily pleaded guilty, "The regent will not let the servants disturb His Majesty's rest, the servants dare not disobey, and the court has already been dismissed."

Lan Xuan glanced at the little eunuch who was holding the tray stiffly, sighed faintly, smiled wryly, let himself lean back on the couch with some powerlessness, and gradually softened his voice: "The regent, he... no Make things difficult for you..."

"No, no." Chunqiu shook his head quickly, and said softly, "The regent only said to let the slaves take care of him, and he should be more clear in the future, he didn't criticize."

"That's good." Lan Xuan raised his hand to take the soup cup on the tray, drank a few mouthfuls casually, and handed it back again, "Okay, you go down, I'm a little tired too."

"That..." Chunqiu was still kneeling on the ground, hesitating and tentatively saying, "Princess Jin came here this morning and said she wanted to stay at Prince Jing's mansion for a few days to relax."

"Let her go." Lan Xuan lowered her eyes halfway, but her eyes were a little softer, "I will order Chu Xiao to pick her up in a few days."

"Yes." Chunqiu kowtowed respectfully, got up and retreated slowly.

The sunlight outside the window is so good, quietly falling into the hall through the window edge carved with mahogany, and a soft gleam quietly blooms on the ground paved with warm jade.

Lan Xuan stared blankly at the front, but his eyes were empty and helpless. He didn't know when everything around him became what it is today.Lan Zheng is the youngest brother of the father, only ten years older than him.In the past, they studied together, played the piano together, played chess together, and practiced martial arts together. Even the way he looked at him was full of irresistible tenderness.

But now... the former congeniality has finally evolved into the current rebellion against heaven and usurping power and dictatorship with the passage of time and the change of imperial power.

He closed his eyes tightly, and his whole body fell into the memories of the past and trembled.On the night of his coronation ceremony, Lan Zheng personally fed him strong wine mixed with love medicine, right here, in the dormitory of the supreme person of Longxiao Kingdom... such reckless, repeated torture had him all night.It was also from that day on that he imprisoned the empress who had just given birth to the prince, and killed all the concubines, wantonly lingering with him in this bedroom.This kind of inhumane relationship that cannot be treated by outsiders has continued to this day under the coercion of other powers.

He once doubted whether Lan Zheng was the man he was familiar with at the beginning, that majestic and stable virtuous prince, that shrewd and intelligent uncle.But it took him a long time to understand that perhaps the most untrustworthy thing in the face of monstrous power...is the human heart...