long friend

With the great victory at Yunmenguan, the Turks were forced to seek peace.

Although it was a short-term stable contract, Su Yan didn't have to go to the northern border until the next summer.He didn't intend to stay in Jinling for too long, after all, gossip in the capital was more unbearable than iron horses and ice rivers, and his failed marriage seemed to be the best topic of conversation for many officials and officials.

Su Yan is not Xiao Qichen, no one dares to talk about the prince behind his back, but he is just a general, he can't control other people's mouths, so he can only pretend not to hear.

It's been a long time, and Su Yan hasn't expressed his dissatisfaction yet, Xiao Qichen got angry even faster than him.

Throughout the winter, he just listened to Xiao Qichen muttering, from "How could they say that about you" to "If I were the emperor, I would order everyone who talked about you to be exiled to Youzhou to build the city wall", mentioning it as soon as they met, the comforting effect was very ineffective Satisfactory.But Su Yan had listened to it for a long time, and he didn't feel how embarrassing it was.

Ever since Pingyuanhou was put under house arrest in Jinling by an edict, there was almost no news. He himself had suffered too many injuries on the battlefield, so he just took the opportunity to recuperate.Mrs. Cao presided over most of the family affairs, and felt that the Su family was not kind in their marriage, so it was not good for them to be as affectionate as before with the Yushi family.

Su Heng, who still doesn't know what his parents are, is one year old, and it's time to babble.He opened his mouth and uttered some vague syllables all day long, and he was very interested in performing. Mrs. Cao concentrated on teaching Su Heng to speak in the mansion, and ignored the rest of the matter - the left and right Su Yan should learn to deal with things other than military affairs .

Su Yan did not go to court, except that he went to the Tai Chi Hall on the day he received the reward and conferment, he was either sick or had something to do the rest of the time.It was rare for Xiao Yan to be tolerant of this. He recently planned to weaken the military power, and Su Yan's performance was in his favor. He immediately felt that Su Yan knew more about current affairs than his father, so he appreciated him even more.

The title of Marquis of Pingyuan has been handed down to this day, but there has never been anything wrong with the high-ranking master.The matter of Su Zhi became Xiao Yan's serious heart disease, and he even wanted to firmly take back the military power into his own hands.

Su Yan is young, obedient, and somewhat dull in his speech. He does things vigorously and decisively, and he can hold his breath in battle. He is an obvious handsome talent.But Xiao Yan always felt that he couldn't be tied down.

On a rare day of leisure, when Xiao Qichen invited Su Yan to have a drink at the foot of Qixia Mountain, he couldn't help talking about it.

"Yesterday, my father suddenly asked me, what kind of woman do you like?" Xiao Qichen said, with an extremely horrified expression, "This is really... How would I know!"

At this time, it is the end of the new year, and there is no shadow of spring, and the beautiful scenery of luxuriant grass outside Zheliu Pavilion has not yet emerged, only a desolation.The north wind whistled through the hall, and the rest of the people wished they could hide in the warm room to warm up the fire and warm wine, only the two of them sat between the sky and the earth.

Su Yan was so frightened by these words that he shuddered, and asked after a while, "What does your majesty mean?"

Xiao Qichen picked at the skinned spots on his fingers, and said absently: "I'm afraid you will be a widower for the rest of your life at a young age? But the royal sisters are all married... I think he intends to marry Huiyang to you. "

The emperor's youngest daughter, who is six years behind Su Yan, has a carefree temperament like a boy. She was spoiled and brought up, but she is not arrogant at all.

Xiao Qichen added in his astonishment: "He said that Huiyang likes horseback riding and archery, you may have a common topic and get along well——Huiyang admires you a lot."

Su Yan took a sip of tea and sprayed it straight out. He wiped his mouth and coughed, and managed to catch his breath: "I don't want it."

Xiao Qichen teased him overjoyed: "Wow, you are promising, even the princess doesn't want it?"

Su Yan said: "Your Majesty, if you have time to talk about the matchmaker, why don't you worry about it first? After the new year, you will be crowned. You haven't even been crowned a prince, let alone getting married—His Royal Highness Zhao Wang had a son that year." .”

Whether other people made fun of this matter or made fun of it, Xiao Qichen laughed it off, but Su Yan couldn't say it.

His face immediately turned cold, and he said indifferently: "I don't want to get married, I don't want to start a family, and I don't want to sleep in the same bed with a woman I haven't met in the middle of the night for no reason."

These remarks are too advanced, and I don't know where Xiao Qichen learned them from. He looked at Su Yan's surprised expression and said eloquently: "I heard from Tianhui that the children of ordinary people's families need to be married. It’s not like the previous dynasty who just got on the sedan chair in a daze. Instead, Jinling, at the foot of the imperial city, has carried out the old customs very seriously, what’s the point?”

It seems to have some truth, but also seems to be making trouble for no reason.

Su Yan held back his comments and said, "Go on."

"Marriage is a lifelong event for everyone. After marriage, like Brother Ping and Sister-in-law Wang, there are too few people who live in harmony and treat each other sincerely. Most of them just make do with it for a lifetime. Going in and out of the place of fireworks, is this worthy of the wife at home? The so-called loyalty must belong to both parties, so what's the proper way to only let women keep chastity?" Xiao Qichen changed the subject and poked Su Yan's shoulder, "For example you. "

Su Yan was puzzled: "What's wrong with me?"

Xiao Qichen: "Madam's funeral has not yet passed, and someone is begging you to continue. What if you died in the battle? They are afraid that Rong Niang will be a widow for the rest of her life? You can't even talk about equal treatment, what else can you ask for? "

Su Yan doesn't read as many books as he does, and the world he has seen seems to be very wide, but in fact he is trapped in a very narrow area, so Xiao Qichen said what he said, and he nodded blankly: "It seems to be so reasonable... "

Xiao Qichen immediately got excited: "Right? If I want to get married, I must find someone who is pleasing to each other. In the future, I will not take concubines or go to brothels to drink flowers and wine. Only then can I fulfill my husband's duty. I can't do it myself. Why ask others to do it—so, I won’t get married.”

The topic was thrown too quickly, Su Yan was stunned by his logic, and after a long pause, he finally understood the ultimate purpose of Xiao Qichen's long paragraph: "...you just don't want to get married, you talk so much for what?"

Xiao Qichen actually started to laugh, the corners of his eyes slanted, and the pupils reflected a little skylight, and he said seriously: "General, if I want to marry, there are more than thousands of women in the world who I would like to marry, but after all, I don't want innocent people to live in the imperial city palace in vain." If you exhaust your youth inside the wall, even if you spend your whole life by yourself, you will not delay another family's good daughter because of your own selfishness."

The more Su Yan heard it, the more something was wrong. Sure enough, the next moment Xiao Qichen straightened his eyebrows and looked at him seriously.

"My heart belongs."

After they returned to Jinling that day, Su Yan caught a bit of cold.He drank the medicine and fell asleep overnight, and the next day he was alive and well.

He felt that his illness was strange.It stands to reason that after staying in the northern border for so long, he has rough skin and thick flesh and is not afraid of the severe cold, so why does he feel dizzy when there is a little wind.He sorted out the ins and outs of the day when he drank tea, and finally concluded that it was Xiao Qichen's unprovoked words that made him fall ill.

"My heart belongs to me".

Su Yan could have easily taken up the topic, and took the opportunity to ask him: "Who do you want, can't you ask for it?" But he couldn't ask, he looked at Mo Meitu for a while, and vaguely felt that since Xiao Qichen said that, he must hope him Asked, but he just laughed, no wonder Xiao Qichen rolled his eyes at last, and wanted to go back to the city on the pretext of being too cold.

No one mentioned this matter since that day, Su Yan thought, Xiao Qichen would naturally say it if he wanted to.

He lived a nourishing life, Xiao Qichen invited him to drink tea and dinner every now and then, and often went to the Hou's mansion to play the autumn wind - Xiao Yan couldn't control him at all, Xiao Qiyu was relied on a lot recently, and for a while he forgot the agreement with Xiao Qichen.

Just when Su Yan thought he could finally take a breather, an unexpected visitor came to the Hou's residence.

In the beginning of spring, the temperature is erratic. Uncle Wang is an old man in the mansion, and he collapsed from exhaustion after a few days of tossing. There are not many other servants in the Hou Mansion. When Su Yan heard the door rang, he went to open the door by himself.

The guest is imposing, although his appearance is ordinary, his physique is that of a standard military general, even stronger than ordinary generals in the army.When he saw Su Yan, he smiled very politely, and his expression softened instantly: "Excuse me, is the general there?"

Ever since Su Yan took over the position of General of Fuguo, he didn't take it seriously, but Jinling City has already shouted. Hearing this, he nodded: "I am."

The guest showed a little doubt, and after thinking for a moment, he said: "What I mean is...your father."

Su Yan said "Oh" and asked, "Father is resting, who are you?"

When the guest stood up straight, he didn't give people a strong sense of oppression. He still said politely: "Please tell the general, just say that Fang Zhi is back, and I hope to see him."

Su Yan nodded, left a sentence of "wait a moment" and closed the door.He took two steps outside, and suddenly remembered that the name was familiar because Yan Nandu had said it—this person was Su Zhi's former department, and there had been no news for ten years.

When this name was conveyed to his father by Su Yan, the almost disheartened man who had nothing to do all day stood up suddenly, and then ran out the door.Su Yan followed behind without knowing why, until Su Zhi invited the person who claimed to be "Fang Zhi" into the living room of the mansion, Su Yan finally saw his father's expression clearly.

Sincerely happy to reunite old friends.

He frowned, feeling as if he had never been like this before. When they reunited with Xiao Qichen, they never hooked each other up, but stared at each other for a long time until they couldn't help laughing.

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Fang Zhi suddenly changed the subject and looked at Su Yan: "Young Lord, forgive me, did your brother really get lost in Jinling City back then?"

Su Yan frowned, feeling a little dissatisfied, but still politely briefly mentioned how Su Jin sneaked out of the house at that time, mixed in with the crowd watching the lanterns in Qingming, and couldn't be found later.Following his words, Fang Zhi's eyes flickered for a moment, and when he finished speaking, Fang Zhi crossed his fingers in a very nervous gesture.

Su Yan followed him nervously and asked, "What's wrong?"

"I mean..." Fang Zhi's eyes flickered, and he hesitated, "Did you ever think that maybe he is alive?"

It was as if a stone suspended in mid-air suddenly fell to the ground. It had been suspended for too long, and the ground was full of vicissitudes of life, but it was only blowing in the wind and raining, and somehow forgot why it was hanging there up and down.Finally one day, it remembered the reason, and it happened that a gust of wind came, and the stretched rope suddenly broke, and the stone immediately smashed an earth-shattering hole on the ground.

Su Yan was torn apart by the stone, barely maintaining his superficial composure.

He reached out to support the table, stabilized his balance without any trace, and showed the same astonished expression as Su Zhi.He pinched his palm, and stammered, "Maybe...we've been looking for it for more than a year, and we've been asking everywhere...they all said that this is the case, so it shouldn't be..."

Fang Zhi interrupted him and sent a gratifying fact to Su Yan's arms:

"Last year... ah, it was around the time when the young master was victorious in Youzhou. I chased a knight-errant to Yizhou's Chengdu mansion, and I met a man by chance. Later, I always thought that this person was familiar, and he was actually the same as the commander-in-chief when he was young." Kind of similar."

The two brothers did look like their father, Su Yan glanced at Su Zhi, the knuckles of his hand holding the teacup were protruding, and his straight back was like a taut string.

Fang Zhi continued: "But I didn't ask about it at the time, so I'm not sure. Later... just half a month ago in Lin'an, General Yan came back to suppress the rebellion and accepted the surrender. We saw that man again. He fought against General Yan. .General Yan is more familiar with the young master, we hit it off immediately, and felt that this person and the young master were too similar, with almost the same facial features. Other things were very complicated, so I took advantage of the army to go north to find the prince."

Su Yan swallowed, his voice trembling: "...do you have a name?"

Fang knew: "He said his name is Su Jin."

For a while, Su Yan couldn't even maintain the superficial peace this time, and suddenly seemed to be unable to stand still, and almost fell down.His tinnitus kept ringing, his heart was surging, and after a thousand times, there was only one thought left: "I'm going to find him."

He left Jinling secretly, and he was afraid that others would think too much, so he left a letter to Xiao Qichen, but he didn't tell anyone else.

Xiao Qichen was in a good mood when he received the news.At the court meeting, he mentioned Nanzhao's tribute, which was praised by Xiao Yan. Zhong Mi lost no time in "reminding" Xiao Yan that His Highness the Sixth Highness was going to be twenty, and Xiao Yan suddenly realized.

Da Sikong Zhong Mi is the most important official in the court except for the deceased Xie Ke.Wang Di has long expressed his attitude that he wants to advance and retreat with King Zhao, but he has no talent himself, relying on the strength of the Wang family to get to where he is now, and there is nothing wrong with it.The attitudes of the other important ministers were ambiguous, but the Taifu was towards Xiao Qichen, but he had no real power.

After turning his thoughts a few times, the smile on the corner of Xiao Qichen's mouth became cold again.

Xiao Yan has been ill since the beginning of winter last year, and his cough has never been better. The imperial doctor cautiously prescribes medicine and acupuncture, which is always good and bad.In other words, now that the East Palace has not been decided, according to the etiquette system, it is natural to pass on the lineage but not the lineage, but Xiao Qiming is childish, if Xiao Yan suddenly falls ill...

I am afraid that the majority of the people in the court support King Zhao.

"It seems that he can't be allowed to continue to be arrogant." Xiao Qichen thought, and quickened his pace.

He didn't go back to the palace, but turned a few streets and went to Sikong's mansion.Xiao Qichen entered through the corner gate, Zhong Mi was resting at home, when he heard that he was visiting, he came out as soon as he put on his coat.

Zhong Mi is very optimistic about Xiao Qichen. He feels that compared to the self-willed Xiao Qiyu and the indecisive Xiao Qiping, Xiao Qichen, who is not showing his emotions and anger, and sees problems too sharply, is more like the late emperor, the embryo of a Mingjun.Originally, Zhong Mi, like everyone else, thought that he was a piece of mud that could not be supported, but the Donghuayan incident made him suddenly change his mind.

Especially after realizing that Xiao Qichen was not willing to be a virtuous king, Zhong Mi felt a rare sense of excitement.He is an old minister, but he is also bloody. He was the one who discussed with Xie Ke back then. After the early death of the first emperor, he fought against all opinions and supported the king of Yue who was in the fiefdom. Facts have proved that they were right.

In his lifetime, God seemed to give him another chance to support the Ming Lord.Xiao Qichen may not trust him, but what does that matter, this matter is like a game, each always gets what he needs.

Zhong Mi poured water for Xiao Qichen himself, and asked the others to step back, before saying, "Why is your Highness coming here when you have time?"

Xiao Qichen took a sip of the tea from Sikong's mansion, and said seriously: "Passing by."

Zhong Mi smiled: "Why would Your Highness deliberately pass by? I'm afraid you have something to ask the old minister?"

"Master Zhong is worried about forgetting the matter of becoming a king on behalf of the emperor today..." Xiao Qichen straightened his sleeves, and wrote lightly, "Actually, there is no need, I don't care about these things."

Zhong Mi didn't know whether he could tell whether he was thinking, and cooperated: "But how could His Highness let it go?"

Xiao Qichen's eyes were innocent and pure, and when he looked at him, it was completely different from the cold words he uttered: "What I want is not some fiefdom, nor the position of the East Palace...Anyway, if Xiao Qiyu dies, and the emperor is gone, At that time, who will be the master of the world, won't the ministers have to choose?"

Just as Zhong Mi was about to say a few words, he suddenly said in surprise: "King Zhao? Your Highness...you..."

Xiao Qichen took a sip of tea, and just smiled at him deeply: "I won't do stupid things, just wait and see what happens, wait for a chance."

The author has something to say: Her Highness Sixth, Women's Friend.