walk to the water

With a bang, the wine glass in Chu Xiang's hand fell to the ground and shattered into pieces!His face was instantly pale as paper.Since Chen Yu's class teacher more than half a year ago, Fu Ling never mentioned the matter of attacking the state of Zhou.Today, suddenly hearing Fu Ling's old story being brought up again, Chu Xiang's fingernails were inserted into his palm, and there was a sharp stabbing pain, but he was speechless.

Fu Ling pretended not to notice, and said with a smile: "There is no thunder in the sky, why is Xiang'er so frightened?" Someone swept up the debris on the ground, changed the wine glass, refilled the wine for him, and asked: "What do you think? Is there a better way?"

Chu Xiang almost turned up against him, angrily accusing him of using the money he collected from Zhou State to destroy Zhou State.Gritting his teeth, he finally suppressed his breath, knowing that Fu Ling wanted to test his own reaction, and tried his best to calmly say: "I shouldn't be making irresponsible remarks about your Majesty's arrangements, but Zhou Guo's annual tribute is already heavy. Your Majesty If you want to increase the tax, you may not be able to raise it for a while."

Fu Ling said with a smile: "After all, Xiang'er loves his homeland very much. If he doesn't look at the monk's face and the Buddha's face, I will follow your wishes. Then I will reduce the salary of my court officials."

Chu Xiang took a deep breath, and said again: "This war is always costly and labor-intensive. No matter what method is used to raise money, it will consume a lot of money. Now that Zhou Guo has become a minister and pays tribute every year, why don't your majesty sit back and enjoy it? Rule the river? Even if you can go to the south of the Yangtze River in one go, how easy is it to regain the hearts of the southerners? Then your Majesty will not be able to live in peace for a day!"

Fu Ling pondered for a while, and Fang said: "What you said is not unreasonable. But Qin has been preparing for the unification of the country for many years, and now, success is in sight. I will never give up because of my own selfishness! If the military expenditure is not enough, It's okay to delay for a year and a half, but if it is delayed longer, there may be another change..." With a smile, he continued, "What day is it today? What are you talking about? I lost my interest. Come on, stop talking State affairs, let’s drink fine wine!”

Chu Xiang knew that he was determined and could not persuade him any more, so he forced a smile on his face and held a cup with Fu Ling, but the delicacies were already tasteless, and he just drank cup after cup, but the fine wine was extremely bitter. Come and taste for yourself... Fu Ling talked about romantic things and kept persuading him to drink.It is easy to get drunk when the wine is in the stomach. After a while, Chu Xiang was so drunk that he fell on Fu Ling's body and fell asleep soundly.Fu Ling didn't move and let him lean on him. The half glass of wine in his hand was already completely cold, and his melodious singing continued. Hearing the north wind whistling on the lake, the snow was getting bigger and bigger...

After sitting for a long time, it was already dark, Fu Lingfang got up and hugged Chu Xiang into the bedroom. The eunuchs were busy making the bed and preparing to take a bath in hot soup.Fu Ling smelled that Chu Xiang smelled of alcohol, but felt tired all over. He didn't want to bathe him anymore, so he put Chu Xiang on the bed, put himself on the bed with all his clothes except shoes and socks, and sat next to him.

Through the faint light coming in through the bed curtain, Fu Ling quietly stared at Chu Xiang's sleeping face. His expression was very quiet, curled up like a little baby, with slender and thick black eyelashes hanging down , couldn't see the clear pupils, but the corners of the eyes were wet but there seemed to be tears.Fu Ling had looked at his sleeping face countless times while he was in a deep sleep, but at this moment, his heart ached for no reason, and he gently wiped away his tears with his sleeve, and said in a low voice: "Xiang'er, I can't do this for you!" Xin, it's just...it's just that I'm going to let you down."

Chu Xiang slept until midnight, and suddenly moaned in a low voice and asked for water. Fu Ling touched it, and his whole body was burning, and he had developed a high fever.Fu Ling urgently reported that the on-duty imperial physician had come to see him, saying that he was suffering from a cold, so he prescribed a prescription and decocted the medicine, and Fu Ling personally fed it to Chu Xiang.At first Fu Ling didn't care about it, but after two days, his condition didn't improve. In addition to fever and babbling, he also had a night cough, and he coughed endlessly as soon as night fell. Not only Chu Xiang couldn't sleep, but Fu Ling was also disturbed. Have sleepless nights.Only then did Fu Ling become anxious, and invited all the imperial physicians to come for consultation. Some said it was wind-cold, some said it was tuberculosis, but even Su imperial physician was helpless, unable to make a diagnosis, and the prescriptions he prescribed could only be dragged along.Doctor Su reported that he should take a light diet to take good care of himself, keep warm and prevent the cold, so as not to make his condition worse, and wait until the beginning of spring when it gets warmer before making plans.

Fu Ling specially selected two imperial chefs to take care of Chu Xiang's diet.Chu Xiang likes sweet-scented osmanthus. After autumn, Fu Ling ordered all the sweet-scented osmanthus in the garden to be pickled, but now he took them out, used good-quality fragrant rice, added rock sugar, wolfberry, and lotus seeds, and cooked sweet-scented osmanthus porridge for him every day. Drinking, the fragrance is overflowing, and Chu Xiang can barely drink a small bowl every time, watching him lose weight day by day.

That morning, Fu Ling fed Chu Xiang some sweet-scented osmanthus porridge, pinched his chin lightly, and said with a smile, "Look at this thin, sharp-mouthed monkey cheek, it seems that I have no food for you. I had a hard time a few months ago. Make you fat, and now all previous efforts have been wasted!"

Chu Xiang wanted to laugh, but coughed violently again. Fu Ling hurriedly beat his back for him. After a while, Chu Xiang calmed down and said, "My illness is okay, but your majesty is tired."

Fu Ling said: "You have no disaster or disease, no matter how tired I am, I'm afraid that good medicine is easy to find, but heart disease is hard to cure!" Holding Chu Xiang's hand, rubbing it in the palm, looking at the fingers that were originally plump and jade-like With his bony joints already exposed, Fu Ling sighed long, lowered his head and kissed Chu Xiang's fingertips, turned around and embraced him in his arms, and said, "Xiang'er, what should I do with you?"

Chu Xiang seemed to be a little stiff in his embrace, and after a long silence, Fang said: "Since Your Majesty already knows about the disease, it is easy to cure it, but you are reluctant to part with the medicine?"

Hearing this, Fu Ling pushed Chu Xiang away and looked at him fixedly, with complicated eyes and uncertain complexion. After watching for a long time, he finally shook his head and said, "It's not that I don't want to. Whatever you think in your heart, no matter what you say Whether or not, I will do it for you, except for this one... You should know that everyone has his inherent responsibility."

Chu Xiang smiled: "Everyone has his inherent responsibilities. I understand. It turns out that you can't let go, but you want me to let go..."

He spoke the last few words very softly, Fu Ling didn't hear clearly, and asked: "What did you say?"

Chu Xiang shook his head and said, "Your Majesty once allowed me to ask for one thing, but it turns out that there are things in the world that His Majesty can't afford. What's the difference between whether I ask or not?" Fu Ling was taken aback, but Chu Xiang didn't wait for him to answer. , Coughed again, drank half a cup of tea with Fu Ling's hand, fell down and fell asleep.

Fast forward to the twelfth lunar month in a blink of an eye, the weather is getting colder, and a thin layer of ice has formed on the lake.Chu Xiang's condition has not improved, and he curled up on the bed all day long, afraid of the cold and heat, flustered and short of breath, mentally exhausted but unable to fall asleep.Fu Ling hugged him all night and all night, and Chu Xiang could only take a nap when it was dawn, and he was already in limbo.