Chapter 1 Who are they? Xuan and Xi 2. Zhi Yun
Children are always the easiest to cause trouble. One is enough to cause headaches, but if there are a group, the trouble is unimaginable. This time, Liu Xiu was inspired to . Except for the sixth prince Liu Cang, the seventh prince Liu Yan, and the eighth prince Liu Jing, he actually brought all his children out. It was called hunting, but in fact it was also a big family gathering.
No matter how many palace servants there were, they could not take care of so many naughty princes and princesses. After all the commotion, by the time he set out to return to the palace, the sun had already set over Mangshan Mountain - the gates of all cities in Luoyang City had long been closed, and the night curfew had already begun.
The first city gate we took the shortcut through was the Shangdong Gate on the north side of the East City. When we arrived outside the Shangdong Gate, the little girls were already tired and had fallen asleep early in the carriage. Only the King Yi was left, rubbing his eyes constantly and lying on my knees, asking me to tell him a story. In fact, he was so sleepy that he could hardly open his eyes, but he just refused to give up and fall asleep.
The shaking car suddenly stopped, and I quickly held onto the axle to steady myself. Prince Yi muttered in a daze: "Mother, are we there yet? I...I want to go see my eighth brother..."
"Not yet, just go to sleep." While patting her, he lifted the car curtain and asked in a low voice, "What's going on?"
Chen Min, who was standing outside the car, immediately replied, "It seems that the gatekeeper refuses to open the gate."
"Oh?" I became interested, and my sleepy mind suddenly became clear. "Who is this gatekeeper at the Upper East Gate?"
"A native of Runan—Zhi Yun."
I laid the already asleep Prince Yi flat, tucked him in, and then got out of the carriage. Chen Min reached out to help me get out of the carriage, but I waved my hand away and stood on tiptoe on the shaft of the carriage to look into the distance.
It was dusk, and one could only see from afar, in the light of candles, that the tightly closed Upper East City Gate had opened a crack, and the emperor's jade carriage in front was ruthlessly blocked outside the gate.
"Go and have a look again, and come back and tell me what's going on."
"promise."
Chen Min left in a flash. She was petite and agile, so no one noticed her bending forward. I stood on the shaft and waited for more than ten minutes, then I saw a commotion in the front carriage. Not long after, the leader actually started to turn the horse and head south.
When the Jade Car began to turn and head south, Chen Min came back. I quickly pulled her into the car and said, "Come up and talk."
She had just sat down, panting, when the carriage began to shake and turn.
"What's going on? Why aren't you going into the city?"
"It's not that we don't want to enter the city, it's that the gatekeeper won't let us in!"
"What?" I was surprised. How could a small doorman dare to block the emperor's carriage?
"That Zhi Yun said it was dark and he couldn't see clearly, and he refused to open the door. No matter how much nice words he said, threats were useless..."
"Ha, interesting." I couldn't help but clap my hands and laugh, and then I lowered my voice and asked, "Do you know where this Zhi Yun came from?"
"I don't know."
"Well, have someone find out clearly and report back to me at dawn."
"promise."
Chen Min got out of the carriage, and I leaned on the soft pillow, patting Prince Yi to coax her into a deep sleep, while closing my eyes to rest as the carriage swayed.
The emperor's carriage, which was returning late, finally took a detour to the south and entered the city through the East Middle Gate. It was already the end of the ten-hour period when I returned to the palace. While I was instructing the maids to take the sleeping princes and princesses back to their rooms, I hurried to my own bedroom.
"How is the Eighth Prince today?" A person rushed out to greet him. I had no intention of accepting the greeting and just asked anxiously.
"His Highness was very good during the day. He slept for an hour and then woke up to play for two hours. At 3:30 pm, he ate a small bowl of porridge. Perhaps he remembered that he had to meet the nobleman, so he kept crying and vomited out all the porridge he had just drunk. After that, the wet nurse coaxed him to sleep, but he was always restless..."
I listened and took notes, and in a blink of an eye I came to the dormitory, where I saw the wet nurse holding my little Liu Jing in the dim light, pacing back and forth in the room, humming a tuneless song in imitation of her. Liu Jing nestled in her arms, his little eyes tightly closed, his little mouth sucking on the nipple, but still humming and crying in dissatisfaction.
I walked over quietly, signaled the nurse to stop singing, and smiled as I put my index finger into the baby's hand. As expected, he reflexively put his five fingers together and held it tightly. I lowered my head and gently kissed his head, humming softly in his ear: "The dark sky is low, the bright stars are following, the insects are flying, the insects are flying, who are you missing...
The stars in the sky are crying, the roses on the ground are withering, the cold wind is blowing, the cold wind is blowing, as long as I have you by my side...
Insects fly, flowers sleep, pairs are beautiful, not afraid of darkness but heartbreak, no matter tired or not, no matter east, west, south, north..."
When the lyrics were sung for the second time, the whimpering stopped, and little Liu Jing let go of my hand. His little mouth moved and he opened his eyes. His smile in his sleep was particularly charming. I signaled the nurse to hold him to sleep, and whispered: "Don't let him suck the nipple when he falls asleep in the future. This habit is not good for his teething."
The nurse nodded in fear and with Liu Jing in her arms she left. I quickly called the palace maid over and asked carefully, "Is Liu Cang asleep?"
"As soon as it got dark, the wet nurse carried the Sixth Prince to sleep. But before going to sleep, he kept muttering that he would wait for the noble man to come back to the palace to tell stories. All day long, he pulled at the corner of my clothes and asked when the noble man would come back."
I let out a long sigh and fell directly onto the bed: "Just sleep."
I had promised Liu Xiu that I would give him many children until the palace could no longer accommodate them. I didn't expect that he would really take it seriously. I never stopped giving birth to Liu Yang. When I returned from the expedition to Longxi in the eighth year of Jianwu, I was ordered to stay at home. I could only stay in the West Palace, and my children kept appearing one after another.
During these three or four years, while Liu Xiu personally led an expedition to Shu and destroyed Emperor Chengjia Gongsun Shu, Guo Shengtong in the Luoyang Palace also gave birth to the fifth prince Liu Kang and the seventh prince Liu Yan.
When she gave birth to the fifth child, I gave birth to the sixth child. When she gave birth to the seventh child, I gave birth to the eighth child. The seemingly harmonious harem reached a kind of ridiculous balance in this fertility competition.
"Are you tired?" A pair of hands pressed on my shoulders, squeezing the stiff muscles on my shoulders and back again and again.
I laughed and said, "I'm old now, so naturally I can't compare to the past..."
Before I could finish my words, he turned over and pressed me under him.
"What are you doing?" I reached out to push him vigilantly, but he grabbed both sides of my body instead.
The hot breath sprayed on my face, and I smiled and turned my head away: "You old pervert."
He freed one hand to wander over my body, slowly unbuttoning my clothes: "Are you feeling better?"
I glared at him, "Why, are you still planning to make me unable to have another child?"
"Your skin is as white as cream and your charm is enchanting." He flirted slowly, trying to arouse my sexual interest.
I dodged and laughed, "Tell me the truth, how many children do you want me to have? Can't you see I'm so busy now that I don't have any free time at all?"
His eyes narrowed, and he still smiled childishly, although he had experienced many hardships in the wars over the past decade. Since Feng Yi's death, many old friends have passed away. First, Lai Xi and Cen Peng were assassinated by assassins sent by Gongsun Shu, and then Kou Xun, Wang Chang, Geng Kuang, Geng Chun and others died one after another at the end of last year. On the first day of the first lunar month this year, Grand Tutor Hou Ba also passed away.
Lai Xie was assassinated and wrote a suicide note before his death. When the suicide note was sent to Luoyang, Liu Xiu read it and he seemed to have aged ten years. He was exactly forty years old that year. After that, his day was as good as three days for others. It was as if a catalyst had been added, and the wheel of time was ruthlessly speeding up and rolling over him.
"Being busier would be better." He chuckled and caressed my face lovingly, a trace of worry in his pupils inadvertently sliding across them, "Perhaps they are the only ones I can leave for you."
He said it cryptically, but I, who knew his personality well, could not help but hear the hidden meaning. I couldn't help but feel sad and said angrily, "What nonsense! You are forty-two this year, only middle-aged, and far from old. Don't forget, it was you who wanted to marry me. If you marry me, you have to take care of me for the rest of my life."
I spoke quickly and anxiously. Before I could finish, he was already leaning on me and chuckling, "You can't blame me. You were the first to think I was not serious."
I was choking on words, and he took the opportunity to lower his head and kiss me.
After a long time, I broke free from my confusion and grabbed his naughty hand, panting: "You are not tired, I haven't taken a shower yet."
"It's okay." He continued to let his lips slide down vaguely. As a couple for so long, he knew exactly where my sensitive spots were and where he could quickly arouse my desire.
As he thrust forward into me, I hugged the back of his neck tightly with my hands, moaning tremblingly in ecstasy: "Don't be afraid, Xiu'er... I will be with you, we... grow old together... together..."
we will be together forever!
Grow old together until we die.
If you don't believe in reincarnation or the afterlife, then I am willing to stay with you forever in another world until the end of time...
