There always comes a moment in a person's life when the heart can't let go of anything except some absurd idea that comes out of nowhere. The strong desire seems to be able to devour the entire soul, and one can ignore the reason that is desperately scratching the door with its claws outside the forehead.

It was like many years ago, when Gu Yun was in the wild northwest, his mind was in a mess, and he had no distracting thoughts about resigning from his job and wandering around the world.

It was like many years later, when Chang Geng walked out of the palace confinement in the breeze and snow, with a clear mind and the only thought was to see Gu Yun who was thousands of miles away.

Chang Geng ran back to the mansion without thinking. The two iron puppets at the door turned around and stared at him silently. When he made eye contact with the purple puppets, his steps suddenly stopped.

Chang Geng stared at the two iron monsters for a long time as if he had just woken up from a dream, and finally came back to his senses from his almost possessed state. He sighed softly, reached out to touch the cold arm of the iron puppet, slowly lowered his head, bent his waist, and exhaled a breath of thick and condensed white steam.

In the past, he and Gu Yun had been together and apart, and there had been times when they hadn't seen each other for four years, but it didn't seem as hard as this time. Chang Geng himself didn't know whether he was becoming more and more spoiled, or was becoming more and more greedy for Gu Yun. It was as if there was a string in his heart that began to tighten when Gu Yun suddenly wrote to him inexplicably saying that he missed him.

Every time news of a thrilling battle in the south reached Beijing, the string would be tightened a little, and every time the situation in the court became more sinister and complicated, the string in his heart would be tightened again, until just now, it suddenly broke without warning.

At this time, the door opened from the inside, and out came Huo Dan, the commander of the marquis's household guards.

Huo Dan was shocked to see Chang Geng in this state. "Wang Bozheng asked me to find you, Your Highness. What happened to you?"

Chang Geng's eyes were slightly red, but he still managed to smile as quickly as possible, stood up and patted the snow on his body: "Nothing, I just felt a little dizzy because I was walking so fast, what did Uncle Wang want to talk to me about?"

Huo Dan was a very rough person, and he didn't notice anything unusual when he heard this. He stepped forward to help him up and whispered in his ear, "There is a guest who is not convenient to show up. He said he has an urgent matter to report. He can't go to the Military Affairs Office to ask for an audience, so he had to come to the Marquis' Mansion."

The visitor was a man of about 34 or 35 years old. Chang Geng did not recognize him, but he had definitely seen him somewhere before. He looked familiar. He quickly adjusted his disordered mental state while trying to recall the identity of the visitor.

Fortunately, the man took the initiative to step forward and explain: "I am Liu Zhong, the deputy director of the foreign affairs mission. I am honored to meet you, Your Majesty."

The so-called "foreign affairs mission" was created by a bunch of outright peace advocates in the Ministry of War who somehow got in touch with the Honglu Temple. For fear of offending Emperor Long'an, they didn't even dare to call themselves "peace negotiators", so they had to use the inappropriate name of "foreign affairs mission" and the banner of "one civil and one military". They used the bullshit reason of "repelling the enemy through other means" on the front line, which was purely to cause trouble for Gu Yun.

Chang Geng frowned. He had a bad impression of this person the moment he met him. However, due to his manners, he did not show it. He nodded indifferently and said, "Lord Liu is about to go on a diplomatic mission. He came to visit you so late at night. Is there anything important?"

Liu Zhong suddenly took a step back and knelt down, pointing to the sky and saying, "If what I said today is even a lie, I will be struck by lightning, and my parents will not rest in peace even in the afterlife."

Chang Geng took a half step sideways: "Master Liu, what are you doing? Get up quickly."

Liu Zhong refused: "Your Highness, do you know that my regiment commander, my immediate superior, was once a student of Grand Secretary Fang?"

Of course Chang Geng knew about it. Not only did he know about it, he also felt disgusted for a long time. If he hadn't been too busy at the moment, he would have wanted to drag out all the treacherous people who helped to set up the foreign affairs group and torture them to death.

"Your Highness, please allow me to report." Liu Zhong quickly repeated to Chang Geng what Grand Secretary Fang had secretly told the Foreign Affairs Envoy, and added, "Only a few of the Governor's trusted aides know about this matter now, and I am one of them, despite my humble status."

Chang Geng tapped his fingers on the small table beside him, "Your Excellency's visit to the Marquis's Mansion late at night, is it not the work of a confidant?"

Liu Zhongshen bowed and said, "My ancestral home is in Hangzhou. My biological parents died early. I grew up with the elders of my clan. Later, I traveled around the country to study. I also worked as a staff member in the noble families. By chance, I caught the eye of Master Fang and he recommended me to the government. I can't repay your kindness."

Chang Geng raised his eyebrows slightly.

"I have had a childhood sweetheart since I was young. We were inseparable and were originally engaged, but we had not yet married," Liu Zhong lowered his head and hunched his shoulders. "I wanted to return to my hometown to ask for marriage after I became famous, but before I could wait for that day, I was suddenly attacked by a bully..."

Liu Zhong lowered his head and wiped his face, then kowtowed to him heavily: "Although the dead are gone, the living are always sad. Thank you, Your Majesty, for your mercy."

Chang Geng sighed softly: "Master Liu, please stand up and speak."

The two of them had been spying for a long time. When they sent Liu Zhong away, the night watchmen could already be heard on the street. Chang Geng stood at the door for a moment, pinched his brows hard, and said to Huo Dan, "Commander, please check if Miss Chen is asleep. If she is not asleep yet, please ask her to come over."

Chen Qingxu has been staying at the Marquis' Mansion these days, preparing to try to treat Chang Geng's urinary bone, but this will be a very long process, and Prince Yan is always busy, and he may not have time to come back for ten days or half a month.

As soon as Chen Qingxu saw Chang Geng, she felt that his face looked very strange, and said, "Your Highness, the more you worry, the harder it is to control yourself. Are you too tired recently?"

Chang Geng smiled bitterly. He had intensified the conflict prematurely, but in fact, many things had not been prepared in time. Every step he took was like a dangerous road, and he didn't know when he would step off a cliff.

But he didn't have time.

He was afraid that his enemies would not give him this time, and that Gu Yun would only report good news and not bad news, and suffer in places where he could not see and he was unaware of the suffering.

Chang Geng: "Miss Chen, if it's convenient for you, why not start acupuncture from today?"

Chen Qingxu was stunned: "The process may be very painful. Your Highness is busy with government affairs during the day. Can you bear it?"

Chang Geng shook his head: "I don't know, but I always have a bad feeling. I have been unable to suppress it these days. I just think of it as a matter of course."

An hour later, Chang Geng realized that he had underestimated the "pain" that Chen Qingxu mentioned.

Chen Qingxu brought a bowl of medicine in front of him and prepared silver needles.

Chang Geng took it and said, "What is this?"

"I will copy the recipe to you when Your Highness is no longer trapped by the Urgu," Chen Qingxu said, "but it's best not to ask before you drink it."

Chang Geng: “…”

For some reason, in his impression, everything related to the barbarian voodoo had a gloomy smell of corpse oil. After hearing this, Chang Geng immediately had a lot of bad associations. He immediately stopped asking questions, tried his best to curl up his tongue, pinched his nose and drank it all.

Chen Qingxu leaned over and lit a stick of tranquilizing powder. The tranquil cold fragrance spread throughout the room. She sat cross-legged three steps away from him and said seriously, "Your Highness, after I start the acupuncture, you must keep your mind clear, otherwise no one can wake you up. Do you understand what I mean?"

Chang Geng nodded.

Chen Qingxu: "I will start when this calming incense burns out. Your Highness, please use this stick of incense to clear your mind and eliminate distracting thoughts."

At first he felt nothing. Chen Qingxu's needle insertion was steady and accurate, and her hands and feet were very nimble. Chang Geng just closed his eyes to rest. Suddenly, a chill filled with fear rose from his back - as if he had no choice but to watch someone else's weapon being raised, and could only close his eyes and wait to be hit. The muscles on his back contracted involuntarily, and although he could not move, he made a subconscious avoidance movement.

Chen Qingxu's needle couldn't pierce any further, and her expression became serious: "Your Highness."

Chang Geng felt an invisible whip lashing his back fiercely. There was a cacophony of noise in his ears, and the curses of a woman who had passed away more than ten years ago exploded in his ears.

Mixed in those nightmares of the past few years, Chen Qingxu's voice mixed with tranquilizing powder pierced into his ears: "Your Highness, this is the Marquis' Mansion, can you hear me?"

Chang Geng shuddered violently, and nodded slightly with all his strength.

Chen Qingxu inserted the next silver needle. The second incense stick had burned out. She glanced at the western clock on the table and said, "This is just the beginning. Your Highness, do you need some time to get used to it?"

Chang Geng bit the tip of his tongue lightly: "No, continue."

Chen Qingxu stopped talking nonsense and inserted the needle quickly. The illusion that had just faded away came back again, and all the pains that Xiuniang had inflicted on him when he was young reappeared one by one.

Chen Qingxu's expression tensed. She saw that an old scar on Chang Geng's collarbone suddenly became red and swollen for no reason. A thin line of blood oozed out, and the spider-web-like blood vessels under the skin split to both sides, looking very hideous.

"Your Highness, Prince Yan!" Chen Qingxu called him.

Chang Geng didn't react.

Chen Qingxu didn't dare to do anything else. Suddenly, she saw a pair of iron shoulder armor hanging at the foot of the bed. It looked like it was quite old. The style of steel armor in the army had changed a lot. Chen Qingxu suddenly remembered that when she talked to Chang Geng about the symptoms of Urgu in the early years, he seemed to have mentioned inadvertently that the first time he escaped from a nightmare, it was Gu Yun who hung a pair of his armor at the head of the bed.

Chen Qingxu swept her long sleeves, and the iron shoulder armor made a clear clashing sound. The sound of metal and stone swept through the quiet room, and Chang Geng's increasingly rapid breathing suddenly stopped.

There were many obstacles in front of him. First, he was trapped in his own body when he was young - sharp hairpins, red-hot fire sticks, dirty horse whips, women's sharp hands like pliers... and at the end of everything, there was a Gu Yun wearing half steel armor, who was silently watching him after many years.

Chang Geng stared at him like a life-saving straw, struggling to maintain a glimmer of clarity. After an unknown amount of time, the hallucinations of demons and monsters around him gradually faded away. Chang Geng came back to his senses exhausted and saw that the calming incense on the table had burned out and Chen Qingxu was collecting the silver needles.

Only then did he realize that he could move again.

Chen Qingxu: "How do you feel?"

Chang Geng moved his hands and saw that there were many small scratches on his arms. They had scabbed over quickly and were a little itchy. He tried to clench his fists: "It seems to have come out again."

After Chen Qingxu left, Chang Geng fell asleep immediately. Over the years, his sleep was like a calm lake that could be shattered by a stone. Except for fainting due to blood loss, he rarely had this kind of dizzy feeling. It was also the first time he did not have a nightmare.

He dreamed of a tall watchtower with a distant fire in the distance. The camp was heavily guarded, giving off an air of readiness for battle. A team of soldiers returning from patrolling the camp were tightening the reins of their horses. Suddenly, the leader turned around and looked in his direction. It was Gu Yun, with a glass mirror on his face that was more fancy than a mask. The silver edge and the black armor complemented each other, and he smiled mischievously at him.

In the dream, Chang Geng laughed and said, "What kind of outfit is this?"

Gu Yun stretched out a hand from the horse's back, and the iron arm burning with purple gold power lightly pulled him onto the horse's back, hugged him from behind, leaned over and smiled in his ear: "It's lonely in the army, so pick up a few more beauties."

People are not good at hiding their subtle thoughts in dreams. Although Chang Geng knew that he was joking, he still felt a little aggrieved. "I am restless in the capital, afraid of making a wrong move. I only hope to hear a few words from you every day, but I never get to wait."

Gu Yun said helplessly: "Your Highness, you came all the way here just to act like a spoiled child?"

Chang Geng thought he was right and wanted to do what was written in the folk stories and make trouble with Gu Yun in various ways. However, he regretted not having enough knowledge when he needed it, and his skills were not very mature. He was a little stuck and didn't know where to start. Gu Yun raised his hand and took off the glass mirror on his face, tilted his head and kissed him on the face: "If you don't like it, I won't wear it."

In the early morning, Chang Geng woke up to the sound of Gu Yun's terrifying flute. He got up dazed and rubbed his eyes. He felt as if the devil's sound was still ringing in his ears. He rubbed his sore and numb ears painfully, but the corners of his mouth could not help but curl up.

This was truly the happiest dream of his life.

With Gu Yun's earth-shattering and soul-stirring music accompanying him, he would not be afraid even if there were really monsters and demons ahead.

What Chang Geng didn't know was that on the night before, when Gu Yun returned from patrolling the camp, he suddenly had an inexplicable feeling that someone was watching him from behind. He turned his head involuntarily and happened to throw the glass mirror off his face again. This time the lens was not broken, but the intricately carved lace caused a corner of his shoulder armor to be knocked off. He had to admit in frustration that this thing was good-looking but useless, and changed back to an ordinary one.

The next day, Shen Yi heard about it and laughed at him, "Who knows, some god may be annoyed by your show-off behavior."

"Then this immortal is really nosy," Gu Yun said shamelessly, "Maybe because I am handsome and dashing, he wants to marry me."

Shen Yi: “…”

Before General Shen could spit out the overnight meal, a soldier came to report: "Marshal, the envoy you sent to Japan has replied."

Gu Yun: "Bring it in."

A batch of supplies for the Western Army was sent from the open sea with the cooperation of the Japanese. In normal wars, the Japanese seemed to have always been involved, but they were cunning and refused to show themselves on the surface. Even when Le Chi led dozens of Japanese warriors disguised as monks to attempt to kidnap Emperor Longan - that was out of his personal grudge, and the Japanese did not really stand up to seek an explanation for him.

Shen Yi: "What do you mean?"

Gu Yun shook his head: "They are said to be treated with great courtesy, but their attitude is ambiguous. When the envoys want to talk about business, those who can handle things will avoid them and find a group of white-faced dancers to accompany the guests... The Japanese have their own little calculations in their hearts. If the foreigners can take root in our land, they can eat a bite of rotten meat, but if the Western warships retreat, they will still have to live next to us in the future, so they are willing to contribute but are unwilling to offend us completely."

Shen Yi frowned and said, "Pleasing both sides, what kind of thing is this?"

"Good stuff." Gu Yun said with a smile, "I feel relieved that they are so hesitant. Let's wait and see, it will be of great use."

Shen Yi shook his head: "We can't wait any longer. The battle line in the south is too long and the Purple Gold Forces are too tight. Even if you make adjustments, there will be times when you can't keep up. Besides, I'm worried that if we continue to fight like this, there will be noise in the court."

Gu Yun's expression faded.

Shen Yi reminded him again, "I heard that the court thinks we should not just fight blindly, but should 'give a sweet date with a stick'. Recently, a new batch of foreign affairs envoys are being formed. If these people really come with sticks and give a sweet date, it would be fine, but I'm afraid they come here specifically to cause trouble."

Gu Yun hesitated for a moment: "When will it arrive?"

"It's almost time to leave," Shen Yi replied, "It'll only take ten days or half a month - Zixi, what do you want to do?"