Chapter 263 Heard
Zhen'an Palace.
Su Qingqing, who had been tired for several months, slept for almost two days and two nights. She finally came out of the house yawning in the morning of the third day.
It was already spring, and the willow branches outside had sprouted new buds. Su Qingqing stood under the porch, watching the swallows flying back to build nests. She stood there leisurely for a while, then looked away.
In the yard, Jixiang was playing with the sheep's crook. Su Qingqing walked over with amusement, rubbed Jixiang's head, yawned and said, "You are so old, and you are still playing this."
Jixiang dropped the bones in his hand, clapped his hands, stood up, and looked at Su Qingqing with a serious face.
Su Qingqing was stunned.
"Why, you look so resentful, who has offended you?"
Jixiang pouted and said, "No one bothered me, but I have a question that has been bothering me."
Jixiang seldom used such a serious expression. Su Qingqing knew that she had a serious problem, so she took two steps and sat down under the flower stand in the yard.
The tender buds on the flower stand are green and fresh, climbing on the stand, exuding the vitality of spring.
"Tell me what's confusing you and I'll solve it for you."
Jixiang followed and poked in front of Su Qingqing, "Is our prince going to ascend the throne?"
Su Qingqing raised her eyebrows, "Why do you ask?"
Jixiang lowered his head and twisted his fingers, his whole body exuding a sense of weakness, "What else can he do if he doesn't ascend the throne? He can't come back to be a wise king who assists famous generals. He can become a wise king, but the one above is not a wise ruler either."
When the previous emperor was alive, no matter what, Jixiang had never spoken so bluntly about the emperor. But now that the young emperor has ascended the throne, not to mention Jixiang, even ordinary people do not feel that he is the emperor.
Su Qingqing pulled Jixiang's hand and asked, "What do you want to say?"
Jixiang half-knelt down, leaning on Su Qingqing's knees, "I just want to say that if Your Highness ascends the throne, you will definitely be the queen, there is no doubt about that, but the emperor's harem cannot have only one queen, there must be three palaces and six courtyards."
Jixiang pursed his lips into a line, raised his head, and looked at Su Qingqing eagerly, "If it was before, you were just here to marry, and you might not care too much about how many women he has, but now it's like this, if he still has three harems and six courtyards in front of him, can you bear it?"
Outside the hospital.
Minglu turned around and looked at Rong Que who stopped moving forward.
In fact, he also had Jixiang's concerns, but he was worried about how their princess would deal with the women who filled the harem.
Rong Que looked solemn as he looked towards the courtyard.
The mid-morning sunlight shone through the sparsely dense flower stands, sprinkling on Su Qingqing's face. Su Qingqing smiled and patted Jixiang's little face.
"Do you like Kyoto?"
Jixiang shook his head.
" If it were in the past, I would definitely like it. The capital of the Great Yan Kingdom is much more fun than the capital of our Zhao Kingdom. But now, I like Datong more."
In fact, what Jixiang likes more is not Datong, but the days in Datong.
He spent every day in the military camp, leading a life of commanding troops and fighting on horseback.
She used to be a little flower in a greenhouse. She had never experienced this kind of battle and was filled with fear of it in her bones.
But after several attempts, she is now like an eagle soaring in the sky, unwilling to be confined to a cage.
Even if the cage was made of gold, she wouldn't like it.
If she is like this, wouldn't Su Qingqing be even more miserable?
Su Qingqing chuckled, "I don't like Kyoto either. You haven't been to the border. That's where the real good is, where there's real freedom.
You asked me if I could accept his three harems and six courtyards. The answer is definitely no.
But just because I don't accept it, he can't have three palaces and six courtyards.
The three palaces and six courtyards were never meant for an emperor to satisfy his sexual desires, but to maintain a balance in the court.
No matter who is the emperor, such a three-palace and six-courtyard house is inevitable."
Jixiang looked at her master with distress.
It is already a torture for an eagle to be trapped in Kyoto with its wings broken. Do you want her to share a man with other women?
Should we let a fierce eagle like Su Qingqing be jealous? Fight for favor?
Jixiang felt suffocated just thinking about it.
How could Su Qingqing be willing to do something that she even disdained?
"Then you..."
Su Qingqing leaned back, half lying on the beauty couch, squinting at the light above her head, "When the situation in Kyoto stabilizes and he ascends the throne, I will ask for a favor and take you to the border.
We can return to Zhao State on odd-numbered days and to Dayan State on even-numbered days."
Jixiang's eyes lit up, "Is this possible?"
Su Qingqing smiled and said, "Of course."
Minglu, who was outside the door, saw his prince tremble all over and fall forward.
Minglu was quick to support him, "Your Highness..."
Rong Que closed his eyes and waved his hand, "Let's go back to the study."
Minglu glanced at the courtyard and said hesitantly, "Your Majesty may not really mean this."
Rong Que smiled bitterly, shook his head and looked up at the sky.
"She is a goshawk and does not belong in this prison."
Rong Que returned to the capital. Although he did not attend court during these days, the court officials were all the smartest of the smart, and they were used to choosing the right tree to live in.
Therefore , these days, whenever the court was over, except for the Duke of Zhenguo and a few of his die-hard followers, the rest, whether they were previously members of the Third Prince's party or others, all swarmed to Rong Que's Zhen'an Palace.
They came and lined up in Rong Que's yard.
Very consciously, they discussed the matter here again according to the seating order of the morning court.
The most frequently mentioned request was to ask Rong Que to attend the morning court.
The reason why Rong Que was reluctant to agree was, firstly, because the Queen Mother and the Duke of Zhenguo never welcomed him back positively, and secondly, because he was worried about Su Qingqing.
Once he enters the court, his status will be comparable to that of a regent.
The young emperor was just a mascot, and if he wanted to run the huge court organization, he had to deal with all kinds of human relationships. Among them, the most direct and effective way was to take over the backyard.
Make all the connections complicated.
Checks and balances are fundamental.
But he didn't want to.
He just wanted to live in his own world with Su Qingqing.
There is no room for more women around him.
In the study, Rong Que frowned, resting his head on the back of the chair, looking extremely ugly.
Minglu changed his cup of tea to hot tea.
"Master, the queen's words might really be meant to appease Jixiang. If the queen really wanted to return to the border, we would not have returned from Datong in the first place.
It would be great if we could take our troops and flee far away, station at the border, and guard the border of Zhao State, and let King Yu, Marquis Rong'an and the others fight to the death.
But the queen came back without hesitation...
You said before that Your Majesty came back to investigate the cause of General Yu's death, but I don't think that's the case.
If Her Majesty wanted to investigate the cause of General Yu's death, she would have done it long ago, but Her Majesty has done nothing these days.
I guess that the Madam may not want to investigate at all, she just came back to accompany you."
Rong Que looked at Ming Lu with red eyes, "She came back with me, so I have the right to trap her in this cage?"
Ming Lu retorted, "Your Highness, how do you know that the Queen is not enjoying it?"
Rong Que snorted coldly, "No, she won't enjoy this kind of thing at all."
Rong Que said this with such certainty that Minglu could not say anything more. He was silent for a long time and said, "Then you..."
