Chapter 156

 

The frontier army was heroic and Duoyan was defeated. At this time, Emperor Yuanyou went to accept the peace offering from the leader of Duoyan, which would not only bring glory to Emperor Yuanyou’s face, but also boost morale for the army and the people.

Emperor Yuanyou wanted to go himself, and Empress Dowager Qi also supported it, so the matter was settled.

It was just that the emperor’s departure from the capital was no small matter. All aspects must be carefully prepared, and not just a matter of leaving.

But the list of the ten accompanying guards had been decided, and the Daxing Left Guard led by Chen Jingzong was impressively on the list.

Chen Jingzong was very happy. The last time he fought against Prince Yu, the places he passed through were the Central Plains that he was already familiar with, and his opponent was a fellow soldier of the same blood. Even if he won, he felt heavy. What he aimed was to guard the border and drive out the enemy. Now he had the opportunity to go to Jizhou, one of the nine important frontier towns, and have the opportunity to see the Qin’s family army. As sharp as Chen Jingzong was, and he could not hide his expectations for this trip in front of Hua Yang.

Hua Yang looked as usual, as if it didn’t matter whether he traveled far or not.

Chen Jingzong didn’t think much about it at first. He drank his wine and ate his food. It wasn’t until he rested at night that he realized belatedly that he might not return to the capital until the Ninth Month after going to Jizhou this time.

In real terms, a month was not that long. For example, in the guard stations, there were many soldiers from other part of the country who could not see their families all year round. When Chen Jingzong himself was in Lingzhou, he did not miss his home in the capital too much.

But he and Hua Yang had been married for so long, and the longest separation was when she took Wu Run and the others to Yueyang to visit Dongting Lake!

“Will you be unhappy if I’ve gone for too long?” Chen Jingzong squeezed the grand princess’s hand.

Hua Yang: “Even if you went outside for the whole year, I won’t say anything.”

Chen Jingzong took a sharp breath. Even if he knew that she might just be reluctant to admit it, he didn’t like to hear this.

However, Hua Yang was having menstrual trouble these past two days, so he couldn’t do much.

After struggling for a while, Chen Jingzong hugged her and said, “I will write you a letter, one every three days.”

Hua Yang: “You are not afraid of being laughed at by your colleagues, but I do. Jizhou is not that far. You should concentrate on your job and stop thinking nonsense.”

Chen Jingzong: “Other women regret having asked her husband to seek a titleit came from a poem Grief in the Boudoir by Wang Changling of the Tang dynasty, telling a woman’s regret of letting her husband join the army at the frontier to make achievement to be awarded a title, but you are so cruel.”

Hua Yang: “You are going to accept Duoyan’s surrender this time, and there is no need to fight. When a war really comes, I will tell His Majesty not to send you to fight. Then you will feel my kindness.”

Chen Jingzong: “Don’t, it’s better for you to be ruthless. If I earn more military honors, I will look more worthy of you.”

Hua Yang: “It’s really strange that you still feel that you are not worthy of me.”

Chen Jingzong:…

He held her face in his hands. If he really wanted to start a quarrel, he might as well try it another way.

.

Two days later, Hua Yang entered the palace. After all, her brother was going on a long journey, so how could she as an elder sister not care about him?

Emperor Yuanyou’s childish face was filled with excitement and joy. When he mentioned his trip to Jizhou, his eyes were a little brighter than usual, like an eagle whose wings were getting fuller and about to fly away from its cage.

Hua Yang lazily leaned on the couch, playing with a newly bloomed pink rose in her hand, and listened absently.

Emperor Yuanyou quickly reacted and asked with concern: “Sister, is there something on your mind?”

Hua Yang shook her head and sighed: “No, I just heard you mention the Great Wall, the forts, and vast grasslands, all of which I may not be able to see in my life, so I feel a little sad.”

Although Emperor Yuanyou was young and sometimes couldn’t understand some of the topics his mother and sister talked about, but at this time he immediately understood what his sister meant and said with a smile: “Sister, indeed there’s not many opportunities for you to experienced things, so just come with me this time.”

Hua Yang’s eyes lit up, but she immediately looked in the direction of Qianqing Palace, leaned on the back of the chair again, and said quietly: “If it’s really that simple, I would have spoken to you a long time ago, but Mother Empress would not agree.”

Emperor Yuanyou thought for a moment and said, “Just say you can’t bear to part with Prince Consort?”

Hua Yang chuckled: “This kind of lie, Mother Empress can see through it at a glance.”

Emperor Yuanyou: “Then say you can’t bear let me go and you have to follow to take care of me.”

Hua Yang turned the flowers in her hand and looked at her brother with a smile on her face: “Although Sister wants to go to Jizhou to experience the frontier scenery, I am indeed a little worried about you. It will be your first time traveling far away and you may not be acclimatized or something like that.”

Emperor Yuan You: “You join the army for half a year and still fine. I practice martial arts every day, and I’m still stronger than you.”

Boys around fifteen or sixteen years old were at the time of growing taller. Last year Emperor Yuanyou was already taller than Hua Yang. Now when the two siblings were standing together, Hua Yang’s head was under her brother’s earlobe.

Father Emperor was tall, and when her brother reach adulthood, he may not be much shorter than Chen Jingzong.

After Emperor Yuanyou finished speaking, his sister began to look at him with the eyes of a farmer admiring the strong crops in her own field.

Emperor Yuanyou’s face was slightly warm, but he was also vaguely proud. In the past, his sister always treated him as a child. From now on, it was his turn to protect his sister. He could support his sister in things that their mother did not allow her to do.

“Let’s go, I’ll accompany you to see Mother Empress.”

Hua Yang said with a smile: “You want to help me, but I also don’t want to implicate you. Later, in front of Mother Empress, just say that I can’t bear to be apart from Prince Consort and kept pestering you, so you have no choice but to agree.”

Emperor Yuanyou thought to himself, prince consort was indeed still useful for his sister!

The siblings returned to Qianqing Palace together.

Hua Yang sat next to Empress Dowager Qi with her eyes downcast as if having a guilty conscience, and Emperor Yuanyou was responsible for pleading for her.

Empress Dowager Qi looked at her son and then at her daughter, but she didn’t ask any questions, just said, “If you want to go then go ahead. You two brother and sister need to take care of each other and don’t play too crazy outside.”

Both siblings were surprised by how cooperative their mother was.

Empress Dowager Qi smiled.

With Chen Tingjian and He Qingxian there, she was not afraid of the children making big mistakes.

.

Hua Yang asked her brother not to reveal that she was going to Jizhou. Anyway, it would be enough for her to drive behind her brother on the day of departure. There was no need for the court to make any extra arrangements because of her joining.

Her heart felt calm, and the maids around her skillfully packed their bags during the day. Once prince consort returned, they all tacitly kept it a secret for the grand princess.

On the contrary, Chen Jingzong became the one with the most complicated emotions in the house. He was happy to go to Jizhou, but also reluctant to part as it got closer to separation.

What depressed him the most was that he didn’t feel even a trace of affection from Hua Yang. Even though he was leaving with the imperial entourage in the morning, Hua Yang still wouldn’t give in to him that night.

“You must be angry with me.”

Sitting on the edge of the bed, Chen Jingzong looked at the grand princess lying with her back to him, feeling a headache coming in, “Angry that I was too happy when I first got the news.”

Hua Yang: “No.”

Chen Jingzong: “Then why are you giving me the cold shoulder?”

Hua Yang: “I have to go to the palace to see my brother off tomorrow morning, so I must go to bed early.”

Chen Jingzong was unable to refute.

He lay down again, hugged Hua Yang, kissed the back of her neck again and again, and said with each kiss: “When I’m not here and you’re bored living alone, you can go to the palace to spend more time Niangniang, or go back home to live for a few days. Wan Yi, Dalang, and the other are all like you.”

Hua Yang: “Hmm.”

Chen Jingzong: “I will write to you every day and send it once every ten days.”

Hua Yang: “It’s really not necessary.”

Chen Jingzong: “I’m not like some people, really have no conscience.”

Hua Yang just smiled.

Chen Jingzong fell asleep in frustration. He reached out to her twice in the middle of the night, but Hua Yang pinched him away mercilessly each time, until he finally gave up.

At dawn, Chen Jingzong woke up, got out of bed, and drank a cup of water. But then he got back into bed, hugged Hua Yang and kissed her.

Hua Yang tried to hide, but was easily held down by him. When the long kiss was about to end, Chen Jingzong moved to her ear and bit her slightly hard.

Hua Yang winced, and her eyes were full of annoyance.

Chen Jingzong looked at her and said in a sullen voice: “You really have no conscience.”

Hua Yang just turned around and continued to sleep.

Chen Jingzong fiddled with her long hair a few times and had no choice but to stride away.

Once the footsteps disappeared, Hua Yang opened her eyes again.

.

Outside the capital, the commanders of ten guard stations including the Yulin Guard, Jinwu Vanguard, and Daxing Left Guard have all arrived, followed by more than 5,000 elite soldiers from each guard stations.

As the first rays of morning sunlight slanted across the sky, the imperial procession finally appeared at the city gate. At the forefront were two squads of Jinyiwei riding fine horses, followed by the high-held imperial canopy, and then the emperor’s spacious carriage, resembling a moving house.

Chen Jingzong and other soldiers all knelt down.

After the chief eunuch Cao Li shouted absolution on behalf of Emperor Yuanyou, all the soldiers stood up again.

Chen Jingzong got on his horse and was ready to set off. The 50,000 imperial guards would surround the imperial carriage and the following carriages of the officials.

Just when Chen Jingzong turned around and wanted to take a last look in the direction of the grand princess mansion, another carriage drove out of the city gate.

And Chen Jingzong’s familiarity with this carriage was simply better than that of his old man’s chief minister carriage.

Chen Jingzong looked at the carriage in disbelief.

The soldiers of Daxing Left Guard were all looking at him and noticed that their commander kept tilting his neck. They followed the commander’s line of sight, and what else they didn’t understand?

Someone laughed and jeered, “Sir, don’t you see her every day when you return home? Why do you act like you haven’t seen her in years?”

The soldiers burst into laughter.

Amid the laughter, Chen Jingzong secretly gritted his teeth. She sure could endure and put on an act. She had already decided to accompany the imperial entourage but insisted on acting indifferent as if his absence didn’t matter, which made him not sleep well these past few nights!

Holding the reins tightly, Chen Jingzong looked coldly at the soldiers behind him: “Let’s go!”

All the soldiers responded in unison, with momentum like a rainbow!

Hua Yang was sitting in the carriage, and Chao Yun and Chao Yue were lying in front of the window crack. Soon, Chao Yun happily said to the grand princess: “Prince Consort is over there!”

Hua Yang didn’t take it seriously: “We see him every day, it’s nothing special.”

Chao Yun: “You are not surprised, but Prince Consort is. Just now he looked this way for a long time, and the soldiers of the guard station all laughed.”

Hua Yang could imagine Chen Jingzong’s dumfounded look.

The long procession moved smoothly along the official road for more than an hour, when suddenly someone knocked on the left carriage window.

Chao Yun opened the curtain, Hua Yang glanced over, and met Chen Jingzong’s handsome and serious face, as if he had come under the emperor’s orders, as if he was just an ordinary commander, not her prince consort.

“Is something wrong?” Hua Yang moved closer to the window.

The curtains were only half lifted, revealing the grand princess’s bright face like a peony flower. Chen Jingzong looked from her eyebrows to her lips, then leaned over and whispered: “It’s nothing, come and see if the person sitting in the carriage is really Her highness Grand Princess.”

As expected, it was nothing serious again. Hua Yang glared at him: “Who else could it be besides me?”

Chen Jingzong: “Can’t say for sure. Maybe one of the peonies in Grand Princess Mansion’s garden has finally cultivated into a spirit and could not forget me, so she came to meet me in your form.”

Just as Hua Yang was about to lower the curtain, Chen Jingzong suddenly blocked her hand and said with a hint of resentment that was hard to distinguish between true and false: “But as soon as I saw your cold eyes, I knew it was the Grand Princess herself.”

Hua Yang:……

The author has something to say:

Chao Yun and Chao Yue: We shouldn’t be in the carriage.

Previous     TOC     Next