Qing Ling sat in the smoke-condensing dormitory for a long time, and his expression was still a little stunned.

Ning Yan handed her a cup of tea and asked, "Have you seen Yu'er?" ”

Qing Ling came back to his senses, "Hmm. ”

After a pause, "He looks ...... Not at all like your brother. ”

Ning Yan said: "When I first entered the palace, he was just a baby. At that time, I thought he was like you and my brother, but when I grew up, I was just like you. ”

Qing Ling was silent for a moment, not continuing on the topic.

She put down her teacup, took Ning Yan's hand, and looked at her.

"I persuaded Mu Chen about you marrying into the royal family. But then I went to Xiaoyuechi, and I never had a chance to talk to him again. ”

Qing Ling's eyes were filled with guilt, "Ning Yan, I ......"

Ning Yan's expression was faint, "This matter has nothing to do with you, you don't have to blame yourself." ”

She took a sip of tea and lowered her eyes slightly, "Many people in the palace think that I was persecuted to marry Your Majesty. Because in my identity, being an ordinary concubine can be regarded as a grievance in the eyes of others. ”

She was born in Daze Baili, the head of the four great families, and is the only daughter of the prince and the monarch of Jiuqiu.

Even Qingling's father had the idea of marrying her, and he planned to greet her as a queen.

Ning Yan continued: "With the situation of that day, if I marry anyone, Your Majesty will not be at ease. For him, the surest thing to do was to include me in the palace and become his own concubine. I have been the hostess of the Dazehou Mansion for so many years, and I still have the eye to judge the situation. In the end, I entered the palace, actually, completely voluntarily. ”

Where is Qingling willing to believe.

"I understand Mu Chen's reasons why he wants to marry you, but how can you marry him voluntarily? You and Chun Yuyan ......"

She saw Ning Yan's face change slightly, so she paused and said, "You don't like Mu Chen, if you don't want to marry, it's a big deal to flee to the Western Continent, did he threaten you with the safety of your people, so you agreed to him?" ”

Ning Yan was silent for a while, "We didn't talk about threats, we just talked about some conditions." ”

"On what terms?"

"Your Majesty has promised that after I enter the palace, I will have the greatest freedom and will not have to participate in the affairs of the inner court like ordinary concubines. Secondly, in private, I can continue to be in charge of the affairs of the Baili clan. Now in the clan, although there are Nian Ying and them who come forward to deal with business matters, the specific size decisions are all planned by me and then explained to them. Speaking of which, my relationship with Your Majesty is more like that of a king and a courtier, or a business partner, and for me, there is nothing to lose. ”

Qing Ling said: "These things, even if you don't enter the palace, you can do it." What does it mean to have no loss? You can only stay in the Suzaku Palace for the rest of your life, isn't it a loss? ”

Ning Yan said: "If I don't enter the palace, I will be jealous of His Majesty for the rest of my life, and the family business will inevitably be suppressed." Over the years, the An clan and the Monan clan, which one is not eyeing the trade rights of the West Sea? Even though the Marquis Mansion of Daze no longer exists, and the government affairs of Daze are no longer under the orders of the Baili clan, the foundation of the Baili family must be preserved after all. ”

Qingling had just returned to the palace, and this was the first time he heard that the Dazehou Mansion had also been removed, so he couldn't help but sink his face suddenly, pursed his lips and said nothing.

After a long time, Fang said in a low voice: "Mu Chen, he ...... It's too ruthless to do things. ”

Ning Yan said: "Your Majesty is the emperor after all, and you must consider the overall situation when acting. He unified the Eastern Continent, and his courage and determination were by no means comparable to others, and he could not tolerate the slightest hesitation and soft-heartedness both internally and externally. To be honest, I was also worried that he would completely uproot any threatening forces, so he would do something to hurt my brother's children, so I made up my mind to marry into the Suzaku Palace. ”

paused, "But after such a year, I look at Your Majesty, but I really love Yu'er." ”

Qing Ling did not speak.

Ning Yan didn't know that in fact, at the beginning, Mu Chen also had murderous thoughts about that child......

After a while, Qing Ling opened his mouth and said: "If he really loves Yu'er, he should stay in the Daze Marquis Mansion, so that Yu'er can inherit the Hou position and take charge of Daze in the future." ”

Ning Yan glanced at Qing Ling and seemed to realize something, "Don't you know that Yu'er is in the genealogy of the Chaoyan clan?" ”

Qing Ling stood up suddenly, "What? ”

Ning Yan took Qing Ling's hand and reassured: "At first, I also had some nostalgia in my heart, but then I thought about it, as long as it is good for this child, what does it matter what the surname is?" You also know your brother's temperament, and he won't mind himself. ”

Qing Ling's gaze didn't know where it fell.

In decades of sleepy dreams, the recurring figure.

She didn't want to admit it, but she couldn't help but be afraid, afraid that one day, all kinds of tender memories of the past would eventually become distant and blurred with the passage of time......

And this child is the mark he left behind, the proof that they once loved each other deeply, and the only part of him that she can truly have......

Qing Ling raised his hand and pressed the corner of his forehead, and breathed heavily.

At the end, he sneered faintly, but did not speak again.

Before Ning Yan, it was not that she had never seen Qing Linghui's stubborn side, and even with a little false co-optation and hidden scheming calculations, she also had an impression.

After all, she is the emperor of the royal family, and it is impossible to go anywhere simply. When Qingling first married into Daze, Ning Yan thought about it in her heart.

But when she and her brother fell in love, there was happiness in the corners of her eyebrows and eyes. The temperament is extraordinarily cheerful.,Especially love to laugh.,It seems to be a good temper to everyone.。 The eyes of the two of them looking at each other, even if it was only for a short moment, were enough to brighten up the colors around them in an instant......

And at this moment, Ning Yan looked at Qingling, and saw that her complexion was delicate and her complexion was better than snow, which was more moving than before, but there was an indescribable complexity and treachery in her eyes, which made people secretly frightened.

She had heard the palace people mention it, and she had seen it with her own eyes, after Qing Ling's return from Jiuqiu, her emotions were out of control, sometimes she was silent in a trance, and sometimes she was sad and crazy.

The loss of a loved one is an unbearable blow for anyone.

Seeing Qing Ling's expression like this now, I know that she may never have come out of that pain.

Decades of time, for Ning Yan, is a cultivation to kill memories and dilute pain. For Qing Ling, it was just a short dream, and everything that happened in Jiuqiu that day seemed to be just yesterday. That kind of hatred, that kind of pain, is still carved clearly to the bone.

Ning Yan turned his head away and hid the faintly red circles under his eyes.

Within a day, she lost her parents and brother, and at the same time lost the opportunity to reconcile with her mother, and the pain, sadness, guilt, and all kinds of emotions pressed her to almost lose the strength to live.

Later, he faced the death of Jiuqiu, the withdrawal of the Hou Mansion, and the betrayal of his lover.

To this day, she still remembers the words Chun Yuyan said to herself.

"Only when you marry Your Majesty can Jiuqiu achieve true unification."

"Even if you don't marry him, I can't marry you."

She can press these memories to the bottom of her heart, seal and hide them, and in her long career as a palace concubine, she can forget and make herself strong little by little. But there are always moments when she is caught off guard, and these emotions suddenly surge up, devouring her forbearance and reason......

～～

Qingling moved into the Chunxi Palace in Hagiyama.

Mu Chen asked Yuxiu to move in with Qingling.

Yuxiu felt very strange to this mother. At the beginning, with a kind of curiosity and a natural attachment between mother and child, he tried to get close to Qingling and understand the mother who had been lying on the sickbed in his memory. But he soon realizes that Qing Ling doesn't seem to like him very much.

She often looked at him with strange eyes, and unconsciously showed a little disappointment, which made the boy feel more frightened, and he could not figure out what had annoyed his mother.

Qing Ling also felt strange in his own heart.

She remembered how she felt when she was pregnant, but she didn't remember how the baby was born, let alone how he grew up.

When he was born, she didn't even have a chance to hold him, and in the blink of an eye, he grew so big, almost taller than an eight- or nine-year-old child of the Terrans.

He was a beautiful child, but he didn't look like his father, he didn't look like him, he didn't behave like him, and when he didn't speak, he even had a cold feeling.

He is very attached to Mu Chen, and always talks about him with a little pride and admiration. He didn't allow others to call him "Yu'er", as if this could only be Mu Chen's unique name for him. The palace people can only call him "Xiugongzi", and the concubines occasionally call him "Xiulang". The only exception, Qingling and Ning Yan, can have the same rights as Mu Chen, and only because one is his mother, and the other is the person Mu Chen said could call him like this.

Qing Ling felt that such a "quirk" was simply unreasonable, and ordered him to go and let all the palace people in Chunxi Palace change their words and call him by his name directly.

Yuxiu was very sensitive to her mother's attitude, and felt that she was deliberately embarrassing herself, so she moved back to the original dormitory in anger.

In the end, Mu Chen could only come over to persuade peace.

"Yu'er is still a child, what are you fighting with him?"

Qing Ling bowed his head and wrote, "Where did I fight with him?" I'm teaching him the rules. Don't be arrogant at a young age, and let others do what he wants in everything. ”

Mu Chen tugged at the corners of his lips, "With his identity, these little things are not arrogant." ”

Qingling grew up in Chongwu and couldn't understand the royal family's concept of education.

She put down her pen, "I wrote a letter to my third senior brother, intending to ask him to take Yuxiu as an apprentice. ”

The third senior brother has a cold temperament, and he can just go to the arrogance of this child.

Thinking of something again, he asked Mu Chen: "I remember that you thought about sending Xi'er to Chongwu before, but why did you change your mind and send her to Fuyu Mountain?" ”

Qing Ling also learned after returning to the palace that Emperor Hexi worshiped under Fu Yu, and often left the Vermilion Bird Palace and went to Fu Yu to practice and practice.

Mu Chen pondered for a moment, "You also know Xi'er's temperament. I thought about it later, Chongwu may be too lonely, afraid that she will not adapt to staying for a long time. ”

He saw that Qing Ling had sealed the letter and was about to use the seal, and stretched out his hand to stop her.

"Your master has not been in good health in the past few years, and I heard that he recently took your two senior brothers into retreat together. If you send a letter to Chongwu now, I'm afraid no one will read it. ”

After a pause, he said, "Yu'er has been following me to practice martial arts. He has a good foundation and learns quickly. If you can trust me, let him stay in the palace for the time being. ”

Qing Ling and Mu Chen looked at each other for a moment, then slowly pulled out his hand from under his palm and put the seal back in its place.

"Then you can't be soft-hearted to him. In the future, he will have to avenge his father. ”