I remember that when I was organizing the training, the instructor once gave me an eight-word comment: I have always been anxious and intelligent, and I have always been anxious. It seems that the ruffian instructor has some eyesight, and I just sat in the carriage on the way to Weiyang Palace and came up with this countermeasure.

This countermeasure can be said to be unprecedented, and there is no one to come, even if Zhuge Kongming is alive, he will never think of it.

It is early summer, the wind is refreshing, the early blooming flowers in the imperial garden are delicately exuding fragrance, the sun is warm but not strong, and it is warm and comfortable to shine on people. After retiring the attendants, the emperor and I sat on the floor in the pavilion of the imperial garden, with wine and food, and concocted another beautiful and magical lie in a peaceful atmosphere.

The Emperor's expression was almost soft and relaxed, maybe it was the weather, it was the flowers, it was the early summer wind, or maybe he thought I was really going to open my heart to him, for the first time, I realized that he was only a young man of twenty-three.

Some guilt, some chagrin, but the arrow has to be sent. He's not a young man to deceive, so my lies must be well-told and logical.

My old god is clearing his thoughts on the ground, where can I make it up?

I started making up stories: "All the people around me have blonde, brown, or silver hair, their eyes are colored and beautiful, and their skin is white and transparent. Including my father, who was a beautiful blonde man. Since I was a child, I knew that I was different, with the same black hair and black eyes as my mother, because it was different from other children, which made me feel lonely. Later, when I was older, I went to ask my mother, and every time I asked her, her eyes would become very sad, and I would not dare to ask again. It wasn't until a few months before she died, in early summer, that the flowers began to bloom, and she lay in a wicker chair and told me a very magical story. ”

I thought I was stating very emotionally, I don't know which writer has said that if you want to infect others, you must first infect yourself. Alas, it's a pity that I'm not a writer and can't tell sensational stories.

The Emperor listened quietly, his expression focused.

"Legend has it that a long, long time ago, there was a country whose king was incompetent, and then it was divided into seven small kingdoms, and the seven kingdoms were not at peace with each other, and there were often wars, and the people suffered greatly from war. There is a family surnamed Cheng, the people are vigorous, in order to avoid the scourge of war to move to a remote mountain place, the Cheng family has a daughter, named Cheng Yao, accidentally rescued a young man who was injured by a stray arrow, the man stayed in their clan to recuperate until he healed before leaving. It's just to save people, and the people in the clan don't take this matter to heart, and are still planning to reclaim wasteland and survive.

A year later, the man who had been rescued by them came to the place where the Cheng family was located, he called himself Xiao Jian, and told them that his family lived in a rich and quiet place, which was completely isolated from the world, without the rule of kings, without the suffering of war, without the labor of forced labor, and the people were self-sufficient, living and working in peace and contentment, and it was a blessed land on earth. Xiao Jian is the eldest son of the eldest son of the family, because he was curious and playful, he came out to swim, who knew that he was injured by a stray arrow in the war, if it wasn't for the rescue of the clan, he almost died innocently. Xiao Jian said that after he went home, everyone was very grateful for his safe return, and when they heard Xiao Jian's talk about the situation of the Cheng family, they were very sympathetic, so after the elders of the clan discussed, they decided to send Xiao Jian out again, if the Cheng family was willing, they could move to the blessed land, and the two clans would live together from then on. ”

I looked at the flowers in the garden, constantly hypnotizing myself, trying to immerse myself in the myth I had concocted, otherwise if the slightest falsehood was revealed, I would have lost all my efforts, and I was afraid that I would really die without a place to bury.

"After the elders surnamed Cheng discussed, they decided to move the clan to the blessed land that Xiao Jian said, that place is called Peach Blossom Spring!"

This is one of my earth-shattering lies -- a paradise. It's just that I'm sorry Mr. Tao Yuanming, he wrote Taoyuan as an ideal, but I borrowed it to process and polish it to deceive people, it's really blasphemous, I'm sorry again.

Xiao Jian stayed in the Cheng clan, and after another year, he led the Cheng family into the Peach Blossom Spring, where they took root, and the two clans lived in harmony, intermarried with each other, regardless of each other, and spent the days without knowing the years. Cheng Yao married Xiao Jian, and the couple was very affectionate. One day, Cheng Yao happened to see her husband holding a box and pondering, she was curious, and asked why, and her husband told his wife that the Peach Blossom Garden was really isolated from the world, and outsiders were not allowed to enter, and Chinese people could not get it, and there was only one way, and in this box, there was a key to open the path. ”

"Cheng Yao was originally a very curious woman, but since she knew about it, she always wanted to take the key to open the passage and see what the passage looked like. It turned out that when the family surnamed Cheng came to the Peach Blossom Spring, they didn't know how they came, but when they woke up, they were already here, and the experience was inexplicable.

Cheng Yao had this thought, and finally one day, she secretly took the box and left the Peach Blossom Spring......"

I sighed, took a sip of tea, looked sad, and said, "What she didn't expect was that she would never return to Taoyuan and never have the opportunity to see her husband again." ”

The emperor wondered: "But why?"

I said, "It turns out that the key is not always available, it can only be used once a year, and after she leaves Taoyuan, she must open the passage back after a year." But how many things can happen in a year? Someone is born, someone dies, someone marries, someone divorces, a war, an armistice, a revival, a perdition, and many unexpected things can happen in a year. Cheng Yao was originally a weak woman, she lived under the protection of her father and brother since she was a child, and she didn't know what the hardships were, but now she is alone and unaccompanied, how easy it is to survive a year alone, and what's worse is that she found out that she was pregnant, which made life more and more difficult...... In her loneliness and helplessness, her life changed......"

The emperor frowned and asked sensitively, "She remarried?"

Awesome, I was able to guess the follow-up to my lie.

I smiled and said, "Not so fast." That day, it was snowing heavily, and she fell ill in the snow with a big belly, and a man from the Western Regions rescued her. At first, Cheng Yao did not know that he was from the Western Regions, because he was no different from his native except that his skin was whiter, his eye sockets were deeper, and his pupils were lighter, and he spoke fluent in his native Chinese. In fact, this man from the Western Regions was originally blonde, and he dyed black with ink in order to hide people's eyes, just like the people on our side.

After the man rescued her, he took care of her gently, considerately, and meticulously, even if he knew that she was pregnant with someone else's child, he was still very kind to her. Later, the man was going home, he was worried that after he left, Cheng Yao didn't know how to survive alone, so he invited her to his house to live temporarily, Cheng Yao thought of his own situation, and thought that after the child was born, he didn't know how to live, so he had to agree to the man, who knew that this trip was 108,000 miles, and he would never come back. ”

"The man took her to the Western Regions?" the emperor continued to write the story for me.

I nodded: "Yes, the man took her farther and farther, and although Cheng Yao was suspicious on the way, it was too late." Later, her youngest daughter was born, and three years later, they went to the Western Regions. Three years later, in despair, she finally married the man. But she can't forget her husband and a pair of children who stayed in the peach garden, so she often hides alone and weeps. Twenty years later, when her daughter was older, she told her the story and told her to go back to her country and meet her biological father no matter how difficult it was.

After her mother's death, the daughter left the Western Regions in accordance with her mother's will and embarked on the road to find her relatives. The difficulties encountered on the road are really too many to mention, but in order to fulfill her mother's last wish, she did not flinch at all, and in this way, she finally returned to her country after three years. ”

My first story of lies is over for a moment...... Alas, I'm really tired, and I don't even know if I'm lying, or if I'm living a lie at all.

The emperor was immersed in this story, thought about it and thought about it, tasted it again and again, and said: "Cheng Yao, it's Lingtang, you are the daughter who is looking for relatives for thousands of miles." ”

I smiled and said, "Yes, the one on that portrait is my biological father Xiao Jian." ”

I'm sorry Xiao Jian, it's pure helplessness to upgrade your seniority. Forgive me for once.

The emperor shook his head and said incredulously: "There is such a blessed land of gods in the world, it is really unheard of. ”

I said, "That's why that place is also called a paradise." ”

When the emperor heard this, he said slowly: "Under the whole world, it is not the king's land, and I can't imagine that there is an unknown paradise outside the king's land." ”

He had long expected that he would have such thoughts, after all, what emperor could tolerate that in the country he ruled, there would be such a pure land that was unknown and uncontrolled? If the Peach Blossom Land that Tao Yuanming said was really true, it would be wise for people to close the passage and not let others find it.

The emperor suddenly realized that what he had just said had exposed his heart, so he changed the subject and smiled: "No wonder you are so anxious to get Hetian Yu back, it turns out that it is the key to open the way home." ”

After thinking about it, he said, "But I think it's strange, what kind of passage is so magical?"

I smiled bitterly and said, "I don't know until I get Hetian Yu." ”

The emperor suddenly spoke again: "Liu Qing, you have solved the two mysteries in my heart, but there is another one that you have not yet answered. ”

Why don't you even go to the palace even if you die?

Why did he not forget this? Is the reason he said in Shanglin Imperial Prison not sufficient?

I looked very sad: "Your Majesty, I also said just now that the place in the Peach Blossom Garden is extremely difficult to enter and exit, and the key can only be used once a year." If I marry you, Your Majesty, you, as the king of a country, will not want to live in isolation with me. ”

The emperor laughed: "What's so difficult about this, I can't go, you can stay." ”

I sighed and said, "Your Majesty can't go, and the ministers can't stay, so what's the benefit of entering the palace temporarily? ”

"What do you mean by that?" As soon as the words came out, his face suddenly changed drastically, and he asked, "Wait...... What are the seven nations of the War of the Seven Nations you just mentioned?"

It only then did it occur to me that it was really dull, and that the lies that had caused me to be even more wonderful were only now beginning to appear.

I hesitated and said, "That...... It's the Seven Kingdoms, it's not long ago...... Seven Kingdoms. ”

The emperor said word by word: "Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei, Qin?"

I nodded slightly.

The emperor's face turned white, but he still managed to hold his composure: "You...... The Seven Kingdoms have been at least 160 years ago, how could your mother live for so long? Liu Dan, you want to tease me again!"

"Your Majesty, the minister does not dare, when my mother died, she was two hundred and seventy-eight years old. "I deliberately kept my voice down. "According to my mother, everyone in the Peach Blossom Land will live to be at least 1,000 years old, or even 2,000 years old. ”

The Emperor stood up and glared at my face, his expression shocked and vaguely ecstatic. (Alas, Emperor Wu of Han is really great, but I just can't like him, normal modern people, who would like a person who seeks immortality in every possible way? ）

"Chen believes that there must be some special reason in that place, which can prolong people's lives, but once they leave there, they will be like ordinary people, my mother has lived in the peach blossom garden for more than two hundred years, and when she comes out of the peach garden, her appearance is still like a flower girl, but in the Western Regions for only a few decades, just like ordinary people, it is inevitable to be born, old, sick and die. His Majesty thinks why the minister must return to the Peach Blossom Spring, this is the reason. ”

Actually, I wanted to make up a myth of immortality, but it was too ...... to think about it myself. It's, so I retreated, even so, I believe that the emperor will be moved. He was originally a superstitious person, and some time ago he heard Wei Qing say that the emperor was looking for alchemy practitioners everywhere to help him grow his life. Two thousand years, it's not much different from immortality.

"Are you serious?"

"The minister is not lying. ”

"Why didn't you talk about it in the morning?"

"Not enough to be humane with outsiders, it is a clan rule, and it is too shocking. ”

"Why do you say it now?"

"Because ......" I "bravely and strongly" raised my head and looked him straight in the eye. "The minister knows that Yan Qixing is the seventh master, so Hetian Yu must be in the hands of His Majesty. ”

The emperor's face changed again, and his gaze sharpened when he looked at me: "Are you investigating Yan Qixing, or are you investigating me?"

"I don't dare. "My attitude is calm, neither humble nor arrogant. The minister accidentally found that Yan Qixing was the eight fingers and seven masters that the minister was looking for, and learned that he was the messenger of the embroidered clothes, so he boldly guessed that he must be working for His Majesty in the matter of Hetian Yu. ”

With that, I looked directly at the emperor without fear.

The emperor was a little aggrieved, but he didn't dodge, but admitted calmly: "Yes, I ordered him to secretly check on you back then. When he saw that you were looking at that piece of jade all day long, he thought there was some mystery in this jade, and he once showed it to me......"

"What about now?Is Yu still here with His Majesty?" I asked impatiently, anyway, the matter has come to this point, there is no need to hide the importance I attach to Hetian Yu.

The emperor was silent, frowning and groaning for a long time.

My heart hung in the air, afraid that the jade ring was not with the emperor, or the jade ring was there, but the emperor refused to give it to me.

The emperor picked up the wine bottle and took a sip, his eyes looked into the distance, in the distance, there was a faint sound of women's laughter, presumably the lady and beauty in the palace were playing in other places in the imperial garden, he listened for a while, and said lightly: "I didn't expect that jade ring to have such a strange function." ”

Instead of answering my question, he asked, "You can only enter and leave the Peach Blossom Land once a year, but when?"

Finally, one can say the truth: "The night of the full moon on the fifteenth day of August." "Well, it's nice not to lie.

"Where?" the emperor was shrewd, and even thought of this.

"The woods where I first met Your Majesty. ”

The right time and place can add credibility to a lie.

The emperor's eyes suddenly flashed: "When I met you back then, it was the fifteenth day of August?"

I didn't panic: "Yes, when Yechen was looking for the passage mentioned by his mother, he met His Majesty, and he missed the hour. ”

Since then, Liu Che has been silent, and his expressionless appearance makes it impossible to guess what he is thinking.

I was anxious and urged: "Your Majesty, you haven't told the minister that Yuhuan is here for Your Majesty?"

The emperor suddenly raised his voice and shouted, "Lu Guang!"

Originally, there was no one around quietly, but as soon as the emperor shouted, Lu Guang came out of nowhere like a ghost, and the emperor ordered: "Immediately announce the edict and order Yan Qixing to come to see me." ”

I was baffled by him, I asked him a question about jade here, but he went to Yan Qixing over there, what does this mean?

The emperor turned his face to look at me and said, "Hetian Yu, in the Huns." ”

I was stunned and didn't hear too clearly: "Where did Your Majesty just say?"

"Huns. The Emperor accentuated his tone.

This time I heard clearly, and it was clear, and I smiled, a little overwhelmed.

The Huns? It's too far, right?

The emperor's face was a little pale, and he said slowly: "Last year, the Empress Dowager was ill, and Princess Nangong sent an envoy to Han to visit, and among the entourage was a teenage Xiongnu aristocratic boy named Wu Wei. Before leaving, I set up a banquet for them in Weiyang Palace, and during the banquet, Uwei impromptu made a gift that won my heart, so he let him ask for a reward, he didn't ask for anything, just a piece of jade pendant on my body. ”

I became more and more confused: "What does this have to do with Hetian Yu?"

The emperor smiled bitterly and said: "That jade pendant is Liu Qing's Hetian jade." ”

Ha, so dramatic? It's even more wonderful than the beautiful lie I made.

I'm not stupid, so my first reaction when I woke up was -- Liu Che was lying to me!

Although he didn't know that Hetian Yu was so important, it was impossible not to understand its importance to me, and there was no reason to give it away casually.

He, really has ulterior intentions?!

I knelt down in front of the emperor, suppressed my grievances, and said, "Your Majesty, there is still something I have not explained to Your Majesty, and I ask Your Majesty for forgiveness." ”

The emperor said, "Forgive your innocence, rise up and speak!"

I gritted my teeth: "What the minister wants to say is that to open the Peach Blossom Source Channel, Hetian Yu is important, but without the cooperation of another thing, then Hetian Yu is just a piece of waste and useless." ”

What I mean, how can the emperor not understand?

"You ......" He raised his hand and pointed at me angrily, his fingers were trembling, but I was proud that I had no fear, my patience had reached the limit, and if the emperor did not give me an explanation that I believed today, I would simply turn against him.

I could see that Liu Che was very angry, but for some reason he didn't have a seizure in the end, put down the hand pointing at me, he took a deep breath and said, "You, think I lied?"

"Not bad. I said out loud. "Your Majesty knows the importance of this jade to the minister, how could such an important thing be sent to the Xiongnu inexplicably? Your Majesty, if you don't want to return it to the minister, just say it clearly, it's a big deal that the minister can't go home and see his father in this life, why do you play this trick to fool the minister?"

The emperor trembled with anger, and said sharply: "You! It turns out that I am such a despicable villain in your heart, and it turns out that you have never believed in me at all?"

Not to be outdone, I replied to him, "How could Your Majesty ever believe in being a minister?"

"Bold!" he turned blue with anger. "How dare you speak to me like that?"

"I'm not speaking to the emperor, I'm speaking to Liu Tong. I got up and shouted, tears flowed out of my eyes, and now, I was no longer afraid of tearing my face with the emperor, I stubbornly raised my head, and I didn't wipe it, letting it flow more and more until my clothes were wet.

The Emperor probably never imagined that I would cry in front of him, and for a moment he was stunned and forgot to be angry again, and looked at me speechless.

"I just want to go home. I muttered, heartbroken and uncontrollably. "I just want to see my relatives, I don't care if I live forever or how long I live! Do you know? As long as I can see him, I am willing to die immediately. But why do you do this to me? I have been trying to be loyal to Your Majesty, I have not prayed to Your Majesty for glory and wealth, I have just ...... I just want to go home and reunite with my loved ones. Your Majesty has a mother, a sister, a wife, and children of her own, and I have nothing...... You never understand how bleak and terrible it feels to be alone in this world. ”

The words may be slightly false, but the feelings are true, I trembled uncontrollably, knelt on the table with my arms folded, and all the pressure, grievances, hesitations, confusion, riblessness, and fear in the past two years came to my heart. No matter how smart and strong I am, I'm just a girl after all, and there are times when I'm tired, when I can't stand it, and when I want to cry. Why do I have to pretend to be powerful? To whom? Emperor?

I'm really tired, I'm tired of looking for Hetian Yu, I'm tired of being an official, I'm tired of calculating people, and I'm even more tired of lying, so I have the right to cry, don't I?

......

With my head in my arms, I twitched my shoulders, desperately trying to keep from crying. The more depressed I became, the more tears poured out like water that had burst the embankment.

A pair of arms hugged me, the hands were warm, and the chest was strong, but it was not a place I wanted to lean on, and I struggled, but he hugged me tighter, and said with guilt in his mouth: "I know, I understand...... After Yan Qixing got the jade back, I ordered someone to carefully inspect the jade, and found that there was nothing peculiar, I thought that it was just a jade ring with special meaning to you, so I ordered Shaofu to make it into a jade pendant to wear. ”

I looked up at him, tears still pouring out, completely ignoring the courtesy of the king, and said, "You are lying to me again...... After I arrived in Chang'an, I told Wei Qing about Hetian Yu to Han Yan, how could you not know how anxious I was to find it. ”

The emperor looked frustrated, and said with remorse: "Zhong Qing did mention this matter to me, but I had selfish intentions at that time, hoping that you could stay in Chang'an, and you can enter the palace to my side in the future, and then I will return the jade to you." How do you know that Uwei prefers me to ask for it as a reward, as the son of heaven of the Han Dynasty, how can I lose my trust in the Huns in front of the public? And at that time, I only thought that this jade ring was just a proof for you to go home and recognize your relatives, even if I sent it away, he would definitely order Liu Qing's relatives to be found one day, who would have thought that this Hetian jade would have no inside story?"

He "I" for a while, "I" for a while, his tone was soft and light, and his hand kept patting my back to soothe me, I raised my head from his arms, and asked with tears on my face: "So Hetian Yu is really in the Huns? Your Majesty didn't lie to me?"

The Emperor nodded very seriously and said, "Really, I will never lie to you. ”

I raised my hand and wiped a handful of tears and said, "I don't care if you go to Peach Blossom Spring, but I must go home, even if I go back to have a look, in short, no matter what method I use, I must take back Hetian Jade." ”

"Okay, okay, I promise you, I will repair the book immediately, send an envoy to the Xiongnu to see Princess Nangong, and ask her to ask Uwei to return Hetian Yu, don't cry, don't cry anymore...... The Emperor said again and again, reassuring again and again, and raised his hand to gently wipe the tears from my face.

The two of us were so close, and his tone and movements were as intimate and gentle as a lover, that for a moment I was stunned and confused, and let him wipe the tears from my face, and then, for some reason, he suddenly kissed me......