RMACAUH Chapter 73
by VolareChapter 73 Enthronement Ceremony
Originally, they were supposed to leave in seven days, but now Guangling is scarred by the war, and it is unknown how long it will take to recover.
The soldiers who came with the imperial capital also joined in the reconstruction of their homes. Most of the silver from the Prince’s mansion had been used up before.
Wei Xiaofeng supervised the work during the day, and when he returned to the mansion at night, he would talk to Feng Yue about the situation outside. Feng Yue seemed to be in poor spirits, his face was very pale. When Wei Xiaofeng spoke, he would lie on his lap, closing his eyes and listening quietly.
“I heard from Mu Yunhua that you will leave all the militiamen in Guangling and expand and strengthen the Military Affairs Department.”
“Guangling is an important place for defense in the east. A thousand-mile dike can be destroyed by an ant nest. We must never let this war happen again.”
“This time can also be regarded as a fatal blow to these Japanese pirates. They will never dare to invade easily again!” Speaking of this, Wei Xiaofeng was beaming, and his eyes were full of admiration when he looked at Feng Yue.
They snuggled against each other, letting the tranquil and warm time pass by.
After a long silence, Feng Yue suddenly said: “When we return to the capital, after the enthronement ceremony, I want to make Yan’er the crown prince.”
Wei Xiaofeng held his breath: “But Yan’er is not even four years old, wouldn’t it be too hasty?”
“No, establishing a crown prince early will also reassure the hearts of the ministers and the people.” He will never repeat the mistakes his father made.
“Then… when will we leave for the capital?” Actually, he wanted to stay longer.
Feng Yue reached out and gently stroked his cheek, “Let’s wait another half a month. During this time, you should go around and take a look more often. Once we leave, we don’t know when we will be back again.”
Wei Xiaofeng looked at his tired eyes, and lovingly lowered his head to kiss his forehead: “A-Yue, if you are tired, rest. You rushed all the way from the capital to Guangling, and then there was a fierce battle. You haven’t had a good rest.”
Feng Yue smiled wryly: “Don’t worry, when I get enough sleep, I will be energetic.”
*
They rested in Guangling for a month before and after. The day they went back was a sunny day. The people and officials of the whole city sent them off for a long way. Their returning team only brought a thousand people, and the remaining thousands of soldiers were all stationed in the Military Affairs Department.
The accompanying military doctor had to take Feng Yue’s pulse twice a day. In just one month, half of Feng Yue’s hair turned white. The military doctor could only give him medicine to nourish his qi and blood to keep him going. The conditions on the road were limited, so they could only wait until they returned to the capital to see the situation.
The speed of the return journey slowed down a lot. They tried to avoid the official road, which could save some unnecessary formalities.
Eunuch Yuan sent the hot water used in the morning into Feng Yue’s tent, only to see the emperor combing his hair for him, looking depressed.
“Your Majesty, Emperor, do you want to serve you for washing up now?”
Wei Xiaofeng said: “You all go out, I’ll do it.”
“Yes.”
Feng Yue felt that Wei Xiaofeng’s mood was extremely low, so he joked: “Yan’er, that little rascal, didn’t know where he caught a money bag of insects yesterday, and scared Eunuch Yuan to call his ancestors.”
“Is Eunuch Yuan still afraid of these?”
“Who says no?”
Wei Xiaofeng sighed secretly, “A-Yue, your hair has turned a lot whiter again.”
Feng Yue held his hand tightly in his palm, with a calm and leisurely expression: “There were indeed many things to worry about before, so I was worried. It’s not that easy to be an emperor.”
Wei Xiaofeng leaned over and hugged him tightly. He would rather Feng Yue always be a idle prince, which is much easier than this emperor, but he couldn’t say it. It was meaningless to say it. Now that he was sitting in this position, he, as the chief of the inner court and his queen, could only do his best to make him easier.
“If I could be of some use, you wouldn’t have to work so hard.” Wei Xiaofeng blamed himself.
These words made Feng Yue frown, “Why do you look down on yourself like this? If it weren’t for you this time in Guangling, or if it wasn’t you, the people in the city would only be more miserable. You have already done more than the duties of the chief of the inner court.”
Wei Xiaofeng felt endless sourness in his heart, “You are too tired. In these short twenty-seven years, you have suffered all the hardships that ordinary people cannot bear.”
Feng Yue’s eyes turned red, and he smiled faintly: “With you caring for me, I don’t feel bitter. When I broke through the Shanhai Pass for the second time, my mother revealed my life experience, and it didn’t break me down. I was thinking that you were still waiting for me to go home in Guangling, and I had to go home and reunite with you. Therefore, no matter how difficult this road to imperial power is, I will climb up.”
Now, he can be considered a success in changing his fate against the heavens, right?
He has protected the people he wants to protect in this life, even if he eventually dies at the age of thirty, there is nothing to regret.
Wei Xiaofeng choked out, and tears flowed uncontrollably down his cheeks. He knelt down in front of him, buried his face deeply in his chest, hiding his tears, but unable to hide his slightly trembling shoulders.
Feng Yue patted his back lightly: “The water is going to be cold, hurry up and wash up. After breakfast, we have to hurry on the road.”
“Um…” Wei Xiaofeng’s voice was muffled. Now that he was the chief of the inner court, he naturally couldn’t cry at every turn, otherwise others would look down on him and it would be bad to establish himself.
He quietly wiped away his tears, took a deep breath, and wrung the handkerchief to wash up for the two of them as if nothing had happened.
A month later, they arrived in the capital.
Feng Yue’s spirit became worse and worse. He went back to the bedroom and rested. He called the imperial doctor to see him. He only said that it was a symptom of qi and blood deficiency, and he wrote a prescription and grabbed the medicine.
Wei Xiaofeng didn’t quite believe it, and asked repeatedly, but the imperial doctor couldn’t do anything. It was indeed a symptom of qi and blood deficiency, but the imperial doctor didn’t dare to say anything else.
After a few days of conditioning, Feng Yue looked much better. Wei Xiaofeng thought that the medicine prescribed by the imperial doctor was still useful, so he stubbornly insisted on personally decocting the medicine and delivering it to Feng Yue, refusing to let others do it.
Feng Yue smiled helplessly: “You are now the chief of the inner court, why do you always steal the work of the little palace maids?”
“Say whatever you want.” Wei Xiaofeng snorted, and handed him the cooled decoction: “Drink it quickly.”
“It’s so bitter!”
“I asked people to prepare sweet-scented osmanthus candy. Your Majesty is not afraid, oh~”
“I’m not afraid.”
“Oh, really? Then why don’t you drink it?”
Feng Yue stared at the dark decoction in front of him, his eyes almost turned into cockfighting eyes.
“It won’t disappear if you keep looking at it, it will be more bitter when it’s cold.”
Feng Yue closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and drank all the medicine in the bowl in one go. After drinking, he howled: “Where’s the candy? Hurry, hurry, give me the candy! Good Emperor you hurry up!”
Wei Xiaofeng rarely saw him so childish, and couldn’t help but tease him every time, but he couldn’t bear to see his bitter and twisted face, and inexplicably felt sad and stuffed the candy into his mouth.
“You have to be well. Look, you have to take medicine when you are sick, and the medicine is so bitter. You suffer a lot!”
“I’m getting better soon. The weather is good today. Accompany me for a walk?”
“Um!”
The enthronement ceremony was arranged in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The palace was decorated with lanterns and colors, a scene of joy.
The Shangyi Bureau sent the enthronement dress yesterday. Wei Xiaofeng had no time to try it on. The emperor was ill, and the ministers’ memorials fell on him, and were reviewed by several ministers of the cabinet.
Wei Xiaofeng was very afraid that he would not do well, and regretted that he had not read more books in his early years, so that he would not be stretched when he needed them.
However, several old ministers of the cabinet were very patient and had great ambitions to cultivate the new emperor.
After all, in the past hundred years of Dayuan, this was the first time there was a chief of the inner court.
The two were walking in the garden with their fingers intertwined, when they saw a small figure running towards them quickly from afar.
“Father, Emperor, save me!”
Old Tutor followed laboriously, running out of breath, “Your Highness! Crown Prince!! The book still needs to be copied!”
Feng Yue grabbed his back collar, “Where are you running to?”
Feng Yan looked sad: “Father, I don’t want to study! You can let me do anything, I want to go back to Guangling! Wuwuwu… I don’t want to!”
Wei Xiaofeng scratched his head guiltily and turned his face away. He deserved to be born by him, exactly the same as when he skipped school when he was a child!
“Tutor Sun, this rascal is here!” Feng Yue shouted to the Tutor Gu who was staggering from the end of the corridor, feeling a little distressed. He was so old and still had to worry about this kind of thing.
Feng Yan looked hopeless, and was taken by his father to Tutor Sun.
“This old minister pays homage to the emperor, alas… This old minister is ashamed of his lax supervision!”
“Tutor, don’t blame yourself. I know what kind of person this child of mine is. Yan’er, apologize to Tutor.”
Feng Yan felt that the general situation was over, and no longer struggled. He cupped his hands and made a bow, aggrieved: “Yan’er is wrong, please forgive Yan’er, Tutor Sun.”
Tutor Sun lifted Feng Yan up, “Crown Prince, please dispense with the formalities quickly. It’s not early, so let’s go back to the old minister and finish the homework!”
Feng Yan was led to the school by Tutor Gu, turning his head every two or three steps. Wei Xiaofeng had not dared to look at him, for fear that his eyes would meet the little guy, and he would be soft-hearted as soon as he opened his mouth.
Feng Yue sighed softly: “He is used to being wild in Guangling, and he is not used to entering the palace for the first time. There are so many rules, so naturally he is not as free as before.”
“That, I think Yan’er is not the material for reading, he is like me.”
Feng Yue smiled wryly: “Letting him read is not to let him take the top prize in the imperial examination. He needs to know the way to be a ruler, and he needs to understand what he should understand.”
Wei Xiaofeng’s heart stung, and he always felt that Feng Yue was slowly letting go of the power in his hands and arranging a way out.
“A-Yue…”
“I suddenly feel a little tired.” Saying that, he yawned and could hardly open his eyes.
“Then let’s go back to the bedroom.”
After Wei Xiaofeng guarded Feng Yue to sleep, he returned to his bedroom and called Sang Cai into the room.
Sang Cai poured a cup of flower tea for him, “Taste it, are you still used to this taste?”
Wei Xiaofeng drank two sips, his lips and teeth were fragrant. The front taste was slightly sour and the aftertaste was sweet, “Delicious!”
Sang Cai’s face lit up with joy: “That’s great, I’ll make some more.”
Seeing that he was still preoccupied, Sang Cai already understood, “Emperor… is he okay?”
“A-Cai, I feel very uneasy.”
“How?”
“The doctors all say that A-Yue is just suffering from qi and blood deficiency, and he has taken a lot of medicine, but he has not seen much improvement.”
“Illness comes like a mountain, and illness goes like drawing silk. You have to take care of yourself slowly. How can there be any great improvement?”
“It’s not like this…”
“Hmm?”
Wei Xiaofeng put down the tea cup, looking sad, with tears in his eyes: “His hair is all white, and the time he sleeps is more than when he is awake, and the memorials submitted by the ministers are all being approved by me and the cabinet…”
“Are you under too much pressure?”
Wei Xiaofeng choked, “Maybe.”
“Don’t be afraid, we’ve all come to this point. It’s fate pushing you forward, then it proves that you have this ability.”
“Is A-Yue not going to live long like this?” Wei Xiaofeng finally asked the doubts hidden in his heart that he dared not ask.
Sang Cai’s breathing stagnated, and seeing his tears falling down like a broken thread, he couldn’t help but feel sad with him.
Sang Cai took the handkerchief and hurriedly wiped the tears on his face: “Emperor, don’t cry!”
“I can only cry in front of you now, I dare not… I dare not cry in front of others.”
Sang Cai felt a burst of heartache, “Does Emperor still remember that five years ago, on the way to the fief, we encountered an assassination. Emperor was so badly injured at that time that almost all the blood in his body was drained. Although he was saved by the Gu technique, it greatly damaged his vitality, and in addition, he had many hidden diseases in the five years of war in the Northwest… Guangling bandits rioted, and he traveled for half a month without sleep. People made of iron couldn’t bear it.”
Sang Cai dared not and could not bear to say the four words ‘exhausted’, for fear that he would be even more sad.