Chiyun Ping half lay on the couch . Upon seeing that Yan Feng had arrived, her heart went wild with joy, but she still pretended to lift herself up in a sickly manner. "This concubine greets Your Majesty. Since I"m under a light sickness, I couldn"t come out to welcome Your Majesty. I ask for your forgiveness!"
Yan Feng pressed her back down on and consoled gently, "Just lie down. I have been busy with work and made you feel lonely, I feel very ashamed. You just properly nurse your illness. I will be staying here with you!"
Chiyun Ping"s eyes brimmed with tears. She tenderly looked at Yan Feng. "Ping"er thought Your Majesty didn"t need Ping"er anymore." As she said those words, tears fell beautifully from her eyes like pearls.
"How can that be? You are my most favored Ping"er. Today in the court, some old officials were still waiting to discuss with me about something. I will come to see you later." Yan Feng only said some perfunctory words before he came up with an excuse to leave. Chiyun Ping covered her face and wept. She couldn"t bear it when Yan Feng gave her the cold shoulder like this.
Chiyun Ping"s love for Yan Feng was genuine. They could be considered childhood sweethearts.
When Chiyun Ping was little, Chiyun Nan often brought her and her brother, Chiyun Yuexuan, to the Imperial Palace to play. Back then, Yan Feng"s birth mother, Consort Rongxiao, was still an unfavored concubine and Yan Feng wasn"t the crown prince yet. When he was little, Yan Feng once led a solitary life. Perhaps because his mother was isolated by the other concubines and he himself was often bullied by the other princes, Yan Feng always hid in the garden and cried. Until one day, he met the Chiyun brother and sister pair, there was finally someone who were willing to play with him and listen to him confiding about his worries.
Chiyun Yuexuan was a tough kid growing up. Hearing that Yan Feng was bullied, he instantly help him teach that bully, an older imperial brother of Yan Feng, a lesson. The three ambushed the path where that prince must go through every day. When that prince appeared, they put a gunny sack over his head and gave him a good thrashing. When that prince finally got out from the sack with difficulty, the trio had soon escaped to the small woods behind the rockery and laughed heartily. For the first time in his life, from Chiyun Ping and Chiyun Yuexuan, the lonely Yan Feng felt the warmth of friendship.
From that day on, the Chiyun siblings often came to the palace to play with Yan Feng. The three became close friends. Together, they played games, poked fun at the palace maids and eunuchs, and even stole desserts from the Imperial Kitchen sometimes. Every corner of the Imperial Palace had their cheery laughter. Back then, Chiyun Ping was a crude tomboy.
Gradually, Yan Feng"s personality grew stronger under Chiyun Yuexuan"s influence. As the three grew up, they slowly became aware of the difference between men and women.
Yan Feng and Chiyun Yuexuan weren"t too willing to play with Chiyun Ping anymore. The two boys often abandoned her to play more exciting, more dangerous games. Chiyun Ping was extremely angry at this.
Chiyun Yuexuan often led Yan Feng to jump over walls to sneak out of the palace. Like two unbridled horses, they would run amok in a vast field and enjoyed the freedom that only children of peasant families could have. When they grew tired after running, the two would lie down on the lawn and have a deep conversation.
Chiyun Yuexuan told Yan Feng that he once heard his parents discussed marrying Chiyun Ping to Yan Feng in the future. Yan Feng instantly blushed and willfully denied, "I only regard Ping"er as my little sister. I won"t marry my little sister."
Chiyun Yuexuan only thought Yan Feng was just being shy and too embarra.s.sed to admit he liked Chiyun Ping. Holding a strand of gra.s.s in his mouth, Chiyun Yuexuan smiled evilly. "But my big sis is so beautiful! Don"t you want to be my brother-in-law?"
Yan Feng sighed, "I only consider her my little sister."
Because the two always left Chiyun Ping behind when going out to play, she was very angry and complained to Chiyun Nan of their bad deeds. That was why Chiyun Yuexuan often was lashed by his father"s whip. However, that didn"t change a thing. After the two young boys had a sweet taste of it, they took every chance they could to sneak out and go wild, and their friendship grew deeper as time pa.s.sed.
When Yan Feng turned sixteen, the Emperor sorted out a list of several daughters of high-ranking officials" families to be betrothed to him, one of them was Chiyun Ping. However, Yan Feng chose the daughter of Minister of Revenue Xie Zikai, Xie Shuangying, to be his wife. Chiyun Ping was so infuriated that she locked herself up in her room, crying for days.
The day of Yan Feng"s grand marriage, in her anger, Chiyun Ping ran away from home to a nunnery called Meichu, wanting to shave her head and become a nun. Chiyun Yuexuan got wind of this news in time and stopped her. After a long consolation, he promised Chiyun Ping that he would definitely make Yan Feng marry her.
After his wedding ritual, Yan Feng and Xie Shuangying treated and supported each other with mutual respect. While their relationship didn"t have any solid foundation, Yan Feng was pleased by Xie Shuangying"s being highly cultured and steeped in propriety in addition to being very reasonable. The two lived their married life in harmony.
Yan Feng gradually revealed his talent. The late emperor appreciated his worth more and more each day, until Yan Feng won the t.i.tle of Crown Prince in one fell swoop. Half a year later, Yan Feng"s imperial father, Yan Han, was diagnosed with a lung disease and required resting. Yan Feng officially became the new emperor and appointed Xie Shuangying to be his empress.
Unable to have Yan Feng from beginning to end, Chiyun Ping pined away, feeling as if all her hopes had turned to dust. Nothing interested her anymore. She told her parents that she would not marry for life. Chiyun Yuexuan was worried about her health, so he discreetly visited Yan Feng. Using their past relationship, he pleaded Yan Feng to marry his sister, saying that their family would be satisfied even if the marriage was only in name only.
Yan Feng was unable to persist through Chiyun Yuexuan"s wheedling. That year, the 20-year-old him appointed the 19-year-old Chiyun Ping to be n.o.ble Consort. Also, he bestowed upon Chiyun Ping"s father, Chiyun Nan, with the main second cla.s.s rank of Zhuguo Commandery Duke. At the same time, the 18-year-old Chiyun Yuexuan was t.i.tled Yunhui General. Inheriting his father"s will, he traveled to the southernmost region to be stationed at Fuling Pa.s.s, the border pa.s.s to Giskhan Country. The people of Giskhan were tough and brutal in nature, their soldiers often came to ransack Huayan people"s food. Consequently, the two countries" armies often drew weapons at each other and fought to gain territory. That was why Fuling Pa.s.s became the border city with the most warfare in Huayan Country.
Chiyun Ping didn"t know Yan Feng married her because of Chiyun Yuexuan. She only thought that Yan Feng changed his mind because he remembered their past relationship. As for Yan Feng, he gave Chiyun Ping a lot of favor due because he felt a bit guilty toward her.
Chiyun Ping had misunderstood Yan Feng"s att.i.tude towards her, so she ignorantly competed with the empress for Yan Feng"s favor. Not only so, she repeatedly initiated conflicts with the empress, which put Yan Feng at a loss of what to do. Fortunately, the empress was a sensible person and yielded to Chiyun Ping at all times, and Yan Feng was glad to see this. As for Chiyun Ping, her one-sided affection didn"t get one bit of Yan Feng"s true love in return!
Half a year later, the empress" health suffered from hidden diseases due to a difficult labor. Not only so, the prince she gave birth to couldn"t survive because his body was too weak. This worsened the empress" illness and sapped away at her life force. She gradually became haggard as she mourned for the prince"s death. Not long after that, the empress pa.s.sed away. Yan Feng grieved for a while before he decided to come around and put all of his energy on the national matters.
That was when the new revised system directed at rectifying the court"s atmosphere promoted by Chiyun Nan was displaying its most important effect. In a swift and decisive manner, he reformed the old system, pushed out new policies, and resolved the causes of several conflicts between political parties, helping Yan Feng eliminate a series of underlying risks. Due to this, he was t.i.tled Commandery Prince Yan. As for his son Chiyun Yuexuan, the youth also accomplished brilliant achievements at the border.
With his wisdom and resourcefulness, Chiyun Yuexuan and his Red Python Heavenslayer Halberd cut off the heads of several important Giskhan generals. As they suffered a big loss in Chiyun Yuexuan"s hand, Giskhan Country didn"t dare come to provoke again. Taking this chance, Chiyun Yuexuan claimed over two of their cities with ease. Having lost all will to fight, the high-ranks of Giskhan army had to temporarily give up on invading Huayan Country.
When he set out to the battlefield, Chiyun Yuexuan always covered his face with a dark green cloth and a gold-rimmed eyepatch, so they gave him a t.i.tle: Darkface Halberd Fiend. The h.e.l.lish and ruthless young general could scare various khanates at the south of Huayan out of their wits with just his name alone. Of those countries, Nakhan and Asulikhan sent their envoys to make peace with Huayan and signed a peace treaty with the promise to deliver benevolent tributes every year. This was a never before seen event for Huayan in the past hundred years. Through this, the southern border of Huayan was fortified, the name of General Chiyun spread far and wide!
Due to his ill.u.s.trious deeds, Chiyun Yuexuan skipped three ranks and was directly promoted to Bulwark General. The pair of father and son"s glorious promotion shook the imperial court. Many officials said that, even though the Chiyun family did accomplish outstanding merit, they only were promoted so fast because of Chiyun Ping"s influence. No one ever even reconsidered how much blood and lives of Chiyun clan"s soldiers had sacrificed for the country. Even Chiyun Yuexuan was heavily injured and nearly killed many times in the battlefield. He relied on his courage and insight to resolve one danger after another, but he came out alive from these dangerous situations with countless wounds on his body.
In the same year, Chiyun Ping was t.i.tled Imperial n.o.ble Consort, the highest rank possible of consort rank, and also the highest favor Yan Feng could provide her with. The position of empress remained empty as the only bottom line that Yan Feng couldn"t let himself cross.
While Yan Feng favored Chiyun Ping on the outside, he still let the position of empress open. Chiyun Ping wouldn"t rest easy until this position was hers.
Chiyun Ping often had a nightmare in which Yan Feng had a new love and didn"t want to spare her even a glance. At the end of the dream, the new love claimed her coveted t.i.tle of Empress and even had Yan Feng strip off Chiyun Ping"s t.i.tle and throw her off to the Cold Palace .
Every time Chiyun Ping woke up from this nightmare with a scream, her face would be full of tears. She gradually grew scared of sleeping and became extremely moody!