On the carriage back to the capital.
The countryside was interspersed with dense forests and trees. Between the occasional swaying of the carriage, the steed snorted.
Inside the carriage, the white sleeved robe covered the spine and the back of the head of the person on the body, and when the arms moved away, the sleeved robe slipped off Xue Yuan's body. Xue Yuan's bony fingers were propped up on top of the carriage wall, and below him, the face of the saint was already tinted with scarlet.
Gu Yuanbai brow in the insatiable, eyes containing moist light, eyes from the bottom up when looking at Xue Yuan, the same blood-filled lips such as ink paintings generally haloed. Xue Yuan's breathing stopped, and then lowered his head to touch the moist lips.
Fingers reaching into the collar from behind, Gu Yuanbai touched a few uneven scabs, his fingertips lurched, rubbing back and forth twice, "Still scarred."
Xue Yuan held his small arm, "It doesn't hurt."
"It's a little annoying," Gu Yuanbai said lowly, "It would have been nothing."
"A scar left by protecting His Holiness and remaining for a lifetime," Xue Yuan genuinely felt pleasant, "it's not something anyone can have."
But His Holiness pursed his lips, still unable to laugh.
Xue Yuan thought to himself, why is it so cute.
He cherishedly lowered his head, and one bite pasted the saint's face full of saliva. The saint squinted his eyes at his kisses, and Xue Yuan couldn't help but heartily wonder how he was so adorable again.
"Your Holiness," unable to resist softening his accent, "how far have I and you come now?"
The saint opened his mouth to speak, but Xue Yuan couldn't help but burrow along the crack of his lips, his lips were so thin that if he wasn't careful, he would be sucked bleeding, so Xue Yuan sucked on the tip of the saint's tongue.
Gu Yuanbai was hurt by his sucking and pushed him for a while before Xue Yuan reluctantly backed away.
"When I want to speak, you blocked me from speaking," Gu Yuanbai hissed, pinched Xue Yuan and bit his chin, lightly scolding, "Are you a dog?"
Xue Yuan stared at Gu Yuanbai's collar without saying anything, and Gu Yuanbai frowned and looked down, only to realize that the collar was wrinkled from being rubbed, and had slightly spread out, with his white skin down and faintly visible.
An eyebrow raised, fingers overlaying the collar tightening, "Where do you think we're at now?"
Xue Yuan returned to his senses, rarely uncomfortable. He clenched his fist and coughed lowly several times, his face looked calm, but his ears were already red under the beams of light between the cracks in the carriage, and Gu Yuanbai looked at his out-of-place appearance, and without realizing it, already had some laughter.
Xue Yuan squirmed for a while before squatting down, he held Gu Yuanbai's hands and threw his voice, "Talking about the point of marriage."
His eyes were soulful and bright.
Silence in the carriage, only this long distant sound, as if it came from the ancient times, stretching thousands of miles constantly.
Something inside Gu Yuanbai's body was beating faster and faster.
He knew what it meant. The corners of his lips pursed straighter and straighter, but there was an unusual redness to them. He restrained himself and inclined his head as the heat rose gradually.
The side of his taut face was already flushed with color.
Under his nervousness, Xue Yuan only thought that he was angry, and quickly explained, "It is not necessary to really talk about marriage."
He crouched down on Gu Yuanbai's knees, cushioned Gu Yuanbai's hands, and offered a hot heart, "I don't want to spread any colorful rumors with you, and I don't want people to think about you when I don't know. I don't want people to think about you when I don't know. I don't want people to see you in this condition."
Xue Yuan was suddenly glad. He was glad that Gu Yuanbai was the emperor, and that he couldn't do anything about Gu Yuanbai. Otherwise, with obscure thoughts like his, he would have just circled Gu Yuanbai in his own territory. Even more so, he might have erased Gu Yuanbai's name from the history books, so that future generations wouldn't be able to get a glimpse of Gu Yuanbai.
How terrible, he even thought about whether the Xue House could lock up Gu Yuanbai for the rest of his life.
But the saint is destined to spend a lot of ink in the history books, since this is the case, Xue Yuan only wants Gu Yuanbai to be clean and dry. He does not want him to be spied on by a random stranger in the later generations, and to be frivolously hitched to the voluptuous colors by bystanders.
"...... "The skin on Gu Yuanbai's lips stuck together, sweet and cloying, "Is this the reason why every time you kiss me, you tidy up my hair and clothes meticulously?"
Xue Yuan gave a muffled hmmm.
Gu Yuanbai's lower jaw tightened, the delicate knots of his throat sliding up and down, his eyes sensing the heat on his face, smothered by the need to clench his teeth tightly.
The neck is long and somewhat stiff.
If Xue Yuan raised his head at that moment, he would be able to see the red-faced saint.
"Talking about marriage," only after a long time did Gu Yuanbai start his lips, wanting to cover up, "Well, it's true that it's impossible to talk about marriage."
Gu Yuanbai.
People are whoring themselves out, so why do they still feel such extreme shame afterward.
Confessions are confessions.
What's the point of being so sincere?
Gu Yuanbai tried his best to suppress the wrongness above him, sweat seethed out and dyed the black hair on his temples, his wretchedness could not be hidden.
Xue Yuan was still crouching on his knees, sentence after sentence, "No talk of marriage. But I have come to this point with you, and I have asked Master Emptiness that His Majesty's body is weak and unable to conceive an heir. Is it good for me and the saint to marry no one and live like this for the rest of our lives?"
For life.
How dare he say anything.
Gu Yuanbai suddenly asked, "If your parents forced you to start a family with your body?"
Xue Yuan laughed sullenly, "They wouldn't dare."
Gu Yuanbai thought of Xue Yuan's madness, Xue Yuan hadn't made a mistake in front of him for a long time, and he had forgotten the arrogance in this person's bones. If he said he didn't dare, then old General Xue and his wife couldn't do anything about it. Gu Yuanbai moved his legs, "Get up, you're weighing me down."
Xue Yuan obediently got up, raised his eyes to see the saint's flushed face, he was worried, his upper hand probed, "Hot?"
Gu Yuanbai slapped down his hand and said vaguely, "Nothing."
Xue Yuan was still uneasy, Gu Yuanbai licked his lips, and when the tip of his tongue touched it, the flesh of his lips was also hot.
He frowned, feeling that he was also too uptight, fanning the wind with his hand. Xue Yuan instantly understood and drew off the gold, silver, and jade fan at his waist, sending a cool breeze to Gu Yuanbai.
Gu Yuanbai: "Open the window opening."
Xue Yuan opened the window with one hand, and the head guard outside met his gaze and nodded with a smile.
The cool breeze blew in from the left and right, and the wind through the hall crisply took away those charming moments. Gu Yuanbai's mind gradually calmed down, he looked at the greenery outside the window, every tree was lush and pale, and when the breeze moved, all the branches and leaves began to sway.
"I have spoken to you many times," Gu Yuanbai muttered, "reminded you to be on point, and since you still want to pounce, I will no longer care about you."
Xue Yuan covered up from behind him, "Your Holiness."
"If I had not seen any hope of life, I would not have gone on a royal expedition," the saint smiled, "nor would I have been willing to delay the others. But you disobeyed me again and again, and it really troubled me then."
Xue Yuan couldn't hear him say this, but he still endured it and listened to him finish.
"I've never stopped searching for famous doctors in secret, the sky is not a dead end, since I'm here, there has to be a chance for me to live," Gu Yuanbai said, "but I'm also a human being, and all humans are disappointed at times. I want to live, but the world is so big, and the chance of life is so slim, if I don't find a chance to live by the time I die, will I be willing to do so?"
"Time is short, like a white horse passing by, those precious hours, I can't use them to indulge in love," the carriage suddenly lurched, Gu Yuanbai leaned back and threw herself into Xue Yuan's arms, "I want to live, I want to live very much. I've used every means to find the possibility of living, and now I finally have the hope of living, but after the conquest, underneath the victory there will still be some rootless emptiness."
Xue Yuan fiercely hugged Gu Yuanbai tightly.
Gu Yuanbai looked at the blue sky and white clouds.
To himself, he said, "So you'll have to find a way to yank me good."
Tugging at the land.
*
Hundreds of officials were outside the Imperial City to welcome His Majesty back to the capital.
Gu Yuanbai got off the carriage, the eunuch shouted, is the hundred officials kowtowed, shouted three times "long live the emperor".
The ministers looked excited, with tears in their eyes, and every cry and bow was made with all their strength. Tian Fusheng followed Gu Ran to the front, Gu Ran put his hands together and bowed down, his little head had not grown much taller, and said in a proper voice: "Congratulations to Father Emperor on his triumph!"
Gu Yuanbai touched his head and looked at the Imperial City from afar, and with a sudden smile, lifted his breath and said, "All the ministers leveled off."
He led Gu Ran with one hand and slowly walked through the hundred officials.
The hundred officials bent respectfully, the old ministers trembled, and the young ministers were excited and high-strung. This smooth avenue leads straight to the emperor's palace.
Gu Ran tilted his head to look at the hundred officials on both sides, and then tilted his head to look at Gu Yuanbai.
Father's simple clothes, step slowly, each step is calm and steady, rivers and mountains, just in this step between the step out of the miles of peace.
Gu Ran clenched his father's hand.
He blinked calmly and followed his father's example, looking straight ahead and walking slowly on the path beneath his feet. Without slanting his eyes, he only looked ahead.
Will he look as dashing as his father?
*
After His Holiness returned to the capital, he was busy until the end of the month, and the boiling emotions in the capital only slowly calmed down.
Gu Yuanbai's days returned to the previous rhythm, to Fusan with the nomadic land of the school missionary matters handed over to the Hall of Government and the Privy Council, he only need to understand the progress can be.
Xixia local rectification school slowly on track, many officials have been transferred to the Xixia post. Zhejiang salt into the market after a large number of salt prices, coupled with the country vigorously combat the sale of private salt, the Secretary of the Ministry of the household these days smile to see the teeth, gold and silver treasures large quantities to the Treasury to send, Gu Yuanbai every time you go to look at the treasury money, the mood will become a strange good.
The days then move soothingly towards September.
At the beginning of September, Gu Yuanbai took Gu Ran to see Prince Consort He's daughter, Little County Princess Gu An'er.
When Sister An turned three months old, Gu Yuanbai gave her a title and showed her favor many times. From the emperor's shelter, so that the days of the Wangfei is very comfortable, she is now a lot of rosy cheeks, daily teasing her daughter to play, when the weather is clear, will climb the mountain with her daughter to incense, always have a lot of fun.
The little Sheriff was raised extremely well, white and chubby, the meat of the hand gently pressed, is a small meat pit.
Gu Ran looked at the way his little sister was so happy to see her father and queen that her mouth watered with joy, her brows tangled, and she secretly tugged on her father's lapel.
Gu Yuanbai didn't notice his little gesture. Although he liked to tease crying children, he was limited to doing so with boys. For the fragrant and soft little girl, that was how to spoil her. Gu Yuanbai gently wiped the little county princess clean of drool and held her in his arms for a while.
The little princess has not seen Gu Yuanbai a few times, such an age should not be able to remember people, but he was so joyful, sticky in Gu Yuanbai's face to leave a spit prints, said that the kiss, in fact, is to nibble.
Gu Yuanbai laughed a few times and handed the little county princess back. Beckoning Gu Ran over, he rubbed Gu Ran's head, "Brother Ran, come over and meet Sister An."
Gu Ran looked at the little county princess who fought to open her mouth and hands toward Gu Yuanbai in her nursemaid's arms, her brows slatting, "Sister An is good."
It was only after half an hour that the group came out of the Prince of Harmony's residence.
Today the sky is clear, Gu Yuanbai thought about it and asked Gu Ran with his head down, "Do you want to go with Father to climb the mountain for incense?"
Gu Ran's bereft look was swept away, he abruptly raised his head, his eyes glowing, and he nodded heavily.