Xue Yuan stepped into Gu Yuanbai's Xuanzheng Hall once again after a month and a half.
Gu Yuanbai was seated behind the table and looked up at the sound of the voice, the corners of his mouth smiling slightly.
Xue Yuan saw the smile on the corners of his lips from afar, and looked straight at him for a moment before following General Ding Yuan's footsteps as he pressed his features and murmured in a low voice, "It seems as if he's looking a bit better."
The two ministers came up to pay their respects, and Gu Yuanbai called them up in a warm voice, and after they finished reporting on the matter of the rebel army and the situation in the Jinghu South today, Gu Yuanbai nodded and let them return to their homes to rest.
General Ding Yuan obediently retreated, but Xue Yuan didn't move his feet, and Gu Yuanbai looked at him, his gaze moving from the tips of his eyebrows to his neck, secretly wondering what kind of weather Jing Hu Nan was having, directly darkening people by a few degrees.
"What else does Qing Xue have to do?" Gu Yuanbai asked.
In July, the weather was hot. There was an ice basin in the Xuanzheng Hall, and the sun outside accompanied the disturbing chirping of birds and cicadas, distorting the air in the sun.
It was only in January and seventeen days that Xue Yuan met Gu Yuanbai.
Gu Yuanbai's face was a little redder from the heat, the clothes on his body were thinner, and the knuckles under his jade trigger finger were still round and white.
Xue Yuan was dressed in his regular clothes, his armor had been removed, and he still had the scent of wind and sand on him, at this time, he smiled slightly and calmly said, "As the Pre-Temple Du Yu Waiter, I naturally want to protect the safety of His Holiness, and accompany him at all times."
Gu Yuanbai pondered for a moment and said, "That won't be necessary, the imperial decree to promote Xue Qing will come down later. Xue Qing is a great talent, so he won't have to stay by my side in the future."
The smile on Xue Yuan's face stiffened for a moment, and his tongue felt a bit of bitterness as he slowly asked, "Your Holiness, what do you mean by this?"
Seeing that Gu Yuanbai did not speak, Tian Fusheng interjected with a smile, "Lord Xue, this is the Holy Spirit's way of seeing your great talent and wanting to give you a promotion!"
The fire that had just started in his heart was violently iced over again.
Xue Yuan's eyes sank as he looked at Gu Yuanbai for a long time, and after a long time, he smiled coldly, "I will obey the decree."
Turning around, he strides out of the Hall of Declared Government.
Gu Yuanbai watched him leave with his robe and feet flying, and he could tell from those steps how angry Xue Yuan was. Gu Yuanbai rubbed his nose and turned his head to ask Tian Fusheng, "I'll reward him for his merits and give him a good position, isn't that good enough?"
Tian Fusheng was also puzzled, "I can't figure out what Lord Xue has in mind either."
"It's just," Gu Yuanbai rubbed his brows bitterly, unable to figure out what Xue Yuan was thinking, "I don't care about him."
As soon as Xue Yuan walked out of the palace, he stopped with an expressionless face.
The palace behind him was golden and huge, but it was icy and cold, without a trace of human feelings, exactly like its owner.
Xue Yuan squeezed that dragon patterned white handkerchief in his sleeve tightly and just returned to the Xue Mansion without the slightest expression.
Gu Yuanbai.
The people of the Xue Mansion had been waiting for him for a long time, and when Xue Yuan lay down in his room after bathing, he was still looking at the beams above his head with his eyes open.
After thinking about it all night and for a long time, I finally figured out how to do it.
The little emperor would be naive if he thought that this would drive him away.
When Xue Yuan first went into battle, he had his eye on a dagger in the arms of an enemy leader, and he almost lost his life on the battlefield for that dagger. But the dagger still belonged to him, Xue Yuan wanted something, as long as there was a breath of air, he crawled to pick it up into his arms.
Either that or kill him.
Either give yourself to him.
Isn't it good enough when you've had a good time? Isn't it enough that he made him feel good enough?
Gu Yuanbai didn't give the rebels more than a day to live, and at noon that day, he beheaded these important figures in the rebel army in the middle of the capital.
When it was time, Xu Xiongyuan looked at the capital people who surrounded the circle after circle to watch the fun, looking at the excitement in their eyes and can not wait to get rid of after the fast giddy, only to feel in a trance that he was completely defeated.
Gu Yuanbai was capable of beheading Lu Feng, and would he really let him escape the capital with five thousand soldiers? Perhaps from this point on, from the time he was chosen by Gu Yuanbai, he was defeated.
But he understood too late.
At 3:00 p.m., heads were rolled.
The following evening, it was a small banquet that Gu Yuanbai threw for the meritorious officials.
The palace maids were busy, preparing wine and serving dishes, and on the open space in the middle of the palace banquet, there were singing and dancing women from the palace dancing.
The current saint is not good at women s colors, and his eyes are full of clarity when he looks at the songs and dances. Xue Yuan had a glass of wine and glanced at the emperor, his eyes burning, hot.
At the small banquet, in order to show his graciousness, the saint wore a bright yellow regular dress, and the occasional lifting of cups and sleeves revealed the dark light of the gold patterns on the coat lines, and Xue Yuan traced the dark patterns with his eyes as his mouth drank glass after glass of wine.
Sitting beside him was General Ding Yuan, who was already intoxicated by the crowd's toasts, and when he turned towards Xue Yuan, he was shocked by the empty bottles on the ground, "Ho! Lord Xue, why is your drinking capacity so amazing?"
Not far away, Chang Yuyan heard this, and the scout laughed out loud as he raised his glass towards Xue Yuan and General Dingyuan, "General Dingyuan has spent more than a month with Xue Jiujiuyao in the South of Jinghu Lake, and he still doesn't know Xue Jiujiuyao's capacity for alcohol?"
General Ding Yuan said, "He does climb up to the eaves every day to shake his bottle and drink, and I always ask him if one bottle is enough, I never thought that I would still underestimate Lord Xue's drinking capacity."
Chang Yuyan smiled and raised his cup with General Dingyuan to drink.
Xue Yuan suddenly stood up, carrying a cup of wine in the direction of the saint. Just before he could get to his heels, the Prince of Harmony, who was sitting at the lower left head of the saint, stood up, raised his cup towards Gu Yuanbai, and said in a low voice, "I'd like to propose a toast to the saint."
Gu Yuanbai glanced at his afterglow, but inadvertently caught a glimpse of Xue Yuan, who had stopped his feet not far away. Xue Yuan's long eyebrows flew diagonally into his temples, seemingly smiling, looking at the two of them as if they were watching a good show.
It seems as if, precipitously, Mad Dog is back to what he was in the beginning. But it seems like it's worlds away from what it was at first.
Gu Yuanbai withdrew his gaze and instructed Tian Fusheng with a sideways glance, then he raised his wine cup, gestured with Prince He, and took a shallow sip.
The Prince of Harmony tilted his head back and finished the cup of wine without a drop left, he looked at this shallow sip of Gu Yuanbai and didn't say anything, sitting down again in silence, as if he was simply honoring the saint with a cup of wine.
Only after the Prince of Harmony sat down did Xue Yuan step forward, Tian Fusheng happened to bring a new pot of wine and water and refilled a cup for His Holiness, and Gu Yuanbai smiled and said, "Qing Xue has made a sublime appearance this time."
This look is a glance, "Where did the dripping water come from on Xue Qing's hand?"
Xue Yuan looked down and casually said, "The wine glass cracked a seam."
Gu Yuanbai had someone replace his wine cup with a new one, and after Xue Yuan reclaimed it, he lifted his sleeve and had just passed the white jade wine cup to his lips when Xue Yuan said, "Don't drink it, Your Holiness."
Gu Yuanbai's hands gave a beat and raised his eyes to look at him.
The watery light was reflected in the eyes of the saint, Xue Yuan's throat rolled, and he drank the wine from the glass in one go, then suddenly stepped forward and swiftly snatched the glass from the saint's hand, and similarly drank not a drop of it left.
The clear water that was brought over by Tian Fusheng to pretend to be wine was clear and sweet, Xue Yuan had a smile on his face and said in a gentle manner, "Your Holiness this wine tastes extraordinary."
Gu Yuanbai's hand was still paused in place as he sniffed, the corner of his mouth tugging, "Is that so?"
"Tian Fusheng," he said, looking straight at Xue Yuan, "Reward this jug of liquor to Xue Qing."
Tian Fusheng answered yes and stepped forward to hand the wine jug to Xue Yuan. Xue Yuan carried the wine jug but still didn't leave, his shadow almost covering Gu Yuanbai underneath himself, and after a while, he said, "Your Holiness, you haven't rewarded me for what you said you would reward me for last time."
Gu Yuanbai remembered the cave almost instantly.
Thoughts drifted for a moment that his little brother was served really well by Xue Yuan that time.
The man was a bandit and had rough hands, but jerking him around was a match for a treasure.
Gu Yuanbai felt a bit of scummy guilt in his heart as he softened his voice, "What do you want?"
Xue Yuan grinned, ambled down, and whispered, "Your Holiness, you once wore away one of my minister's garments."
Gu Yuanbai didn't hold back a laugh, "Tang Xuefu Da Duke, this is still with me on a piece of clothing?"
"That's not true," Xue Yuan said, "I do think that that garment looks good on His Holiness and should be worn more often."
He had already spoken many words with the saint up there, and there were already quite a few people looking over, the Prince of Harmony sitting at the lower left couldn't hear them talking between the silk and bamboo pipes and music, but he could see that they were getting too close, and he immediately frowned and said loudly, "Lord Xue is this still not finished speaking?"
Xue Yuan exerted force in his hands, almost even pinched out a crack in the cup that His Holiness had just used on his lips. He smiled and said, "Your Holiness, do you still have the jade trigger finger I sent you?"
Gu Yuanbai thought to himself, "Why is Xue Jiuyao asking all these questions today?" But he raised his hand. But still raised his hand, between the green onion white fingers, the jade trigger so heavy that it almost dripped green liquid wrapped in delicate flesh, like a flower with dew, beautiful.
Xue Yuan admiringly looked at it many times, how he wanted to reach out his hand to kiss and touch it, but no, it would scare people away. Xue Yuan suppressed his thoughts, bowed towards Gu Yuanbai, took the wine cup and a deliberately hidden white jade cup, and leisurely walked back.
The Prince of Harmony on the side glanced towards Gu Yuanbai's hand, his eyelids fluttered, and he withdrew his sight. But when he saw Xue Yuan's back, this sense of haste condensed back into a deep rage.
This eldest son of General Xue's family was also too bold, so much for making a toast, he even dared to take the wine from Gu Yuanbai's hand. But what made Prince He's heart even more depressed was that Gu Yuanbai hadn't even punished him.
Could it be that the Emperor's favor is enough to indulge this man's audacity?
What the others were thinking was none of Gu Yuanbai's business.
The evening breeze in the early afternoon was much cooler than the daytime, Gu Yuanbai drank the water and ate a few bites of food, and when he felt that the time was almost up, he ordered the people to withdraw the feast.
When the saint retired from the banquet, Prince He also got up and followed behind Gu Yuanbai, he followed in silence all the way, and when he was about to arrive at the bedchamber, Gu Yuanbai asked, "Prince He has something to say to me?"
"Nothing," Prince He's voice was muffled, not happy to raise his head to look at Gu Yuanbai, "I missed the late Emperor, so I wanted to come to the palace to take a look."
Gu Yuanbai found it interesting and tasted a few unusual meanings, he raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Alright. Since the Prince of Harmony misses the late Emperor, then you can stay in the palace for a night, the late Emperor usually likes to stay at the Huayi Palace, so the Prince of Harmony will stay there this night."
The Prince of Harmony answered in a deep voice, glanced at him before leaving, and followed the eunuch away.
Gu Yuanbai narrowed his eyes at his back and ordered, "Go check if Prince He has had any recent incidents."
He waited for Tian Fusheng to respond before he continued toward the bedchamber.
After washing up, lying on the bed, Gu Yuanbai held the sheep's white jade and closed his eyes, rubbing his fingers over the jade pendant a few times, but suddenly thought of the white jade cup he had used at the banquet.
What about the cups?