Chapter 19#

Chu Ruiyuan always felt that when Liu Jun’an was smart, he was truly smart, but when he was foolish, he was truly foolish.

But he never expected Liu Jun’an to be foolish enough to plead for Fang Xueying.

Fang Xueying was suspected of plotting against the imperial heir, who might be the only imperial heir in his life. How could Liu Jun’an, how could he plead for Fang Xueying?!

If something had really happened to the little prince at that time, and if he had no son afterwards, this vast country would fall into a state where there was no one to inherit it. Even if he could have a son, and marry another empress to face day and night, wouldn’t Liu Jun’an feel uncomfortable and unwilling in his heart?!

The more Liu Jun’an pleaded for Fang Xueying, the more hatred he felt in his heart. Even if he could sentence Fang Xueying to exile, he was determined to take her life, so as to save his Mingzhi from having more thoughts in the future.

But Liu Jun’an actually knelt in the palace all night for Fang Xueying, a woman who had only been his concubine for two years. He was so annoyed that he couldn’t help but say something like “I am the ruler of this country”.

Fortunately, his Mingzhi knew what was good for him and stopped pleading. Instead, he obediently sent Fang Xueying on her way personally.

Chu Ruiyuan was finally satisfied, just waiting for Liu Jun’an to admit his mistake again.

Admit the mistake that he actually forced him to turn against him for the sake of others.

However, Liu Jun’an couldn’t come to the palace to find him for a while.

As soon as the spy planted in the Prime Minister’s mansion reported back, Chu Ruiyuan knew that his affair with Liu Jun’an had been exposed.

Prime Minister Liu and Minister Liu were both important ministers of the court, and they were Mingzhi’s father and brother. He thought about taking it slowly, and it would be better to use some gentler means to solve it.

Just when he had made various plans and was about to carry them out, he had to change his plan and send someone to summon Liu Jun’an into the palace.

Because the white-haired boy he drove to the southern border back then had actually grown into a wolf and returned.

Although the boy had dyed his hair and changed his name, as soon as Chu Ruiyuan saw Dugu Yan, he knew that the person he had driven away had returned.

He talked with Dugu Yan for a long time but they parted on bad terms. If the other party wasn’t an envoy of a country, he would definitely make it impossible for him to leave the palace alive.

Chu Ruiyuan issued an eviction order the next day, but he was still uneasy in his heart. He was afraid that this person from the southern border would cause trouble again. He could only feel at ease by locking Liu Jun’an in his palace until the other party left.

But Dugu Yan was actually bold enough to hijack someone guarded by the Imperial Guards in the capital.

He actually dared to put a love gu on Liu Jun’an.

Seeing Mingzhi in unbearable pain, Chu Ruiyuan only felt that his own heart was also aching.

If it weren’t for the threat of the love gu living and dying together, he would have skinned Dugu Yan alive to get the method to remove the gu from his mouth.

Fortunately, Dugu Yan finally relented, otherwise if he was forced not to see Mingzhi in this life, he was afraid that sooner or later he would go crazy.

“If you remove the gu for Liu Jun’an, I will send you back to the Southern Kingdom safely. If I violate this oath, I will not be able to protect the most precious thing in this world, and I will not die a good death!” In the heavenly prison, Chu Ruiyuan swore to Dugu Yan as agreed.

Dugu Yan looked at him for a long time, and suddenly laughed in a low and hoarse voice: “Do you know that in the southern border, it is not like in the Central Plains. We believe that when people speak, the sky is listening. If a person does not keep his word, the heavens will remember what oath he made!”

Chu Ruiyuan didn’t intend to break his oath.

As long as Dugu Yan returned to the southern border and lived peacefully, he would let him live safely until the end of his life.

But Dugu Yan actually planned to come back in five years, so he couldn’t let him make a comeback and become a scourge again.

What’s more, he swore to send the person back to the Southern Kingdom safely, but he didn’t promise not to do anything within the territory of the Southern Kingdom.

So what if the heavens were listening?!

But Chu Ruiyuan calculated everything at that time, but he didn’t expect that he would eventually harm Liu Jun’an’s life.

In the years that followed, Chu Ruiyuan didn’t know how many times he thought about it. As soon as he closed his eyes, the scene of Liu Jun’an falling in front of him that day would reappear, but he could never figure out why his Mingzhi would die with Dugu Yan.

It seemed that his own oath had really come true, that he would not be able to protect the most precious thing in this world.

What he couldn’t protect was not the country he had always thought, but the person who had accompanied him all the way.

From childhood to adulthood, from adulthood to coming of age, the person who had been with him for seventeen years did not accompany him to the age of thirty.

His Mingzhi’s age was fixed at twenty-seven, leaving him alone to walk forward for another ten years.

In the ten years, the prince became the crown prince, and grew from an ignorant child to a somewhat accomplished young man. Liu Junping took over from his father, who had retired and returned to his hometown, as the Prime Minister.

Many people changed, and many people didn’t change, just like the Noble Consort who had been avoiding the world since the Empress “passed away”.

When Chu Ruiyuan was stabbed in the chest by her, what he felt in his heart was a sense of relief.

It seemed that he should have fulfilled the oath of “not dying a good death” back then and left with Liu Jun’an, but he was tied to his body and suffered for another ten years until he was free today.

Going to chase an old friend, his heart is full of joy.

[First Life End]