With a beaming smile in her eyes, she looked at Huo Wei, just like a bride on her wedding night.
The arm holding the wine cup threaded through Huo Wei's, and she slowly tilted her head back, pouring the wine into her mouth. Huo Wei also slowly tilted his head back, but the moment the cup touched his lips, he suddenly slammed the cup hard onto the ground.
The porcelain shards of the wine cup shattered, and the wine that symbolized the impending fulfillment of the marital union had spilled all over the floor.
Du Gu Luanyue blinked her eyes and looked at Huo Wei in bewilderment. "For no good reason, what's gotten into you?"
Huo Wei tightened his thin lips and stood up beside the bed.
"Do you really want me to expose you face - to - face for what you've done? You clearly were so reluctant, yet you voluntarily proposed to pay homage to heaven and earth. Do you think I don't know what you're up to?"
He truly hated it so much, hated that there were still people scheming against him.
Du Gu Luanyue's wide - opened eyes slowly drooped. A hint of gloom flashed across her charming and blushing face. She looked at the wine cup on her fingertips and gently rubbed it with her soft fingertips.
"I've never been reluctant. I just couldn't have it both ways."
Huo Wei turned back and stared at her fiercely. "You drugged me. You just wanted to leave, didn't you?"
Du Gu Luanyue swallowed the sourness in her throat. "An imperial maid gave me the sleeping potion. She said she had a way to take me away. The sleeping potion is on the tea tray on the round table behind you."
Huo Wei turned to look. Sure enough, there was a small medicine packet casually thrown on the tea tray, seemingly unopened.
His black eyes trembled slightly, and he was speechless.
Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Paying homage to heaven and earth with you has no other meaning. I just want to see what it's like to marry you. I just want to spend one happy day with you in this forcibly - built paradise.
I know I can't do much. I just thought I could fulfill your wish and make you happy."
Tears dropped onto the bright red phoenix robe, blooming like a splash of water. Du Gu Luanyue clenched her fists, and the sourness in her heart was like that of an early - spring apricot.
Huo Wei's tall and straight figure froze in place. When he turned around, he just saw her tears falling.
His black eyes suddenly tightened. "I..."
At this moment, he seemed not to know what to say. Only her aggrieved look was imprinted in front of his eyes.
Huo Wei felt a tightness in his chest. The hand behind his back instantly clenched into a fist, and his knuckles protruded.
Du Gu Luanyue said, "In other words, I know you hate it most when people leave without saying goodbye, so I won't do that.
The whole of Northern Yan is your territory. Where can I escape to? Huo Wei, I won't leave you without saying goodbye. I just hope that after you figure things out, you can let me go voluntarily."
If she guessed correctly, the one named Cui Yan must have been deliberately let in by Huo Wei.
Huo Wei was testing her to see if she would drug him.
And just because Cui Yan said it was a sleeping potion, did it really have to be one? She wasn't that stupid.
Perhaps in the eyes of Concubine Li, Wei Zhiruo, she had no feelings for Huo Wei at all and just wanted to escape.
Huo Wei said harshly, "I will never let you go."
She leaned against the bedrail, with a slight curve on her lips. She picked up the wine pot beside her and poured the wine into her mouth.
After finishing a pot of wine, she fell drunkenly onto the bed curtain. The brocade quilt was soaked with tears.
"Huo Wei, I also want to forget who I am. I also want to live for myself once. I also want to escape all my responsibilities."
He looked at Du Gu Luanyue struggling painfully on the bed with blood - red eyes. Wasn't this also his pain at the moment?
Pushed into this position by the hand of fate, this was a high platform that he and Du Gu Luanyue could hardly get off in this lifetime.
The gentle night breeze of spring blew across his cold and handsome face, getting colder and colder.
He walked over, bent down, took off Du Gu Luanyue's shoes and placed them on the ground, then reached out and covered her with the quilt.
That night, she was really drunk.
When she woke up the next day, it was already noon.
She opened her eyes, rolled around on the bed and then got up. When she lifted the curtain, she saw Huo Wei sitting in front of the round table, pressing his temple with a headache on his face.
Du Gu Luanyue rolled out of the bed and walked over. "What's wrong with you?"
After a night, they didn't dwell on what happened last night anymore, and their moods were relatively calm.
Huo Wei said in a deep voice, "The memorials that Shen Guilan sent in a hurry are full of all kinds of things from the court officials. Their disputes are driving me crazy. It's really different from the exhilaration of leading troops into battle before."
Du Gu Luanyue looked at the round table. Besides a lot of memorials, there were also some light porridges.
She casually picked up a pancake and stuffed it into her mouth, then sat down beside Huo Wei and pulled the memorials over to read.
"Northern Yan has emphasized martial arts over literature and despised business for many years. This has caused the resources of the whole country to be skewed. Some aspects have too much, while some are too scarce.
As the emperor, you're not here to judge who's right or wrong, but to balance and check. Just don't let any aspect become too powerful.
At the beginning of your accession to the throne, for the sake of your imperial reputation, you might as well support the formerly weak aspects more, so that the civil officials and merchants who have been ignored for a long time can be more motivated.
You're from a military background and already have prestige in military positions. If you can also win the hearts of the civil officials and merchants, your throne will be more stable."
Huo Wei casually handed the vermilion pen to her. "You do it."
Du Gu Luanyue: "..."
She pursed her lips and still took the vermilion pen, writing word by word.
Huo Wei sat beside her, watching her write.
Du Gu Luanyue's vermilion annotations flowed smoothly. After glancing at a memorial, she would unhesitatingly reject the ones that should be rejected, and for the ones she thought should be implemented, she would add some strategies.
By the end of the afternoon, she didn't have a headache. At most, she would scold the stupid policies in some places.
Huo Wei was collecting the memorials on one side, stacking them up one by one. "Then I'll go and cook something for you."
Du Gu Luanyue didn't even lift her head. She was very busy and her voice was serious and cold. "Okay."
Huo Wei walked out of the Huaqing Palace and wondered. "Meng Tan, look. We're both emperors. Why do I seem like the chief eunuch beside her?"
Meng Tan wanted to laugh, but for the sake of his head, he still said some insincere words.
"Your Majesty is the true dragon emperor. Maybe you're just not used to it since you just ascended the throne.
Just give the memorials that Prime Minister Shen sends later to the Empress. Your Majesty just needs to take care of the logistics."
Huo Wei reached out and patted Meng Tan's shoulder. "That's exactly the case, but after you said that, I have an urge to throw you out of Northern Yan."
During dinner, Huo Wei personally stewed pigeon soup and served it in front of Du Gu Luanyue. He instantly felt that he didn't look like an emperor at all.
He thought about calling back the imperial chefs, but Du Gu Luanyue said that the food cooked by the chefs had a different meaning from what he cooked himself.
The chefs were sent back halfway.
Three months passed in a flash. The two of them lived a peaceful and happy life in the hot - spring palace, in this forcibly - built paradise.
She helped Huo Wei read the memorials and taught him how to be an emperor. They would also annotate the memorials together.
Before dusk, they would hold hands and take a walk in the sea of flowers all over the hot - spring palace. They would also cook different kinds of food from Northern Yan and Southern Chu.
Huo Wei would only return to the palace for a few days when Shen Guilan threatened to hang himself in front of the Zichen Palace. The rest of the time, he was in the hot - spring palace.
Huo Wei was already deeply immersed in this life. However, the fact that the emperor had not attended court for a long time had caused quite a few complaints among the court officials. They repeatedly urged the emperor not to be bewitched by beauty, lest it would bring chaos to the country.
The situation was getting out of control. Even the hot - spring palace could hardly hold up. The civil and military officials were about to turn it upside down, saying that they wanted to kill the evil empress to rectify the court discipline.