"I pleaded for General Gu just because, according to past precedents, General Gu shouldn't have been punished. Whether General Gu appreciates it or not, he should know it in his heart," Su Wan'er was not swayed by his attempt to sow discord.
"Then why did General Gu come to the Su family so early in the morning?" Si Junlin's face looked extremely ugly. Su Wan'er kept her eyes on the tip of her nose, not knowing what she had done to upset him this time.
"Your Majesty may not know. I grew up with Miss Wan'er here since childhood. My grandmother was very kind to me, and I've always dared not neglect the courtesy for all these years," Gu Jingtian's words were indeed the truth in Su Wan'er's eyes. However, Si Junlin just left with a flick of his sleeve, saying, "Come back to the palace with me."
Moody! Su Wan'er murmured to herself. Then she remembered that he was the one in power in the palace and she still needed his care. So she quickly obediently followed him.
"Brother Jingtian, I have to go. See you later." She had just walked with a ladylike gait for a while, but then her act broke down.
"Ah..." Su Wan'er quickly stopped in her tracks. Fortunately, she didn't bump into him. Did all emperors think differently from ordinary people? He was walking in front properly, and she almost couldn't keep up. Why did he suddenly stop here?
"Empress, do you still want to secretly leave the palace and meet General Gu again?" Si Junlin turned around and looked at Su Wan'er, who was full of complaints.
"Er... Hehe, I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare. I just... I couldn't help expressing my feelings when facing my relatives. Who wouldn't want to see their relatives more often?" Just as Su Wan'er was speaking, Si Junlin suddenly pulled her to one side and turned around himself. But he still couldn't avoid being grazed by an arrow that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Ah... Si Junlin?" Su Wan'er came to her senses and saw a streak of blood oozing from his shoulder.
She had always been sensitive to the five senses. Why didn't she notice this arrow at all?
"How are you?" Su Wan'er immediately grabbed his arm and then nervously checked the color of the arrowhead to see if it was poisoned.
"Why are you so flustered? Do you care about me?" Si Junlin endured the sharp pain and watched her nervously checking his injury.
"Nonsense. Of course I care about you. You're the emperor. If something happens to you, what will happen to the Jin Kingdom?"
If it weren't for the second half of the sentence... Si Junlin thought that maybe this woman still only regarded him as the emperor who had forcefully brought her into the palace.
Su Wan'er picked up the arrowhead and looked at the color of the blood again.
The color of the blood was neither as dark as if poisoned, nor the usual bright red. Instead, it had a grayish-green sheen.
Out of habit, Su Wan'er wanted to tear a strip of cloth from her clothes to bandage the wound, but after tearing twice, she found that she couldn't. Was it because the clothes in the palace were made too well?
"Hahaha, hahaha." Suddenly, a very unpleasant but extremely arrogant and shrill laugh came from the alley in the distance.
"It seems that the Queen of the Jin Kingdom, who is always known for her peerless martial arts, is just so-so. Why, can't you even tear a piece of cloth?" A woman in strange clothes, whose age was hard to tell, walked out of the alley while mocking Su Wan'er.
The woman was only as tall as a few-year-old child and very thin. If she hadn't heard her voice, Su Wan'er would hardly have been able to tell that she was an adult.
Although her clothes were all in black, she was wearing several layers in a disorderly way. This style vaguely reminded her of... Xiao Jiu! Right, when she first met Xiao Jiu, she was dressed like this too, but in red all over. Coupled with her cute appearance, it was completely different from this gloomy woman standing in front of her now.
"Who are you? Since you know this is the Queen of the Jin Kingdom, how dare you hurt someone at the foot of the imperial city?" Si Junlin no longer deliberately stretched out his arm for Su Wan'er to look at as he did just now. At this moment, he didn't hesitate to protect Su Wan'er behind him.
But Su Wan'er thought he was being heroic in the wrong place. At this time, one was a peerless martial artist, and the other was the extremely precious emperor who didn't know martial arts. It should be her who rushed to the front anyway.
"Hehe, I not only want to hurt someone, but maybe I'll even kill someone later." The woman's smile became more and more contemptuous, but Su Wan'er felt her consciousness becoming more and more blurred. Before she could react, Si Junlin fainted in front of her first.
"Hey... Si Jun..."
"Hahaha, come on, take them away." The woman laughed even more arrogantly.
It seemed like a long, long time had passed in the darkness. Su Wan'er felt that she was wandering in the boundless darkness. She subconsciously wanted to find a way out, but she couldn't find it. She could only stretch out her hands and grope in the darkness. She became more and more painful... and more and more eager to get out.
After that, scenes flew towards her, real and illusory. Her father came back from the front line. Her mother took her little sister. On the Mid-Autumn night, everyone was waiting for her elder brother to come home.
"All my life, although I've only been an upright general, I'm glad that all of you have achieved something," at the dinner table, her father rarely praised each of them one by one.
"Wan'er, since ancient times, heroines have been as good as heroes. Don't be afraid. Our Jin Kingdom doesn't have prejudice against women. As long as you have the courage, you can also be a female general and bring glory to our Su family," although her father seemed to be a rough martial artist, he always understood her best.
But... if she really became a general.
Time passed, and in the blink of an eye, she was in the court.
"Su Wan'er, the third daughter of the Su family, I hereby appoint you as the first female general of our dynasty. You will hold the rank of a junior cavalry general and lead five thousand troops," it was actually Si Junlin. It was Si Junlin who appointed her as a female general? Didn't he always be wary of the Su family?
"I, your humble servant girl, thank Your Majesty for your great kindness. I will surely live up to your trust," seeing herself happily receive the imperial edict and express gratitude, Si Junlin on the steps suddenly seemed so strange.
"Wan'er, if you become a female general, you can't be my queen anymore," Si Junlin suddenly walked up to her and said.
"Um... Your humble servant obeys the order."
"Then you won't be able to see me a few times. I'll have to find another queen," Si Junlin pressed on, still with his usual moody look.
"Yes..." If he found another one... then let him find another one. The Jin Kingdom couldn't be without a queen after all. But... Si Junlin, you must never swap identities with your new queen like we used to. That... that would be so embarrassing.
"I may appoint Concubine Mei or Concubine Xi as the queen. Are you still willing?!" Sure enough, he got angry for no reason again.
"No... Don't... Ah!" Su Wan'er seemed very reluctant. After a long while, she finally woke up.
In front of her was like an abandoned temple where no one lived. As soon as she opened her eyes, she saw a Buddha statue covered with a layer of dust. The Buddha was smiling kindly, but in this room with the doors and windows closed, illuminated only by the light coming through the holes, it looked a bit scary.