Chapter 673 Shocking news

Zhao Yuan's words made Liu Xunyi stunned, and an ominous premonition quietly rose from the depths of his heart.

"My Lord, what does this mean?"

"Xunyi, I have watched you grow up, and I know that you are brave, resourceful, loyal and courageous. In time, you will become a pillar of the country." Zhao Yuan seemed to be afraid to look directly into Liu Xunyi's eyes. His eyes were erratic and hesitant, and he kept talking about other things. "I hope that you can care about the world and be ambitious, and not be fettered by personal feelings..."

"Master Hou!"

Liu Xunyi knew that Zhao Yuan was beating around the bush. If it were any other matter, he would have judged the situation and would not have pressed the issue. But today was different. This was about Zhao Xin, so Liu Xunyi could not turn a blind eye. He had to get to the bottom of it and get to the bottom of the whole thing.

"Xunyi, actually, this matter... I didn't intend to hide it from you." Under Liu Xunyi's almost eager gaze, Zhao Yuan hesitated again and again, and finally spoke hesitantly, "I called you here alone tonight, and I also intend to tell you the truth..."

"The truth?" Liu Xunyi's heart tightened, and his anxiety became stronger. "What truth?"

"About Zhao Xin..."

"What happened to Xin'er? Did something happen to her?"

"No! She's fine, she... is fine." Seeing Liu Xunyi looking forward to hearing about Zhao Xin, Zhao Yuan felt even more upset, "It's just that now she is no longer 'Princess Xinde', but 'Princess Xinde'."

"Princess?" Liu Xunyi was stunned, as if she didn't understand Zhao Yuan's hidden meaning, and hesitated, "What do you mean? Why did 'Princess' suddenly become 'Princess'?"

"The emperor has adopted her as his adopted daughter." Zhao Yuan looked at Liu Xunyi who seemed to be thinking about something, and said word by word, "Do you know what her canonization as a princess means?"

"I know!" Liu Xunyi felt mixed emotions, unable to tell whether she was happy or sad. "Xin'er becoming a princess means that the gap between her and my status is getting bigger and bigger, and the distance between us is also... getting farther and farther."

In response to Liu Xunyi's mumbling, Zhao Yuan did not respond, but looked at him silently with complicated eyes, as if waiting for him to get out of the "sea of ​​love" by himself.

"Xinde...Princess..."

Liu Xunyi frowned, Zhao Xin's every frown and smile kept echoing in his mind. He suddenly felt heartbroken and extremely sad.

"Xunyi, you are still young and have a bright future. Don't be trapped by love and cut off your own retreat." Zhao Yuan advised, "There is a saying that goes, 'A real man will never have trouble finding a wife.' In the future, when you are successful and famous, and are crowned as a king or a prime minister, you will be able to choose any woman in the world. You can find any woman you want. Why should you be obsessed with Zhao Xin now..."

"why?"

However, despite Zhao Yuan's earnest advice, Liu Xunyi simply refused to listen.

At this moment, he was in a state of confusion, with a myriad of thoughts running through his mind. Suddenly, he was shocked, and a terrifying light flashed in his eyes. He stared at Zhao Yuan, who looked helpless, and asked, "Why would Xin'er be recognized as the emperor's adopted daughter for no reason?"

Seeing that Liu Xunyi was stubborn and unmoved by his good intentions, Zhao Yuan simply made up his mind, his expression gradually became solemn, and he said frankly: "As the saying goes, 'a short pain is worse than a long pain'. Since you will know the truth sooner or later, I will not say any more. I tell you, only if she is promoted to a princess will she be eligible to marry Mongolia and become the princess of Mongolia!"

"what?"

Zhao Yuan's words were like a heavy hammer, hitting Liu Xunyi's heart hard, and immediately made his heart sink, as if he had fallen into an ice cave in an instant, and then fell into a sea of ​​fire, and suffered repeated tortures of ice and fire, his bones and blood vessels froze into frost, and his internal organs were burned out. For a moment, his breathing was blocked, his heartbeat stopped, and the whole person froze in place as if struck by thunder, unable to recover for a long time.

"Xunyi, the Mongols suddenly retreated northward. Do you think it was really the work of the Western Palace?" Zhao Yuan explained, "If they hadn't used the name of 'marriage' and paid tens of millions of taels of gold and silver as dowry, how could the Mongols easily retreat northward? The Mongolian army on the westward expedition traveled thousands of miles, and the money and food were consumed greatly. Now it is a critical moment of lack of soldiers and food. The Western Palace gave them a large amount of money and food in the name of 'marriage', which was called 'dowry', but it was actually to subsidize the military pay of the Mongolian army on the westward expedition. This matter can not only satisfy the greed of the Mongols, but also save the face of the court, so that people all over the world will not poke our spines."

At this point, Zhao Yuan's eyes could not help but flash with anger, and he said: "It is clear that the Western Court is afraid of fighting, and they are willing to spend all the national treasury to please the Mongols. But they are shamelessly boasting in the court, boasting that they 'brought the wind and snow', 'did not avoid swords and axes', 'exhausted their energy', and 'spent their lips and lips' to succeed in the negotiations and return triumphantly. It is simply shameless, despicable and vulgar! Unfortunately, the power of the Song Dynasty is declining. If a war breaks out, our chances of winning are slim. Therefore, the emperor knows that "Marriage" is a bad idea, but we have to endure humiliation and compromise. Instead, we have to promote the cowardly villains in the West Palace, and the civil and military officials are forced to praise them. Now, the West Palace has made contributions to saving the country and is proud of it, but in fact, they are just talking, and the real job of raising gold and silver still falls on our East Palace. The prime minister was furious about this and had to take medicine all day to support himself. "

"Marry Mongolia... become the princess of Mongolia..."

At this moment, Liu Xunyi had no intention of listening to Zhao Yuan's "righteous indignation", because his mind was now full of Zhao Xin's miserable appearance of being forced into a helpless situation, at the mercy of others, unable to live or die.

Thinking of this, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but feel grief and indignation, and extremely ashamed and annoyed. His fists were clenched so tightly that they made a crackling sound, and the muscles all over his body trembled violently and uncontrollably.

"Why?" Liu Xunyi clenched her fists and chewed her teeth, "Why did it have to be Xin'er? The emperor clearly has a princess from Rui, why did he choose Xin'er as his wife?" "Now, the emperor only has a princess from Rui, how could he let her marry far away?"

"Even so, you can choose another princess..."

"It was Prince Rong who first proposed the marriage and tried his best to promote it. Therefore, sending Zhao Xin to marry was also Prince Rong's idea." Zhao Yuan knew Liu Xunyi's thoughts very well, so he interrupted, "Zhao Xin is not only born with a fairy-like appearance and a beautiful face, but also proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy, and painting. She is well-educated and has both talent and beauty. In this respect, she is far beyond the reach of other princesses. Moreover, Prince Rong and the emperor are brothers of flesh and blood. In order to repay the emperor's kindness and share the emperor's worries, Prince Rong had to reluctantly send Zhao Xin..."

"Nonsense!" Liu Xunyi became angrier and angrier as she listened, and even became angry and rude, "Prince Rong simply wanted to curry favor with the emperor, so he pushed Xin'er into the fire pit! Anyway, Xin'er is not his biological daughter, so of course he doesn't care about Xin'er's life or death..."

"How dare you!" Zhao Yuan's face darkened, and he said angrily, "Liu Xunyi, do you know what you just said? How dare you slander the prince? Are you tired of living?"

"Am I wrong?" At this moment, Liu Xunyi no longer cared about the rules of respect and etiquette. When he thought of Zhao Xin's situation, he couldn't help but get angry. "The prince died young, and the emperor still has no children. Prince Rong has always wanted to adopt his son into the palace to become the crown prince, so that he can ascend to the throne and become the new emperor in the future. For this reason, he tried his best to please the emperor, even sacrificing Xin'er..."

"Bastard!"

Liu Xunyi repeatedly uttered rebellious words, which made Zhao Yuan unbearable. He angrily picked up the teacup on the table and smashed it at Liu Xunyi.

"boom!"

With a crisp sound, the teacup hit Liu Xunyi's forehead squarely and shattered. The scalding hot tea overflowed all over his face, mixed with a trace of bright red blood, and slowly flowed down.

"Liu Xunyi, you are too presumptuous!"

"My Lord, I..."

"Do you know that just based on what you said, the imperial court will be able to cut you into pieces?" Zhao Yuan said angrily, "By then, not only will your life be in danger, but the entire Tianji Pavilion will be implicated by you, and even I will be buried with you! You have made irresponsible remarks about the imperial government and made presumptuous guesses about the selection of the crown prince. Even if you have ten lives, they will not be enough to die!"

"My Lord, I just..."

"That's enough!" Zhao Yuan mercilessly interrupted Liu Xunyi's argument and said in a deep voice, "The court has already made a decision on this matter. I am only informing you tonight because of your old relationship with Princess Xinde. I am not here to discuss it with you, and I am certainly not here to listen to your disloyal and unfilial words."

Knowing that Zhao Yuan was furious, Liu Xunyi was like possessed today. Not only did she not give in, but she was stubborn and argued with Zhao Yuan: "Xin'er is the descendant of a meritorious official after all. How can the court treat her like this? If Prince Yu were alive and saw his daughter being treated so unfairly, just ask..."

"Don't I know? Doesn't the court know? Doesn't the emperor know?" Seeing Liu Xunyi dare to contradict him, Zhao Yuanqi was furious. "I can tell you clearly that no one forced Zhao Xin to marry in Mongolia, and no one held a knife to force her. Everything was her own will!"

"What?" Liu Xunyi was shocked and confused for a moment, "Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! Xin'er will never agree to the marriage, she will never abandon me..."

"Liu Xunyi, this is the Tianji Pavilion in Lin'an City, not the Xianwang Mansion in Luoyang City! You are facing the court and the emperor, not the lawless and arrogant bandits in the martial arts world." Zhao Yuan angrily taught, "I order you to restrain your temper and be careful with your words. Don't bring the banditry you learned in the martial arts world to the court. Otherwise, I would rather kill my relatives for the sake of justice than let you humiliate the reputation of the Tianji Pavilion! Besides, even Zhao Xin knew how to sacrifice her life and die for the enemy, but you, a seven-foot-tall man, can't distinguish between public and private, and are confused and infatuated. How can this be?"

"But……"

"Get out!" Zhao Yuan did not give Liu Xunyi a chance to refute, and said sternly, "From today on, you will stay in your room and reflect on your mistakes. Without my order, you are not allowed to step out of the door!"

"My Lord, I..."

"roll!"

Seeing Zhao Yuanqi's face flushed and his whole body trembling, Liu Xunyi couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Even though he was very angry, he had to stop talking and swallow his tears.

He suppressed the bitterness in his heart, bowed to Zhao Yuan tremblingly, then staggered out of the study, gradually disappearing into the night like a walking corpse.

……

(End of this chapter)