Volume 1: Gathering Winds of Splendor Chapter 24: The Situation in the Imperial City

  Ling Su turned around and took a deep look at the wooden house where she had lived for nine years. She held An Xin's hand and walked out of the yard.

  At the gate, an ancient horse carriage had been parked, An Liancheng supported Ling Susu's hand and helped her onto the carriage. Just as he was about to help An Xin up in the same way, out of the corner of his eye, he saw An Xin lift her skirt and nimbly jump onto the carriage. An Liancheng raised an eyebrow, imitating her previous action, also jumping up ungracefully.

  "What's with learning from me?" An Xin naturally saw the teasing on his face, flipped her eyelids and asked.

  "What can you do that I cannot?" An Liancheng's eyes flashed with a hint of smile, put down the curtain and sat elegantly opposite the mother-daughter pair.

  "You're a general, I'm a village girl, vastly different in status and lifestyle. Aren't you afraid that learning from me will lower your prestige?" An Xin glanced at him sideways with her eyes, her tone devoid of any daughterly respect for her father.

  "Xin'er, what you said is wrong. You are the princess, the emperor's own granddaughter, while I am just a minister. A minister may one day fall from his high position, but a princess will not change." An Liancheng seemed to be arguing with An Xin, saying this with great interest.

  "It's not necessarily the case that a country's ruler will always be able to stay on horseback, let alone me, this insignificant and nominal little princess?" An Xin snorted inwardly, thinking to herself, let's see where your limits of patience lie.

  Ling Su heard An Xin and started speaking astonishingly again, pretending to be angry and glaring at her, scolding, "This remark is absolutely treasonous, after returning to the capital, you must never mention it."

  "It doesn't matter, there's only our family in the carriage. It's okay to talk." An Liancheng looked at his daughter's face, which was very similar to his own, and a doting smile spread across his face.

  He leaned back against the carriage wall, closing his eyes to rest, and appeared to be a gentle father. It was unclear whether this was an intentional act for their first meeting or genuine. There was still plenty of time, and he would have ample opportunity to get close to him. He prided himself on being able to read people well, and he didn't believe that he wouldn't be able to figure out what was really going on with him.

  "Susu, it's been nine years since we last parted, and the capital city has undergone earth-shaking changes. Do you want me to tell you about them?" An Liancheng saw that An Xin was ignoring him, so he smiled and shifted his gaze towards Ling Susu.

  He felt a hint of flattery in his words that was hard to detect, and he couldn't help but feel some surprise. Flattery? Because of guilt?

  "Let's talk about the situation in the palace." For Ling Susu, the changes in the capital were of no concern to her. What she was concerned about was only the palace and the general's mansion, but since she still had a knot in her heart regarding the general's mansion, she just wanted to know about the situation in the palace.

  "Your three older brothers have all been made kings. The Second Prince, Sixth Prince and Seventh Prince were respectively made the King of Ning, King of Ping and King of Wu." An Liancheng said slowly after seeing her nod in agreement.

  "Second Brother is already the King of An, time really flies." Ling Su's eyes had a nostalgic color as she murmured to herself, then suddenly thought of her son whom she had been worried about for nine years, her tone somewhat urgent, "Dust, how is he now?"

  "I thought you had forgotten that you have a son, these years you've been living a carefree life with your daughter, but left Dust and me to suffer in the capital." An Liancheng looked at Ling Susu with an extremely resentful gaze, his tone somewhat mournful.

  "Dad, can you not act like a nagging housewife?" An Xin felt all the goosebumps on his body suddenly wake up, and he opened his eyes to retort.

  He is a martial general, and also the great general of Dongling who shakes the world with his fame. He looks quite handsome too. Such a heroic and refreshing person, speaking in a woman's voice with a raised tone, almost took his own life away. If he were to play the lute with a slender finger, he could rival the green-clad actor on stage.

  An Liancheng coughed awkwardly, his eyes flashing with embarrassment as he cleared his throat. "Dust is very good, already the Emperor's personally appointed Duke of An, following me to train in the military."

  "Father Emperor broke the rules and granted Anxin as the Princess of Long'an, which was already against the ancestral system. How did Dust become a king? Ling Susu didn't understand. A married-out daughter is like spilled water, even imperial princesses can't be an exception. Why did Father Emperor repeatedly break the rules?"

  "That year, you left without saying goodbye, leaving only a letter. I had to tell the outside world that you were seriously ill and recuperating at Yun Tai Temple, with Heart following by your side. However, this explanation was not believed by His Majesty, who secretly asked me for the real reason. He sympathized with my loss of wife and daughter, and granted Dust as a prince."

  "Father Emperor must be very resentful of my arbitrary actions, right?" Ling Susu's emotions were somewhat downcast. A national princess privately leaving the palace was a huge crime, but Father Emperor not only didn't blame her, instead he comforted her.

  "You are the emperor's most beloved eldest princess, he is angry with you but won't blame you." After being separated from his wife and daughter for nine years, An Liancheng was filled with intense joy, a smile lingering on his lips.

  "By the way, Su, do you still remember the young master of the Jade King's Manor? The one who was known as a child prodigy from a young age, Jade Hua?" An Liancheng asked, unable to bear his wife blaming herself.

  "Of course I remember him. He was that three-year-old who could speak fluently and compose poetry at the age of five, Yu Shizi. What's he up to now?" Ling Susu finally showed some interest and asked curiously.

  "In the past few years, the common people of the three countries ranked the top ten young masters, and these ten masters were admired by the people all over the world. They are all dragons and phoenixes among men in the Three Kingdoms. Yu Huasheng, who is at the top of the list, is also known as 'an immortal among mortals who is not tainted by worldly dust'. He is a genius who surpasses everyone else, and is a legendary figure in Dongling. Unfortunately, he rarely leaves his mansion, and those who have seen him can be counted on one hand." An Liancheng said with admiration.

  "He was just boasting and pretending to be mysterious, thinking he's right and praising himself." An Xin listened attentively, after all, she would be living in the capital from now on, so it was necessary to understand the situation. But when she heard An Liancheng's extremely high praise for Yu Huasheng, she couldn't help but roll her eyes in silence and scold him.

  "Doesn't it seem like you're not taking this seriously?" An Xin's sarcastic remarks came in rapid succession, leaving An Liancheng stunned for a while before he laughed and said.

  "He eats the five grains, wears brocade clothes, and lives among people. What doesn't have the air of worldly dust? If he's really an immortal, why not ascend to heaven immediately? Why stay in the mortal world?" An Xin felt that ancient people were also too good at exaggerating. That Jade World Son might have some skills, but was misunderstood by the common people and blown up into a god-like figure through rumors.

  Everyone in the country thinks so, it won't be fake. Ling Susu had seen Yu Hua being exceptionally clever since childhood and deeply believed in her description of An Lian Cheng, shaking her head.

  "This young lady is too lazy to have the same understanding as you ordinary people." An Xin pulled out a sentence of elegant ancient text and closed her eyes, thinking secretly that she didn't know what kind of soul-stirring potion Yuhua had given him, but even his mother, who hadn't returned to the capital for nine years, was infinitely infatuated with him.

  It's really evil, when she arrives in Beijing, I must have a good meeting with Yuhua that hypocrite who buys people's hearts.