A Western Doctor's Happy Farming Life

149. Chapter 149: The Palace

Translator: LiamHW

At the very least, a marriage was definitely a big event in life. But Hening acted decisively like the flowers he just mentioned this morning, blossoming in a passing fancy.

Hening paused for a moment, deep in his eyes entangling with complexity. He didn’t bother to explain more but responded, “Though I don’t intend to make a ceremony in a large-scale, the rule is still there. Anyway, it’s still a long time till the day I marry, you guy… cherish your time.”

After that, he waved his sleeves and left without looking back, making it impossible for anyone to understand why he came over.

Was it because he just came over to check out whether Song Qinghan and Wu Dahu had accepted the Imperial Decree? Or, he just wanted to confirm their attitude towards the matter?

After the two of them calmed down, everything was as usual. They acted as if they didn’t know about the decree and did what they should do every day. However, even if they didn’t say anything, people from all directions kept approaching them to congratulate Wu Dahu on a happy event in various kinds of banquets. As for Song QInghan, he actually got more consolations than congratulations.

After all, the one who was going to marry Wu Dahu was no one other but the infanta! Everyone in his family should pay a full attention to take good care of him, otherwise, it would be a beheading event for them.

Even Su Tingting, the one who didn’t get on well with Song Qinghan, didn’t choose to make a mock or something, but his eyes still revealed some pleasure as if he was cheerful in Song QInghan’s misfortune.

The days gradually passed in peace, and the results of the final tournament finally came out in anticipation.

Wu Dahu got the Tanhua (ancient terminology in ancient times, equal to the third price). Well, that was not a good achievement, nor a bad one.

The man who got an innate strength was the Zhuangyuan (The champion). Yet as for the Bangyan (The second prize), Wu Dahu had no impression toward him at all, he didn’t even know where he popped up from.

Song Qinghan looked at the official notice and couldn’t help but sigh, “I didn’t expect that someone would cheat on this kind of examination. The Bangyan guy should gets a rather solid background which helped him add more thousand jins of the hunted preys and get him a second prize!”

Wu Dahu did not make a sound, because he was doubtfully disappointed either towards the result, but it was still acceptable for him to get the position of the Tanhua than the one who was at the fourth place. It was totally a far cry from that situation.

After the result was made known to the public, the Emperor personally set up a banquet for the top three.

Naturally, the glory spread to the winners’ family members either. Driven by the great curiosity to see the Emperor, Song Qinghan followed Wu Dahu to attend the banquet.

The Emperor was much younger than Song Qinghan thought in his mind, or in other word, the Emperor seemed to get a younger look mismatching his age.

There was only a slight wrinkle in the corner of his eyes. His facial features were straightly sharp, which bore a bit resemblance to the one of Hening. If no one knew his actual age, probably Song Qinghan would guess the Emperor was just at his early 30s. Yet in fact, the Emperor was almost fifty.

The Emperor approached to Wu Dahu when he passed through on the carpet, seemingly intentionally, and then uttered as if he was totally drunk, “In fact, you should be the Bangyan according to your exceptional performance. But I just made you the Tanhua because of another happy event you’re going to get. You won’t mind that, right?”

Wu Dahu was stunned for a moment, then he realized what the Emperor meant by ‘happy event’. Although he didn’t have any expression on his face, he still bowed and said, “I don’t mind at all, Your Highness. I will be obedient to you no matter what decision you’ve made. It will be my great honor to sacrifice myself to guarding this country.”

Regardless of whether the words came from the bottom of Wu Dahu;s heart or not, or it was just a flattering remark, the Emperor was still quite happy to hear that. He reached out to support Wu Dahu by the shoulder and praised loudly, “Good, it’s my luck to get such a great and humble general, making me feel like I’m a tiger with wings added! Haha!”

The rest of the official echoed after noticing that the Emperor was joyful. The next moment, the whole scene for the luxurious banquet was filled with cheerful laughing.

Just as the atmosphere reached its peak, a young toddler figure stumbled in in a staggering way. The little boy knelt in front of the Emperor, hugged the Emperor’s thigh and cried, “Royal father, royal father! I don’t want to marry to make your so-called peace with the minority nationalities! Those barbarians are no one but some wild men who eat human flesh, I just want to stay beside you and accompany with you, royal father!”

A few servants rushed in and nervously reached out to support the young boy. Yet, they didn’t dare to make a strong force to pull the young boy up, so the deadlock remained for a long while.

Dead silence suddenly fell in the banquet scene. It could be seen that the smile on the Emperor’s face suddenly withdrew, he slowly bent down to lift up the boy on the ground, and roared in a low voice, “Don’t you want to marry?”

The child probably noticed that he might get a turning point for his fate, he hurriedly held tight on the Emperor’s hand and rose, and then answered anxiously, “Right! I, I am still too young, royal father! I can’t, I just can’t face those barbarians alone, and probably I will screw everything up!”

He felt that what he said was reasonable. Seeing the Emperor squinted his eyes, he thought he succeeded persuading the Emperor, so he suddenly put away the nervous expression on face but delivered an innocent smile.

“Bang,” a face-slapping sound burst all of a sudden, and the next second it could be seen that the child spun around and finally fell onto the ground again. His face was swollen like a bun when he raised his head again.

Seeing him covering his face in disbelief, the Emperor calmly retracted his hand, put both hands behind his back and coldly said, “Young? I had already ascended the throne at your current age, and commenced handling various state affairs. I just commend you to marry for the peace of the country, and you take your age as your shield? How dare you?!”

“Besides, can you be younger than your little brothers?”

Probably what the Emperor said was too much hurtful, the child cried fiercely as his tears fell and dropped like the jewels in a broken string, yet he seemed to struggle to stay calm biting his lips and forcing himself not to make a sound. After a brief moment of self-pacifying, he answered in a hoarse tone, “What about Royal Brother Hening? He totally prevails me no matter at age or knowledge. Why are you so lopsided?”

All the officials present weren’t some old fools, they naturally knew that if the current topic wouldn’t finish at once, probably some unknown royal secrets would be exposed. In that case, all of them lowered down their heads as if they tried to pretend that they were totally outsiders in this event.

Well, the Emperor wasn’t a fool either. He knew something needed to be quitted, so he waved his hand without words, seemingly he was motioning the servants to drag the child out of the scene.

With the Emperor’s approval, the servants ‘strength suddenly increased as they carried the child. However, they still didn’t dare to cover his mouth but quickly walked out.

The child chuckled when he noticed that Heneing was somewhat the Emperor’s weakness, he continued to shout taking off the gloves, “If the situation in that year reversed, Royal Father, do you think we would get such a life? You’re such a living bodhisattva in this world!”

The words the child shouted didn’t seem to get any problem, yet the Emperor frowned tight there while the green veins on his forehead emerged mercilessly. Well, if the child wasn’t his biological child with a blood tie, he would have shown no mercy now.

After such a farce, everyone present still tried to be absent-minded, and the moment the Emperor left, the banquet finally came to its end and the official dissipated.

Those who were timid and cautious naturally did not say anything to discuss about the ‘Royal Secret’ behind the scene. However, the bold ones started to chitchat about what had just happened.

Wu Dahu left behind, so he heard a lot of things he didn’t know.

“The Fifth Prince is such a bravery talker. How dare he mention the matter happened in those years? He wasn’t even afraid that it would incur the great wrath of the His Highness which might let to his direct banishment to the place where those barbarians live?”

“Alas, the Fifth Prince had lost his biological femina father. And now he needs to marry to the barbarian for the peace of the country. He got a pitiful fate himself. He is forced to the end of the road anyway, I think he did the right thing to risk his life for a faint chance. Well, he would be lucky if he made it. If he didn’t make it, his situation wouldn’t be that bad.”

“That makes sense. By the way, I have to praise over the wit of Infanta Hening. He had predicted that the barbarians would come and ask for the marriage in advance, so he apply to marry before that happened. Most importantly, His Highness agreed without a further consideration! No wonder the Fifth Prince would be so heartbroken.”

“…”

Song Qinghan and Wu Dahu walked out slowly, glanced at each other and got onto the carriage.

“So the reason about Hening’s marriage is not that simple.

Song Qinghan suddenly spoke after the carriage started running.

Wu Dahu grabbed his hands over and gently patted them, comforting, “The royal family is somewhere more complex than the official circles. The royal family members born in such an environment and immerse themselves in their rich lives. So what they say and what they do probably aren’t that simply just as they show on their surfaces. But we shouldn’t bother ourselves to guess their minds because it is impossible for us to guess their ‘Royal thoughts’ no matter how hard we try.”

Song Qinghan nodded thoughtfully. He finally understood why every time he saw Hening, he could sense that the man was rather mysterious as if he was covered by a layer of fine gauze, making the others hard to detect his real expression.

Probably this was the so-called ‘keep the countenance not showing any signs of delight and anger’. And the invisible disguising mask was completely inlaid on the face of those royal family members.

Thinking of this, he suddenly felt a little pitiful. Towards Hening, or the Fifth Prince.

The next morning, the eunuch in the palace came over again. It was not for Wu Dahu, but for Song Qinghan.

Song Qinghan was stunned when he heard that he was summoned by no one but the Imperial Noble Consort. It seemed that he took long to finally come back to his senses.

When he followed the eunuch into the palace, he remembered what kind of person this Imperial Noble Consort was.

Was he the one Wang Chaoyuan had once mentioned? The beauty whose appearance could overthrow cities and ruin states, and meantime got a higher ranking than Song Qinghan in the beauty ranking?

Song Qinghan couldn’t figure out the reason why such a beauty who at the same time got the noble identity would summon him into the Palace. It couldn’t be that he heard the beauty ranking from Wang Chaoyuan, and summoned out of curiosity?

The internal structure of the palace was really complicated. Before Song Qinghan fainted from several turns, the eunuch leading the way finally stopped and bowed, saying, “Your Majesty, Sir Song is here.”

Song Qinghan’s heart tightened and he didn’t dare to raise his head. Seeing that the eunuch had moved aside, he politely imitated the movement in his memories to pay salute and then greeted in a tender tone, “Your Majesty, Commoner Song come here to greet.”

Up above Song Qinghan’s head there came a crisp and melodious laughter. Before Song Qinghan reacted, a gentle force suddenly appeared on his hand and held him up.

He subconsciously raised his eyes but then quickly lowered his head at the moment he met a femina man in sight. Every single word in this spacious world would fail to precisely describe the beauty of the Imperial Noble Consort.

The beauty came with extraordinary temperament while exceeding the boundaries of the genders. No one but him deserved to be called the ‘rare beauty’.

Yet, Song Qinghan still knew the fact that the most beautiful creatures always came with the most poisonous internal. He didn’t want to get his eyes dug by the unknown wicked intention hidden behind the beauty.

After seeing Song Qinghan’s reaction, the Imperial Noble Consort smiled satisfactorily and said softly, “I heard from the Wang Chaoyuan that he had changed his beauty ranking list. I’m rather curious about it, so I just invited you here. Well, that guy didn’t lie at all, you look quite beautiful with spiritual appearance like a celestial being.”