Chapter 22 Reason With You

After leaving Yanshi City, Li Fuyao just concentrated on heading for Shaoliang. Even Qing Huai had to admire him as this teenager was quite methodical. The destination of their trip was the border between Yanling and Dayu, but as they walked, Li Fuyao always thought about when they should get to some place. If Qing Huai hadn’t delayed for several days, according to his plan, they should have reached the capital city and its environs.

Li Fuyao had never been to Shaoliang City, but he had stayed in Dazhou for many years and got accustomed to most people’s temperament in this country, so he hoped to see what the capital city looked like and the emperor who was always worshiped by his people. This time he was going to the Sword Mountain and would pass Shaoliang City, so it was fine that he would see the emperor by the way. Li Fuyao was just worried that Qing Huai would be unwilling to. After all, this teenage girl from the demonic land was his greatest reliance.

Nothing troublesome happened to them when they were in Dazhou, but it didn’t mean that everything would go well in the future. He and Qing Huai would walk together in Yanling.

Li Fuyao just left a small town which was like a dry well and went to Dazhou, like a small pond. He wanted to see more scenery and get some achievements, and one country like Dazhou was not enough for him.

The two returned to the official road and headed for Shaoliang City. They met much more passers-by on the way than before. Many troopers passed quickly on the road from time to time. The soldiers went southward or northward to the battlefields and left for the borders of Dazhou to expand the territory. It was said in the ancient books that the soldiers would suffer on the battlefield, but Li Fuyao had never seen the bitterness in the troopers’ eyes. Instead, they were passionate. Li Fuyao had only seen the expression in the noblemen’s eyes in Luoyang City. While the noblemen showed such an expression because their descendants were lucky enough to be chosen and enter Yanling Confucian Temple and they could see the sages. But these troopers were going to risk their lives. Why did they look like this?

There were too many things that Li Fuyao couldn’t figure out, so he stopped thinking when he couldn’t understand. When they were on the way, the people from Dazhou liked to talk about the news in the country, and except for the fact that the emperor sent many soldiers to fight in the south and north, the hot news was something that happened in Shaoliang City. The emperor would select a husband for Princess Anyang.

As the emperor’s most loved daughter, Princess Anyang was supposed to marry the talent from the Xie Family, Xie Ying, but in fact, all people in Dazhou knew that as the most outstanding descendant of the Xie Family, the young promising man Xie Ying was most likely to be the successor of the family and would never enter the imperial palace to be the emperor’s son-in-law. Although the title of the emperor’s son-in-law was attractive, after all, if he became the princess’ husband, he couldn’t be in the army according to the ancestral rule of Dazhou. It was obvious that Xie Ying was quite valued by the Xie Family and couldn’t enter the palace. So after the emperor laughed it off, he truly started to arrange the marriage of the princess.

Princess Anyang was eighteen years old and was born to the empress, who died when giving birth to her. So the emperor always doted on this princess who took after the empress. For so many years, he had never spoken loudly to her, let alone cursing or beating her, as everybody in the city knew. No matter who would become the princess’ husband, although he couldn’t be in the army, his family would be favored by the emperor in the future. Therefore, after the news spread, the whole country, at least Shaoliang City and its environs couldn’t quiet down.

The emperor had three requirements for his future son-in-law. First, the candidate couldn’t be too ugly. Second, he shouldn’t be poor in martial skills, and the third one was that his family should be blameless and anybody of the three generations didn’t break the law.

But in the end, it was the most important that the man should win the princess’ heart.

Li Fuyao merely pursed his lips and mocked at it. So the three requirements were not essential as long as the princess loved the man.

Although he could hear about many things, they were not accurate before he saw the imperial decree. On the way to Shaoliang City, Li Fuyao really saw the imperial decree aiming to find a husband for the princess.

Standing in front of the imperial decree on a wall, Li Fuyao read the words on it and found that it was the same as what he had heard in the past few days. He was surprised at the emperor’s resolute character. The emperor would select some men in Shaoliang City these days and decide the final list at the end of this month to let Princess Anyang choose.

Li Fuyao thought of Xie Ying who was in the frontier fortress now and remembered what he said when they chatted in the hotel. He murmured, “You like Princess Anyang but you don’t want to humble yourself. Now the princess will marry somebody in a low position. I’ll see what you would do.”

Qing Huai walked behind him and certainly heard his words clearly. She turned to Li Fuyao and sneered, “What’s wrong, Li Fuyao? Do you want to be the emperor’s son-in-law, too? Oh, yes. Anyway, you can live in comfort after marrying the princess. Why would you have to practice swordsmanship? Just go, in case you suffer.”

Li Fuyao was used to Qing Huai’s sarcasm and sneer. He even felt uncomfortable sometimes when he didn’t hear such words.

Yanshi City was not far from Shaoliang, and Li Fuyao and Qing Huai didn’t walk slowly. Thus, before sunset on the third day, they saw the outline of the magnificent capital city.

However, before they entered the city, Li Fuyao had a conflict with two people.

It was nothing serious. When they entered a tea house to have tea outside the city, Qing Huai and Li Fuyao took the last table, while a man and his servant also found this table. Only Qing Huai sat down first, and it caused the fight.

With Li Fuyao’s character, if he were alone, he would politely invite the two to sit down. At worst, it was not a big deal if he gave up this table, but Qing Huai didn’t think so. After she took the seat, she didn’t plan to talk with anybody, including Li Fuyao.

So the young master who didn’t find a vacancy glared at Qing Huai, and his attendant even ridiculed, “Which rural area are you from? Don’t you have insight?”

Qing Huai turned a deaf ear and just drank the tea in the cup, while Li Fuyao simply ignored them and sat across from her.

The two men looked unreasonable, but they really made sense.

The young master patted his fan on the palm and laughed, “In this case, I will reason with you.”