When the night was half over, he woke up to find himself lying steadily on the bed, clean and refreshed, without any trace of alcohol. The steady, long breaths of another person came from beside his pillow. Yan Xiaohan was lying facing him, one hand draped over the quilt on his waist. Fu Shen could see his peaceful and serene sleeping expression in the dim light outside the bed curtains.
He was awake, and so was the alcohol. Fu Shen lengthened his breath and gradually calmed down in the quiet of the deep night.
Thinking back to the Emperor’s notification and Gu Shanlu’s reminder from this afternoon, his emotions were no longer as intense.
He even found it somewhat amusing. Back then, Emperor Yuan Tai had first attempted assassination and then arranged a marriage, using various tactics one after another. Didn’t everything turn out fine in the end? How is it that now, standing in a higher position, he feels less capable than before, and is actually whining to Yan Xiaohan about this trivial matter?
It’s all Yan Xiaohan’s fault!
Fu Shen truly felt at ease beside him. He had never drawn such a strong sense of security from anyone else. With someone by his side, Fu Shen would never have fallen asleep after drinking.
The Emperor had only just conceived the idea, and its implementation would still need to pass through many checkpoints. The actual war might not happen for years. Even if the Yanying Hall gave its approval, he could discuss it slowly with Duan Guihong in the Southwest, delaying it by a year or two at most.
What is there to worry about?
Loyalty was a shackle he used to bind himself, not a chain to be handed over to others for manipulation. Fu Shen realized he had indeed become more open-minded than before.
Having experienced the destruction of his country and family, these court intrigues seemed particularly low-level.
Sometimes “being at the end of one’s rope” is not truly about having no way out, but because one’s bottom line is too high. Fu Shen still had some reservations toward Emperor Yuan Tai. But if Emperor Chang Tai were to truly push him to such a limit, Fu Shen would not mind, for the sake of the world, to exchange this imperial city and vast territories for a new emperor.
