It was the middle of the night, and a candle was lit in the study.
Yuan Zheng watched Cen Yelan handling official duties with boredom. There were also many trivial matters in the army, especially for border troops like Cen Yelan, who guarded the northern border all year round.
Under the light, Cen Yelan was holding official documents in his hand. His expression was calm, and the lust in the corners of his eyes was completely restrained. He seemed inviolable and very serious.
After reading for a long time, Yuan Zheng began to admire him. He would fall asleep in a moment if he read those messy documents. When he was very young, he was often detained by his emperor father to watch him review memorials. After stack after stack, Yuan Zheng became impatient and threw all the memorials to the ground. Sometimes he would annoy the emperor and be punished. Yuan Zheng was tough and spoiled, so he was fearless. He did not listen to a word of the emperor’s reprimand at all.
Yuan Zheng vaguely thought of his emperor father, who was on the throne. He kicked Cen Yelan’s desk and called out, “General Cen.”
Cen Yelan ignored him.
Yuan Zheng said, “That year, Emperor Father wanted to keep you in Jingdu, why didn’t you stay? The capital is more fun than Hanzhou.”
Cen Yelan said without raising his head, “What does it have to do with you?”
He was both cold and hard like stone, with edges and corners that could not be smoothed out.
Yuan Zheng laughed angrily, kicked the table again, and said, “You don’t know what’s good for you.”
Cen Yelan finally raised his eyes, glanced at him, and lightly said, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison. Your Highness likes the capital, but I like Hanzhou City. We each have our own preferences.”
Yuan Zheng stared at him for a while, snorted, and laughed, “What’s so good about this damn place?”
Cen Yelan looked at the young man’s grown face. He had seen Yuan Zheng when he was young. Yuan Zheng was still young at that time. For some reason, Yuan Zheng ran out of the palace and came to the general’s mansion every few days.
Cen Yelan didn’t like naughty children. His adoptive father said that the emperor and the empress had a deep love for each other, and the late empress passed away early, leaving only this child, so the emperor would naturally dote on him.
The precious little prince in splendid clothes was always domineering. Once, Yuan Zheng asked Cen Yelan to accompany him on a trip, and the two of them walked slowly in the busy street.
Yuan Zheng seldom left the palace before, and the emperor also did not allow him to do so. He thought that he might just want to go to the general’s mansion, and Yuan Zheng was causing a lot of trouble as well, so the emperor had no choice but to give in to Yuan Zheng’s wishes. The long streets of Jingdu were bustling with all kinds of things. The child was playful and kept grabbing Cen Yelan to run around.
Cen Yelan almost wanted to throw him out.
Later, when passing Tiandu Fang, in the downtown area, a horse was running wildly, kicking and hurting numerous people.
Seeing that the horse’s hooves were about to spread out and step on him, Cen Yelan grabbed the child who had the mask on his face with one hand, jumped up, turned around, and kicked the horse’s head hard, actually stopping the mad horse’s galloping momentum, and the horse fell to the ground after a few swaying movements.
Yuan Zheng was stunned, and before he could come to his senses, he turned around and looked at Cen Yelan, who had a cold expression on his face.
Cen Yelan looked down at him, picked up the mask that he had dropped, and handed it to him.
Neither of them spoke, but the horse’s owner caught up with them and became angry when he saw his beloved horse half dead. Yuan Zheng looked up and saw that it was his fifth brother.
The Fifth Prince couldn’t do anything to Yuan Zheng, but he was angry, so he turned to trouble Cen Yelan. Yuan Zheng was furious and didn’t let the Fifth Prince touch Cen Yelan, and later he even made a scene in front of the emperor.
After that incident, Cen Yelan was no longer so cold towards Yuan Zheng. However, within a few days, Cen Yelan and Cen Xi had to leave the capital.
When Yuan Zheng heard this, he was very unhappy and asked Cen Yelan to stay in the capital, saying that he would ask his emperor father to give him an official position with a high salary so that he would not have to go to that remote place to suffer.
Cen Yelan looked at the child who was not even taller than his waist and shook his head to refuse. Later, he ignored him even though he acted like a scoundrel.
Until General Cen Xi died on the battlefield. Cen Yelan escorted the coffin back to the capital, stayed by the coffin for half a month, and then went back to Hanzhou.
Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
Cen Yelan pressed his eyebrows and said to Yuan Zheng, “Your Highness—”
Before he could finish, there were urgent footsteps outside the door. Someone knocked on the door and shouted, “General, it’s bad. Huanzhou Prefecture was attacked!”
