Gu Yan hesitated for a moment, but she saw Muran stubbornly reach out his hand. In the end, she raised her hand and placed it in his palm. He held her hand and tightly held it, as if he was using all of his strength. Gu Yan felt a bit of pain, but she did not make a sound and quietly accepted it.
After getting out of the carriage, Muran led her to the pavilion in the back garden to sit down. The autumn was getting colder and the stone bench was already covered in soft rabbit fur.
The two of them sat facing each other. The sudden intimacy made Gu Yan feel a bit uncomfortable.
After a long silence, Muran finally asked her, "Ting 'er, are you alright?"
Hearing his words, Gu Yan's heart was touched. Alright? What was alright? In just a short month, her life had changed so much. Was this alright? Although she grew up in a family of officials and was used to seeing the struggles in the palace, she always felt that those things were far away from her. But now she understood that the past fifteen years of peace was a gift from the heavens. Now that it was time to use her, her family would not hesitate to throw her out. She was just an insignificant chess piece in this huge chess game. Was this understanding good?
"Why are you asking me?" Gu Yan's long eyelashes drooped down, casting a shadow on her nose, blocking her gaze.
But how could someone as smart as Muran not understand the sadness behind these four words? He gave a sigh and held her hand even tighter. After hesitating for a long time, he finally said, "Ting 'er, you know very well that as long as you are in the prime minister's manor, you will not be able to escape this day. It is only a matter of time. This world is not as beautiful as you thought it was before. Power, war, and schemes, you are at the center of all of this and are always around you. In the past, you had the protection of the eldest princess and the prime minister, but now that you have grown up, you have to face it yourself. "
"Then what about you?" Hearing his words, Gu Yan blurted out this question.
Muran was at a loss for words. After being stunned for a while, he gave a sigh and said, "Ting 'er, I've already said that the phoenix can fly and roam the nine heavens. I can only watch over you silently from below and protect you. "
Gu Yan's beautiful brows furrowed tightly as anger surfaced. She raised her voice and said, "I've already said it before. I don't care about being a phoenix. I only want to be a swallow under your roof!"
"You're wrong. You were destined to be a phoenix the moment you were born, so how can you be an ordinary bird?"
His words were like a heavy stone hammer that smashed into her heart, making her unable to regain her senses for a long time. That's right, how could she forget? She was the eldest princess' daughter, the most dazzling phoenix in Nan Hua. Everything had been decided from the moment she spoke.
Muran saw that she was in a daze, so he stroked her cheek and said softly, "Ting'er, although others can control our fates now, I hope that you and I can hold our fates in our hands in the future." There was deep pain in his voice.
"My own destiny?" Gu Yan smiled sadly and said, "My life is in the hands of Your Majesty, in the hands of Emperor Yin, in the hands of …"
She stopped talking. The two words Yi Ling were silently swallowed by her.
"Ting'er, Hokuin will be in chaos within three years. I cannot give you to the Huan family of Hokuin. Perhaps Yi Ling is your best choice. Do you understand?" Muran's soft words made Gu Yan's heart tighten. The Anqing Emperor had only talked to her yesterday. Why did Muran already know the reason today? Could it be …
She didn't dare to think about it anymore. She didn't believe it and didn't want to believe her own thoughts. She just stared blankly at Muran.
Her gaze seemed to carry a warmth that burned Muran's face, making him feel unbearable.
"It was me." Muran lowered his head and admitted, "I was the one who advised the Emperor to think of a way to change the person of the marriage alliance to Yi Ling. This was the best idea I could think of."
Although she had already guessed it, Gu Yan still couldn't believe it when she heard him admit it. She pressed the handkerchief against her lips and shook her head continuously. She said in a trembling voice, "No, no, you wouldn't …"
"It was me, Ting'er. Yi Ling has a majestic aura. A small Hokuin won't be able to stop him. One day, he will replace the Huan family. The Huan family will be destroyed. I can't let you marry him. The marriage alliance has already been decided. I … can only do this." Muran slowly explained everything.
Gu Yan couldn't hear what he was saying. Although she knew that Muran couldn't be wrong, she couldn't believe that he really wanted her to marry a lowly warrior in Hokuin.
She was the noblest princess in Nan Hua. She was a proud daughter of the heavens. Since the founding of Nan Hua hundreds of years ago, the royal family and nobles had only married famous scholars. There had never been a noble lady who married a lowly warrior. This was the most humiliating thing in Nan Hua. But he, single-handedly sent her to the most famous warrior in the world.
Her heart felt as if someone had stuffed a piece of ice into it. It was cold and painful. The worries and blows of the past few days couldn't compare to the pain at this moment.
The feeling of being controlled like this made her feel hopeless and powerless.
Even after Muran left quietly and A Nuo appeared to help her into the room, she was still in a daze. One change after another made her feel more and more sorrowful.
The curtain of the night fell and everything was silent.
The candles in Gu Yan's room were extinguished early. A Nuo and the maids who served her left and right quietly left the room.
Gu Yan lay quietly on the bed alone. The silk curtains were draped around her, isolating her from the rest of the world. It was like a quiet world.
But she didn't fall asleep. Instead, she opened her eyes and stared blankly at the beautifully painted ceiling. Her mind was filled with thoughts. Everything from the past appeared in front of her eyes, but it also felt like a lifetime ago.
She still remembered the day after her hairpin ceremony. Gu Yan was woken up early in the morning by her nannies. She washed up, applied makeup, and changed her clothes. That was the first time she greeted her parents according to the etiquette of an adult woman. Naturally, she couldn't be careless.
A whole room of people surrounded her busily. The moment she was done with her makeup, everyone was stunned. They looked at the beautiful woman in front of them and couldn't say anything.
Gu Yan walked in front of the mirror and stared at the woman in the mirror. The woman in the mirror had beautiful eyebrows and beautiful eyes. Her hair was neatly combed into a bun behind her head. There was only a single jade hairpin inserted diagonally.
Gu Yan raised her hand and touched the bun behind her head. For a moment, she was absent-minded. The woman in the mirror was familiar but also unfamiliar. This was the moment she had been waiting for for many years. She could finally marry the person she had hidden deep in her heart.
She left the room and walked around the corridor. She bumped into her third brother, Gu Gao, who was wearing a thin indigo robe and waving a folding fan in his hand. When he saw Gu Yan, his eyes were filled with surprise. He walked a few steps forward and looked at her from head to toe. Finally, he waved his fan again and said, "The Prime Minister's residence is unlucky. I'm afraid they won't be able to keep Ting 'er."
Gu Yan calmly allowed him to look at her. She smelled the faint orchid fragrance on his body. When she heard his words, she didn't hesitate to reply, "Big Brother hasn't married yet. How could a little sister dare to overstep her boundaries?"
Gu Gao closed his folding fan and pretended to be flirtatious, "This young master hasn't met the right person yet, so I'm not in a hurry. But …"
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