"Go ahead and write, and remember to praise me in the letter."
He said it casually.
Yao Youqing chuckled, thinking he thought she had spoken ill of him in her previous letters to her father.
“I used to praise you often in my letters, but I never said anything bad about you, and neither did your father!”
She was already married into the family, so Yao Yuzhi said that no matter how bad Wei Hong was, it would only make her more worried and afraid. So he just repeatedly told her in his letters to take good care of herself and to write to him if she was wronged. He didn't mention anything else.
Although Yao Youqing didn't know why they had a feud, she still hoped that their relationship could be improved, so when she wrote to Yao Yuzhi, she would always tell him that Wei Hong treated her very well.
She knew that for her father, no matter how outstanding the prince was in military and political affairs, nothing made him feel more at ease than being good to her.
Wei Hong nodded, took out a letter and placed it in front of her, then put a pen in her hand.
"Then praise me again, let me see how you do it."
Yao Youqing chuckled and picked up her pen to write, but Wei Hong shook his head beside her as she wrote.
"That's not good, praise me more."
"...How would Your Highness like me to praise you?"
Yao Youqing asked.
After thinking for a moment, Wei Hong simply picked up his pen and wrote a letter himself, which he completed in one go with flowing strokes.
Yao Youqing blushed as she watched: "No, no, I can't write this kind of thing..."
But in the end, Wei Hong kept pestering him and coaxed him into copying a copy.
"Father can tell at a glance that I didn't write this."
After Yao Youqing finished copying, she said.
Wei Hong blew the ink off the letter: "It's alright, as long as it's your handwriting."
Yao Youqing was both amused and exasperated as she watched him pack the letter and mail it out.
...
As usual, the letter was delivered to the capital by the Yao family's servants, and Yao Yuzhi and Wei Chi received it one after the other.
One of them received a copy written in Yao Youqing's own handwriting, while the other received a copy transcribed by a servant.
Yao Yuzhi looked at the letter in front of her, her face flushed with anger, and she spat out a curse.
"That brat must have forced Ning'er to write this! He's really... really shameless!"
What kind of rubbish is this? It's utterly disgusting!
Inside the palace, Wei Chi's face was gloomy. The thin letter in his hand was crushed by his fingers, leaving several holes.
The delicate handwriting is faintly visible beside the hole, such as: "Your Highness is handsome and dashing, the best man in the world. Of all the men in the world, I admire only him."
For example: We enjoy flowers in spring and snow in winter, and we accompany each other from sunrise to sunset. I cannot live a single day without the prince.
The entire passage, filled with cloying sentimentality, concludes with: "Thank you, late Emperor, for bestowing this marriage upon me; thank you, Your Majesty, for granting me this blessing, allowing me to find the love of my life..."
Chapter 68 Imagination
"Your Majesty, it must be that the King of Qin discovered that we had intercepted the letter and deliberately forced Miss Yao to write it."
Liu Fu bowed and said.
Wei Chi was well aware of this, but upon seeing these few lines of text, his face turned ashen, and the veins on his forehead throbbed faintly.
"Uncle Fourteen is really... as always."
He murmured.
His fourteenth uncle seemed to have no idea what forbearance or yielding meant.
If anyone provokes him, he'll strike them on the head with a stick to teach them a lesson.
But who is truly the ruler of this world? Who is the monarch of a nation?
Wei Chi has been in this position for nearly two years and considers himself to have worked tirelessly without a moment's slack.
Upon learning of the flood in Huizhou, he immediately dispatched people to provide disaster relief, punished officials who concealed the incident, reduced local taxes, and suppressed bandits formed by displaced people. To set an example, he even reduced the expenses of the palace by several percent.
When the Southern Yan and the Great Jin went to war, although he also wanted to be an emperor who expanded the territory and whose fame would last for thousands of years, in order to prevent the people from falling into the chaos of war and to give the national treasury, which had been suffering losses for years, a breather, he did not forcibly send troops. Instead, he ordered strict patrols on the border to prevent the war from spreading to the territory of the Great Liang.
He was terrified that he might not do anything right and be unworthy of the throne he had won with the woman he loved. But in the end, what did he get?
The people in the court were just denouncing the King of Qin for his arrogance and military power, but the moment they heard about the Hengshui River, they forgot about his arrogance.
If it weren't for the constant natural and man-made disasters that have plagued the Great Liang Dynasty in recent years, and the fact that he was stuck with a mess and dared not send troops rashly, then it would have been Qin Wang's turn to do these things.
"King Qin...King Qin..."
Wei Chi murmured Wei Hong's title, then suddenly overturned everything on the table to the ground.
"Whose pillar is this? Whose domain is this?!"
Why would he have such a fourteenth uncle?
Why did my grandfather, at his advanced age, have such a son and bestow upon him the title of Qin?
Since the founding of the Great Liang Dynasty, the four extremely prestigious titles of Qin, Jin, Qi, and Chu have never been used, which has almost become a default rule.
However, when Emperor Gaozong was old, he chose one of these titles for his youngest son in a moment of joy.
Many people objected at the time, but Emperor Gaozong ignored them all, insisted on granting the title, and personally instructed the recipients.
And this child, whom he had high hopes for and who was born to be a king, indeed lived up to his expectations and grew into the person he had imagined.
But since there are already rulers in the world, why is there a need for a King of Qin?
What should the emperor, as the ruler of the country, do after he does this?
Wei Chi braced his hands on the table, his eyes bloodshot, and he understood more and more why his father had been so determined to get rid of his fourteenth uncle.
It wasn't just because Uncle Fourteen was young and vigorous, but also because he was simply too much of an eyesore!
The palace servants in the hall dared not utter a sound, and Liu Fu also lowered his head and remained silent, simply standing quietly to the side.
After a long while, Wei Chi finally raised his head, his eyes still bloodshot: "Pen and ink."
The palace servants immediately tidied up the things he had knocked over and handed him a brush and ink.
A moment later, Wei Chi finished writing a letter and handed it to Liu Fu.
"Send it to Miss Shu Ning."
Liu Fu agreed, took the letter, and left the palace.
...
"His Majesty secretly read my letters?"
When Yao Youqing was about to write to Yao Yuzhi again, Wei Hongcai told her about it.
The girl's face turned furious upon hearing this, and she frowned, puffing out her cheeks, and said angrily, "How could he do that!"
How could a ruler of a country do such a thing!
She was already married, and by seniority she was still his aunt, yet he intercepted her letter halfway home!
The thought that Wei Chi had read all her letters filled Yao Youqing with rage.
Although she didn't write anything she shouldn't have, that doesn't mean he could peek.
Wei Hong gently stroked her head and comforted her, "From now on, I'll have someone deliver letters to you, and I guarantee he won't see a single word."
If he can't even keep a letter a secret, then he's wasted all these years as a prince.
Yao Youqing nodded, then suddenly remembered the letter that Wei Hong had written and asked her to copy, and realized what was going on.
"Your Highness, that letter you wrote last time... was it deliberately meant to provoke His Majesty?"
No wonder he wrote so many cloying words, and even added a thank you to the late emperor and Your Majesty at the end.
Wei Hong admitted it with a smile, looking smug.
"Serves him right for peeping! He's so infuriating!"
Yao Youqing was speechless: "Your Highness, why do you have to do this? His Majesty is already wary of you, and you're deliberately writing such a letter. Won't that just anger him?"
"He's wary of me whether I write such letters or not."
Wei Hong said.
The reason I didn't tell Yao Youqing about the letter being read last time was because I was afraid that if she knew, she wouldn't want to anger Wei Chi and make him refuse to write it.
But having lived in Shangchuan for over ten years, he had long since seen things clearly.
Whether the person sitting on the throne fears him or not has absolutely nothing to do with whether he is patient and yielding.
He once considered brotherhood and the distinction between ruler and subject, and honestly and dutifully served as a vassal king, guarding the border for the Great Liang Dynasty, and never causing any disputes with people in the court.
Let them say whatever they want; he doesn't care, doesn't mind, and even makes concessions repeatedly.
But what was the result? What did we get in return?
It was suspicion, it was murder, it was the reason that separated him from his mother forever, preventing him from even seeing her one last time.
He managed to save his own life because he held military power, but his other brothers were all executed one by one on trumped-up charges.
From then on, he knew that forbearance and concession would not stop malicious people from going further; on the contrary, it would only make them take advantage of him and think he was easy to bully.
Only when the other party truly fears him, to the point that they are afraid to act rashly, can he be safer.
Although Wei Chi has not done anything to truly harm him since ascending the throne, he has already revealed his intention, but he is hesitant to act directly because he has reservations.
If given the chance, he would never let his royal uncle go.
If that's the case, why should he swallow his anger and pretend to be a harmonious uncle and nephew even though he knows the other wants to get rid of him?
Yao Youqing understood Wei Hong's meaning and sighed.
"He is, after all, the emperor. I'm afraid he might do something to you..."
Wei Hong chuckled and pulled her into his arms.