Speaking of the meritorious officials, Prime Minister Song, who strongly advocated peace talks, naturally contributed a lot to the outcome of the agreement. However, besides him, there was another person who never appeared on the negotiating table from the beginning to the end, but he was mentioned almost every time there was a discussion.
It was Xie Xuanchen who was frequently mentioned albeit somewhat oddly. He never showed up, but every line and every word of the contract was inseparable from his involvement.
The weirder part was that Xie Xuanchen claimed to be sick during this time. After playing polo with the Beirong team and talking harshly, he suddenly fell ill upon coming back. The people of the Ye Dynasty couldn’t figure out what he was trying to do, let alone the Beirong people.
The man was ferocious and frightening by leaps and bounds. At times, he would be sickly, but sometimes he’d be aggressive or remarkably quiet. Plus, all of this happened on the same day, so it was as if he was seamlessly switching between these moods.
Many people scrutinised him repeatedly, but they still couldn’t understand the intention behind Prince An’s actions. Prime Minister Song heaved a long sigh. He initially thought that Xie Xuanchen was scheming, but ultimately, he couldn’t figure out his actual motives behind it. After all, this guy was making unpredictable moves all the time.
Even the Emperor did not have such a completely unexpected sense of frustration like Prime Minister Song. For example, regarding this Mid-Autumn Festival banquet, the Prime Minister knew very well that the Emperor was doing it for Prince An.
In fact, the matter of succession shouldn’t be delayed— it would be even worse if the palace did not make an official statement and the people below defaulted to support Xie Xuanchen.
Prince An’s health, the heir to the throne, the rivalry between brothers or the succession from father to son— it was about time that all of these had a proper explanation.
On the day of the Mid-Autumn Festival, as soon as Mu Mingtang arrived, many people asked with concern, “Greetings, Princess An. Your Highness, I heard that the Prince is sick recently?”
Xie Xuanchen suddenly became ‘sick’ after the Dragon Boat Festival as he complained every day that his eyes and hands hurt. He was incapable of reading and drinking his own medicine, which led to his demand of Mu Mingtang doing them personally for him. Otherwise, he was going to die from the pain. If it weren’t for his lack of guts to challenge the Princess’s bottom line, Xie Xuanchen even wanted her to feed him his meals.
It was crystal clear that at the very beginning, when Mu Mingtang had just married into the palace and Xie Xuanchen was still half conscious, his energy was actually drained back then and he despised being fed. But it seemed like after such a long time had passed, he had lost his entire will to remain independent.
Even the servants in the palace could tell that Xie Xuanchen was pretending to be sick, but said person wasn’t feeling embarrassed at all. He could roll around in full view, pretending to be dizzy as he claimed, and initiate a series of acts that were very proficient. Plus, he even demanded Mu Mingtang to be by his side all the time and made a fuss when she didn’t relent. The servants on both sides attempted to silence their laughter quietly and since Mu Mingtang was extremely embarrassed, she could only go along with his wishes as much as possible in order to prevent him from messing around.
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