Perhaps the commotion outside was too loud. Inside the main hall, Feng Qingheng, who was sitting on the high seat and showing off his authority to his ministers, roared, "What's going on outside? Don't you know where this is?"
"I know, isn't it Weiyang Palace? Soon, it will also be your burial ground."
Lu Qingwan's extremely ostentatious voice carried over. Feng Qingheng, startled, leaped from his imperial throne.
"Lu Qingwan, you... how did you get back?"
After saying this, he saw two figures approaching from the entrance against the light. He looked as if he had seen a ghost, "Feng Xiwu, you're back too?"
...
The ministers, with their backs to Lu Qingwan and Si Fengwu, hadn't reacted at first. Upon hearing Feng Qingheng's guilty and shocked questions, they couldn't help but turn around in unison to look.
Seeing Lu Qingwan and Si Fengwu, who was rumored to have died in battle, return, they all showed surprised expressions.
Lu Qingwan, however, said with a straight face, "You're mistaken.
Let me introduce everyone, the person beside me is not Feng Xiwu as you say, but my husband, Prince Qin, Si Fengwu, the full brother of the Great Qin Emperor!"
Everyone vaguely felt that the name Si Fengwu sounded a bit familiar, while Feng Qingheng had already roared out, "You did this on purpose?"
His fury made Feng Qingheng forget his proud imperial status, and he walked down from the high seat.
He angrily confronted Lu Qingwan, "I knew you wouldn't agree to the marriage alliance just like that. You already knew that the Prince of Qin from Great Qin was him, didn't you?"
Clearly, Lu Qingwan and Si Fengwu had been husband and wife from the beginning. It was he himself who had tried to steal a minister's wife and failed. Now, it seemed as if Lu Qingwan had betrayed him.
Lu Qingwan found it amusing. She knew exactly how to provoke Feng Qingheng and deliberately said, "Feng Qingheng, I don't think you're so senile that your memory is failing, are you?
Do I need to remind you that it was your own incompetence, your fear of Great Qin's retribution, that forced me into a marriage alliance?
And now, it's somehow become my fault?"
Feng Qingheng was stunned. Lu Qingwan's acting was too superb; he couldn't discern the truth or falsehood of her words for the moment.
However, while he hesitated, Lu Qingwan unhesitatingly added fuel to the fire.
"But speaking of which, I should really thank you. If you hadn't pushed me too hard and driven me to a dead end,
making me determined that no matter who I married, I would never marry a selfish, paranoid, and utterly foolish person like you, how would I have known that my Prince was still alive?
And how would I have known that he had racked his brains and set up such a grand plan to legitimately help me escape?"
As Lu Qingwan spoke, she put on an extremely affected expression of profound gratitude.
Just as she had expected, the more moved she appeared, the more furious Feng Qingheng became.
He strode up to Si Fengwu and roared, "Si Fengwu, you really did it on purpose!"
"So what if I did?"
Si Fengwu didn't hide his contempt for Feng Qingheng at all. "As the ruler of a nation, you couldn't protect your empire.
As a man, you couldn't protect the woman who was about to become your imperial consort. If I hadn't taken her away, would I have waited for her to be humiliated with you?"
Feng Qingheng's face turned ashen, but the ironclad facts left him speechless.
He could only grit his teeth and choke out, "Since you look down on me so much, why aren't you in Great Qin being your high and mighty Prince and Princess of Qin? Why have you returned to Great Gan?"
After he said this, except for a few people like Prime Minister Wen who knew the inside story, most officials wore the same confused expression.
They were also very curious why Lu Qingwan and Si Fengwu had returned after leaving.
Si Fengwu and Lu Qingwan exchanged a glance and burst out laughing. "Feng Qingheng, are you joking?"
Lu Qingwan stated directly, "You couldn't defeat the Northern Wei cavalry, so you fabricated my disreputable past to threaten us into lending troops to Great Gan, asking Great Qin to send soldiers to help you repel the Northern Wei cavalry.
This was only a few months ago, and the Northern Wei cavalry is still eyeing us menacingly on the north bank of the Jade River. You haven't forgotten, have you?"
Feng Qingheng's expression froze. He probably hadn't expected Lu Qingwan to reveal this matter in public and felt extremely humiliated.
But then, he remembered his predicament. The fear of losing his throne made him completely forget about honor and shame.
He retorted defiantly, "So what?
Great Gan raised Si Fengwu for twenty-three years, and you for seventeen years!
Don't forget, the final defeat was fought by your man and your father. Lending troops to help Great Gan escape is what you should do, what you owe Great Gan!"
As if saying it face-to-face wasn't enough to convey his dominance, he turned and returned to his high seat.
"Since you've come in person, things will be easier.
We'll set aside the matter of borrowing troops from Great Qin for now. Si Fengwu, have Lian Yu and Lin Fengmian lead the Xuanjia Army to drive the Northern Wei army out of Beixiao Pass, and then hand over the military tally of the Xuanjia Army. I will let you return to Great Qin.
Otherwise, whether you are Prince Si Fengwu of Great Qin or Feng Xiwu, that lowly bastard with no parents, you will both lose your lives here."
After he finished speaking, he greedily scanned Lu Qingwan's increasingly plump figure and ever-more beautiful face.
"Aren't you deeply in love? Lu Qingwan, if you want to live, persuade your good husband properly..."
Before he could finish speaking, a long whip lashed towards his face.
"Are you getting too bold? I've been gone for a few months, and you've forgotten what kind of bird you are?
Have you forgotten how I beat you to the ground back then?"
The long cowhide whip struck the dragon-and-phoenix auspicious screen behind Feng Qingheng, and the screen directly collapsed.
The guards and eunuchs around him cried out in alarm, "Your Majesty, be careful!"
They rushed forward and managed to support the screen, but the tip of the whip, as if it had eyes, viciously whipped across Feng Qingheng's face.
The Golden Luan Hall erupted in an uproar. Seeing this, Si Fengwu immediately called out, "Prince Nan, why aren't you speaking up? What are you waiting for?"
Everyone turned to look at Prince Nan, momentarily forgetting Lu Qingwan's assault on Feng Qingheng.
Prince Nan quickly stepped forward, holding a imperial decree, and announced loudly, "Prime Minister Wen, Grand Academician Chi, the situation has reached this point, shall we all act together?"
Feng Qingheng's thought process was always different from that of a normal person, but his intuition was quite sharp.
Just like now, seeing that Prince Nan was being prompted by Si Fengwu, and Prince Nan was calling out to Prime Minister Wen and Grand Academician Chi, he immediately sensed something was amiss and called out sharply, "Si Fengwu, what are you trying to do?"
"What do you think?"
Why did the Northern Wei army break through Beixiao Pass in just a few months and reach the Jade River? Don't you know?
After the Princess Consort used herself as collateral for a month's worth of grain for the Xuanjia Army, you never gave them another grain or a single copper coin in military pay.
You made the elite troops that my brother and I painstakingly trained go mining in the middle of winter, and when the mine collapsed, you didn't even allow them to call for a military doctor."