Murong Li knew that his mother had always been gentle and weak by nature, so when he and Murong Yan decided to pretend to the outside world that the uncle and nephew had gradually developed conflicts over power, Murong Li chose to pretend to rely heavily on his maternal uncle. However… Murong Li was clear about his maternal uncle’s capabilities – it would be utterly impossible for him to secretly send his mother out of the palace without the knowledge of Ninth Uncle’s people.

Empress Dowager Yan held her son’s hand to Murong Li’s study. She lifted Murong Li’s sleeve and examined the wound wrapped in fine cotton cloth, seeing that it truly appeared to be just a superficial injury. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief, though her eyes couldn’t help but redden again.

Seeing that there was no one around, Empress Dowager Yan finally touched her son’s handsome young face and said to Murong Li: “You… you need to be more careful! You absolutely must not go to the battlefield again in the future! Pack your things right now – once New Year’s Eve is over, you’ll return to the capital with Mother!”

“Mother?” Murong Li’s expression was bewildered. His mother had just arrived and was already telling him to pack up and return to the capital with her – had something happened in the capital?

He grasped his mother’s hands and crouched in front of his own mother, looking up at her: “Has something happened in the capital? Mother, don’t be afraid… your son is here!”

Empress Dowager Yan’s lips moved hesitantly, unable to speak for a long time, only saying: “Just come back to the capital with Mother. Mother isn’t at ease with you staying here.”

“I’m together with Ninth Uncle – what is there for Mother to worry about?”

“It’s just…” Empress Dowager Yan’s words suddenly stopped, forcibly swallowing back what she was about to say. Tears fell drop by drop as she said, “If you still have me as your mother in your heart, then come back with Mother!”

“Mother, it’s not that your son doesn’t have you in his heart, but right now, Great Yan and Great Zhou have joined forces to campaign against Western Liang and the Tianfeng Kingdom. Even the Emperor of Great Zhou, though pregnant, is still in Pingyang City to boost the morale of the soldiers. How can your son, a grown man, leave?” Murong Li disagreed. “Mother, what exactly has happened? Tell me and we can discuss it with Ninth Uncle…”

Before Empress Dowager Yan could speak, they heard successive calls of “Ninth Prince” from outside. She hastily pulled out her handkerchief to dab at her tears, then saw her nanny enter to report that the Ninth Prince had arrived.

Empress Dowager Yan straightened her clothes and said, “Please invite the Prince in!”

As soon as Xiao Rongyan entered, he bowed to Empress Dowager Yan: “Ayan pays respects to sister-in-law. Just now, the Tianfeng Kingdom sent an envoy to apologize, and Ayan was in a study meeting with the Tianfeng Kingdom’s envoy, so I couldn’t come out to welcome you. I hope my sister-in-law won’t blame me.”

“Ninth Uncle!” Murong Li bowed to Murong Yan.

“Please sit, Ayan!” Empress Dowager Yan’s lips curved into a smile, pretending to act as usual, speaking first: “This time I came without notifying you and A’Li in advance because I didn’t want to trouble you. I just wanted to come spend New Year’s Eve with you, then take A’Li back to the capital first. After all, the nation cannot be without its ruler for a single day, and A’Li is the Emperor… If something were to happen to him at the front lines, none of us could bear the responsibility. Don’t you think so?”

Having traveled among various nations for many years and met countless people, though his sister-in-law was pretending to be the same as usual, how could he not see the changes in her expression?

“Is sister-in-law angry because of A’Li’s injury this time?”

With his own family, he was willing to be completely open and honest. Not wanting to speak in circles with his sister-in-law, he spoke directly: “Sister-in-law, there are no outsiders here. If the sister-in-law is angry, even hitting Ayan a couple of times would be acceptable! The eldest sister-in-law is like a mother… no matter how the sister-in-law scolds Ayan, I will accept it! But… Ayan believes that as the Emperor of Yan Kingdom, as a man of our Murong family, the battlefield is something A’Li should see.”

“Moreover, with me there, with Xie Xun there… and with Yue Shi there, we absolutely won’t let A’Li truly suffer serious injury. For a man to shed a little blood, superficial wounds are an essential experience on the growth path. Whether it’s my elder brother or I, we’ve all been to battlefields. A’Li, as the Emperor of Yan Kingdom, cannot be put in danger, but at least he should see it. He can’t just stay in the capital’s silk and brocade piles without experiencing wind and rain.”

Empress Dowager Yan tightly gripped the handkerchief in her hands. She wasn’t unaware that Murong Yan wanted to speak openly and honestly with her, and she also acknowledged that Murong Yan’s words had their reasoning.

Since Murong Yan was being frank, Empress Dowager Yan didn’t want to hide anything either. She turned to Murong Li and said, “You go out first, just wait outside. I have something to say to your Ninth Uncle.”

Murong Li hesitantly looked toward Murong Yan. Empress Dowager Yan immediately became furious: “What, Mother’s words don’t count? Must your Ninth Uncle give the order?”

Only then did Murong Li bow to both Empress Dowager Yan and Murong Yan before stepping out of the study, though he positioned himself outside the study with his ears perked up to eavesdrop.

“Sister-in-law can speak freely about anything. We are family – there’s nothing that cannot be said.” He looked at Empress Dowager Yan. “If your sister-in-law feels that Ayan has done anything wrong, please point it out.”

Empress Dowager Yan’s hands tightly clutched her handkerchief, almost tearing it apart. After a long while of building up her emotions, she finally said: “Ayan, when your sister-in-law first married your brother… You know what kind of situation our Great Yan was in. At that time, Great Yan was a complete mess. The Late Emperor had killed the Empress and was coming to kill your brother. At that time, my sister-in-law was already four months pregnant and risked her life to escape the traveling palace and return to her maternal home, threatening death to beg my father to bring troops to save your brother and you. My first child with your brother was lost at that time, and my father also died then…”

Speaking to this point, Empress Dowager Yan’s voice choked with emotion, her body trembling slightly. That year’s situation was like a nightmare to Empress Dowager Yan – even now, she would wake up in cold sweats from nightmares about it.

It was precisely because she lost that child then that Empress Dowager Yan’s health deteriorated day by day, so that years later she finally had the First Prince, and when she was pregnant with A’Li, she nearly lost her life.

Murong Yan’s fists at his sides tightened slightly, also being pulled into those painful memories.

He lifted the hem of his robes and knelt before Empress Dowager Yan: “Sister-in-law… Ayan hasn’t forgotten.”

Seeing him like this, Empress Dowager Yan couldn’t bear it and reached out to help him up, tears falling drop by drop as she choked out: “Later, Ayan, you had high aspirations and said you wanted to set up a great network for Yan Kingdom – an intelligence network. So you wanted to become a merchant of other countries, using a merchant’s identity to travel among various nations. At that time, all of Yan Kingdom’s silver had been sent to Jin Kingdom, and we were so poor… we were teetering on the edge of national destruction!”

“Your brother was at his wits’ end and could only humbly beg officials and common people to weather the national crisis together. The entire nation raised silver for you. My maternal family donated all their property, and I handed over all my dowry and jewelry to you, not keeping even a single piece of jewelry on myself.” Empress Dowager Yan touched the jade pendant at her waist, whose cord had been changed countless times. “I only kept… this betrothal jade pendant that your brother gave me when he proposed.”

“Sister-in-law…” He looked up at his sister-in-law, his eyes reddening. “Ayan has never forgotten.”

Although later Xiao Rongyan had found and returned all of the sister-in-law’s dowry, Murong Yan had not forgotten the kindness of the sister-in-law’s wholehearted support during that time of crisis.