Zhao Min has a strong nature and a noble background. When dealing with ordinary people, he cannot be said to be bossy, but he can also be said to be always superior to others.
Even when facing other Mongolian princes and nobles, or even her brother and father, she had never been at a complete disadvantage like she was facing Meng Xiuyuan today.
Subconsciously, she wanted to make up a few random reasons to quibble with Meng Xiuyuan's serious question.
But when the words came to his lips, he couldn't say them out.
Because, in the past ten years, she had really seen with her own eyes the lives of the Li people under the rule of the Yuan Dynasty, and knew what kind of life they lived.
Plague, famine, drought, corvee, banditry, and evil officials.
Zhao Min tried to use the power of the Ruyang Palace to rectify every problem.
At first, Zhao Min just wanted to prove that Meng Xiuyuan's words were wrong, that it was not the Yuan court that had problems, but the incompetence of individual corrupt officials, coupled with bad luck and natural disasters that often struck, which led to people's livelihood difficulties.
But gradually, during this process, after she personally investigated the details, she realized that things were far from as simple as she had thought.
Zhao Min considers herself smart and believes that if she is born a boy, she will achieve a great career. Therefore, she does not give up when faced with these difficulties. Instead, she works hard every time and tries to solve the complicated problems.
But the results are often unsatisfactory, even if she tries her best, waiting for her to be frustrated again and again.
For Zhao Min, who is only 17 or 18 years old, the ten years since she met Meng Xiuyuan by chance have taken up most of her life.
And the short ten-day hijacking caused Zhao Min's life trajectory to deviate greatly from the original.
At this time, Zhao Min, who had experienced the suffering in the world, was no longer the little princess who only wanted to quarrel with Meng Xiuyuan.
"Let's have a drink."
Zhao Min frowned and held it in for a long time, and finally just said this. He took a deep breath, picked up the wine bottle, and poured wine into their glasses.
Meng Xiu saw Zhao Min's hesitant and struggling look in front of him, and understood that her distress was caused by her helplessness about the suffering of the people, and that her temperament had really changed.
So he couldn't help but change his mind a lot, and he felt good about it. He took the initiative to offer a glass of wine and said:
"Okay, I'll toast you with this drink."
After saying that, the two of them raised their glasses one after another and drank all the white wine in the glasses.
For the next period of time, the two of them were just like real acquaintances, drinking and cooking meat, occasionally chatting about insignificant things.
After a while, the three kilograms of high-alcohol shochu was almost drunk. Both Meng Xiuyuan, who was highly skilled in martial arts, and Zhao Min, who had a great capacity for drinking, were both a little tipsy.
"Haha, look at you now, you look more pleasing to the eye.
If you still use your efforts to cheat, I will ignore you."
Zhao Min pointed her finger at Meng Xiuyuan's face that was slightly red from alcohol, and said with a bright smile. Then she turned to the side and greeted loudly:
"Come here, bring me three more kilograms of wine..."
"Little princess, let's not drink any more."
Meng Xiuyuan shook his head slightly and stopped Zhao Min.
"Why, are you anxious to look at the dragon-slaying knife again?
Huh, a broken knife, what's so good about it?
With your kung fu, big brother, but without that sword, wouldn’t you be the supreme martial artist?
Don’t care so much about what it does…”
Zhao Min was a little angry after hearing Meng Xiuyuan's words. He snorted angrily and looked away as if he didn't want to pay attention to Meng Xiuyuan.
Meng Xiuyuan shook his head helplessly and explained:
"That's not what I meant. I'm just worried that a girl like you drinks too much."
Zhao Min was stunned when he heard Meng Xiuyuan's words. He stared at Meng Xiuyuan with a pair of beautiful eyes. The emotions in his eyes were changing and complex, as if he was remembering many things.
"What's wrong?" Meng Xiuyuan felt a little uncomfortable being stared at by Zhao Min and couldn't help but interrupt.
"Brother, this is the first time you have spoken to me properly and did not treat me like an enemy.
It’s really not easy.”
Zhao Min looked at Meng Xiuyuan and said with some emotion.
"Yeah... maybe.
We weren't enemies before.
It’s appropriate to speak harshly to a cunning little princess like you.”
Meng Xiuyuan was stunned for a moment when he heard this. He thought about it for a moment, then smiled brightly and joked with her.
I don't know whether it was the stimulation of alcohol or the huge contrast in Meng Xiuyuan's attitude before and after. This was the first time that Zhao Min saw Meng Xiuyuan smile sincerely towards her. She felt her face heat up and her heart could not stop beating fast.
Under such circumstances, Zhao Min's fair and white face became even more rosy. She unconsciously touched it and found that her cheeks were indeed a little hot.
"Are you feeling uncomfortable?" Meng Xiu saw that Zhao Min suddenly acted strangely and asked.
"No, the fire was too strong and made me a little hot..."
Zhao Min shook his head and explained perfunctorily, then lowered his head and stroked the wine glass in his hand, remaining silent for a long time.
After a long time, when she raised her head again, she suddenly changed the subject and asked Meng Xiuyuan:
"By the way, big brother. How is the heroine Yang who was with you back then? How is she doing now?
At that time, I saw you two holding hands all day long. In the past ten years, I haven't heard of you marrying her."
"Don't talk nonsense. It's not like you don't know. I was just trying to heal her injuries while on the road."
Listening to Zhao Min's slightly eccentric question, Meng Xiuyuan frowned slightly and let out a breath:
"As for Miss Yang... we haven't seen each other for ten years."
"We haven't seen each other for ten years. How could we possibly lie? Unless she is dead?"
Zhao Min curled his lips, but didn't really believe Meng Xiuyuan's words. He stared into Meng Xiuyuan's eyes and asked.
"No, she wants to retreat to practice martial arts, and I also have many important things to do.
So I never had time to meet."
Meng Xiuyuan looked aside and said calmly.
"It's true that we haven't seen each other for ten years?" Zhao Min kept asking.
"No." Meng Xiuyuan responded softly.
"Haha, it seems that you, big brother, don't really like that Miss Yang either.
Otherwise, no matter how busy we are, how could we not even see each other for ten years?
I want to be alone without being able to see him, but I can’t bear to be tortured every moment for so long.”
Zhao Min looked very happy when he heard this, with a smile on his face.
Meng Xiuyuan may have been slightly drunk, but when Zhao Min said this, he couldn't help but feel a little depressed. He threw away his hand and said perfunctorily:
"Stop talking about this, it has nothing to do with you."
Hearing what Meng Xiuyuan said, Zhao Min was not angry at all, but suddenly clapped his hands.
As her applause fell, she saw a strong and fierce Mongolian man walking from the side hall of the shop, holding a bright yellow velvet plate in his hand, with a strange-looking knife on the plate.
The knife was pitch-black and inconspicuous at first glance, and seemed to be nothing unusual. But upon closer inspection, one could see that it was neither gold nor iron, and one did not know what it was made of. The sharp edge occasionally flashed with cold light.
It exudes a breathtaking atmosphere.
The man was walking towards Zhao Min, but when he was halfway there, Zhao Min pointed out his hand and asked him to directly present the knife to Meng Xiuyuan:
"Brother, don't pay attention. I'm just talking nonsense. Don't you want to look at the dragon-slaying knife? Take a closer look."
When Meng Xiuyuan heard this, he glanced at Zhao Min and saw that she looked calm and didn't seem to be joking, so he simply refused to be polite to her and reached out to pick up the dragon-slaying knife.
The knife was heavy in hand, weighing at least dozens of kilograms. Meng Xiuyuan picked up a wooden chopstick from the table and touched it lightly to the blade. Without any effort, he saw that the chopstick had been broken into two pieces.
"Well, this should be the dragon-slaying knife without a doubt." Meng Xiuyuan nodded and affirmed.
"Brother, don't you want to ask where my sword came from?" Zhao Min asked Meng Xiuyuan.
Meng Xiuyuan was silent when he heard this and did not answer.
In fact, Meng Xiuyuan had thought about this issue before coming here.
It’s just that Zhang Cuishan and his wife are safe and sound on Wudang Mountain at this time, and Zhang Wuji is also following the Ming Sect people. There is no danger. Since Zhao Min can get the knife, he probably just happened to find the trace of the golden lion king Xie Xun, and has nothing to do with the Wudang Sect.
.
Meng Xiuyuan had always had a complicated view of Xie Xun. Although he sympathized with the tragic deaths of his parents, wife and children, he was also disgusted with his indiscriminate killing of innocent people and felt that he really could not escape a "murderer."
” positioning.
Therefore, Meng Xiuyuan had not taken the initiative to deal with him all this time, which was regarded as a compromise for the sake of Zhang Cuishan's family. At this time, what kind of interaction did Zhao Min and the Yuan court behind her have with Xie Xun? Meng Xiuyuan didn't want to pay attention to it.
Zhao Min first waved the man who brought the knife to retreat, and then when he saw that Meng Xiuyuan was silent, he took the initiative and said again:
"What do you mean by 'the supreme martial artist, who slays dragons with a precious sword'? I've had this sword for a long time, but I haven't figured out any tricks yet.
I don’t know how to use a knife. This knife is so heavy that I find it difficult to even carry it. I don’t know why you people in the martial arts world care about it so much.
Big brother, if you like it, just take this knife."
Meng Xiuyuan's face turned solemn, he felt that the knife was a bit hot, and asked Zhao Min seriously:
"Why are you so kind? There must be some conditions?"
Zhao Min smiled slightly and said calmly without making any excuses:
"If this knife can be exchanged for Big Brother agreeing to a condition, then that would be great."
Meng Xiuyuan shook his head when he heard this, put the dragon-slaying knife in his hand on the table with a clang, and said to Zhao Min:
"Forget it, I probably won't be able to meet your conditions."
Unexpectedly, Zhao Min would not give up and pestered Meng Xiuyuan and said:
"There's no need to be in a hurry. It's not too late to listen to my explanation of the conditions first."
Then, without waiting for Meng Xiuyuan to answer, she continued to ask:
"Brother, do you know what my ambition was when I was a child?"
Meng Xiuyuan didn't understand why Zhao Min suddenly asked this topic, he pondered for a moment, and then answered softly:
"I don't know."
Zhao Min pointed to the dragon-slaying knife on the table and said loudly and vigorously:
"Since I was a child, I have wanted to be like my ancestors, fighting on the battlefield and opening up new territories.
My ancestors are Emperor Genghis Khan, and great heroes such as Tuo Lei, Batu, Hulagu, and Kublai Khan.
I just hate that I am a woman. If I were a man, hehe, I would really do something big and vigorous."
"Oh." Meng Xiuyuan responded and stopped talking, waiting for Zhao Min to continue.
Sure enough, the next sentence was a 180-degree turn.
"But you know, from the moment I met you, everything has gradually changed."
As Zhao Min spoke, her heroic face subsided, and instead it gradually became covered with a melancholy look. She poured all the remaining liquor in the flask into the cup, and then drank it all:
"The words you said to me have been spinning in my head.
What about 'the imperial court did not give the people a way to survive and forced them to rebel', or 'the Mongols were stupid and cruel, but within a hundred years they caused chaos in the world and the people were in dire straits'.
I have tried my best to prove that what you said is wrong.
But, I couldn't do it.
Only then did I realize that you might indeed be a good person and you really didn't lie to me.
So since then, I no longer want to get involved in the affairs of my father and brother, and I don't want to make trouble for those poor people in the world who can't survive.
Even a few years ago, my father took the initiative to delegate power to me and let me use the help of many masters in the government to deal with the martial arts heroes in the Central Plains. I refused on the grounds that I was not interested, which made my father angry.
I'm a little disappointed..."
At this point, Zhao Min stood up suddenly, walked within three feet of Meng Xiuyuan, stared into Meng Xiuyuan's eyes and said:
"But big brother, have you ever thought about what I should do?
After all, I am a Mongolian and the princess of the Yuan Dynasty.
Just because the court is unclear and the people in the world are suffering, do I have to sit back and wait for death, smiling and waiting for these traitors and traitors to come and kill me?"
At the end of the story, Zhao Min couldn't help but reveal a trace of sadness and sorrow in her starry eyes, staring straight into Meng Xiuyuan's eyes as if searching for an answer.
After Meng Xiuyuan heard Zhao Min's long words, he couldn't help but fell into silence.
For a moment, he didn't know how to answer Zhao Min's words logically.
Seeing Meng Xiuyuan like this, Zhao Min pointed at the dragon-slaying knife, and then said seriously:
"Brother, I would like to give you this dragon-slaying knife. I just ask you to give me an idea.
In this world, what should I do?
What should we do to put our conscience and our lives at ease?
What should I do so that you won’t be in trouble with me anymore?”
Zhao Min asked three questions in a row, so sincerely that it was difficult for Meng Xiuyuan to remain silent any longer.
Therefore, Meng Xiuyuan took a deep breath, looked up at Zhao Min, and said calmly:
"Little princess, I don't know how this is appropriate.
Just for the sake of helping countless people over the past ten years, I would like to tell you something from my heart.
The power of the Yuan Dynasty court was exhausted, and this time it was finally difficult to suppress the rebellious Han people.
You'd better make arrangements for yourself early and plan to go to the grassland.
I think with the strength of your Ruyang Palace, no matter how hard it is, it is still possible for you to live a stable and prosperous life.
The general trend is such that only one or two people can stop it.
The sooner you accept the facts, the easier it will be for you to live in peace and joy in the future."
When Zhao Min heard this, with her intelligence, she naturally realized that what Meng Xiuyuan said was indeed true to her heart and was all for her sake.
But the more this happened, the sadder she felt, and she couldn't help but hold Meng Xiuyuan's hand:
"Is there really no possibility of reconciliation between this?"
Meng Xiuyuan shook his head when he heard the sound, pushed her hand away without leaving a trace, and said sincerely:
"Today, it should be impossible.
Perhaps it will take hundreds of years before we Mongolians and Han people can truly be as close as brothers and live in harmony."