The Tyrant's Beloved Empress

55

The gushing wind howled by his ears and the scenery flashed by quickly as Ta Xue carried them across the desert. The only thing An Chang Qing could discern with his eyes were the shining stars above.

They traveled for quite a distance before Ta Xue brought them to a small lake.

If he had not seen it with his own eyes, An Chang Qing would've never believed that there existed such a pristine lake deep in the desert. Maybe because there was a water source, the vegetation around the lake was lush and thriving as seen through the lights lit by the fireflies hiding between the leaves.

The moon and stars were reflected distinctively over the tranquil water as though there was another sky within the lake.

An Chang Qing got down from Ta Xue and walked along the lake in awe. Xiao Zhige let Ta Xue wander off to play while he followed behind An Chang Qing.

An Chang Qing dusted off the sand of a large boulder and sat down. Looking up at Xiao Zhige, he asked, "This place is beautiful. How did Wangye find it?"

"I used to camp around here during the marches to Liangzhou." Xiao Zhige sat beside An Chang Qing and began telling him about his past.

Back then, he had just joined the army as a low-ranking soldier with nothing to his name. He was traversing this part of the desert because his platoon was being transferred to Liangzhou. At the time, he was still a kid and far less mellow than he was now. Being woken up in the middle of the night by his teammates, he readily agreed to join them in sneaking off to find food.

They were all still growing up so the food taken during the day had been digested by night. Remembering the lake nearby, they decided to go there to catch fish. After filling up their growling stomach, the group slept by the lake and sneaked back before dawn.

"This is where I got to know Chang Zai Cang." Chang Zai Cang was the ringleader for this mischief.

After that, the war in Liangzhou had turned for the worse. They had marched with haste to provide support but Liangzhou had still incurred heavy losses. Among the group that had sneaked off to catch fish, only he and Chang Zai Cang had survived.

"It must've been hard," An Chang Qing said when he saw Xiao Zhige's brows crease up as he recounted those events.

An Chang Qing was holding Xiao Zhige's strong and rough hand. His ten fingers were slender and long; this should've been a beautiful pair of hands but over the years, it had to wield weapons and weather hardships, causing the palms to be coarse and filled with calluses. An Chang Qing had seen the hands of the other princes, they were all white and delicate without any trace of imperfections.

Princes should be well-fed and groomed like the Crown Prince and Third Prince. Only Xiao Zhige had been mistreated from a young age.

But Xiao Zhige shook his head and smiled, "It was hard but it's all worth it."

"If you want something precious, you'll have to put something else up in exchange." There was only An Chang Qing in his eyes when he said this.

In the last twenty years, he had indeed tasted hardships and oppression but he had always remembered his mother's words: 'Everyone in this world has their own destiny. Some will experience sweetness before they will have to face bitterness, some will have to brave tribulations before they can obtain happiness. Since my son has suffered much since childhood, he will have a happy life later. Just be patient, do not despair.'

These words had always followed him.

Xiao Zhige had believed An Chang Qing to be his 'happiness after the sufferings'. If the twenty years of torment that he had to go through was the price to be paid to secure a happy life with An Chang Qing, it had not been a loss.