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Chapter 251 It's too bitter

"Now that you've come out, why didn't you go straight back to Jie Kingdom? Why did you come to Shuo Kingdom?" Zhu Yu asked in confusion.

“Because Jin Kingdom is very wary of Jie Kingdom, and the border is heavily guarded, I saw it all the way here when I was being escorted here.” Yan Shu looked at Zhu Yu with a “Do you think I’m stupid?” expression. “If I ran directly from Jin Kingdom back to Jie Kingdom, it would be like walking into a trap.”

Before going to Jin, I had heard in Jie that the border defenses of Shuo were not strictly enforced, so I was thinking of giving it a try. If I could bypass Shuo, that would be much better; at worst, I could just avoid the capital of Shuo.”

This time, Zhu Yu really couldn't hold back and let out a heavy sigh in front of Yan Shu.

It turned out that everyone except Zhu Cheng knew about the lax security at the passes of Shuo Kingdom!
Yan Shu realized that Zhu Yu was the daughter of the Prince of Shuo, and that her words were somewhat presumptuous, so she quickly changed the subject, saying, "But perhaps this is fate!"
If I hadn't made this decision, I wouldn't have met you all on the way.

To be honest, I was sneaking around like a thief, taking many detours. Along the way, I was not only on edge but also hungry, and I didn't have anyone to talk to. It was really miserable.

Last night was the only good night's sleep I've had in days!

Looking at the dark circles under Yan Shu's eyes that hadn't faded, Zhu Yu knew that what the girl said wasn't untrue. In fact, she knew from the experience that she hadn't had a good time.

Even she, who wasn't particularly favored in her family in the past, found it unbearable. No matter how fierce and shrewish the Jie women were, she was, after all, the Jie king's most beloved daughter, so how could she have ever suffered like this?

As they were talking, Fu Lu knocked on the door from outside, saying that breakfast had been delivered. Zhu Yu opened the door, took the food in, and laid it out on the table.

Ever since Zhu Yu and his companions' identities were revealed within the Shuo Prince's residence, the kitchen staff have been working overtime to ensure they don't neglect the Prince and the Second Miss, who has now become the Princess. Naturally, the breakfast delivered today was exceptionally lavish.

Yan Shu was starving. She had been enduring hunger all the way during her "escape," and the night before, she had fallen asleep from exhaustion and missed dinner. Now, without Zhu Yu's invitation, she picked out whatever looked appealing and started eating without any hesitation.

Zhu Yu got up early in the morning, cutting her wrists and setting a trap for Zhu Ning. She was also dragged by Lu Qing to learn a few moves. Now she was hungry, and seeing how uninhibited Yan Shu was, she felt very comfortable.

"However, there's something I don't quite understand." After they had both finished eating, Zhu Yu asked Yan Shu, "I heard that your father dotes on you. In the past, he went to great lengths to find you a suitable husband, including martial arts competitions and other things."

"If you were so unwilling to marry Lu Zhang, why did your father still accept the Emperor's decree on your behalf?"

In Zhu Yu's mind, her father, Zhu Cheng, had no right to bargain with Emperor Jin on the matter of bestowing a marriage. After all, Shuo Kingdom had been a "good boy" for decades and had never had such thoughts or the strength to contend with Emperor Jin.

But King Jie is different. King Jie has always been Emperor Jin's biggest rival and the toughest nut to crack.

If the King of Jie resolutely refuses to form a marriage alliance with Jin and his attitude is firm enough, Zhu Yu doesn't think the Emperor of Jin would really go to war with Jie because of this. "Father really loves me the most," Yan Shu sighed heavily, "but when he was helping me find a husband, I never met a suitable man. Father didn't want to force me, so he just let me drag things out without any rush."

Later, an envoy from the Jin Kingdom visited my father in the Jie Kingdom and proposed that the emperor wanted to bestow a marriage between me and his son. Initially, my father was reluctant to agree, but the envoy advised him not to rush into a decision and to consider the consequences for the people.

My father worried for a long time before finally asking me if I would be willing to marry the prince of Jin Kingdom. Although I didn't know what kind of person he was, most people in Jin Kingdom were gentle and weak, so I didn't have to worry about him treating me badly. Besides, I probably couldn't find a husband in the whole world with a higher status than the prince of Jin Kingdom.

Most importantly, the people of our Jie Kingdom are suffering terribly. If I marry the emperor's son, I hope he will treat the Jie Kingdom better in the future.

For so many years, the Jin Kingdom has kept us surrounded. It seems like we are keeping to ourselves, but in reality, apart from the things bestowed by the court, nothing else is allowed to be transported to the Jie Kingdom. Our people are mainly nomadic and don't know much about growing vegetables and grains. They can only weave coarse cloth. They live a very frugal life, eating and dressing poorly.

In good years, the grass is lush and the cattle and sheep are plump and strong, so they can at least eat their fill of meat. But if the harvest is bad and the grass dries up, then they can't even eat as much meat as they want.

So my father thought, "If I marry the emperor's son, wouldn't we all be family? Surely the emperor wouldn't be so heartless to his in-laws? Even if he allowed the Shuo Kingdom, Jin Kingdom, or even the Fan Kingdom to do some trade with us, buying and selling things, that would be good."

Zhu Yu had never imagined that Emperor Jin would use this method to guard against the Jie Kingdom's ambition to rise again over the years.

It's like having no way to hunt a lion, but fearing that the lion will harm you after it's full, so you try to encircle the lion, keeping it neither starving nor full, and just let it wear you down day by day, making the lion gradually weaker.

Zhu Yu did not agree with this way of governing the country, after all, it was not just King Jie who suffered, but countless people throughout the Jie Kingdom.

If you're talking about dealing with a lion, besieging it, starving it, and letting it die of starvation might not be a bad idea.

But what if the other party is a pride of lions?

Pushing them too far could easily lead to trouble. Even if it's not King Jie who wants to take power, but someone else, King Jie might not be able to quell the situation, or rather, he might not be willing to quell it.

At the same time, she suddenly realized that the marriage arranged by Emperor Jin for Lu Zhang seemed to have a deeper meaning as well.

Previously, she thought that bestowing the princess of Jie Kingdom upon Lu Zhang would be like adding wings to a tiger, but Lu Qing did not agree with this view. She believed that with another powerful in-law family, Lu Zhang would be caught in the middle between the interests of his maternal family and his in-law family, which would create a kind of balance.

In retrospect, Lu Qing was right.

Emperor Jin's bestowal of marriage served two purposes: firstly, to appease and win over the King of Jie, making him consider his in-laws and his most beloved daughter, and to prevent him from having any improper thoughts; secondly, it was also to prevent the Duke of Yan and Lu Zhang from becoming more closely bound together.