The Great Han Dynasty's 39th year of Emperor Wu's reign

  Tiemiluona turned around and said to Danbi, "You come serve Madame Yan with her hair and bath."

  Shan Li nodded and went forward to support Liu Danru. As soon as the animal skin clothes came into contact with Liu Danru's skin, Liu Danru shrank back, shook her head gently and said, "Let Zhu Zhuoluo come and serve me."

  Timiria stroked her forehead in relief, thinking that she hadn't lost her mind yet, throwing a princess tantrum. She knew that even if she was indeed the Princess of Great Han, since she had come to the Xiongnu grasslands, she had to learn to read people's faces. "Take someone with you to boil hot water," Timiria ordered. "I don't care what Zuo Yanzhi told you, but the marriage ceremony is a joint face-saving effort for both Xiongnu and Great Han, there can be no mistakes. You must not slack off."

  Shan Li nodded, lifted the curtain and went out to call someone. The brazier in the tent was already burning with fire, and soon the water boiled. She poured it into a copper basin, dipped a towel in, wrung it out, and gently wiped Liu Dan Yu's face with tears in her eyes. When the warmth touched his skin, Liu Dan Yu shuddered slightly, pursed his lips, and no longer refused.

  Tiemiruona also pressed her lips, looking at her, and suddenly had a strange idea. The quiet and weak black lotus was broken by the storm, and there were only two paths waiting for her: to fall into a beautiful and seductive lotus, breaking other people's peace; or to wither quietly and die in silence.

  Which path will Liu Danru choose?

  A hot towel wiped away Liu Danru's dishevelment, and Zhu Zhu waited on her as she changed into another scarlet silk skirt, the bright red color like a beautiful peony flower, which also brought some rosiness to her pale face.

  "Ah Di," Liu Danru turned her head and called out with a smile, "don't you think I look beautiful like this?"

  Tiemiruna nodded involuntarily, a woman's beauty is a very abstract thing, it doesn't entirely depend on how your eyebrows are shaped, the size of your eyes or whether you have single eyelids or double eyelids. It's also hard to say whether one woman is more beautiful than another, maybe someone thinks she's not beautiful enough today, but tomorrow they think she's stunningly beautiful. Or maybe someone thinks this woman is breathtakingly beautiful, while another person thinks she's just average. Before and after Mo Duan's arrival and departure, Liu Danru was still a beauty, but her beauty had undergone a fundamental change. If the original Liu Danru's beauty lay in a clean and quiet temperament, then now her beauty was a kind of enchanting and captivating sensuality that emanated from deep within her bones.

  Although both are beautiful, in Timi's eyes, Liu Danru is now more able to capture men's eyes and hearts.

  A woman is a very resilient animal. If you push her to the point of no return, she will have to find another way to live.

  Tiemiruona understood, Liu Danru had to choose a path forward.

  "But your neck is too red and swollen." Timirora frowned, thought for a moment, untied the white fox fur cape from her own neck, and wrapped it around hers.

  "It's fine like this." She stepped back and took a look.

  The strange contrast between snow white and cherry red creates a kind of fierce, contradictory but beautiful harmony.

  "Uh-huh." Liu Danru didn't look in the mirror, she no longer needed to see her reflection. "Ati, I will remember your kindness to me," she said, shaking Tiamat's hand with a smile, "I have to go... hope to see you often in the future."

  She stood up, arched her back and walked out of the yurt, pretending not to feel the pain in her lower body, no longer caring about the gaze of those Huns who either praised or despised her, holding her head high and following the crowd towards the main hall of Longcheng.

  Tiemiruona stared blankly at her back, feeling that among the crowd, her red dress seemed to float on top of a red cloud, with elegant steps and a smile on her face. Underneath her dignified beauty, no one knew that every step she took was like stepping on sharp blades, with painful blood dripping.

  Tiemiruna gazed for a while, and shed a tear. However, the tear floated away in the wind of the grassland, so she didn't feel it. She turned her head to walk back, the strong May wind blowing on the grassland blew against her body, suddenly stripping off her shoulder-wrapping cloth, making her feel cold, and she let out a sudden sneeze.

  "Ati Ati, you've finally arrived." A 17 or 18-year-old girl with a headdress of five colors and six hues, fragrant and radiant, exuding the vitality of youth and the glow of happiness. "Qiuju won first place in the horse racing competition again and is looking for you everywhere." A fellow tribesgirl said excitedly, her face flushed with excitement.

  Racetrack

  The eight-year-old Prince Qi Yu sat on the back of his horse, defeated and dejected. He patted the neck of his mount, Ben Lei. Ben Lei neighed loudly and set off in the direction of Qu Que with a burst of speed, as if man and horse were one.

  "Next time, next time I will definitely win you." Ji Zhou said with hatred.

  He was just a little short, just a little short, and he could have won the first brave of the Xiongnu. How could he swallow this breath?

  He held a prize-winning racehorse in his arms, a snow wolf that had not yet been weaned, and smiled unruly with furrowed brows, "Kid, wait till your hair grows longer before talking."

  His hair was standing on end, this person is so unlovable, doesn't he know he's a prince? Can't he just give himself some face and let him win once? (Of course, if Chui actually lets him win, he'll yell at you, "Don't you look down on me, the crown prince?" And of course, Chui has already given in to him many times, otherwise how could an eight-year-old child possibly compete with the greatest warrior of the Xiongnu and only lose by half a horse's body? So it's said that children are always children, hard to please. And so it's said that the most difficult to please are the children of one's superiors, let's mourn for Chui.)

  "Ah, Tihmirona!" exclaimed Artyom, seeing her approaching from afar. He spurred his horse to meet her, tossing the wolf cub into her arms. "This year's organizers of the horse racing are out of their minds! This little wolf cub can't even eat a mouthful, and its skin isn't enough to make a decent fur coat. What's the point of bringing it? And they've made it a prize, too... just looking at it puts me in no mood for racing."

  Tiemiruna hugged the white wolf tightly and glared at him fiercely, "You only know how to eat and wear, can't you take good care of yourself? Vulgar."

  "Feeding it is a waste of food," the magpie laughed, his right hand holding the reins and his left hand holding his sister. "I heard that the wedding ceremony is about to begin, let's go take a look." He turned around and walked forward, but accidentally bumped into Gao Yan who was standing still in a daze, startling him. "Young Prince, what's wrong with you? Are you stunned?" He waved his palm in front of Gao Yan's face.

  Ji Zhuan swung open his hand, staring blankly at Timiriona, not even daring to blink. He had seen many of his father's beautiful concubines, including his own deceased mother, who was said to be a stunning beauty, but he had never seen such a lovely girl, of the same age as him, like the snow on Mount Qilian, crystal clear; and also like the rising red sun, radiant.

  "Ah-choo!" His mountain snow and red sun let out a sneeze.

  "Have you caught a chill?" Quan Yu suddenly realized, "Where's your scarf?"

  "It's gone," Thimiro said vaguely, "nothing."

  "What's wrong with you, I didn't take good care of you, and Father will scold me again." Qu Yun complained, taking off his upper garment and putting it on Timiriona, but his robe was really too long for Timiriona, dragging on the ground and wrinkling.

  The magpie frowned.

  "Put on my clothes." Ji Zhou hastily took off his own purple fox fur coat and handed it over.

  The siblings of the Qū Guī family stared at him in surprise, speechless for half a moment. Finally, Qū Guī picked up Tímì Luónà and sat her on his horse's back. His dusty, wide leather boots swayed beside Tímì Luónà's feet as he said, "Let's go." Qū Guī looked up at the sky, leading the horse with his sister on its back towards the central hall where the wedding ceremony was about to take place.

  Kerchak rode alongside Thunder and Temeraire. "You are Tharros, daughter of the Left Wing King?" he asked Temeraire.

  Timiro nodded with a serious face, "Hmm." Her eyes and the white wolf's were both shining brightly.

  Kui Zhong was overjoyed and said in a gentle voice, "You're still too young, tomorrow I'll go to the Heavenly Mountains and hunt down a grown wolf for you, skin it and make a fur scarf to give to you as a gift, how's that?"

  "Thank you for your kind intentions, Prince," Thimiro said stiffly. "But Atico cannot accept the wolf pelt you hunted."

  Ji Zhou foolishly rubbed his own head, unable to understand where Timiroona's great anger came from. Qu Que turned around, first fiercely glaring at Ji Zhou, then burst out laughing, flipped onto the horse, and hugged Timiroona, saying "Prince Ji Zhou, I'm going to see your father marry a new empress. Ah Ti, hold on tight." With a crack of the reins, the divine steed under them galloped off like an arrow, nimbly dodging through the dense crowd, rushing towards the grand hall at the center of Dragon City.

  In the imagination of the Han people in the Central Plains, the Xiongnu people lived by following water and grass, with yurts as their homes, without fixed houses or palaces. In fact, this is not the case. Longcheng was where the Xiongnu held annual ancestral worship ceremonies. The Heman tribe built a city, with 500 people working on it every day, modeled after the Qin palace, and it was completed in two years. The city was divided into inner and outer sections, with the inner city wall made of earth, and the central great hall at its center. The Chanyu held ancestral worship ceremonies and major celebrations in the great hall.

  Temirorona gazed afar as Liu Danru ascended the steps, one by one, towards Modun on the high platform. When Modun took her hand, Temirorona distinctly felt Liu Danru tremble slightly, but she quickly regained control, turned around, and smiled sweetly at the Xiongnu people.

  Then many Xiongnu people cheered in unison, the master of ceremonies sang loudly, blessing the Chanyu and the Yanzhi to have a long line of descendants, living as long as heaven. And according to the Chanyu's will, the new title of the Yanzhi was changed to Jing in Han characters.

  In the singing voice, Mo Dun seemed to think it was interesting, and he glanced at Liu Danru with a sidelong glance. Danru still smiled.

  Tiemiruona couldn't bear to look anymore.

  After the Heqin ceremony, Modu and Liu Jing signed the Han-Xiongnu treaty, stipulating that the two countries would be brotherly nations. The Han would present the Xiongnu with a fixed amount of silk, wine, and grain every year. Both sides agreed to use the Great Wall as their boundary and not invade each other.

  That night, Timiria got a chill and developed a high fever.

  Tidimelona was worried and wanted to leave her in Longcheng to rest. Tidimelona's body was weak, but she shook her head and insisted on following her father, Zuogong Wang, back to their fiefdom.

  On the second day, Modu emerged from the tent of Jingjue Shi and discussed with everyone the internal strife of the Xiongnu tribe in the second half of the year. Suddenly, he thought of something and glanced at Qiuju, asking, "Has your younger sister returned home?"

  "Hmm." The otter nodded, puzzled and incomprehensible. "When we came, Timirora agreed to follow me to the royal court, but now she's stubbornly wanting to go home. I really don't know what she's thinking."

  Modun smiled slightly and said indifferently, "Probably just a little girl missing her mother."

  "To say that your sister is also quite something, but she came to my Dragon City for a turn and didn't even stay for three days before she stole the hearts of both my wife and son."

  He burst out laughing and looked very proud, then asked ambiguously, "By the way, what about that Han princess Yan Shi?"

  Modun's eyes also had a wolf-like smile that seemed to have seen blood, and he said meaningfully, "Love is hard to let go."

  (Note: According to the Huns' customs, the first prey caught by a man is supposed to be given to his loved one. Therefore, Chiyu's words are equivalent to expressing love, but Timirina refuses.)

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