Deposed Crown Prince: After three years of service on the frontier, the entire court knelt and begge

As they were talking, the car drove for a while, and Yin Pan'er glanced at the scenery outside the window.

"We must be almost at Dragon Kingdom City."

After Yin Pan'er said that, Xiao Ce looked in the direction Yin Pan'er was looking.

A city suddenly appeared on one side of the road...

The city walls of this city look familiar from a distance.

Because the Xiao Kingdom has many cities similar to these, with walls that are sometimes visible and sometimes hidden.

Seeing this scene in a foreign land, especially while sitting in such a vehicle, is truly somewhat surreal...

This is like being in another country but seeing buildings from your own country.

It's clearly an ancient era, and we're riding in this kind of vehicle...

This kind of environmental fragmentation, spatial fragmentation.

It gave Xiao Ce a dazed feeling.

Xiao Yang didn't notice the change in Xiao Ce's expression: "That's right, brother, sister-in-law, Dragon Kingdom City is just ahead. Those walls you see, don't they give you a feeling of coming home? I had that feeling before too..."

Xiao Ce only came to his senses after hearing Xiao Yang's words.

"Indeed! It seems I've been away for far too long. Counting from when I first set sail for the Japanese pirates, I've been overseas for far too long... I really do miss going back..."

Seeing Xiao Ce's expression, Yin Pan'er said with surprise, "Your Highness, this doesn't sound like something you would say..."

Xiao Ce smiled at Yin Pan'er and then said, "People change as they experience different things..."

Yin Pan'er looked at Xiao Ce with a smile: "However, I quite like it... Just like I said before, this change in you is still very beneficial... This makes you seem more like a living person..."

Upon seeing Yin Pan'er's smile, Xiao Ce immediately said, "Haha, listening to what you've said, I'm actually quite curious about how much I resembled a dead person before..."

After hearing Xiao Ce's words, Yin Pan'er smiled. She knew Xiao Ce was joking with her...

As the two chatted and laughed, the car had already arrived at the city gate.

There was a wide avenue at the city gate, and their car was in the middle of it.

So the path ahead had already been cleared by others, allowing their vehicles to enter directly.

The soldiers in black armor lined both sides of the road.

These suits of armor are exquisite and imposing, and are covered with a layer of chainmail.

"Brother, aren't these black-armored soldiers similar to the black-armored guards of our Xiao Kingdom?" Xiao Yang introduced to Xiao Ce from the front.

After hearing Xiao Yang's words, Xiao Ce smiled and said, "At first glance, they look similar, but upon closer inspection, their black armor seems to be more exquisite and refined. Moreover, this set of black armor is a suit of armor, so it must be heavier."

Hearing Xiao Ce's analysis, Xiao Yang nodded and said, "That's right, brother, you really know your stuff..."

As they spoke, the car entered the main road and drove directly into the city.

Once inside the city, the scenery made Xiao Ce feel as if he had traveled through time.

The car drove through the heavy city gate.

Before my eyes suddenly unfolded a capital city with the grandeur of a prosperous dragon kingdom.

Zhuque Avenue is over a hundred paces wide, with a rammed earth surface paved with specially processed stone slabs.

The stone slabs have a very high-quality feel due to the special processing.

The open ditches on both sides draw water to form a natural drainage system.

Elm and locust trees line the roadside, and stone lampposts are set up every five steps, with a lotus-shaped lamp stand on top of the pillar containing a whale oil lamp that burns eternally.

The street is lined with buildings in the style of the Chinese nation, constructed with rammed earth as the foundation and wood as the framework. The hipped roofs are decorated with owl-shaped ornaments, and the green tiles are layered like scales. The walls of the archways are over ten feet high, made of rammed earth and brick, with vermilion gates adorned with gold nails, and plaques inscribed with "Pingkang Archway" and "Chongren Archway" in clerical script hanging above the lintels. The two-story pavilions have straight-lattice windows, with silk curtains and bamboo rolls for shade.

Upon seeing this, Xiao Ce couldn't help but marvel, for even in the capital of the Xiao Kingdom, there was no such building.

Although the architecture in Xiao Kingdom inherited the style of Long Kingdom, it has been simplified in many ways and incorporated elements that the Xiao Kingdom's royal family liked.

We drove west along the road.

The West Market was bustling with people, and the five-room, three-section shops were covered with colorful banners.

I thought this place only had people from China, but there are also people from other countries here.

In front of a felt tent, Persian carpets and Arabian glassware were piled up; a Sogdian was selling sanlejiang (a type of fermented beverage) at a counter; and a Silla maid, wearing a high-waisted ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), greeted guests in front of a silk shop. The air was filled with the aroma of baked cakes, spices, and hay from the Dragon Kingdom.

An octagonal stone lantern stands in the square, with a relief of a Sogdian dancer on its base.

The common people passing by all wore round-necked robes: scholars wore long gowns with brocade half-sleeved jackets, merchants wore openwork webbed headscarves, and women wore their hair in a low bun with gold hairpins. The patrolling garb was different from the black armor worn at the gate; he wore bright armor instead.

A canal runs through the entire city, its stone-paved banks lined with blue stone railings. A three-zhang-wide arched bridge spans the canal, its railings carved with the Vermilion Bird and the Black Tortoise. Grain boats, laden with rice from the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, shuttle back and forth, while fisherwomen at the stern hum folk songs, poling their boats with bamboo poles. Pavilions are nestled among the weeping willows on both banks, where an old man sits playing chess on a stone board, the crisp sound of the chess pieces striking the board audible.

The car slowly passed through the bustling entrance of the West Market, and ahead lay another magnificent scene of China.

The stone-paved crossroads divide the city into neat, chessboard-like neighborhoods.

Each ward has rammed earth walls over ten feet high, covered with blue bricks, with vermilion lacquer and gold nails hanging above the gates, and the words "Anhe Ward" inscribed on the lintel.

The names of the neighborhoods, such as "Anrenfang," are depicted below, with the guards dressed in ochre robes with gaps in the hips, holding iron-plated wooden clubs. Rows of hip-roofed pavilions protrude from within the neighborhood walls, their green tiles densely covering the roof like fish scales, their upturned eaves pointing straight to the sky, and their bracket sets supporting the soaring eaves. The straight-lattice wooden windows on the second floor are half-open, with indigo silk curtains hanging down; a gentle breeze causes the copper bells at the corners of the curtains to tinkle softly, blending into the sounds of the city.

Once inside, Xiao Ce understood what Xiao Yang meant when he said that coming here was truly equivalent to entering the Dragon Kingdom.

These kinds of workshops have already been abolished in the Xiao Kingdom. However, they still hold a certain significance in retrospect.

The convoy turned into the quiet streets of Anhefang.

The streets and alleys here feel much more welcoming compared to the bustling area we just passed. Large mansions stand side by side.

This must be the residence of wealthy people in this area.

The gate to the mansion features animal-head ornaments and rings, while the screen wall inside is painted with cranes and cloud patterns. A courtyard and covered corridors embrace the mansion, and two pomegranate trees, laden with red fruit, stand before the hip-roofed hall. The eaves are adorned with carved scrollwork, the wooden pillars are painted vermilion, and the column bases are carved with lotus petals. Suddenly, the sound of a pipa breaks the silence, and through the wall, one can see dancers on the terrace, their colorful skirts swirling, their jade pendants jingling softly, as if they were flying apsaras leaping from the mud wall in a mural. Deeper inside, several craftsmen squat in a tile-making workshop, clanging wooden mallets at the roof tiles. Scattered beside piles of yellow clay are ceramic molds for dragon-head ornaments, and the earthy smell permeates the air.

Their convoy stopped at this point, where the four great families of the Roman Empire, along with Nie Zhao, were already waiting...

Just then, Nie Zhao smiled and said to Xiao Ce, "Mr. Xiao Ce, you must have had a long journey."

Xiao Ce smiled and said, "Mr. Nie Zhao, you are too kind... You must have put in a lot of effort to welcome me."

Nie Zhao seemed to be acting as a representative of the other group, and Xiao Yang didn't steal the spotlight from his uncle.

Nie Zhao then explained to Xiao Ce, "Mr. Xiao Ce, we are honored. We have already arranged a banquet here, which consists of some royal dishes from the Dragon Kingdom."

As he spoke, Nie Zhao made an invitation gesture and then proceeded to introduce himself.

“Mr. Xiao Ce, the cuisine of the Dragon Kingdom is truly exceptional. We previously thought that the cuisine of our Xiao Kingdom was already very delicious, but after actually tasting the dishes of the Dragon Kingdom, we realized that our Xiao Kingdom cuisine has been modified, or rather, simplified.”

"And these people from the four major families have trained people here to cultivate many crops that were originally only available in the Dragon Kingdom, as well as raise chickens, ducks, and fish. The chicken here is just like the ones in the Dragon Kingdom... They are descendants of the Dragon Kingdom, so they have inherited everything from the Dragon Kingdom, whether it's good or bad..."

"They said that whether a habit is good or bad, its existence means it must have a reason for existing... Since it exists, it means it has value..."

Nie Zhao walked ahead while explaining to Xiao Ce.

After hearing Nie Zhao's words, Xiao Ce smiled and then looked at the person from the four major families and gave him a thumbs up.

"Well said!"