The tyrant family read my heart and doted on me.

Changing faces is like a magic trick.

Emperor Qing'an and the retired emperor looked very unhappy after hearing this.

The retired emperor looked at this person, then at that person, and saw that these people were determined to do something. Unless they were given an explanation, they would not give up or leave, and they were determined to make things difficult for Jiujiu.

He thought to himself, “Do we really want to punish Jiujiu?”

impossible.

As long as he is still alive, he will not allow anyone to hurt Jiujiu. He will protect Jiujiu.

Besides, we have to wait for Jiujiu to come back and hear what she has to say about this matter.

We cannot allow these ministers to be biased and think that Jiujiu was wrong in this matter. They do not allow Jiujiu to say a word and they even rely on the fact that everyone can be held accountable and are aggressive in wanting to get rid of Jiujiu.

Oh, are they the only ones who would be aggressive?

When the emperor thought of this, he suddenly rolled his eyes, closed them, and fell backwards on his chair.

It looked like he had a rush of blood and suddenly fainted on the chair.

Upon seeing this, Emperor Qing'an ordered someone to summon the imperial physician immediately. He then looked at the ministers and Feng Tianzhu, who were leading them, and angrily said, "Can't you all take the health of the retired emperor into consideration?"

"The emperor is old now, not as he used to be. How can you speak like this in front of him? Now you've made him so angry, right?"

"If anything happens to the Emperor, I will not let you go."

"Get out of here, everyone. Kneel outside."

"When the emperor gets better, you will get up again."

Feng Tianzhu and several ministers felt guilty and dared not say much. They secretly glanced at the fainted emperor, retreated fearfully, and knelt outside obediently.

They kept thinking, what should they do if something really happened to the emperor?

Wouldn't they all become criminals?

The reputation of the Qingliu family can no longer be maintained.

What should I do?

Emperor Qing'an and the emperor emeritus in the hall had no idea what the ministers were thinking.

At this moment, Emperor Qing'an stood beside the chair of the retired emperor with his hands in his sleeves, looking at him meaningfully, and said leisurely: "Father, everyone is gone, there is no need to pretend."

"wake up?"

"...really gone?" The emperor opened one eye tentatively and glanced across to make sure there was no one there. He opened his eyes and sat up straight, looking as if nothing had happened. He did not look weak and fainted as he did just now.

He also grabbed a handful of melon seeds from the fruit plate and cracked them while saying, "Chengying, how do you know I was pretending?"

"Because if my son were forced like this, he would pretend to faint from anger, thus defeating them and escaping from being forced by them, taking the initiative into his own hands. Moreover, he would use this opportunity to severely punish those ministers."

"Let them know that I am not someone they can force."

Emperor Qing'an drank his tea and spoke the most profound words with a calm face.

After hearing this, the emperor lost interest in eating melon seeds. He put them down, smiled, and said, "Chengying, you are worthy of being my son and the monarch of Western Chu."

"Thank you for the praise, father. But I have to trouble you to pretend to be sick these days. You should stay here first and let the imperial physician take care of you until Jiujiu and the others come back." Emperor Qing'an gave these instructions with the stern demeanor of a king.

"Of course." The emperor nodded in agreement, paused, and said, "When Jiujiu comes back, tell me the first time."

Having not seen each other for so many days, the emperor was anxious to see Jiujiu.

"Father has always favored Jiujiu the most." Emperor Qing'an said sourly.

Emperor Qing'an was jealous of this, but he didn't hate her. Because he also favored Jiujiu, he naturally wouldn't blame her, but he regretted that he was not the child favored by his father and didn't have the care of his mother.

There are always regrets in life.

He seemed to have obtained the throne, stood at the pinnacle of power, and was admired by others. However, the regret in his heart could not be fulfilled.

On the contrary, it is lonely at the top.

The Emperor looked at Emperor Qing'an with a look of "How can a grown man be so hypocritical?" After a long while, he said, "Jiujiu is your sister and your father's youngest child. It's only natural that your father should favor her a little bit!"

"Who doesn't prefer the youngest son?"

Especially since this youngest child is his only daughter, who is smart, capable, well-behaved and cute, he naturally likes her very much.

As a man, and a ruler of a country, how could you be obsessed with the issue of your father favoring his younger sister?

Hypocritical.

He doesn't look like a king.

"Okay! My son can't win the argument with you." Emperor Qing'an went out in a daze. He went to see if the imperial physician had arrived. He had to put on a good show.

The retired emperor looked at Emperor Qing'an's back as he left, and asked someone to buy Emperor Qing'an some walnut cakes from Yongmin Lane, which were Emperor Qing'an's favorite when he was a child.

Two days later, Jiujiu returned to the palace.

It was snowing, and the whole palace was covered with snow, without any bright colors. The emperor felt depressed, and was worried that Jiujiu would not like it when she came back, so he ordered people to hang a lot of red lanterns.

When Jiujiu returned to the palace, it was night time. Seeing all the red lanterns lit up felt strange and made her feel cold.

She rubbed her arms and sniffed.

[It's so spooky hanging so many red lanterns in the middle of the night. ]

[I wonder which idiot let me hang up? ]

[The chief steward of the Ministry of Internal Affairs? ]

【It’s too aesthetic. 】

Jiujiu muttered to herself as she went to see her father.

The emperor's brother wrote to her personally, telling her to come see his father as soon as she returned and not to delay.

When Jiujiu arrived at the entrance of the hall where the retired emperor was, she passed by several ministers kneeling at the door. Snow had fallen on their shoulders, and frost had formed on their beards and hair. They were shivering with cold, but they did not stand up and just knelt.

Jiujiu's heart trembled. What was going on?

What happened to father?

Why did the emperor ask her to come back to see his father immediately?

These ministers are still kneeling here overnight?

When Jiujiu thought of this, all the strength in her body seemed to be drained away. She stopped and looked at the kneeling ministers and said, "What happened to my father?"

"Princess, you are back to the palace."

"you……"

A minister was about to question Jiujiu about Dongcang's change of retreat route, but he was bumped on the arm by someone next to him and he quickly shut up.

The emperor inside doesn’t know what’s going on yet.

Let’s not talk about this matter for now.

Otherwise, there will be more trouble.

If the emperor were to be provoked again and his condition worsened, they would be in trouble.

The light in the hall shone on several ministers. Although it was a little dim, Jiujiu could still see clearly that after she asked the question, the minister who had just spoken looked very bad. Not only did he have a bitter face, but he also looked like he had something important in his heart and was very depressed.

"Lord Ming, can you say something? What happened to my father?" Jiujiu asked again, with anxiety in her voice.

The person being questioned still didn't say anything and lowered his head even more.

Jiujiu's heart beat faster as his head continued to droop.

She couldn't help but wonder, could something have happened to her father?