Minglan is reborn, this time with no regrets!

Old Mrs. Wang sat at home, holding a jade pendant that was broken into two pieces, tears streaming down her face.

This is something that Wangshi Kang has carried with her since she was a child.

Old Lady Wang had a difficult time giving birth to her, so she loved her daughter very much. When she heard from a Taoist priest that jade pendants can nourish people, she traveled all over the world to find this unique Lantian jade for Lady Kang Wang, so that she could wear it with her at all times.

"How hard did the Sheng family beat your sister to break her jade pendant... How desperate she must have been at that time!" the old lady cried.

Wang Shiping sat aside and whispered, "Hey, if she hadn't instigated my third sister to kill my third brother-in-law, there wouldn't have been so many problems..."

Old Lady Wang: "What do you know! She is just sad, sad that her sister is ignored by her husband. She is standing up for your third sister! You, as a brother, can't protect the two sisters, so she, as an elder sister, has to find a way to help her sister herself!"

Wang Shiping lowered his head and dared not say another word.

Old Lady Wang: "The Sheng family, relying on their own reason, dared to torture your elder sister privately. The bastard Kang family didn't even protect her, and let the Sheng family beat your elder sister severely. They said she died of illness in the inner prison, but I think she was beaten to death by the Sheng family!"

Wang Shiping: "Mother...Now that my elder sister is gone, and the Sheng family has evidence in their hands, we really don't have the upper hand. Besides, our involvement in this matter with Zhu Manniang has already alerted the enemy. I heard that Marquis Gu has already informed Kaifeng Prefecture. If we want to go to Kaifeng Prefecture to talk about this matter again, I'm afraid no one will dare to answer us."

Old Lady Wang: "They have evidence, so they are right? Your elder sister is a noble lady from an official family. Her life is so precious, and the Sheng family can kill her at will? Then where is your dignity when I was alive, and where is your dignity now that you are wearing a purple robe?"

Wang Shiping asked in astonishment: "What does mother mean?"

Old Lady Wang: "Doesn't the Sheng family rely on Gu Tingye's support? Who is behind Gu Tingye? The current emperor and the former Yuzhou militia commander. If it weren't for these people, would the Sheng family dare to kill your sister? Oh, if your father were still alive, how glorious our Wang family would be. Today's Prime Minister would have to be polite to your father. Even if your sister has ten more crimes, who in the world would dare to turn a blind eye to her? Now, Zhao Zongquan has only been on the throne for a short time, and these upstarts dare to step on the corpses of us old ministers to make trouble! If the late emperor knew that the court today is full of such domineering and arrogant people, he would definitely not give the throne to Zhao Zongquan!"

Wang Shiping broke out in a cold sweat: "Mother, please keep your voice down!"

Old Lady Wang: "This is my family, what can I not say? You are such a cautious person. If your eldest sister was a boy, how could our Wang family be reduced to this situation today? Even the small Sheng family dares to ride on our necks, haha, it's simply against the will of heaven!"

Old Lady Wang stood up and looked at the sky. "There are still two messengers before the palace gate is locked. You should change into court clothes now and come with me to the palace to see the Queen Mother!"

Wang Shiping was so frightened that he stood there with a cry of "Ah?"

Old Lady Wang knocked his head in dismay: "What? Go to the palace to see the Queen Mother!"

An hour later, mother and son arrived at the palace.

Old Lady Wang, wearing a robe of imperial decree, knelt before the Empress Dowager, tears streaming down her face: "Grand Madam! You don't know, when I gave birth to her, the fetus was crooked and difficult to deliver, and I was in pain for three days before I had this daughter. Now the Sheng family beat her to death and she died of illness in two days... I will never see her again... Grand Madam, I am almost buried in the earth, I really wish I could die in her place..."

Wang Shiping knelt behind Old Lady Wang, buried his face low, and dared not even breathe.

The Queen Mother was annoyed by her crying and sighed, "I am not a person with good luck with children."

When Mrs. Wang heard something wrong with the words, she stopped crying immediately.

As expected, the Queen Mother continued, "You are better than me. I lost all three children, but you at least kept two." What she meant was, "Stop making a fuss. I didn't cry when I lost three children, but you cried like this when you lost only one. I really don't like to hear that."

Old Lady Wang was not willing to give up. She came to the palace to ask the Queen Mother to make a decision for her daughter. So, she paused and quickly thought of another excuse: "It is said that children are debts from past lives..."

Seeing that she was still entangled in this topic, the Queen Mother interrupted her directly: "As the Buddha said, all desires are suffering. The child is dead, but we still have to live. You, when you were a girl in the boudoir, you were a person who couldn't think straight. Come on, get up quickly, let's sit down and talk together, two lonely old women."

All the words that Old Lady Wang had prepared were stuck in her chest. Just when she was trying to find another topic to say, Eunuch Zhu had already walked up to her and pulled her to sit on a chair. Then, a plate of cakes and drinks was brought to her. Eunuch Zhu said, "This is the peach blossom wine brewed by the Madam herself. Old Madam, please try it." This was to shut her up with food, so that she could not say anything more.

The two old ladies were talking, and Wang Shiping knelt with his butt sticking up the whole time, not daring to raise his head. The Queen Mother said: "Master Wang, why are you still kneeling? Get up, get up!"

After receiving the order, Wang Shiping dared to stand up and stand beside his old mother.

The Queen Mother said to Old Lady Wang: "Look at you, you are so lucky to have a son. I have no children at all, and I am alone. You are better off than me, you have your own son by your side, you are blessed!" The Queen Mother's words implied that she had no children, but if she had no children, what would the official family be now? Is the adopted son not a son?

It would be fine if she said this behind closed doors, but this occasion is a meeting between the emperor and his subjects. The empress dowager said such words openly in front of the mother and son of a second-rank official. What should the mother and son of the Wang family do when they go out?

The two men were so frightened that they immediately knelt down again. Old Lady Wang folded her hands and said humbly, "My son is lowly and crude, how can he be compared with Your Majesty? Your Majesty is the son of God, and I flatter the destiny of heaven!"

The Queen Mother: "Look, look, why are you kneeling again! We two old ladies have been here for several generations, but let's just talk about gossip. When you are old, it's all about your children, right? From the palace to the people, it's all about these things. Hurry up and get up!"

Old Mrs. Wang couldn't figure out what the Queen Mother meant, so she could only answer "yes" tremblingly and sat back in her chair with the help of Wang Shiping.

The Queen Mother: "I know about the Sheng family that you just mentioned, who killed your daughter. When the old scholar Sheng was alive, they were considered a clean and honest family among the civil servants. Later, each generation became worse and worse. It was also because of good luck that her concubine's daughter married Gu Tingye, a son-in-law, and even became a disciple of the Queen. Now she is considered to be in a good position."

Old Lady Wang sensed that this time the words were right, and quickly echoed, "If one's virtue is not worthy of his position, there will be disaster! They have become the new nobles and are bullying us old people. They have no regard for the dignity of the late emperor!"

The Queen Mother: "Young people lack maturity and are too frivolous. It is also because the people behind them are powerful that they forget their duties."

Old Lady Wang thought to herself, "That's right, this is exactly what I was thinking! Queen Mother, please help us deal with these lunatics!"

Just as he was organizing his words to speak, the Queen Mother suddenly turned around, picked up a pair of scissors, and cut the candle in front of her.

The wick was cut off at the root and the candle flame was extinguished instantly.

The Queen Mother: "Oh, it's overcut."

Zhu Neiguan: "Madam, there is nothing you can do. The wick has to be trimmed when it grows too long. If you trim it, it will burn longer."

The Queen Mother: "Show him away."

Wang Shiping felt that the empress dowager was trying to express something implicitly, but he was too stupid to figure out what the empress dowager meant.

Old Mrs. Wang's face darkened.

Although the Queen Mother expressed the same idea as her, that the people from the Sheng and Gu families needed to be punished, she never mentioned that she was going to take action, and even staged a scene of cutting the wick, saying that "it will burn longer."

Whose wick was cut, and whose candle can burn longer?

With the help of Wang Shiping, Old Lady Wang slowly stood up from her chair and even forgot to say goodbye to the Queen Mother.