After I traveled through the book, I was spoiled by five little villains

"Your Highness, it's not that I don't want to tell you," Madam Zhou sighed slightly, "You will know it later."

The Empress Dowager was in such a bad condition that she issued a strict order not to allow anyone from Xining Palace to leak a single word.

She naturally has to lead by example.

You can't even tell it to the eldest princess.

As for the cause of death of the old lady of the Cui family, no one dared to discuss it behind her back because of the Empress Dowager's reputation.

But it can’t stop people from thinking.

If the Empress Dowager's current situation were to become known to others, wouldn't it be clear that she was feeling guilty and that was the reason she acted like this?

At this hour, the palace had already been locked.

But since Nanny Zhou was there and she was Princess Leyang entering the palace, she was immediately allowed in after her badge was checked.

The Xining Palace is exceptionally quiet in the night.

Everyone held their breath and dared not speak loudly.

In front of the Empress Dowager, there was a person who surprised Qin Yaoguang greatly—the current emperor.

"Mother, can you drink another sip for the sake of your son?"

The emperor was wearing wide-sleeved casual clothes, still looking like a talented and romantic man, but holding a white jade carved crabapple bowl in his hand, which was extremely inconsistent with the emperor. He sat on an embroidered cushion at the feet of the empress dowager, doing the work that Nanny Zhou was supposed to do.

The palace maids and eunuchs serving around him were all trembling with fear. They didn't dare to take the bowl from his hand, nor did they dare to persuade him.

The emperor was used to being willful and did everything that was against the rules.

He wanted to serve soup to his mother personally, who dared to interfere?

The Empress Dowager looked listless, as if all her energy had been drained out of her. She didn't have any of her former charm, and gave people the feeling that she was waiting to die.

Qin Yaoguang's heart tightened, and he quickly took a few steps, ran to her, knelt down, and held her hand.

"Mother, I'm late!"

When she saw her, the Queen Mother's eyes showed sadness and she held her hand tightly.

When the emperor saw her, his eyes lit up with joy.

His mother suddenly became like this, Concubine Jing told him, it was because the old lady in the Ningguo Mansion had hurt his mother too much.

Fearing that he might do something wrong, Concubine Jing did not explain it too clearly to him.

But when he heard it, he became anxious and rushed to the Xining Palace.

His two younger sisters are not in the capital, so as a son he must fulfill his filial duties.

Seeing that the Empress Dowager was staying in the pavilion with wind blowing in from all sides, he had her carried back to the bedroom and fed her soup with his own hands.

He is the emperor, and no one dares to disobey his orders.

The Empress Dowager had not eaten or drunk anything all day, but she could still barely drink a few sips of soup from the Emperor's hand.

The emperor was very happy to see Qin Yaoguang at this moment.

"Sister, I am very relieved that you can come back in such a heavy snow."

Qin Yaoguang greeted him and took the bowl from him: "Brother, you have to attend the court tomorrow. Leave the care of our mother to me!"

"No hurry, no hurry."

The emperor shook his head and said, "It's a morning court. If I feel sleepy, I can just take a nap. No one will notice. Anyway, the Grand Tutor is here, so I don't need to worry."

The Queen Mother frowned and sighed.

Qin Yaoguang didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

His words made the almost stagnant atmosphere in the room a little more lively.

Qin Yaoguang thought to himself: In the current situation, having such a broad-minded emperor might not be a bad thing.

Judging from his tone, this was obviously not the first time he slept during the morning court session.

Really no one noticed?

Even if they discovered it, no one would dare to say it.

Qin Yaoguang held the bowl, scooped a spoonful of the fragrant soup and put it close to the Empress Dowager's mouth: "Mother, my brother is so filial, please drink some more."

Apart from anything else, the emperor knew that his mother was in a bad mood, so he came to look after her personally, feeding her and making her happy. This filial piety deserves recognition.

Unlike the emperors in TV dramas, when his mother was clearly ill, he would just come and sit for a while, ask about her condition, and then leave.

He was not a wise ruler, but he was a good son.

Perhaps it was because she saw Qin Yaoguang coming back, or perhaps it was because she saw the emperor's filial piety, the empress dowager slowly finished the bowl of deer antler, red ginseng and black chicken soup.

Qin Yaoguang fed her patiently, sharing with her some interesting things that happened in the villa, and then talked about Chunning.

"It snowed so heavily that Chunning will be back in a few days. From what I've seen, she has recovered a lot and can ride a horse and shoot arrows without any problems."

She deliberately picked up happy things to talk about.

The children's thoughtfulness gradually brought life to the Empress Dowager's face, and she was no longer unresponsive to the outside world as before.

She looked at the emperor and said, "You are the emperor. Don't count on the Grand Tutor for everything. It snowed so heavily and there was hail. You should pay more attention to the disaster relief."

Qin Yaoguang didn't expect that when the empress dowager encountered such a big thing, what she was most concerned about was the common people.

In ancient times, disaster relief was of great importance.

As long as the common people can have something to eat, they can get through any hardship or difficulty.

But if natural disasters or man-made calamities occur, and families are destroyed and people die, the only way left is to rebel.

Anyway, I have nothing left, so rebellion may provide a way to survive.

In many dynasties, the emperors were incompetent and the officials were corrupt, forcing people to rise up in rebellion.

At first, it was just a place.

If the imperial court cannot suppress the situation, it will fall into a series of turmoil, and eventually the whole country will be in chaos, with people claiming to be kings everywhere, leading to its downfall.

Now, the Grand Tutor controls the government.

And behind the Grand Situ stood the entire Xie family.

Who knows, will he take the opportunity to seek benefits for the Xie family?

The flood relief fraud case a few years ago is still fresh in our memory.

However, the Empress Dowager's worries were in vain for the Emperor.

The emperor said with a big heart: "Mother, I understand. The Queen has already told me that she has proposed a plan to save money in the palace and donate money for disaster relief."

The Queen Mother rubbed her brows and said, "Okay, I understand. You go back and rest first, don't miss the morning court."

Disaster relief is a complicated matter. How can it be solved by just donating some money from the palace?

It’s hard to explain it to him, so I might as well just ignore it and not be bothered.

No matter how bad the emperor is, it is enough that he still has this filial piety.

After the emperor left, Qin Yaoguang asked, "Mother, it's getting late. Should I help you go out for a walk, or should we rest first?"

The Queen Mother shook her head and grabbed her hand: "Help me up."

After looking at Nanny Zhou, Nanny Zhou understood and withdrew with the serving palace maids and eunuchs, leaving a quiet space for the two to talk.

The Queen Mother looked at Qin Yaoguang with a serious expression: "Tell me honestly, what happened on the way back?"

Qin Yaoguang looked hesitant and didn't say anything.

"Don't hide it from me."

The Queen Mother looked tired, but her eyes were as firm as ever.

After all these years, what kind of ups and downs have you not seen?

She managed to survive the previous emperor's death, so it's impossible for her to collapse at this time.

Her children still need her, how can she fall?

Qin Yaoguang nodded and slowly told her what he had encountered.

On a snowy night, the stars are gone.

At the residence of the Grand Tutor, Xie Ruijin handed over the bloody bronze badge with both hands.

"Father, look."

When Xie Shu saw it, his face suddenly changed: "You mean, you picked it up at the place where the princess was attacked?"

"Yes, I knew it was inappropriate, but I didn't let the princess see it."

He hesitated for a while and asked, "Father, could it be you?"