When the emperor passed away, even women like Lin Daiyu, who had imperial orders, had to go to the palace to keep vigil for the emperor. They had to go to the palace before dawn and could only go home after noon.

Li Hu has been very busy these days. Today, he finally finished his work ahead of time and went home with Lin Daiyu.

On the soft couch in the carriage, Lin Daiyu lay with her body tilted, her head resting on Li Hu’s legs, like a sleeping child.

Li Hu put one hand on her back, patted her gently, and coaxed her: “Go to sleep, go to sleep”

Lin Daiyu couldn’t help it anymore, and she twisted Li Hu’s waist very skillfully, then she opened her eyes: “You are so annoying!”

Li Hu chuckled, holding her legs with one hand and resting the other on her back, holding her and sitting on his lap. He then picked up his patinated purple clay teapot and fed Lin Daiyu a sip of tea. He then smiled and said, “Going to bed right after a meal will cause indigestion, which is bad for your health.”

Lin Daiyu gently leaned her head on his shoulder and said: “If I had known, I wouldn’t have gotten married so early.”

Li Hu: “Why?”

Lin Daiyu: “This way, we don’t have to go to the palace to keep vigil!”

Li Hu laughed.

Lin Daiyu sighed softly: “It will take more than ten days.”

Li Hu also sighed: “Just bear with it a little longer.” Suddenly he remembered Bai Wu’s words and blinked.

Lin Daiyu: “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing, I just remembered some things.” Li Hu shook his head, threw away the distracting thoughts in his mind, and stopped thinking about them.

Lin Daiyu seemed to remember something interesting and looked at Li Hu with a gossipy smile on her face.

Li Hu: “What’s wrong?”

Lin Daiyu blinked her eyes several times and asked with a smile, “What did you touch that night?”

“Whatever you touch, you get.”

Li Hu was stunned for a moment, then he reacted and smiled bitterly.

On the night when the emperor passed away, Lin Daiyu thought he would not come back, so she asked Xue Baochai to accompany her to sleep at night. Li Hu came home at four o’clock in the morning, and without disturbing others, he took off his clothes and went to bed, hugged “Lin Daiyu” in his arms as usual, and touched her as usual.

He was so familiar with Lin Daiyu that he immediately noticed something was wrong. The person in his arms also cried out in surprise, and then he realized that it was Xue Baochai, not Lin Daiyu, in his arms.

Xue Baochai ran back to the Xue family at dawn and has not returned since. She said she stayed at home to help Aunt Xue settle accounts.

Well, Xue Pan is an official now and has to observe mourning rules, so the wedding is canceled.

Lin Daiyu smiled evilly: “Big, right?”

Li Hu happened to be swallowing saliva, and when he heard her words, the saliva got choked in his throat. He coughed for a long time before he recovered.

This girl has learned bad things! She says all kinds of evil things.

“Have you touched it?”

“I’ve seen it before.”

Li Hu smacked his lips. Although he had never seen it, he still remembered the scene that night clearly. It was indeed that, only Amber could compare with it. Then he looked at Lin Daiyu.

“What are you looking at!”

Lin Daiyu hurriedly crossed her arms across her chest and spat, “You rascal!”

Li Hu smiled: “Oh, you also learned these two words!”

After chatting and laughing for a while, Lin Daiyu suddenly asked, “Is the emperor sick again?”

Li Hu was silent for a moment and said, “The emperor had only an hour-long imperial meeting in the morning and he fell ill twice. The last time he almost fainted.” At this point, he sighed deeply.

Lin Daiyu stretched out her hand to smooth the wrinkles on Li Hu’s forehead: “Okay, don’t worry about it. The sky won’t fall.”

Li Hu smiled bitterly. The sky may fall, but the court is not sure. I don’t know how long the emperor can hold on.
Li Hu didn’t know yet that the sky of Shengjing City had collapsed at this moment!

Whether it was good news or bad news, Shengjing received the war report from Mobei one or two days earlier than the capital. The heir who had been trained for many years was gone, and his trusted generals were also killed in the battle. Most of the elite Eight Banners under Agui were lost, and only less than 20,000 people followed Helin and others to escape to Xilin Gol League.

How could an old man like Qian Xiaosi withstand such a great blow? He spat out a mouthful of blood and fainted.

In Qian Xiaosi’s old and shabby bedroom, the concubines were kneeling on the ground, wiping their eyes and blowing their noses with handkerchiefs.

Qian Xiaosi was still lying on the kang, with his eyes closed and his teeth clenched.

Several imperial doctors knelt beside the bed to take Qian Xiaosi’s pulse, each with a solemn expression on their face.

Outside the threshold, the princes, dukes, nobles and military ministers were kneeling there. At this moment, they had no time to avoid suspicion.

King Kang also came. He and several Han officials stood in the snow under the stone steps outside the palace, looking at the closed palace door.

Listening to the sobbing sounds coming from inside, King Kang’s eyes rolled around for a long time, thinking: It would be great if I could just burn this place down and be done with it once and for all!
Finally, footsteps and voices were heard from inside.

Then, the palace door opened with a click, and the princes, dukes, nobles and military ministers came out from the palace, talking.

Several Han officials rushed forward and said:
“How about it?”

“Is His Majesty awake?”

The leading military minister nodded.

Prince Kang stepped forward and asked, “How is Your Majesty? Is everything all right?”

The military minister bowed and replied, “It’s caused by anger. It’s a common disease for people over the age of 50, and it won’t cause any trouble.”

King Kang’s eyes flashed: “Is this old guy so tough? It seems that I have to think of a way to give this old guy some medicine.” Thinking of this, he remembered his cheap wife.

At this time, an imperial physician hurried out with a prescription.

The princes immediately gathered around, looked at the prescription, and followed the imperial physician to the imperial pharmacy.

When passing by King Kang, all the princes pretended not to see him and just walked straight past.

There was a hint of sneer in King Kang’s eyes. I will send you to report to the King of Hell before the New Year!

After exchanging a few pleasantries with the military ministers, Prince Kang turned and walked out of the palace.

After walking less than three or five steps, King Kang stopped. He looked back at the palace gate, then turned around and walked forward again. He thought as he walked: It is difficult to give the medicine, the success rate is very low, and it is easy to be caught. Zhou Yu died of anger three times, why not learn from Zhuge Liang and anger the old slave three times and anger him to death!

Thinking of this, King Kang made up his mind to kill the little Tartar after dusk, and take his life while he was sick, so that the old slave would spit out blood again!

The snowy day in December turned dark in a blink of an eye, and lights were turned on in Qian Xiaosi’s bedroom.

He took the medicine and drank it in one gulp, then Qian Xiaosi ordered the young eunuch to help him lean against the head of the bed.

After Yongyan died, he had to choose a crown prince from among the princes as soon as possible to avoid a situation where Han brothers would kill each other.

After thinking for a long time, Qian Xiaosi sighed deeply. He had a total of 17 sons, seven of whom died young, four died before the age of 30, and two were adopted out and could not inherit the throne. Now the only one he was relatively satisfied with, Yongyan, was also dead. The remaining princes were either too young, or were idle and mediocre, without the temperament of an emperor.

Now the only ones left for him to choose from are the Eighth Prince, the Eleventh Prince and the Seventeenth Prince. These three also have average talents and are good at having fun.

The seventeenth prince has the same mother as Yongyan, has a good family background, and can gain the support of the Eight Banners nobles.

Thinking of this, Qian Xiaosi smiled again.

Just then, the eunuch in charge rushed in like a gust of wind, ran to him and knelt down.

Qian Xiaosi’s face darkened: “What’s the matter? Why are you so flustered?”

The eunuch in charge said, “Your Majesty, the Seventeenth Prince’s horse got scared on the way back to the palace and he fell and broke his head. He died, he died.”

Qian Xiaosi’s brain buzzed: “What? What did you say?”

The eunuch in charge said: “The seventeenth prince has passed away.”

Qian Xiaosi’s head buzzed, and blood immediately rushed to his face. With a “wow” sound, a mouthful of blood spit out from his mouth. (End of this chapter)