Chapter 194
Ye Yi walked to Luo Xuan's side and helped him change into clean clothes for the Sword Immortal. Then, he took out some medicine and carefully applied it to the Sword Immortal's injured feet.
The Sword Immortal's feet were bound with Xuantie all year round, and his ankles were already blurred with blood stains.
After everything was taken care of, Ye Yi bent down and placed the Sword Immortal on the stone bed in the corner.
They had tried using a wooden bed for the Sword Immortal before. However, once the poison in his body flared up, he would uncontrollably destroy everything around him and even harm himself with the wooden splinters.
Over time, Luo Xuan could only provide a stone bed for the Sword Immortal. However, he added a thick layer of bedding on the stone to keep him warm.
After everything was settled, Ye Yi finally took Luo Xuan's hand and led him towards the main hall.
When Luo Xuan passed by Ye Xi's coffin, his footsteps involuntarily paused for a moment.
Inside lay his daughter!
"Father, let's go back!" Ye Yi whispered softly.
"Alright, let's go back."
Luo Xuan placed his hand on Ye Xi's coffin, gently caressed it, then clenched his teeth and walked towards the main hall.
In the empty main hall, Ye Yi helped Luo Xuan sit down. He then took out four small pills made of white jade ginseng, given to him by the National Master, and fed them to four hidden guards.
After feeding the pills, Ye Yi placed his hand on the chests of the guards. With a touch of his hand, the pills slid down their throats and into their stomachs.
After a moment, the four guards, who were previously weak as threads of air, simultaneously opened their eyes. They hesitated for a moment before quickly sitting up from the bed.
Seeing Ye Yi standing in front of them, the four guards got off the bed and half-knelt on the ground, respectfully speaking to Ye Yi.
"Third Prince, thank you for saving our lives!"
"You don't need to thank me. If it weren't for me, my empress mother wouldn't have laid hands on you."
The four guards kneeling on the ground exchanged glances and decided to reveal the information they obtained before being poisoned.
"Before we were poisoned, we received news that the Sixth Princess, Ye Zhao, was imprisoned in the dungeon by the Empress."
However, when Princess Ye Zhao was locked up in the dungeon, her clan members risked their lives to rescue her and sent her to Canglan.
Now, all the clan members of Princess Ye Zhao have been imprisoned by Empress Canglan, awaiting execution after autumn."
Upon hearing the guards' words, Ye Yi took a sharp breath.
A while ago, Ye Zhao and Ye Mu were appointed envoys by their empress mother to deliver an early coronation gift to the Han Country.
Because they presented the poisoned Ruo Qiu as a gift to Zaozao, Zaozao, in anger, had already killed Ye Mu.
Now, among the surviving princes and princesses, only he and the Sixth Princess, Ye Zhao, remained.
He had been abandoned by his empress mother and confined to this courtyard. As for his younger sister, Ye Yu, she had long been driven to madness by their empress mother's torment.
Now, the only person who can inherit the Canglan throne is Ye Zhao alone.
He had thought that the empress mother would leave her throne to Ye Zhao. But from the information received from the secret guards, was the empress mother planning to kill all the children she had given birth to?
If they were all dead, then who would inherit the throne of Canglan? Or was she planning to hand over her throne to someone else?
But this didn't seem like the empress mother's way of doing things.
His empress mother, the empress of Canglan, she had truly gone mad.
Luo Xuan looked at the shocked expression on Ye Yi's face and couldn't help but sigh. His wife, the empress of Canglan.
In her entire life, she didn't love even a single child she had given birth to. The only thing she loved was the throne beneath her.
Her reason for declining the temple was that she was still young and didn't want to be bothered yet.
So even if the people burned incense for her, she couldn't feel it. It would be a waste of money.
If they truly loved and respected her, then the people of Han Country should unite and do more good deeds.
Most importantly, when Zaozao secretly slipped out of the palace and saw the little clay figure the people had made for her, it looked exactly like a caricature of General Tianpeng.
That appearance was simply hideous.
It was because of that grotesque statue that Zaozao adamantly refused the people's request to build a temple for her.
But later on, due to the sincere and earnest pleas of the people, Zaozao eventually relented. Of course, it would be even better if the people of Han Country didn't call her "Zhu Zhu" (Piggy).
Zaozao couldn't help but think of the name "Piggy Knight" when the people and Han Ye called her Zhu Zhu. The difference was so vast!
When Zaozao recounted her reasons for rejecting the temple to them, Han Ye and Ruo Qiu couldn't help but laugh.
What amused them the most was Zaozao imitating the appearance of Piggy Knight, hopping and jumping around.
"Xiao Liuli, you daydreamer, what are you thinking about!"
"Sister, would you like to have something to eat?" Xiao Liuli softly asked, concealing the smile in her eyes.
"Mmm! I'm craving something sweet, the sweeter, the better. I've been arguing with the civil and military officials all day long, and it has been exhausting."
"If I don't have something sweet soon, I feel like I won't be able to bear this bitterness anymore."
Zaozao scratched her messy hair in frustration and looked at Xiao Liuli with confusion.
"Xiao Liuli, during the morning court session today, you said that Lord Li from the Ministry of Revenue and I had an argument. Who was at fault? Who was being unreasonable?"
Upon hearing Zaozao's words, Xiao Liuli, who was organizing the memorial documents, hesitated for a moment, her hands unintentionally paused.
Um...
How should she answer that?
Thinking back to the morning court session, when Lord Li, who appeared honest and sincere, almost rolled up his sleeves to fight with Zaozao because their opinions didn't align.
As for the reason...
"Xiao Liuli, you said that Lord Li is in charge of the Ministry of Revenue, and I just asked him to allocate some money for road construction for the people.
Moreover, as the Empress of Han Country, didn't I lead by example and contribute my own silver? I only asked Lord Li to cover the rest. How can he accuse me of being stingy?"
"But, Elder Sister, it takes 23,000 taels of silver to build the roads, and you only provided 300 taels of silver. You expect Lord Li to come up with 22,700 taels of silver for road construction.
Elder Sister, Lord Li has to fill in a significant amount of silver, it's not surprising that he would get angry."
"Xiao Liuli, are you implying that the 300 taels of silver I provided is insufficient?"
"No, absolutely not."
Xiao Liuli quickly denied.
"How can it be insufficient? Xiao Liuli, do you know? When I first arrived in Han Country, I was at least a well-off woman who didn't have to worry about food and clothing.
But now that I've become the Empress of Han Country, I've turned into a complete pauper.
Everywhere requires money, and that Lord Li from the Ministry of Revenue keeps insisting there's no money. He does nothing all day but complain about being broke.
How long has it been? He's deceived all of my private savings. How can I not seek revenge for such a profound hatred of robbing my private funds?
Besides, those 300 taels of silver were even requested by me and Ruo Qiu. As the wife, I'm shamelessly asking my own husband for money. I've practically lost face for women everywhere."