Ao Qingmei followed another path and walked leisurely towards the front hall. When Bai Suzhen arrived at the pavilion, she only saw a figure going away. "Qing'er, was that your second sister?" She sat down beside Xiaoqing and put the cloak on her. It had rained all night, but she didn't expect the weather to be so cold in the morning. Xiaoqing had just recovered from a serious injury and couldn't stand the cold.
"Well, my second sister just left." Xiaoqing moved her body to get closer to Bai Suzhen. "Sister, just now my second sister asked me when I would take you back to Dragon Palace to see my father and mother..." Xiaoqing originally planned to mention this to Bai Suzhen in a few days, but she thought that it would be better to do it now than to drag it out. She might as well ask the other party what she thinks now, so she said directly: "... Xu Xian, that fool, is now the head of the Three Emperors' Patriarch Association. He is also famous in Suzhou Prefecture and has established a firm foothold. Sister, you can say that you have repaid the favor you owe him. In a few days, when I am well again, sister, can you go back to the East China Sea with me?"
It was only a matter of time before she met Xiaoqing's parents. Although the other party was the Lord of the East China Sea, Bai Suzhen had already prepared herself mentally. Although she was nervous, she was not timid. However, the theft of the treasure in the Liang Palace had not yet been settled, so she could not immediately agree to Xiaoqing's proposal. "Qing'er, I will go with you to meet your father and mother, but can we wait for a while?"
Xiao Qing was puzzled and asked, "Why?"
Bai Suzhen expressed her concerns to Xiaoqing. "Qing'er, although we have returned the four treasures from the Liang Palace, I am not sure whether the people from the Liang Palace will come to Bao'an Hall to cause trouble again. I think we should stay in Bao'an Hall for a while longer, and leave after the theft of the treasures is completely settled, okay?" Xu Xian was a commoner, and he could not afford to offend the Liang Palace. Since she asked Xiaoqing to steal the treasures, Bai Suzhen did not want to implicate Xu Xian because of this matter.
"Sister, you can rest assured about this." Xiaoqing waved her hand and said, "The people in the Liang Palace are busy with their own affairs and have no time to cause trouble for Xu Xian."
Bai Suzhen was startled, then suddenly realized something and asked, "Qing'er, what do you mean by that? Did you do something? Did you return the four treasures to the Liang Palace as I instructed?"
Xiaoqing shook her head, and before Bai Suzhen could start to blame her, she said, "Sister, the four treasures I stole did not belong to the Liang Palace at all. The treasures were stolen, and the news of the private withholding of tribute from the southern barbarians was leaked. Even if we want to settle the matter peacefully and return the treasures in full, do you think that Liang Xiangguo will let it go with us? In order to protect himself, he will definitely choose to kill to silence the witnesses. Rather than accepting his threats, it is better to hand the treasures over to the current emperor and let the emperor punish Liang Xiangguo. In this way, he will be unable to protect himself, and naturally he will have no time to come to us. Isn't this a more permanent solution?"
It turned out that Xiaoqing had handed the treasure over to the current emperor. Since the emperor knew that Prime Minister Liang had withheld tribute privately, he must punish him according to the law. The Liang family could not escape the blame, so he really did not want to make things difficult for Bao'an Hall. However, thinking of Prime Minister Liang, who was a veteran of three dynasties, and had to be punished by the law in his old age, Bai Suzhen could not help but feel a little bit reluctant. She sighed softly and murmured, "Qing'er, that being said, we have no grudge against Prime Minister Liang, and there is really no need to let him suffer in prison in his old age."
Xiaoqing didn't sympathize with Liang Xiangguo. As the saying goes, "Misfortunes sent by heaven can be forgiven, but misfortunes brought by oneself cannot be forgiven." Since he had the guts to withhold tribute, he should be prepared to bear the consequences. Of course, knowing that Bai Suzhen was kind-hearted and tolerant of everyone, Xiaoqing didn't argue with her. She just comforted her, "Sister, don't worry about it. Liang Xiangguo is an old minister of the country after all. I heard that the current emperor is a benevolent monarch. I don't think he would punish an old minister."
"Yes." Bai Suzhen nodded. It was too late to say anything. Just like Xiaoqing said, the current emperor was kind and would be lenient to a minister who had served for three dynasties. Thinking of what Xiaoqing had just said, Bai Suzhen said, "Qing'er, since the people from the Liang Palace will not come to Bao'an Hall to cause trouble again, I am relieved. I will do as you said. After a few days, when you are well, I will go back to the East Sea with you to meet your father, the king and the queen."
"That's great." Xiaoqing's eyes lit up and she said happily. "Sister, after we meet my father and mother, we will go find a quiet place and live a free life for the two of us. We can watch the sunrise and sunset in our spare time, or grow some flowers and plants. What do you think?"
"Hmm..." Bai Suzhen nodded gently, with a gleam of longing in her eyes. She believed that she would be very happy with Xiaoqing in the future. She longed for the kind of leisurely life with two people. She didn't care about practicing hard and ascending to become an immortal. As long as she could be with Xiaoqing, nothing else mattered.
After getting Bai Suzhen's approval, Xiaoqing was as happy as a child. She said with a smile: "Sister, I will eat well in the next few days and try to get my body back in shape as soon as possible."
"Yeah." Seeing Xiaoqing's happy face, Bai Suzhen's smile deepened. After staring at Xiaoqing for a moment, she slowly asked, "By the way, Qing'er, how did you fight with Fahai and get hurt by him?" Fahai was far away in Jinshan Temple. Even though he had an old grudge with me, he came to Suzhou to seek revenge on me. I don't know why he would hit Xiaoqing so hard. Xiaoqing was injured a few days ago, and Bai Suzhen had never asked her about the details of her injury that day. Today, she couldn't help asking.
"It's all the fault of that evil young Liang Lian!" Xiaoqing snorted coldly, "Sister, you are absolutely right, Liang Lian is indeed very cunning. On that day, sister, you used a sleight of hand to exchange the four treasures in their Prince Liang's Mansion one by one. Liang Lian was not deceived at all, but he did not have any real evidence. At the same time, he doubted our identities, so he left angrily and immediately sent people to Jinshan Temple to find Fahai to deal with us. I happened to meet them on the way back to the city, so we started fighting - if it weren't for that stinky monk Fahai relying on a broken begging bowl, he would not have been able to hurt me with his little ability." Xiaoqing felt angry when Fahai was mentioned. She was the third princess of the East China Sea Dragon Palace. If she hadn't been careless and fell into the trap of the evil dragon spirit, she would have been reincarnated and lost her magic power, how could she be afraid of Fahai's mere Buddhist magic weapon.
"I see." Thinking of the time when Xiaoqing faced Fahai alone and she was not by her side at the critical moment of life and death, Bai Suzhen felt extremely guilty. "Qing'er..." She gently covered Xiaoqing's hand and slowly held it tightly, and said as if promising: "No matter what kind of danger you face in the future, I will face it with you. I will never let you face danger alone again. I promise."
Xiaoqing smiled, held Bai Suzhen's hand, and said word by word: "Me too."
The two of them looked at each other with deep affection in their eyes, and the morning sun was gradually emerging from the eastern sky...