Zi'an was secretly surprised, "What do you mean? Your blood is just that useful? What's wrong with you?"
"It's nothing. Don't bother me. Remember what I said. Although vinegar can suppress the Gu worms, he will still die once King Nan Huai dies. It's just that long-term consumption of vinegar suppresses the growth of the Gu worms, so the sub-Gu will grow slower than the mother Gu. You only have about half a month to cure the Gu. Also, the cure can only start after the mother Gu worm dies, because the key to cure the Gu is the corpse of the mother Gu worm in King Nan Huai's body."
Zi'an's research on the poison has not made any progress so far. She wanted to ask more questions, but Sun Fang'er had already left with one sentence, "Send your mother and your brother away, as soon as possible!"
Zi'an was shocked, and suddenly remembered what the emperor had asked his mother about. Could it be that he was going to...
Zi'an rushed out and grabbed Sun Fang'er's arm, "One last question, is the emperor's illness cured?"
Sun Fang'er forced a strange smile, "He thinks he's fine."
She broke free from Zi'an's hand and said, "I can't stay long. The emperor has sent someone to follow me. I said I was only here to get my things from the Regent's Palace. Now that I have got them, I should leave."
The emperor graciously allowed her to leave the palace and return home to get something, which meant that the thing was useful to the emperor, otherwise he would not allow her to come out in person.
Zi'an did see someone following her. It was Eunuch Lu and a eunuch. The eunuch was holding two jars in his hands. Zi'an knew that those jars contained poisonous insects.
It seems that the emperor has complete faith in Sun Fang'er.
Zi'an was puzzled by the emperor's sudden change.
However, thinking about what he did to Zhuangzhuang, it doesn't seem strange.
He has always been a person who values imperial power. When he was sick, he had no good doctor and slowly accepted the fact that his life was almost over. However, her appearance brought him back to the center of power. Later, Sun Fang'er even used poisonous insects to treat him. He felt that he would get better. After all, he was still young.
For a person who almost lost his imperial power and suddenly regained it, that kind of mentality can be very crazy.
This mentality is the same as the feeling of losing a loved one and then finding him/her again. After losing and getting him/her back, you will cherish him/her even more and protect him/her by all means.
Moreover, in the process of regaining it, he will develop an inflated mentality, thinking that he is indeed a child of destiny, and he will want more.
It is very scary for a person to have such a distorted mentality. The scariest thing is that this person is the emperor, who holds the power of life and death over all the people in the world.
Zi'an felt a sense of crisis everywhere, and that the Night King and the Liang King were unable to control such arrogance.
As luck would have it, the seventh brother is on the battlefield again.
Su Qing and Xiao Tuo returned to the capital at dusk two days later.
After the two returned to Beijing, they went directly to the palace to report.
When I left the palace, it was already midnight.
King Ye, King Liang, and Zhuangzhuang were all in the Regent's Palace. Lady Chen was also dragged over by Liuliu and were waiting for the two of them together, because Zhuangzhuang had sent someone at the palace gate to pass a message to them, asking them to come to the Regent's Palace immediately after leaving the palace.
Xiao Tuo and Su Qing were both very tired when they entered the room, their faces were covered in dust and they looked listless.
When Liu Liu saw Xiao Tuo, she rushed over, but not too close. She looked at him nervously with a light in her eyes.
Xiao Tuo smiled, "You've lost weight." He reached out and rubbed her hair, then rubbed her face. With so many people present, of course they wouldn't hug her, as the local customs were not that open.
Liu Liu also smiled, tears welling up in her eyelashes. "Although I shouldn't be happy that you were replaced, I am very happy to see you. I am actually very happy that the emperor removed you."
Everyone laughed when they heard this, what an honest girl.
Because of this sentence, the atmosphere became somewhat relaxed and everyone's tense nerves seemed to relax a little.
They were invited in, and after they sat down, they both drank a large cup of tea and asked in unison, "Anything else?"
"Are you so thirsty? Don't you even have saliva to drink in the palace?" Lady Chen frowned.
Both of them looked very bad, their lips were dry, and it seemed that they were really thirsty.
"Where can we find tea? We waited for an hour in Xiwei Palace before the emperor received us. We couldn't see him because of the curtain. He asked us a lot of questions, wanting to know every detail. We were so thirsty from talking, but he didn't even give us a drop of water." Su Qing complained.
Everyone looked at each other, and the Night King said calmly: "If you don't know, you would think he is the one leading the army in person."
Zi'an looked at Xiao Tuo, "My Lord... Are you okay?"
"Okay." Xiao Tuo smiled, "Of course he is good."
There's something... weird about this smile.
Zian felt a little... uneasy!
"By the way, the Northern Desert Army retreated thirty miles. Did you find out anything?" Chen Taijun was more concerned about the war.
"Is there even a need to ask? Thirty miles back is the Heihe River. Our army is not good at naval battles and we don't have enough warships. Once a battle breaks out in the Heihe River, how can we have a chance of winning? This is Qin Zhou's strategy to lure the enemy." Su Qing said.
"Then, has the emperor's decree actually reached the prince's hands?" Lady Chen asked again.
"We have seen the imperial edict, but we cannot attack. If we attack, we will fall into the trap." Xiao Tuo said.
"Well, we really can't attack." Chen Taijun pondered for a moment, "Then what plans does the prince have? It's not a solution to continue wasting time like this."
Su Qing said: "I have a plan, but the emperor will definitely not agree. Moreover, the court has been manipulating the war, which is very disadvantageous to our army. Therefore, the prince made a decision. As for what the decision is, it involves military secrets and cannot be disclosed for the time being."
Hearing that Murong Jie had made a decision, everyone felt a little relieved.
Su Qing suddenly asked, "By the way, on our way back to Beijing, we heard that the noble concubine was arrested and died in the prison. What happened?"
Prince Liang recounted the whole story of how Concubine Gui assassinated and escaped, but was captured by Prince Nan Huai.
"I see. We knew about the assassination and the capture of the princess. The secret guards came to report it, but we didn't know about the farcical ending afterwards."
Zi'an looked at Su Qing nervously, "What does the prince think of the assassination?"
"You can ask him yourself... when he comes back." Su Qing said.
Zi'an frowned, "What's wrong with you? You sound like you're holding back. Don't you trust us anymore after going on this expedition?"
Xiao Tuo shook his head, "No, maybe I'm tired?"
Zi'an saw that the two men looked exhausted indeed. They came back from sleeping in the open air and hadn't even had a sip of water, but they rushed into the palace to report on their work without stopping. How could they not be tired
"Okay, let's stop talking and eat first. I've asked someone to prepare wine and food to welcome you." Zi'an quickly ordered someone to serve the food.
Xiao Tuo yelled, "Yes, hurry up and serve the food and wine. I'm almost starving to death."
The meal was very sumptuous. Zi'an personally selected the dishes to suit their tastes. The two of them devoured the meal in no time. After a short while, their plates were empty, but they still seemed to be reluctant to leave.
(End of this chapter)