CH 135.1

Chapter 135.1 – Cold

As Qi Yang expected, Lu Qipei had only slept for two hours before someone from the palace came to summon her.

Qi Yang had gone earlier than Lu Qipei. After waking up, she made brief arrangements for the princess’s mansion then returned to the palace. On top of accompanying the seriously injured and bedridden Emperor, what was more important was to attend the Crown Prince’s funeral. She wanted to send off her brother on his last journey.

Today, there was only one of the usually inseparable lovebirds, and everyone in the palace was wondering when they saw it. Even the seriously injured Emperor woke up and asked a few more questions. However, Qi Yang just gave him a random answer by saying that something happened in the Lu Mansion – what she said was not a lie, something did happen in the Lu Mansion. Its butler died and someone needed to take care of it, and Lu Qipei did work hard on this last night.

Thinking of Qi Bo, Qi Yang also felt very troubled, afraid that he didn’t clean up the loose ends well enough. After all, the Head Minister of the Court of Judicial Review had received her orders before, and now the assassination case was being investigated very closely. If Lu Qipei was found out…

That would be interesting. Attempting to assassinate the Emperor and the Crown Prince was a major crime equivalent to treason, let alone a successful one. If they were really found out, there wouldn’t be any more need for the two to plan anything anymore. Why don’t they just figure out if there would be another rebirth that could bring them back together?

After accompanying the Emperor for a while and thinking about some messy things, Qi Yang went to the Eastern Palace again.

The current Eastern Palace was becoming increasingly bleak. Although the Eldest Grandson became the Royal Heir and nothing changed in the Eastern Palace, without the Crown Prince as the backbone, a young boy that was just around eleven or twelve clearly couldn’t bear the burden that his father suddenly left him.

Fortunately, the Crown Prince’s funeral still had the assistance of the ritual officials. White banners were hung around white silk, and incense candles were burnt. But because the Emperor was seriously injured, no one dared to make a big fuss about the funeral, fearing another misfortune. So the Crown Prince’s funeral was simplified, and the officials only came to pay their respects in batches, and no ritual crying was performed.

Those who cried in the funeral were all the Crown Prince’s wives, concubines and children, with the Crown Princess and the Royal Heir kneeling at the forefront. Everyone was crying from their hearts; the Crown Princess lost her beloved husband, the Royal Heir lost his dependable father, and the others were even more worried about the future.

Qi Yang also felt uncomfortable, and cried again amidst the atmosphere, and stayed behind to watch over the funeral.

Lu Qipei was summoned into the palace to take over the affairs of the royal guards. The current royal guards’ commander was also one of the Emperor’s confidants, someone he could trust. But although he was willing to submit to the Emperor right now, he might not be willing to submit to the young emperor in the future. Plus, the royal guards’ commander also had some responsibility with the Chaoyang Tower assassination case, so the Emperor let Lu Qipei take over the royal guards.

It’s just that Lu Qipei didn’t expect the Emperor to be in such a hurry. When she received the summons to the palace, the former royal guards’ commander had already been dismissed from post, and they were only waiting for her to do the handover before sending him to the Court of Judicial Review to cooperate with the Head Minister with the investigation.

Facing the mess in front of her, Lu Qipei was also feeling a headache. After thinking for a while, she did not immediately select a new commander, and only let a few deputy commanders continue their previous responsibilities. But some day, those people might be invited to the Court of Judicial Review for some tea. After all, the incident at Chaoyang Tower was a big case. The Head Minister of the Court of Judicial Review had been investigating it all night for the past few days, and who knew how many people had been implicated.

Thinking of this, Lu Qipei subconsciously felt a little lucky. If she had not been a prince consort and was entrusted with an important task by the Emperor, she would have probably been dragged back by the Head Minister to work overtime at the Court of Judicial Review. By then, it would be a luxury to even have a few hours of rest.

The whole was spent being busy again.

Lu Qipei gained a brief understanding of the royal guard’s current situation, and even followed them patrolling around the palace for a long time. In the evening, she went to the Eastern Palace to personally pick Qi Yang back to rest at home.

Almost at the same time, another servant came, glad to see that they were both in the Eastern Palace. The two were invited for a meeting at Xuanshi Hall.

The Emperor’s injury was not light, and he had been in a daze lately. He was more often asleep than awake. But perhaps knowing that his time was running out, he would be in a hurry to discuss matters and do everything he could think of whenever he was sober. He wanted to pave the way for the Royal Heir even on his deathbed.

Qi Yang and Lu Qipei did not delay and rushed to Xuanshi Hall with the servant. Other than the Three Teachers, there were only some princes and princesses who was still guarding him. But it should be noted that King Wei and the others were just guarding in Xuanshi Hall to show their filial piety, not because the Emperor called them to participate in discussions.

Sure enough, when the servant led Qi Yang inside, they were all left outside the hall.

Lu Qipei passed by them and looked at them thoughtfully, then asked Qi Yang, “Your Highness, the Crown Prince’s funeral today, did King Qi and the others came to the Eastern Palace to pay their respects?”

Upon hearing this, Qi Yang’s face turned slightly cold and she shook her head, saying, “No.”

They didn’t come personally, nor did they send their condolences, as if they were unaware that the Eastern Palace had a funeral. This was not just because the current situation was too hectic to care about it, but also because they did not take the deceased Crown Prince and the young Royal Heir seriously at all.

Lu Qipei secretly shook her head, feeling that these people were hopelessly stupid. With them acting like this, would the Royal Heir standing alone in front of his father’s spirit tablet hold a grudge? In the future, how would he treat these Uncle Kings? Even the Emperor lying in the inner hall right now would be unhappy – in the first place, the Crown Prince was already the Emperor’s favorite son, and now he died to protect the Emperor. His weight in the Emperor’s heart was at the maximum.

Why did the Emperor stand up for the Royal Heir? It’s not because of how much the Emperor knew and trust his children, but because when he loved someone, it extended to their whole household!

Otherwise, between an Eldest Grandson whose talents were still unknown and a group of sons who he didn’t particularly like, after careful consideration, he should still lean towards his sons. After all, the incident at Chaoyang Tower was well-known throughout the capital, and it would inevitably cause some unrest. To calm the situation, it was better to have a new adult ruler succeed the throne rather than a child.

Unfortunately, King Qi and his companions couldn’t figure it out, and they were still guarding Xuanshi Palace, pretending to be filial. They didn’t know that once the Emperor knew what they were doing, not only would he not remember them at all, he would also curse them for being hypocrites and lacking filial piety!

But this had nothing to do with her, so Lu Qipei naturally wouldn’t say much and just followed Qi Yang to the inner hall.