Eunuch's Declaration of Loyalty

Chapter 23

When approaching Mingguang Hall, Liu Qingtang's guard of honor happened to meet Zhen Guo Gong Liu Shaodi, who was her father.

From the time Liu Qingtang was sensible, he knew that his father had been a general for decades. As long as he stayed at home without fighting, he would get up early every day to dance swords in the martial arts field.For this reason, his body has always been very tough.Now he is also in his 50s, and there is still no trace of gray hair on his head.

His eyes are clear and his figure is tall and straight, looking extremely stable, like an ancient sword that has been precipitated over time.It's just that from the traces of wrinkles between his brows, it can be seen that this is a very strict person, and the fine lines at the corners of his eyes also inadvertently reveal his vicissitudes.

Liu Qingtang watched her father walk over without any expression, and suddenly felt her nose sore.At this moment, his face hasn't shown the old age in the future, and his eyes haven't stained the color of despair and sadness, which is really good, very good.

The hands in the sleeves trembled unconsciously, and Liu Qingtang tightly gripped the cushion under her body, trying her best to make herself look normal.

"Wei Chen has seen the Empress Dowager."

"You don't need to be too polite." Liu Qingtang realized that her voice was a little hoarse, coughed lightly and said again: "I haven't seen Duke Liu for a long time, Duke... How are you doing recently?"

"Lao Niangniang is worried, Weichen is still in good health, but I heard that Niangniang has been ill at the end of the year, I don't know if there is any serious problem."

"It's just a minor illness, just lie down for two days and you'll be fine." After Liu Qingtang finished speaking, she didn't know what else to say, and sat on the soft sedan looking at her father who also didn't know what to say.

After a while of silence, Father Liu cupped his hands and said: "The emperor is calling, I will take a step ahead, empress, please." He slightly raised his head and glanced at his daughter on the soft sedan chair, then turned and left.

Liu Qingtang watched the figure disappear quickly around a corner, stared blankly at the raised eaves in the distance for a long time, lowered her eyes and said softly: "Let's go."

She didn't go directly to the Mingguang Hall, but stopped at Qingshui Hall, a side hall next to the Mingguang Hall, where there was a special place for her to rest temporarily.

Liu Qingtang pinched her arm along the way, and when she reached Qingshui Hall, she couldn't bear it any longer and walked quickly into the inner hall, leaving all the palace ladies behind her behind.

Taoye and Zhuiyi had already seen that something was wrong with the master, so they asked all the maids and eunuchs to stay in the outer hall, and they called Qin Shu to chase after Liu Qingtang.

When the three of them walked into the inner hall, they saw Liu Qingtang slumped on the ground, and they were startled.

Liu Qingtang knelt in front of the bed, her long skirt spread on the floor.The hand painted with Danko tightly pulled the sleeve with one hand, and grasped the carved pattern on the edge of the bed with the other.She lowered her face, she couldn't see her expression clearly in silence, but when she looked closely, she could still see the trembling of her shoulders.

"Niang Niang?" Qin Shu called out, anxiously wanting to get closer.Tao Ye stretched out her hand to hold him, and the three of them left the room and stood at the door, leaving Liu Qingtang sitting there alone.

"My master has been like that since I was a child. When I meet something and don't want to tell anyone, I just sit in front of the bed and keep people away. I have to wait for her to quiet down for a while." Zhuiyi saw Qin Shu's always heavy face. There was a clear look of anxiety, so he explained something to him in a low voice.

"However, why is the master feeling so uncomfortable all of a sudden? Is it because he saw the master just now? But why? If you think about the master, it's just that you haven't seen the master for more than two months at most, and the master will not feel uncomfortable because of this kind of thing. It’s still this level. I haven’t seen the master like this for many years, the last time the master was like this was because he had a fierce fight with the master when he just entered the palace and was not yet enthroned.”

Taoye couldn't help babbling, holding hands and looking towards the direction where Liu Qingtang was sitting, her face was also a little anxious. "Qin Shu, you've been with the master all day, do you know what's going on with the master recently?"

Qin Shu paused and shook his head.

Taoye turned to Zhuiyi again and asked, "Sister, you've always been by Master's side, did you find anything unusual about Master?"

Suiyi shook his head, also worried, but after thinking for a while, he still had no clue.After estimating the time, he said to Taoye: "I don't know, anyway, let's solve the current problem for the master first, the banquet is about to start, and the master must wash up later, you go and ask someone to send some hot water. Water, I'll get someone to bring the master's makeup box so I can touch up my makeup."

After she finished speaking, she looked at Qin Shu and said, "You stay on guard here, and the master will call someone when he gets better."

Zhuiyi and Taoye walked away lightly, while Qin Shu waited at the door alone, listening to the movement inside.I couldn't help but want to go in a few times, and I was afraid that the empress dowager's mood would be even worse, so I could only anxiously guard the door and stare over there.

And Liu Qingtang sat there, tears falling down uncontrollably, she bit her hand to prevent herself from making any sound, her whole body was trembling.

Two and a half months since her rebirth, this is the first time she has lost her composure. Even when she found herself back in her 20s, she never lost control of her emotions.But seeing her father again today broke down her long-standing pretense of being strong.

She has no memory of her mother, as her mother had gone when she was born.And her father is often very busy, so she always wants to cause trouble, because if he does, her father will come to scold her, and she will be able to see him.Her father is a general who is praised by many people. He is omnipotent in defending the family and the country. He is strict and unsmiling, but he loves children very much.Whether it was her elder sister who insisted on marrying the first emperor, or she later insisted on killing Xiao Nanhe and favoring the current little emperor as his successor, her father, who was uncompromising in the army, could only retreat silently. He could never tell them No.

Especially her, her father had nothing to do with her, but she never told him what she thought, and kept worrying him until she died.

After she was reborn, she had never seen her father. Originally, they could meet each other, but the next day after she was reborn, she panickedly sent a message to Liu's family asking him not to come to court due to illness. At that time, she was so afraid that her father and The little emperor will stay in touch for a while longer.

But what's the use of thinking about it now, in fact, she was just afraid of seeing her father.She was afraid that her own state at that time would lose control after seeing her father.

And because of self-blame, she has been thinking that if she had been more wary of the emperor's nephew in her previous life, and stopped trusting him so much and gave him all the power in her hands, would she have been able to save her father and elder brother in the end.If she had noticed the emperor's intention to kill them earlier, would she have been able to send her father and brother away earlier.

She also wondered if during the last period, if she had not been in the palace, her father and brother would not have been restrained, and would not have ended up like that.

After her death in the previous life, her soul wandered to many places and saw many things.Liu Qingtang didn't know whether people could see the things they cared about when they died, but she only knew that after seeing those things, the hatred in her heart was about to burn her to ashes.

Although Zhuiyi and Taoye survived with her last efforts, they did not live well, and were soon isolated and humiliated by those slaves who bullied them.

Qin Shu's body was swept up with broken grass and thrown on the barren hill in the remote North Palace. It was the last resting place of the court ladies and eunuchs who committed crimes. After a while, it was covered with maggots, smelly and rotted beyond recognition.

And her father and elder brother wept bitterly after hearing the news of her death in prison, it was the first time she saw her father describe it like that, and her elder brother also, the elder brother who was always smiling could no longer laugh.

My father seemed to have aged overnight, and his back, which seemed to never bend, looked bent, and my brother was very thin.Not long after that, they got into a prison van and were beheaded by a crowd of people watching.

Bright red blood splattered on the stone slab, and the head rolled on it with a muffled sound. After rolling a few times, it was covered with blood and dust...

In the first few days when she was reborn, she had nightmares every day, and these things were recalled over and over again in her mind, which tortured her so much that she couldn't sleep or eat at night, and that's why she got the disease.

For Zhuiyi and Taoye, she can double compensate them in this life and let them live well.Qin Shu, in this life, she fulfilled his wish and stayed with him according to her own will.But father and brother, how will she repay them?The biggest reason why she was able to persist in this cage-like palace for so long, and why she didn't care about the critics of those speech officials at the beginning, was because of her relatives.

If Qin Shu regarded her as a belief, then her belief in her previous life was her father and elder brother.She can do whatever she wants, but she doesn't allow anyone to insult and hurt them.But she watched them die in front of her like that, maybe that would be a nightmare that she would never get rid of for the rest of her life.

For more than two months, Liu Qingtang thought that she was ready, but it was not so easy until she saw her.She was still trapped in that nightmare and couldn't get out, with hatred on the one hand and fear on the other.

When she can't see it, she can plan calmly, thinking about slowly changing everything.But just now when she saw her father and listened to him talking to her, what she saw was the blood gushing out under the scorching sun, dyeing her eyes red.

At that moment, Liu Qingtang could hardly control herself and wanted to stab to death the two chief assistants who instigated the emperor to do that, and the emperor who was her nephew, she didn't even want to let him go now.

But no, nothing happened now, she can't be impulsive, otherwise the first person to stop her would not be the two Chief Assistants, but her father.

Thinking of this, Liu Qingtang bit her arm hard, and tasted some fishy smell in her mouth.The pain made her barely regain her senses, she closed her eyes and put down the blood-stained arm bitten by herself, and leaned against the bed as if all her strength had been drained.

(End of this chapter)