Female martial arts fanatics only love to fight, while men fight for their lives.

35

Not to mention how a king of a country would be frightened by a mere villain, beside her is a martial arts genius who has grown up with her, and who is wholeheartedly protecting her. What does she have to worry about?

It would be better to take this opportunity to uncover all the forces with ulterior motives hiding in the dark and wipe them out completely.

Lou Xiao was still angry, but the empress had already picked up the Yunlongguan Yuzan purple brush on the table and wrote secret decrees for various places. Her calm voice brought Lou Xiao back to his senses.

It was the words she was most familiar with and most afraid of.

"Come here, Xiaoxiao, and grind ink for me. By the way, I will also check your homework. Can you read the Six Families' Selections and Ancient History that I left for you before I left the mountain?"

Speaking of this, Lou Xiao looked embarrassed and avoided the topic, "Your Majesty, your safety is the top priority. Those trivial matters of mine are not worth your concern... In my opinion, it is better to let the Dali Temple start the investigation immediately..."

Before she could finish her words, the Queen sighed with a look of "as expected" and said, "Then you haven't seen it."

Lou Xiao quietly raised her eyes to see His Majesty's expression, and seeing that he did not seem angry, she came up to His Majesty with a flattering smile, and obediently lowered her head to grind ink, not daring to look at what she wrote on the secret decree.

"I actually read it at the beginning...but I just couldn't get on with it...Senior Sister, you know that the words in the book are so densely packed that it really makes me dizzy!"

The Queen wrote a line of words and continued to automatically translate her words, "Well, you haven't even opened it, right?"

She turned her head and scolded him half-blamingly, "It would be enough if you put half the effort you put into martial arts into reading. But even without anyone watching you, you just refused to touch the brush, ink, paper, and inkstone. After I left the mountain, Master also let you go. I'm afraid that everything I taught you was returned to me, right?"

Seeing Lou Xiao lowering his head and keeping silent, it was obvious that he was feeling guilty after being criticized.

"It's strange, why don't you like reading..." After writing the secret decree in her hand, the empress put it aside, picked up a stack of handwritten documents and opened it, but closed it immediately because of the ugly handwriting.

Lou Xiao didn't dare to stop grinding the ink. He took a look at the words and said shamelessly, "Who is this? The handwriting is so ugly."

The Queen glanced at her, and Lou Xiao immediately shut her mouth, pretending that she was not the one who had spoken too much.

"This is the handwritten copy of "A Praise to the Buddha of Infinite Life" presented by King Youshan. He is not a reader either. It is hard for him to write so many. I picked out the ones that are acceptable and presented them to me. Your handwriting is not much worse. Both of you are so ugly that it shocks me."

The queen wondered if she had no talent for educating children. The two children she watched grow up beside her were Youshan King Xiao Zhengdu and Lou Xiao...

Lou Xiao disagreed with this statement. She defended herself confidently, "I just don't like reading. When it comes to writing, my handwriting is much better than his!"

"Really?" The empress said coldly, "It's just right. For your birthday gift to me, I don't want anything else. Just bring me the New Year's Celebration Letter that you copied yourself. Don't leave any less than a piece of manuscript paper. Write until I am satisfied."

This time Lou Xiao was completely speechless, and begged for mercy with a bitter face, "Senior Sister, how can your birthday gift be so careless..."

"If you copy well, it won't be considered rash." The Queen continued to open the Buddhist scriptures copied by Xiao Zhengdu and showed them to her, "What you said is better than what he wrote, so please don't let me down."

This was finally decided. Lou Xiao had indeed not yet found a birthday gift to give to the Empress. His Majesty specifically asked for her calligraphy, as if he also understood her confusion and helplessness.

The poor Duke Zhenguo's happy life in the palace and with the secret guards was about to come to an end. If she wanted to copy calligraphy, she had to go back to the study in the Duke Zhenguo's mansion.

She felt a headache when she thought about facing Lou Hong's pile of housework and his resentful eyes.

Lou Xiao's depressed aura was so obvious that the Queen couldn't help but smile and added, "If you don't want to practice calligraphy, then read the Shangshu Zhushu and I'll test you again?"

In comparison, copying calligraphy is really simple, Lou Xiao immediately agreed, "Your Majesty, I will definitely copy the New Year's Celebration Calligraphy well, write it in style and with new ideas, and I will never let you down, and put it in front of you in an orderly manner."

Then why don't you let her read the Shangshu?

The Queen pointed at her in the air with a pen in her hand. Lou Xiao smiled and was about to leave, but she was stopped just as she raised her foot.

"Okay! The dress made for you by the Clothing Bureau was completed yesterday. Try it on before you go back. If there is anything wrong, they can change it overnight." She called Ling Yu, the waiter, to take her downstairs to try on the dress.

"My great gift, you must wear it in a way that is pleasing to the eye and makes me happy."

Lou Xiao bowed and left. Not long after, a palace servant came to report that King Hanhai Xiao Zhengze had returned to the palace.

The empress, who had known about this for a long time, nodded and stood up. As she walked out, she instructed the palace servants, "I heard that he fell ill on the way back. Call all the people on duty at the Imperial Hospital to take a good look."

That was her brother from the same mother, who had suffered from many conspiracies and intrigues in the harem since he was a child. Originally, she wanted him to be a leisurely prince, but the stubborn Xiao Zhengze refused to be a useless man, so she had to let him do something.

Only a confidant can find the whereabouts of the former King Zheng, but if there is any damage to his body, he should stop.

Xiao Zhengze, who had returned to the palace, was sitting obediently in the bedroom, wearing a brocade robe and a fox fur coat that was inappropriate for the season. His black hair was straight and shiny, hanging down from the soft fox fur like a stream of gurgling water, falling straight down the mountain.

With his feathery eyelashes and slightly red nose, he looked like a fragile porcelain doll.

The half wrist and five fingers sticking out from the sleeve were thin and slender, shiny white, and the purple blood vessels were clearly visible, so that the imperial physician who was pressing on his pulse could not help but reduce the pressure.

Xiao Zhengze was only obedient for a few moments. As soon as the imperial physician put down his hand, he knew what they were going to say and felt a little impatient.

"Your Highness has been worrying too much, and the journey has been long, so you are a little weak, but there is nothing else wrong." Doctor Xu knew about his health problems, and he just kept repeating the same things over and over again.

He said in a bad tone, "It means that I don't need to take any medicine."

This is not easy to say. If something happens to King Hanhai, it will be a big deal if His Majesty gets angry.

Doctor Xu was just about to muster up the courage to persuade him when the Queen's voice came in, "You are trying every possible means to refuse to take the medicine outside? I have to ask the servants around you. The master is so willful that he won't be persuaded."

"Queen!"

Xiao Zhengze stood up and shouted, not caring that the fox fur coat he was wearing loosely fell to the ground.

The Queen walked in and held him with one hand. She felt the temperature of his fingertips and was quite satisfied. She looked at his face carefully and said,

"You've lost some weight, so you should stay in the palace and take good care of yourself for a while. Don't go out for the time being."