Uncle Detective Di Renjie, I build a crime-solving team

"Your Highness, His Royal Highness the King of Han has sent me a visiting card."

Lying on the sickbed, Wu Zhao opened her eyes. She was in a very bad mental state, but when she heard that the person who handed her the visiting card was the King of Han, she seemed to be injected with strength and struggled to sit up straight.

"Is it Li Xian? Is it Li Xian?"

"Yes, Your Highness."

The old butler squatted aside and spoke in a soft voice.

The old housekeeper was almost as old as Wu Zhao. She knelt beside the bed and was unwilling to leave her side.

In this era, 70 years old is an age that most people cannot reach, and most people die in various corners in their forties and fifties.

The old housekeeper had a premonition that she was about to die, and she just wanted to see Wu Zhao here for a little longer before she died.

Look more at the emperor she accompanied for her entire life.

"Okay, okay, Li Xian is coming to visit me."

"Help me up quickly. I want to go to the main hall and wait for him. I haven't seen him for many years."

Wu Zhao cried with joy and tried to leave her sickbed, but the new strength in her body was not enough for her to take a few steps.

The housekeeper quickly stood up and helped Wu Zhao away from the sickbed. The two of them walked towards the main hall a few hundred steps away, walking unsteadily.

"Back then, he suspected that I wasn't his mother. In a fit of rage, I sent people to kill him several times."

"Fortunately, he was blessed by the immortals, so he survived. After many twists and turns, he finally returned to the court. It was unexpected that he came to see me."

"Huff... I can't walk anymore. Help me sit down and rest for a while."

Wu Zetian had only taken a dozen steps when she could no longer walk.

The small stone bench on the roadside was placed there by her last year. She had a premonition that she might encounter the same situation as today one day, so it was natural for her to use this thing.

"I'm really old and useless. I'm... old."

She was filled with emotion.

"Decades ago, I was a concubine of the former Emperor Taizong of Tang. Later, Emperor Gaozong saw my beauty and, before Emperor Taizong passed away, he was quite flirtatious with me."

"Later, I became a nun. Emperor Gaozong brought me back to the palace. There were many dangers in the deep palace, but I fought my way out and became the empress again."

She recalled her past and felt nostalgic for the fleeting moments of the past.

But decades have passed, and now she is just an old woman wandering at the end of her life. Maybe one day, she will die in this big house.

"I used to be ruthless and reckless in my killings, but now I'm reaping the fruits of my own labor, and my own home is in ruins."

She was hunched over and felt tired after sitting for a while.

It is really impossible for people to refuse to accept old age. In the second year of her reign, Li Cunxi was still a young boy, but now he is twenty years old.

She insisted on standing up and putting her hand on the butler's arm.

"Let's go to the main hall."

In the imperial study, Li Cunxi leaned on the couch.

The government affairs had been piling up for a long time, but Li Cunxi hadn't looked at any of them.

Ma Rong knelt opposite him, his armor thick and heavy, and his undershirt was soaked with sweat in this weather.

Commander Dashui He came in under the guidance of the palace maids and recounted the story of how Li Xian had placed Wu Zetian.

"I understand. Please step back."

"As ordered."

"Ah Rong, do you think people's hearts will soften as they get older?"

"That's probably it, Your Majesty. My father used to treat me badly, saying I was a thief and a disgrace to him. But I never went back in all these years. He even wrote to me two years ago, asking me to go back and see him. He said he was old and loved me, his youngest, the most."

"Really? Then why didn't you go back?"

"I've been following the Master all the time. I don't have time. Even if I did, I wouldn't want to go back. My brothers dislike me for messing around outside and don't want me to go back, so I didn't go back."

"So do you want to go back?"

"I don't want to." Ma Rong said simply.

"why?"

"Because, ever since I was promoted to General of the Qianniu Guard, people in my family have been writing to me, saying I've made it big and that they must treat me well when I return. They also said they'd give me a separate page in the family tree because I'm the family's eternal pride. But I know they flatter me simply because they hope I can bring some benefits to their descendants."

"Bring your biological father to Luoyang. Since the old man misses you as his youngest son, you have to show your filial piety." Li Cunxi said with a twinkle in his eyes.

"I will send my personal guards home to bring my father to Luoyang tomorrow."

"That's great. You can honor your father, but I can't. My parents died early, and it's been more than ten years now. Even if I wanted to be filial to them, I don't have the chance."

After Li Cunxi finished speaking, he gestured to Ma Rong to say what he wanted to hear most.

Not far from the two of them, the official recording the daily life was writing furiously at his desk.

Ma Rong seemed to have thought of what Li Cunxi wanted to hear, and quickly knelt on the ground:

"Your Majesty may not be able to honor Duke Huang, but you can bestow upon him infinite honors after his death."

Li Cunxi raised the corner of his mouth and knew that Ma Rong was on to something.

The ten-year friendship between the two was no joke. As soon as he stuck out his butt, Ma Rong knew what he wanted to say.

"Tell me, how should I honor my parents with infinite mourning?"

"Your Majesty, I believe that Your Majesty can be posthumously honored."

"What you said makes a lot of sense. I will ask the ministers to come and discuss this matter."

Ma Rong immediately took his leave.

This is no longer a place for him to stay.

Ma Rong could imagine with his heels that this place would soon become a large-scale flattery scene.

If those ministers had not praised Li Cunxi for his emphasis on filial piety, Ma Rong would not have gone into his wife Lu Xiaofeng's bed tonight.

……

Prince Xia's Mansion.

Main hall.

The air was filled with awkwardness, and for a moment it was eerily quiet.

Wu Zhao looked at Li Xian, who had not said a word since entering the room. She wanted to say something, but she couldn't.

He had thought of what he wanted to say at first, but when it came to his lips he couldn't say it. The wife of the King of Han, who was sitting on the side, also felt it was too embarrassing.

She quickly stood up and said to Wu Zhao:

"Daughter-in-law Fang, greets mother-in-law."

"Ah Xian and I got married in such a hurry that we didn't have time to invite my mother-in-law. I hope my mother-in-law will forgive me."

She reached out and pulled Li Cheng, saying:

"Safe, call grandma."

Li Cheng looked at Wu Zhao, who was trying hard to look kind, and timidly called out:

"grandmother!"

Li Xian did not stop his wife and children, but sat aside in silence.

Wu Zhao had not heard these titles for a long time, and she stood up excitedly.

"Eh, eh!"

"Daughter-in-law, grandson."

"Sit down now, no need to be so polite."

"I didn't know about these things before. I don't have anything good prepared here. Take this and consider it my gift."

Wu Zhao was in a panic. She took out the jade pendant that had been with her for decades and handed it to Li Cheng. She also took off the jade bracelet on her wrist and stuffed it into Fang's hand.