An eight-year-old kid emptied his scumbag father's warehouse and followed his grandparents into

After Jing Chunxi left, Ling'er came out several times for various reasons.

She always used the excuse of going to the bathroom or getting some fresh air, but in reality her eyes kept looking around the corridors and corners. But she never saw Jing Chunxi. After returning home, she kept twisting her handkerchief between her fingers and felt very uncomfortable sitting on the table.

Princess Hong noticed something was wrong with her daughter, and gently pressed her hand twice under her wide sleeves. The cold fingers wearing the jade rings conveyed a soothing force, but Ling'er still felt like a stone was pressing on her heart, and even her breathing was not smooth.

Suddenly, a eunuch rushed in from outside the door. His pale face was unusually flushed. He walked so fast that his hat was tilted. He went straight to Eunuch Li who was serving the emperor.

The hurried footsteps struck a hurried rhythm on the golden bricks of the hall, attracting the attention of all the male and female guests in the hall.

With a few creaks, the outer palace gate slowly closed. Normally, the heavy, vermilion-lacquered door would require the combined strength of four eunuchs to push, but now, the ones pushing and pulling weren't the usual eunuchs, but several imperial guards in dark, tight-fitting uniforms. Their swords clashed softly with each movement, and their boots clunked against the threshold.

The eunuch whispered a few words into Eunuch Li's ear. His lips hardly moved while he spoke, only his cheeks trembled slightly.

Eunuch Li immediately looked around the entire hall with a serious expression. His eyes, which had been squinting for years, were now wide open, and the whites of his eyes were bluish-gray under the light of the palace lanterns.

He suddenly waved his hand behind him, his gesture quick and urgent, as if he were trying to shoo away something invisible. Then he whispered something to the emperor, who was two steps away, so quietly that even the concubine and the prince, who were sitting closest, could only hear his lips moving.

When he bent forward again, Eunuch Li's hunchback became more obvious, and the movement of bending his waist and knees caused the front of his dragon robe to drag on the ground.

He got close to the Dog Emperor and with just one sentence, he scared the Dog Emperor so much that his face turned pale. His already pale face instantly lost all its color, and even his lips turned purple.

He trembled and quickly grabbed Eunuch Li's arm, his skinny fingers digging into the old eunuch's flesh. He was supported on both sides by Eunuch Li and a young eunuch beside him, and the hem of his bright yellow dragon robe was shaking.

Four personal guards suddenly rushed out from behind, their figures as swift as ghosts, closely following them from front to back, forming a human wall. As they retreated from behind, they protected the dog emperor.

The guard in front kept his right hand on the hilt of his sword, scanning every corner of the hall vigilantly.

This sudden situation caused all the guests in the hall to be crowded together.

The pearl hairpins and hair ornaments of the female members of the family collided with each other, making a tiny sound; the official hats of several old ministers were squeezed askew, but they had no time to raise their hands to straighten them.

Although no one in the hall heard a word from beginning to end, they were shocked by what just happened in front of the dragon throne.

After the palace door, which was rarely closed, was closed, the imperial guards also lined up in a row. The goose-feather swords in their hands gleamed coldly under the candlelight, and the copper nails on the scabbards reflected cold stars.

At this moment, except for the innocent children who were held tightly in the woman's arms, with their little faces buried in the lapels of their mother's clothes embroidered with twined branches, everyone knew that something had happened.

But apart from the whispers in the crowd, the sound was as low as the fluttering of autumn insects' wings. No one dared to speak loudly. The air seemed to freeze, and even breathing became cautious.

Prince Jing and Prince Hong, who were sitting closer to the front, looked at each other. Prince Jing narrowed his eyes slightly under his thick eyebrows, while Prince Hong calmly clenched the white jade wine glass in his hand. Both of them had worry in their eyes.

They all thought Jing Chunxi might have been discovered, and they all regretted not appointing someone to help her in the palace. The wine in the cup had already gone cold, but no one had the heart to drink any more.

Ling'er even huddled in the Princess's arms and trembled. Her slender shoulders trembled constantly and tears flowed out, leaving two traces on her powdered face.

"Sister, sister, something must have happened." Her sobbing voice was muffled by the fabric of her mother's clothes. She began to regret having rushed back in after leaving earlier. Otherwise, she would have at least known what was happening outside. Now she could only smell the agarwood incense on her mother's clothes, but she found it suffocating.

The Princess's hand, holding her daughter, was trembling slightly, and the bracelet on her wrist tapped lightly against her daughter's shoulder. She stared at the closed palace gate without blinking, the gold-painted copper nails on the vermilion door flickering in the candlelight.

She wished the palace gate would collapse right now so they could rush out immediately. Her other hand unconsciously stroked her daughter's hair, but even her fingertips were cold.

……

"There's a fire! There's a fire in the Cining Palace." With one cry after another, the sound came from far away and spread like waves throughout the entire palace.

The palace maids and eunuchs were running around in panic, and the sound of their footsteps and the clashing of copper basins and buckets mixed into a chaotic sound.

The two rooms where the maids and old women stayed were quickly sealed by several imperial guards, and the heavy iron locks made a dull "dong" sound.

The only ones in the room who were panicking were a few younger maids. They huddled in the corner, and one maid in green even bit the back of her hand.

Everyone else was very calm and composed. Several elderly maids were still sitting upright on the benches, with not even a wrinkle of their clothes ruffled.

A maidservant saw that a little maid was about to cry, and she started scolding her in a hoarse voice: "It's just a fire, it's none of our business, why are you crying?" Her wrinkled face was full of impatience as she spoke.

Jing Chunxi was still sitting on the bench, her back against the wall, motionless, her eyes closed. Her long eyelashes cast a shadow under her eyes, and her breathing was so steady that she seemed to be truly asleep.

Only she knew what was happening outside, and her ears were capturing every movement outside the door.

Her only concern now was when the palace banquet would end and when they could return. If it dragged on too long, she worried that Madam Zhou's drip would run out. Even if she had set the infusion rate to its slowest, so that the dripping rate of the liquid in the transparent tube was barely noticeable, it wouldn't last for more than a few hours.

I stayed there quietly for at least an hour before I heard a lot of noise outside the door. First there were the sounds of chaotic footsteps, then the clanging of metal, and finally the muffled voices of the guards.

The maids sitting near the door and window would look through the cracks in the door and window when they heard the noise. They would stand on tiptoe and keep their eyes close to the narrow gaps.