Marrying the Crown Prince

The days that followed were much more leisurely.

During the ten days that Empress Chu stayed at the Yangxin Hall, the usual pattern for the three masters was that Zhou Zhou was handling state affairs, Emperor Chenze was lying in bed, and Empress Chu was sitting beside him.

Of course, at the beginning, Zhou Zhou did present some of the memorials to Empress Chu.

Empress Chu gave her a strange look and said, "Why are you giving me this? I don't want it!"

Therefore, everything still fell on Zhou Zhou's shoulders, while Emperor Chenze and Empress Chu were simply eating, drinking, and sleeping.

The difference is that Emperor Chenze's illness was caused by poison, while Empress Chu's was due to her temperament.

However, Zhou Zhou felt it was good that he wasn't being bossed around, even though it kept him a bit busy.

Occasionally, when Emperor Chenze wakes up, he will speak with Empress Chu.

However, it was usually Empress Chu who did the talking, and Emperor Chenze who listened. She talked about things that happened when she was on the frontier.

"It's a pity that I won't have the chance to go see it in the future," Emperor Chenze sighed with some regret.

Looking at the gaunt old man, Empress Chu felt a pang of indescribable sorrow in her heart.

They had barely met before their marriage; they were betrothed by the late emperor, which is how they came to be married.

But they were a young couple who had supported each other for decades. While there might not have been romantic love, there must have been some other feelings between them.

Especially in recent years, both of them have tempered their tempers a lot and no longer argue over trivial matters.

Therefore, seeing someone who was full of energy just a month ago now on the verge of death, it's hard for anyone to remain calm.

After saying that, Emperor Chenze struggled to sit up.

When Empress Chu saw this, she quickly stepped forward, helped him up, and placed a cushion under his waist to support him.

Emperor Chenze refused to lean against it; to be precise, he was not content with lying there indefinitely.

He said to Empress Chu, "Empress, come for a walk with me."

Empress Chu replied, "Very well."

Upon hearing this, Wei Yi quickly took the cloak and helped Emperor Chenze put on his clothes.

Emperor Chenze only covered himself lightly, and then Empress Chu helped him slowly get down to the ground.

When he came to the corridor, he looked up and saw a clear blue sky without a single cloud, with only a bright sun hanging high there, somewhat dazzling.

Emperor Chenze raised his withered, shriveled hand and shielded his eyes from the dazzling sunlight.

Empress Chu asked, "Is there anywhere you'd like to go?"

"No need." Emperor Chenze withdrew his gaze, shook his head, and replied, "Let's just take a walk here on the veranda."

His body was not suited to travel too far; he also could not put himself in danger now, because he had to wait for Li Ziyan to return.

It can be said that a country cannot be without a ruler for a day, not because the ruler is so wise, but because the country needs such a mascot to sit there and protect it.

He doesn't need to handle state affairs, because the court officials and cabinet ministers will handle them; he doesn't need to attend the morning court session, because the system and mechanisms are perfect enough that the absence of court sessions for a while won't have any impact.

But he cannot truly not exist.

Otherwise, everything would fall into chaos—princes would vie for the throne, vassal kings would try to grab a share, even people from other countries would take advantage of the situation, and ministers would have to hesitate about which faction to pledge allegiance to…

In short, the person in the emperor's position can be lazy and incompetent, but the position cannot be left unattended.

The two walked and talked for about 15 minutes before Emperor Chenze became a little tired again.

His face was deathly pale, and his voice was so weak it was almost inaudible, "Let's go back."

If he didn't go back soon, he felt he was going to lie down on the spot.

It was thought that things would continue to be peaceful, but who knew that late at night the day after Emperor Chenze showed his face and went out for a stroll, someone in the Imperial Guard suddenly drew his sword and pointed it at his comrade.

The sudden turn of events threw the Imperial Guards into a panic.

Zhou Zhou had just lain down and hadn't fallen asleep when she was woken up.

She quickly got up and put on her coat.

At this moment, Chang Yi walked in from outside and locked the doors and windows tightly. "Your Majesty, there is an assassin."

Upon hearing this, Zhou Zhou's heart tightened, and he quickly asked, "Do you know how many people there are? How is things on Father's side?"

How could ordinary people possibly know these things?

Moreover, Chang Yi gleaned another message from Zhou Zhou's words—the Crown Princess probably wanted to go to the Emperor's bedchamber.

"There's fighting and killing outside, Your Highness, please don't go out!" Changyi hurriedly stopped the person.

This group of people is definitely after the Emperor. There must be hordes of assassins and guards gathered in the imperial bedchamber. If an ordinary person walks over there, they will only end up being hacked to death by a hail of swords.

Zhou Zhou understood this principle, so...

"Let's go through the secret passage."

Indeed, the place where she lives is connected to Emperor Chenze's bedroom.

Zhou Zhou and Chang Yi crawled together under his bed—yes, under the bed—and slowly crawled out from under Emperor Chenze's bed.

Empress Chu looked at Zhou Zhou, who had appeared here using such methods, and fell silent.

Zhou Zhou dusted himself off and bowed, saying, "Greetings, Mother."

She nodded. "Please sit down."

The room was full of people who couldn't even kill a chicken, so for now, they could only wait.

The assassins in the courtyard were not interested in fighting; they disregarded the consequences and only wanted to break into the area.

However, the Imperial Guards held their ground fiercely and outnumbered the assassins, preventing them from breaking through the defenses in a short time.

Everyone knew that the door hadn't been kicked open, and the roof tiles were falling down with a crackling sound—it turned out there was a huge hole in the roof.

One, two, then five or six assassins jumped down from above.

Zuo Jin, who was standing by, drew his sword and rushed forward, while Zhou Zhou and Empress Chu hurriedly retreated to Emperor Chenze's bedside.

Empress Chu sighed, her voice filled with resentment, "You shouldn't have come."

Zhou Zhou was puzzled.

She continued, "You see, even if Commander Zuo is highly skilled in martial arts, he can't withstand five of them."

"At that time, Commander Zuo will fall, and the three of us will be in the same room again, so we'll wipe them out in one fell swoop."

This……

It makes sense.

Zhou Zhou had no way to refute it and could only reply, "Mother, there's no need to think of things as so terrible."

"Ok?"

“I have been lucky since I was a child. I am blessed by the gods. No matter what happens or when, I can turn bad luck into good luck and disaster into good fortune.”

Seeing Zhou Zhou's confidence, Empress Chu fell silent.

Her eyes were complicated, and her expression was somewhat indescribable. She said, "You are indeed quite lucky."

As soon as he finished speaking, an assassin broke through Zuo Jin's defenses and thrust his sword at him.

At the critical moment, Empress Chu grabbed Zhou Zhou, who managed to dodge the attack.