The three-year-old host decides to raise an emperor father for himself.

At the start of the new year, Xuan Yuanlin did not feel any new atmosphere; instead, he had a vague premonition that the year would not be easy.

But as emperor, he had everything he wanted, so even if he had some bad premonitions, he wouldn't take them to heart.

After several years as emperor and the loss of the Empress Dowager's control, he had gradually forgotten how cautious and careful he had been to reach this position.

Upon hearing that the Princess Consort of Pingjun had visited the Lin residence, Xuan Yuanlin, who was already quite wary of the Lin family, felt a surge of anger and even wanted to strangle that woman.

However, in the end, Xuanyuan Lin simply summoned Prince Ping, threw the evidence he had gathered in his face, and said coldly, "Mind your own business. I'll let it go this time, but if there's a next time, I will not tolerate it!"

Prince Ping was hit in the face without warning, his forehead throbbing slightly, but he still looked at the things thrown at him with a pained expression.

After reading it, Prince Ping's face turned a series of unpredictable colors, from pale to purple. After a long while, he stammered, "Your Majesty, perhaps there is some misunderstanding. The Princess Consort has always been magnanimous, how could she..."

Xuan Yuanlin could easily see through Prince Ping's thoughts. It wasn't that Prince Ping didn't believe that the Princess Consort would do such a thing, but rather that he needed the support of the Lin family behind the Princess Consort and dared not do anything to her.

Xuanyuan Lin held back for a moment, but couldn't hold back any longer and cursed at Prince Ping: "I don't care what happened in your household! Go back and warn your princess that if she ever tries to interfere in the palace again, even if the Lin family intervenes, I will chop off her hands!"

After saying that, still angry, he pointed at Prince Ping and cursed him mercilessly!

Finally, Prince Ping was expelled from the palace by Xuanyuan Lin, who ordered him to return to his residence to face the wall in confinement for three months!

The final explanation given to the public was that Xuanyuan Hua had eaten the wrong thing at his residence before entering the palace, and the food was incompatible with the dishes served at the palace banquet, which led to the accident.

As for the concubines who were found to have ties with outside the palace, Xuan Yuanlin did not take immediate action. He secretly revoked all their due benefits, waiting for a while before finding a pretext to deal with them.

Unable to deal with these people directly, Xuan Yuanlin felt frustrated and unable to vent his anger. Then he heard that the Empress had fallen ill. He felt a tightness in his chest, his vision went black, and he lost consciousness.

This caused immediate chaos and confusion.

——————————————————————————————

The news quickly reached Xuan Yuanjing's ears, but at that time Xuan Yuanjing was focused on watching his little daughter doodle on the wooden board. Hearing this, he didn't even look up and said, "I know."

He seemed completely unconcerned.

Xiao Lanxing came up with a plan to get a charcoal pencil and draw the shape of the wooden block she wanted on the wooden board. Her fair little hands got all black from the pencil, but miraculously, she didn't make any extra marks on the board.

Xuanyuan Jing watched for a while but couldn't figure out much of what was going on, and couldn't offer any help.

He looked at the little girl's dark hands, thought for a moment, got up and asked Nuandong to pour him a glass of honey water. He then squatted down next to the little girl and said, "Xingxing, have some water."

The little girl obediently opened her mouth, without even raising her head, and drank a few sips of sweet, warm water from her father's hand.

After a while, Xuanyuan Jing picked up a candied fruit and handed it to him: "Xingxing, have a candied fruit."

The little girl opened her mouth and took a bite. Her tiny mouth caused -1 damage to the candied fruit, but her attention remained on the wooden board beneath her.

Xuanyuan Jing watched with a smile, observing the little girl finish the candied fruit in her hand, bite by bite, and then reached out to take the teacup, saying, "Xingxing, have some water."

The little girl obediently drank it.

As if he had found something amusing, Xuanyuan Jing smiled and watched for a while, then asked someone to bring some pastries and repeated the previous action.

When Xiao Lanxing felt full, just as Xuan Yuanjing was about to feed her again, she finally looked up at him with bright eyes and said, "Daddy, I'm full, I don't want to eat anymore."

Upon hearing this, Xuan Yuanjing looked at the still-warm pastries he had just made and asked with some disappointment, "Are you full?"

Xiao Lanxing nodded.

Then, she looked at her hand holding the charcoal pencil, tilted her head back, and said, "Daddy, eat."

Xuanyuan Jing believed that if her hands hadn't been dirty, the little girl would have definitely taken the initiative to pick up the pastries and feed them to him.

He smiled, his eyes full of tenderness: "Alright, then Father will eat these."

Just when everyone thought the little girl would continue drawing, she put the charcoal pencil into the plate next to her, stood up, touched her slightly bulging belly, and said with a hint of embarrassment, "Daddy, I'm going to change my clothes."

She blinked and said, "I drank too much water."

Xuanyuan Jing: "...Let Nuandong take you there."

With the little girl no longer around, Xuan Yuanjing finally had the mind to deal with other matters. He stood up, looked down at the wooden board that was almost completely covered with drawings, and then turned to go to the cubicle.

"How is the Prince's residence?" he asked, sitting down and taking a sip of warm water from the teacup handed to him by a servant.

He doesn't drink tea much, except when entertaining guests; otherwise, he drinks warm water.

We drink it by boiling various kinds of spring water without adding anything else.

Only after winter arrived would the little girl drink honey water herself and then let him drink some too. After this happened many times, Xuanyuan Jing simply asked them to prepare honey water for him as well.

According to the little girl, drinking honey water in winter helps nourish the body.

Honey water, of course, is water with honey added.

"Your Highness, Princess Pingjun has been staying at the Prince's residence all day. She only sent someone to the Lin residence this morning, and there has been no further activity since."

Xuanyuan Jing: "What about the Lin family?"

"The Lin family has had many visitors paying New Year's greetings today; here is the list." The person who answered bowed and handed over a folded piece of paper with both hands.

Xuanyuan Jing picked it up and glanced at it. When he noticed a few of the households, his eyebrows twitched, and he smiled: "Interesting."

The room was quiet.

A moment later, Xuan Yuanjing coldly put the paper back, "Burn it."

"Yes."

Xuan Yuanjing: "Have Chen Li continue to send people to keep an eye on the Lin family. We can also start doing what we arranged before."

"Yes."

When Xiao Lanxing returned, there were no outsiders in the room. Only Xuan Yuanjing was sitting in the cubicle, slowly flipping through a book in his hand.

The little girl had already washed her face and hands, but she hadn't changed her clothes; there were some black marks on her body.

But this didn't diminish the little girl's beauty. She trotted into the room, glanced at her large wooden plank, and then found Xuan Yuanjing in the cubicle. She was delighted and happily patted Xuan Yuanjing's knee with a smile: "Daddy, I'm almost done! Let's go out and play in a bit!"

Upon hearing this, Xuanyuan Jing smiled and said, "Alright."

Outside, the wind and snow were about to start, but inside, the atmosphere was warm and cozy.