The Eunuch's Declaration of Loyalty

Chapter

As they approached the Mingguang Hall, Liu Qingtang's entourage encountered Duke Zhenguo, Liu Shaodi, her father.

From a young age, Liu Qingtang knew that his father had been a general for decades. Whenever he was at home without fighting, he would get up early every day to practice swordsmanship in the training ground. Because of this, he had always been very healthy. Now, he was over fifty years old, but there wasn't a single gray hair on his head.

His eyes were clear and his posture upright, exuding an air of composure, like an ancient sword weathered by time. Yet, the wrinkles between his brows revealed him to be a stern man, and the fine lines at the corners of his eyes inadvertently betrayed his weathered nature.

As Liu Qingtang watched her father walk straight towards her expressionlessly, she suddenly felt a lump in her throat. At this moment, his face hadn't yet shown the signs of age he would later display, and his eyes hadn't yet been tinged with despair and sorrow. This was truly good, very good.

Her hands trembled involuntarily in her sleeves, and Liu Qingtang gripped the cushion beneath her tightly, trying her best to appear normal.

"Your humble servant greets Your Majesty the Empress Dowager."

"No need for formalities." Liu Qingtang noticed her voice was a little hoarse, so she coughed lightly and said, "It's been a long time since I've seen Duke Liu. Duke... how have you been lately?"

"Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I am in good health, but I heard that Your Majesty fell ill at the end of the year. I wonder if it was anything serious."

"It's just a minor illness, I'll be fine after a couple of days in bed." After saying this, Liu Qingtang didn't know what else to say, and sat in the sedan chair looking at her father, who was also at a loss for words.

After a moment of silence, Liu's father cupped his hands and said, "His Majesty has summoned me, so I will take my leave now. Your Majesty, please go ahead." He slightly raised his head to look at his daughter in the sedan chair, then turned and left.

Liu Qingtang watched the figure disappear around a corner, staring blankly at the upturned eaves in the distance for a long time before lowering her eyes and softly saying, "Let's go."

She didn't go directly to Mingguang Hall, but stopped at Qingshui Hall, a side hall next to Mingguang Hall, where there was a place specifically for her to rest temporarily.

All the way there, Liu Qingtang kept pinching her arm. When she arrived at Qingshui Palace, she could no longer hold back and strode into the inner palace, leaving all the palace maids behind her.

Tao Ye and Zhui Yi had already noticed that something was wrong with their master. At this moment, they told all the palace maids and eunuchs to stay in the outer hall, and the two of them, along with Qin Shu, quickly chased after Liu Qingtang.

When the three of them entered the inner hall, they were startled to see Liu Qingtang slumped on the ground.

Liu Qingtang knelt before the bed, her long skirt spread out on the floor. Her hands, painted with nail polish, gripped the sleeve tightly with one hand and the carved edge of the bed with the other. Her face was lowered, silent and her expression unreadable, but a closer look revealed the trembling of her shoulders.

"Your Highness?" Qin Shu called out, wanting to approach with concern. Tao Ye reached out and pulled him back, and the three of them went back into the room and stood at the door, leaving Liu Qingtang sitting there alone.

"Master has been like that since she was a child. If something happens and she doesn't want to talk to anyone, she will sit by the bed and not let anyone get close. We have to wait for her to calm down for a while." Zhuiyi saw that Qin Shu's usually somber face had suddenly become obviously anxious, so she explained to him in a low voice.

"However, why is Your Highness suddenly so upset? Is it because you saw Master just now? But why? If it's because you miss Master, it's only been a little over two months since you last saw him. Besides, Your Highness isn't the kind of person who would be upset about something like this, let alone to this extent. I haven't seen Your Highness like this in many years. The last time Your Highness was like this was when you first entered the palace before the Emperor ascended the throne, because you had a fierce argument with Master."

Tao Ye kept muttering to herself, clenching her hands and looking in the direction where Liu Qingtang was sitting, her face showing some anxiety. "Qin Shu, you're with the master all day long, do you know what's wrong with him lately?"

Qin Shu paused, then shook his head.

Taoye then turned to Zhuiyi and asked, "Sister, you've been by the master's side all this time, have you noticed anything unusual about him?"

Zhuiyi shook her head, equally worried, and after thinking for a while, she still had no clue. After estimating the time, she said to Taoye, "I don't know either. Anyway, let's solve the immediate problem for our master first. The banquet is about to start, and our master will definitely need to wash up later. Go and ask someone to bring some hot water, and I'll have someone bring our master's makeup box so that our master can touch up her makeup."

After saying that, she looked at Qin Shu and said, "You stay here and keep watch. The master will call for help when he feels better."

Zhuiyi and Taoye left quietly, leaving Qin Shu waiting alone at the door, listening intently to the sounds inside. Several times he couldn't resist the urge to go in, but he was afraid of upsetting the Empress Dowager even more, so he could only anxiously stand guard at the door, staring straight ahead.

Liu Qingtang sat there, tears streaming down her face. She bit her hand to keep herself from making a sound, her whole body trembling.

In the two and a half months since her rebirth, this was the first time she had lost her composure like this. Even when she discovered she had returned to her twenties, she had never been so unable to control her chaotic emotions. And seeing her father again today had caused all her long-held facade of strength to crumble.

She had no memory of her mother, as her mother had passed away when she was born. Her father was often busy, so she would always try to get into trouble, because if she did, her father would scold her, and she could see him. Her father was a renowned general, praised by many for his unparalleled ability to protect the country. He was strict and rarely smiled, but he doted on his children. Whether it was her older sister's insistence on marrying the late emperor, or her later insistence on killing Xiao Nanhe and installing the current emperor on the throne, her father, who held absolute power in the army, could only silently back down. He could never say no to them.

Especially her, her father was helpless against her, but she never told him her thoughts, causing him worry until her death.

After her rebirth, she never saw her father again. They could have met at court, but on the second day after her rebirth, she anxiously sent a message to the Liu family, asking them to feign illness and not come to court. At that time, she was so afraid of letting her father and the young emperor have any more contact.

But what's the use of thinking about it now? She was just afraid of seeing her father. She was afraid that she would lose control of herself if she saw him again.

And then there was the guilt. She kept thinking that if she had been more wary of that emperor nephew in her past life, and hadn't trusted him so much and given him all her power, would she have been able to save her father and brother in the end? If she had realized the emperor's murderous intent towards them earlier, would she have been able to send her father and brother away sooner?

She was still thinking that during that final period, if she hadn't been in the palace, her father and brother wouldn't have been restrained and wouldn't have met such an end.

In her previous life, after she died, her soul drifted to many places and saw many things. Whether people can see the things they care about when they die, Liu Qingtang didn't know. She only knew that after seeing those things, the hatred in her heart almost burned her to ashes.

Although Zhuiyi and Taoye survived thanks to her last efforts, they did not live well and were soon isolated and bullied by those sycophantic lackeys.

Qin Shu's body was wrapped in a tattered straw mat and dumped on the desolate mountain of the remote North Palace, the final resting place for the palace maids and eunuchs who had committed crimes. The body was left there to be pecked at by crows and gnawed by rats. Before long, it was covered with maggots, stinking and rotting beyond recognition.

When her father and brother heard the news of her death in prison, they wept uncontrollably. It was the first time she had ever seen her father like that, and her brother, who always smiled, could no longer smile.

My father seemed to age overnight; his once straight back now appeared hunched, and my brother had become terribly thin. Not long after, they were put in a prison cart and beheaded in front of a crowd of onlookers.

Bright red blood splattered onto the stone slab, and the head rolled onto it with a dull thud, turning several times before becoming covered in blood and dust...

In the first few days after her rebirth, she had nightmares every day. These events kept replaying in her mind, tormenting her so much that she couldn't sleep or eat, which led to her illness.

She could make amends to Zhuiyi and Taoye in this lifetime, ensuring they lived well. As for Qin Shu, she would fulfill his wishes and follow her own heart to be with him. But how could she repay her father and brother? The reason she had endured so long in this cage-like palace, the reason she had initially disregarded the criticisms of those officials, was primarily for the sake of her family.

If Qin Shu regarded her as a kind of belief, then her belief in her past life was her father and brother. She herself could do anything, but she would not allow anyone to insult or hurt them. Yet she watched them die before her eyes, and perhaps that would be a nightmare she could never shake off for the rest of her life.

More than two months had passed, and Liu Qingtang thought she was ready, but when she actually saw her, she realized it wasn't so easy. She was still trapped in that nightmare, unable to escape, her heart filled with both hatred and fear.

When she couldn't see him, she could calmly plan and think about slowly changing everything. But just now, when she saw her father and listened to him talking to her, all she saw was blood gushing out under the scorching sun, staining her vision a bright red.

In that instant, Liu Qingtang almost couldn't control herself from wanting to immediately stab the two chief ministers who had incited the emperor to do that to death, as well as the emperor who was her nephew; she didn't even want to let him go now.

But no, nothing has happened yet, she can't act impulsively, otherwise the first to stop her won't be those two prime ministers, but her father.

Thinking of this, Liu Qingtang bit her arm hard, tasting a metallic flavor. The pain brought her back to her senses. She closed her eyes briefly, then lowered her arm, which she had bitten until it bled profusely. She leaned against the bed, feeling completely drained of strength.

Author's Note: I'll be going to be a paid content creator this Thursday~ I know you girls definitely won't see the announcement in the synopsis if I don't say it _(:3∠)_

You'll still love me as always, right?

[Chen Li threw a landmine~ Today is your special day, so it's decided that you will serve me, my beloved concubine! [Knock out!]