After dispelling her parents' strange suspicions, Su Qingluan's life returned to normal. Every day, she would go back and forth between home and occasionally visit Liu Yun's parents' home. Her life was busy and fulfilling.

It’s not that there aren’t gossipers who have nothing better to do than to gossip, but Su Qingluan feels that she can’t control everyone’s mouths. As long as the people close to her don’t mind, it’s fine. As for other passers-by, as long as they don’t talk about it in front of her, she will pretend not to see or hear it.

On this day, Su Qingluan went to Hongfulou as usual to deliver a new menu to Manager Liang. Considering that Hongfulou already had enough specialty dishes, Su Qingluan had rarely sold recipes in the past one or two years, but she did have two or three new dishes a year.

But at this moment, she saw that the shopkeeper Liang, who always liked festive dressing and preferred bright red and purple colors, was actually asking his waiter to buy some plain fabrics.

"Uncle Liang, have you changed your personality?" Su Qingluan was a little surprised. "Why are you becoming more reserved?"

Shopkeeper Liang shook his head, looked at Su Qingluan and pointed to the second floor: "Let's talk upstairs."

Although Shopkeeper Liang still looked as cheerful and welcoming as ever, Su Qingluan noticed a hint of worry in his eyes, and her heart sank. Could it be that something had happened to Shopkeeper Liang's family? Uncle Liang still had an octogenarian mother at home. Could it be...

While Su Qingluan was thinking about how to put it, Manager Liang had already instructed the efficient waiter to prepare tea and snacks, so Su Qingluan followed Manager Liang upstairs with some trepidation.

Shopkeeper Liang chose the room closest to the interior with a view of the backyard. After the two of them sat down and the waiter closed the door and left, Su Qingluan lowered her head and drank tea and savored snacks with her eyes and nose focused on her heart. After all, Shopkeeper Liang didn't speak, so she couldn't open her mouth rashly, right?

After Su Qingluan drank a cup of tea and ate a piece of dessert, Shopkeeper Liang sighed, "This world is going to be tough..."

Su Qingluan's eyes jumped, and she unconsciously put down the snacks in her hand: It turned out that Manager Liang was "preparing for a rainy day".

In fact, she was not completely unaware of the rumors. After all, she still had business to do in the capital.

Although the old emperor who is currently in power has not been in good health in the past two years, which has caused people from all sides to be restless in their fight for power, at least the old emperor's trusted forces are still there, so he does not completely lose control of the situation.

Although this old emperor was not a wise ruler, at least if he could make the court regime relatively stable and unified, the society would not be too turbulent - after all, a foolish emperor was much better than a court without a leader.

Because there is no leader, the people will only live in dire straits and suffer a fate worse than death.

However, over the past year, especially in the past six months, news has come out from Jingzhou that the old emperor's health is really failing. Even more pessimistically, it is a big question whether he can survive this year.

As the old emperor became increasingly frail and his control over power became increasingly weak, the people below fought each other more fiercely. They went from secretly trying to trip each other up to bringing the struggle to the top and fighting openly.

Of course, there was no freedom of speech in this era. You could talk about royal topics in teahouses and taverns without being invited for tea. However, news of this or that kind still leaked out through various channels, and the increasingly chaotic situation in the capital was a good example of this.

Su Qingluan understood why Manager Liang sighed like that.

During the autumn and winter seasons every year, especially in autumn, because of the "Autumn Examination", candidates passing through Lefeng Town on their way to take the exam are like a swarm of fish crossing the river.

So around this time every year, as the largest restaurant in the town, Hongfulou would make a fortune - especially after Su Qingluan had her "trial run" at Hongfulou, many people would deliberately take a detour to see how good the food tasted. Otherwise, if they didn't pass the test this time, it would be several years before they could get another chance.

But now the emperor is seriously ill, and the kind of "serious illness" that allows him to see his ancestors anytime and anywhere, and his condition is difficult to recover. The autumn examination will naturally be temporarily suspended. Even if the emperor dies, all entertainment and leisure in the country may be banned for at least three months.

Although Hongfulou is not as eye-catching as brothels, it is still a place for eating and drinking. I am afraid that if the old emperor who is currently in power passes away, Manager Liang and Xu Yuanwei will be "unemployed" for several months.

Su Qingluan's "Su Ji" was fine. After all, it was just a food business. It couldn't be that the whole country couldn't eat because of the emperor's death, right? So the impact on her store was not particularly great.

However, some of the originally planned large-scale activities may have to be postponed or cancelled if the old emperor really passes away - after all, selling food is selling food, but singing, dancing, and playing musical instruments while selling food will make you an easy target.

Su Qingluan didn't know how to comfort Shopkeeper Liang, so she could only advise him, "Uncle Liang, just think of it as a long vacation for yourself. Wouldn't it be nice to stay home and spend time with Aunt and your family?" After a pause, she added in a low voice, "Difficulties are temporary and will eventually pass."

Shopkeeper Liang sighed and nodded: "We can only hope so. I don't know what will happen to the nine sons of the dragon..." As he said that, he shook his head.

Shopkeeper Liang lowered his voice, but Su Qingluan understood what he didn't say: With such a foolish emperor and ministers with ulterior motives, what kind of moral character could these princes have?

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