"Good girl."

The next morning, Hu Mingmei went to Emperor Jingkang's palace to request an audience with the emperor. Eunuch Qian came out and exclaimed, "My lord, what's wrong? It's not even dawn yet, and the morning court session hasn't started. Why have you come? His Majesty is still resting!"

Hu Mingmei replied calmly, "My uncle suddenly passed away. I came in to request permission to pay my respects."

Huang Haichuan has passed away?

Eunuch Qian was quite surprised and couldn't help but look Hu Mingmei up and down. Seeing that Hu Mingmei's expression was calm and she didn't seem sad, Eunuch Qian thought about the shady dealings in the Hu family and felt relieved. Hu Mingmei was just going through the motions; as for being sad, that was impossible.

"Wait a moment!" said Eunuch Qian, then turned around, opened the door, and went inside.

Hu Mingmei heard voices coming from inside, and after a while, Eunuch Qian came out and said, "Prince Chu, His Majesty has summoned you to come in!"

So Hu Mingmei strode in, and as soon as he entered, he saw Emperor Jingkang sitting by the bed looking at him.

After paying his respects to Emperor Jingkang, Hu Mingmei stood up and habitually looked around Emperor Jingkang's palace. Emperor Jingkang's palace could be said to be the most luxurious place in the entire capital. However, to his surprise, Hu Mingmei saw a portrait on the wall that looked very familiar. He had not seen this portrait for more than ten years.

To be precise, it's the person in the portrait—his mother.

Emperor Jingkang saw Hu Mingmei looking at the portrait on the wall and said, "Your mother and I were old acquaintances. She passed away suddenly without leaving anything behind, except for this painting. I usually take it out to look at it. Eunuch Qian, why didn't you cover the portrait today?"