In the imperial study, Xia Zhengqi placed his daughter on the couch and let her play with her rag doll while he paced restlessly.
"Your Majesty, Lord Zhou has arrived." Debao's voice came.
Xia Zhengqi's brows relaxed instantly: "Please invite him in."
"Your Majesty, I, a guilty subject, pay my respects to you." Lord Zhou knelt down in front of Xia Zhengqi.
Xia Zhengqi stepped forward, stretched out his hands and helped Mr. Zhou up: "Hurry up!"
Xia Zhengqi held Mr. Zhou's shoulders with both hands, tears in his eyes, and looked him up and down. Finally, his gaze fell on the pair of rough, calloused hands. His eyes immediately reddened, and he said with difficulty: "Yibai, these years... you have suffered."
[What? Master Zhou, Yibai!]
Xia Miaoyuan was so surprised when he heard these two words that he even let go of the rag doll in his hand.
[Yibai, is that Zhou Yibai? Could it be that he's back?]
Xia Miaoyuan recalled that a few months ago, the second prince had found out that Zhou Yibai, the former commander of the imperial guards, was wrongly accused, so Xia Zhengqi sent someone to recall Zhou Yibai and conduct a new investigation.
"It's nothing, I deserve it..." Lord Zhou murmured indifferently.
Xia Zhengqi asked Zhou Yibai to sit down and said, "Yibai, a few months ago, the Second Prince was investigating the corruption case of Wei Jianzhong, the commander of the Imperial Guards. He accidentally discovered that there was something fishy about the corruption case you were found guilty of three years ago."
"So he reported the matter to me, and I ordered a new investigation."
"It has now been confirmed that you were indeed framed, and the fifty thousand taels of silver were deliberately placed there."
Zhou Yibai's eyes lit up and the corners of his mouth trembled slightly with excitement.
"As for those who falsely accuse you, I will punish them according to the law."
[Daddy is so wise and powerful! He cleared the name of the Great Xia general. Ahhhhhhhhh… so exciting.]
Xia Miaoyuan babbled in baby language, expressing his feelings.
"Your Majesty, I am deeply grateful for clearing my name..." Zhou Yibai's eyes were red, but his tone was still cold and hard.
"Your Majesty, what is this?" Zhou Yibai only then discovered that there was a little baby in the imperial study.
Xia Zhengqi couldn't help but smile: "Oh, this is Princess Anguo. This spring, the Queen gave birth to a little princess for me."
His tone was full of pride.
"Your Majesty, if I'm not mistaken, this is your only princess at present, right?" Zhou Yibai walked up to Xia Miaoyuan and looked at her with joy.
Xia Zhengqi couldn't suppress his smile any more: "Yes, Yibai is so smart. I have been waiting for so many years, and finally I have a daughter."
"No wonder you even bring her with you when you work in the imperial study." Zhou Yibai's eyes suddenly flashed with the tenderness of a kind father when he looked at Xia Miaoyuan.
"The little princess is so beautiful. Can I hold her in my arms?" Zhou Yibai looked at Xia Zhengqi pleadingly.
"Of course." Xia Zhengqi nodded.
Zhou Yibai smiled and hugged Xia Miaoyuan, but tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.
[Oh no, Zhou Yibai must be thinking of his daughter.]
[I remember reading in the book that Zhou Yibai was exiled because his family home was confiscated, and his one-year-old daughter died of illness on the way.]
[At the time, the four members of their family were shackled and driven by the escorts. They suffered from cold and hunger, and were worse off than beggars.]
Their one-year-old daughter couldn't bear the suffering and fell ill within two weeks. They knelt and kowtowed, begging the escort to find a doctor for their daughter.
The escort officer was a powerful and cunning man. Zhou Yibai had no one behind the scenes to bribe him, and he himself had no money to bribe him. How could he be willing to treat his daughter's illness if he didn't receive any benefits?
Zhou Yibai's family cried out to heaven and earth, but to no avail. He held his unconscious daughter in his arms and watched her die.
Recalling this, Xia Miaoyuan closed his eyes uncomfortably.
Oh my God, Zhou Yibai actually suffered such a miserable experience.
Xia Zhengqi just felt a tightness in his chest.
He hated himself so much for not finding out the truth and instead confiscating Zhou Yibai's property and exiling him.
It was because of his negligence that a series of tragedies occurred.
【There is no greater tragedy in the world than this. 】
[It was precisely because of this tragedy of his family being confiscated, exiled, and his daughter dying of illness that Zhou Yibai became a villain.]
What? Zhou Yibai has turned evil?
Although Xia Zhengqi had never heard of the word "blackening", he roughly guessed its meaning.
In his fourth year of hard labor in exile, the crown prince of Liang attacked him.
Ah! It's the Crown Prince of Liang again!
Xia Zhengqi's heart tightened.
Liang Chaozong was very good at winning people over. He first encountered the Zhou family by chance and pretended to be kind-hearted, offering help to Zhou Yibai's family.
Zhou Yibai, a convicted official, endured constant scorn and humiliation in his exile. Finally, someone appeared willing to help them, and the three of them naturally considered him a great benefactor.
[In this way, the relationship between Liang Chaozong and the Zhou family became better and better.]
Later, Liang Chaozong secretly sent the family away, bought them a house and land, and let them live a free and prosperous life.
[It was only then that he revealed his identity to Zhou Yibai, and thus he successfully recruited this powerful general from the Great Xia Dynasty.]
When Xia Zhengqi heard this, he was so upset that he couldn't speak, with a mixture of anger and shame.
"Daddy, you are the emperor. It's easy for you to just say a decree, exile him or recall him. The hard part is warming up the cold hearts of people."
[Emperors of all dynasties, regardless of whether they were wise or foolish, would be met with shouts of "Long live the emperor" as long as they sat on the throne. However, whether they were truly loyal to their monarch in their hearts was something only they themselves knew.]
[A ruler must be wise, virtuous, and clear about rewards and punishments in order to win the hearts of his subjects!]
Only by exchanging hearts for hearts and truly winning the hearts of the ministers will they be truly loyal to Daxia.
After hearing his daughter's heartfelt words, Xia Zhengqi felt a burning power piercing his chest, and he seemed to see through everything in an instant.
He recalled Zhou Yibai's series of behaviors after he came in, and suddenly realized that Zhou Yibai was clearly still resenting him in his heart.
Ah! What should I do?
The wrong has been done, the tragedy has happened, and Zhou Yibai's heart has been broken. What should he do?
"The difficult part is to warm up the cold hearts of people!" Xia Zhengqi's daughter's words came to his mind again.
Yes, I want to warm him up, warm him up with my sincerity.
Otherwise, Zhou Yibai would harbor hatred towards himself and the court, and even if he was recalled, he would rebel sooner or later.
Xia Zhengqi suppressed his emotions and said, "Yibai, I have always wanted to say sorry to you."
Xia Zhengqi looked at Zhou Yibai with sincere eyes.
Zhou Yibai trembled all over and looked at Xia Zhengqi in disbelief.
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