Qi Yuning slept for a very long time. When she woke up, it was already bright outside and the warmth around her had long since disappeared.
Qi Yuning opened his eyes and saw Lichun's anxious expression, and asked, "What time is it?"
Li Chunlian said: "It is four quarters past the hour of Si."
Qi Yuning was startled when he heard the time of 4:40 pm, "It's so late?"
"Princess."
Qi Yuning saw an unfamiliar maid coming in to pay her respects, and looked up at her.
The maid said respectfully, "I am a maid sent by Her Royal Highness the Princess to serve the Princess. My name is Qiuyue and this is Chunhua. There were no big maids in the prince's room before, only servants and maids who cleaned the rooms. Her Royal Highness asked us to come and serve the Princess first."
Qi Yuning glanced at Qiuyue and Chunhua in front of him. They had ordinary looks and seemed honest.
Qiuyue and Chunhua came over with warm water to help Qi Yuning get up and wash. Lichun took the handkerchief and said, "Let me do it."
After Qi Yuning washed and dressed, she hastily and casually tied her hair into a bun.
When I returned to the palace, I learned that Qi Yu'an and A Ping had gone to the palace to express their gratitude early in the morning.
Qi Yuning didn't see Lingling and asked, "Where's Lingling?"
When Chunfen saw Qi Yuning coming back, she said, "Little Princess Lingling woke up early in the morning and wanted to find you. She cried so hard that the prince happened to hear it and took Little Princess Lingling into the palace."
Qi Yuning pursed her lips and told Chunfen, "Burn this wooden bed and replace it with my previous dowry bed."
Chunfen replied, "Yes."
The nanmu bed used as a dowry was not auspicious, but because it took a lot of work to carve it and was made of golden nanmu, it was not cut down or burned.
At that time, Qi Yuning was still thinking about keeping this bed. When Lu Yun passed away in the future, she could turn it into a coffin to send Lu Yun off. Now it can come in handy.
Yesterday, many guests who stayed overnight were leaving and came to say goodbye one by one.
After Qi Yuning was busy for a while, it was already three quarters past noon.
Qi Yu'an, Aping and Lingling had just returned from the palace.
"Lingling!" Qi Yuning walked up to Lingling and picked her up. "Lingling's pigtails look so good today."
Lingling snorted softly, "Hmph!"
Qi Yuning asked: "Is Lingling angry?"
Lingling snorted again, "Humph!"
Qi Yu'an coughed and said, "I turned a blind eye to you because I saw Lingling was too young and I couldn't bear to let her be separated from her father. I didn't mean to let you do whatever you want. Do you still know the meaning of the word reserved?"
Qi Yuning didn't dare to refute, so she could only coax Lingling in her arms and said, "Mom, I was wrong. Can Lingling forgive me?"
Lingling said with tears in her eyes, aggrieved: "Lingling woke up without a mother, wuwuwu."
Qi Yuning hugged Lingling and comforted her: "Mom will never ignore Lingling again in the future, Lingling, don't cry."
Lingling cried for a long time in Qi Yuning's arms. Qi Yuning comforted her and agreed to many of Lingling's requests. Only then did Lingling fall asleep in Qi Yuning's arms.
Qi Yuning's shoulders were covered with tears. After carrying Lingling to the bed, she changed her clothes and went to find Qi Yu'an and A Ping, and dismissed all the servants.
When Qi Yu'an saw Qi Yuning coming alone, his tone became even more severe, "You seem to have become more capable now, haven't you?"
Qi Yuning whispered, "Brother, the reason I went to the princess's mansion yesterday was because the Crown Prince entered my boudoir while I was asleep in the afternoon. I was frightened and dared not sleep on that bed again."
Qi Yu'an heard this and said worriedly, "What about them during the Spring Equinox? Is there no one in your courtyard to supervise others and allow others to come in and out?"
Qi Yuning said, "Originally, I was the only master in the backyard, and the servants and maids were entertaining guests. I posted a maid at the door of the backyard. Since the prince entered the backyard with He Qing, the maid did not stop him. Otherwise, if it was another male guest, he would have been stopped when he entered the backyard."
Qi Yu'an frowned and looked at Qi Yuning worriedly and asked, "Are you okay?"
Qi Yuning said, "Fortunately, there are secret guards in the courtyard. We went to invite Lu Ze, and nothing serious happened. I just woke up suddenly and was frightened out of my wits by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."
Ah Ping was slightly shocked and asked, "How could he do this to you?"
Qi Yuning looked at Ah Ping and said, "Sister-in-law, now we are a real family. I think you can tell me your identity, right?"
Ah Ping glanced at Qi Yu'an and said, "I have already told the prince that the princess's guess is correct. I should have been a princess, but I have no evidence. Nanny Qin, who was beside me, pleaded guilty in order to protect the queen and her young daughter from being implicated. If she comes out to tell the truth now, I'm afraid no one will believe it, and..."
Ah Ping whispered, "I just want some peace."
Qi Yuning said: "There has been no peace since you married my brother. The reason why our Qi family can have the glory today is because of your majesty's wisdom. If another emperor ascended the throne, he might not be able to accommodate the more than 200,000 troops of the Qi family in the north.
Qin Yuli opposed me not long ago, and His Royal Highness the Crown Prince broke into my boudoir yesterday. Wasn’t it because the Qin family and the Crown Prince never took the Qi family seriously?
Now, His Majesty is still here. If one day His Majesty passes away and the Crown Prince ascends the throne, our Qi family will have a knife hanging over our heads."
Qi Yuning looked at Ah Ping's surprised eyes and said, "Do you know why I agreed to marry Lu Yun even though I knew he was young, uneducated and not a good man? It was because he was the son of the princess and the nephew of the prince. With this relationship, the lives of the descendants of the Qi family could be saved to some extent.
But now I know that the prince is not the princess's biological brother. Even if I marry Lu Ze, I am afraid it will be difficult to protect our Qi family. There will be no peace for the Qi family in the future.
We can only restore order and safeguard the bloodline of the Zhao family. The Dasheng Kingdom should belong to the Zhao family and should not be confused by the bloodline of traitors. "
Ah Ping said worriedly: "But I'm afraid His Majesty won't believe it. Princess, I'm still pregnant. I can't take risks at this time. I don't have a child already. I'm afraid this child..."
A Ping looked at Qi Yuan.
Qi Yu'an said to Qi Yuning, "A Ping is right. We can't convince His Majesty with just A Ping and Nanny Qin's words. There is no rush to overthrow the Crown Prince. I think we should take A Ping back to North City and wait until your sister-in-law's child is born. Then we can return to the capital to expose the Crown Prince. If we really can't overthrow the Crown Prince, at least the child will be safe."
Qi Yuning nodded and said, "Yes."
Now the most important thing for the Qi family is indeed the baby in Aping's belly.
Qi Yu'an said, "We plan to return to North City in a few days. You must take care of yourself in Shengjing City. If you and Lu Ze get married in the first half of the year, I may not be able to make it back. You can talk to Lu Ze in the next two days and ask everyone in the Lu family to have a meal with us."
Qi Yuning agreed and said, "Wait for Lu Ze to come back tonight, and I will discuss it with him."
"Your Majesty."
The voice of Qi Yuan's guard came from outside the door. After Qi Yuan opened the door, the guard came in and whispered a few words in Qi Yuan's ear, and Qi Yuan frowned.
Qi Yuning saw that Qi Yu'an looked strange and asked, "What's wrong, brother?"
Qi Yu'an closed the door and said, "Isn't there a Nanny Qin by Ah Ping's side? Nanny Qin also gave birth to a daughter. In order to protect her daughter, she didn't dare to reveal Ah Ping's identity at the first time. Now she wants Ah Ping to see her daughter.
A Wei, whom I sent to the Qin family to investigate the whereabouts of Nanny Qin's daughter, was wrapped in a straw mat by the Qin family and thrown into a mass grave."
Qi Yuning said: "I'm afraid this will alert the enemy. Brother and sister-in-law, you should hurry to North City."
Qi Yu'an said, "It won't be too late to leave after we have dinner with the Lu family. We can leave in two days. If we leave right away, it will make us look guilty."
Qi Yuning said, "That's right, but Nanny Qin's daughter... By the way, sister-in-law, can Nanny Qin tell us about the prince's origins?"
Ah Ping nodded slightly and said, "Yes, Nanny Qin said that the prince was born to a maid in the room of the eldest young master of the Qin family, Qin Han. Because the maid was not promoted to a concubine, few people knew that she was pregnant..."
Qi Yuning suddenly realized, "No wonder there was a loud thunder on that winter day. The mother knelt down to her son. Shouldn't the heavens have struck her with five thunderbolts?"
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