However, the boy was not afraid of him. He stared directly into the emperor's eyes, as if challenging the emperor's might. The atmosphere became somewhat tense. Xingxing raised her head and chewed twice. She raised her hand and patted the boy's arm.
She said in a childish voice, "This is my father, my own son, just as important as my dad."
The father mentioned later refers to Zhou Laoda. Zhu Lin, a guy who doesn't quite understand social etiquette, was very polite and courteous to the Zhou family because of Xingxing. But at this moment, he seems to have forgotten that the emperor is Xingxing's biological father.
The boy was patted by the star, and his expression immediately softened. He lowered his eyes and after a while, he said, "I was too rude just now. Please forgive me, Your Majesty."
The emperor snorted coldly. This kid was only being respectful because of Long'er; otherwise, he didn't respect the emperor at all. He was incredibly audacious and unreasonable. For a moment, the emperor didn't know what to do with the boy.
Xingxing sighed and said to the two of them earnestly, "Father, Brother Lin saved my life. If it weren't for him, you wouldn't be here with me now. You two should get along well and not make things difficult for me."
"You are all very important people to Xingxing. If you two are at odds every time you meet, I will be very sad, and it will also affect my appetite." As Xingxing spoke, she took another big bite, showing no sign of having no appetite at all; she clearly had a very good appetite.
"Never mind, let's eat first, we can talk after we finish eating." The Empress quickly smoothed things over, seeing that Xingxing was eating heartily and not wanting to disturb her meal.
After finishing their meal, the palace servants cleared away the dishes, and the four of them sat at the table. Zhu Lin sat quietly without interrupting, while the Emperor and Empress had many questions for Xingxing, asking one after another, which Xingxing answered in an orderly manner.
Later, she talked about her home in Yegou Village. Although she had lived in the palace for a longer time, she was too young at that time and didn't remember much. She only remembered things after she was three years old, so she only remembered one year of life in the palace.
She also has a year and a half of memories of Yegou Village and Zhou Laoda and Zhao Guihua's family, so both sides are very important to her, and she remembers every little thing about her time in the south very clearly.
"It turns out that after you were taken south by Prince Gong's men, you were thrown into the woods. You lost your memory because you hit your head. Later, the Zhou family took you in and raised you for more than a year. They even took you to Quanshui Prefecture to escape, where you were almost killed by Prince Gong's men..."
The Empress whispered the story Xingxing had told them about the Zhou family, feeling a mix of relief, heartache, and self-reproach. She was relieved that her princess had been saved by such a kind family, but the thought of her princess living in such a poor mountain village made her heart ache, and she blamed herself and the Emperor for not finding their daughter sooner.
"I'm doing quite well. My parents and brothers love me very much. I also know a lot of people in the village, and everyone in the village is nice." Except for Zhou Laosan and Zhou Laosi, who are annoying, everyone else is not bad.
"Since the Zhou family has been kind to you, I will never forget them. I wonder if the Zhou family would be willing to come to the capital? I will certainly repay them properly." Emperor Taikang asked Xingxing this question.
When the fake princess was found, he also rewarded the farmer's family. However, the family was just someone that Prince Gong had sent to deal with him. Prince Gong was afraid of being exposed, so he naturally dared not come to the capital.
They made excuses, saying that they had never traveled far from their village since they had lived there, and that the outside world was not peaceful and the journey to the capital was long. They were afraid of something going wrong on the way, so they dared not leave the village and only asked the emperor to send someone to deliver the gifts to the village.
At that time, the emperor was overwhelmed by the disaster and had also caught a cold. He was exhausted and didn't think much about it. Looking back now, he was so eager to find the princess that he overlooked the many flaws in the plan.
“My brothers and I came to the capital together. My parents didn’t come. My aunt and uncle are still in Nanyang Prefecture, but I don’t think they will come to the capital.”
For the past year, the north has been plagued by disasters, with refugees everywhere. We still need to rely on the south to grow sweet potatoes for disaster relief. The journey there has been very turbulent. It's not as good as the south. Besides, my parents can't bear to leave the land in the village, and my aunt's restaurant is thriving. They are unwilling to leave their hometown for this unfamiliar place.
Even if they want to come, they have to wait until the world is at peace. If the disaster ends and the people can live a good life, then Auntie and the others will definitely want to expand their business. At that time, they will think about opening a shop in the capital.
"Let's ask our parents first. It would be great if they were willing to come, but we can't force them if they don't want to," Xingxing explained.
The four sat in the room for two whole hours before coming out. The emperor then sent a eunuch to the Zhu residence to summon the Fu brothers to the palace for a meeting.
Meanwhile, the Fu brothers were blocking Ye Ling'er's door. They had only learned this morning that the fake princess had been taken back to the Zhu residence and had wanted to come and meet her for a long time, but Zhu Chumo stopped them, saying that he needed to give Ye Ling'er acupuncture first to help her detoxify.
After that, Zhu Chumo would give Ye Ling'er an acupuncture treatment every day and have the old woman brew medicine for her to drink until the poison in Ye Ling'er's body was cured. It wouldn't be long, at most ten days.
The Fu brothers didn't find a chance to come over until noon. They were aggressive and had very unfriendly expressions, especially Erfu and Sifu, the two strongest men who planned to beat up the fake princess to vent Xingxing's anger.
However, when they saw that Ye Ling'er was just a weak little girl with a face that looked too much like Xingxing, they couldn't bring themselves to hurt her and could only attack her with words and make sarcastic remarks.
“At first glance, she does look quite like Xingxing, but upon closer inspection, it’s actually quite easy to tell her apart. You see, although her eyes are big, they don’t have the same liveliness as Xingxing’s. Xingxing’s pupils are darker, while hers have more white in her eyes.” Zhou Erfu walked around Ye Ling’er, offering his scathing comments.
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