That’s right, just carry it.

Like carrying a poor little thing.

Su Cheng leaned over to look at her: "Why do I feel...you look familiar? Have we met before?"

"How dare you! This is the Empress Dowager!" Xiao Shunyang shouted.

"Ah." Su Cheng let go in a second.

Bai Xihe fell to the ground with a thud.

Xiao Shunyang: "..."

"Grand Empress Dowager!"

It was Xiao Yunzi's voice.

Xiao Yunzi and the palace maids who accompanied him surrounded them, and Su Cheng was squeezed out of the crowd. He scratched his head and turned back to look at Bai Xihe.

Unfortunately, Bai Xihe had already turned around, so he only saw the back of his head.

Emperor Jingxuan and his entourage were preparing to go up the mountain.

The temple is on the top of the mountain. Although there are stone steps, the path is winding and difficult to walk on.

Emperor Jingxuan and others were fine, but the empress dowager was old and in poor health, so Emperor Jingxuan had a sedan chair brought in as usual.

But the Queen Mother refused.

"I can walk!"

The guards carrying the sedan looked at each other in bewilderment.

Emperor Jingxuan advised: "Mother, you have just recovered from a serious illness, so it is better to be careful."

In the end, the empress dowager did not ride in the sedan chair. With the help of Eunuch Cheng, she climbed the stairs step by step and reverently.

She once asked for nothing, so she didn't care whether the Bodhisattva blamed her for her negligence.

Now she sincerely prays to the Bodhisattva to protect her three little grandchildren, even if it means breaking her old legs!

When she reached the top of the mountain, the Queen Mother was almost exhausted. She drank two glasses of water and ate a few honey and black sesame pills that Su Xiaoxiao had steamed and dried nine times before she regained a little strength.

Guo Lingxi followed Bai Xihe up the mountain, and "Guo Huan" stayed at the foot of the mountain.

The abbot of the temple went out to greet Emperor Jingxuan and his entourage, and arranged accommodation for them.

The emperor and empress lived in one courtyard, the empress dowager, the grand empress dowager, and Guo Lingxi lived in another courtyard, the second prince and his wife and the two princesses lived in one courtyard. The eldest prince's wife did not come, so the eldest prince and the other princes lived in one courtyard.

Su Xiaoxiao lived in the meditation room next to the Empress Dowager.

As soon as she opened the door, she bumped into Guo Lingxi who was passing by.

Guo Lingxi gave Su Xiaoxiao a look of contempt and walked away without looking back!

Su Xiaoxiao went to the ancient well in the yard to fetch a bucket of water. Just as she was about to take a bath, there was a knock on the door.

"Doctor Su, it's the servant, Xiao Yunzi."

Su Xiaoxiao put down her towel, tied the ribbon, walked up to him and opened the door: "Eunuch Xiaoyun, is there anything I can do for you?"

Xiao Yunzi was a young eunuch. He smiled and said, "Doctor Su, you can just call me Xiao Yunzi. The Empress Dowager is bored in the carriage and feels a little uncomfortable. I would like to ask Doctor Su to come and take a look."

Su Xiaoxiao nodded: "Okay, you go first, I'll come later."

"Hey, thank you, Dr. Su!"

When Su Xiaoxiao appeared in Bai Xihe's room carrying a medicine box, Guo Lingxi's face turned dark.

"What are you doing here? This is the Empress Dowager's meditation room. Who allowed you to come in?"

Su Xiaoxiao ignored her and went straight to the bed.

Xiao Yunzi immediately brought a small stool: "Doctor Su, please sit down."

Guo Lingxi was stunned, and then he realized that Su Xiaoxiao was invited here.

She said unhappily, "I asked you to invite a royal doctor, why did you invite a...female doctor?!"

She emphasized the word "female doctor" because female doctors had a very low status in the Great Zhou Dynasty.

"Lingxi." Bai Xihe said lightly, "You go out first."

Guo Lingxi was startled again: "Aunt!"

Bai Xihe closed his eyes and stopped talking.

Guo Lingxi bit her lip and walked out unwillingly.

"I have a severe headache." Bai Xihe said weakly.

Su Xiaoxiao glanced at Bai Xihe, whose face turned pale, and took out a box of Huoxiang Zhengqi water and a painkiller from the medicine box and explained how to take them.

"If you still feel uncomfortable during the night, call me over again."

After saying that, she went out carrying the small medicine box.

A little maid came over with a basket of fresh fruits and vegetables: "Grand Empress Dowager, the Second Prince went to the back mountain to pick some fruits and asked this maid to bring some to you."

Bai Xihe asked calmly, "Are there any with the Queen Mother and the Emperor?"

The little maid smiled and said, "Yes! The two princesses have some too!"

Bai Xihe asked Xiao Yunzi to accept it, paused, and said, "Send it to Doctor Su."

"all?"

Xiao Yunzi asked.

Bai Xihe asked him to bring the basket over and picked a few: "Take these to Lingxi's room, and send the ones in the basket to Doctor Su."

Xiao Yunzi looked at the small fruit on the table, then looked at the big fruit in the basket, and wondered if she had made a mistake. The big fruit was for Princess Lingxi, right?

"What are you standing there for?" Bai Xihe asked.

"Ah, yes, I will deliver it."

Xiao Yunzi silently took a piece of cloth to cover the basket, otherwise what would happen if Princess Lingxi saw it?

When Xiao Yunzi arrived at the door of Su Xiaoxiao's Zen room, he unexpectedly met Eunuch Cheng, Taozhi and Xiao Shunzi.

The three were respectively the confidants of the Queen Mother, Princess Jingning and Princess Hui'an.

The four of them looked at each other's fruit baskets in tacit understanding, messy in the wind...

At the foot of the mountain, in a villa, in a quiet house, Qin Canglan was playing chess with Sikong Yun from the Imperial Observatory.

Sikong Yun is the younger generation of Qin Canglan, and is about the same age as the empress. He looks a bit rigid, but he has a kind of immortal air.

Sikong Yun placed a white piece and said, "Aren't you going to accompany your son?"

Qin Canglan dropped a black piece: "Cheng'er has to go up the mountain to be on night duty tonight."

Sikong Yun said calmly, "I was wondering, how come the old Protector of the Country has time to accompany me?"

Qin Canglan is a rough man who learned to play chess from Su Huayin. As for who Su Huayin learned from, he has no idea.

But the supervisor was very cunning. I had been betting for so many years but had never defeated him once.

Qin Canglan said, "The White Lotus Sect has been rampant recently. Have you done any divination? When will the imperial court be able to destroy the White Lotus Sect?"

Sikong Yun said: "The secret of heaven cannot be revealed."

Qin Canglan glanced at him sideways, and said sarcastically: "You just can't predict it! What do you mean by 'the general's star is dim, and there must be a general who falls'? Am I not living well? Look! My hand is fine too!"

As he spoke, he stretched out his right hand, rolled up his sleeves, and moved his wrists continuously.

"My granddaughter cured me! I no longer have gout! My strength is back! I can still fight on the battlefield for another ten or eight years!"

"You lose." The supervisor looked at the chessboard and was about to place the last piece.

Qin Canglan stopped him: "Hey! Wait, wait! What just happened doesn't count!"

Sikong Yun said: "No regrets after making a move."

Qin Canglan said: "Aren't you in decline?"

Sikong Yun: “…”

Qin Canglan picked up the chess piece for his last move.

"I know, get down here!"

He made his move.

The chess piece fell onto the board with a thud.

He couldn't move.

Sikong Yun frowned and looked at him: "Old Protector of the Country? General Qin?"

(End of this chapter)