Meanwhile, on the other side...
Xia Jingfeng had been holding his breath ever since that day.
He felt that his daughter, whom he had raised for decades, had been kidnapped at some point. He hadn't felt this way before, but now he felt extremely desolate because his daughter had essentially conspired with that brat to frame him.
When she saw her daughter arrive, she was initially about to throw a tantrum at her.
But when Xia Yixin took out the things that Ying Qi had investigated, Xia Jingfeng's face instantly darkened.
"The Shen family has some nerve!"
Xia Jingfeng wished he could immediately lead a team to investigate the Shen family, but he hadn't expected this.
So he wasn't too surprised when Xia Yixin said the next sentence.
“Father, Grand Commandant Shen sent out three sons, ostensibly for sightseeing, but in reality, they were acting on Grand Commandant Shen’s orders to contact the thirteen warlords. Moreover, they even found the royal grandson. We must be wary of their ambitions.”
A strong killing intent flashed in Xia Jingfeng's eyes.
Seeing that the time was right, Xia Yixin offered her thoughts: "Father, the current situation seems good, but in reality, it is outwardly lenient but inwardly suspicious. We also lack follow-up strength in the capital. Have you thought about the future, Father?"
Her question stumped Xia Jingfeng. Originally, Xia Jingfeng wanted to wait for the birth of Xia Yixin and Qi Yu's eldest son, but he did not expect that Grand Commandant Shen would have such great ambitions.
"Wan'er, what do you think we should do?"
Wan'er dared to ask her father for something.
Xia Yixin paused for a moment, then uttered two words: "Tiger Tally!"
Xia Jingfeng frowned slightly, already guessing what it was: "You want to get the tiger tally for that brat?"
The late emperor was incompetent, and after his death, the two tiger tallies were combined into one and ended up in Zhao Jin's hands. Later, Xia Jingfeng obtained them, but since the tiger tally did not have an imperial edict, it was essentially useless.
But if it were handed over to Qi Yu, it would be different; he could command the Imperial Guards and completely control the Han army.
Xia Jingfeng frowned and said, "Wan'er, I know you have feelings for Qi Yu, but Qi Yu is a more cunning person than you think. I'm worried that you gave him the Tiger Tally. Although we can stop the Shen family, when he turns the tables, the next family he'll target is our Xia family!"
Since the original owner had said "I will marry no one but him," Xia Yixin couldn't just reject it outright.
Xia Yixin understood what he meant, but she also had her own thoughts.
She said earnestly, "Father, by giving him the tiger tally, I am giving the Xia family a way out, which can also be considered as surrender. Could the situation be any worse than it is now? With tigers in front and wolves behind, the Northern Wu Iron Cavalry is trapped here and will be devoured sooner or later. Why not find another way? Let's go back to Northern Wu and do something else."
Xia Jingfeng was shocked. He never expected his daughter to say such a thing. He felt a surge of warmth in his heart. Indeed, Xia Jingfeng knew that staying here was not the best option, especially with the wolfish Grand Commandant Shen watching over them.
"And what about you, Wan'er? Your father won't leave you alone in the capital."
As Xia Yixin was pondering how to reasonably reply and follow him back, Xia Jingfeng misunderstood her silence as hesitation and let out a long sigh.
"Let me think about this." He needed to find a solution that would satisfy both sides.
Looking at Xia Jingfeng, who was deep in thought, Xia Yixin couldn't help but ask another question that had been on her mind: "Father, I've never understood why you insisted on getting involved in this mess in the first place?"
In fact, Xia Yixin had always been puzzled as to why Xia Jingfeng would come to the capital to get involved in this mess. Although Beiwu was sparsely populated, it was a place with lush grass, strong horses, and abundant resources. It was a very good place to retreat to and advance to defend, otherwise it would not have been able to raise such a fierce army as the Beiwu Iron Cavalry.
Xia Jingfeng knew he couldn't hide it anymore. "Wan'er, actually, your father didn't want to come either, but there's something I can't let go of. Do you still remember your mother...?"
The original owner had almost no memory of that beautiful woman. When she was three years old, she suddenly disappeared one day. She thought she was dead. In fact, more than ten years ago, she was taken in by the old emperor during an occasional tour and sent to be kidnapped and taken back to the palace. At that time, Beiwu was not strong enough. When Xia Jingfeng finally found her after searching for many years, the old emperor only said hastily, "She hanged herself."
What was sent back to Beiwu was merely a skeleton.
Xia Jingfeng's lifelong love died under mysterious circumstances, and he naturally could not let it go easily. So, from then on, he continued to have people drug the old emperor. Didn't he like to have fun? He would make him hollow out and make him destroy his own dynasty.
Xia Jingfeng eliminated all the princes for revenge.
If Xia Jingfeng wanted to be emperor, he would never allow Qi Yu to seize power.
These are all things that were not written in the original work.
Xia Yixin finally figured things out. As long as Xia Jingfeng didn't covet the throne, persuading him to leave might not be difficult.
Xia Jingfeng gave her the tiger tally, a palm-sized bronze tiger tally, simple and unadorned, yet exuding a faint murderous aura.
After returning to the palace, she temporarily put the tiger tally into her storage ring, intending to give it to Qi Yu after the sacrificial ceremony. While putting it away, she accidentally touched something that was slightly warm.
It's that black jade ring.
She took it out suspiciously and looked at it. The ring was slightly warm in her palm, as if it were faintly responding to something.
She had a strong intuition that putting the ring back on her hand would help her find something, but as soon as she put the black jade ring back on, it returned to its cold and indifferent state, as if nothing had happened.
She carefully sensed it and felt that apart from the unknown energy surging inside, there was nothing else. She frowned slightly in surprise, but didn't think much of it and put it back into her storage ring.
Meanwhile, in Cixi Palace.
An old nanny who was cleaning the storeroom presented a brocade box she had found to Empress Dowager Xiaode. “Your Majesty, this servant found a hidden compartment in the storeroom containing this brocade box. Please take a look.”
The late emperor's mother died early, and Cixi Palace remained empty until Empress Dowager Xiaode moved in. No one knows who put the brocade box there.
Empress Dowager Xiaode dismissed the old nanny, opened the brocade box, and sure enough, it contained rare jade pendants or gold, silver and pearls, which were probably hidden by one of the previous empress dowagers. Suddenly, her gaze fell on a familiar ring.
The black jade emitted a faint glow.
She remembered that when she gave birth to Qi Yu, the star of Greed was shining brightly in the night sky, with lightning and thunder. That damned priest determined that he was the reincarnation of Sirius. That very day, she and the infant Qi Yu were thrown into the Cold Palace. Later, she investigated and found that it was just that the priest had received a favor from a concubine and did it on purpose. But this ring...
She remembered that the child was indeed on the bed when he was born. She only glanced at him once; he seemed to have appeared out of thin air, exuding an eerie aura.
Empress Dowager Xiaode examined the ring for a long time before finally closing the brocade box and instructing the nanny to put it back in its original place.
She didn't know whether she should tell Qi Yu about the black jade ring of unknown origin; intuitively, she felt it was no ordinary object.
This brocade box remained covered in dust for many years before it was finally found by someone with a keen eye. Unfortunately, by then the palace had long since changed beyond recognition.
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