At this moment, Prime Minister Zhao, like a weather vane, said with tears in his eyes, "Duke Zhenguo, you can just call me Old Zhao. I'm entrusting my life to you."
"Oh?" The Duke of Zhenguo was even more puzzled by his attitude.
Prime Minister Zhao sighed: "Although I hold the position of Prime Minister, I am ultimately no match for you founding fathers, so naturally I cannot act like a prime minister in front of you."
After he explained, he couldn't help but lean closer to the person's ear.
"This Marquis of Ningyuan wants to rebel!"
"He even tried to recruit me, but how could I dare? I refused outright, but who would have thought he would try to kill me!"
They've already told you such a big secret, why would they keep you around?
After listening, the Duke of Zhenguo pondered for a moment, then said with some hesitation, “Brother Zhao, at least on the surface, the Marquis of Ningyuan will not touch you. Your sister is a current imperial concubine, and you are practically a member of the royal family. I think that as long as you protect yourself, he will not dare to touch you easily.”
"How could that be!" The Prime Minister immediately became agitated. "He can even fabricate things about the Crown Prince, let alone other matters."
“But he dares to lay a hand on even the prime minister of a nation, so the whole country is his.” It was only after the Duke of Zhenguo said this that everyone finally calmed down.
The Prime Minister realized that the Duke of Zhenguo did not want to help him, and crying would be useless at this point.
Indeed, why would someone who is not related to you help you? You have a concubine sister of imperial concubines, why would you ask an outsider for help? Even the prime minister must think he has something wrong with his head.
But the Prime Minister wouldn't give up: "Duke Zhenguo, your daughter is in the palace now, isn't she? You know I'm related to the imperial family!"
The prime minister changed his previous pleading to a smug look on his face.
The Duke of Zhenguo inwardly cried out in alarm! He shouldn't have let him in.
“Your daughter is in the palace, and so is my sister. You should know what happens if you offend me. Don’t you care about your daughter? You’ve already lost one daughter; do you want to lose another?” the Prime Minister threatened the Duke of Zhenguo.
The memories of losing his daughter flooded back to the Duke of Zhenguo, and he instantly felt dizzy. How could this person be so vicious!
He was furious that the Duke of Zhenguo was now demanding Xu Yuehuai's life from him simply because he hadn't helped him.
However, for Xu Yuehuai's sake, the Duke of Zhenguo would consider it carefully. He gritted his teeth and said, "Don't hurt my daughter. I will consider what you say. Please spare my daughter's life!"
Zhenguo Gongshi had no choice but to back down now, for Xu Yuehuai's safety, he was willing! He had finally found such a wonderful daughter, the envy of everyone, and he didn't want to lose Xu Yuehuai.
“However, I have to ask the Regent first,” the Duke of Zhenguo continued. “You should also know that my Yue’s relationship with the Regent is quite special.”
"Heh, it's good that Duke Zhenguo is sensible. Since you've put it that way, I naturally won't interfere with your daughter for now. However, if you don't give me an answer soon, I might do something drastic," the Prime Minister said viciously.
"Don't touch my daughter! I'll give you an answer, you just wait." The Duke of Zhenguo was somewhat flustered.
"Not bad, we'll leave our Prime Minister's residence to the care of the Duke of Zhenguo." Only then did the Prime Minister seem somewhat satisfied.
He nodded and walked straight away.
The Duke of Zhenguo's eyes darkened as he watched the Prime Minister's departing figure.
It seems I need to find an opportunity to remind Xu Yuehuai to be careful, as someone is already watching her. However, my daughter is currently in the palace, so it's not convenient for her to speak.
The Duke of Zhenguo is very worried about Xu Yuehuai. It seems that he can only discuss it with Qi Guze as soon as possible.
This family is causing trouble for the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion everywhere, bullying her daughter!
This is intolerable.
...
Meanwhile, Xu Mingzhi was examining the bracelet from all angles.
Xu Mingzhi thought to himself, “Cui Rou’s bracelet looks incredibly exquisite and must be worth a lot of money.”
He sneered, "Good boy, I'll rely on you to win back my dignity later."
He finished speaking and ran out with it.
Xu Mingzhi arrived at the pawnshop. Casinos don't accept these kinds of things; they only want money, pure silver.
He went inside, picked up the bracelet, and asked the servant, "Give me this in silver!"
The servant took it and examined it from all angles, discovering that it was indeed a valuable item.
He held out his hand: "Fifty taels."
Xu Mingzhi was not happy; he wasn't stupid: "Seventy taels."
"That won't do," the pawnshop clerk protested.
"Then I'll be going." Although Xu Mingzhi was not very knowledgeable, he knew that this bracelet was definitely worth more than fifty taels.
It's just that it's a bit old, so it's probably not worth a hundred taels.
Seeing that the man was about to leave, the shopkeeper, not wanting to give up such a good item, immediately called him back: "Wait a minute, your price is too high. I need to get our manager out here."
Xu Mingzhi snorted coldly and remained silent.
He knew he could definitely get a price for his bracelet.
When the pawnshop owner heard about it, he immediately came out to look at the bracelet and agreed to the asking price.
"Alright." The servant handed him the silver.
Xu Mingzhi felt reborn after receiving the money, and he ran to the casino with the silver.
He had only ever watched Xu Jingui gamble and had long been itching to join in. Now that he finally had some money, he naturally wanted to get rich through gambling.
"Place your bet." Xu Mingzhi picked up all the chips and threw them onto the table.
Little did he know that he had already been targeted and that there was no way he could win.
"Hey, this must be the young master of the Xu family. Didn't you say you were short of money? Where did you get this?" Some familiar faces came up to ask him. "I'll talk about it after I win some money," Xu Mingzhi replied, too eager to gamble and ignoring them.
The person opposite was secretly delighted to see Xu Mingzhi in such a hurry.
Xu Mingzhi felt he had good luck this time and was determined to turn things around, full of ambition.
The person on the other side was overjoyed. Seventy taels of silver! This Xu Mingzhi is really a fool with too much money.
As expected, Xu Mingzhi lost everything in one go.
Xu Mingzhi had hoped to turn his fortunes around with a stroke of luck, but unfortunately, he lost all the money he had left.
"I'm sure I'll win next time, please let me play one more round." Xu Mingzhi refused to leave, crying and begging the casino's second-in-command.
When the second-in-command saw that he had no money, he immediately looked down on him and said, "You guys hurry up and get him out of here. How can he do business like this?"
No sooner had the second-in-command finished speaking than Xu Mingzhi was kicked out of the casino.
He rubbed his rumbling stomach and couldn't help but curse, "What bad luck today."
He was furious; the people at the casino showed him absolutely no mercy.
"I'll be lucky another day and I'll definitely win it back." He shouted this as he turned and ran away.
He was walking aimlessly down the street when he suddenly smelled the aroma of steamed buns and immediately perked up.
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