The Queen left Luo Xuening behind and went to the palace. Today, at the birthday banquet, there was great excitement.

Long Moxun was among them. Today, he presented a rare calligraphy and painting to the Emperor of Nanshao. He told others that he had searched most of Nanshao before finding it. In fact, the real situation was that the calligraphy and painting were lying safely in Long Moxun's warehouse.

He knew that it was just a temporary gift. However, even so, it also displeased Emperor Nan Shao, and at the banquet, he even praised Long Moxun a few words.

Long Moxun had never had a good impression of his father's hypocritical leftist views, and he just agreed with them.

Today is Emperor Nan Shao's birthday after all. Even if Long Moxun is ignorant, he would not dare to embarrass Emperor Nan Shao in front of all the officials at this time.

However, that was all. In response to Emperor Nan Shao's exaggerated praise, Long Moxun just drank a glass of wine secretly and did not echo him, leaving Emperor Nan Shao talking to himself, which was a bit awkward.

What Long Moxun cared about was not whether Emperor Nan Shao was embarrassed or not, but because he suddenly discovered that the birthday banquet had already begun, but Luo Xuening was not at the banquet.

Long Moxun was indeed a little nervous after waiting for Luo Xuening for a long time. After all, he was now in the imperial palace, and it was easy to kill someone casually.

Although Luo Xue Ning was sent by the emperor to attend the banquet, Long Mo Xun knew his father well. If Luo Xue Ning really got into trouble in the palace, Emperor Nan Shao would just treat her with care and pretend to be nice.

So if you want to find Luo Xuening, you still have to rely on yourself.

Long Moxun quietly told his servants to go find someone, but he remained expressionless and continued to enjoy the performance.

The Queen had obviously already planned it out beforehand. The path she chose for Luo Xuening was a rarely visited one. The Queen even placed some surveillance personnel on the roadside. Anyone who dared to go this way would be asked to leave by her for various reasons.

She would make Luoxuening kneel for two hours. After kneeling for these two hours, even if Luoxuening was not seriously injured, her legs would be disabled.

She wanted to see what a useless person could accomplish and whether he could ruin her plan once again.

Fortunately, after several twists and turns, Long Moxun's people finally found where Luo Xue Ning was. They saw Luo Xue Ning kneeling straight on a secluded path with a palace maid guarding her. The guards immediately frowned.

Miss Luo, that is our prince, the one he holds dear to his heart. Our prince was reluctant to let her kneel, and now, she is being forced to kneel.

There was no time to lose, so he immediately returned home and reported the matter to Long Moxun.

"What?"

When Long Moxun heard this, his brows were tightly furrowed. He wanted to punish Luo Xuening to kneel for two hours. This move of the Queen was really vicious.

If she really knelt for two hours, Luo Xuening would be completely useless. The Queen was planning to get rid of her.

Moreover, if Luo Xue Ning really got into trouble, who could cause trouble for the Queen? If the Queen wanted to punish someone, it must be because that person made a mistake. Luo Xue Ning made a mistake, so as the Queen, she naturally had the qualifications to punish her.

But if Luo Xue Ning got into trouble because of this, the queen could only say lightly: "I punished her to kneel for two hours, and she really kneeled for two hours. I was just angry at the moment, so I punished her. This child, how can she be so honest? Can't you be flexible?"

Don't ask how Long Moxun knew the Queen's words, because when Long Moxun was still a child, he was punished by the Queen in this way.

At that time, he could not straighten his legs because of kneeling. After more than a month of recuperation, he was able to save his legs. This was the explanation given by the queen at that time.

He is honest and he is inflexible.

Not only was he severely punished, but he was also belittled with such words. However, at that time, he was powerless to resist.

But today, the Queen used this trick on Luo Xuening, and this time, he could no longer tolerate it.

It's time for him to settle all the new and old grudges.

Long Moxun stroked his chin with his slender hand, and a hint of cruelty emerged in his eyes.

Long Moxun lowered his eyes slightly and stared at the queen quietly. The queen, who was concentrating on the performance, felt a chill rising from the soles of her feet. However, when she searched for the owner of this gaze, she could not find it.

The queen calmed herself down and scanned the people present with her cold eyes. There was a hint of pride in her eyes.

Long Moxun withdrew his gaze indifferently and saw that Emperor Nan Shao was still teasing his bird.

This bird was given by Long Lingxun. It is said to be a divine bird that perches on the shoulder of the Buddha statue in the temple all day long. The sound it makes when it opens its mouth is "Yingming".

Such harmony doesn't actually sound very impressive, but this bird just happened to be what Emperor Nan Shao wanted.

Emperor Nan Shao had a wish since he ascended the throne. He hoped that he could become a wise ruler known throughout the ages. However, his ministers kept talking about how wise they were, but it was of no use.

If Emperor Nan Shao wants his wisdom to spread far and wide, he has to rely on those magical things to spread it.

For example, this bird looks ordinary, but it is a bird standing on a Buddha statue. Naturally, it has a magical color. When people look at it, it is different from ordinary birds.

As soon as the bird opened its mouth, it called out to the emperor, "wise." The court officials followed suit and cheered along, and the reputation of Emperor Nan Shao for being wise spread. Yes, even this magical bird said that the current emperor was wise, so who else would dare to disobey Emperor Nan Shao?

Emperor Nan Shao wanted this bird to achieve this effect, so Long Lingxun's gift was not really that precious. It just suited Emperor Nan Shao's wishes, allowing him to voluntarily worship this so-called divine bird.

In fact, Emperor Nan Shao didn't care what the divine bird was.

Long Moxun glanced at Emperor Nan Shao and sighed. It was true that his father, the Emperor, was burdened by his false reputation as he grew older.

As bystanders, they could see it clearly, but naturally they could not understand the mentality of Emperor Nan Shao who kept a useless divine bird. However, Emperor Nan Shao just kept doing it.

For some things, when you are in the situation, you often see only one side of the picture.

Long Moxun did not comment on this, but silently decided in his heart that if he ascended the throne to become emperor in the future, he would not be like Emperor Nan Shao, who was bound by power.

Long Moxun stood up quietly and walked out of the banquet hall as if possessed by a ghost. His movements were extremely fast. If someone hadn't been keeping an eye on him, Long Lingxun would not have been able to realize when Long Moxun left.

He held up a white jade wine glass, his stern face showing a look of complacency because of the special praise from Emperor Nan Shao today. However, what made him even more proud was obviously not the meaningless praise from the king, but Long Moxun's life.

Even if he couldn't take Long Moxun's life this time, he would make sure that Long Moxun was completely hated by the emperor and there would be no possibility for him to compete with him for the throne.

As for Long Moxun's life, Long Lingxun took more than a hundred wine glasses to conceal the murderous intent in his eyes. As long as he could reach a high position one day, Long Moxun's life would be his to take or kill as he pleased.

The corner of Long Lingxun's mouth tilted to one side, revealing a ruthless and desperate smile. He turned the glass upside down on the table, slowly picked up another glass and drank.

The upside-down cup was their secret signal for action.

As long as the cup is turned upside down, they will definitely win today's strategy.

The queen glanced towards Long Lingxun, caught a glimpse of the upside-down cup from the corner of her eye, and a sneer appeared on the corner of her mouth.

She frowned and pretended to be gentle and said to Emperor Nan Shao: "Your Majesty, the banquet is about to begin. This divine bird..."

Emperor Nan Shao understood and ordered people to take the divine bird away. He sat upright and serious. He was a wise ruler and would not make mistakes because of a divine bird.

The queen smiled gently, and her usually stern face had a few more wrinkles because of this smile.

Emperor Nan Shao noticed that the empress seemed to have aged a bit. She had been the empress for more than ten years, but he had never liked the powerful and overbearing empress and had never taken a good look at her.

Today, I realized how much I owed this woman. She had been in the harem for many years just for him, but her face looked a little older than other concubines of the same age.

Thinking of this, Emperor Nan Shao reached out and gently held the Queen's palm. His big palm tightly covered the Queen's palm, and the thin thread of his fingertips rubbed it gently.

"Queen, you have worked hard these years."

Emperor Nan Shao said this from the heart. He had always been very cold towards the Empress, giving her the power she deserved but not enough respect. However, she and Prince Shou still carefully prepared gifts for him and presented him with the divine bird.

Although their behavior was not without flattering implications, as the emperor, that person was not trying to please him. Moreover, the flattery of the Empress and Prince Shou knew the Emperor Nan Shao's mind very well. How could the Emperor Nan Shao not be soft-hearted?

"Your Majesty, you..."

When the queen heard this, her eyes were filled with tears. She seemed moved, but in fact, she was not necessarily moved in her heart.

"I am really pleased that the emperor can still comfort me so much. Even if I am suffering and tired, it is worth it."

The tearful tone of her voice, so soft and weak, formed a great contrast with the shrewd and strong empress in the past. Emperor Nan Shao looked at the empress in some surprise, but felt a sigh in his heart. It turned out that when the empress became gentle, she was not inferior to his considerate concubines at all.

The more he felt that he owed the empress, the more he toasted her with a glass of wine: "Come, empress, it is my blessing to have you manage the harem for me."

Looking at the glass of wine, the queen let out a wry smile, picked up the glass, and drank it all in one gulp.

Emperor Nan Shao had never been so gentle and considerate before, but right now, she was not moved at all.

Emperor Nan Shao, he hurt her too deeply. She had been alone and isolated for too long. She didn't want some illusory favor from the emperor. What she wanted was real power that she could hold in her hands.

She wanted his son to become the new emperor, and she wanted to become the most respected empress dowager.

The queen's eyes were filled with hostility. She drank the cup of wine that symbolized the emperor's favor, but found it spicy and tasteless.

She also found it funny. In the past, she had painstakingly managed his harem without considering any reward, but Emperor Nan Shao was too lazy to even glance at her. And now, she just gave him a magical bird, and Emperor Nan Shao actually had a change of heart.

The emperor's favor is indeed so cheap.

That so-called divine bird was nothing more than an ordinary bird they bought in the flower and bird market, trained it at a huge price, and then after some exaggeration, its value skyrocketed and it became a divine bird highly respected by the emperor. It was really laughable.

The Queen put away the mockery in her eyes and shook Emperor Nan Shao's hand with great emotion. The two of them were already a hundred years old in total. Holding hands now was not the end of their battle, but just another beginning.

It's time for the young people to come on stage, the queen thought to herself, looking back at the affectionate eyes of Nan Shao Huangtu, but she just lowered her eyes slightly, her heart was full of cruel and vicious plans...