Empress: Your Majesty, please respect yourself, I don't want to be promoted

After the officials left Lingyun Mansion, Lu Chen dragged his tired body back to the inner courtyard. As he walked towards the study, he said to the two people beside him:
"Is the horse ready?"

Fu Hua nodded.

"It's ready. The Tianxing formation on the official road has also been activated. We can set off for Beijing at any time."

"Really."

Lu Chen's eyelids began to twitch.

"That's good."

Seeing his tired face, a look of pity flashed across Chai Hongyu's face.

She hesitated for a moment, then slowly said, "Why don't we wait a day before heading back to Beijing?"

"After you were assassinated today, you had to meet His Majesty, give lectures, and discuss politics. You couldn't rest for a moment, which was very stressful. If you continue to travel by boat, I'm afraid it will hurt your foundation."

Although they could have rested in the carriage, they were taking the highest-level official road and using the most powerful Tianxing formation. The price of returning to Beijing at an extremely fast speed was a strong feeling of dizziness as if traveling through time and space. In the extremely noisy environment, it was difficult to get enough rest.

The warriors who were at the Guiyi realm were fine, and with the carriage bestowed by the emperor, they were not greatly affected. However, Lu Chen would definitely be affected, and it would be difficult for him to get a good rest.

And it would take several days to return to Beijing from Yuzhou using the Tianxing formation, which would be a real punishment.

Lu Chen shook his head.

"No, the situation is urgent and there is no time to delay."

After a pause, he glanced at Chai Hongyu and said softly, "Don't worry, Miss Chai, I'm not trying to be brave. I know what's going on."

Hearing this, Chai Hongyu could only smile bitterly and shake her head.

The power of the First Emperor was of great importance, and she also knew the importance of it. How could a person like Lu Chen, who always put state affairs first, be at ease with the situation in the capital? So she stopped persuading him.

Soon, the servant packed his bags.

Fu Ya followed Lu Chen all the way until they reached the carriage parked at the back door. She had no intention of stopping, as if she wanted to follow the carriage to send Lu Chen out of the city.

Seeing this, Lu Chen paused as he was getting into the car.

"Liang Yu, please stay."

He looked at Fu Ya speechlessly.

"Just send it here. Xuanjiwei has a lot of official duties, and the affairs of each department cannot do without your assistance. Go back and rest early."

Hearing this, Fu Ya bit her red lips inexplicably.

"Just send it off for a while and we'll be out of the city."

As she spoke, she slowly took a few steps forward, approached Lu Chen, raised her beautiful eyes slightly, and met Lu Chen's eyes, with a hint of reluctance and worry flashing in her eyes.

"Now that chaos is brewing in all directions and the country is in turmoil, you and I both have important responsibilities to shoulder. After we part today, I don't know when we will meet again, so..."

Having said this, Fu Ya paused for an inexplicable moment, and then her tone inexplicably became a little dull.

"Huaiyu, let me be willful for a bit, this way, I will have fewer worries."

care?

Hearing her say this, Lu Chen's expression suddenly became a little strange.

It’s not quite appropriate to use the words “good friend sees you off”... Tsk tsk, this girl is usually meticulous and serious in what she says and does, I didn’t expect that she would sometimes say inappropriate things.

Chai Hongyu on the side had a look of surprise on her face.

She looked at Fu Hua carefully, as if she wanted to see something from her. Even though the latter noticed her strange gaze, her eyes did not waver at all. She just stared at Lu Chen openly, as if she wanted to imprint Lu Chen's appearance deeply in the deepest part of her heart.

Lu Chen shook his head.

"Okay, then I'll have to trouble Liangyu to escort you for the next leg of the journey."

Seeing that he agreed, Fu Ya's lips curled up slightly, and the melancholy and dullness in her eyes dissipated a little.

However, seeing that Lu Chen looked normal and was obviously not affected by the slightly inappropriate words just now, she couldn't help but lower her eyes, with a hint of disappointment in her eyes.

The three people had different thoughts. The Jueying Divine Horse bestowed by the empress had the ability to read the atmosphere, and galloped along the horse path towards the outside of the city at an extremely fast speed.

…………

Two days flew by.

Beiji Province, Nanpi City.

Dingyuan Marquis Mansion. "Mother."

Gu Si Miao looked expressionlessly at her mother, who was lying on the bed with a sickly look and had caused her countless troubles in her life, and said calmly, "If you pretended to be sick to trick me back just to get me to arrange for a cousin or uncle to work in the mansion, then you'd better keep your mouth shut."

When Zhao heard her daughter expose her without any hesitation, an unnatural look flashed across her face.

"Hey, kid, what are you talking about? Are you pretending to be sick? Is your mother that kind of person? I am just..."

She wanted to quibble, but Gu Si Miao was too lazy to talk nonsense with her. She just waved her hand and interrupted: "Although this level of disguise can fool my father, it can't fool me. You know whether you are pretending to be sick or not."

Zhao was choked and her face turned a little ugly.

Gu Si Miao ignored her reaction and continued, “Let’s not talk about this. Just say whatever you want to say. I have official business to attend to later and I don’t have time to fool around with you here.”

As a daughter, it is really hard for her to have a good impression of Zhao, her mother who only cares about her family.

After all, she had been pushed into the fire pit by her biological mother more than once.

Apart from anything else, the fact that she was forced to marry Zhao Feifan in order to pave the way for her family almost ruined her life.

Not only was she deceived, the entire Dingyuan Marquis Mansion was almost doomed to failure because of her actions such as taking sides randomly, using the influence of the Dingyuan Marquis Mansion to insert her family members into the military and political circles, and using the political resources gained by selling her daughter to strengthen the Zhao family.

If Lu Chen had not suddenly appeared and supported them at all costs in the court, everyone in Dingyuan Marquis Mansion would probably have grass three feet high on their graves.

After such a tragic lesson, Zhao only stayed quiet for a year before popping up again to make trouble, repeatedly trying to use her current power to force members of the Zhao family into Dingbei Prefecture. How could she agree to such behavior?

Although as a high-ranking official in the empire, she did have the power to select talents and freely mobilize various political, military and economic resources within her jurisdiction, and Dingbei Prefecture did have some vacancies, it was not a big problem to arrange a sinecure for her.

But she really didn't want to bother with the greedy parasites in the Zhao family, and a mere sinecure could not satisfy that family's appetite.

As for her mother, she couldn't say much because of their mother-daughter relationship, but she hated those cousins ​​to the extreme.

If it were in the past, she might have arranged a position for them for the sake of her mother, but now, under the influence of Lu Chen, a man who could not tolerate any grain of sand in his eyes, she did not want to get involved in even the slightest bit of intrigue.

The impolite words made Zhao's face even uglier.

But she didn't dare to get angry. After all, she had finally tricked Gu Yanming and got her daughter back. If Gu Simiao left without saying anything, it would be even more difficult to see her again in the future.

She took a deep breath, suppressed her unhappiness, and then forced a smile, saying softly: "Miao'er, you misunderstood me. I don't intend to let you arrange official positions for your cousins."

Gu Si Miao raised her eyebrows, but did not speak. She just looked at Zhao without saying a word.

He looked as if he was waiting to see what tricks she was playing.

Zhao looked a little uncomfortable when she stared at her.

She is not a very cunning person and is naturally not good at hiding her true thoughts.

After all, she is just a woman who has no bottom line and is loyal to her parents.

"Is such that."

She smacked her lips and said slowly, "Your second uncle came over a few days ago and complained to me, saying that since Fang Yu, the prefect of Yongning Prefecture, took office, he has been targeting our Zhao family everywhere. He either went to search the Zhao family's properties every now and then, making a mess of it, or he bullied the Zhao family's children at will."

When she said this, resentment flashed across her face.

"That Fang guy is too much of a bully. He just randomly accused your cousins ​​of a crime and took them to the prefectural jail to torture them. They are still suffering now. Even your second cousin, fifth cousin, and seventh cousin were sentenced to execution, and more than a dozen people including Xun'er were sentenced to exile."

"Miao'er, everyone in Northern Ji knows that the Zhao family is my mother's family and the in-laws of the Dingyuan Marquis' Mansion. They know this, but they still act so arrogantly and recklessly. It's obvious that they don't take you, the governor, seriously, and they don't take the Dingyuan Marquis' Mansion seriously. This is clearly a slap in your face!"

After a pause, as if thinking of the miserable situation of her nephews and nieces in prison, she was filled with grief. While wiping away tears, she said, "Miao'er, you also know that your cousins ​​have always been law-abiding and never caused trouble. They have always been respectful to us. The Zhao family has always been a family of good deeds and has never done evil to others..."

Hearing this, Gu Si Miao suddenly couldn't help but sneered.

"Ah."

Zhao raised her head and looked at Gu Si Miao, a hint of dissatisfaction flashed in her eyes.

"Miao'er, what are you laughing at?"

Gu Si Miao did not answer, but sneered and said: "Law-abiding? A family of good deeds? Never doing evil to others?"

As she spoke, she suddenly raised her hand, took out a few photo scrolls from the Qiankun Ring, opened them and threw them in front of Zhao.

"You mean that those who do evil to you cannot be considered human beings in the eyes of your Zhao family, right?"

Click…

The photo scroll opened, and a curtain of light appeared in front of Zhao.

The next second, when Zhao saw the scene on the screen, her expression suddenly changed. (End of this chapter)