My brother entrusted his child to me, and I livestreamed raising the baby, making the Empress cry wi

Outside the window, the sun began to slowly sink below the horizon.

Lin Ye stopped watching, got up from the sofa, and stretched.

I picked up my phone from the coffee table and glanced at the screen.

4:10.

It's time to pick up Xiaodouzi.

He turned off the TV and put away the telescope, and the living room instantly fell silent.

Uncle Zhang, the driver, was already waiting at the door with the car in his hand. Lin Ye quickly changed his clothes and went out.

……

When they arrived, a group of parents had already gathered at the kindergarten entrance. Lin Ye asked the driver to park the car across the street and walked over to wait.

Soon, the school bell rang.

A group of little radish-like children poured out of the teaching building, chattering away.

Lin Ye spotted Xiao Douzi in the crowd at a glance.

She was walking out hand in hand with Duoduo, talking about something, her little pigtails swaying back and forth, and she even gestured a couple of times when she was happy.

As they approached the school gate, Xiao Douzi tiptoed and scanned the crowd of parents. When she saw Lin Ye, her eyes lit up instantly.

She waved goodbye to Duoduo and ran through the crowd toward Lin Ye.

"Godfather!"

Lin Ye crouched down and opened his arms to catch the small cannonball that was flying towards him.

The little girl buried her face in his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck.

"Are you so happy today?" Lin Ye picked her up and weighed her in his arms.

"Could it be that he got another red flower?"

"No!" Little Douzi straightened up from his arms, her little face full of seriousness.

"Teacher Wang made me the class monitor! I'm in charge of the afternoon nap!"

"Oh, you've become an official."

"Yes!" Little Douzi puffed out his chest and solemnly counted on his fingers.

"Today I had to tell twelve kids to close their eyes and not say a word!"

Lin Ye praised generously, "Our little Douzi is really amazing!"

Little Douzi was a little shy from the praise, but she was obviously very happy. Her eyes curved into crescents, and her little head bobbed back and forth.

Lin Ye's lips curled up.

That's great! Little Douzi is much more lively now; this is how a five-year-old should be.

"Let's go home." Lin Ye carried her to the back seat of the car, fastened her seatbelt, and then signaled the driver to start the car.

"What would you like to eat tonight? I'll have your Aunt Zhou Ran prepare it."

"Sweet and sour pork ribs!" Xiao Douzi answered without hesitation, then took out a candy from the side pocket of his backpack and stuffed it into Lin Ye's hand.

"These are the candies the teacher gave us after nap time today. They're so delicious! I saved one for my godfather."

Lin Ye paused for a moment, met Xiao Douzi's expectant gaze, unwrapped the candy, and put it in his mouth.

"Is it sweet?" Little Douzi looked at him expectantly.

"Sweet." Lin Ye ruffled her hair. "Very sweet and delicious, thank you, Little Pocket."

Little Douzi swung her short legs contentedly, leaned back in her seat, and began to tell everyone what happened at kindergarten that day.

From the boy in the next class pulling the girl's braids, to the strawberry-flavored cookies at lunchtime, to the fact that Duoduo's family has a kitten, she went on and on.

Lin Ye sat next to her, listening attentively and occasionally responding with a few words.

The car drove smoothly and quickly toward the Times Square building.

……

Great Flame Kingdom.

The Imperial Palace, Hall of Mental Cultivation.

The night was as dark as ink, and the clouds completely obscured the moon, so that not a single star could be seen.

The hall was lit with candles, the flickering light casting long and short shadows.

Shu Jingwei sat behind her desk, holding an urgent battle report in her hand.

She gripped her hand so tightly that her knuckles turned white, and her bones almost bulged out from under her thin skin.

She had been clutching the battle report in her hand for a quarter of an hour; the edges were crumpled from her grip, and several damp fingerprints were left on the paper.

"Five thousand elite troops..."

Her voice was squeezed out from between her teeth, low and hoarse as if it came from underground, each word trembling uncontrollably.

"None of them came back!?"

The courier kneeling below trembled.

He didn't dare to look up, but repeated in a trembling voice.

"Your Majesty...the five thousand elite troops who went north to quell the rebellion...all of them were killed in battle, not a single one survived."

wow-

Shu Jingwei suddenly stood up, knocking the chair behind her to the ground with a loud bang.

"fart!!!"

She slammed her fist on the desk.

The inkstone jerked violently, splashing ink that splattered onto the battle report, slowly spreading and spreading.

The courier was so frightened that his back went limp, and his head immediately slammed against the imperial kiln bricks with several loud thuds.

"Your Majesty, please calm down! Your Majesty, please calm down!"

"Calm down!?" Shu Jingwei's face was distorted horribly in the candlelight, her phoenix eyes widened as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, and her eyes were bloodshot and frighteningly red.

"How can you expect me to calm down?!"

She grabbed the battle report, poked her fingers at the paper, and her nails made a screeching sound as they scratched the paper.

"Those are my five thousand elite troops! They all use swords forged from new iron! And they wear armor made of new iron too!"

Her voice was high-pitched and shrill, and the last few words were almost screamed out, her throat cracking.

"Wang Meng's bunch of ragtag soldiers, who only had scrap metal and couldn't even put together proper armor?! You're telling me they wiped out my five thousand elite troops without leaving a single one alive?!"

"Even of the 10,000 troops that went with them, only two or three returned!?"

The courier trembled violently, his teeth chattered, and he could barely speak.

"Yes... that's what the soldiers who escaped said... they, they said..."

"What did you say?!"

"They say Wang Meng possesses a grayish-black, club-shaped divine weapon! New iron swords shatter upon striking it, while this divine weapon leaves not even a white mark!"

The courier's voice trembled with sobs, "There...there's still—"

"What else!?"

"Furthermore, that divine weapon can dent armor with a single blow, rupture the internal organs of soldiers inside... causing them to vomit blood and die..."

The lieutenant's voice grew softer and softer until it almost became a muttered monologue.

"Enough!!!"

Shu Jingwei shouted angrily.

Her chest heaved violently as she gasped for breath, and the veins on her forehead throbbed.

She knew better than anyone how hard the new iron was!

When I first tested the knife, it sliced ​​through three copper coins with a single stroke, leaving a smooth, mirror-like cut!

A regular iron knife fighting it is like an egg hitting a rock!

Looking across the entire Great Flame, even the entire world—

New Iron is the strongest and best! Without a doubt!

How could that brute Wang Meng possibly have gotten his hands on something even more powerful than Xin Tie?!

Absolutely impossible!

Shu Jingwei's eyes were bloodshot, her fists were clenched so tightly that her nails dug into her palms, leaving four bloody marks.

Suddenly, she seemed to have thought of something.

"etc!"

"You said... you saw Yao Jingyuan in our ranks during the Battle of Fangzhou?" Her voice lowered, her tone revealing doubt.

The courier's Adam's apple bobbed, he swallowed hard, and replied:

"Yes, Your Majesty, soldiers say they saw Lord Yao... Lord Yao. He brought 60,000 men and appeared in our army..."

Shu Jingwei narrowed her eyes.

That person suddenly disappeared from the capital. She sent people to search for so long but couldn't find him. Then he appeared on the battlefield of Fangzhou.

And she even brought 60,000 men into her army?

An army of 60,000 could not have appeared out of thin air.

Where did he get his soldiers? Why is he going to Fangzhou?

One question after another raced through her mind.

"There must be something else going on here!"

She spoke as if she knew everything, her voice resolute.