Lu Mingshu wanted to say something but decided not to.
Liu Jizhen looked down and sighed. Silence fell for a while before Liu Jizhen continued. "To me, Ah Sheng and Hui Niang, you are the most precious thing in our lives. What I don't want to see is you injured or suffering, no matter how minor it is because of the Zhou's. They aren't worth you losing anything."
"....." Lu Mingshu hung her head and sniffed. "I'm sorry, Master."
"No need to apologize." Liu Jizhen waved her hand. "You did nothing wrong. Get up if you feel calm enough to think properly."
After some time, Lu Mingshu stood up slowly.
"Master, please be at ease. I won't be impulsive."
Liu Jizhen smiled thinly and nodded, "If revenge is what you want, go ahead. I won't mind even if you take Fu Shangqing's life. But I hope that you won't take revenge impulsively, because you'll be the one losing. Anger makes one go mad. As for now, calm down first."
"Yes, master….." Lu Mingshu stared at him blankly. There was something on her mind, but she wasn't sure if she wanted to voice it or not.
"What is it?"
"Master," Lu Mingshu said softly. "So you knew that it was the Zhou's?"
"I have no evidence." He shook his head.
"But you knew?"
"I guess?"
Lu Mingshu broke into a smile. "Me too."
It was Zhou Ruying who gave her a small hint, and from there, she suspected the Zhou's. But as for whether it was the truth or not, she wouldn't know. Like what her Master said. There wasn't any evidence.
Seeing this, An Tongchen coughed. He looked at him sternly and started speaking softly. "I planned to bring this with me to my grave, but since you mentioned it here, I'll tell you."
Both of them turned to face him immediately. "Senior uncle An, what is it?"
...
Tianyun City Palace.
The Queen looked up at the people standing in front of her solemnly.
They come from all walks of life.
"Your Highness." One of them stepped forward. "We are all present. It should be time for you to speak, right?"
Cao Lucun rolled his eyes. ~Oh my god, that idiot. He's really dense, huh?~ Yes, they were planning to force the Queen to elect a new Alioth Star-Lord among them, but this was not the way to do it! ~Does he think that the Queen has a good temper?~
Back then, when he could still address the Queen as junior sister, he knew how bad her temper was. Tigress was the only word to describe her whenever anything went badly. He wouldn't mind if his senior brother Xie took the position, ~Just anyone but her. If she did, we would never have a good life as the big dipper seven-star lords~
But who would have thought that not only did she not take the position, but she became Queen. The seventh truth platform has seven clans but not a leader. Thus they were closely connected with Zhongzhou's royalty, and their leader was the king of Zhongzhou. Just that the king only cared about cultivating now, and there was no way they could escape the tigress. ~Haish~
Indeed, the Queen sneered and stared at him coldly. "Oh, is junior brother Qiao trying to say I'm forcefully suppressing you, huh?"
Alkaid star-lord Qiao Haishu rolled his eyes. "Are you not….."
"Junior brother Qiao!" The Merak star lord, Tian Bo snapped, glaring at him
Qiao Haishu gulped and look down after receiving the glare.
~Am I wrong? All of us, all six-star lords, have agreed to elect a new star lord, yet she doesn't allow it! Xie Lianzhen has already been missing for six years, and even if he isn't dead, we can't just leave the position empty! Even if Xie Lianzhen does absolutely nothing, there's still someone in the position. What's this? You can't favor your kid to this extent!~
"Your highness." Tian Bo smiled, stepped forward and bowed. "Junior Nephew Xie has been missing for so long, and we are worried too. Your highness, you have constantly been looking for him and even alarmed the martial grandfathers. We know how you feel, but six years have passed, yet he still hasn't returned. It's not very good to keep the Alioth star-lord position empty…."
Tiao Bo was trying to guilt-trip the Queen. What he meant was that she was making a big fuss over a minor issue, even alarming the martial grandfathers. If the Queen felt guilty, she would have given in, and the star lords would achieve their goal.
However, he underestimated the Queen's stubbornness. "Is the fifth clan struggling nowadays?" Before Tian Bo finished, the Queen cut him off and sneered.
Tian Bo remained silent.
"Is the fifth clan rebelling? Why is there a need to do such things?"
"What we meant wat that, we can't leave that position empty forever, right?"
"So you hope to get the position?" The Queen sneered. "Let me give you a simple solution. Put a puppet there."
This was so unpleasant that even Tian Bo, who had a mild temper looked angry.
The Queen might not be someone nice to talk to, but she was still reasonable. She rarely meddled with the Seventh truth platform's issues, allowing them to be in charge of the seventh truth platform. But whenever they brought up anything that concerned Xie Lianzhen, she immediately transformed into a tiger mother, biting anyone who tried to bully her child regardless of any reason.
"Your highness." Tian Bo took a deep breath to calm down. "I really understand how you feel, and we've been treating him well these years. But it's for the seventh truth platform. If he comes back…."
"If I come back, will senior uncle Tian will give the position back to me?"
A familiar voice, underlined with sarcasm, cut Tian Bo off. He turned around but was unable to recognize this person.
The Queen stood up immediately and walked to the entrance hurriedly. "Xing-er, Xing-er, is that you?"
Xie Lianzhen walked in slowly with a smile on his face.
After six years, he was still the same, as handsome and flirtatious as ever.
But what everyone noticed was his legs.
They watched him grow up. The Xie Lianzhen in their eyes, was wheelchair-bound. He was a cheerful and outgoing kid back then, but as he grew, he became sneaky, cunning, and unkind. Making Xie Lianzhen more unlikeable.
However, this Xie Lianzhen was different from the one they saw.
Only now did they realize that he was quite tall….
"Senior brother Xie…." Cao Lucun mumbled upon seeing him.
The other's present had the same reaction. They never even realized it, but now he looked like a clone of Xie Zhanghe.
The first thought that crossed Cao Lucun's mind was, ~No wonder the Queen always gave in to him, how could she resist?~
"Now that I'm back, no need for the hassle anymore, right?" Xie Lianzhen smiled at them.
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