After three years of slavery, the entire mansion begged me for forgiveness

It rained heavily all night.

When Qiao Nian entered the palace, the morning glow was already visible on the horizon.

Above the main hall, hundreds of civil and military officials stood on both sides, while the emperor sat on the dragon chair, staring at Qiao Nian with a pair of eyes filled with anger.

Last night, she was used as a hostage to exchange Prince Ming. According to the plan, it was Prince Ming who came back alive, not her!

Qiao Nian felt extremely uneasy.

The man sitting in the hall could decide her life or death with just one word. How could she not be afraid?

However, she still tried hard to maintain her superficial composure, walked forward to the center of the hall, knelt down and kowtowed, "Qiao Nian, a commoner girl, pays homage to the Emperor."

After the words fell, there was silence for a while.

Qiao Nian kept banging her forehead on the ground and did not dare to move rashly.

None of the civil and military officials in the hall dared to speak, and even the sound of breathing seemed to be gone.

Everyone is waiting for the emperor's verdict on Qiao Nian.

Unexpectedly, the voice coming from the dragon chair was surprisingly calm, "What happened last night?"

The voice was low, as if he was asking an ordinary question.

Qiao Nian slowly raised her head and looked at the bright yellow figure.

She saw a trace of fatigue on the emperor's face, and saw the surging emotions under his calm eyes.

Even if he is an emperor, even if he has countless princes under his knees, for him, the death of King Ming is the pain of losing a son. How can he be calm?

Naturally, Qiao Nian couldn't tell the truth about last night. Civil and military officials were present. If she explained that the king begged the bandits like a dog, wouldn't it be equivalent to slapping the emperor in public?

So, she slowly said the words she had thought of before speaking out.

"Last night, I was captured by bandits and taken to a cave. When I saw Prince Ming, His Highness was covered with wounds. There were so many bandits that they even wanted to humiliate me in front of Prince Ming. Fortunately, Prince Ming fought to the death to protect me. , but... the prince was stabbed several times by bandits. In order to avenge King Ming, Xiaoluzi killed five bandits in anger, but two other bandits escaped. Xiaoluzi chased them out. There is no news yet, and his life and death are unknown... …”

But it was obvious that the emperor did not care about Xiaoluzi's life or death.

He grasped the key point and lost the composure he had just pretended to do. He asked Qiao Nian quite excitedly, "Tell me, how did Qi'er die?"

Seeing the emperor's reaction, Qiao Nian thought to herself that she had made the right bet.

So, she lowered her head again and knocked it hard on the ground, making her voice sound like crying, "Your Majesty, you died to protect me! The daughter of the people is guilty, please punish me!"

However, since King Ming died to protect her, if the emperor punished her, wouldn't it make it difficult for King Ming to live in peace?

In the main hall, the emperor stood up, his emotions finally uncontrollable, "Okay! He is indeed my son!"

After the words fell, all the civil and military officials knelt down and shouted that King Ming was brave and long live the emperor!

At this moment, Qiao Nian knew that he had at least saved his life.

After an unknown amount of time, the courtiers retreated one after another.

Even the emperor's personal servants withdrew.

The emperor and Qiao Nian were the only ones left in the huge hall.

"Raise your head." The deep and deep voice from the palace said.

Qiao Nian took a deep breath, finally knelt straight, raised her head and looked directly at the emperor.

The cry just now was particularly strong, but at this moment, there were no tears on Qiao Nian's face.

The emperor had obviously expected this, and couldn't help but sneered, "I knew you were lying!"

Qiao Nian tried her best to stay calm, "The Emperor has a sharp eye, and naturally the women of the people can't hide anything from the Emperor. It's just that in the presence of all the civil and military officials just now, the women of the people did not dare to tell the truth."

The emperor also knew that the truth would definitely make him lose face completely, so he took a deep breath and said, "Remember, Prince Ming died to protect you."

Qiao Nian immediately responded, "A civilian girl understands."

After the words fell, the emperor fell silent again.

He looked at Qiao Nian quietly.

Her bun was a little messy, her clothes were still wet, and her face looked extremely pale.

It rained all night last night, and this girl must have suffered a lot.

So, he waved his hand and said, "Okay, you can go back!"

"Thank you, Your Majesty." Qiao Nian thanked him again and saluted, then stood up and exited the hall.

Not long after, a figure came out from the back of the palace and saluted the emperor, "Thank you for your kindness, Your Majesty."

The emperor turned his eyes and looked over, "It's not her fault in the first place, but Xiao Heng, since you did this for her good, why did you hide it from her?"

Xiao Heng had already entered the palace in the rain last night, saying that he was anxious to report the death of King Ming, but he was pleading for Qiao Nian both inside and outside of his words.

Otherwise, why would he, the majestic king of a country, accompany Qiao Nian to perform such a play for all the civil and military officials?

Now, everyone knows that Qiao Nian is the person that King Ming will risk his life to protect. Who else dares to use King Ming's death to deal with Qiao Nian?

Xiao Heng lowered his eyes, his mind was full of her collapse in the rain last night, and a strange emotion came up in his heart. Xiao Heng finally shook his head slightly, "I'm afraid Miss Qiao will misunderstand."

"Misunderstanding?" The emperor was a little confused, but he quickly understood, "What's the misunderstanding? Don't you just care about her?"

Do you care?

Xiao Heng actually didn't understand it himself. After thinking about it, he added, "But the one who is engaged to Wei Chen is the legitimate daughter of the Xiao family."

As soon as these words came out, the emperor only laughed, "So, if a beggar on the street is confirmed to be the legitimate daughter of the Xiao family, will you marry that beggar?"

Xiao Heng nodded, "Father, you should keep your word."

"I didn't expect you to be so pedantic." The emperor gave a very pertinent evaluation, and then said, "But if you keep it from her like this, sooner or later, you will regret it."

Xiao Heng did not respond.

Seeing this, the emperor sighed, "Forget it, you should go back too! I'm tired."

Xiao Heng then bowed and saluted, "I'll take my leave."

Unexpectedly, before he left the hall, the emperor's voice came faintly, "My dear Xiao, you are still too young after all..."

Xiao Heng didn't understand what the emperor meant by this.

On the way back to the mansion, he thought about it for a long time.

In fact, he is already more than 20 years old this year, and some children of his age are running away, so he is really not young.

But the emperor's last voice sounded too much like a sigh, which really puzzled him.

Moreover, the emperor said he would regret it!

But he has been fighting outside for the past few years, and the decisions he made have never been wrong.

Even when he recalled what he had done in the past twenty years, he never regretted anything.

He did not regret deceiving King Ming to go to Yaowang Valley.

After all, it was not his fault.

No one could have thought that King Ming would be captured by bandits.

It was an accident.

Thinking of this, Xiao Heng could not help but think of Qiao Nian's almost collapsed look last night, and her eyes full of hatred, and his eyebrows could not help but slightly twisted.

Well, one day she will understand that it is a good thing that King Ming is dead.