Song Fei saw this and felt it wasn't appropriate to linger in the palace. He had to rush back, as only the Imperial Guard Commander's troops in the capital could resist the Imperial Army.
If he went to the outskirts to call for reinforcements, time might not be enough, and Huang Kangtai and his subordinates might escape.
"Princess, this minister will go call for reinforcements. You must hide well and absolutely not be captured by the villains!"
Yumeng nodded heavily, her obedient demeanor surprising. "You go. I will protect myself. Please make sure to catch all the bad guys!"
Song Fei dared not make a promise, but he would do his utmost to capture the spies and ensure such a dangerous incident did not happen again.
He left. As soon as he stepped out of the imperial study, he ran into Huang Kangtai, who was patrolling outside. With a slight lapse in his composure, Song Fei approached Huang Kangtai with a distressed look, complaining about the princess's unreasonable demands.
Song Fei didn't know how much of what he said Huang Kangtai would believe. His current goal was to bluff and placate Huang Kangtai.
He didn't want him to detect anything, lest the Empress's life be endangered and the gains be outweighed by the losses.
Song Fei sighed, "Our princess has been spoiled by the Emperor. She's so fickle. She said she wanted to go hunting just now, and a moment later she wanted to ride horses at the camp. With my health, how can I endure her whims!"
Huang Kangtai's lips curled upward, a smile in his eyes. "The princess is young. Besides, Lord Song watched her grow up. Playing with her for a while is nothing!"
Song Fei forced a bitter smile. "Brother Huang, you jest. Watching her grow up is one thing, playing with her is another. Moreover, I still have a lot of matters to attend to. Where would I find the time to play?"
He spread his hands helplessly. "You might not know, but we received a letter from the border yesterday. The Jin Kingdom is always causing minor disturbances. The Emperor is very vexed and is thinking of letting the Jin Kingdom have their way for a while. If they become too aggressive, then we will send troops. The Emperor is preparing to return to the capital. According to the time the letter was sent, the Emperor should be setting off soon."
"Oh? Is that so?" Huang Kangtai was indeed unaware of this.
But this was good. With the Emperor returning to the capital, only the newly appointed Prince Fan Xudong would be left in the frontier. Even if he commanded heavy troops, so what!
Princess Pingting was in his hands. If he dared to send troops, he would send him his wife's head. If he could capture those three young princesses, heh heh...
He felt triumphant, but he couldn't show it to Song Fei. "I don't think the Jin Kingdom would dare to make any big moves. If they did, given our Emperor's temperament, would he leave them until tomorrow?"
Song Fei thought to himself, whether the Jin Kingdom would be left until tomorrow, he didn't know.
What he knew was that Huang Kangtai could not be left until tomorrow!
"Who knows? We'll know when the Emperor returns." After saying that, he showed a hint of suspicion on his face. "But how did the Empress catch a cold? I wanted to see the Empress, but the princess wouldn't let me, saying the Empress needed rest and would be fine after sleeping. You're patrolling the palace, do you know how the Empress is?"
"Ah... this, this is not a place for us outsiders to enter the Empress's sleeping quarters. You know the palace rules, no entry without an imperial decree. As for whether the Empress is sick, I really don't know. However, the princess wouldn't curse the Empress to be sick, would she? I think she must be truly ill, and perhaps the princess was afraid you would disturb her rest!"
Song Fei lowered his head, nodded, and then let out a long sigh, waving his arm weakly toward him. "I'm leaving."
In the imperial study.
Yumeng saw them chatting outside and took the opportunity to slip away and hide.
She felt unsafe no matter where she hid. She remembered a trick her mother taught her: "the darkest place is under the lamp."
No one would expect the most dangerous place to be the safest. Even if Huang Kangtai searched for her, he would never search the cold palace, his own territory.
The cold palace.
Ever since her father ascended the throne, the concubines who had made mistakes in the cold palace had been sent out of the palace to reunite with their families.
Her mother worried that these cold palace concubines might not be treated well at home, so for each concubine, she still gave five thousand taels of silver annually as an alimony until their death.
Her father and mother had indeed done their utmost.
Her mother was in the most remote and dilapidated palace in the cold palace. But Yumeng dared not get close, so she hid in an inconspicuous place, waiting for the opportune moment!
At that time.
Song Xin learned from Fan Sen that something had happened to the Empress, and he became even more unwilling to let Fan Sen, as well as the young princesses Guo'er and Zhen'er, return to the palace.
"Second Prince, it's too dangerous in the palace now. You, Guo'er, and Princess Zhen'er, stay in the manor. Wait until Grandpa catches those bad guys before escorting you back to the palace!"
The children called him Grandpa, and this title could not be in vain. Even if he had to risk his life, he had to protect the children and absolutely not let them suffer the slightest harm.
As they were talking, a distinguished guest arrived at the Prime Minister's manor.
Fang Jingchen, without waiting for the butler to announce him, barged into the main hall. Seeing the Second Prince and the two young princesses there, the serious old face of his slightly relaxed.
"Old Song!"
"Old Fang!"
They both started directly. By the time Song Fei returned, the two old men had already planned most of it. It was roughly what he had thought, but their plan was more detailed.
These two old men were indeed outstanding figures among civil and military officials. When it came to scheming, he was far behind.
At that time, Zhao Jiaqi, who was tied up.
Leaning against the wall, she thought of every possible way to escape, but the guards watching them were too vigilant, their eyes never leaving them.
Pingting, unable to hold it any longer due to an urgent need to urinate, struggled fiercely. The guard stepped forward and removed the gag from her mouth.
"What is it?"
"I need to relieve myself, I can't hold it!" Pingting shouted with a flushed face and indignation.
When the supervisor heard that she needed to relieve herself, he stuffed the gag back into her mouth and pushed it in fiercely.
With a look of disdain and mockery, he coldly snorted and dropped four hard words: "Handle it on the spot!"
Pingting: "......" A thousand wild horses galloped in her heart.
Since childhood, she had never suffered such humiliation.
As she thought of it, tears of grievance poured from her eyes, dripping down her cheeks.
Zhao Jiaqi, on the side, was willing but unable to help. She couldn't even speak, let alone exert any force, for fear of bursting her bladder.
Just after noon, faint sounds of clashing swords could be heard from the cold palace. The guards inside became nervous, their eyes occasionally darting towards the window.
Suddenly, someone carrying a saber burst in, gasping for breath and shouting, "The Imperial Guards are attacking! Retreat quickly!"
"What about them!"
The person who burst in anxiously said, "The superiors have ordered to leave them here. Don't mind them, we're retreating. Hurry!"