Chapter 357

Seeing the emperor’s smile Hu Mingke breathed a sigh of relief.

He continued. “The two families have signed the adoption papers, and His Highness the Second Prince has taken Qin Xin back.”

The emperor indifferently asked, “What about the Xu family?”

Hu Mingkee hurriedly replied, “The three members of the Xu family have already left.”

Since the Xu family wasn’t really personally connected with the two cases, Hu Mingke decided to let them go.

The emperor nodded his head, and waived his right hand, dismissing Hu Mingke.

“Your Highness, then I take my leave.” Hu Mingke bowed and saluted, completely relieved.

Although he offended the second prince today, the emperor was obviously quite satisfied, and that’s enough. He has been a magistrate for almost three years, and perhaps this time he would have a chance for a promotion.

With this thought running through his mind Hu Mingke suppressed his excitement and withdrew from the imperial study.

As soon as he left, Empress Wei came out of the green gauze closet in the back with raised brows, her expression was complicated but the relief was even more evident on her face.

Empress Wei walked gracefully to the emperor and sat down beside him.

The emperor laughed and said, “Now you are relieved.”

“With Your Majesty around, what do I have to worry about.” Empress Wei smiled warmly.

She was indeed relieved.

At noon today, after learning that the Xu family had gone to the Qin residence to cause trouble, Empress Wei hurried to the imperial study to seek help from the emperor, and have him arrest these people but was instead stopped by the emperor.

The emperor told her.

“Rong Rong, this is an opportunity, an opportunity to rectify Xiao Jiu’s name.”

“Although Xiao Jiu has been found, her experience in the past fourteen years is something that cannot be told to others…”

At that moment, Empress Wei immediately understood.

Since Qin Jiu returned to the capital last year, in order to prevent her from becoming the subject of gossip, Empress has deliberately avoided discussing Qin Jiu’s past in Jiangyu County.

The problem was, for Qin Jiu, what has happened may be gradually forgotten with time, but what happened has happened, and cannot be erased, and Jiangyu County was a hidden danger that could erupt at any time.

Just like now, suddenly a “betrothed” Xu family appeared, and who knows if there would someone from Jiangyu county who would appear again and say something that should not be said, ruining Qin Jiu’s reputation. So, if they want to avoid future troubles, they must start from the root.

The emperor took Empress Wei’s fair-skinned hand and patted it as he said, “This time, let’s rectify Xiao Jiu’s name, and if there is anything going on Jiangyu County or the Li family and Li Erya, the daughter of the Li family, they would know that it is Qin Xin and no one will associate Xiao Jiu again, then this matter be considered settled.”

That’s right! Empress Wei slightly nodded as she pondered, feeling that the emperor had done a really beautiful job.

Xiao Jiu, this child has suffered too much, and after this suffering, it would really not be easy to maintain her innocence.

Empress Wei only hoped that after this incident, the child would have a smooth future.

At this time, Zhou Xin personally came over and served tea to Empress Wei, she picked up the teacup, but before it reached her lips, she thought of something else, she blurted out and asked. “Your Majesty, you wouldn’t have known that the Xu family would come to the capital to cause trouble, would you?”

“How can it be.” The emperor hurriedly denied it with a calm expression on the surface but inwardly said: Yes, it was because he knew early, so he couldn’t tell her ah.

Truth was, the emperor just also recently knows about this, it was Gu Zezhi who specifically entrusted the emperor before leaving, and he was also the one who proposed to use this incident to rectify Qin Jiu’s name, which the emperor agreed and also felt that Qin Jiu and Qin Xin should go back to their respective places, so he agreed and let Gu Zezhi go without worry.

But how could the emperor tell the empress about this, wouldn’t it make her more worried?

The emperor tenderly looked at Empress Wei as his smile spread from the corner of his lips, and thought: I guess, even that Xiao Jiu didn’t know that Zezhi had entrusted her to him. This also shows how Zezhi cared about Xiao Jiu.

This marriage was really the right decision!

With these thoughts, the emperor felt that he had the qualification to be a good matchmaker, so with a smile still plastered on his lips, he coaxed the empress and said, “I just received a report today and know that the Five Cities Army and Horse Division captured Li Jinzhu, and immediately thought this is a good opportunity, and simply followed my instinct to bring the Li family and Xu family together and settle this once and for all.”

When the emperor said this, Empress Wei believed it without any half-hearted suspicion, or simply said, she never thought that the emperor would lie to her.

Empress Wei slowly took two sips of tea, sorted things out in her mind, raised her eyebrows, and asked again, “Your Majesty, what about the Xu family, are you just really letting them go like this?”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Li Jinzhu and Zhao Aman committed murder, and although one of them escaped she was still in the capital, it would be much easier to catch her so Empress Wei put this aside first.

Different could be said for the Xu family, in her opinion, they were not innocent. The engagement at the beginning could be regarded as spending money to get their son a wife, which was not considered a crime but when they found out about Xiao Jiu’s family background, they were obviously harboring bad intentions.

The emperor knowingly smiled and said, “It would have been possible to blackmail the Xu family.” It’s just that Gu Jing was too stupid, giving what the Xu family wants.

When Empress Wei heard this, she felt a little unhappy as if she had been fed a mouthful bad food.

Seeing that Empress Wei was not happy, the emperor immediately coaxed her, “Rong Rong, I will order the local official to investigate the Xu’s.”

With the Xu family’s behavior, they must have committed some crimes of various sizes in the local area, but sometimes people don’t sue and officials don’t investigate.

Hearing the emperor, Empress Wei cheered up and went to make a cup of tea for the emperor herself.

The couple were laughing and talking, just like most ordinary couples, the atmosphere was warm and happy.

Zhou Xin signaled everyone in the room with his eyes and quietly exited the imperial study.

Although the emperor said this, within half a month he got a report that the three members of the Xu family were killed by bandits in Jinzhou.

***