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nThe next day, the Right Prime Minister was invited to the Imperial Study by Vice-chief Eunuch Liu Xiangyang after the morning meeting.

nThen, the Right Prime Minister stayed there for two hours.

nIt was said that when he came out, he seemed to have become much older.

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nOf course, it was just hearsay.

nTwo hours later, Shi Qingzhou went back to Qiankun Palace, where Long Xiaoyuan had been waiting for him for a long time. When he saw Shi coming back, he hurried to greet him.

n“Qingzhou, you’re back?”

nShi nodded. “Yes. The Right Prime Minister will take office tomorrow.”

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nLong laughed. “Qingzhou, I knew that you’d definitely convince him! Great!”

nShi rolled his eyes and Long massaged his shoulder to play up to him. “Qingzhou, are you tired?”

nShi gave him a sidelong glance. “I’m all right.”

n“The breakfast is ready. Qingzhou, let’s go to eat.”

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nShi nodded. “Okay.”

nAfter Long accompanied Shi to finish breakfast ingratiatingly, the two of them spent half a day dealing with the daily reports.

nIn the afternoon, they left the palace together.

nThey didn’t go out for fun. It was mainly because Shi wanted to go home to visit his mother.

nLong agreed because all the reports had been dealt with. Moreover, because the First Wangyeh’s case was related to Muzar’s case, both cases had been handed over to Hu Qingyuan, the new assistant minister of Ministry of Punishments.

nSince his empress believed in Hu’s ability, he would just take this chance to see how capable that man was.

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nTherefore, when Shi was going to his mother’s home, Long didn’t want to stay in the palace alone and do nothing there. He just went with Shi.

n“Qingzhou, we’ll just go there empty handed? Is it okay?” Long kept struggling with this problem along the way.

nShi said that for the third time, “It’s okay. There’s everything at home.”

nLong still felt a little uneasy. “How about we bring some food?”

nShi was annoyed, but seeing Long’s expression, he also found it very funny, so he couldn’t help saying, “Why do you want to bring something?”

n“Isn’t that a matter of course? How can a woman go to see her mother-in-law without taking any gift? Oh… No.” Long gave a hollow laugh. “A man, a man.”

nShi rolled his eyes. “Given your identity, I guess my mother will feel pressured.”

n“Why would she?” Long looked at him with a deep frown on his face. “I’m such a nice person!”

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nShi was speechless, thinking that he had never seen such a thick-skinned man!

nFinally, Long took some food with him.

nThat was two boxes of dim sum, which was not made by the cook in the palace, but bought from a big restaurant outside the imperial city.

nWith the dim sum, Long and Shi went there while chatting and laughing along the way.

n“Hey, what’s the matter with you? I’ve said that this is the general’s mansion, not the place you can enter casually! Leave here quickly! Haven’t I already given you two steamed buns?”

n“Right. Don’t lie in front of the door, will you? Would you please go to somewhere else if you want to beg for food? You’re making it so hard for us. We’ve given you the steamed buns. What else do you want?”

nLong and Shi looked at each other. Then, Shi frowned and went over. “What’s the matter?”

nShocked to see Shi, the gatekeepers immediately knelt down to greet him.

n“Greetings, Your Majesty. Long live Your Majesty.”

nShi frowned again. “All right, get up.”

nThe two gatekeepers were trembling with fear.

nShi said lightly, “What’s going on here?”

nWhat Shi asked was naturally the middle-aged man on the ground whose appearance couldn’t be seen clearly.

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nJust as the gatekeepers were about to say something, the middle-aged man suddenly raised his head and looked at Shi unbelievably. Then, he ran over. He didn’t pounce on Shi, but knelt down in front of him.

n“Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please help the people of Quanzhou!”

nShi was stunned. Long followed him there and was also stunned.

n“You are…” Shi looked at the middle-aged man on the ground in confusion.

nThat man broke down in tears. “Your Majesty, I’m the magistrate of Quanzhou, Xu Yang. Your Majesty, please save the people of Quanzhou. Otherwise… all people in Quanzhou will be dead!”

nAfter hearing those words, Shi looked very serious. “Come in with me first. Tell me what exactly is going on.”

n“Yes.” The middle-aged man was led in by Shi. Then, Long said to the air, “Go to invite the Right Prime Minister here.”

n“Yes.” Clearly there was nobody around, yet a response was heard, which was very scary.

nThe two gatekeepers looked at each other for a while and felt a little scared.

nThe Shadow Guardian moved very fast. The Right Prime Minister’s mansion was not far from General Shi Qingshan’s mansion. Plus the Shadow Guardian’s great martial arts, he naturally arrived at the place soon.

nAt that time, the Right Prime Minister was pondering in the study, because when he met with the empress Shi Qingzhou in the Imperial Study in the morning, the old fox had already sensed something.

nHe had two options at the moment. If he agreed, then he would still be the Right Prime Minister. Even if he might lose his power in the future, he’d be covered in glory all his life.

nThe second option was to revolt with the forces he had cultivated for many years.

nEven though the second option seemed easy, how many ministers had really been able to fight against their emperors since ancient times?

nThe emperors who were defeated by the ministers were all figureheads, who were ignorant and controlled by others.

nHowever, the emperor at present was obviously not like that.

nPerhaps, the former emperor could be controlled and dealt with by others, but after the emperor had had the empress, he would no longer be defeated so easily!

nTherefore, he seemed to have two choices, but any smart people could see that there was actually only one choice!

nThe Right Prime Minister gave a long sigh.

nHe closed his eyes, thinking that his career had to stop at this point.

nHowever, if he obeyed the emperor’s orders and made real achievements, his descendants would benefit from that.

nHe had already thought through which road he would take…

nJust then, the window was broken. The Right Prime Minister was shocked. He looked over and saw a man in black there.

nHe was about to shout “There’s an assassin!” However, the man in black took out a dragon shaped jade pendant.

nThe Right Prime Minister was surprised because he’d already known his identity.

n“Long live the emperor.” The Right Prime Minister knelt down to listen to the edict.

nThe Shadow Guardian said, “Right Prime Minister, His Majesty’s verbal instruction. Please go to General Shi’s mansion quickly.”

nThe Right Prime Minister was stunned. “General Shi’s mansion?” Now that the old man Shi Qingshan wasn’t there, that place was in the charge of his wife. Why would he go there?

nHowever, the Shadow Guardian obviously wouldn’t give him too much time to think. He directly carried him… and flew away.

nThe Right Prime Minister wasn’t very old, but he was already almost 50 years old.

nIt was the first time in his life that he was taken away by others with great martial arts!

nIf Long Xiaoyuan was there, he would say it was like taking a roller coaster for the first time!

nHowever, the Right Prime Minister obviously didn’t know what the roller coaster was. He was a civil servant and couldn’t do martial arts. So, when he was brought to “fly” to General Shi’s mansion, he almost frothed at the mouth and also felt very dizzy.

nThe Shadow Guardian glanced at the Right Prime Minister and didn’t know what to do. He hadn’t expected that… his body was so weak!

nThe Right Prime Minister was taken to Long Xiaoyuan and Shi Qingzhou.

nLong was surprised. “Sir?”

nAfter hearing Long’s voice, the Right Prime Minister was stunned and looked up. Forgetting about the dizziness, he immediately knelt down to greet the emperor.

nSeeing that the Right Prime Minister was so miserable, Long quickly reached out to help him up.

n“Sir, please get up soon. What happened to you?”

nThe Right Prime Minister said with a wry smile, “I’m old and useless. It’s such a short distance…”

nThe Shadow Guardian knelt down and confessed, “Your Majesty, I deserve to die. I didn’t take the Right Prime Minister’s physical condition into consideration and brought him to fly here with my martial arts…”

nLong frowned. “Go get the punishment.”

n“Yes!” The Shadow Guardian responded and then left quickly.

nThe Right Prime Minister repeatedly said, “It’s all because of my poor health. It has nothing to do… with him.”

nLong sighed. “I didn’t think about it properly and didn’t make it clear to him.”

n“Your Majesty, please don’t say that. I’m the one to blame,” The Right Prime Minister hurriedly said.

nLong smiled. “Okay, sir, let’s not talk about it. I asked the Shadow Guardian to invite you here for something important.”

n“Please enlighten me, Your Majesty,” the Right Prime Minister replied.

n“Qingzhou,” Long called.

nShi nodded. The Right Prime Minister just found Shi was also there and he hurried to greet him.

nIn fact, he had very complicated feelings towards the empress, but at this moment… forget about it.

nShi asked him to get up and then said to Xu Yang. “Mr. Xu, please repeat the current situation of Quanzhou.”

n“Yes!” Xu Yang replied immediately, and then repeated what he had just said…

nIt turned out that the common people in Quanzhou were even more ignorant and stubborn than what Shi had said!

nDue to the serious drought this year, they naturally didn’t have a good harvest.

nHowever, some people said that heaven was punishing them more because they didn’t sacrifice!

nSo, those people made an altar. They killed their own chickens, ducks, fish and other livestock and placed the meat on the altar. Then, they knelt in front of it to pray for rain and heaven’s forgiveness.

nAs the magistrate there, Xu Yang was extremely unhappy about the altar thing, but there were too many people who participated in it and only livestock were sacrificed, so he did nothing to stop it.

nHowever, after those people knelt for a day, it still didn’t rain.

nThen, some people went crazy and said humans should be sacrificed! They also said heaven liked pure virgins.

nSome families preferred boys over girls and some families had too many boys to support, so they decided to sacrifice their children.

nIf they only killed some livestock, he could still bear it. But if they were going to sacrifice living people, how could he still remain cool?

nNaturally, Xu Yang stopped them with the guards and arrested two people who were the most rebellious.

nBut the common people were so muddleheaded that they didn’t think the government was doing the right thing!

nIn the end, the masses openly fought against the government and they were still caring about the damn altar!

nXu Yang was just a magistrate. There were not many guards under his control and he couldn’t suppress the crazy people at all. Therefore, he could only ask for help from the governor and prefect.

nWhen such a big thing happened, the governor and prefect arrived very late with their men.

nSeeing that the common people were going too far, they were afraid to bear the responsibility and arrested some leaders.

nBut in the end, they blamed Xu Yang for everything there.

nXu Yang didn’t worry about himself… However, if the people went on like that, they would be destroyed by themselves!

nWith tears in his eyes, Xu Yang said, “There is really no way for me, so I can only come to try my luck in the imperial city… Your Majesty, please help the people of Quanzhou!”

nXu Yang prostrated himself on the ground.

nLong Xiaoyuan pressed his lips tightly and looked to the Right Prime Minister.

n“Sir, do you understand why I invited you here today?”

nThe Right Prime Minister nodded slowly. “I understand. Your Majesty, you can rest assured. After I take office, I’ll never allow such things to happen again… However, I want to ask Your Majesty for a privilege here.”

n“Oh?” Long raised his eyebrows lightly. “Sir, please!”

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