Under the watery moonlight, Li Qi stood alone in the courtyard like a nail, his back looking desolate and desolate.

Although he was relieved by the return of his beloved daughter, it did not fundamentally resolve his inner conflict.

To betray the monarch is to be disloyal; to abandon oneself lightly is to be unfilial.

It is difficult to have both loyalty and filial piety.

Li Qi sighed and looked at the pits where the wine jars had just been dug.

"To survive or to die, to be powerful or to be idealistic, this choice is too difficult to make."

"Dad." Lan Qiao's voice came from behind, followed by his footsteps approaching from far away.

"Why don't you stay with Xiao Shu well?" Li Qi didn't look back, and his tone was a little cold.

Lan Qiao walked slowly to Li Qi's side and said calmly: "I want to tell dad a story."

Li Qi was silent.

Lan Qiao didn't wait for his answer and said directly: "The father of Sister Xiao's child is indeed Uncle Xu."

"Oh?" Li Qi was a little surprised, because after so many years, Xiao Wuhen didn't take the initiative to mention this matter.

Lan Qiao then regarded Xu Qiuyu's life as a story and told it slowly. When he finally talked about Xu Qiuyu burning the Panlong Pagoda and risking his own life to rescue Xiao Wuhen from the fire, Li Qi shook his head and sighed.

Said: "Leaving a mother and son who depend on each other for life, Anbang is really cruel."

"Although the things are different, the principles are probably similar." Lan Qiao changed the topic here and said in a deep voice: "Does Dad want Mom to become the next Sister Xiao?"

"Or do you want to imitate my uncle, King Xiang, and win over the whole family to be loyal? Do you really have the heart to do so? In my heart, the love between husband and wife, and the love between father and daughter, is more important than an emperor who is about to fall.

Should he really be sacrificed?"

"What I defend is not 'an emperor', but the orthodoxy that has been passed down for thousands of years." Li Qi said calmly, "I am not a fool. I can see that this is a dead end, but I still want to jump in even though I know it is.

.”

"Because among the three cardinal principles, I am a minister first, and then a father and a husband. I can't just watch the king suffer and just drift with the tide. That way, even if I survive in the world, I will never get anything in my heart for the rest of my life.

A moment of peace.”

"Loyalty and filial piety are hard to have both, but you can compromise." Lanqiao Qifeng said prominently, "If I had a way to save the emperor's life, would dad still insist on accompanying him to die for the country?"

Li Qi turned his head suddenly and said solemnly: "What can you do? Come to the throne of Yan to ask for help?"

Lan Qiao lowered his voice and whispered in Li Qi's ear: "How about I take the emperor out of the palace and leave it to dad to take him away from trouble?"

Li Qi's eyes widened and he said, "Can you really do it? If King Yan knows about this..."

"If you want to solve the problem, how can you not take some risks?" Lan Qiao nodded, "I will try my best to make it as perfect as possible. It's best for dad to stay away from China and take the emperor overseas. Wait a few years to see this matter.

The storm is over, the emperor has taken root overseas, there is no danger anymore, and dad can come back to see mom and us."

Li Qi's eyes lit up, revealing a feeling of hope arising from despair.

"If this is feasible, it would be great."

"I still need to discuss the specific details with others, but please be prepared first. Once the emperor comes out, you will leave immediately."

"got it."

Lan Qiao bowed, clasped his fists, and was about to retreat. Li Qi turned around again and said, "Hey, brat, stay here and stay in Xiao Shu's room."

After talking to Li Qi, Lan Qiao just walked back to the main room when he was stopped by Zhu Yuluo.

"Huaiyuan, you've been tired for a day. Go take a bath and relax. The hot water has been boiled." She smiled very kindly, but there was a bit of eagerness deep in her expression - the source of Lan Qiao's conversation with Li Qi.

The length of time has far exceeded her expectations.

"Thank you, mother." Lan Qiao responded, taking off his boots and robe at the bathroom door, and pushing in the door wearing only a single piece of clothing.

The bathroom is divided into an inner and outer room. The inner room contains a bathtub and other items, while the outer room contains hangers, a bench and a dressing table. A curtain is hung in the middle to prevent water from splashing out from the inner room and making the outer room wet.

At this moment, Lan Qiao was thinking about helping Li Qi "rescue". Seeing the mist in the bathroom, he thought there was only boiled hot water inside, so he took off his shirt and opened the curtain and went in.

The water vapor inside was thicker and hotter. It wasn't until Lan Qiao stretched out one leg to step into the tub that he suddenly discovered that Li Jingshu was soaking calmly in the tub, with only one head exposed, looking at him with a half-smile.

Her black hair was flowing down like a cloud waterfall, her cheeks were turned pink by the heat, and her neck was completely submerged in the water. The water was so still that there was no ripple.

This kind of calmness also misled Lan Qiao to some extent, making him completely unaware that there was already someone in the bathtub he was about to step into.

Although Li Jingshu had been prepared for his arrival, she still couldn't help lowering her head in shame at this moment. Her hands emerged from the water, her fingers inserted into the hair on her head, and she covered her hot pretty face with her palms.

Lan Qiao looked at the pearly drops of water falling from her elbows, laughed awkwardly, and tried to exit with a blushing face.

"Stop." Li Jingshu called him softly.

The indoor lighting was beautiful, Lan Qiao stopped and turned his face to the side.

"The water... is a bit cold..." Li Jingshu said quietly, "What were you talking to my dad outside just now?"

"How did you know I was talking to your father?" Lan Qiao sighed secretly and returned to Li Jingshu's bathtub, but still did not dare to look directly at her. He just squatted aside and dipped one hand into the bathtub, secretly transporting Chunyang.

Infuriating, heat the water.

"Mom has wanted to look for you for a long time. The reason why it took so long to call you here must be because you were talking to my father and she couldn't disturb you."

"You said..." Lan Qiao asked curiously, "Your mother has wanted to come looking for me for a long time? She didn't know you were there..."

"Of course she knows." Li Jingshu said self-deprecatingly, "Aren't all mothers like this? First they look forward to their daughter getting married, and then when they do get married, they are anxious to have a grandchild."

"That's right." Lan Qiao scratched his head with his other hand and said, "I just told your father that I wanted to take the emperor out of the capital so that he would not have to die for his country for his loyalty."

"What?" Li Jingshu trembled, causing a wave of water, "Are you willing to betray the king for the sake of your father?"

"If this had happened before last night, I probably wouldn't have been able to figure it out." Lan Qiao sighed, "I don't have as big an ambition as Mr. Xu, but I have also come through the bloody storms of these years. Now,

Being able to protect the people around me and live a good life is my greatest wish."

Although he said it euphemistically, it was tantamount to placing the relationship between him and Li Jingshu in a higher position than the relationship between emperor and minister with Zhu Di. This seemed to be deviant in an era when Confucianism was popular in the world, but it was

Li Qi is the close relative that Li Jingshu cares about the most, so he naturally refuses to sit back and watch her die.

"But what can you do?" Li Jingshu glanced at Lanqiao gratefully, "When I went shopping for groceries in the evening, I heard that the king's troops have advanced to Longtan, thirty miles east of the capital, and the capital will soon be occupied.

Wei, and you also know the king's temperament, he will never allow the emperor to disappear without any reason. Well... it is not completely impossible, the current situation in the capital is complicated, maybe..."

"Don't think too much about this kind of thing in the future. Your health is important. I don't want you to faint again." Lan Qiao interrupted her talking to herself, "Relax, your husband is not really stupid. I will

There is a way to accomplish this."

"Husband, I am so moved that I don't know what to say. Dad has never treated you well, nor has he ever expressed his blessing to our union. Why should you..."

"Because I'm here."

There is no need for thousands of words, six words are enough.

Outside the west window of the bathroom, Li Qi and Zhu Yuluo squatted under the window sill, eavesdropping on the conversation between the two indoors.

Zhu Yuluo had never practiced martial arts. When the voices of the two people in the room were low, she asked Li Qi, who was highly skilled in internal martial arts, to tell her.

And when she heard Lan Qiao's last words, she gave Li Qi a hard look, as if to say: "You see how sensible other people's children are, but how can they be so petty like you."

Before Li Qi could defend himself, he heard Li Jingshu's voice coming from the window again.
Chapter completed!