You have asked for permission to marry, why should I restrain myself?

Chapter 174 Xiao Zhang Discovers the Queen's Secret

Obviously, this face was engraved in his bones.

"Ning Xi..."

He called her name, his eyes fixed on the scroll under his fingers.

His sharp eyes revealed fragility and longing. A tear silently fell and he wiped it away silently.

"I am not a good husband. I cannot give you the lifelong companionship you desire. I am also not a good father. I always let Yan'er get hurt and be plotted against. During the spring hunt, I almost killed him."

Xiao Zhang's voice was trembling as he tried to calm his emotions. When he spoke again, his voice had become steady:

"He is quite smart, and his features resemble yours. Sometimes I think that maybe I can let him know about your existence, but the timing is never right."

"Ning Xi, I actually hate him!"

If she had not wanted to give birth to Xiao Yan, she would not have died of hemorrhage in order to protect Xiao Yan.

She is a doctor, but in the end, she couldn't even save herself.

"But I hate myself even more. It was me who used all means to force you to get pregnant with Xiao Yan in order to keep you."

"It was me who forced you to stay with me. If I had let you go free, would you not have died?"

Xiao Zhang's eyes were filled with sorrow and endless regret.

Taking a deep breath, his voice became deeper:

"You longed for freedom so much, but I let you die in the cold palace. You have every right to hate me."

He squatted at her feet, covering his face with his hands, looking sad.

A breeze blew by, rolling up a corner of the scroll. It seemed as if Ning Xi was responding.

He thought, if she were still alive, she would definitely point at him and call him a scumbag and a hypocrite.

But if she could survive, he would give her his life even if she asked for it.

But she will never come back.

Eunuch Qin's voice could be heard faintly outside the secret room. Xiao Zhang slowly opened his eyes, stood up, and said to the person in the scroll:

"Ning Xi, I will take good care of our child. He will be safe, happy and live a long life as you wish."

After saying this, Xiao Zhang retracted his fingers that were touching the scroll and turned to leave...

……

Xiao Zhang went out and Eunuch Qin came in to report that Marquis Xuanping had come to see him.

Marquis Xuanping was dressed in a red official robe, his face looking unusually anxious and solemn.

He was a member of the eldest prince's party. It was the eldest prince who demoted Xiao Ying to the crown prince.

But they did not arrange any assassination on the way to the East Territory. Now Xiao Yan was assassinated and killed on the road. He had to get rid of the eldest prince completely no matter what.

Otherwise, given Xiao Zhang's preference for Xiao Yin, let alone whether he would make the eldest prince the crown prince, it is possible that he would directly depose the eldest prince.

As soon as Xuanping Hou entered the imperial study, he bowed hastily and said in a panic:

"Your Majesty, according to the information I received, the Third Prince was assassinated in Pingling! The enemy used a large amount of gunpowder. Duke Lin is now unconscious, and the Third Prince... has no trace left..."

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhang stood up from the imperial desk and said angrily:

"What did you say……"

……

On a street in the capital, Marquis Xuanping, wearing black dragon armor and holding a spear, led the emperor's imperial guards and rode out of the city gate on horseback.

Nearly two hundred guards dressed in black dragon armor and riding tall and mighty war horses swept through the entire street like a whirlwind.

The sound of horse hooves echoed through the sky, and the whole earth was shaking.

The flags fluttered in the wind, and the movements were in unison, exuding a chilling majesty.

The pedestrians on the street were shocked by this powerful momentum and retreated one after another.

But in the blink of an eye, the guards surged in like a tide, raising a cloud of dust.

"What big thing has happened? Marquis Xuanping brought so many people out of the city?"

"It happened the same way two days ago. A large number of cavalrymen stood at the gate early in the morning. I looked at them from a distance and didn't dare to look any further. Could something really have happened?"

"Even the Marquis of Xuanping has gone out, how can this not be a big deal? I think the capital will be in chaos in a few days..."

Xiao Zhang didn't know how to tell the Queen about the fact that Xiao Yan's body was missing.

He paced around the palace restlessly and unknowingly walked to Kunning Palace.

As Yin'er's official mother, the Queen should know about this matter, but Xiao Zhang had not yet thought of the words. He did not alarm anyone and quietly slipped into Kunning Palace, intending to see what the Queen was doing and whether she had received any news about Yin'er's accident.

Xiao Zhang sneaked in and saw the queen talking to a man in black.

"Master's secret order, plan ahead."