DTBCF

151 - 155

Bai Xiangxiu stole a glance and couldn't resist gulping. What a scary amount of sweat! Even his eyes are turning red. Do you have to be so unsatisfied in your appetite? What do I do? I'm feeling a little sorry for him.

"Rest well. I will come find you later tonight." Long Heng still wanted to make an explanation and quickly threw some clothes on himself afterwards. Just as he was about to leave the room, a thought came to his mind. "I'm afraid that mother will be back soon. When she does... do take care of her a little."

The old madame and the dowager empress were close, like sisters. She would be heartbroken when she received the news. Moreover, she would be returning from the south very soon. Bai Xiangxiu naturally knew about all of this. It was all written in the novel. The old madame would fall sick when she grieved over the dowager empress. Long Heng even accepted the female lead into the estate and left her in charge of household matters. The reasoning behind that was simple. She was the future matron of the house and would sooner or later take charge of the household.

Unfortunately, more and more problems would arise after her arrival, which lengthened the old madame's illness. Issues such as in-fighting between wife and concubine, conspiracy and scheming which followed, all caused the estate to fall into total disorder. But the biggest issue of all was the female lead's bevy of admirers. One after the other, they came in droves.

The male lead was also madly in love with her then. They'd tumbled in the sheets together before they'd married, which caused their relationship to become scandalous. Despite all that, the male lead refused to cover up the scandal. After all, this was his woman! And so, there were many instances in which the female lead was unable to get out of bed for three days. This caused various other female supporting characters in his rear court to gnash their teeth in jealousy and the old madame to almost die in a fit of anger.

Hopefully, such a situation won't occur this time.

For some reason, she lost all energy in her body immediately after Long Heng had left. After the incredibly taxing task of putting her clothes back on, she immediately plopped back onto the bed. The dowager empress would not be able to escape her fate. There was nothing Bai Xiangxiu could do about her illness. She wasn't some kind of miracle doctor. Exhausted, she quickly fell asleep. By the time she woke up, the room was already pitch black. She called out. "Is anyone there?"

"Madame Xiu. Xiaoshi is out here. Is something the matter?"

"No. Has the prince returned yet?" She recalled from the novel that when the dowager empress was gravely ill, all of the emperor's trusted ministers had to accompany him in the palace. If the story progresses according to the novel, he won't be returning tonight.

"The prince has yet to return ever since he left. There's still some time until dawn. Will you sleep for a while more?" Xiaoshi was lying down on the outside because mistresses would frequently ask for their maids in the middle of the night. The maidservants were quite attentive because of this.

"Mmm. That's all. You should sleep!" Even though she knew that nothing would happen to Long Heng during this trip, she couldn't help but worry. The entire imperial court would become unstable after the dowager empress falls ill. The dowager empress' circle did not get along well with the empress' circle. Once the dowager empress had passed away, the empress' clique would find all sorts of ways to persecute the dowager empress' supporters.

The emperor was more than happy to see them fight amongst themselves. After all, he was the one who would gain the most from their fights. She had been very busy ever since she returned to the estate. However, a good night's rest has recharged her batteries a little.

She began to take charge of the household matters the next morning. Even though she had a lot of responsibilities, she didn't have to work all day long. She was only busy a few days in a month, and she only had to take care of some small daily tasks on a day to day basis.