I Became the Eye Candy: Four Bigshots Claimed to be My Dad?

Chapter 422: Protecting the Ones I Want to Protect

"She’s from the Xi Yan Imperial Family."

Upon hearing this, Madam Zhan’s heart skipped a beat, her eyes filled with disbelief.

Zhan Yi, who had just walked in, overheard the statement. He asked in confusion, "Who’s from the Xi Yan Imperial Family?"

Madam Zhan snapped back to her senses. She hurried to the door, glanced around, and then pulled it shut.

"Huh? Who’s from the Xi Yan Imperial Family?" Zhan Yi asked again.

"Be quiet," Madam Zhan snapped, turning her head.

Chastised again, Zhan Yi scratched his head, confused. "What’s happening?"

"The Emperor isn’t looking for a thief. He’s looking for a woman, a member of the Xi Yan Imperial Family," Madam Zhan said gravely after securing the door and walking back.

"I don’t care who he’s looking for or which country’s royalty she is. It has nothing to do with us." Zhan Yi was unconcerned. It was no secret that the Emperor had a taste for beautiful women in his youth.

Furious, Madam Zhan raised her hand and smacked him.

"Ow!" Zhan Yi clutched his shoulder, aggrieved. "My lady, what did you hit me for?"

"You old fool! The person the Emperor is looking for is hiding among the concubines!"

"Wha—what?" Zhan Yi shuddered. "Are you serious?"

Madam Zhan nodded.

"We’re done for, we’re done for! This will be a disaster if the Emperor finds out. Come on, we have to go! We can’t let her get away!" Zhan Yi began to panic.

"Grandfather, Grandmother, please don’t panic just yet," Ye Qianning said helplessly.

"How can we not panic?" Zhan Yi knew the Emperor’s temperament all too well.

"Pangtuan, tell us everything from the beginning, so we can come up with a plan," Madam Zhan urged, her expression grave.

"There’s no need for a plan, and you don’t need to worry. I have this under control."

"Little girl, this is no small matter! If this gets out, it’s a crime punishable by the execution of our entire clan!" Zhan Yi fretted. Hiding a woman the Emperor wants was already a capital offense, let alone a royal from another nation.

If this wasn’t handled properly, we could be branded as traitors colluding with the enemy.

"I know, but I have my own plans. As for the Imperial Family... I don’t trust them," Ye Qianning stated frankly.

Zhan Yi froze. His gaze on Ye Qianning’s eyes deepened. "Little girl... when you say you don’t trust them..."

Madam Zhan clutched her handkerchief tightly.

"It’s exactly what you’re thinking, Grandfather. I only hope that when that day comes, I can protect the people I want to protect," Ye Qianning said faintly.

A tremor ran through Zhan Yi’s heart. He was reeling from her words for a long time.

Overwhelming achievements meant little in the face of imperial power. When the Emperor was pleased, he would praise your military exploits. When he was displeased, they were worthless.

Accompanying a ruler is like accompanying a tiger; life and death are decided in a single whim.

How could it ever be easy to protect oneself in the face of imperial power?

As a perceptive woman, how could Madam Zhan not understand? Xiang Minghou was not one to meekly accept adversity, much less one to kneel and grovel. A day of reckoning in the imperial court was inevitable.

It was just...

"Child, you’re still so young. Even if that day does come, our three families will not stand idly by." ’She’s only six; she shouldn’t have to bear all this.’

"If that day comes, I will give my all to keep you safe. Little one, you don’t have to carry this burden alone. You have a long life ahead of you, and Grandfather doesn’t want you getting mixed up in the affairs of two nations." What Zhan Yi feared most was that his General’s manor would suffer the same fate as the Qian family.

Qian Fu had been forced to become a monk, and the charge of treason had never been fully cleared. To this day, the older generation still cursed the Qian family’s name behind their backs.

’Ye Qianning understood what they meant. She didn’t want to see that happen at all. She knew that if that day ever came, they would be just like her father at the banquet.’

’They would all kneel, resigned to their fate, but such a death wouldn’t earn them even a shred of the Emperor’s pity.’