Lady Qi of Qianjin Hall?

Qianjin Hall! Lady Qi!

The eunuch had originally intended to whisper to the Emperor, but startled by this shock, he knelt and spoke aloud.

Everyone heard it.

Everyone was stunned.

“Who?” The Emperor was clearly also very surprised and asked.

“Qianjin Hall, Lady Qi.” The eunuch was even more frightened by the atmosphere in the hall and spoke stammering.

The Emperor then laughed, leaning back in his chair.

“Well now, quite capable indeed.” He laughed.

Looking at the Emperor’s smile, everyone present shivered.

But it was truly the case—how could this woman have such great ability, actually entering the palace and even getting a eunuch to come report during the Emperor’s deliberations!

My heavens, this sort of thing—they couldn’t and wouldn’t dare do it.

Compared to the others’ shock, Zhou Maochun was anxious.

“Your Majesty, she is my…” he hurriedly said.

Before he could finish, the Emperor interrupted him.

“Enough, Zhou Maochun. You two truly are lovers with mutual affection. Aren’t you making all this commotion just to protect her? Tsk tsk.” The Emperor clapped his hands on the dragon throne, making slapping sounds, slowly saying, “You protect her, she protects you—you two are truly touching indeed.”

Zhou Maochun was somewhat confused by the Emperor’s words.

“Ah?” He stared blankly, then quickly reacted and spoke up, “Your Majesty, it’s not like that…”

The Emperor had already raised his voice to interrupt him again.

“Loving enough to gamble with my soldiers and generals for a beauty’s smile, loving enough that angering me can let your beauty escape disaster—Zhou Maochun, I will certainly fulfill your wishes!” He said harshly.

“Your Majesty, this Lady Qi is…” Zhou Maochun hurriedly spoke again.

“You shut up. Say one more word and I’ll immediately have you beaten to death with clubs.” The Emperor roared angrily.

Zhou Maochun had no choice but to fall silent.

While the Emperor spoke, he raised his hand. The eunuchs understood and shouted loudly to summon her.

The calls echoed out.

“Summon?”

Hearing this, Chen Shi was also very surprised, turning to look at Qi Yue.

After all her efforts and scheming, she hadn’t gotten the Emperor to agree to see her, yet she had merely reported a name.

If she’d known this, she would have met him before New Year’s and wouldn’t have had all these troubles!

Chen Shi shook her head with mixed emotions, not knowing what to say.

Here, Qi Yue took a deep breath and stepped forward.

Chen Shi hurriedly followed but was stopped by a eunuch.

“Miss, you cannot go.” The fat eunuch hurriedly said.

Chen Shi had to stop.

“Yueniang, when you see His Majesty, don’t talk too much. Just kneel down and properly admit your fault.” She instructed.

Qi Yue nodded and followed the eunuch away.

Watching this woman leave, the fat eunuch couldn’t help but look at Chen Shi.

“This lady, is this not your first time seeing His Majesty?” he asked.

Chen Shi looked at him uncomprehendingly.

“Why ask that?” she asked.

This was itself an answer. The fat eunuch’s expression became even more surprised.

This young lady was seeing the Emperor for the first time? How was she not nervous at all? He remembered when he first saw the Emperor, he was trembling all over with nervousness, and that was after he’d already been in the palace for three years.

In the great hall, the ministers kept their heads down. The Emperor’s rage was controlled at will; now his expression was already calm. It looked peaceful, but this peace was somewhat suffocating.

It seemed like a long time passed, yet also seemed not long at all, when the hall doors were pulled open.

“Lady Qi of Qianjin Hall requests audience.” The eunuch’s voice sounded from outside.

Qi Yue stood outside the door, repeatedly thinking one phrase in her heart.

I’m going to see a living Emperor!

Then she took a deep breath and lifted her skirt to step over the threshold.

After walking just a few steps, the barely audible voice of the guiding eunuch reached her ears.

Kneel…

This was probably the merit of those five thousand taels of silver—guidance on proper etiquette.

Although she extremely disliked kneeling, she could be vague with other people, but with the Emperor, that probably wouldn’t work.

Qi Yue knelt down after entering the great hall for more than ten steps.

“Civilian woman Qi Yueniang pays respects to Your Majesty.” She said clearly.

In the great hall, except for Zhou Maochun, all the other ministers stood with bowed heads, and even the Emperor seemed tired, leaning against the dragon throne with lowered gaze.

When this voice came, everyone was stunned.

This old woman’s voice was quite pleasant, and she sounded very young too.

Yueniang?

The Emperor was startled. This name…

He lifted his eyes and immediately saw the person kneeling on the ground far away.

She wore apricot-colored robes, with black hair piled high, adorned with two pearl hairpins that trembled with her kowtowing.

Black hair!

Black hair!

The Emperor suddenly sat up straight, casually grabbing a memorial and holding it before his eyes.

The great hall fell silent again.

Qi Yue knelt on the ground somewhat puzzled, yet also relieved.

This kind of thing where you come in and the leader acts as if they haven’t seen you to express dissatisfaction—she’d seen it many times.

So she said nothing more and knelt there obediently.

Some ministers secretly lifted their eyelids to look at the Emperor, seeing him actually reading a memorial, and naturally understood this was the Emperor deliberately wanting to humiliate this woman, so they all lowered their eyes again and remained motionless.

Behind the memorial, the Emperor’s mind had already connected all the events.

Yongqing Prefecture, Lady Qi!

Yongqing Prefecture, wife of the Marquis Dingxi’s heir!

Lady Qi Yueniang of Qianjin Hall!

Yueniang, wife of the Marquis Dingxi’s heir!

It was a country doctor who cured her…

That woman walking calmly out of the Li family’s main gate…

Life-saving grace, truly deserving…

Zhou Maochun found Lady Qi…

Zhou Maochun acknowledged an adopted daughter…

Damn it all! What a messy situation! The Emperor slammed the memorial on the table with a bang.

This sudden sound made everyone jump.

Qi Yue also hurriedly knelt properly.

“Speak!” The Emperor said through gritted teeth.

Speak what?

Who speaks?

Everyone was confused.

But here Qi Yue had already begun speaking.

“Civilian woman brought one disciple, two maidservants, and four guards to the northern desert before New Year’s to seek relatives. Due to treating wounded soldiers and conflicting with the Zhang Ye garrison’s military doctors, in a fit of anger went to the front lines to participate in treating wounded soldiers. Witnessing the tragic nature of warfare and the pitiful state of wounded soldiers, decided to fulfill a doctor’s duty. Later, twenty-four people from civilian woman’s Qianjin Hall in Yongqing Prefecture arrived, and civilian woman discussed wounded soldier treatment with them. Finally formed surgical bandaging nursing battlefield teams. Because battlefield treatment differs from usual clinical practice, to avoid temporary panic, requested garrison officers and soldiers to assist and conducted six preliminary drills, then participated in four battlefield treatments along the border route.”

The clear female voice, with appropriate pace and cadence, rang out in the great hall.

Everyone present was stunned again.

Even the Emperor’s expression grew slightly focused.

He had told this woman to speak—generally speaking, at this point shouldn’t she be saying she was guilty, how she regretted it, then begging His Majesty’s forgiveness and such… nonsense?

This woman’s words—such a short passage was actually… so logically clear with cause and effect, numbers and evidence…

“…This matter all began with civilian woman’s initial conflict with military doctors over pride, then due to a doctor’s conscience unable to abandon patients, and was not intentional unreasonable troublemaking, much less daring to treat soldiers and generals as playthings. Zhou Maochun repeatedly advised against it, but civilian woman stubbornly refused to listen. During battlefield treatment, time was tight and tasks heavy… cough… civilian woman had to train disciples in a short time while preparing large quantities of medical supplies, failing to fully report and request instructions. Because civilian woman’s treatment methods differed from usual military medical practices, causing doubt and confusion among everyone. This was civilian woman’s fault, but civilian woman absolutely dares not treat soldiers and generals as playthings or delay military affairs. Please Your Majesty investigate clearly.”

She finished speaking in one breath, then kowtowed again with her forehead to the ground.

Very good—in just two short paragraphs, she had pushed this matter toward being a misunderstanding, with herself taking full responsibility.

The ministers nodded secretly.

It seemed the expert behind this woman was very capable!

Qi Yue lay prostrate on the ground and hadn’t felt anything while speaking, but after finishing, her heart was pounding hard.

This was like reporting work to the dean and others—say less nonsense, don’t mention hardships and grievances, abandon empty rhetoric, first get straight to the point with data and process—this way you could fight for more benefits for your department.

She hoped this Emperor could adapt to this kind of reporting style.

Quite talkative when she wants to be—what’s with playing mute?

The Emperor looked at the woman prostrate on the ground and snorted quietly to himself.

However…

His expression darkened a few shades.

“According to what you say, all these memorials of impeachment are just their stupidity and misunderstanding of you?” He said sinisterly.

This Emperor’s way of speaking really was…

This voice somehow sounded familiar.

She hadn’t caught it from that single word earlier, but hearing this sentence now…

Qi Yue was slightly surprised in her heart but absolutely didn’t dare raise her head to look.

“Civilian woman dares not, it’s just that professions have their specializations—outsiders watch the excitement while insiders see the true methods.” She said.

The Emperor gave a cold laugh, picking up the memorials before him and slapping them on the dragon desk with loud sounds.

“The methods you speak of are quite exciting indeed, and this outsider finds listening quite entertaining too.” He said coldly, “Do you think that with these few words, everything will be fine?”

Zhou Maochun couldn’t bear it any longer.

“Your Majesty, when they say I was playing around, it’s playing around? When I say I wasn’t playing around, why doesn’t Your Majesty believe me?” Zhou Maochun still said with a stiff neck.

“Because I’m an outsider.” The Emperor said neither warmly nor coldly.

Zhou Maochun was speechless with anger.

Qi Yue was also somewhat depressed.

“You all speak of methods that you understand, but I can’t understand them.” The Emperor continued, “They say what isn’t what, but what you say should be what? I’m sick of watching these verbal lawsuits.”

“Then Your Majesty means you want to see something that isn’t verbal lawsuits?” Qi Yue couldn’t help saying again, slightly raising her eyes to dimly see the high dragon desk more than ten steps ahead and a corner of bright yellow robes.

The Emperor instinctively reached for a memorial, seeing that the woman was still keeping her head down, he couldn’t help but shift his position, seemingly avoiding having others notice his earlier discomfort.

“…Civilian woman participated in four battles this trip, treating a total of 765 wounded soldiers, of which seriously wounded…” she continued.

Some minister couldn’t stand it anymore and coughed.

“Isn’t this still a verbal lawsuit? You say you saved them, you say it’s however many—how is what you say credible?” He said in a low voice.

Zhou Maochun wasn’t afraid of the Emperor, but he wasn’t afraid of this minister either, grabbing a memorial from the ground and throwing it at the minister.

“Qiao Liusheng! Is it your turn to ask questions!” He cursed.

That minister was unprepared for being hit and was both ashamed and angry.

“Zhou Maochun!” He shouted angrily, about to speak when another shout came from outside the hall.

“Your Majesty, urgent report from northern desert military preparations!”

Urgent report? Military preparations?

The great hall quieted for a moment.

More memorials impeaching Zhou Maochun and others had arrived.

Then everyone thought this in their hearts.

That minister also stopped speaking, giving Zhou Maochun a cold smile with some disdain, flicking his sleeves.

You’re dead for sure.

The Emperor’s expression was also very ugly, his gaze looking at the woman still prostrate on the ground, then at Zhou Maochun.

At this point, neither of these two could be saved, so then… forget it.

His expression was indifferent as he raised his hand.

“Summon.” The eunuch shouted loudly.