Suzhen looked at Little Zhou leaning against the doorway: “What mischief are you trying to stir up? Who exactly are you talking about?”

Little Zhou’s pair of dark eyes stared directly at her. After a long time, he smiled and said: “Wu Qing said the same thing to you, didn’t he? Was he talking about me?”

Suzhen rolled her eyes at him: “Don’t assume just because he came to see me that he was gossiping. Did you offend him somehow and fear retaliation?”

Little Zhou pursed his lips, still continuing his earlier words: “Huaisu, be careful of him, really. You don’t know how hard it is to be a good person—I’m a perfect example of that.”

Suzhen’s heart was now in turmoil, though she kept it from showing on her face, only asking: “Little Zhou, if Wu Qing really has problems as you say, what kind of problems? What could he want from me? I’m just a minor fourth-rank official.”

Little Zhou’s smile lines deepened as he said: “You’re an official personally chosen by His Majesty—that’s different. Besides, you yourself might have secrets. For instance… you might come from an ordinary, honest family, or you might be a high-level chess piece placed beside His Majesty through the imperial examinations by someone opposing him. You monitor others while being monitored yourself—this is called the cycle of cause and effect, isn’t it?”

Suzhen was secretly alarmed. In terms of scheming, she could never match Little Zhou, so she didn’t deliberately act calm: “Then according to Secretary Zhou’s speculation, what exactly am I? A spy sent by His Majesty, Prime Minister Quan, or other interested parties? And Wu Qing—since you’re telling me to be careful of him, what should he be? His Majesty’s man, Prime Minister Quan’s, or someone else’s?”

Little Zhou covered his mouth and laughed, laughing somewhat uncontrollably: “That depends on what you are.”

He exclaimed “Oh my,” his eyebrows dancing: “If you’re His Majesty’s person, then Wu Qing is Prime Minister Quan’s or someone else’s. If you’re the latter, then he’s His Majesty’s person. Isn’t this simple, silly Huaisu?”

Hearing this, Suzhen’s face darkened. She was quite good at verbal sparring herself, but in front of Little Zhou, she could only bow down in defeat. She simply asked back: “What about you then? Are you His Majesty’s, Prime Minister Quan’s, or someone else’s spy? Why are you telling me all this?”

Little Zhou sighed: “Huaisu, oh Huaisu, isn’t that question stupid? Don’t you understand the principle that when the tree falls, the monkeys scatter? I’m your secretary—naturally I want what’s best for you. You should be more careful and kick him out. As long as I’m here, I’ll help you watch him. Of course, if you suspect me, you can kick me out too. But Huaisu, you should know that bad people in this world don’t have a particular look. Don’t be fooled by Wu Qing’s quiet demeanor—I’m often misunderstood. People who look bad aren’t necessarily bad, while people who look good might very well be scheming against you. That’s all I’ll say for now—I’m leaving.”

Little Zhou opened the door to leave as he spoke. Suzhen was almost in tears from listening—if Little Zhou truly was a spy, he was definitely formidable, being able to conduct espionage so brazenly and arrogantly that it was hard to find another like him in the world. If he was one, she really wanted to meet his boss to see who had discovered such talent.

Seeing him about to leave, she immediately went over and grabbed him: “You say Wu Qing is a spy—what evidence do you have?”

Wu Qing had just said that Little Zhou paid special attention to their every word and action, often coming and going mysteriously, just like these past few days. But he currently had no solid proof and needed more time to find evidence.

At this moment, Little Zhou turned back, his expression inscrutable: “He often shoots down pigeons, and also, this is my intuition. Look at him—his background is unclear.”

Suzhen scoffed at him: “Like Wu Qing said, how many people here have clear backgrounds? You also have unclear origins—you might be a bandit or wanted criminal for all we know! Before there’s conclusive evidence, don’t shake the morale of our household. I’ll wait for your evidence, Secretary Zhou.”

“Just wait and see.” Little Zhou snorted coldly and went out the door.

Suzhen sat down frowning, resting her chin in her hand as she went over what the two had just said.

Everyone in the Ministry of Justice had been together for some time now. Before the examinations, to avoid Lian Xin, she often went out to investigate Huichun Hall’s whereabouts. Later when they encountered the case, there wasn’t much time for real conversation. Of course, everyone had explained their backgrounds.

Tieshou had originally been a constable in a county, but couldn’t stand the county magistrate’s corruption and fled. Zhuiming’s father was an escort, but he had been interested in law enforcement work since childhood. Wu Qing supposedly came from a renowned martial arts family, was one of the potential successors, but the internal power struggles were fierce. He was plotted against and fell from a high mountain, injuring his legs. Since he didn’t like fighting anyway, he simply used this opportunity to fake his death and leave. The three met on the road to the capital, hit it off immediately, and became sworn brothers, with Wu Qing as the eldest.

Little Zhou was a scholar from another county who had aspired to become a high official since childhood. He came to the capital to meet Minister Yan and was quite appreciated. His own literary talent was also outstanding, allowing him to participate in the palace examination.

As for herself, according to the identity Father had created, she introduced herself as a scholar from Lu County.

At first glance, everyone seemed fine on the surface. If there really were problems, they would have prepared good identity disguises. Thoroughly investigating family backgrounds wouldn’t be easy—having government clerks investigate might not turn up anything.

For the previous case matters, she had confidently assigned tasks to several people because although the case was closely related to court factional struggles, it didn’t greatly affect her, and she had always kept absolutely silent about her true background.

Among these people, there probably weren’t any of Quan Feitong’s people. Otherwise, when she and Lian Yu’s arrangements were later leaked, the case might not have been won in the end.

As for whether this spy was sent by others—the seemingly neutral but actually quite powerful Wei Chenghui, other officials, or even Lian Yu—all were possible. Of course, perhaps the two were just being overly suspicious, and it might not be possible at all.

But if there really was a spy, since she was employed by Lian Yu, did interested parties want to discover her and Lian Yu’s future actions, or had Lian Yu placed someone to monitor her?

She hadn’t failed to consider these details after being named top scholar, but at that time the case was urgent and she had no time to think deeply. Now that it had been pointed out and her gender discovered by Lian Yu, everything was piling up at the storm’s eye.

She had once very much treasured her relationship with Stone, instinctively liking that aloof youth. But now, between her and Lian Yu… that feeling was too strange and complex!

As for Lian Yu toward her… if he said there were still one or two parts of Stone’s feelings, she believed it. But if it were romantic love between man and woman, she always felt it unbelievable.

He had indeed made concessions, actually allowing her to continue as an official in her female identity. After last night’s unpleasantness, he even considered her feelings and let her return to the residence early. But who said this couldn’t be his playing hard to get, just to thoroughly investigate her background and root out the secrets behind her? Originally, even Zhaoting, whom she’d known for over ten years, wasn’t sincere…

If there really was a spy, who would it be? Tieshou and Zhuiming didn’t seem like “interested parties.” The seemingly most suspicious Little Zhou, the most calm and steady Wu Qing—might neither be spies, or might both be spies? Who were the people behind them?

The more she thought, the more she felt both were complex and either was possible. Her thoughts tangled like hemp, her wound was affected and ached faintly. She suddenly remembered that day when she was injured, searching everywhere for Li Zhaoting, but Li Zhaoting was looking at Gu Shuangcheng. Her heart ached sharply again, and thinking of Lian Yu’s loss of control last night… her chest felt increasingly tight and painful.

All of this meant that even though her injuries weren’t fully healed, in a couple days she still had to attend court, resume her duties, and go to the Ministry of Justice to examine relevant files.

Thinking of the Feng family massacre case, she was suddenly alarmed, abruptly realizing a problem: Lian Yu couldn’t possibly still not know her identity! She was from Huai County, which wasn’t far from Lu County. She had used the false identity of Huaisu from Lu County. Since Lian Yu already knew she was female, he should have drawn her portrait and thoroughly investigated her identity starting from Lu County. After all these days, he should have found out by now. Why hadn’t he mentioned it at all?

Could it be he hadn’t discovered it yet?

But that was impossible—so many days had passed!

He was the emperor—impossible!

Unless… someone had secretly done something to help her?!

But who could this person be? Could it be… She gripped her slightly trembling fingers, instantly thinking of that gentle, aloof man.

Thinking of this, Suzhen was both shocked and delighted.

But in the current situation, how could she arrange to meet him? Not to mention within this residence, even outside, Lian Yu’s people were probably lying in wait. If this meeting were discovered by Lian Yu, both she and Zhaoting would be in trouble!

Her body was still weak. After thinking for a while, she couldn’t hold up anymore and had to lie down on the bed. Before long, she fell deeply asleep with the thought that she must see Li Zhaoting once. Dimly, she heard someone knocking at the door, but she couldn’t get up to open it and continued sleeping soundly.

…

It was Leng Xue who came in.

He had originally wanted to continue asking about the Son of Heaven—that secretive, scheming emperor made him uneasy. Seeing Suzhen sleeping deeply, considering her health, he didn’t wake her and only tucked in her blanket.

He opened the window slightly, squinting as he looked out. In the courtyard, Zhuiming was still muttering with Tieshou about Huaisu not being loyal enough and seeming to hide things. Under the two osmanthus trees on either side, Wu Qing and Little Zhou each leaned against one, coolly sizing each other up.

Leng Xue frowned tightly. If they had followed the old fox’s dying wish and taken her away from this turbulent world to live in hiding, would it have been better? But… he slowly turned back, gazing at the sleeping woman on the bed: How could you have found peace that way?

The next day.

Suzhen’s body was still weak and she couldn’t attend court, but the residence welcomed a visitor: Lian Xin.