Only by going out could she once again get to the Ministry of Justice to steal that life-threatening document recording the late Emperor’s decree to execute the Feng family.

When Feng Shaoying came looking for her, she could hand over the evidence to show him and have him temporarily leave the capital.

Otherwise, if Lian Yu’s interrogation yielded any results and Feng Shaoying appeared again, there would be only a dead end for him.

Now, with Aluo here, she could no longer guarantee that Lian Yu would pardon Feng Shaoying because of her.

Having made up her mind, she immediately had Xuanwu tell Lian Yu that she wanted to leave the palace. However, Xuanwu said his master had decreed that he could satisfy all of Judicial Officer Li’s other conditions, but this one point was absolutely impossible. Suzhen acted stubborn, saying she was stifled from being cooped up in the room and would go mad if confined any longer.

Xuanwu’s brow darkened, and a trace of deep, guarded expression flashed in his eyes.

But fortunately, he still agreed to go find Lian Yu—perhaps Lian Yu had given him instructions?

Before long, he brought back Lian Yu’s verbal message.

Lian Yu said that if she wanted to go out, that was possible, but at the earliest it would be three days later, and she must first agree to one condition.

Suzhen was surprised and suspicious but still agreed. After all, currently, nothing could be worse than being imprisoned in this room. She asked Xuanwu what the condition was, but Xuanwu said he would tell her when she left.

Finally, another three days passed.

Xuanwu generally left during the day to rest, having trusted subordinates keep watch, and came personally at night.

This day, Suzhen rose very early, and Xuanwu was already waiting outside.

What she hadn’t expected was that Lian Jie, Lian Qin, and Ming Yanchu had also come. Was this supposed to be a farewell party?

Lian Jie had been recuperating at home since Wuyan’s incident. He hadn’t been in the palace when she got into trouble that day. Given the urgent situation, Lian Yu had hastily left the palace and naturally hadn’t separately notified this brother.

Not having seen him for over ten days, the Seventh Prince looked somewhat thinner than usual, with less gentleness in his features and more gravity.

“Judicial Officer Li,” he said, “I’m acting on Sixth Brother’s orders to escort you from the palace.”

Since Lian Jie was reliable in his work, Suzhen wasn’t surprised that Lian Yu had sent him. She just wondered whether he still resented her over Wuyan’s matter. But what good would saying more do now? She cupped her hands and bowed deeply. “Regarding what happened that day, I hope Your Highness won’t take it to heart anymore. Right and wrong—it was indeed Li Huaisu’s fault. If Seventh Prince angers himself and harms his health over such a petty person as Li Huaisu, how utterly worthless that would be.”

Lian Jie smiled slightly, then lowered his voice somewhat, saying lightly, “Conversing with Judicial Officer Li is a pleasure. If Judicial Officer Li weren’t a woman, what grand spirit that would be.”

“Please!”

He didn’t directly answer whether there was still resentment in his heart. Suzhen couldn’t guess, but she could only do this much. At this moment, she couldn’t worry about other things. Rather than walking, she said, “Seventh Prince, before leaving, Huaisu would like an audience with His Majesty.”

Lian Jie glanced at Ming Yanchu, who stepped forward with a slightly bitter smile. “Judicial Officer Li, the condition His Majesty asked you to agree to three days ago was that before he summons you, you cannot… request an audience.”

“You also need not attend court—just focus on your Court of Judicial Review’s cases for the people’s welfare. He said he needs to carefully consider some matters.”

Suzhen looked sharply at Xuanwu, who immediately guiltily turned his head away.

Suzhen smiled self-deprecatingly. She truly couldn’t outsmart Lian Yu. Now she couldn’t even see him? Whether he wouldn’t see her because of the assassin incident or for other reasons—like Shuangcheng—she didn’t know.

She fell silent for a moment and said nothing more. Never mind that she couldn’t fight the Imperial Guards filling this courtyard—even these few before her, she absolutely couldn’t handle.

She just smiled and asked, “There’s something strange—why would a mere Li Huaisu require you several to escort her?”

No one spoke, but Lian Qin suddenly stamped his foot and said, “Our escorting you isn’t entirely Sixth Brother’s idea—we just wanted to see you off.”

“Besides us, there are actually Qinglong and Baihu. They figured things out afterward, but since they had conflicts with you that day, they’re too embarrassed to come now.”

“Although what happened that day was caused by you, even if it weren’t you, the assassins would have made other plans to take Sixth Brother’s life. We thank you for saving Sixth Brother’s/His Majesty’s life.”

With the last sentence, several people spoke in unison, bowing to her.

Among them, Lian Qin somewhat obviously glanced secretly at her left hand. She had already removed the bandages, and at the tip of her left hand’s ring finger, there was only a bare spot.

This time Suzhen didn’t know how to respond. His subordinates and brothers finally had some recognition of her, but she and he were beginning to grow distant.

At this moment, she felt neither excited nor resistant. Since Lian Yu had given the order, throwing a tantrum now would be useless. She finally returned the bow, asking with feigned casualness, “Has the interrogation yielded any results? Is that why he’s letting me leave the palace?”

Everyone thought she would make a big fuss, so seeing her composed expression, they were all somewhat surprised. Finally, it was Lian Jie who answered her: “The assassins were all dead men. Currently, we can’t get anything out of them. But Sixth Brother used these days to transfer heavy troops from the palace, disguising them as civilians and servants from your residence, so escorting you from the palace will be safe. He was also afraid you’d be stifled.”

Suzhen finally returned to the Court of Judicial Review. Having delivered her safely, the several men hurried back to the palace to report, politely declining Xiao Zhou’s enthusiastic invitation to stay for dinner.

The palace had apparently sent word ahead, so knowing she had only been in the palace to avoid danger, they were very happy about her return but not surprised. Of course, they didn’t know about her situation with Lian Yu.

Although Lian Yu previously wouldn’t allow them to return home to visit the sick, Xuanwu had afterward explained Wuqing’s condition to her. Xiao Zhou’s medical skills were truly remarkable. Though Wuqing had been seriously injured, she had recovered.

According to Zhuiming’s revelation, Wuqing had even benefited from the misfortune. Xiao Zhou had apparently held back something before, but this time, considering the formidable martial arts of that hawk-eyed man at Qufeng Slope, while treating Wuqing’s injuries, she had also cured nearly ninety percent of his leg injury.

For Wuqing, this naturally made martial arts practice much more effortless.

Therefore, she wasn’t too worried. After greeting everyone, she excused herself to contemplate the case and went back to her room first.

Everyone didn’t try to keep her, and they absolutely avoided mentioning the severed finger. Only Zhuiming couldn’t contain himself and secretly glanced a few times.

After entering her room, Uncle Fu came to report that several court officials had come looking for her.

It turned out that Lian Yu had ordered the Qufeng Slope incident not to be leaked. First, he was seriously injured now, and if political enemies learned of it, there was no telling what trouble might arise. Second, if the Empress Dowager knew he had risked danger for Suzhen, it would be big trouble for Suzhen.

Therefore, both the palace and the Court of Judicial Review kept their stories consistent. Suzhen hadn’t attended court and wasn’t even at her residence—they announced externally that she had gone out on a case, which also fit Suzhen’s usual style.

The several officials Uncle Fu mentioned were Si Lanfeng, Gao Chaoyi, and Quan Feitong.

Si and Gao were new cadres cultivated by Lian Yu. Knowing she was favored, they now associated quite closely with her. But she had no interest in getting close to them. As for Quan Feitong, she wanted to go out and have a drink with him.

It was truly strange—clearly Quan Feitong was a thousand times more cunning than these two men, and she warned herself not to associate too closely with him, yet she still had much contact with him.

According to Uncle Fu, Si and Gao had come looking for her once, then just sent people to see if she had returned. But Mu San had come many times, claiming he was out for walks and accidentally wandered this way.

Hearing this, Suzhen smiled slightly, then dismissed Uncle Fu.

After Uncle Fu closed the door and left, she slowly stopped smiling.

From Lian Jie’s tone, he didn’t seem to be hiding anything. Had Lian Yu really gotten nothing from the assassins’ mouths? But she felt things were only worse than before.

Now, the Court of Judicial Review was surrounded by many Imperial Guard masters, and even the servants in the residence had been secretly replaced with palace personnel.

These people, because they needed to protect her, would undoubtedly monitor her comings and goings at all times.

Currently, besides Consort Yu’s case, she had no new cases on hand. There was very little material on Consort Yu’s case, and she had already brought the materials back from the palace to the Court of Judicial Review. If she rashly went to the Ministry of Justice now, it would definitely arouse suspicion. No matter what, she needed to restrain herself for these few days and couldn’t go to the Ministry of Justice. Otherwise, when these people reported it, how would she explain?

The scales in Lian Yu’s heart seemed to already be tilting, while conversely, Lian Qin and others’ attitudes had somewhat changed.

Even when Lian Jie said with quite warm tone that Lian Yu was afraid she’d be stifled.

But Ming Yanchu’s phrase “temporarily not summoning” had already explained everything—he was beginning to distance himself from her. So rather than saying they were expressing gratitude to her, it was more like they were also expressing sympathy.

Even if she hadn’t demanded to leave, once Lian Yu had made his arrangements, he would have released her anyway. It was a matter of these few days sooner or later—he wanted to use this to forget her.

In front of them, she tried to maintain composure as much as possible, but she had made up her mind.

Enter the palace.

Rather than going to the Ministry of Justice first, she needed to enter the palace quickly and see this person once. She knew that at this moment he must be in the palace reminiscing with Shuangcheng. She knew how unwelcome her appearance would be.

But she still had to make this trip to the palace.

However, how could she enter the palace?

Someone the Emperor didn’t want to see—no matter how capable you were, you couldn’t get close to him.

After thinking for a moment, she opened the door to find Uncle Fu. “Old man, tell me, around what time does the Prime Minister usually come out for his evening walks?”