The Crown Prince was diligent. Occasionally he rose at night to review memorials difficult to discuss during the day. Lan Yue had already told Qun Qing about this.

Qun Qing lit the floor lamps one by one. From the corner of her eye, she glimpsed two young eunuchs moving the low table from the outer chamber into the inner room, placing it on the carpet. They also moved over cushions, brushes, ink, inkstone, and vermillion seal. After a while, someone pulled aside the screen. A young eunuch who served the Crown Prince’s writing bent at the waist and entered the inner chamber, placing a stack of memorials on the low table.

These eunuchs were well-trained and silent. Only shadows moved. After arranging everything, they all withdrew, leaving only Qun Qing to attend Li Xuan.

She hadn’t expected the scene Lin Yujia described to actually be true. The Crown Prince could truly work beside his soundly sleeping Good Lady, keeping only one palace maid in attendance.

So-called “lantern service” was merely standing against the wall, ready to respond to the noble’s summons at any moment. Qun Qing stole a glance. Li Xuan sat quietly before the table, having donned a cloak over his sleeping robes.

From this distance, she couldn’t see the characters on the memorials at all, so she didn’t crane her neck to look.

Li Xuan, however, moistened his brush and ordered: “Fetch wine. Don’t warm it.”

What Qun Qing retrieved from the ice box was indeed the most intoxicating Taixi White.

From the corner of his eye, Li Xuan watched her approach the table with wine, his eyes holding some coldness.

Who knew he would see Qun Qing pour wine into the jade cup with a rather unpracticed posture, extremely carefully, filling only the shallow bottom before immediately stopping.

“You’re finished pouring?” After waiting a long while, Li Xuan looked at the cup bottom. “Are you toying with me?”

“This servant wouldn’t dare. Drinking cold wine at night easily causes head wind—one cannot drink much,” Qun Qing said carefully.

“How do you know I get head wind?” Li Xuan grabbed the wine cup and, using Qun Qing’s hand, forcibly filled it to the brim.

Qun Qing said urgently: “If Your Highness has a head wind attack here, this servant will be held responsible.”

The wine Li Xuan had just gulped down suddenly choked him.

Qun Qing immediately unfurled her shawl. The silver-red silk gleamed like summer flowers under the lamplight, accurately blocking above the memorials without letting a single drop of wine splash on the paper.

While confirming this, she rapidly scanned a glance at the memorial, seeing only half a sentence: “Confined in Yanying Hall… awaiting Western Fān battle report…”

This was the first time someone disregarded the Crown Prince to protect memorials first. Li Xuan’s expression suddenly changed: “Get back over there.”

Qun Qing quickly returned to stand by the wall, her palms already sweating.

Li Xuan looked down at the opened memorial. For a long while he said nothing. Clearly he too had realized what she might have just done. His expression was very unpleasant.

But he didn’t explode. After a while, he pointed lightly at a nearby floor lamp: “This lamp dazzles the eyes. Move it farther away.”

Qun Qing slowly walked over, about to adjust the floor lamp. Li Xuan’s thumb in his sleeve moved slightly. A eunuch sprang from some corner, grasped Qun Qing’s arm, and searched out a small porcelain vial from her sleeve, presenting it: “Your Highness.”

“What is this?” Li Xuan asked.

“In response to Your Highness,” Due to this sudden change, Qun Qing had already knelt. Though her upturned face was pale, she showed no panic. “It’s lamp oil that must be prepared for lantern service.”

The young eunuch had already opened the porcelain vial and smelled it: “It is indeed only lamp oil.”

Li Xuan stared at Qun Qing’s face, his eyes holding some hidden anger.

“If Your Highness takes away the lamp oil, when the lamp goes out later there will be no way to refill it.” Qun Qing watched innocently as the young eunuch took the porcelain vial away.

Before coming, she had anticipated that the Crown Prince would surely guard against unfamiliar palace servants. She had long since switched the sedative for lamp oil.

“Does Your Highness still find it dazzling?” Qun Qing moved the floor lamp farther away.

This palace maid’s speech seemed docile yet somehow contained provocation, making Li Xuan find it extremely grating. He gripped his brush tightly, but his tone still revealed neither pleasure nor anger: “Did you teach the Good Lady to read palace regulations?”

“Yes,” Qun Qing said. “Last time Your Highness said everyone in Qingxuan Hall lacked rules. We servants took it deeply to heart. The entire palace recites palace regulations, absolutely not letting the Good Lady speak one more word violating palace rules.”

Li Xuan used his lifetime of cultivation to produce a single syllable: “Mm.”

He hadn’t forgotten today’s purpose.

Both Shou Xi and he suspected this woman was a spy planted by Prince Yan’s mansion. Especially today, Shou Xi said the prayer official happened to be Lu Huating, and the two had conversed in the water pavilion.

Now with Prince Yan in trouble, she should be very anxious to see how the Sage would deal with Prince Yan. If this were true, they could dig her out today.

His hand pressed on the memorial as he silently glanced toward the wall, meeting Qun Qing’s gaze looking over.

Qun Qing’s gaze flashed as she moved her eyes away.

“Your shawl—is it the silk I bestowed?” But Li Xuan looked at her shadow, remembering the silver-red color that had bloomed before him earlier.

Qun Qing steadied herself: “Yes.”

“This silk isn’t suitable for shawls. Why make it so gaudy?”

The Crown Prince excelled at calligraphy and painting with considerable attainment. He preferred elegant refinement. Palace attire was already colorful—adding silver-red created chaotic vulgarity. He couldn’t help mocking: “Do you think that as long as something is good, it should all be piled on your body?”

These words were harsh. Qun Qing coldly curved her lips, answering in an honest tone: “This servant doesn’t understand dressing and imitated the matching in Grand Tutor Meng’s ‘Night Banquet Palace Ladies Picture.'”

Li Xuan was startled. Meng Guangshen had a palace ladies painting, created when drinking with great interest, using varying shades of cinnabar to paint the palace maids’ shawls and sashes red. The style was gorgeous and strange, highly praised among civil officials.

“You even know of the ‘Night Banquet Palace Ladies Picture’?”

Qun Qing said: “This servant comes from the Rear Court’s embroidery workshop. There are painting and calligraphy classes. The Palace Studies Doctor once lectured on this piece. We servants all thought Grand Tutor Meng’s painting extremely beautiful.”

Meng Guangshen was the Crown Prince’s Grand Tutor. How could a student question his teacher? This actually left Li Xuan stuck, unable to catch his breath.

He raised his phoenix eyes, smiling coldly: “According to your words, the Rear Court teaches embroidery and also painting and calligraphy, producing palace servants like you—even better than the palace’s Six Bureaus.”

Qun Qing said: “The Rear Court has many young ladies with natural gifts, merely burdened by previous dynasty’s associated crimes, enslaved for life. This servant is merely among the dull ones. If it could make Your Highness show concern for the Rear Court and grant opportunities, even being punished—what does it matter?”

This was what Qun Qing truly thought. She spoke it even more neither humbly nor arrogantly than her previous ten sentences combined. Li Xuan’s brush tip froze. After a long moment, he lost the desire to mock further.

“Today, did you request the blessing paper?” He closed the last volume.

“Yes. This servant hung it on the tree. If Your Highness wishes to see it, this servant will fetch it for you,” Qun Qing said.

“No need. I saw it when I arrived.” Li Xuan suddenly slammed the memorial on the table. “What fine ‘mutual understanding, mutual commitment, husband and wife of one heart’! Even Zheng Zhiyi wouldn’t dare boast such words. Is this truly the Good Lady’s wish, or yours?”

His tone was unkind. Qun Qing dropped to her knees with a “thud,” finally showing panicked expression, and within the panic, grievance: “This servant doesn’t know how to read the superior’s mind, so I asked the prayer official gentleman to write good words. For this, this servant tried to bribe him with gold beads. Who knew he refused no matter what, saying that to help Qingxuan Pavilion write a good one, he’d even give this servant a string of copper coins, insisting this servant must hang them on the tree together.”

Li Xuan listened in long silence.

Lu Huating? With animosity already grown between Prince Yan’s mansion and the Eastern Palace, writing a few mocking words fit Lu Huating’s sarcastic nature well.

If she were truly a Prince Yan mansion spy, would she sow discord and secretly harm the chief clerk this way?

Naturally there was another possibility—the two were acting together. But Qun Qing kept talking nonstop, disrupting his train of thought.

“This servant naturally refused that string of copper coins. This servant only wanted to request good words for the Good Lady to make her happy,” Qun Qing said fearfully. “Your Highness, could there be some bad implication in those words about husband and wife of one heart? This servant has little learning…”

“There’s no special implication.” Li Xuan closed his eyes, interrupting her. “You talk too much. Tomorrow, change the person for lantern service.”

Qun Qing’s words stopped abruptly. Her dark eyes were very calm, showing no trace of disappointment.

Li Xuan stared at her: “Why do you seem pleased?”

Qun Qing probed: “Your Highness… will you still come to Qingxuan Pavilion tomorrow?”

Li Xuan knew he’d misspoken. He smiled coldly at her: “I mean I won’t let you serve lanterns anymore from now on.”

Qun Qing leaned against the wall, still showing no disappointment. Instead she seemed relieved, her expression relaxing: “Night duty is arduous. This servant thanks Your Highness for your consideration.”

The next day, the Crown Prince’s carriage passed the expectant Bao Shu and entered Qingxuan Pavilion again, causing everyone in the Eastern Palace to take notice.

The following night, Li Xuan rose to handle government affairs, turning over memorials. In the night, only the sound of paper pages rustled.

His gaze moved to the wall, where he saw Lan Yue leaning against it, nodding drowsily.

He placed his brush on the brush rest, producing a crisp sound. Lan Yue woke with a start: “Your Highness, are you hungry?” After a moment, she carefully asked, “Do you need more ink?”

“No.” Li Xuan said. “If you’re tired, sleep beside your mistress.”

Lan Yue gratefully expressed thanks, covered Zheng Zhiyi with a blanket, and lay down on the low couch to sleep.

Li Xuan had no drowsiness at all. His mind was taut like a bowstring. He looked toward the window filled with moonlight, able to hear the chirping of crickets in the grass.

But this mistress and servant pair—their snoring was like mountains calling and seas roaring, rising and falling in succession…

“Call Qun Qing over. You go back to sleep.” Li Xuan woke Lan Yue.

Qun Qing entered the inner hall without excess words.

Li Xuan also ignored her, as if forgetting that phrase “don’t come again,” tacitly permitting her to continue standing by the wall.

After an unknown time had passed, Li Xuan’s wine cup emptied. He pillowed his head on the table and fell asleep. The candlelight in the room flickered. On the table lay half-reviewed memorials.

Qun Qing hesitated between moving and not moving for a long while before slowly walking over.

Her footsteps grew closer and closer.

First came the sound of closing the window, then the sound of covering Zheng Zhiyi with a blanket. Finally, slowly approaching Li Xuan from behind.

Li Xuan summoned twelve parts vigilance. She suddenly stopped, picked up the outer garment that had fallen on the velvet carpet, dusted it off, draped it back over him, and without lingering, returned to the wall.

Half of Qun Qing’s hand had gone numb. She quietly flexed her fingers inside her sleeve.

Earlier, Mother had taught her methods to distinguish real sleep from feigned sleep. Li Xuan’s spine was hidden under his close-fitting silk inner garment, its outline obvious. The instant she approached, the muscles on his back tensed, giving her such a fright that she abandoned the idea of approaching the memorials.

The Crown Prince was actually feigning sleep, testing whether she would take the opportunity to examine the memorials!

He couldn’t possibly test every palace servant this way, or he’d have died from exhaustion long ago.

So this was directed specifically at her.

Could it be she’d revealed some flaw and Li Xuan discovered she was a Nan Chu spy?

Reviewing her recent actions, Qun Qing ruled out this possibility and calmed down internally.

Thinking it through, only on that day of the West Market brawl had she happened to leave the palace. It seemed this matter was very likely related to the Crown Prince, which was why he reacted so strongly to her going to Lingxin Bakery, why he expelled her from the palace only to call her back…

Understanding the key points, Qun Qing instead relaxed. Good thing she hadn’t acted.

For several days in a row, the vial of sedative remained intact in her bundle.

Qun Qing lifted the candlestick and passed over it.

To respond to the Crown Prince’s test, the safest life-preserving method was to do nothing at all.

She looked at memorials not for Nan Chu’s sake, but merely because she herself wanted to know Li Huan’s fate. She wouldn’t risk her life for Nan Chu’s coercion again.

As for how to deal with Lin Yujia, what she’d seen the first day was enough. From the daily quantity of memorials and Li Xuan’s unchanging expression, Qun Qing could guess: Li Huan was confined in Yanying Hall, temporarily suspended from government duties. The Sage was waiting for battle reports from Western Fān before making a decision.

After all, she was just a palace maid. Being able to access the Crown Prince was already difficult. Being slow was very normal. This bit of information could appease Crown Prince Zhao. As for the rest, Qun Qing decided to bet on Lu Huating winning.

She wrote the information in detail, placed it in a wax pill, and released the skylark.

The skylark flew into the sky and disappeared.

Recently the sky was covered with dark clouds.

At noon, two muffled thunderclaps sounded. The sky darkened. Soon fine rain fell like silk, and the flying eaves were again shrouded in pale white mist.

Water accumulated in the corridor. The wooden tiles on the ground were most slippery. With the Crown Prince and Good Lady’s relationship deepening daily, the Crown Prince liked the soup from Qingxuan Pavilion’s small kitchen. Ruo Chan held a wooden tray, delivering the daily regulation soup to the Eastern Palace. Seeing a noble mistress’s skirt approaching, she hurried to step aside.

A fierce cat cry exploded beside her ear. Ruo Chan shrank back in fright. Her silk slippers slid heavily forward, and the soup splashed onto the approaching noble mistress’s skirt.

“Noble Mistress, forgive me…” Ruo Chan dropped to her knees with a thud. When she raised her head, her face paled several shades.

The noble mistress wore a precious blue large-sleeved robe, her black hair piled high, skin white as frost and snow, expression languid—it was Princess Bao’an Yang Fu, who hadn’t appeared in a long time.

Bao Shu saw Yang Fu’s sleeve splattered with grease. Her expression instantly changed: “This is the Princess’s first time out in days. Did you do this deliberately?”

Ruo Chan was about to cry: “This servant didn’t mean to, it was… that cat…”

Over a month ago, Princess Bao’an’s health had just improved somewhat when, under Bao Shu’s management, she carefully maintained her appearance.

She was already beautiful. After dressing up, she was even more peerless. Bao Shu felt that as long as the Crown Prince saw Yang Fu, he definitely couldn’t look away.

On the Festival of Skillful Hands, they had prepared food, only to watch the Crown Prince’s carriage go to Zheng Zhiyi’s place instead. The rear palace’s mockery washed over them like a tide. This tremendous humiliation directly caused Yang Fu to fall gravely ill again.

Seeing the Crown Prince and Good Lady Zheng’s relationship improve absurdly well, Bao Shu had expended great effort to persuade Yang Fu to go out and visit Han Wanyi. Then they encountered this spoiling incident. Yang Fu looked like she wanted to turn back again.

“She’s from Good Lady Zheng’s palace.” Bao Shu had recognized Ruo Chan. Because A’De, A’Meng, and Qun Qing had joined forces to toy with her, Bao Shu had long detested Qingxuan Pavilion to the bone. She stepped forward, her embroidered shoe deliberately stepping on Ruo Chan’s fingers. “The Princess is kind and gets bullied. This time, you absolutely cannot yield and endure. You must speak properly before His Highness the Crown Prince.”

Ruo Chan hurt so much tears streamed down. Yang Fu’s pitch-black pupils drifted vaguely into the distance. Suddenly seeing a familiar figure in the distance, her expression changed: “Slap her mouth.”

The change in her tone caught Bao Shu completely off guard. Yang Fu herself stepped forward and raised her sleeve to slap Ruo Chan’s cheek with a “crack.”

She used tremendous force. Ruo Chan immediately cried out: “Noble Mistress, this servant was wrong…”

Hearing Ruo Chan’s voice, Qun Qing hurried over.

Seeing Yang Fu about to raise her hand again, she restrained Yang Fu’s second strike: “The Princess must not use private punishment on palace servants. This servant is Qingxuan Pavilion’s clothing attendant. Whatever the matter, speak with this servant.”

Her tone was exactly the same as before. Yang Fu couldn’t distinguish whether she was protecting her own palace servant or afraid she herself would violate palace rules and be seen.

Yang Fu stared at her for a while, saying coldly: “You’re speaking to me without bowing?”

Qun Qing curtsied: “Please forgive me, Princess Bao’an.”

Yang Fu said: “You don’t know the rules? Perform full obeisance.”

Watching Qun Qing endure and docilely kneel before her, only in the process of tormenting her did Yang Fu recover a trace of familiar sense of control.

All that scheming for her benefit was lies. Qun Qing’s appearance had changed, but her eyes couldn’t deceive. This long illness was enough for Yang Fu to realize—Qun Qing had already betrayed her yet was still deceiving her!

Ruo Chan sobbed. Qun Qing saw the spilled soup in her hands and Yang Fu’s sleeve, immediately understanding what happened. She took from her sleeve a folded plain handkerchief and handed it over, saying calmly without ripples: “Princess, please wipe first, then follow this servant to the side hall to change clothes.”

Qun Qing knew that with such drastic changes in this life, Princess Bao’an must have many questions and want to interrogate her personally. A conversation with Yang Fu was unavoidable.

The handkerchief extended—it wasn’t taken for a long while.

Yang Fu said: “I want you to come personally wipe it clean for me.”

Bao Shu looked at Yang Fu in shock. Nearly exposed to outsiders, Qun Qing felt a surge of anger rising. She raised her eyes to look at Yang Fu, her gaze clearly full of defiance: “This servant is unwilling.”

Wind blew the rain slantwise. Yang Fu’s eyes instantly reddened.

“Princess, make them kneel here together. This servant will have ways to punish them later. But right now we’ll be late.” Bao Shu had just taken the handkerchief wanting to wipe for Yang Fu when her hand was suddenly knocked away by Yang Fu, startling her.

Yang Fu composed herself for a moment before bothering to conceal things completely before the shocked Bao Shu. She grasped Bao Shu’s hand again and looked down at Ruo Chan: “Did you see how Good Lady Zheng’s palace servants bullied me? Report this to the Crown Prince on my behalf.”

Bao Shu was baffled, enduring her grievance: “…Yes.”

Amid the rustling rain came the sound of armor. Qun Qing alertly turned her head to see an attendant eunuch leading a tall figure striding rapidly into the garden. She blurted out: “Prince Yan has come.”

Glimpsing Yang Fu’s instantly panicked and fearful expression, Qun Qing only felt her heart complex: “Does the Princess truly fear Prince Yan?”

“What do you mean by that?” Yang Fu’s reddened eyes were like blades.

Qun Qing thought for a long while before saying: “If the Princess truly fears Prince Yan, then walk forward along the corridor. The second palace hall to the west is Consort Chen De’s retreat for spiritual cultivation. You can change clothes there. Prince Yan cannot conveniently enter.”

“What are you saying?” Bao Shu said. “Our Princess is going to Lady Han Wanyi’s palace for an appointment. That Consort Chen De is Fourth Prince’s birth mother. After losing her son, she’s gone mad and loves to forcibly keep people to lecture scriptures, talking about all sorts of things. Without half a day you can’t escape. You’re tricking the Princess into going there—do you think I don’t know you deliberately want to make us late?”

Qun Qing instead looked at her: “You’re going to Lady Han Wanyi’s palace today?”

She said, “That Lady Han Wanyi became pregnant just last month. It’s precisely when she needs to be careful. Why must she hold a cat?”

Bao Shu was momentarily speechless. She had advised this long ago. Unfortunately, after experiencing palace upheaval, Princess Bao’an’s heart was extremely fragile. Wherever she went, she had to hold this cat she’d raised since childhood to feel secure, or she wouldn’t go out.

“How is this your business?” Bao Shu said. “A lowly servant from Qingxuan Pavilion—do you want to interfere in our affairs too?”

Qun Qing lowered her eyes, thinking of the previous life.

This Han Wanyi, named Han Qingxu, could be considered Yang Fu’s distant half-sister from a concubine. When the Han family was in difficulties, Yang Fu’s mother Imperial Consort Han had helped Han Qingxu. After the new dynasty was established, Han Qingxu was selected to enter the palace, married Emperor Chenming, ranked among the Nine Pin Consorts. Yang Fu, this fallen princess, instead had to borrow Han Wanyi’s influence.

Bao Shu had some brains. In the previous life, Qun Qing had also brought Yang Fu to seek Han Wanyi’s help, asking her to whisper in the Sage’s ear so Yang Fu could become Crown Princess. But she remembered clearly—that day Han Wanyi was ingratiating everywhere, promised to definitely help, even came up to play with the cat. Who knew that after more than ten days, she inexplicably miscarried and pinned this disaster on Princess Bao’an, saying she’d been startled by the cat.

Yang Fu couldn’t defend herself. Though not blamed, to calm the incident, the Sage had someone kill the cat. From then on, Yang Fu bore another layer of desolation.

At least the cat was innocent.

Qun Qing extended her hand: “Before the Princess departs, may this servant take the cat and send it back to Luanyi Pavilion?”

“Give it to you?” Bao Shu laughed. She felt this person was consistently fond of showing off, overestimating herself. She didn’t mind watching a good show.

This cat was fierce, only recognizing the Princess. With others it would scratch and bite without warning. It had left several scratch marks on her wrists. Since then she didn’t even dare touch it, only wishing this beast could be killed.

The next moment, she saw Yang Fu’s expression soften. Her hand loosened. The snow-white cat suddenly leaped into Qun Qing’s hands, yet curled into her embrace like seeing its master, intimately nuzzling her neck and acting spoiled. Even its cries changed. Qun Qing remained expressionless, as if holding a cloth sack.

Bao Shu’s expression froze on her face, like spilling an ink box.

“Truly a lowly servant—fed horses and scrubbed chamber pots plenty. Even beasts recognize the smell.” Bao Shu said disdainfully. Seeing Yang Fu stride away quickly, she could only lift her skirt to follow.

Qun Qing held the cat with one hand and helped up Ruo Chan with the other. Ruo Chan had never seen such a large cat and shrank back: “Sister, how dare you hold it…” Sensing someone behind, she cried out softly and grabbed Qun Qing’s sleeve. “Sister, Prince Yan!”

Qun Qing turned her head. A bronze demon mask appeared before her.

Her feet seemed rooted. She used tremendous force to steady the cat so it wouldn’t tumble down, but this had already squeezed it, making it emit a “meow.”

It turned out Li Huan had seen Yang Fu arguing with someone from afar. Disregarding Eunuch Zheng’s dissuasion, he strode after them in large steps. Yang Fu’s skirt swam away like a goldfish. With one stride of his long legs, he actually crossed into the corridor, intercepting these two maids.

Li Huan stood nine feet tall. Standing before her was like a mountain rising from the ground. Words issued from beneath the mask, low and muffled with a humming echo: “You’re that insolent slave who humiliated Princess Bao’an that day? I haven’t yet settled accounts with you. Try being disrespectful to the Princess again.”

Not a single word of Li Huan’s reached Qun Qing’s ears. Her ears echoed with battle cries and door-crashing sounds. Amid raging fires and screams, a person wearing a bronze demon mask sat high on horseback, using a rusty longsword to pierce through her chest.

The horrifying thing was that she didn’t die then. Like a crab nailed to a chopping board with one blade, her entire face soaked in cold sweat, she could still hear Princess Bao’an’s cries for help and weeping. Yet wanting to move even one finger felt like ten thousand arrows piercing her heart.

…

People always have some shadow regarding enemies who once killed them horrifically.

Having experienced two lifetimes, she thought she could overcome it. But approaching Prince Yan, the pain of old wounds and seized breath reminded her that the fear and hatred hadn’t diminished by half.

The cat’s fur had completely bristled. It cried fiercely without stopping. Qun Qing’s face was deathly pale, generally speechless.

Li Huan couldn’t help touching his mask.

He knew his mask was somewhat frightening, but this was the first to be scared to this degree: “Why are you so nervous?”

Cold sweat covered Qun Qing’s forehead: “This servant fears she cannot hold this cat and it will scratch Your Highness.”

Eunuch Zheng had also been startled by Qun Qing’s expression. Hearing these words, he immediately couldn’t stand it: “She’s just a young lady. Your Highness is so tall—why frighten her! Quickly come with this servant. Don’t cause more trouble!”

Li Huan didn’t leave, still observing Qun Qing. This cat-holding young lady had been staring straight at him just now. Her pupils were extremely dark, as if quenched with poison, harboring evil intent—making one’s hair stand on end.

Having fought a hundred battles, having captured enemy spies—if not a hundred then fifty—he keenly sensed this atmosphere was extraordinary. When she turned to leave, he extended his hand to grasp her right shoulder.

The cat cried “meow.” Qun Qing thought: Today Li Huan’s appearance must mean the Sage is prepared to pronounce judgment on him. If Li Huan truly intended to act, she wouldn’t dodge. She only needed to be innocently victimized before Eunuch Zheng.

Li Huan had already impulsively angered the Sage. She could add one more charge of disrespecting the inner court.

Li Huan’s fingers grasped her nape. Using some technique with a squeeze, Qun Qing suddenly felt intense pain in her right arm. Cold sweat poured down.

Not right…

This move of Li Huan’s was commonly used in the military. If it were an ordinary person, naturally it would be harmless. But if one had martial skills, it would directly waste the strength trained into the right hand.

Qun Qing felt that heart-drilling pain, her expression panicking for an instant. A hand pressed Li Huan’s wrist, pushing his hand away: “San Lang, let go.”

The pressure on her shoulder suddenly released. Qun Qing smelled sandalwood surging from behind, mixed with a trace of citrus scent.

Dripping with cold sweat, Qun Qing turned her head. In the corridor stood another person. Lu Huating grasped Li Huan’s arm, backhandedly pushing him away several steps.

Lu Huating stood between the two. His gaze touched Qun Qing’s face light as cotton floss before slowly saying to Li Huan: “Your Highness, standing so close to an unfamiliar young lady—aren’t you afraid she might draw a thin blade from her sleeve and slice your throat?”

His voice was pleasing, like plucking strings—joking yet hiding sharp edges.

There were many who assassinated Prince Yan. Li Huan understood this warning, thus forgiving Lu Huating for gripping his wrist so forcefully. He only forcefully dusted his robe once to show displeasure.

Eunuch Zheng saw salvation: “Chief Clerk Lu has come! The Sage summoned him with great difficulty. Prince Yan doesn’t take his own prospects seriously!”

Lu Huating said: “Eunuch Zheng, quickly bring San Lang to audience with the Sage. Absolutely must not delay this matter.”

Between words, Qun Qing glimpsed Lu Huating passing over a paper slip. Li Huan skillfully hid it in his sleeve before being led away by Eunuch Zheng.

Qun Qing’s gaze was like a cold blade. Understood—came specially to deliver cheat notes.

Blocking between her and Li Huan—very afraid she’d act to assassinate Li Huan? Intercepting so timely just now, probably also fearing Prince Yan would cause more trouble…

Lu Huating turned his head—in sunlight a face like pearl and jade. Ruo Chan hurried to say: “We servants are palace maids from Good Lady Zheng’s palace. We met passing by, never offending Prince Yan.”

“With your face swollen like this, you still say you didn’t offend? What’s your name?” Lu Huating asked Ruo Chan.

Ruo Chan not only told her own but sold out Qun Qing too: “In response to the gentleman, this servant is Ruo Chan. Elder sister is called Qun Qing. This wasn’t Prince Yan who hit—it was Princess Bao’an.”

At these words, Lu Huating suddenly looked toward Qun Qing.