Li Zhaoting’s brow furrowed as he immediately stood up, taking Si Lanfeng and Xiao Si to open the door.

He saw dozens of imperial guards surrounding a woman outside the palace. Though her appearance was ugly and frightening, her eyes shone brightly with urgency. Seeing Li Zhaoting, she quickly knelt down.

“Your martial arts are quite impressive. There are no fewer than ten guards in front of the Noble Consort’s door, yet you broke through. But this is the emperor’s main palace, guarded by elite soldiers with countless imperial guards around. No matter how good your martial arts, you can’t match them. Why don’t you surrender quickly!” Though Si Lanfeng often showed favoritism toward Suzhen, when it concerned Li Zhaoting’s safety, he still drew his sword and shouted.

But Li Zhaoting stopped him and asked in a suppressed voice, “Why does your mistress have an unbreaking fever?”

“After my mistress returned from Your Majesty’s bedchamber, she’s been absent-minded. Last night she sat in the courtyard all night, caught a chill, and today the Empress came saying she might have harmed Your Majesty’s heir. My mistress was upset and wouldn’t stop drinking. Later she developed a fever and kept talking nonsense.” The woman replied with a bitter smile.

“If she has a fever, why don’t you properly call the imperial physician for treatment instead of coming to me!” Li Zhaoting gritted his teeth slightly.

“We did call one, but she won’t drink the medicine—” the female constable said pitifully, but saw Li Zhaoting had already waved his sleeve and strode out the door.

Si Lanfeng wiped his sweat and sheathed his sword.

Seeing Li Zhaoting hurriedly enter the side palace, Steward Guo quickly led Chen Jiao and little Lu to greet him with urgent expressions on their faces. Li Zhaoting said nothing and directly stepped forward, kicking open the door.

Inside, Suzhen was leaning crookedly against the bed’s footboard, eyes slightly closed, drunk and bleary-eyed, her cheeks rosy as powder, mumbling something while waving a wine pot in her hand.

Pottery shards were scattered all over the floor. The scent of medicine lingered faintly.

Li Zhaoting was furious at the sight. He stepped forward and snatched the wine pot, throwing it to the ground. Suzhen heard the noise and opened her eyes groggily, cursing, “Little Lu, you’re rebelling! How dare you touch my wine!”

She reached out her foot and kicked hard at his leg. Li Zhaoting hadn’t expected her to be so unruly and wasn’t prepared. His foot hurt, and veins bulged on his forehead, but he couldn’t hit back. With an iron-gray face, he picked her up. Just as he was about to throw her roughly onto the bed, at the last moment he couldn’t bring himself to do it. As he tucked her into the bedding, she slapped him across the face.

Li Zhaoting wanted to strangle her on the spot! He gritted his teeth, sat down, clamped his arm, and forcibly held down her hands, then turned back to order, “Medicine, sobering soup—bring them over!”

“Yes, yes…” The crowd who had followed in were already dumbstruck. Xiao Zhou, disguised as a female constable, stared at Li Zhaoting with slightly darkened eyes.

Soon, soup and medicine arrived. Steward Guo personally brought them to Li Zhaoting and respectfully said, “Your Majesty, this servant will feed the mistress her medicine.”

Li Zhaoting coldly interrupted her, “Put them on the couch. All of you withdraw. She’s a little tyrant—you can’t handle her.”

His brow was deeply furrowed, his gaze even more gloomy as clouds, yet his tone carried a trace of helplessness.

Xiao Si looked at the red mark on Li Zhaoting’s face and glared hatefully at Suzhen, but Si Lanfeng pulled him out. Steward Guo also withdrew with the others. Xiao Zhou left last, her eyes slightly downcast as she departed.

Li Zhaoting sat on the bed, held Suzhen in his arms, picked up the sobering soup, pinched her nose, and poured it down. Suzhen wouldn’t cooperate, and during the struggle, soup spilled all over him. Li Zhaoting, who always loved cleanliness, took a deep breath and looked at her sternly, “If you keep making trouble, I’ll feed you mouth to mouth.”

The semi-conscious Suzhen seemed to understand this warning. Things went much smoother afterward. When Li Zhaoting finished and got up, he stared at her coldly. This person had always known how to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages since childhood. Now she so detested his touch, though previously she had dreamed of it.

He looked down at the mess on his dragon robe, then glanced at the soup stains on her body. Finally, instead of attending to himself, he went to the cabinet in her room to get clean outer robes and changed her clothes. Then he tucked her into the inner side and lay down beside her after removing his boots. Suddenly, she groggily opened her eyes, reached out to hug his neck, and said softly, “Zhaoting.”

“Don’t go to Aluo’s place, okay? Aren’t we supposed to be like before?”

Li Zhaoting’s heart shook, his emotions stirred. He turned over wanting to lean over her, then suddenly pushed her away, quickly got out of bed to put on his boots, and left without looking back.

Suzhen slowly sat up, her eyes no longer confused but completely clear.

She had held the wine in her mouth for a few moments before spitting it out. The alcohol smell on her body was also artificially created. The fever was Xiao Zhou’s handiwork—she had used a harmless drug. The sobering soup and medicine were also prepared by Xiao Zhou.

To say he was completely unmoved seemed untrue. She had deliberately hit him, yet he hadn’t gotten angry. But he suddenly left.

She had already prepared to be intimate with him, but—

She couldn’t fathom his thoughts.

Damn it! She pounded the bed hard with her fist. Time was running out.

Outside the palace, Steward Guo and the others saw Li Zhaoting come out. Not knowing what had happened inside, but seeing his stern face without any words about punishing the previous intrusion, they tremblingly saw him off. Xiao Zhou’s eyes held unclear meaning.

Si Lanfeng followed Li Zhaoting away, also very puzzled. He had thought Li Zhaoting would stay the night. Seeing Li Zhaoting’s inscrutable expression, after walking for a while, he couldn’t help asking, “Your Majesty, did the Noble Consort upset you again?”

“No,” Li Zhaoting answered lightly.

His tone was light, but when he spoke, his mouth curved slightly. Si Lanfeng and Xiao Si were even more puzzled, not understanding. At this time, Si Lanfeng heard him say softly, “You can’t always be too good to someone. If you do, she’ll take you for granted instead. Just wait.”

Si Lanfeng hadn’t expected this to be his thinking and couldn’t help smiling. Xiao Si hadn’t been listening carefully and suddenly shouted loudly, “Your Majesty, what about the Empress? Did you forget? You should hurry over.”

But Li Zhaoting said, “Go tell her I won’t be going tonight.”

Xiao Si frowned in confusion. Si Lanfeng wondered if he was considering Suzhen’s feelings and didn’t want her to be unhappy, but he really couldn’t fathom Li Zhaoting’s thoughts. While pondering, Li Zhaoting had already walked far away.

Returning to his bedchamber, Li Zhaoting washed and read memorials for a while, pondering several issues with a furrowed brow. After quite some time passed, he was about to retire when eunuchs reported that the Empress was outside seeking an audience. Li Zhaoting had wanted to have them report he was already asleep, but after thinking briefly, he finally went out.

Aluo stood outside the palace, cold and lonely, without anyone accompanying her. Seeing him approach, she spoke softly, “I heard you went to Feng Suzhen’s place. I’m not here to complain or resent, just to say I missed you. I was particularly disappointed about the imperial physician’s diagnosis today.”

Li Zhaoting looked at her warmly, “I didn’t come over because I was afraid of disturbing your rest late at night. Come.”

He stepped forward and embraced her. Aluo had been slightly downcast at first, but seeing this, she finally smiled slightly. Though happy in her heart, she also felt dark anger and melancholy. Fortunately, tonight he had only visited Feng Suzhen briefly without staying overnight. He still cared about her feelings. She couldn’t be too forceful or confront him directly. Though he loved her, given his current status, he couldn’t possibly accommodate her forever.

For the next several days, Suzhen still couldn’t get an audience with Li Zhaoting. Though anxious, since the previous method hadn’t worked, she didn’t plan to repeat it. During these days, according to Steward Guo’s reports, Li Zhaoting visited Aluo’s palace frequently, followed by Miaoyin’s and Wei Wulei’s.

Aluo didn’t come to whisper to her again. But she knew neither Aluo nor Wei Wulei would give up easily.

Fortunately, this time Li Zhaoting hadn’t put Wuqing under house arrest and still allowed him to enter the inner palace to visit her. And Quan Feitong seemed to have reached some kind of cooperative relationship with Wuqing, sending letters to her through him.

The letters mostly mentioned court affairs. He seemed intentionally wanting her to better understand his recent situation, and perhaps his efforts too.

Among these, the Wei family’s affairs caught Suzhen’s attention.

It turned out Li Zhaoting intended to cultivate his own military power. He already had several deputy generals in the Wei army who were completely loyal to him. Recently he discovered a common soldier who had very good insights and courage in military campaigns. Though somewhat arrogant, Li Zhaoting still planned to promote him. But this person was killed by Wei Wujun on a pretext—the reason being the man’s unruly character and improper handling of military affairs.

In reality, Wei Chenghui had considered having Wei Wujun make an example by killing someone to warn others, but was hesitant, fearing it would anger Li Zhaoting. Quan Feitong had Chao Huang observe in the army. Knowing this, he deliberately had Chao Huang secretly incite the soldier to provoke Wei Wujun. In a rage, Wei Wujun killed him.

This was the first matter.

The second involved another old fox familiar to them—their old friend, Huang Zhongyue.

It turned out Huang Zhongyue had no sons but two daughters. His younger daughter was still unmarried but had grown exceptionally beautiful and was engaged to a wealthy merchant’s son. Wei Wujun had once accidentally seen Miss Huang and was quite taken with her, proposing marriage to the Huang family. Huang Zhongyue was willing to marry into the Wei family but also liked the merchant’s son. However, Wei Wujun was already engaged—to the daughter of the former Jin Prince’s party member, now the Minister of Personnel in the new dynasty. If his daughter married into the Wei family, she definitely couldn’t be the primary wife, and his daughter was attached to her fiancé and detested Wei Wujun. So Huang Zhongyue ultimately chose the merchant’s son. The problem came when they met at a tavern—an argument ensued, Wei Wujun severely injured the man, even disabling him. Miss Huang threatened suicide over this.

These two incidents combined—the latter might be forgivable, but the former truly enraged Li Zhaoting. The Wei family was showing signs of tyranny. He wanted to severely punish Wei Wujun as a warning to the Wei family, but was constrained by his relationship with Wei Chenghui and lacked a good method.