Looking up, Suzhen saw it was Xiaozhou and the others.

She covered her mouth from embarrassment, but they were worried she might do something drastic.

Before the quick-tongued Zhuiming could start comforting her, Suzhen was already pointing at Xiaozhou in shock: “Why are you in my house?”

Xiaozhou smiled charmingly, “I’ve decided to move in.”

Suzhen burst into tears on the spot: “Did you get the homeowner’s permission?”

Xiaozhou said, “Where’s the homeowner? Let me ask him.”

Suzhen was furious: “I am that homeowner! Don’t play dumb with me—pack your bags and get out immediately.”

Xiaozhou’s face immediately turned stern as he pointed at the other four: “Li Huaisu, you’re unfair! Why do they all get housing allowances while I don’t?”

Hearing this, Zhuiming got angry: “But we don’t get salaries!”

…

Later, in a group battle, Xiaozhou fought one against four in a war of words, entering as if into an empty realm. Leng Xue played it cool, Wuqing only opened his golden mouth when he thought it was important, Tieshou liked practical matters, only Zhuiming… Suzhen was completely ignored. The final discussion result was that everyone would get full benefits and be treated equally.

Suzhen was furious and decided to go for a walk. But just as she left the courtyard, the middle-aged butler Fu Bo that the court had assigned rushed over, smiling: “My lord, there’s a visitor. He’s waiting in the main hall.”

“Who?”

Suzhen was slightly surprised. It was already past nightfall—who could be visiting? She didn’t know many people in the capital. Could it be that Lian Xin again?

Seeing her puzzlement, Fu Bo immediately fulfilled his duty: “He says he’s called Sixth Young Master, along with his entourage.”

“Oh, receive him well.”

After saying this, Suzhen was stunned. At this moment, Leng Xue and the others were chasing after her. She pushed them away and shouted: “Quick, quick, quick—close the gates and release the dogs!”

Fu Bo was somewhat troubled: “My lord, our courtyard only keeps some geese…”

Suzhen didn’t care about all that and said: “Then release the geese, release anything! Don’t say I’m home. I’ll double everyone’s wages.”

She fled back to her room and with a bang, immediately locked the door from inside.

She sat restlessly in the room, only hoping that scoundrel Lian Yu would leave quickly. After the time it takes to drink tea, she miserably discovered she was hungry, remembering she had only eaten breakfast before going to work today.

The whole day had been tense, and now that things were quiet, her body finally reacted.

She wanted to go find food but feared Lian Yu hadn’t left yet.

After a while longer, it remained quiet outside, and she didn’t see Leng Xue and the others coming to report. She bit her teeth, walked to the door, but ultimately withdrew her hand and crept back to bed.

Just as she sat down, she heard someone knocking at the door.

She was startled and hurriedly asked: “Who?”

“Me.”

In the candlelight’s projection, a tall silhouette dimly appeared on the door screen. Though she couldn’t see who it was clearly, it definitely sounded like Leng Xue’s voice. Suzhen sighed in relief and walked toward the door saying: “Has Lian Yu left? What did that annoying fellow come for?”

“I came to find you. Did you forget? I already said this morning that I… annoying?”

The visitor said methodically.

Suzhen was stunned, then screamed and desperately tried to close the door. But Lian Yu pressed one hand against the door panel and stepped inside with one foot. How could Suzhen overpower him? She immediately fell flat on her face.

Lian Yu was not polite either, finding himself a chair to sit in. Suzhen scrambled up, pointing at him in shock and anger: “Your Your Majesty, how do you have Leng Xue’s voice?”

Lian Yu placed what he was holding on the table: “I listened and with slight mimicry, that’s all. You seem quite close to him.”

Suzhen was going crazy. Forgetting that Lian Yu could sentence her to death, she said: “They are my people! I clearly said I wasn’t home—how could they possibly let you in?”

Lian Yu waved the folding fan in his hand: “Everyone has weaknesses. I said I’d triple their wages.”

Triple wages… Suzhen immediately fell silent. After a long while, she muttered: “Leng Xue is a trusted confidant I brought from my hometown—he has integrity and can’t be bought with your money.”

“Oh, him. I had Baihu fight with him. He was too embarrassed to fight with a woman and got beaten to the ground.”

After hearing this, Suzhen couldn’t find any words to respond and could only get straight to the point with a forced smile: “Your Majesty, may I ask what brings you to find Huaisu? How can Huaisu serve you?”

Lian Yu glanced at the distance between them that required raised voices for conversation: “I came to discuss the Mochou case with you. You… thought I came for what?”

Suzhen was shocked and immediately walked over: “What more is there to discuss about this case? This subject misunderstood Your Majesty—it’s my fault.”

“Do you want to overturn the verdict?”

Lian Yu’s pupils, dark as light ink, showed hints of amusement, like a well-bred young master from a wealthy family—noble, handsome, and harmless.

Suzhen was immediately stunned. To say she wasn’t surprised and delighted would be lying. But with things having reached this point, with the corpses taken to fertilize fields, how could there be an appeal? She had to suspect whether this man had come from the boring palace at night to amuse himself with her.

“What, you don’t want to?”

“I do, I do, but…”

“Mm, then fine. Agree to one condition of mine and I’ll find a way to help you overturn the verdict. Of course, I don’t guarantee success.”

This person’s eyes still held that gentle, relaxed smile, making her momentarily forget his crude behavior in the alley, only remembering his graceful manner when he helped her up in the great hall. Her heart tightened—if anyone in this world could contend with Quan Feitong, it would be none other than this person.

Not just because of power and influence!

She was overjoyed and bowed deeply: “Your Majesty, whatever you need this subject to do, I will dedicate myself completely until death.”

She regretted her words immediately. Wait, what condition did he want her to agree to? He had just smiled like Zhaoting, and she forgot to ask first—

Lian Yu’s lips curved slightly: “No rush. I brought you something—eat first. After eating, we’ll go out and discuss with Seventh Brother and the others.”

Suzhen was somewhat flattered. Though she couldn’t understand it, she’d treat the alley incident as an accident. As Baihu had said before, how could ordinary people like them understand the emperor’s thoughts? Otherwise we could be emperors too—maybe he just found it amusing to toy with her like this. That must be it.

She excitedly opened the exquisite food box on the table. Looking inside, she found exactly the almond cakes she loved to eat.

She was hungry and delighted, grabbing a piece to eat: “Your Majesty, how did you know this subject likes eating these? Your Majesty truly has divine foresight.”

Lian Yu stared at her mouth full of crumbs: “Oh, this morning when you and I were kissing, your mouth had exactly this almond flavor.”

Suzhen hadn’t had time to swallow the cake in her mouth and sprayed it all over herself with a “puff.”

Regarding the previous chapter, readers may have questions about bathing together and sharing beds—why couldn’t one recognize the other, and one couldn’t tell gender? It’s not an issue of intelligence or eyesight, nor is Suzhen underdeveloped. Rather, who was bathing? How did they share beds? The complete story will be explained later. Please don’t worry yet.

Also, everyone knows there are men with feminine features, so various clever people didn’t suspect Suzhen’s gender during casual interactions, but discovered the truth only in later, more intimate contact. If we were to be strictly realistic, then Mulan serving in the army for twelve years without her comrades knowing she was a woman, and stories like Liang Zhu and “The Female Prince Consort” would all be impossible. To make the narrative more reasonable, I’ve repeatedly emphasized Suzhen’s skillful male disguise, and included Lian Yu having seen her bathe, so her female identity wouldn’t be suspected and revealed due to the embrace and kiss.

Another point: the court has its laws. If Lian Yu had known early on that Suzhen was a woman, he would never have allowed her to take the palace examination—otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. Though this story has much humor and jest, reasonableness was something I considered carefully before writing, and I hope it won’t disappoint everyone.

Some readers may not like this pseudo-same-sex love, but I feel love itself has no gender—only the right and wrong we assign to it. I don’t believe Shanbo never had romantic feelings before knowing Yingtai was a woman—do you?