Bai Jintong sighed. She had spent such great effort and silver arranging chess pieces around the Yan Empress Dowager, and now she didn’t know if they were dead or alive.

Just as the carriage was swaying and turning into Nanchang Lane, a figure hidden in the shadows and shivering from the cold saw the character “Cui” on the carriage lantern and immediately rushed out.

But before she could get close, she was stopped by the accompanying guards drawing their swords…

Meng Zhaorong was startled, her face beneath the hood turning deathly pale.

Watching the carriage about to pass by her through the snow pellets, she opened her eyes wide. Disregarding the cold, gleaming blade before her, she stepped forward and called out softly: “Gonghang! Gonghang! Gonghang, it’s me! Gonghang… I’m Zhaorong!”

The Meng family had already fallen. Madam Meng had paid an enormous price to help her escape, instructing her to hide her identity from now on and never forget that she was the daughter of Minister Meng. As long as she could live this lifetime, that would be enough. Otherwise, if she went with Madam Meng and the others, she would inevitably end up in the Jiaofang Bureau, and her life would be ruined.

On the night Meng Zhaorong was sent away, Madam Meng had her personal maid dress in Meng Zhaorong’s clothes and strangle her to death in the prison cell. After watching the remaining Meng family women all hang themselves, she too departed this world.

Meng Zhaorong, trembling with fear, heard the news of her mother’s suicide and felt her heart and liver splitting with grief. Not knowing where to go… she could only think of Cui Fengnian, who had once helped her regardless of everything, hoping to obtain Cui Fengnian’s protection.

Inside the carriage, Bai Jintong heard Meng Zhaorong’s suppressed voice, afraid to call out loudly. She opened her eyes but didn’t have the carriage stop. She only used her finger to gently part the carriage curtain slightly, vaguely seeing Meng Zhaorong wanting to chase the carriage, but also fearing the guards, and shrinking back. She calmly let the curtain fall, pretending not to have heard, only lightly gripping the red gold hand warmer carved with plum blossoms in her hand.

Bai Jinzhi considered herself not a heartless person, but even benevolence… couldn’t be misplaced.

Watching the Cui family carriage get farther and farther away, Meng Zhaorong still wanted to chase, when she heard the Cui family guards loudly scold: “Miss, if you continue to pester us, we’ll have no choice but to take you to see the authorities!”

Hearing the words “see the authorities,” Meng Zhaorong’s expression became more frightening than if she’d seen a ghost, and she turned and stumbled away in flight.

Bai Jinxiu rode the carriage back to the Cui mansion. Bending down to exit the carriage, she saw Danzhi and her maid standing outside the main gate, waiting for her, smiling gracefully as they bowed to him.

“Husband has returned…” Danzhi’s voice was gentle and very pleasant. She handed the hand warmer to her maid, took the oil-paper umbrella from the maid’s hand, and with one hand lifting her skirt hem and the other holding the umbrella, she went to meet Bai Jinxiu as he descended from the carriage.

At the Cui mansion gate hung New Year lanterns, their round red glow making the front of the Cui mansion extremely festive. Danzhi wore a simple household hairstyle and a pomegranate-red gold-sprinkled silk jacket. Though the clothing appeared ordinary, the buttons were adorned with pearls of uniform size and lustrous quality, perfectly complementing the earrings at her temples, making her look like the wife of an official from some government family.

“Didn’t I say I’d return late tonight and told you to rest early…” Bai Jinxiu took the umbrella from Danzhi’s hand and wrapped her in his cloak, fully displaying the manner of a wealthy lord who doted on his concubine.

“This is all that a concubine should do!” Danzhi’s ears turned red as she spoke softly, seeming shy.

After escorting Danzhi back to the main room, while Danzhi was serving Bai Jinxiu’s bath, news arrived from outside saying that the Empress Dowager had left the palace for the traveling palace, and many imperial relatives from the Murong clan who heard the news had personally gone to see off the Empress Dowager.

Bai Jinxiu sat in the steaming bathtub while the messenger remained outside the door.

Originally, this Yan Empress Dowager should have been sent to the traveling palace immediately after the Regent exposed her collaboration with Minister Meng in drugging the Emperor. At that time, the Murong imperial family elders had intervened, asking the Emperor to calm his anger and allowing the Empress Dowager to spend the New Year in the palace before leaving.

Now that the New Year had passed and the Empress Dowager was leaving… despite knowing that the Empress Dowager had committed the grave error of drugging the Emperor, some Murong imperial clan relatives had banded together to block the Empress Dowager’s carriage. Not knowing what the Empress Dowager had said to the Murong imperial clan relatives, some of them had grouped to enter the palace to see the Emperor, while others accompanied the Emperor outside the palace gates.

“This Yan Empress Dowager can indeed be considered a formidable figure. To still have such status within the Murong imperial clan, clearly knowing that the Empress Dowager was being sent to the traveling palace for house arrest by the Emperor, yet they still dared to rely on their seniority to block the Yan Empress Dowager’s carriage!” Bai Jinxiu rested her hand on the bathtub edge. “I wonder if we could find a way to discover what the Empress Dowager said to those Murong imperial family elders?”

“This subordinate will have people try!”

“Be careful. Now our Cui mansion is being watched very closely. Don’t expose the Cui mansion.” Bai Jintong said.

The current Cui mansion was being watched very tightly, even though her brother-in-law, the Yan Regent, was not in Yan’s capital.

Even today’s news about the Empress Dowager’s departure had come through the pretext of Bai Jintong attending a banquet with Yan capital friends tonight, with her people disguised as servants from a friend’s mansion coming to deliver a jade pendant that Bai Jintong had supposedly left behind.

The Yan Empress Dowager, braving wind and snow, leaving for the traveling palace under Imperial Guard escort, stirred up enormous waves within the Murong imperial clan. The Murong imperial family couldn’t understand why, after Murong Li ascended to become Emperor, he would be so ruthless toward his mother. In such heavy wind and snow, couldn’t he wait until tomorrow to send the Empress Dowager away?

Therefore, the Murong imperial family elders and clan seniors, to display their status as family elders and to show they were the Emperor’s elders, gathered together to enter the palace overnight. Taking advantage of Xiao Rongyan’s absence, they relied on their seniority and used filial piety to pressure Murong Li against sending the Empress Dowager to the traveling palace.

Their Yan Regent, though part of the Murong imperial clan, was not a soft-hearted person like Murong Yu. Xiao Rongyan didn’t let Murong Li bear the burden of offending the imperial clan relatives, but instead charged ahead himself, reorganizing the Murong imperial clan relatives and shielding Murong Li behind him.

Initially, when supporting little A’Li’s ascension, if there were troublesome clan elders, Xiao Rongyan would use his authority as Regent to banish them back to Yan’s former capital, Li Yi. Those who refused to comply had their entire families killed by Xiao Rongyan without mercy, showing no consideration for face. Therefore, the imperial clan members felt more fear than anything else toward Xiao Rongyan, so they restrained their claws in Xiao Rongyan’s presence, becoming as docile as declawed cats.

Previously, when Xiao Rongyan was present, these Murong imperial clan members were all very obedient. Whatever Xiao Rongyan said, they would do, maintaining an attitude of trembling reverence and complete compliance with Xiao Rongyan’s commands.

It was precisely because Xiao Rongyan saw that the clan members had gradually become docile, and since the Murong imperial clan members, despite having internal conflicts, had always shown unprecedented unity when facing external threats—for instance, during Yan’s most difficult times, the Murong imperial clan members had all donated their family wealth without anyone holding back.