Bu Shulin’s face immediately stiffened.

Tianyuan’s words couldn’t be clearer—the Crown Prince knew she was a woman!

How could the Crown Prince know this?

Though Bu Shulin’s heart was filled with shock and doubt, she never once suspected Shen Xihe, knowing that wasn’t the kind of person she was.

“Don’t worry, Young Master. The Crown Prince has known this matter for five years,” Tianyuan said. Not knowing if Bu Shulin might suspect Shen Xihe, but following Xiao Huayong’s specific instructions, they couldn’t let Bu Shulin’s suspicions about the leaked secret fall on Shen Xihe.

Indeed, Xiao Huayong not only knew Bu Shulin was a woman but also knew that Shen Xihe was aware of this fact.

Given Shen Xihe’s personality, if Bu Shulin hadn’t been a woman, she wouldn’t have tolerated her frequent visits to the Princess’s residence.

Even Xie Yunhuai, her physician, only reported every few days and at most occasionally stayed for dinner.

Bu Shulin alone was different. Though the people of the capital knew of Bu Shulin’s close association with Shen Xihe, they didn’t think much of it. After all, they were both in similar situations—hostages in the capital. One without achievements, the other a frail lady. Even if they were plotting something, without concrete evidence, no one dared make baseless accusations.

Tianyuan’s words not only informed Bu Shulin that the revelation of her identity had nothing to do with Shen Xihe but also subtly conveyed that since the Crown Prince had known for so long if he’d meant her harm, he wouldn’t have waited until now.

Bu Shulin set aside her playful demeanor and bowed to Tianyuan: “Might I ask how His Highness came to know this?”

Tianyuan explained knowingly: “His Highness instructed that if Young Master Bu inquires, to tell you truthfully—there are His Highness’s people in the Shunan Prince’s household.”

Bu Shulin was even more shocked. The Shunan Prince’s household was just like the Northwestern Prince’s—filled with others’ spies. But such matters would only be known to trusted confidants, so Tianyuan was telling Bu Shulin that one of her father’s right-hand men had pledged allegiance to the Crown Prince.

“Guard Cao, please convey to His Highness that this humble servant obeys,” Bu Shulin said solemnly.

She wasn’t particularly panicked, not because she trusted the Crown Prince greatly. As a woman—a woman who had never let her guard down at the center of power—she was like Shen Xihe, never easily trusting men who played with power.

The Crown Prince’s decision not to expose her now wasn’t out of kindness, but rather saving it for future use, like now.

If the Crown Prince were to ascend the throne in the future, destroying the Bu family of Shunan would be as simple as charging them with deceiving the emperor.

But what could they do? Try every possible method now to prevent Xiao Huayong from ascending to the throne. Let alone whether they could succeed, any suspicious movement would give Xiao Huayong reason to immediately expose her male disguise.

What kept her calm was Shen Xihe. Shen Xihe had chosen to ally with the Eastern Palace, and compared to Shunan, the Northwest was the real internal threat. If Xiao Huayong could tolerate the Northwest, he could tolerate Shunan.

If Xiao Huayong couldn’t tolerate Shunan and moved against them, Shen Xihe would face the crisis of “when the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold.” She would fall out with Xiao Huayong, and then she and Shen Xihe would still share a common enemy.

She never placed hope in anyone, but at this moment, she deeply believed Shen Xihe wouldn’t disappoint her.

As long as she and Shen Xihe remained truly sincere friends, their resolution would either be winning together or losing together.

Tianyuan merely smiled and quickly vanished, appearing and disappearing without a trace.

“Such excellent lightness skill,” Bu Shulin returned to her usual carefree manner.

She fingered the medicine bottle in her hand, and upon returning home, opened several jars of strong wine—men of the grasslands would surely like this kind of potent alcohol.

The next day, Bu Shulin again used stomach pain as an excuse to avoid her duty shift and went to wait at the flower house first. After flirting with several flower maidens and finding it boring, she set up a drinking contest, offering a precious sword as a reward—whoever could outdrink her would win the sword.

This immediately attracted many young nobles, but none could win.

Today, Mu Nuha had come to tour the flower houses with Ning Qifan, the young master from the Court of State Ceremonials. This young master had invited him several times, which he had declined, but seeing that the young master didn’t invite him alone and daily conversed cheerfully with others from other regions, it seemed purely an act of hospitality.

Having refused several times, it became truly difficult to decline further, so he came today. They had visited several places, originally not intending to come to this flower house because the young master from the Court of State Ceremonials had heard Bu Shulin was here, and he didn’t get along with Bu Shulin.

But when word of Bu Shulin’s challenge spread, his interest was piqued, and sure enough, seeing the precious sword tied with red silk hanging above, his eyes immediately showed greed.

“Young Master Bu, let me challenge you,” Ning Qifan sat opposite Bu Shulin at the challenge table.

Bu Shulin was currently lounging against a beauty’s shoulder, sitting sideways with one leg lazily extended from behind the table. She opened her mouth to accept the pastry the beauty fed her, and only after eating it contentedly did she wave her hand, having Yinshan place a jar of wine before Ning Qifan: “Young master has already competed with others. After drinking this jar, you must first finish this one to qualify for continuing the competition with the young master.”

Bu Shulin wasn’t foolish—she wouldn’t allow group challenges. She kept a record of how much she drank with each person, and later challengers had to first drink the amount she had consumed before they could compete with her.

Ning Qifan was straightforward, lifting the wine jar and gulping it down boldly, earning cheers from countless onlookers.

Bu Shulin waited until he finished before speaking with slight disgust: “Nearly half a jar of wine was spilled.”

“Are you trying to disqualify—” Ning Qifan protested.

“Young master will let it slide. Yinshan, bring him wine!” Yinshan brought two more jars. To prevent challengers from complaining of unfairness, they always let the challenger choose first, then handed the remaining jar directly to Bu Shulin.

Ning Qifan opened each jar, hefted them, found their scent and weight identical, and then grabbed one at random.

After another half jar between them, Ning Qifan’s face was completely red, his gaze unfocused, while Bu Shulin’s eyes remained clear, though two spots of red had appeared on her cheeks. Ning Qifan gritted his teeth and drank another small half jar, but finally couldn’t withstand the burning in his chest and bent over to vomit.

Ning Qifan’s servants came to persuade him, but the drunk Ning Qifan pushed them away: “I want this precious sword, I must beat this… this Bu fellow!”

After finishing the remainder of the jar, Ning Qifan couldn’t support himself anymore, lying in his servant’s arms with unfocused eyes, but whoever tried to take him away, he wouldn’t go and would even bite them.

Seeing this, Bu Shulin said: “Little Ning Two, you better return home, otherwise when your father comes, watch out for your backside blooming!”

“You… urgh…” Ning Qifan vomited as soon as he opened his mouth.

Mu Nuha had originally not wanted to participate, but he carefully examined that sword—it was a blade that could cut iron like mud, unique in this world: “Young Master, is this sword the Song Yue blade?”

Song Yue was a person’s name, famous for forging swords. For each size of blade, he only kept the best one and destroyed all others.

“Indeed it is,” Bu Shulin said with a curl of her lips.

“Mu Nuha will compete with Young Master Bu.”