Song Jue and Song Yan were already waiting for her at the Cui residence. She had come out under the pretext of visiting Princess Duanhui’s residence—Ma San had told her to keep things from Zhou Weizhao as much as possible, so before coming, she hadn’t told Zhou Weizhao that Ma San and the others had returned. Instead, she said she was going out to check on Old Madam Cui.

Old Madam Cui had arrived in the capital around the second month after her wedding. Although the water bandits between Jinzhong and the capital had all been executed and the waterways had become much calmer, even without anyone causing trouble, it still took Old Madam Cui a full three months or more. She had fallen ill in the Tianshui Town area and had no choice but to recuperate for a while before continuing her journey. By the time she reached the capital, she had lost a full circle of weight. Recently, Song Chuyi had often come out to see her, so her saying she wanted to leave the palace this time was still reasonable and proper.

Before Song Jue could speak, Song Yan came forward first. In private, they never needed to perform those grand ceremonies, so he naturally called out “Elder Sister” and asked somewhat puzzled, “Why didn’t brother-in-law come along?”

Actually, he still wanted to ask why they had to come to the Cui residence in private as before, using the Cui residence as cover before going to the residence where they needed to handle business. Before Song Chuyi could open her mouth, Song Jue spoke first. “It’s near the end of the year. His Highness has to perform the Heaven Sacrifice on behalf of the Emperor this year. The Ministry of Rites is so busy their feet are kicking the backs of their heads—where would His Highness have time to come along?”

That wasn’t what Song Yan had wanted to ask, but seeing Song Jue interrupt, he knew this question couldn’t be pursued further. He simply didn’t ask anymore and smiled at Song Chuyi. “Grandmother and Aunt are waiting for you.”

The hour was still early, so naturally she should first go see Old Madam Cui and Princess Duanhui. Song Chuyi passed through the red plum forest blooming proudly in the snow and turned to the courtyard where Old Madam Cui was currently residing.

Cui Huayi and Cui Hualuan were just coming out from inside. Upon seeing her, they hurriedly performed their bows. Song Chuyi told them to rise. She entered the room and before she could speak, she saw Old Madam Cui tremblingly standing up to perform a bow.

Clearly she had said many times that such grand ceremonies weren’t necessary, but Old Madam Cui was always this cautious. “These are extraordinary times. In all matters, it’s better to be cautious. We cannot add trouble for them.”

The “them” she spoke of naturally referred to Cui Shaoting, Cui Yingshu, and the Cui family. Right now, Cui Shaoting had to deal with the Tatars, Han Zhengqing, and Prince Gong in the northwest, while Cui Yingshu had to withstand pressure to minimize the disaster situation in Hubei. At this time, the censors in the court somehow already had several waves of memorials impeaching Cui Shaoting for incompetence and the Cui family for land seizure.

Old Madam Cui didn’t want to give people more ammunition, lest it make things difficult for Cui Shaoting and Cui Yingshu who were doing great things.

Song Chuyi stepped forward quickly to support Old Madam Cui, shaking her head somewhat helplessly as she called out “Grandmother.” Then she heard Old Madam Cui ask, “Have matters been handled properly?”

Song Chuyi nodded. Yu Shi helped her support Old Madam Cui as they sat down, then looked at Song Chuyi with somewhat grave expression. “The Tatars have already attacked through Zijing Pass…”

The next place would be Tongzhou. The common people who had previously felt nothing major would happen finally couldn’t help panicking. Even the censors in the court were memorializing one after another saying that Cui Shaoting was incompetent, that Cui Shaoting acted arbitrarily and dictatorially, forcing Han Zhengqing to rebel.

Emperor Jianzhang had punished several censors who kept crying and making scenes at court, but this was utterly useless. The voices in the court demanding a change of generals had grown even louder.

Even Princess Duanhui’s face was haggard. “Now Her Majesty the Empress has fallen ill again, and the officials are all arguing their own positions fiercely…”

These weren’t even the critical matters. The critical matter was actually that provisions and fodder were extremely tight. This year’s autumn harvest wasn’t very ideal. Places like Hubei had suffered such great disasters, and Jiangxi had stumbled along due to last year’s floods. In Fujian, military expenses were increasing day by day…

Old Madam Cui’s expression was heavy. “Ice three feet thick is not frozen in a single day.”

These matters hadn’t erupted all at once—they had accumulated over many years. Prince Gong and the Crown Prince fought, the Crown Prince and Prince Duan fought. These people, bit by bit, had brought things to the current state.

Prince Gong and Han Zhengqing merely knew the court’s current situation and were exploiting it.

As these words were spoken, everyone in the room looked rather unwell. Song Yan couldn’t help but sigh. “Yes, my teacher also said that people who can throw away their dignity are the most terrifying.”

Because they had no sense of shame, naturally they didn’t care about reputation, and naturally would stop at nothing.

Princess Duanhui coughed several times. She hadn’t slept well for a long time recently. Although Ye Jingkuan had brought back news that Cui Yingshu had already caught Jiang Tianping, Ye Jingkuan had also said that once Jiang Tianping got into trouble, some of his subordinates still refused to give up. There would be another major disturbance in Hubei. This was enough to make Princess Duanhui constantly on edge.

She couldn’t help being somewhat angry. “These people—whenever something happens, aside from pushing responsibility onto others, they have nothing else to do. As if finding someone to take the blame would somehow make the matter smaller. We haven’t even lost a battle yet, but at this time they’re already jumping out impatiently to say the calamity came from the Song and Cui families. If in the future…”

Princess Duanhui found it somewhat difficult to continue, feeling that even the speculation made her feel cold inside—if Cui Shaoting lost even one battle, what chaos would those censors create? Would they simply say he was colluding with the enemy and committing treason?

That the calamity came from the Song and Cui families was merely an excuse. Didn’t Prince Gong just want to create an image before the people of the realm of being forced to take desperate measures?

Song Chuyi gently comforted Princess Duanhui. “Aunt, don’t worry. His Majesty is sagacious and discerning—he won’t believe these slanderous words.”

In fact, Prince Gong and Han Zhengqing of course also knew these rumors couldn’t influence Emperor Jianzhang. They just wanted to make the common people believe they had been forced to this point.

What they needed was a reasonable justification for raising troops in rebellion that wouldn’t be condemned by historians.

But even if they fabricated it ever so reasonably, even if they pushed all responsibility onto the Eastern Palace, so what? As long as Emperor Jianzhang denied it, as long as Emperor Jianzhang still said Prince Gong was a treacherous vassal and rebel, then that’s what he was.

So if Prince Gong’s people were making something happen to Empress Lu, then what about the traitor Han Zhengqing had placed near Zhou Weizhao?

Song Chuyi was so startled by her own thought that she stood frozen in place, feeling her speculation was too sensational, yet also feeling it was somewhat logical—Han Zhengqing was exactly this kind of person who would stop at nothing. To achieve his goals, he would do anything.

She thought she already knew what Han Zhengqing was plotting. Someone so sinister and vicious naturally didn’t like others being too clean. Before he wanted people dead, he certainly also wanted them completely discredited, dying under the eyes of ten thousand people…

She turned to look at Song Jue and asked him, “When you investigated Yuan Jin, did Yuan Jin know about it?”

If he didn’t know, then she knew how to set the hook to lure the fish to strike.