"Your Majesty, Your Majesty, you can't treat me like this! I'm innocent! I didn't mean to touch your lanterns!"

"Someone deliberately harmed me. I was deceived. I beg Your Majesty to spare my life. I do not want to go to the Orchid Garden."

"Guards, drag Consort Qu out at once! Her crying and commotion are disturbing His Majesty."

Gao Yi summoned several palace guards.

Qu Muyu had been in a state of panic, and only now did she remember Gao Yi.

She pushed away the guards who came to arrest him, knelt down in front of Nangong Qing while crying, and shook her head in terror.

"Your Majesty, it was Gao Yi who tricked me into stealing the lanterns. Otherwise, why would I do such a thing? I beg Your Majesty to investigate thoroughly and clear my name."

Nangong Qing looked at Gao Yi, and Gao Yi immediately knelt down as well.

"Your Majesty, I am innocent. I have always been by Your Majesty's side and have never said anything to Consort Qu."

I had no idea that this rabbit lantern was so important to His Majesty.

Just now, it was Consort Qu who wanted to see His Majesty, but I turned her away.

Qu Meiren wouldn't let it go and even slapped the little one, knocking out his teeth.

Left with no other choice, Consort Qu was allowed to catch a glimpse of His Majesty from afar, where she saw him playing with a lantern.

They thought that stealing the lanterns would lure His Majesty to Yu'an Palace, which led to this whole mess.

Your Majesty, I beg you to investigate thoroughly. I have been by your side the whole time and have done nothing wrong.

Gao Yi's hand was also injured. In Nangong Qing's mind, Gao Yi had no idea that he had feelings for Su Luo.

With the addition of this rabbit lantern, he never told anyone that it was a gift from Su Luo, so he believed Gao Yi's words even more.

"Take him away. From this day forward, I never want to see you again..."

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty..."

After Qu Muyu was dragged out, the Mingde Hall finally quieted down.

The Empress also allowed all the other women in the harem to come in and see Nangong Qing before letting them go back.

"Your Majesty, you are not feeling well, please rest well. I will take my leave now!"

Even if the Empress knew something, she wouldn't say it.

In order to survive long in the imperial harem, many things cannot be spoken aloud.

Only silence brings peace.

"Empress, please stay and talk with me for a while."

The Empress nodded and quietly stayed by Nangong Qing's side, like a listener.

I said I wanted to talk, but all I wanted was someone to keep me company.

Overnight, it seemed he had lost everything. From then on, he never received anything from Su Luo again.

"Empress, in the entire harem, you are the only one who truly understands me. Will you blame me?"

The Empress gently shook her head. Did she really understand her husband?

"Your Majesty is the most knowledgeable person in the world. He has traveled all over the country and encountered countless beautiful landscapes."

The landscape is beautiful, and it's understandable to feel nostalgic for certain places. But the landscape cannot be moved; it can only be cherished as a memory.

Looking at the Empress, Nangong Qing saw that she was gentle and virtuous, well-read, and kind to everyone. Such an Empress could be described as perfect.

But he harbored feelings for someone impossible, and felt only guilt towards the Empress.

"Yes, the scenery there is so beautiful that it makes other landscapes pale in comparison. Although the scenery outside is colorful, it can never compare to the elegance of that place."

"If Your Majesty is safe and sound, then the land is safe and sound."

The Empress didn't know how to comfort Nangong Qing. She was his wife, and on the surface she showed no jealousy or anger, but was that really what she thought?

Looking at those few charred bamboo strips, perhaps this thing should have been dealt with long ago.

"Empress, thank you for always understanding me, for staying by my side, and for being my confidante."

...

Several days passed, and Qu Muyu waited at the gate of the Cold Palace every day, hoping that Nangong Qing would come to take her back.

All the tenderness of the past cannot be erased by destroying a rabbit lantern.

She believed that she held a very important place in Nangong Qing's heart, and that she was the woman His Majesty loved most.

Having enjoyed the emperor's favor for so long, she had no true friends left, not even those who had once called her their best sisters.

Now none of them come to see her, and they even occasionally send palace maids and eunuchs to kick her when she's down. Once she gets out, she'll definitely teach them a lesson.

Just a few days after the Lantern Festival, the weather turned unusually cold, and Qu Muyu eventually caught a cold.

But what could she do? She remained standing at the gate of the Cold Palace, waiting for that miracle to happen.

But as she waited and waited, it wasn't Nangong Qing or the imperial physician who appeared, but rather Gao Yi, the chief eunuch beside Nangong Qing.

"Eunuch Gao, did His Majesty issue an order for you to come and escort me out?"

Qu Muyu stood up, overjoyed.

"Hmph! You're already in the Cold Palace, and you're still thinking about His Majesty? His Majesty and the Empress have been inseparable lately, so you should just give up on that idea."

"How could that be... His Majesty is really angry with me? Isn't he the one who loves me the most? Why doesn't he come to see me?"

"Gao Yi, it was you...it was you who tricked me into stealing His Majesty's lanterns, it was you who ruined me?"

Gao Yi just stared coldly at Qu Muyu, who was baring her teeth and looking sickly. When she got angry, she coughed violently.

"Miss Qu, if you hadn't thought that a lantern was nothing, how could you have made such a big mistake?"

You're so stupid, you probably don't even know the real reason you ended up in this desolate palace.

Qu Muyu truly didn't know; she had only broken a lantern. Besides, His Majesty was injured while saving the lantern, which wasn't her doing. After all these days, her anger should have subsided over something as trivial as a lantern.

"Isn't this state of my life all your fault? Once I get out of here, the first thing I'll do is skin you alive."

How could there be such a stupid person in the world? Gao Yi could only shake his head and scoff.

"It's such a waste to have such a face..."

As he spoke, he took a portrait from a young eunuch, unfurled the scroll with one hand, and inside was a woman who looked exactly like Qu Muyu.

The only difference between them is that the woman in the painting is dressed in Nanning official robes and does not have a beauty mark at the corner of her eye.

"Is this a portrait of me?"

Qu Muyu was unsure; she had never painted such a portrait, let alone depicted her in official robes, so this person was not her.

"Lady Qu, you must see this clearly. She is the Deputy Minister of Agriculture of our dynasty, the pinnacle of commerce in Nanning, and agriculture is even more indispensable to her."

Possessing unparalleled medical skills, capable of participating in political discussions, and able to fight against enemy forces on the battlefield, I have worked with Your Majesty step by step to reach where I am today.

"Qu Meiren, tell me, what man wouldn't be moved by such a beautiful, brave, and resourceful woman?"

After hearing Gao Yi's words and seeing Su Luo's portrait, Qu Muyu felt as if she were in an ice cellar, so cold that she could hardly breathe.

"So that's how it is..."

It turns out that all those moments that made her heart flutter were just His Majesty treating her as someone else; it turns out that all that happiness didn't belong to her.

It turns out that everything she received was simply because she had the same face as the Deputy Minister of Agriculture.

Even her father was only granted the rank of fifth-grade official because of His Majesty's guilt!