Zhu Zhi's face, which had been flushed and contorted from the pain caused by Lu Xiaoyun, suddenly darkened. Seeing the low laughter of the crowd, he snorted coldly and shook off Lu Xiaoyun.

Everyone knows that there are a bunch of women in the backyard of his Crown Prince's residence, all of whom were taken in by his maternal grandfather, who said he wanted to use these women to win over the court officials.

Every day when he returned home, he would see dozens of women with gleaming eyes, looking at him as if he were their prey.

His attendants immediately came over to help Zhu Zhi to his feet.

Zhu Zhi's actions not only failed to gain him any advantage, but he also nearly lost a hand. Knowing that he couldn't gain anything more, he glared at Lu Xiaoyun and immediately distanced himself from her as far as he could.

Lu Xiaoyun raised an eyebrow.

"Your Highness, are you alright? Once the palace gates open, I will go and fetch the imperial physician to examine you."

Zhu Zhi grimaced and rubbed his hands, interrupting his attendant, and said angrily, "No need." He couldn't bear the embarrassment.

"I had no idea Zhu Yu had become so eloquent. Bah! He would never have dared to speak to me like that before! Hiss..."

Zhu Zhi gasped in pain again.

The attendant remained silent. "Prince An never dared to speak to you before; he simply looked down on you, Your Highness."

The palace gates fell silent once more.

Lu Xiaoyun glanced at everyone and saw Li Quan staring at her with a gloomy expression.

Li Quan's sinister gaze seemed to want to bore holes through her.

"Oh, isn't this Prefect Li of the Capital? Why does he look so grumpy? He's getting old, you know. He has to accept his age, doesn't he, Prefect Li?"

Li Quan snorted coldly: "Hmph, an old minister who eats the emperor's food and serves the emperor, what is there to say about being old or not. If the emperor needs an old minister, if the Great Zhou needs an old minister, an old minister will naturally give his life and die for the emperor."

"As for His Highness Prince An, despite being seriously injured, he still came to the morning court. Those who know him understand that the prince is diligently sharing the emperor's burdens, but those who don't might think that the prince has some shady ideas that he can't let go of."

Lu Xiaoyun laughed and said, "Oh? So Lord Li knows me very well? Well, we did have a conversation the day before yesterday. Why don't you tell me what I'm thinking, Lord Li?"

The surrounding ministers all pricked up their ears and looked in their direction.

"Hmph, this old minister dares not presume to know Your Highness's thoughts." Li Quan looked like he didn't want to talk to her.

But Lu Xiaoyun disagreed. She smiled faintly, her voice neither loud nor soft, yet it was heard by all the ministers present.

"I've heard that Lian Yongyuan has been imprisoned in the Dali Temple's jail, Lord Li. If I'm not mistaken, Lian Yongyuan should be your wife's niece's husband, right?"

"What do you mean by saying that he would find a servant in his own mansion who was about the same size as the assassin, make him die in the same gruesome way as the assassin, and then go to the mass grave to steal the 'assassin's' corpse and switch it out?"

Li Quan's cloudy eyes turned bloodshot with anger, and his voice was low and cold: "Your Highness, you should ask Lian Yongyuan about this, not this old minister. How could this old minister know!"

Lu Xiaoyun nodded, drawing out her words: "Oh, that's right. Don't worry, I will ask. I hope that Lord Li can observe and learn something from this."

She leaned closer to Li Quan and whispered, "It's said that the 'assassin's' body was...tsk tsk, a gruesome sight. By now, it's probably been gnawed to pieces by wild dogs, leaving not even bone fragments."

Li Quan's face turned red with anger, his lips twitched slightly, and his hands, hidden in his wide sleeves, trembled involuntarily. His voice was almost bursting out from deep in his throat: "Zhu Yu, don't push your luck!"

Lu Xiaoyun spread her hands: "What should I do? This is my favorite thing."

Li Quan flung his sleeves away from Lu Xiaoyun, fearing that if he continued talking to Prince An, he would be so angry that he would vomit blood.

Upon hearing this, the ministers all looked surprised. They had naturally heard about Lian Yongyuan being sent to the Dali Temple by Prince An's men, but none of them had found out what had happened.

It turns out that the assassin who killed Prince An that day was none other than Lian Yongyuan!

Wow, I admire you. Although you didn't manage to kill the Buddha in the end, you at least seriously injured him.

But if that's the case, why would Lian Yongyuan steal a corpse? Could it be that there was some kind of evidence left on the corpse?

The people have already been killed. Isn't it too late to start looking for evidence on the corpses now?

The ministers looked at each other and shook their heads.

Someone whispered, "Just wait, Wang Zhemao, the Minister of the Court of Judicial Review, will definitely report this to the Emperor during the morning court session."

At this moment, Zhu Chen got off the carriage. He looked up and saw that "Prince An" had made Li Quan so angry that he fell backward. He walked up to Li Quan, lowered his voice, and asked, "Has that matter been resolved?"

Li Quan's face paled, and a sense of dejection emanated from him. He shook his head: "The person is lost..."

You! You're trash!

As they were talking, the bell for the start of court rang.

The group followed the eunuchs who were holding lanterns and leading the way, and slowly walked towards the Hall of Supreme Harmony.

Inside the magnificent and spacious Hall of Supreme Harmony, civil and military officials stood in two rows.

As a prince, Lu Xiaoyun had a uniquely advantageous position, allowing her to observe the old emperor up close.

The old emperor looked haggard and pale; anyone could tell from his face that the old prince was unwell.

Zhang Zhongwei helped the old emperor sit down on the dragon throne.

Zhu Yu said that the old emperor was fifty-five years old this year, but she saw that his face was loose and covered with wrinkles, and he was wearing a wide bright yellow dragon robe on his thin body, although he was very tall.

His deep eyes, exuding authority, swept over the civil and military officials and his sons below him.

The crowd shouted "Long live the Emperor!"

"Rise, my lords." The voice was old and weary.

Lu Xiaoyun kept her eyes down, waiting to see how the old emperor would perform before handing over the tiger tally.

She needs to see how the old emperor will handle things when that time comes.

"If you have something to report, speak up; if not, leave the court." Zhang Zhongwei's hoarse voice still made Lu Xiaoyun shudder.

The area below was completely silent. Those who had overheard the conversation between "Prince An" and Li Quan outside the palace gates all knew perfectly well that today was not a day for them to do anything.

really……

"Your subject has a memorial to present." Wang Zhemao secretly glanced at the "Prince An" standing in front, made up his mind to step forward, and raised the memorial above his head with both hands.

"Cough cough..."

The old emperor coughed lightly a few times, his breathing heavy.

Zhang Zhongwei immediately brought a cup of tea to the old emperor's side: "Your Majesty, please moisten your throat."

All the ministers looked at the old emperor with worried expressions. Everyone here had heard that the emperor had fainted in the imperial study yesterday. They originally thought that there would be no morning court today, but when the time came, no eunuch came to announce it.

There was no other way but to learn both literary and martial arts skills and sell them to the emperor.

Money is hard to earn, and life is tough.