Gu Yanyue raised her red lips slightly, and saw Zheng Hai's expression clearly. "These are what the father-in-law deserves. The father-in-law helped me with such a big thing, so naturally I will not treat the father-in-law unfairly."

"Since Your Majesty has said so, then this old servant will accept it." After Zheng Hai put away the money bag, he bowed to Gu Yanyue, "Then Your Majesty, this old servant will return to serve the Emperor. If Your Majesty has anything else to do in the future, this old servant will do his best to help."

"Um."

On the other side, the nanny beside the Empress Dowager in Cixi Palace heard that Qin Ranran was beheaded overnight last night.

At this moment, the Queen Mother stood up. While she was dressing her, she complained: "The Emperor must be targeting Prince Xiang. Otherwise, how could the principal wife and the concubine in Prince Xiang's mansion all die? Now that Prince Xiang's mansion is empty of women, how can he have children?"

The Queen Mother looked at her makeup and hair today, and thought it looked good from left to right, so she spoke.

"It's good that there are no women in the Prince Xiang's mansion. This will help him focus on his studies and stop wasting all his energy on love affairs. It won't be too late to find a woman after he ascends the throne! After he ascends the throne, he can find any woman he wants. Why does he have to be troubled by love affairs at this moment? After the court is dismissed, call him to me. I have something to say to him."

"Queen Dowager, the concubine in Prince Xiang's mansion has just been beheaded. Prince Xiang is probably feeling depressed right now..."

This nanny was originally the wet nurse of Prince Xiang, and had brought him up since childhood. It was not until he came of age and was crowned king and moved out of the palace that she came to serve the Queen Mother. Compared to the Queen Mother, she felt more sorry for Prince Xiang.

The Queen Mother snorted coldly, "He's always been very arrogant. He might even be happy that a woman died in the palace. This way, he can openly visit those brothels. And I know what I'm going to say to him. Prince Xiang was spoiled too much by you when he was young, so now that he's grown up, he's always thinking about how to enjoy himself. He wants to be emperor, but he refuses to work hard. Is it possible that God will send him an emperor?"

Sometimes she really felt sorry for her son, Prince Xiang. If he hadn't been living a life of idleness and waiting for death, would it be Yuwen Ran's turn to sit on the throne now?

After the court session, when Prince Xiang was thinking about which brothel outside the palace to go to to pick a girl, the nanny came to the Queen Mother's palace.

Prince Xiang had no idea what the Queen Mother had come to see him about. Lately, he had been behaving himself within the Prince Xiang's residence, with no major offences against him, and no major actions being discovered. He hadn't even agreed to rescue Qin Ranran.

After so many days of peace and quiet, he finally received the news that Qin Ranran was beheaded and Duke Qin was exiled to the frontier. Before he could think about where to go for some fun, he was invited by the Queen Mother to Cixi Palace for tea.

"Now that we have the help of the Duke of Qin, what are the Prince of Xiang's recent plans?" The Queen Mother personally poured a cup of tea for the Prince of Xiang, pushed it in front of him, and said, "This is the fine tea that the Queen personally sent over a few days ago. Try it?"

The Queen Mother had spoken, and Prince Xiang did not dare to disobey. He took the first sip and nearly spit it out. "Mother, this tea the Queen sent me is not good at all! It's clearly not drinkable. No, I'm going to confront her tomorrow."

The Queen Mother smiled without saying anything. She poured out the tea in the teapot and brewed another pot of tea. She used the same tea leaves that Gu Yanyue had sent her a few days ago. After brewing this time, she gave the first cup to Prince Xiang again, "Want to try it again?"

Prince Xiang had no choice but to pick up the teacup and take a sip. But this sip had a completely different taste from the previous one. After taking a sip, he felt refreshed. "Why is my mother like this?"

"You have to figure this out yourself. I won't tell you the answer."

The Queen Mother also picked up the teacup and took a sip of tea.

"Focus on state affairs now, and stop wasting time on women. Prince Xiang, you must always remember that you are destined for great things. The throne is your ideal. You shouldn't be blinded by things that are simply not worth it. Look at the number of women in this world. When you ascend the throne, you will have all the women you want."

The Queen Mother could only start to persuade Prince Xiang from the aspects that interested him.

"Your son will naturally remember your mother's teachings and will handle state affairs well in the future." Prince Xiang responded casually, but his mind had already drifted to the brothels outside the palace.

As for the government, if Yuwen Ran died unexpectedly, wouldn't the throne be his sooner or later? He had no sons, only a daughter. Why would he need to work hard? He just had to find a way to kill Yuwen Ran without anyone noticing.

Even if he was discovered after the incident, he would be the only male member left in the royal family. No matter what, the ministers in the court would help him ascend the throne.

He had just left the Empress Dowager's Cixi Palace when he went to a brothel outside the palace and spent the entire night with the courtesans. He was almost late for court the next day.

The ministers standing beside him could even smell the strong scent of rouge and powder on his body. They all knew that since the sudden death of Princess Xiang, the only concubine in the Prince Xiang's mansion had been ordered to be beheaded by Yuwen Ran a few days ago.

There is no woman in Prince Xiang's mansion now. The smell of rouge and powder on Prince Xiang can only come from the brothels in the capital.

The King of Xiang came to court without any concealment, which shows that he is indeed a hopeless person.

There was a severe drought in Qianzhou, and nothing was harvested after the autumn harvest. When the news was delivered this morning, Yuwen Ran had already announced that he would leave the court, so we had to discuss it again tomorrow.

Yu Wenran had just received the news of the severe drought in Qianzhou when the servants of the empress dowager came and said that the empress dowager was ill and refused to cooperate with the imperial physician's treatment and insisted on seeing him.

Yuwen Ran sneered inwardly, his mind clear as a mirror. The Queen Mother wasn't just sick and refusing to seek the imperial physician's treatment. She was clearly trying to use her illness to blackmail him into agreeing to something.

But he still said: "Thank you for making such a special trip, Auntie. I will go to see my mother in her palace. And Zheng Hai, please go to the Imperial Hospital and ask for a capable doctor. If she still can't be cured, go and ask Miss Qin to come in from outside the palace."

When the nanny heard that Yuwen Ran wanted to invite Qin Ruoruo over, she thought, if she invited her, wouldn’t the truth be revealed?