"Your Highness, the princess is under house arrest by the Empress and is not allowed to leave Fenghua Palace. I have come on the princess's orders to invite Your Highness to come to Fenghua Palace for a short visit."

Jinlan hesitated slightly before answering.

Xuanyuan Han glanced at the maid with his sharp eyes, then exchanged a look with Cheng Liang, before finally looking down at the maid again and gesturing for her to lead the way.

As soon as Xuan Yuanhan appeared on the corridor in front of the main hall of Fenghua Palace, Xuan Yuanyue ran towards him with a joyful expression from under the eaves in front of the hall.

Then a joyful voice said, "Uncle Qin, you've finally arrived. Yue'er has been waiting for you for several days."

He stepped over the threshold with her and entered the main hall to take a seat. Xuan Yuan Yue pouted and continued to complain to him, "Uncle Qin, you don't know, but ever since I came back from the Sihai Tea House a few days ago, Mother has not allowed Yue'er to step out of Fenghua Palace."

The lingering, mixed scent of pollen in the courtyard gradually faded, and Xuan Yuanhan picked up a teacup and took a sip of the tea that the maid had just served.

He glanced at her dismissively and said coldly, "Now that all the details of the marriage alliance have been agreed upon with Dongning, you're about to be married off, yet you're still so willful and reckless. You've caused such a disaster, and you still think about running away every day. As a princess of a nation, if someone with ulterior motives finds out, how will you ever get married? It seems that my sister-in-law has been punished too leniently!"

"No, Uncle Qin, you've misunderstood Yue'er," Xuan Yuan Yue said hastily as she stood in the main hall.

Immediately afterwards, she lifted her skirt and sat down opposite Xuan Yuanhan, leaning in to talk to him in a mysterious manner.

"Uncle Qin, Yue'er wasn't being willful or reckless this time. Uncle Qin, you don't know, Yue'er only wanted to investigate because Jinlan told me that the eunuch in charge of procuring tea utensils in the palace saw the owner of the tea plantation personally escorting Princess Dongning out of the plantation, as if they were quite familiar with each other. Yue'er originally wanted to see what kind of trouble Princess Dongning and Lu Tianjiao, the young lady of Xiqin Academy, were up to at the Sihai Tea Plantation. But unexpectedly..."

Before he could finish speaking, he received a rather stern rebuke: "Shut up! She is, after all, your imperial aunt, and given your current status, how can you address her like that?"

"Uncle Qin, what's wrong with you?" Xuan Yuan Yue's eyebrows twitched, and she stepped back and sat up straight, seemingly quite surprised that Xuan Yuan Han had suddenly started to protect that hypocritical woman.

"No matter what, she is still Princess Dongning. Your slander of her will not do you any good in the future! Be careful with your words and actions. You still have a long way to go in your studies! How can you expect to have a place in the Dongning royal family in the future? You are the most noble princess of our country, representing the face of our Western Qin Kingdom. No matter where you go, you must not lose your dignity."

It turned out that Xuan Yuanhan had good intentions. Xuan Yuan Yue, who was completely confused, suddenly understood. She pursed her lips and said obediently, "Yue'er understands. Yue'er will remember Uncle's teachings."

Just as he had calmed down and collected his thoughts, Xuan Yuanhan asked, "What did you discover at the Sihai Tea House?"

Xuanyuan Yue was stunned for a moment upon hearing the voice, then quickly came back to her senses. She seemed puzzled by his rather dramatic turn of events, so she frowned, tilted her head, and scrutinized him for a moment before continuing the conversation.

"There's no smoke without fire in the palace, and Jinlan certainly wouldn't lie. That day, Yue'er asked the manor owner if he knew the Empress, and he actually said he hadn't seen him. Then, Yue'er actually discovered that the Sihai Tea House was indeed no ordinary place. Yun'er was even hidden there by that manor owner; no wonder Uncle Qin couldn't find Yun'er anywhere in the world. Yue'er never imagined that the manor owner was actually the eldest prince of the Northern Lie Kingdom, Tuoba Ze. Their secrecy must be suspicious."

Upon hearing this, Xuan Yuanhan was immediately startled and anxiously asked him again for confirmation: "Are you sure they really knew each other all along?"

"When has Yue'er ever deceived Uncle Qin?" Xuan Yuan Yue looked into Xuan Yuan Han's eyes and said firmly.

Xuan Yuanhan was instantly astonished. He seemed to suddenly understand something and became even more convinced that there were indeed many suspicious points surrounding Yi Shangyun's death.

While pondering, Xuan Yuan Yue said sadly, "Later, later it was all because Yue'er was not skilled enough and was actually outmaneuvered by that Tuoba Ze."

Even now, recalling everything that happened that night, I still feel a lingering fear.

After a pause and a moment of silence, Xuan Yuan Yue immediately put on a smile again and said, "By the way, I'm sure Uncle Qin has already rescued Yun'er, right? Yue'er hasn't seen her for so long, I really miss her!"

With this thought in mind, she looked at Xuan Yuanhan's cold face and pleaded with him, "Uncle Qin, could you please ask the Empress Dowager for me so that I can go out of the palace with you to see Yun'er?"

Xuanyuan Han looked at the expectation in her eyes, thought for a moment, then suddenly glanced at her and said coldly, "You've mistaken someone for someone else. That person is not Yun'er at all!"

Xuan Yuan Yue's expression changed drastically. She immediately stood up, bracing herself firmly on the table in front of her, and said in disbelief, "What? Impossible? In this world, even if Yue'er misjudged someone, she could never misjudge Yun'er! That person must be Yun'er! She must be!"

However, seeing that Xuan Yuanhan had remained silent and not uttered a single word, and that his face had darkened like ink, Xuan Yuanyue felt a very bad premonition welling up in her heart.

After thinking for a moment, she frowned deeply, as if she had mustered her courage for a long time, before staring intently into his eyes and pleading, "Uncle Qin, tell Yue'er, has something happened to Yun'er?"

Because Xuanyuan Yue's unauthorized sneaking out of the palace nearly caused a major disaster, the Empress specifically ordered that no one be allowed to pass any messages to Fenghua Palace.

Therefore, no one in Fenghua Palace knew until now, but now everyone in the world knows the devastating news that Yi Shangyun has been pronounced dead.

The room was silent.

Unexpectedly, Xuanyuan Han suddenly blurted out: "After my personal investigation, it is confirmed that she...is indeed...dead after falling off the cliff south of the city."

"What?"

Immediately, Xuan Yuan Yue frowned, feeling a wave of dizziness and a ringing in her ears. She then lost all awareness of the people and things around her, and what they were saying. She was about to collapse; her arm, which had been supporting her on the table, suddenly lost its strength, and her body tilted to the side, about to fall.

"Princess, Princess..."

Upon seeing this, the maids nearby immediately panicked and rushed forward from all directions to catch him firmly.

The vast palace remained eerily quiet for a long time.

"Princess, Princess..."

All that could be heard were faint, ethereal sounds, as if their souls had been ripped away, leaving only a wisp of smoke.

Gradually, Xuan Yuan Yue, who had collapsed on the ground in the arms of a group of maids, finally regained consciousness.

Seeing this, Xuanyuan Han finally breathed a sigh of relief and went back to his seat.

He was well aware of the palace's decision to block all information about Fenghua Palace. Ever since Jinlan stopped him, he had known Xuanyuan Yue's purpose.

But she would find out about this sooner or later anyway. It's time for her to grow up and learn to bear and accept it.

One drop, two drops, three drops...

Instantly, cool tears welled up in her eyes and slid down Xuan Yuan Yue's cheeks. Some of them landed on her lips and seeped into her mouth through the gap between her lips, where she tasted a faint salty bitterness on her tongue.

"How could this be? Why do good people always get no good reward? Yun'er was such a kind woman, why did she end up like this?"

Xuan Yuan Yue's choked voice was filled with endless sorrow, she was in great pain. However, when she frowned, she suddenly remembered what Tuoba Ze of Sihai Tea House had said that night, and a glimmer of hope rose up again.

"No, that's not right. At the Sihai Tea House, Tuoba Ze clearly said that it belonged to Yun'er... and that he was just doing someone a favor by paying them. So how could Yun'er have died in the south of the city?"

Upon hearing this, Xuanyuan Han was momentarily startled, but the surprise vanished quickly, and he immediately dismissed her thoughts: "I personally went to investigate. Do you trust me less than that Tuoba Ze?"

Upon hearing this, Xuan Yuan Yue hesitated again. Yes, he was the royal uncle she relied on most in her life; how could she doubt him?

At this moment, recalling that the last time she saw her was in the palace, she couldn't help but sigh, "She didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to Yue'er. If only I had known this would happen, on the day she left the palace, Yue'er shouldn't have deliberately avoided seeing her. No matter how much sadness I felt at the moment of parting, Yue'er should have tried her best to hold back and smiled as she saw her off on her final journey. But now, now..."

As she spoke, she could no longer continue, and all her words turned into tears of sorrow.

After a long while, she seemed to have finally gathered her thoughts and recovered. She gritted her teeth and said with a fierce and resentful tone, "Tuoba Ze, this is all your fault. I will definitely avenge Yun'er. I will make you pay for all the hurt and pain that Yun'er has suffered sooner or later."

Seeing that she had calmed down considerably, Xuan Yuanhan changed his mind and asked, "Who exactly saved you at the Sihai Tea House that night? Was it... Mei Zhixuan?"

Looking up and meeting those sharp and intelligent deep eyes, Xuan Yuan Yue was stunned for a moment. After a moment, she lowered her head and slowly replied, "That night, both of them were masked. Yue'er did not recognize them."

Xuanyuan Han stared at her blankly for a moment, then looked away, stood up and said, "Alright, I have important matters to attend to. The wedding is imminent, so you should prepare well and not disappoint everyone's efforts."

Xuan Yuan Yue breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, and walked with him to see him off at the door: "Yue'er respectfully sees off Uncle Qin!"

As soon as they stepped out of Fenghua Palace, Cheng Liang said, "Your Highness, the princess and that maid have clearly conspired to lie. I'm certain they recognize those two masked men."

“The princess and the crown prince are both innocent by nature. I already knew everything from her eyes just now. Who else could it be but the two of them?” Xuan Yuanhan said in a cold voice.

Then, after a moment's thought, he added, "Even with the wedding imminent, he still can't bear to leave. The reason he's staying in my Western Qin must be because he's made some important progress. And now he's colluding with that Young Master Yi. It seems my guess is very likely correct."