"Pfft—what? Say that again?"

The woman playing the Empress Dowager blinked, took the handkerchief handed to her by the maid beside her, wiped her mouth repeatedly to cover up her earlier lapse in composure, and looked at the newcomer.

"Your Majesty, this is the conclusion that my father-in-law reached after much inquiry and thought."

The kneeling eunuch answered coldly, not daring to raise his head.

The young eunuch felt he would be silenced after saying such a thing: "Empress Dowager, think about Changfu and Changshou, who serve His Majesty closely... His Majesty has almost no palace maids who serve him personally."

"Yeah?"

Leng Youyou had never thought of such a thing, but then she thought about how Emperor Jing'an had not had any children for so many years.

After that, the four princes he raised were all chosen from the imperial family. If they didn't really have problems in that area, they really did have a preference for eunuchs, or perhaps Nanfeng.

But the secret about Emperor Jing'an in the boxed lunch she ate wasn't that he kept a beautiful woman he loved in the cold palace.

Leng Youyou fiddled with her armor, and seeing this, the people around her led the others away, leaving Leng Youyou alone in the palace to ponder. Finally, Leng Youyou suddenly realized—"Oh, could it be that the beauty in the Cold Palace is actually a handsome man?!"

Once my imagination started running wild, I felt increasingly that this was indeed a possibility!

If she weren't a man, why would you leave such a beautiful woman in the cold palace?

Even if they were wary of her, and wary of the Imperial Concubine, surely they didn't have to send her to the Cold Palace?!

"Achoo!"

Mingmei, who was being nagged by Leng Youyou, was holding a small snack when she couldn't stop sneezing.

She was just watching Lu Xiaoyao badmouthing the eunuch named "Zhu Changshou" to Mu Chen when her nose suddenly started itching.

Mingmei watched Mu Chen looking down at the memorials in the live broadcast, and she shamelessly wondered—could it be that Mu Chen was secretly thinking about her?

"Your Majesty! How come you have such people around you... ugh~ and you even stuff... ugly people into your life?"

Before the words were even out of her mouth, Lu Xiaoyao stopped herself, afraid that saying "beautiful woman turning around" would attract the other party's attention. She immediately changed her tune to "ugly woman" and said angrily, "I'm not trying to annoy Your Majesty! It's like walking along and looking up, oh my god! It's an eyesore!"

Mu Chen listened to Lu Xiaoyao's words and silently looked up at Lu Xiaoyao, whose expressions and body language were also very rich. Although she didn't say anything, Lu Xiaoyao felt that she seemed to understand what the person in front of her meant.

Mu Chen: You're burning my ears.

Lu Xiaoyao, frozen in place by Mu Chen's gaze, gave a dry laugh and quietly withdrew her movements. Then, she saw him ask her with amusement, "You also think this is what Zhu Changshou himself wanted?"

With Mu Chen's prompting, Lu Xiaoyao instantly understood that Zhu Changshou had been instructed by someone else!

"Huh? Someone dares to tamper with His Majesty's side?" Lu Xiaoyao immediately adopted an indignant and furious fawning expression, saying, "Is there anyone more worthy of following than His Majesty? Wouldn't the entire palace be..."

As she was speaking, Lu Xiaoyao's mouth was open, but the words she was saying suddenly disappeared. Only then did she realize that she seemed to... possibly have something to do with Leng Youyou?

Besides the emperor, isn't the empress dowager also a very powerful figure in the palace?

Damn it... Lu Xiaoyao stood there dumbfounded, looking like she was about to cry. Had she really messed up her friend's life?

Seeing Lu Xiaoyao's comical change of expression, Mu Chen deliberately asked, "You seem to know something?"

Lu Xiaoyao: "..."

What does she want to say?

If she says she doesn't know, she might be the one who suffers.

If Leng Youyou knew, she'd probably be in trouble.

Choose the lesser of two evils.

Lu Xiaoyao immediately smiled brightly and said, "Hi~ The Empress Dowager is doing this for His Majesty's own good, isn't she?"

Mingmei: "Pfft~"

When Mingmei saw this, she laughed, and the live stream chat was filled with "hahahahaha".

[As expected of you, you're incredibly quick at betraying your teammates!]

What are teammates? Aren't they just there to be sacrificed (doge)?

[You can't say that. Our little one really didn't team up with anyone. In the current situation, it's normal that she was eliminated by a hidden opponent, right? Don't overthink things for her; she doesn't deserve it.]

[Pfft! Are you guys fans or haters? That's so mean!]

[I have to tease her, otherwise I'll get so angry. Let her do whatever she wants (lights a cigarette with a weary expression)~]

...

"Oh? So you know it was the Empress Dowager's doing?" Mu Chen was still wondering if Lu Xiaoyao would say something unrelated to him in order to protect the other party, but Lu Xiaoyao hesitated for three seconds and then completely betrayed him.

He didn't even need to ask; Lu Xiaoyao had already confirmed that it was the Empress Dowager.

When Mu Chen asked her that question, Lu Xiaoyao was stumped. Oh, she had reacted too quickly and betrayed Leng Youyou without any evidence to prove it.

"Well... cough, in this palace, the only one who can truly worry about His Majesty is the Empress Dowager, right? This is just a guess, a guess, hahaha~"

Lu Xiaoyao gave an awkward laugh. Mu Chen had no hope for Lu Xiaoyao's terrible acting skills. He twitched his lips and silently prayed that he was blind and couldn't see through it.

Although Lu Xiaoyao's acting was quite clumsy, Mu Chen understood what she had said today. He knew that Zhu Changshou was someone close to the Empress Dowager, but the other party hadn't made any moves. Now, Mu Chen silently raised his head and turned his gaze towards Cining Palace, a vague idea forming in his mind.

It wasn't just Mu Chen who had an idea; Julian also had a lot going on this month.

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