"You're talking nonsense!" Zhao Ruizhi immediately became agitated, and his entire body of fat trembled.

Li Guanshi sighed: "Your Majesty, think about it carefully. Doesn't the Empress never allow other men to enter her palace, not even you? But the Regent can enter without being informed."

Zhao Si and Zhao Tai both started breathing rapidly; it seemed they had heard some incredible gossip today.

Although both men were commanders of the Imperial Guards and had occasionally heard rumors, they didn't take them seriously at the time. Now that the emperor's men have confirmed it, the significance is different.

"That's because Linglong and the Regent have important military matters to discuss, and Linglong told me about it," Zhao Ruizhi hurriedly explained.

"But why is the Emperor not allowed to enter the Empress's palace?" Li Guanshi looked at him with a sympathetic gaze.

"That's because...because..." Zhao Ruizhi's fat face turned bright red, and he uttered some meaningless words, unable to come up with a reasonable reason for a long time.

At this moment, Zhao Si and Zhao Tai had a sudden inspiration and hurriedly followed up:

"Oh right, I seem to remember, back when Your Majesty was still the Crown Princess, you seemed to have a rumored affair with the Regent."

"That's right. Back then, the late emperor even had someone check the Crown Princess's chastity for this matter."

As if he had found a lifeline, Zhao Ruizhi immediately said, "Yes, the palace maids at the time proved Linglong's innocence, and the Grand Master of Ceremonies also questioned Zu'an on his behalf. He did not lie."

At this moment, Zhao Si's face showed a strange smile: "Your Majesty, the likes of the nanny can be bribed. Although the chief minister cannot be bribed, what if he himself is willing to protect someone? You know, he has always valued Zu An very much, and later passed the position of chief minister to him, which proves that the relationship between the two is extraordinary."

"Shut up, shut up!" Zhao Ruizhi threw the teacup in his hand at the two of them. "You're just making wild guesses. Linglong has been so good to me, and the Regent has saved me several times. They have no reason to do anything to wrong me."

“Who says there isn’t one?” Zhao Si hurriedly said, “That Zu’an is very likely a remnant of the previous dynasty’s imperial grandson. Although it’s just a rumor, there’s no smoke without fire. He carries a deep-seated blood feud and of course he wants to rebel and overthrow our Great Zhou Dynasty!”

Upon hearing this, Zhao Ruizhi's face immediately darkened. He wasn't completely stupid; he could still distinguish between simple right and wrong. If the regent truly held this position, he certainly had sufficient motive to rebel.

At this moment, Li Guanshi also spoke up: "As for the Empress, she is naturally deeply in love with the Emperor, but the Regent is just too powerful. He can kill even Your Majesty's own brother, the Prince of Jin, without hesitation, and the Prince of Dai was also deposed at will. The Empress may have had to endure humiliation and cater to the Regent in order to protect you."

"What!" Zhao Ruizhi suddenly stood up and pointed at the other person, his voice trembling with excitement and anger.

Li Guanshi then added insult to injury: "Your Majesty, do you remember that time when the Regent entered the Empress's palace? Your Majesty happened to run over but was stopped at the door and could not go in. In the end, the Regent stayed inside for several hours before coming out."

"Stop talking!" Zhao Ruizhi covered his ears with both hands, his fat face extremely painful. He used to think these things were normal, but after they talked about them today, he gradually began to realize that something was wrong.

"Your Majesty, please take care of yourself. A small act of impatience could ruin a great plan, and it would be a disservice to the sacrifices Her Majesty has made for you," Li Guanshi advised.

"You damned bastards!" Zhao Ruizhi kicked the chair next to him to pieces. "Endure, endure my ass! Guards, I'm going to tear those traitors to pieces!"

“The villains are extremely vicious. How can Your Majesty, with your precious body, do such things personally? Just entrust them to your ministers. However, Your Majesty will need to issue an imperial edict,” Zhao Si and Zhao Tai hurriedly said.

Thinking of Zu'an's past ferocity, Zhao Ruizhi couldn't help but swallow hard: "What you say is quite right, but the imperial edict requires me to summon the ministers of the Secretariat..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhao Si had already taken out an imperial edict from his bosom: "Your Majesty, please rest assured, we loyal ministers have already drafted the edict. All that is needed is for Your Majesty to affix your seal."

"Excellent!" Zhao Ruizhi was overjoyed, but he never considered why the other party had prepared such an edict so early.

He took the imperial edict, didn't even look at it, and directly stamped it with the imperial seal. All he could think about now was killing the despicable Zu'an, so he didn't care about anything else.

Originally, Bi Linglong handled all kinds of political affairs in the palace, but in order to save face for the emperor, she would return the imperial seal to Zhao Ruizhi for safekeeping after finishing her political affairs during the day, and then ask him for the imperial seal again the next day.

Unexpectedly, someone seized the opportunity at night to cause such a big incident.

After leaving the emperor's palace, Zhao Si and Zhao Tai were both overjoyed: "Fortunately, General Li helped us today, otherwise our plan would have failed."

"We don't know who General Li is or why he's helping us. Surely he's not just a loyal subject of the emperor, but someone who spoke out out of righteous indignation."

"Of course not. He is a Palace Attendant, and is very likely a subordinate of Prince Zhao Yuan of Guangling. But it's not certain. He might be a spy planted in the palace by another official, and he played a decisive role today."

"Do you think what he said about the person surnamed Zu and the Empress is true?"

"The foolish emperor believed it, and you believe it too? What kind of person is the empress? She has always been a lady of noble birth, a model of virtue for the nation. How could she possibly do such a thing?"

"That's true. That guy surnamed Li is really ruthless; he actually came up with such a vicious plan."

"Luckily, he's on our side."

...

In a small courtyard outside the palace, there was not a single light in the room.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!