The Crown Princess spat out, "You're all talk, all you know is how to say nice things. What luck could I possibly have?"

Zuan said in a serious tone, "The Crown Princess is destined to be the future mother of the nation, so how could she lack good fortune?"

Seeing the Crown Princess trembling with excitement, Rong Mo, her personal maid behind her, was taken aback. It seemed that the girl had been flirting with the Crown Princess in her words.

What surprised her even more was that the Crown Princess didn't seem angry at all. "I haven't been to the East Palace for a few days. Has something happened that I don't know about?"

Taking the opportunity, Zu An said, "Princess Consort, I need to ask for leave to go to the Imperial Prison."

"The Heavenly Prison?" The Crown Princess frowned slightly. "What are you doing there?"

Cheng Xiong's case is closed, and the criminals on that side are no longer relevant to her.

Zuan replied, "Ask those assassins again, see if you can dig out any more information about that person."

The Crown Princess naturally understood that he was referring to Prince Qi, and readily agreed: "Alright, but even if you find out anything, do not act rashly. Come back and discuss it with me."

After Zu An left the East Palace, the maid Rong Mo couldn't help but whisper to her mistress, "Your Highness, why do you value this boy so much? Didn't you dislike him before?"

The Crown Princess sat down leisurely, took the tea offered by the woman, took a sip, and then slowly said, "It's not terrible for someone to be annoying; what's terrible is being useless. Although Zu'an is somewhat annoying, he is indeed a talented person, and I'm in dire need of such talent under my command."

The main force in her struggle with Prince Qi has always been the emperor's trusted ministers, the Liu family behind the empress, and her own father. However, she still has too few loyal followers.

In her view, the King of Qi was not the only enemy; after defeating the King of Qi, there was still the Queen's family to contend with.

Although there were some unpleasantnesses with Zaun at the beginning, he was quite clever in handling things afterward, and taking him in as one of my own will definitely be of great help in the future.

Sigh, what can I do when the Crown Prince doesn't care about anything? I have to worry about it myself.

Meanwhile, on the other side, King Qi was leisurely sipping tea in a pavilion in the palace when a group of golden-armored guards quickly approached and bowed: "Greetings, King Qi. May we ask what instructions Your Majesty has for summoning us?"

It should be noted that even the Left Guard General was a member of the Qi King's faction, so it was extremely easy for him to place some guards in the palace.

King Qi gazed at the goldfish swimming in the lake and a hint of mockery in his eyes: "Go and invite Zu An here."

How many years has it been since anyone dared to challenge me like this?

The last time seemed to be a few years ago, when a few ignorant guards acted arrogantly because they were the crown prince's personal guards, and in the end, they were soon turned into heads in wooden boxes.

Whether it's the King of Qi or a Grandmaster, how could a nobody like him dare to be so disrespectful?

In addition, many of his subordinates were still seething with anger because of Cheng Xiong's case, and he needed something to appease them. After all, that guy was blind to his own fault.