"Your Majesty, do you mean you're sure that Zhizhi doesn't like you anymore?"

Shang Huai clapped his hands. "That's great! Doesn't that give me a chance?"

Even if you are Zhizhi's only man, I don't need to worry about anything.

Pei Minxue was about to accuse Shang Huai of being heartless, asking if he hadn't seen that His Majesty was depressed.

Shang Huai is rubbing salt into His Majesty's wounds; that's really going too far.

Upon hearing the next sentence, Pei Minxue raised an eyebrow slightly.

Shang Huai's statement is surely a reminder to His Majesty.

"That might just be because she wants me to serve her, and she thinks I'm good in bed?"

Upon hearing this, Shang Huai nodded thoughtfully.

"Your Majesty, may I ask if this is how you serve Zhizhi? I would like to learn from you."

"After all, I believe that my appearance and physique are no less than Your Majesty's."

Xiao Chengci turned his head. "Isn't it enough that you stole my mother? Do you want to steal my women too?"

Shang Huai spread his hands innocently, "I didn't."

"It was His Majesty who said it himself, that Zhizhi does not like His Majesty."

"Since Zhizhi doesn't like you, doesn't that mean I have a chance?"

Seeing that the two were about to start arguing again, Pei Minxue quickly said, "Alright, alright, let's talk about what the Empress Dowager plans to do now."

"Don't worry, I have guards to protect Zhizhi's safety."

"In the next few days, let's make sure the Empress Dowager is settled in properly."

Shang Huai pondered, "I'm thinking that since the Empress Dowager staged a suicide scene, there must be more to the story."

Pei Minxue glanced at His Majesty, then looked at Shang Huai.

"Ah Huai, if the Empress Dowager orders you to raise an army, what will you do...?"

Shang Huai shook his head: "His Majesty is the Empress Dowager's own son. Unless the Empress Dowager is insane, she wouldn't do this, would she?"

Pei Minxue was unwilling to hide it from Shang Huai, "His Majesty and I have been thinking about it."

"Perhaps that's what the Empress Dowager meant, not that she wanted you to rebel."

"We want you to wield military power and exert your authority over His Majesty."

"In order to achieve certain objectives."

Today, Xiao Chengci received news of the Empress Dowager's suicide and came over immediately.

On the way here, Xiao Chengci had already sent people to investigate whether the Empress Dowager had acted strangely in the past few days.

This also revealed that before the Empress Dowager committed suicide, she sent a letter to Shang Huai.

The Empress Dowager wasn't that foolish to actually send Shang Huai to rebel.

Shang Huai crossed his arms and then sneered, "What, in your eyes, am I someone who can't distinguish between public and private matters?"

Pei Minxue bluntly asked, "When have you ever clearly distinguished between public and private matters?"

Back then, didn't Shang Huai lock Xiao Chengci, who was still the crown prince, in a prison and almost let him starve and die of thirst?

"That was back then. I thought His Majesty had killed Zhizhi."

Shang Huai wrinkled his nose. "If I dared to listen to the Empress Dowager now, Zhizhi would be the first to come after me. I wouldn't dare."

Xiao Chengci waved his sleeve. "So, you're not doing it because you're afraid Zhizhi will be angry, not because you're loyal to me?"

Pei Minxue hurriedly replied, "They're all the same, they're all the same."

"Ah Huai, as long as you stand with His Majesty, that's enough."

"If the Empress Dowager says anything to you these next few days, turn around and tell us. We need to find a way to appease her."

Shang Huai sighed, "His Majesty and the Empress Dowager are mother and son. Can't they talk things out openly?"

"It would be so awkward to have outsiders like us involved."

"To put it bluntly, the last time we met, she wanted me to grant you and Pei Zhi a marriage."

"Tell me, how am I supposed to talk to her?"

Shang Huai's tone suddenly turned somber, "Actually, the Empress Dowager's idea isn't entirely unacceptable."

"Why don't you listen to the Empress Dowager for a while, Your Majesty? Perhaps then your relationship with her will improve?"

Xiao Chengci turned his head and glared at Shang Huai with a pair of cold eyes.

Shang Huai raised his hands, took two steps back, and didn't bother to say anything more.

The Empress Dowager slept for two hours. When she woke up, she asked to see Shang Huai.

Shang Huai put down his half-eaten dinner and went to the Empress Dowager's palace.

"Lord Shang, the Empress Dowager refuses to drink the medicine. You should try to persuade her."

Shang Huai took the bowl of medicine and fed it to the Empress Dowager with a spoon.

"Aunt, no matter what grievances you have suffered, please drink your medicine first."

"Only when you're healthy can you have hope, right?"

The Empress Dowager's eyes reddened upon hearing Shang Huai's words.

Shang Huai then served the Empress Dowager some water and asked with concern, "Aunt, would you like anything else?"

The Empress Dowager shook her head, "I don't want to eat, I have no appetite."

Shang Huai responded and took the initiative to speak, "Aunt, what brings you here today?"

"When I saw the letter, I was so scared that I could barely stand up straight, fearing that something had happened to you."

The Empress Dowager looked at Shang Huai with a gratified expression, "In this world, you are probably the only one who truly cares about me."

"The Empress Dowager is being spoken to like this, but what about His Majesty? He is your own son."

The Empress Dowager shook her head. "Why do you think I would commit suicide?"

"It was all forced upon us by His Majesty."

As the Empress Dowager spoke, her eyes still reddened, and tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.

"Although His Majesty is my own son, he was raised by the late Emperor himself from a young age."

"He hated me because of the late emperor's death."

"Over the years, many of the friends I made in the court have been dismissed by His Majesty."

“I am his own mother, how can he show me even the slightest respect?”

"Is he so wary of me because he's worried I'm after his position?"

Shang Huai squeezed the Empress Dowager's arm. "Aunt, please don't be angry."

"Those friends you mentioned, since they are officials in the court, if His Majesty wants to dismiss them, he must first find something wrong with them."

Shang Huai asked, "If they haven't done anything wrong, His Majesty wouldn't even have the chance to make things difficult for them, would he?"

The Empress Dowager paused for a moment, then said, "But who in this world can avoid making mistakes?"

"His Majesty seized upon a minor mistake they made and had them all executed."

"The people in the court aren't fools. Those who were dismissed were all officials who were on good terms with me. How am I, the Empress Dowager, supposed to act now?"

Ultimately, the Empress Dowager was simply dissatisfied; she no longer held any real power.

All of her people in the court were dismissed by His Majesty.

Her influence couldn't even reach the imperial court, and she herself was under house arrest by His Majesty in the royal villa. Wouldn't she just have to wait to die every day from now on?

Shang Huai pursed his lips, he just didn't understand, what was the Empress Dowager doing all this time?

What is she trying to do by wanting someone in the imperial court?

She's an empress dowager, and besides His Majesty, she has no other children. What could she possibly be upset about?

“Aunt, if you need anything, just ask His Majesty.”

"I don't believe that Your Majesty would refuse to give my aunt what she wants."

The Empress Dowager was furious: "I have mentioned this to His Majesty before, but His Majesty has never agreed."

Shang Huai asked curiously, "What does the Empress Dowager want?"

Shang Huai remembered that Xiao Chengci was not a petty emperor.