The slender man in black followed the man in black robes' gentle and tender gaze, his eyes falling on Ji Fengyao in Shang Xiye's arms. His brows furrowed involuntarily: Your Majesty, have you been moved by worldly desires?

With such a noble status as His Excellency, why would he need to be so restrained if he liked a mortal woman?

Why not let him lend His Majesty a hand?

Shang Xiye turned around as if sensing something and looked at a restaurant behind her, but only saw a black collar flash by behind a window on the second floor.

"Your Highness, what's wrong?" Ji Fengyao noticed his expression was off and asked with concern.

"Nothing," Shang Xiye shook his head indifferently.

He had just felt a sense of crisis, as if he were being ambushed by a ferocious beast, but he never liked to publicize things that were uncertain.

After the Ninth Prince and his armored guards escorted dozens of members of the Xue family past, they made their way to the palace in a grand procession.

In a fit of rage, Shang Dongyang smashed all the teapots, cups, plates, and bowls in the teahouse, shocking and angering the other diners who shouted, "Where did this madman come from, smashing and breaking things like this? Who did you offend?!"

Upon hearing this, Shang Dongyang became even angrier and was about to draw his sword to kill someone when he reached into his waistband and found nothing. He then realized that he had come in disguise and had not brought a sword with him at all.

His men quickly stopped him and whispered, "Your Highness, this is the capital city. Please stay calm!"

Shang Dongyang then temporarily gave up, had someone throw two silver ingots at the teahouse owner, and left triumphantly.

Inside the Chaoyang Palace, Shang Xiche was fast asleep. Even when the second prince of Gao Qiu, Songxia Kudai, sent someone to request an audience in the morning, he was unable to break free from his extreme drowsiness.

I had only been asleep for a short while when suddenly Eunuch De rushed in, frantically reporting, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, something terrible has happened..."

call out!

A soft pillow was thrown straight at Eunuch De, and Shang Xiche's extremely irritated roar came from inside the dragon bed: "Tell them all to get out of my sight! Even if the Heavenly Emperor descended to earth today, I wouldn't see him!"

The pillow thrown by the Emperor was too much for Eunuch De to dodge. He obediently took the blow, clutching his whisk, and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, after what happened at Wuying Palace that day, he cleverly replaced all the porcelain pillows in Chaoyang Palace with soft pillows when he returned. Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to say anything more, for fear of being hit to death by a pillow.

"Your Majesty, the Ninth Prince has confiscated the property of Lord Xue Yanshou and taken many people and valuables into the palace. They are waiting outside for an audience. It is said that this matter has caused a sensation throughout the capital." Eunuch De bowed his head, not daring to lift his eyelids.

Sure enough, there were a few whooshing sounds.

The remaining pillows on the dragon bed flew out and hit Eunuch De.

Shang Xiche flew into a rage, threw off the curtain, and stood up: "How dare the Ninth Prince! Why did Wu Zhao arbitrarily confiscate the property of a court official!"

A moment later, Shang Xiche came out, having tidied his clothes.

Outside the Chaoyang Hall, the open space was filled with large wooden boxes.

On the open ground next to the wooden crate, Shang Xiye held Ji Fengyao, whose eyes were half-closed and who seemed to be asleep or not. Hundreds of armored guards, their swords removed, stood beside her.

Xue Yanshou's entire inner circle of relatives knelt on the ground, numbering over thirty.

Upon seeing Shang Xiche emerge, Shang Xiye gently raised her hand in greeting.

A dozen or so armored guards casually walked up to a dozen or so wooden crates and opened the lids.

The wooden box was crammed full, filled with either gleaming gold ingots or gleaming silver ingots, so dazzling they could almost blind anyone.

Just as Shang Xiche was about to explode in anger, he saw the gold and silver ingots and was so startled that he withdrew the angry shout that was about to come out of his mouth.