Not many days after Pei Wenxuan started arresting people, Concubine Rou received a secret letter from Su Rongqing. She glanced at the secret letter from Su Rongqing and frowned.

Cui Yulang was teaching Prince Su how to paint. Seeing that Concubine Rou seemed upset, he couldn't help but ask, "What's bothering you, Madam?"

"Tell me," Concubine Rou asked Cui Yulang hesitantly, "Can we trust Pei Wenxuan to do his job?"

Cui Yulang quickly glanced at the letter in Concubine Rou's hand and roughly guessed that someone must have told Concubine Rou that Pei Wenxuan's actions were inappropriate. He smiled and said, "Don't worry or not, just wait and see the result, right? As long as Pei Wenxuan uses it well, what is there for the queen to worry about?"

Concubine Rou didn't say anything. Cui Yulang took the boiling water from the side and poured it into the teapot. He said slowly: "Anyway, Pei Wenxuan is in the hands of the queen. If he does a good job, the queen will use him. If he doesn't do a good job, send him away. After all, he is not a member of the Inspection Office. Anyway, everyone in the court has his own standpoint. The queen is now mobilizing people from the aristocratic families." Cui Yulang poured the tea into the small tea bowls one by one, looked up at Concubine Rou, and smiled softly, "After all, someone can't hold back."

Concubine Rou listened to Cui Yulang's words and thought about it for a while.

Pei Wenxuan and Pingle are complicated and she doesn't believe it. But Su Rongqing comes from an aristocratic family. Now the reform of the imperial examination system is clearly intended to weaken the aristocratic families. Can Su Rongqing believe it?

"Go back and report to the Lord," Concubine Rou looked up at the messenger and said calmly, "I have my own thoughts. Thank you for your reminder, Lord."

After receiving the message, the messenger immediately passed the news back to the Su Mansion.

Su Rongqing was drinking tea in the courtyard. When he heard the news from Concubine Rou, his expression remained unchanged as he stared at the tea in the bowl.

The attendant Su Zhizhu beside him could not help but frown: "Sir, Concubine Rou is so unwilling to listen to advice, then..."

"No problem."

Su Rongqing raised his hand to stop Su Zhizhu from speaking, picked up the teacup, and asked, "Have you arranged everything in the northwest?"

"It's all arranged."

Su Zhizhu said in a calm voice: "Everything will be done according to your instructions."

"Yeah." Su Rongqing nodded, his expression calm, "Then don't worry about it."

"But Concubine Rou..."

"She wants to die," Su Rongqing turned to look at Su Zhizhu, "Isn't it better?"

Su Zhizhu was stunned for a moment, and Su Rongqing changed the question: "Who is the staff member beside her today?"

Su Zhizhu heard the question and responded, saying, "It was Cui Yulang."

"Have someone keep an eye on him." Su Rongqing took a sip of tea, "There's no need to do anything else."

Su Rongqing did not disturb him, so Pei Wenxuan enjoyed his leisure time. After he helped Concubine Rou to send all the people of Shangguan's family to the Inspection Office, Concubine Rou's reputation in Huajing soared to an unprecedented level.

This concubine, who was born in a commoner family, was not afraid of the powerful and spoke for the people. In a short time, Concubine Rou and Prince Su became famous, and supporters of Prince Su began to appear among the countryside.

With her reputation, Concubine Rou also began to stop. After all, she was only thinking about eliminating dissidents and was not really trying to speak up for the people.

At that time, people from various noble families kept coming to Prince Su's mansion. Those noble family lads who usually looked down on her became fawning and subservient to her, speaking sweet words to her. Gold, silver, and treasures flowed into her like water. Although Concubine Rou and Hua Le did not show it on their faces, they found it somewhat difficult to control themselves in their hearts.

When they were in a good mood, they couldn't help but think about Pei Wenxuan and felt that this person was indeed not bad.

Concubine Rou was thinking about how to keep Pei Wenxuan on her side. Hua Le thought about it and couldn't help but say, "Why not marry Sister Wei to him?"

When Concubine Rou heard this, she turned around with a look of surprise on her face.

Hua Le suddenly felt that he seemed to have said something wrong, and quickly said, "I was joking, mother, please don't punish me."

"What should I punish you for?" Concubine Rou thought about it and couldn't help laughing, "I think your idea is good."

Concubine Rou said, thinking: "Even if I can't marry the prince, I should at least be of some use."

Li Rong also heard to some extent the arrogance of Concubine Rou and her daughter. Li Rong was under house arrest, so she listened to these stories as amusement.

Concubine Rou was favored, so she told Li Ming that she was tired, so she was exempted from the ceremony of paying respects. It would have been fine if she did not invite the empress, but she did not even invite the empress dowager. The empress dowager did not say anything, but gave Concubine Rou a ruler and asked her, "Do you know your limits, Madam?"

It would have been fine if she was rude to Shangguan, she also liked to show off. At a recent palace banquet, she said in front of everyone that the grapes prepared by the Queen were of poor quality, and she took the freshest grapes from the Western Regions and distributed them to everyone on the spot.

He liked to talk about state affairs and criticize current events, which made everyone in the harem feel depressed.

Li Rong felt happy listening to these things every day. Jinglan followed Li Rong to listen to Concubine Rou's stories every day. After just one or two months, she felt that Concubine Rou seemed to have become a different person.

She couldn't help but be puzzled: "Your Highness, Concubine Rou is not a fool. She has a good reputation in the palace for so many years. Why is she..."

Jinglan was at a loss for words. Li Rong started to laugh. She took some freshly washed grapes from the plate beside her and said slowly, "Do you know what the most terrifying thing about power is?"

As she spoke, Li Rong raised her head, looked at her and smiled: "When it corrupts people's hearts, the person who is being corrupted to the point of rottenness will not feel anything at all."

"Many people suddenly have some power in their lifetime, become a minor official, make a lot of money, pass the imperial examination, or even win the first place in a private school. These things will suddenly make them fall into a kind of illusion. In this illusion, they will indulge in their behavior and words, and feel that everything is acceptable."

"So, the easiest way to destroy a person is to let her suddenly get something far beyond what she can get."

Li Rong pushed the grape into her lips with her fingers. She looked at the butterfly flying not far away and smiled: "You don't have to do anything. She will destroy herself."

Jinglan listened to Li Rong's words without saying anything. Li Rong swallowed the grapes in his mouth and was about to lie down when he heard someone at the door reporting: "Your Highness, Master Pei's mother, Wen, wants to see you."

Li Rong couldn't help but frown when she heard this.

Why did Wen come to see her now? Did she come here again from Pei's house to scold her?

Although Li Rong is under house arrest now, the guards know that this is just for show. Therefore, although Li Rong cannot go out, others can come in at will.

Li Rong was silent for a while, and Jinglan asked cautiously, "Your Highness, would you like to announce it?"

This is Pei Wenxuan's mother, so she can't be left out in the open. Li Rong nodded and said, "Then let's go."

Having said that, Li Rong stood up and went to the main hall.

When she arrived at the main hall, she saw Wen was already sitting there.

When she saw Li Rong, she was like a mouse seeing a cat. She sat aside stiffly, wanting to show some calmness of an elder, but she felt a little short of breath.

When Li Rong came in, she carefully adjusted three sitting positions in secret, and finally found one that she was satisfied with, and sat up straight. After the two sides greeted each other, Li Rong sat down and said with a smile: "Old Madam, what is the reason for coming here today?"

"Your Highness," Wen said with a sad expression, "I shouldn't have disturbed you, but there are some things I must come and explain to you."

Wen raised her head, revealing a very serious expression. Li Rong nodded and said casually, "You go ahead."

"Wenxuan actually doesn't want to divorce you."

Wen was the first to speak and said this. Li Rong smiled bitterly, said nothing more, and lowered her head to pour tea.

Wen Shi thought that Li Rong had given up and immediately said, "Wen Xuan has never liked anything since he was a child. Only in Your Highness did I see what it was like when he really liked someone. Your Highness, he actually couldn't bear to leave you."

"Yes." Li Rong raised her head and said perfunctorily, "I know all this. Does the old lady have anything else to say?"

"I also have to apologize for my son."

Mrs. Wen said with some difficulty: "My son has been bewitched by a fox spirit recently and has hidden a woman in the house."

Li Rong's hands trembled, and Wen continued with gritted teeth, "Fortunately, I found out early, had a fierce quarrel with that woman, persuaded Wen Xuan to turn back from his wrong path, and sent that woman out early. But that woman is really too shameless. She was driven out, but she still lingered on my son. She wandered around outside the Pei Mansion when she had nothing to do. Now she is even more excessive!"

Wen was filled with righteous indignation as she took out a piece of paper from her sleeve. "She actually dared to write a visiting card directly into the mansion, inviting my son to meet her at the center of the lake! Just tell me, how shameless she is!"

Li Rong was a little surprised when she heard this.

The woman living in the mansion is her, but who is this woman who has been wandering outside and writing visiting cards to enter the mansion?

"Madam, may I take a look at the visiting card?"

Li Rong reached out her hand, wanting to find out what was going on. Seeing that Li Rong wanted to intervene, Wen Shi quickly handed the visiting card over and said, "Look, it's this vixen."

Li Rong took the visiting card from Wen and glanced at it quickly.

The writing on this visiting card was standard, but the advantage was the beautiful handwriting. Li Rong casually read through the card and saw the word "Hua" at the end.

Li Rong paused.

At this time, Pei Wenxuan, who was secretly discussing the next step with Li Chuan, couldn't help but sneeze violently.

Li Chuan saw Pei Wenxuan suddenly sneeze, and couldn't help but ask: "Are you feeling unwell?"

Pei Wenxuan waved his hands: "It's okay, go on."

Pei Wenxuan continued to deduce from Li Chuan's words: "The next step for Concubine Rou is probably to give up on the other students. She has already received money from those people, so it is impossible for her to arrest them. In order to appease these students, she should make some promises."

"By then, she won't let you negotiate with the students, right?" Li Chuan frowned, feeling a little uneasy.

Pei Wenxuan smiled and said, "Of course she wants me to go and talk, but I've done so much, it's time to take a break."

"So how do you plan to rest?"

Li Chuan was a little surprised. Pei Wenxuan smiled and looked outside the mansion: "Of course I will go to a place where she can't call me to rest."