She was never as nervous or desperate as she appeared just now!
Across the crowd, Princess Baorong met Qi Yuan’s gaze from afar.
When their eyes met, Baorong’s face held no resentment, no madness, no panic—only deep mockery and hatred in her eyes — Look at this, you thought your scheme was flawless, but I can still walk away unscathed!
Lai Chenglong saw it all clearly and couldn’t help but sigh inwardly—he had miscalculated.
He cast another wary glance at Pu Wuyong, who stood in the crowd with his head lowered as if he didn’t exist, and his heart instantly turned cold.
This d*mn eunuch had held power for years, wielding absolute authority within the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Lai Chenglong had fought for years and only managed to secure his position thanks to his father and the emperor’s favor.
But now, having chosen the wrong side even just once, it was likely he would never get another chance.
Lai Chenglong had many thoughts running through his mind, but Qi Yuan remained completely calm.
Seeing Princess Baorong’s provocative smile directed at her, Qi Yuan simply returned a faint smile of her own.
Princess Baorong’s face immediately darkened.
What was she smiling about?!
Qi Wang had already cleared her name.
Royal Father had always doted on her. Now that he knew she was falsely accused, he would only pity her more and sympathize with the loss of their mother.
Once she fully recovered, the first thing she would do would be to kill Qi Yuan and chop off her head to use as a stool!
She bit her lip, but suddenly she heard Xiao Yunting ask curiously: “Royal Uncle, how did you find out about Aunt Baorong’s situation so quickly? You even went to the Imperial Medical Bureau to pull the records, and then rushed here on horseback so fast?”
Hidden in the crowd, Pu Wuyong instantly lifted his head and shot a cold, sharp glance at Xiao Yunting.
Sure enough—he had suspected all along that this whole situation smelled of something strange, like a tightly connected, high-level scheme. And now it seemed it truly was tied to the Eastern Palace.
How had Qi Wang managed to receive the news so quickly and respond so swiftly?
Of course, it was because he had activated his own secret Embroidered Uniform Guard agents.
This particular group answered only to him. Even Lai Chenglong, the commander, couldn’t currently access them.
What Pu Wuyong hadn’t expected was that Xiao Yunting would casually, almost innocently, bring it up now.
In that moment, the breath he had just relaxed instantly caught again.
As a grand eunuch who had accompanied the emperor for years, he knew Emperor Yongchang’s temperament far too well.
The emperor was a deeply suspicious man.
And suspicion was addictive. Once planted, it would grow like wild grass, spreading rapidly at an uncontrollable pace.
So, he watched with his own eyes as Emperor Yongchang let go of Princess Mingcheng and asked Qi Wang in a flat tone: “Yes, when you count the time, from when this incident happened until now, it’s been no more than three hours at most.”
In those three hours, Qi Wang had to receive the news, quickly verify the records at the Imperial Medical Bureau, trace the whereabouts of the palace maid who took the medicine, then cross-check the list of palace personnel who left the palace, and finally rush out to Baiyun Temple in the suburbs.
Just how penetrative was his information network?
Emperor Yongchang was indeed a father who loved his children, but more than that—he was the emperor.
Power made anyone who possessed it deeply suspicious.
He was perfectly willing to grant power to a son he loved.
But the premise was—it had to be power he was willing to grant, not something a son could secretly seize.
Just when Lai Chenglong thought Qi Yuan had reached a dead end, he cursed inwardly again.
How could he have overlooked this step?
Yes, Pu Wuyong was certainly formidable.
But the problem was—he was too formidable!
Brilliant!
Truly brilliant!
He once again felt a chilling coldness in his heart because of Qi Yuan’s terrifying depth.
This was a gamble she could not possibly lose.
If Pu Wuyong used his influence to notify Qi Wang to come and save Princess Baorong, then the power Qi Wang had been building over the years would inevitably be exposed.
But if he didn’t notify Qi Wang, then Baorong would have no choice but to either take the white silk or drink the poison—she would die right then and there.
This woman—she was terrifying!
She had calculated every move on Qi Wang’s side with terrifying precision—not missing a single step!
Qi Wang was instantly drenched in cold sweat.
As a prince who had long harbored ambitions for the throne, he fully understood the enormous taboo he had just committed. His entire back was soaked through.
But at this moment, he absolutely couldn’t reveal Pu Wuyong!
He couldn’t! Pu Wuyong was now his final trump card!
Then… then…
Qi Wang’s breathing quickened, a sharp pain seized his abdomen, and even his leg, which had been recovering, now seemed to ache more severely again.
What should he do?!
How should he answer?!
But in fact, there was no need for him to answer at all.
Emperor Yongchang calmly looked at Qi Wang, raised his hand, and hooked his chin, coldly locking eyes with him: “That summer, the corruption case in the canal transport—those enormous illicit profits were said to have ended up in your chief aide’s pocket. Later, that Zhan Wenhui was also exposed for opening a brothel…”
With every word the emperor spoke, another drop of cold sweat slid down Qi Wang’s face.
He had made a fatal mistake!
He never should have saved Baorong!
He never should have…
But when he looked at his younger sister, he cursed himself in his heart—how could he still be thinking like this at a time like this?
They were siblings of the same mother—blood relatives—if one prospered, all prospered; if one fell, all fell.
He could only shake his head desperately: “Royal Father, Royal Father, even if I had a hundred lives, I wouldn’t dare to do such things! Actually… actually, it was…”
Qi Wang choked up and then suddenly burst into sobs: “Actually, it was Grandfather and Uncle! Royal Father, you know—when I opened my household, Grandfather and Uncle sent me a group of guards! They… they were all close aides by my side…”
Princess Baorong and Pu Wuyong both secretly let out a sigh of relief.
At this point, they could only cut themselves clean of the situation.
Pushing everything onto the Liu family, which was now virtually wiped out, was indeed the best possible outcome for Qi Wang at this moment.
Since the stakes were so high, even Xiao Yunting, who had initially set this up, didn’t press further.
Some things could be said—but only once, and only at the critical moment.
Say it a second time, and it would cross the line.
Emperor Yongchang lowered his head and pondered, as if weighing the truth of these words.
The room was engulfed in suffocating silence—so suffocating it made everyone’s skin crawl with anxiety.
Everyone except Qi Yuan.
She could tell with the tip of her toe that whether Princess Baorong and Qi Wang survived this time, they would lose a layer of skin regardless.
Her true goal this time had always been to kill Noble Consort Xiao Liu.
That favored consort who constantly whispered into Emperor Yongchang’s ear, who had given birth to four beloved children—she was far too dangerous.
Take this incident as an example: had Noble Consort Xiao Liu merely bribed a nun to claim that Qi Yuan’s fate was incompatible with the emperor’s, her ending wouldn’t have been much better than death.
Killing Noble Consort Xiao Liu was already enough to fulfill her objective. As for dragging down Princess Baorong and Qi Wang—that was just a convenient bonus.
If they died, all the better. If they didn’t, even better.
