Empress Yan couldn't keep making things difficult for her own niece, so she turned to Princess Liyang and asked with some confusion, "Liyang, did you come here to visit my niece too?"
Princess Liyang was no ordinary woman confined to the inner quarters. From Empress Yan's expression, she could tell that the empress suspected she was helping Xie Yu and had taken the Crown Prince and Consort Yue's side.
She didn't want to get involved in that kind of trouble, so she answered with a half-truth, "I heard that a young woman was staying with Qingqing, and that she was lovely in both appearance and temperament. Rui'er even praised her. I wanted to meet her, so I could arrange this marriage for Rui'er sooner."
Empress Yan hadn't expected that answer. She frowned at Yan Yuqing and asked, puzzled, "Qingqing, where is that young woman now? Could you bring her out so I can see her?"
Yan Yuqing was in a difficult position. On one side was her aunt; on the other was the mother of her husband's Third Brother. After hesitating, she said, "Aunt, Third Brother took that young woman out sightseeing. They left yesterday and still haven't returned. It's not that I don't want to bring her out."
Seeing Yan Yuqing put it that way, Princess Liyang played along. "So Jingrui has learned to deceive his own mother. Qingqing, where did the two of them go?"
Yan Yuqing opened her mouth, then reluctantly answered, "Southern Chu. They said they wanted to see the waterfall at Mount Lu."
At the mention of Southern Chu, Princess Liyang's heart gave a jolt. She understood that her son had probably gone to see his birth father. Her emotions were tangled, but she didn't ask anything more.
When Empress Yan heard the words "Southern