"This is not enough to shake my Great Zheng, but to shake me—perhaps."
The emperor sat, his brow and eyes carrying a trace of anxiety.
The moment he thought of how the events of that year had been exposed just like that, the emperor could not help but grow suspicious.
"The people of that year—I disposed of all of them. How did it leak out so suddenly?"
"Could it be... that Prince Shu was truly spying on me back then?"
The emperor could not help recalling the matters of that year, vaguely remembering that during that period, Prince Shu had indeed always wanted to get close to him. Whenever there were moments where they shared the same space, Prince Shu, still young at the time, could not help but secretly watch him.
Could it be that this damned brat, barely in his teens at the time, had already known about these things and spied them out?
Impossible. If it truly were like that, Prince Shu's heart possessed the perils of mountains and rivers, and his chest held the depth of bureaucratic craft; truly, he is well-versed in the arts of intrigue.
The emperor suddenly felt a trace of chill emerge, his confidence in his own judgment shaken.
"Grand Eunuch Hu?"
At the palace where the empress resided, the main gates and corridors featured a few palace lanterns, illuminating the area with a dim brightness. These burned night and day, ready at a moment's notice to respond to their master's summons.
Palace maids stood by the doors, and occasionally patrolling eunuchs walked back and forth. Regardless of who they were, they all wore flat-soled soft shoes, their footsteps light and silent so as not to disturb the noble personages.
A young eunuch emerged, followed by a few junior eunuchs. They all