Who said the eldest daughter is crazy? She's clearly a woman of high rank and influence in the

Helian Jing made his move that very night.

He chose the time when the palace maid was out of the palace to purchase spices for the empress. On the way back, the carriage was subtly stopped by the people of the Tian Shu Bureau and invited to an inconspicuous teahouse in the south of the city.

Behind the screen in the teahouse sat a chair, where Helian Jing sat with the irrefutable evidence prepared by Xi Yueli spread out in front of him:

The household registration records of the female official before she entered the palace show that she was from Beishuo Shuofeng Pass and entered the capital fifteen years ago as a "refugee orphan girl". She was promoted to the empress's palace by the empress.

Attached to the paper was something even more ruthless: three drafts of correspondence between her and a post station on the border of Beishuo, the handwriting of which had been confirmed to be correct.

The female official sat in front of the screen for about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea. She was silent at first, trying to deny it. Helian Jing didn't waste any more words with her, but simply pushed the last page of paper in front of her.

"If you speak up, the people from the Prince Chen's mansion will come to fetch your sister who is staying in Beishuo. If you don't speak up, she will be treated as a 'spy' and disposed of as well."

The female official fell silent, and that silence lasted for a long time. "The Empress has another secret agent outside the palace. He travels along the old road thirty miles south of the ruins of Ci'en Temple. The contact person wears a gray robe and changes it every ten days."

That line was uprooted that very night.

The people from the Dark Pavilion had their sights set on the hidden mountain hollow south of the ruins of Ci'en Temple. Before the gray-robed contact could even hand over the next letter, he was blocked at the exit of the secret passage.

The letter was intercepted, the code was deciphered, and the last unobstructed communication channel outside the Queen's palace was closed that night.

The following afternoon, an invitation from the Empress arrived at Prince Chen's residence. The invitation was politely worded, stating that the Empress had noticed that the eldest daughter had not had a proper conversation with her since returning home and invited her to the palace for a short visit, as the Empress wished to see her.

Xi Yueli changed her clothes and walked to the gate of the Prince's Mansion. Helian Jing was already standing by the carriage waiting. He got into the carriage before her and sat on the side closest to the palace gate. His palms were on his knees, his fingertips slightly clenching and then relaxing.

The two remained silent throughout the journey. The carriage stopped inside the palace gate, and Helian Jing followed Xi Yueli as she alighted.

When Xi Yueli entered the palace, the Empress was sitting on her phoenix chair peeling an orange. When she saw Xi Yueli come in, she put down the orange segments, clapped her hands, and rose to greet her with a gentle smile, as if she were waiting for a child who had returned late.

"I have thought about this for a long time. Since the eldest princess returned to the capital, I have not had a proper look at you."

She walked up to Xi Yueli, reached out her hand, and placed her fingertips on Xi Yueli's cheek, feeling its warmth and softness, as if she were examining something precious. "You've lost some weight. Is the food at the Prince Chen's residence not to your liking?"

Her fingertips slowly slid down along the curve of Xi Yueli's cheekbone, carrying a tenderness that sent chills down one's spine.

The instant her fingertips slid to the edge of Xi Yueli's chin, Xi Yueli's right hand suddenly rose up, her five fingers gripping the Empress's wrist, the force precisely locking onto the pulsating pulse on the inside of her wrist bone, like a pair of clamping pincers.

She leaned forward half a step, her nose almost touching the Queen's neck, and her voice came from very close range, neither high nor low, with a dazed and indistinct tone, like someone suffering from dissociative identity disorder.

"You... smell of an array." Her nostrils twitched slightly, as if she were identifying something. "That entire city—the scorched earth, the cold ashes, the sound that choked a person in their throat before they died—"

The empress's smile froze for a moment, then closed again before she could even react.

Then Xi Yueli released her grip and took a half step back. The hazy mist in her eyes seemed to be blown away by the wind, slowly fading away to reveal a pair of clear, dark eyes, which were then quickly covered by a perfectly appropriate layer of bewilderment.

She blinked, as if she had just woken up from a brief daze, and looked down at the hand that had just gripped the Empress's wrist, as if looking at something that didn't belong to her.

The Empress stood still, her wrist, which Xi Yueli had pinched, still hanging in mid-air. Her fingertips curled slightly and then relaxed; she did not reach out again.

The palace doors were pushed open at that moment, and Helian Jing stepped in, the hem of his dark blue outfit fluttering as he crossed the threshold.

He stopped in the hall, his gaze first falling on Xi Yueli. She stood three steps in front of the Empress, her face as usual, her sleeves neat, and there was nothing unusual about her. Then he turned to the Empress and bowed.

"Your Majesty, Miss Xi is unwell. I will take her away."

He straightened up and was already beside Xi Yueli, his hand resting on her elbow, gently pulling her half a step towards him before turning and walking towards the palace gate. His pace was slightly faster than usual.

After exiting the outer gate of the central palace, passing through the stone corridor, and turning through the moon gate, Helian Jing finally released her elbow when the carriage curtain fell.

He lowered his head and spread his palm out in front of her. A thin layer of cold sweat covered the lines of his palm, which shone slightly in the sunlight that seeped through the gap in the carriage curtain.

Xi Yueli looked down at the palm of his hand, reached out and placed her hand on it, her fingertips tracing the lines of his palm, and gently squeezed his fingers, as if she were squeezing a pebble that had just been pulled out of cold water.

"What's there to be afraid of?" Her voice was neither loud nor soft, carrying a steady tone that suppressed a smile. "She wouldn't dare to touch me in the palace. If she did, her decree of 'the eldest princess returning to her clan' would become a joke."

Helian Jing looked at her, his gaze lingering on her face for a moment, a lingering fear from the fright he had just experienced welling up in his usually aloof and indifferent eyes.

His voice was a notch lower than before when he spoke: "You were so close to her just now, were you out of your mind? If she had any other trump card to scare you, you would have..."

After he finished speaking, he pulled her hand into his palm and tightened it, with a little more force than before, as if repeatedly confirming that she was still in front of him and had not been pulled away by something unseen.

Xi Yueli's hand was still in his palm, her fingertips slightly numb from his grip. She leaned against the carriage wall, turning her head to look at him. Sunlight streamed in through the gaps in the curtains, illuminating her eyes and making them clear.

"Does Your Highness know what I was doing when she touched my face just now?"

Helian Jing's gaze fell on her face, his thumb unconsciously rubbing her knuckles. He truly didn't know; he only saw her grab the Empress's wrist and speak close to her neck.

"She thought she was testing me, but when she reached out, her sleeve flipped up, revealing a rolled-up edge of paper—the folds on that scroll were the old folding method used in the Ci'en Temple archives. That scroll in her hand was the last card she hadn't played."

She placed her other hand over his, cupping his still slightly sweaty palm with both hands, and gently rubbed her fingertips against the lines on his palm.

"So her coming here today not only failed to test my abilities, but also revealed the last card she had in her hand to me."

Helian Jing lowered his head. "Whatever you want to investigate next time, we'll do it secretly. You don't need to risk your life."

He held her hand tightly, his thumb repeatedly stroking the thin, old mark between her thumb and forefinger, as if to confirm she was still in the same spot. "If you do this again, I will punish you—"

Xi Yueli's eyebrows twitched slightly, but before he could finish speaking, his lips covered hers.