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

As Tuoba Lie spoke, he extended a finger and pushed Xi Yueli's shoulder with such force that Xi Yueli's frail body staggered back two steps, her shoulder blade hitting the door frame.

Before she bumped into him, Helian Jing silently took a half step to the side and cushioned the impact with his own shoulder, so that the force of the collision was absorbed by his shoulder and no one else could see it.

After Xi Yueli steadied herself, she met Tuoba Lie's gaze, which was clear and dark like black jade in the morning light, neither looking away nor flinching.

"Your Highness, Regent," she began, her voice clear, "Your Highness just said I'm a wild girl from the south. I'd like to ask Your Highness a question: How many times have you seen that map on the Imperial Advisor Fu Yuan's desk?"

Tuoba Lie raised an eyebrow. "I've flipped through that map three times. The front depicts the defense deployment at the border of Beishuo and Daying. There's a red circle in the upper right corner. What are you trying to say?"

"Did Your Highness turn it over to the other side?"

Tuoba Lie paused for a moment. He had indeed only turned it over from the front. Everyone in the Northern Shuo royal court knew that the Grand Preceptor's map was only drawn from one side, and no one would have thought to turn it over from the back.

But the cold smile on his lips froze for a moment before returning. "Stop trying to be mysterious—"

"There's a drawing on the back," Xi Yueli interrupted him. "A dotted line extends southward, ending at a crescent-shaped body of water with ripples on its surface."

A low commotion arose on the stone platform. The Left Prime Minister's expression changed, and he abruptly turned to look at her.

"You're talking nonsense!" Tuoba Lie's voice suddenly rose a notch. "The Imperial Preceptor never draws the back of a map. Where did you get that from?"

"Why doesn't the Regent just look at it himself?" Xi Yueli's voice steadily followed his question. "Why don't you just turn to the back of that map and see if I've said a single falsehood?"

Tuoba Lie stood frozen in place, while his four guards looked at each other in bewilderment behind him.

The Left Prime Minister remained silent for a moment, then gestured towards the corridor. The eunuch hurried away and returned in a hurry with a long wooden box about the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.

The Left Prime Minister took the wooden box, opened it, pulled out the map, and flipped it over. When the sunlight shone on it, the extremely faint ink lines appeared clearly on the paper, with dotted lines, crescent-shaped water areas, and a few fine ripples, all perfectly accurate.

Gasps of breath rose and fell across the stone platform.

The Left Prime Minister slowly closed the map and placed it back in the wooden box. He turned to face Tuoba Lie, his voice becoming heavier, "Your Highness, there is indeed a painting on the back of the map, which is completely consistent with what Miss Xi described."

Tuoba Lie's lips moved twice, but the words "You're talking nonsense" that he hadn't had a chance to say were stuck in his throat.

The faces of all the civil and military officials behind him changed instantly. Those who had been chuckling just moments before fell silent, their gazes shifting from Xi Yueli to the map and then back again.

Xi Yueli stood by the door frame, her shoulder blades still throbbing with a slight, dull pain, but she stood ramrod straight.

Her face was calm, but only she knew how fast her heart was beating. She had already said everything she knew and could say, and now she had nothing left.

But Tuoba Lie didn't know, the Left Prime Minister didn't know, and none of the civil and military officials knew.

They only saw a young girl from the south standing in the morning light, casually revealing the secret on the back of the royal treasury map, a secret that even the regent had not discovered after flipping through it three times.

The Left Prime Minister turned a step toward the Hall of Diligent Governance, bowed towards the tightly closed gilded gate, and said, "Your Majesty, the facts stated by Miss Xi have been verified. There is indeed a painting on the back of the map, which is exactly as the young lady described. Your Majesty, I request—"

The gate slowly opened at that moment, and a palace attendant stood on the inside of the high threshold, announcing loudly, "His Majesty summons you. Please enter the palace alone, Miss Xi."

Xi Yueli clenched her sleeves and stepped onto the platform's steps.

Helian Jing followed half a step behind her. When they reached the palace gate, he stopped automatically, stepped back to the doorpost, and lowered his gaze again.

The eunuch led Xi Yueli across the high threshold, and the golden lacquered gate behind them slowly closed.

The palace had a high dome, and sunlight streamed through the high windows, forming a slanted pillar of light. The King of Beishuo sat on a golden throne at the end of the pillar of light. Today, he wore a dark blue royal robe, the cuffs of which were two fingers narrower than those of ordinary Beishuo robes.

"Come closer." The king's voice was young and slightly deep.

Xi Yueli stopped three steps in front of the throne, looked up to meet the young face, glanced at the narrowed cuffs, then lowered her eyes, her voice so low that only the two of them could hear.

"The king's sleeves are two fingers shorter than those of ordinary Northern Shuo robes. This was personally tailored for the king by the Imperial Preceptor Fu Yuan, because the king's clothes are made to fit a woman's figure."

The emperor paused abruptly, and the entire Diligent Governance Hall was as quiet as an empty stone chamber, with only the sunlight filtering through the high windows slowly changing angles.

Xi Yueli paused, her voice softening slightly, "What I said today will not be known to anyone else after leaving this door. I only need to make His Majesty believe one thing..."

"Before leaving, Fu Yuan left these secrets to me. I came to her and finished what she hadn't done."

There was a long silence on the throne. The young king stood up, stepped down from the platform, and stood in front of Xi Yueli.

Sunlight streamed through the high window, gilding her youthful silhouette with a golden edge. She looked at Xi Yueli, her eyes swirling with hesitation. Finally, she turned her head slightly and glanced towards the palace gate.

"The Regent just pushed you outside."

The king turned his head, raising his voice by half an octave, enough for the waiting courtiers on the stone platform outside the palace gate to hear clearly, "Regent, enter the palace."

The golden gate reopened, and Tuoba Lie walked in with a grim expression, but he still stood still with his hands at his sides.

The queen stood before the throne, looking at Tuoba Lie, her voice clearly reaching the ears of everyone inside and outside the hall.

"Regent, what did you do to this young lady outside the palace just now?"

Tuoba Lie's Adam's apple bobbed. "Your Majesty... Your Majesty merely—"

The king interrupted him, "She brought clues about the Imperial Advisor Fu Yuan. She is a guest of Bei Shuo, yet you disrespected her in front of the entire court. That is disrespect to the Imperial Advisor. Apologize."

Tuoba Lie stood in front of the golden throne, the hem of his dark red python robe motionless in the wind, his knuckles white as he gripped the gold buckle at his waist.

But in front of the king, and with dozens of eyes of the court officials outside the hall, he finally made a move. He turned around to face Xi Yueli, bowed, and clasped his hands in a salute.

"...I was rude just now." Those six words came out of his throat, each one containing a hard thorn that he couldn't swallow.

Xi Yueli accepted his bow, nodded slightly, her face calm as still water, as calm as someone who held all the cards and was too lazy to argue with their opponent.

All eyes of the court officials fell on her. Those faces that had been snickering just moments before had all changed, as if someone had peeled off their skin to reveal the cautious rearrangement beneath.

But Xi Yueli knew in her heart that she had already used up all three clues.

She didn't know what the crescent-shaped waterway on the back of the map was, where the painting pointed, how far Fu Yuan had gone south, where he had gone, or why he had gone. She didn't even know what Fu Yuan looked like.

The court officials standing behind her, the regent standing opposite her, and the young king standing on the high platform looking down at her all assumed that she knew far more than she said.

Xi Yueli lowered her eyes, suppressing her bluff to her very core. From now on, she would maintain this illusion of omniscience until the day she truly found Fu Yuan.