Empress in her second playthrough: Something's not right with this plot!

On a small island in the center of Taiye Pond, Jiang Qingying stood with her hands behind her back, overlooking the lake.

"Xuanran, let them all leave."

Shangguan Xuanran looked around at the guards.

"Go down."

However, the guards did not act immediately, but instead glanced at Li Yunsheng out of the corner of their eyes.

They only took their leave after Li Yunsheng waved his hand.

Jiang Qingying gave a cold laugh.

"The palace guards all have to follow Li Qing's lead. Is their next move to control me?"

Li Yunsheng retorted sharply.

"I am cowardly. Even so, I could not prevent someone from assassinating me in the hunting grounds."

The empress's expression changed, and her guilty conscience caused her momentum to weaken again.

"Xuanran, you may go down as well."

"His Majesty!"

Shangguan Xuanran glanced at Li Yunsheng; she was really worried about the Empress being alone.

After all, Li Yunsheng is no longer the weak and helpless Li Yunsheng of the past.

On the hunting grounds, he was able to single-handedly kill a second-rank expert.

To this day, she still can't understand why.

When she last attempted to assassinate someone in the Li residence, she could absolutely guarantee that Li Yunsheng did not yet possess that kind of strength.

"Go down. If he wanted to kill me, he would have done it in the hunting grounds."

Along the way, she went through all the questions she wanted to ask.

So this time, she came prepared!

After Shangguan Xuanran left, Jiang Qingying spoke directly.

"Li Yunsheng, you've been hiding your true intentions well!"

"Your Majesty, I have always been upright and honest, but I do not know what you mean by this..."

"You're still pretending!"

Jiang Qingying suddenly turned around.

"That assassin with the big iron bar was clearly a second-rank master, how did you manage to block his attack?"

"Oh!" Li Yunsheng exclaimed, feigning sudden realization. "That's what Your Majesty meant."

"This is it!"

Li Yunsheng shrugged.

"I don't know either."

"I saw it with my own eyes. That big guy was sent flying by your force in an instant. You may not know, but do I?"

Jiang Qingying didn't expect that this guy wouldn't answer her first question honestly.

"I--"

She paused briefly, then changed how she referred to herself.

“I have dismissed all my attendants. I want to be able to confide in you as before, even if it’s just once.”

She didn't want to ask those questions as an emperor, but rather as a friend.

When talking about their past heart-to-heart talks, Li Yunsheng's tone softened a bit.

Although the person he confided in was not him but the original owner of the body, this memory was in his mind.

"Actually, I wasn't the one who knocked the assassin away."

Jiang Qingying stared at Li Yunsheng, her eyes asking: Do you think I'm stupid?

Li Yunsheng responded with his eyes: You are.

"There is a top-ranking expert in the palace who has been secretly protecting His Majesty's safety."

This was naturally half true and half false. He had only heard Wei Xiang mention that there was a first-rank master in the palace.

A top-tier expert is more believable than him claiming to have a card that doubles damage reflection.

Jiang Qingying's eyes lit up immediately; she truly believed it.

"Who is he?"

To be honest, she found it hard to accept that Li Yunsheng's martial arts skills were comparable to those of a second-rank master.

Because on the way back, she had asked Shangguan Xuanran if there was any shortcut to becoming a second-rank master.

Shangguan Xuanran's answer was: Absolutely impossible.

Even if someone with profound cultivation forcibly transferred all their power to Li Yunsheng.

It's impossible for him to convert all that cultivation into his own in a short period of time.

Jiang Qingying could accept that Li Yunsheng knew martial arts, and she could even accept that he was a genuine second-rank master.

However, she couldn't accept that the other person had been deceiving her since childhood.

Every second-rank master has spent over ten or even several decades in arduous training.

If Li Yunsheng is indeed a second-rank master, then it means that he had concealed his martial arts training from his youth.

Li Yunsheng, who entered the palace as a young girl to accompany her in her studies and taught her like a little tutor.

Those were beautiful memories buried deep in her heart, but she didn't want them to be filled with falsehoods.

So, on the way back, she kept thinking about ruling out other possibilities that Li Yunsheng was not a second-rank master.

Now, the answer she had been hoping for had appeared, and she chose to believe it out of preconceived notions.

Li Yunsheng, of course, had no idea what the Empress was thinking.

"Then may I tell Your Majesty that I cannot stop an assassination attempt by a first-rank master?"

"I will not send anyone to kill you again!"

"So His Majesty admits that assassination attempts were carried out at the hunting grounds?"

"I—" Jiang Qingying was speechless with anger, "I didn't, I didn't do it, this is slander!"

Li Yunsheng pointed to Jiang Qingying's protruding chest.

"Your Majesty, you must speak from the heart."

There were actually six assassins in the hunting grounds, two of whom were sent by His Majesty to kill me.

One of these two men was Bei Ye, a general of the Former Yan dynasty.

The other four were sent by the State of Wei to kill His Majesty.

"You really do know everything."

Jiang Qingying was mentally prepared for this.

"Wait a minute! Why would the State of Wei send someone to kill me?"

Li Yunsheng did not mention Shaluo.

"They probably want to kill His Majesty, throw our Great Chu into chaos, and then they can take advantage of the situation."

Jiang Qingying muttered something to herself.

"Wei Guo is malicious, even more hateful than you!"

Then, she turned to look at the lake, quietly stretched out her hand, and looked at her palm.

Because she had too many questions in her mind, and her momentum was interrupted by Li Yunsheng, she would be led by the nose and forget what she originally wanted to ask.

This time, to avoid missing anything, she had all the questions she wanted to ask listed in the palm of her hand.

He muttered something under his breath.

"Oh, right! And why do you say I'm his leading lady?"

Although her voice was very soft, Li Yunsheng had exceptional hearing and heard it clearly.

"Your Majesty, wrongdoing must be punished."

Jiang Qingying immediately clenched her fists and stared at Li Yunsheng warily.

"How...how do you intend to punish me?"

She wanted to resist, but she simply didn't have the strength to do so.

Li Yunsheng said, word by word.

"I want His Majesty's private treasury."

Chapter 48 So what—I'll wear a cheongsam for you one more time!

[Emotional Value +20000]

"what!"

Jiang Qingying reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, immediately bristling with anger.

"You've got the national treasury under your control, and you still want to mess with my private treasury? That's my private treasury!"

In the Great Chu, royal finances and national finances were separate.

The national treasury's money was managed by the Ministry of Revenue; the Empress's word did not count.

Before the empress could use any money from the national treasury, she had to consult with her ministers.

If the court officials objected, and the Minister of Revenue refused to give it, the Empress could do nothing about it.