"Crown Prince, you have come to look for me! I knew the Crown Prince was worried about me!"
"Crown Prince, you have no idea. I was dead drunk at the time, and it was a maid from Prince Jing's Estate who took down my headdress so I could sleep here and recover. If Her Imperial Sister had not come to look for Imperial Uncle just now, I would not have even known that Imperial Uncle was guarding the courtyard."
Yao Mengtao cast a seemingly casual glance at Yao Yingying.
Although Yao Yingying was the one who had orchestrated this, Yao Mengtao could not clearly explain why she and Zhou Wei had ended up together either. Therefore, Yao Mengtao now only hoped that Yao Yingying would shut her mouth and say nothing.
Seeing that Zhou Qiming still wore the same expression, Yao Mengtao immediately took the initiative to walk over, slipped into Zhou Qiming's embrace, and wrapped her arms around his waist. Tilting her head up, she looked at him with sincere and clear eyes.
"Why did you bring so many people to look for me? Could it be that the Crown Prince was afraid I would get lost in Prince Jing's Estate?"
Zhou Qiming lowered his gaze.
He stared into those eyes.
Pure, limpid.
Unlike any eyes he had ever seen in the inner palace.
Yet, it was the owner of these very eyes who had brought him utter humiliation in his past life.
Zhou Qiming placed a hand over Yao Mengtao's eyes, his movement rough.
Yao Mengtao let out a cry of pain. "Crown Prince..."
Zhou Qiming gave a slight smile. Bending down to her ear, he murmured softly, "When you betrayed Gu, did you ever consider Gu's methods?"
Yao Mengtao shuddered all over.
"What... what do you mean?"
"Crown Prince... Crown Prince, how can you say such a thing..."
Whether out of a guilty conscience or because this version of Zhou Qiming felt so alien and terrifying to Yao Mengtao, tears instantly welled up unbidden in the corners of her eyes.
Yao Mengtao panicked for a split second, knowing it was too suspicious for her to suddenly burst into tears. If she were found out—
Yao Mengtao immediately looked up at Zhou Qiming, her expression even more heartbroken and injured than his, tears streaming down her face drop by drop, displaying profound grief.
"Is that how the Crown Prince sees me?"
Taking the opportunity, Yao Mengtao released her grip on Zhou Qiming's waist and began to step backward.
"For over a year since the Crown Prince and I were wed, we have been inseparable, as close as glue and paint."
"I always thought the Crown Prince understood me, but it turns out you never trusted me at all."
Yao Mengtao raised eyes brimming with tears, as if she had suffered some catastrophic blow.
Zhou Qiming was stunned.
In this moment, his mind was filled with suspicion...
"I have no idea where the Crown Prince heard such idle gossip, no wonder you brought so many people here..."
"It turns out the Crown Prince thinks I lack wifely virtue, thinks that I—"
Yao Mengtao could not go on, bursting into bitter sobs.
Not a single person around them spoke. Some did not understand the current situation, some did not dare to understand the current situation, and others simply chose not to get involved.
Zhou Wei rebuked in a deep voice, "The Crown Princess had left the front courtyard for less than an hour, and yet the Crown Prince suspects the person sleeping beside him? This is utterly absurd!"
"Or could it be that someone whispered some wild nonsense to the Crown Prince, trying to drive a wedge between the Crown Prince and the Crown Princess?!"
Zhou Wei shot a sharp look at the men Zhou Qiming had brought, his face entirely devoid of a guilty conscience, radiating instead the expression of someone acting entirely in Zhou Qiming's best interests.
At that moment, Zhou Qiming was bewildered.
The surreal feeling of returning from the dead, Yao Mengtao's pain and grief, Zhou Wei's righteous indignation...
"Men, take these people away and interrogate them one by one!"
"The Crown Princess is a legitimate princess of Anguo, who has traveled thousands of miles to Dashang for the sake of Anguo's people and for peace between our two nations! The non-aggression pact has not even been negotiated yet, and a legitimate princess suffers such insults and accusations within my Dashang!"
"If the Crown Prince truly listened to slander and turned his heart away from the Crown Princess, and something further were to happen to her here in Dashang, how could our two nations coexist? What are your intentions?!"
Zhou Wei's presence was overwhelmingly powerful, his words righteous and stirring.
When matters of state and country were brought out into the open, no one dared to take them lightly.
Yet Zhou Qiming might be naive, but he was no fool.
Amidst Zhou Wei's grandiose accusations, Zhou Qiming looked at Yao Yingying. "Is that so, Imperial Aunt?"
At this moment, Yao Mengtao's sobbing seemed to pause.
Zhou Wei's piercing gaze followed, landing on Yao Yingying's face with a hidden threat and warning.
Countless people around them turned to look at Yao Yingying, their gazes probing, scrutinizing, greedy...
Yao Yingying's soul-stirring phoenix eyes locked directly onto Zhou Qiming. "What answer does the Crown Prince wish to get from this palace?"
Yao Yingying smiled faintly. "This palace is merely a lowly secondary-branch princess sent to make peace; I cannot bear the blame of the rulers of two nations."
If this little Crown Prince wasn't completely stupid, he was certainly thoroughly unlikable—laying traps for her the very moment they met.
Anyone unaware would think they shared some deep, irreconcilable hatred.
In truth, it was merely that she had killed a few of his retainers, brought down his imperial father, and incidentally stirred up his imperial brothers' desires for power...
Though Zhou Wei was inwardly dissatisfied upon hearing Yao Yingying's response, given that she had not spoken too bluntly, he also breathed a sigh of relief.
Yao Yingying's temper was what it was; if she disregarded his dignity, he feared his position as Prince would become rather shaky.
Zhou Qiming, however, understood Yao Yingying's implication, and a cloud of gloom gathered between his brows.
"Gu understands. Thank you, Imperial Aunt, for the guidance."
What, was this little Crown Prince going to flip the table and stop playing?
Determined to kill her on the very first night after his rebirth?
Yao Yingying was genuinely amused to the point of anger.
"Does His Royal Highness the Crown Prince merely 'understand'?"
Yao Yingying smiled with unconcerned detachment. "Incompetence and growing older in years is of no use."
"Fortunately, it is your Crown Prince's face that is being lost, not this palace's."
Silence.
Not a sound.
There were plenty of smart people in the Capital, and plenty of people who wanted to live.
Today was truly the first time they had ever witnessed someone tearing away even the fig leaf.
The exemplary self-restraint drilled into Zhou Qiming almost shattered right then and there.
No, who on earth taught her etiquette and scholarship?
He was going to sue the Emperor of An! That man took the money but didn't deliver the goods!
Yet right now...
Ahead stood Zhou Wei invoking the nation, and behind, his path was firmly blocked.
Zhou Qiming finally understood why, in his past life, Zhou Wei had tolerated Yao Yingying's temper all the way until he seized the throne before finally getting rid of her.
"Gu..."
"Will definitely investigate the truth of the matter!"
Yao Mengtao closed her eyes.
How she wished this were all just an illusion.
"Yao Yingying! With every word you imply such slander against this Prince and your imperial sister, do you truly take this Prince for a dead man?!"
Zhou Wei's anger-laden voice rescued everyone from the awkwardness.
Zhou Qiming's expression relaxed just a fraction.
Watching Zhou Wei's fury, Yao Yingying came to her senses.
She had been so busy dealing with little Deng and that imperial sister of hers that she had forgotten about him—look how anxious he was.
"What is the Prince saying? Given the relationship between you and this palace, how could this palace do anything to slander you?"
The amusement in Yao Yingying's eyes was thoroughly sincere. "Of course this palace believes that the Prince and... the Crown Princess would never do such a thing. It is simply that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince stated he would investigate the truth, so naturally there must still be doubts, and in that case, this palace has no right to stop him."