Mengmeng carried Luo Xueyao and ran straight to Ningshou Palace.
The other imperial concubines resided in Shoukang Palace, but Ningshou Palace housed only Noble Consort Li, who was currently locked in a passionate and intoxicating embrace with Murong Fu. Before even reaching the palace gates, they could hear the wild, wanton cries echoing from within.
Noble Consort Li and Murong Fu were going at it hammer and tongs, though each harbored their own hidden agendas.
One believed she was about to stand above everyone else with only one person above her, while the other was debating whether to strangle Noble Consort Li tonight or wait a few more days.
After all, while entering the inner palace was strictly forbidden during the period of national mourning, visiting an imperial concubine was deemed acceptable.
Murong Fu placed his hand around Noble Consort Li's neck several times, but she merely assumed he was seeking an extra thrill and cried out even louder.
Wearing her Invisibility Cloak, Luo Xueyao swept everything inside Ningshou Palace into her Spatial Dimension. She then fished out two jars of potent liquor she had just grabbed from the imperial kitchens and smashed them onto the roof of Ningshou Palace.
Before the night watchmen could react, she tossed down a lit match, pulled out a large megaphone from her Spatial Dimension, pinched her voice to mimic a eunuch, and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Fire! Ningshou Palace is on fire!"
The blazing inferno lit up half the imperial palace, and the night watchmen hurriedly rushed toward the large water vats.
Yet the courtyard was completely empty—there wasn't a single water vat in sight!
The firefighting squad rushed over upon hearing the commotion, looking utterly bewildered. "Why have all the water vats along the way vanished?"
Without the water vats, their only option was to draw water from the wells and the koi pond. But the koi pond was far too distant from Ningshou Palace, and the well openings were too narrow. The fire at Ningshou Palace raged beyond control, and before their very eyes, the massive palace structure came crashing down.
The fierce blaze startled the imperial concubines in nearby Shoukang Palace, but they hurried over without the slightest trace of worry.
Only Noble Consort Li was inside, and she had never been on good terms with them anyway. Let her burn for all they cared...
Wait! Why was Noble Consort Li running out in such disarray?
And the person embracing her... Could that be... could that be the new emperor?
……
Riding on Mengmeng, Luo Xueyao stood atop the towering palace walls, looking down at the scantily clad scumbags below as if they were mere ants.
"Unless Murong Fu manages to silence every single healthy imperial concubine overnight, otherwise—"
A mocking curve touched the corner of her lips. "Let's go, Mengmeng. To the Imperial Hospital! We cannot leave the dog emperor a single pill!"
……
Before heading back, Luo Xueyao slipped into the thatched hut within her Spatial Dimension and took a bath in the Spiritual Spring.
She left Mengmeng outside to tidy up things and grumble away, perfectly content to be a hands-off boss.
"Yaoyao, tonight you practically ransacked the entire capital! The wealth in your Spatial Dimension has more than doubled overnight!"
Luo Xueyao closed her eyes and smiled with a curved lip. "Didn't that scumbag system make me transmigrate into a book precisely so I could defy the heavens and change my fate?"
After washing away her exhaustion and eating a little something, Luo Xueyao finally returned to the dungeon.
It was already late in the night, and Dabao, Erbao, and Sanbao had all fallen asleep. Lin Yue and her two sisters-in-law were still waiting up for her.
Luo Xueyao pulled several cotton quilts out from her Spatial Dimension. "Mother, sisters-in-law, go to sleep now. We might be sent into exile tomorrow."
Lin Yue did not ask where she had been; she simply wrapped her daughter tightly in a quilt, terrified that the dirty straw might scratch the girl's delicate skin.
……
With Mengmeng acting as a lookout, early the next morning, just before the jailers arrived, Luo Xueyao stashed all the quilts back into her Spatial Dimension.
The jailers came by and handed each of them a moldy flatbread, along with a bowl of water-thin rice soup that faintly emitted a sour stench.
The women of the Luo Family took the flatbreads, but none of them ate.
Once the jailers had walked far enough away, Luo Xueyao pulled tea eggs, meat buns, several bowls of steaming hot milk, chicken broth wontons, and beef noodles out of her Spatial Dimension.
"Mother, eat up. I'll go deliver food to Father and my brothers."
Dabao, Erbao, and Sanbao stared unblinkingly at Luo Xueyao, watching their aunt perform her "great vanishing act" right in front of them.
Erbao whispered, "No wonder Auntie told us to keep our mouths shut no matter what happened. So Auntie knows magic tricks!"
Gu Fang hurriedly covered her daughter's mouth and made a shushing gesture. "You mustn't say that!"
Luo Xueyao slipped over to the men's prison, placed the food on the ground, and pulled a few memorials out from her Spatial Dimension. "Father, take a look at this..."
……
Murong Fu was on the verge of going mad.
During the fire last night, he and Noble Consort Li had reached a crucial moment, but startled by the sudden shouting outside, little Murong instantly collapsed and refused to rise again.
To make matters worse, the imperial concubines of the inner palace had caught him and Noble Consort Li red-handed in their scandalous act.
Though these women lived deep within the palace, they were not entirely cut off from the outside world.
By this morning, gossip about him and Noble Consort Li was already circulating among the commoners in Shengjing. Murong Fu deeply suspected that one of the imperial concubines in the inner palace had leaked the news!
What made him even more furious was that the imperial palace, which had been perfectly fine just yesterday daytime, had turned into this ghostly state after merely sleeping with a woman!
Tables, chairs, and benches had all vanished, and the carved canopy beds and imperial daybeds in every palace were gone as well.
The floors both inside and outside the palace had disappeared overnight, and everyone was now forced to wade clumsily through the mud.
Murong Fu wanted to take a bath, but his large rosewood bathtub was gone!
He wanted to change his clothes, but all his undergarments, outer robes, shoes, socks, and hats had completely vanished!
With no other choice, Murong Fu had to snatch Eunuch Wang's outer robe and drape it over himself. Desperate to find a place to sit, he discovered that every single table, chair, and bench in the palace was gone!
"Prepare the sedan chair! I am going to see for myself what on earth has happened to this palace!"
Trembling, Eunuch Wang did not dare raise his head. "Y-Your Majesty... the dragon sedan... is gone!"
Let alone the dragon sedan, not even a single soft sedan chair could be found in the entire inner palace!
"What did you say?"
Murong Fu pushed Eunuch Wang aside and walked a full circle around the palace.
All the trees in the inner palace had vanished, and the Imperial Garden now looked little better than a pauper's graveyard.
And his koi pond didn't have a single fish left inside!
The entire palace was left with only a few empty skeletal frameworks of buildings; even the glazed tiles on the roofs and the plaques hanging from the eaves were gone!
Looking completely hollowed out, Murong Fu walked into the Hall of Supreme Harmony. The dragon chair he had yearned for was also gone.
The time for morning court had already passed, and civil and military officials stood inside the roofless Hall of Supreme Harmony, exchanging bewildered glances. Seeing the new emperor draped in eunuch attire, none of them dared to make a sound.
The new emperor's inner circle of confidants had no clue what was happening either. They had just raided Prince Pingxi's estate last night, and today the palace had turned into this strange state.
Could it be that His Majesty's ascension to the throne was truly illegitimate?
Some even muttered inwardly: could it be that the late emperor was dissatisfied with the new emperor striking at his own flesh and blood the moment he took office, and had therefore sent down divine retribution?
Added to the rumors that had been spreading among the commoners since before dawn, the officials faced the new emperor with a head full of questions.
Finally, one official stepped forward with a mournful expression and said, "Your Majesty, the Ministry of Revenue treasury was broken into by thieves last night, and all its contents have been completely stolen!"
Shocked, Murong Fu could not help shouting, "What did you say?"
His answer was a crisp "crack."
Eunuch Wang's face drained of color as he pointed at a roof beam and screamed, "This is bad! The roof is going to collapse!"
Before his voice even faded, a thunderous crash echoed through the air...