The Grand Secretary has no heir? His concubine gives birth to triplets.

The emperor was panting heavily, wishing he could immediately issue an edict to behead Pei Yan.

If it were any other court official, faced with such questioning from the emperor, they would have been terrified and kowtowed to confess their crimes and beg for mercy.

But Pei Yan stood upright and spoke clearly.

"Your Majesty, please calm your anger. Everything I have done is for the sake of the Great Chu Kingdom and its people."

"The floods in Jiangxi are imminent; the dikes could burst at any moment. If we wait for approval from the six ministries, the river will have already submerged eight counties along its course."

"During the locust plague in Guangdong, people resorted to cannibalism, exchanging their own children for food. Every moment of delay meant the death of hundreds or thousands of refugees from starvation."

"I know I have overstepped my authority, but saving lives is urgent, and my conscience is clear. If Your Majesty wishes to punish me, I will accept the punishment."

His words were so well-chosen that they left the emperor speechless.

The emperor's face turned red with anger. He knew that what he said made sense, but he became even angrier.

Seeing this, Xiao Yuzhen, who was standing to the side, smiled slightly and swayed her hips as she walked to Pei Yan's side.

"Cousin, the Emperor is doing this for your own good."

"If you honestly admit to the crime of forming cliques for personal gain, I might plead for you before the Emperor, considering you were once my father's student. Otherwise..."

Xiao Yuzhen's eyes flashed with an undisguised threat.

Either compromise and submit to her, or die at Youguo Temple bearing the stigma of forming cliques.

Pei Yan turned his head and looked at Xiao Yuzhen's exquisite and noble face.

He raised his head, looked at the setting sun outside the hall, and a cold, sarcastic smile curled at the corner of his lips.

"Her Majesty the Empress is so concerned about the affairs of the court. Not only does she keep a close eye on me despite her busy schedule, but she is also always thinking of ways to exonerate me."

"Truly selfless and exemplary, a model for the world."

Xiao Yuzhen's face stiffened, and anger surged to her head.

Just as she was about to reprimand them, a series of hurried footsteps suddenly came from outside the main hall.

The eunuch in charge of writing, Sun Fuhai, rushed in.

"Your Majesty! His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived...and says he has important matters to report!"

"Father! Father, save me!"

The prince looked disheveled, his hair ornament askew, and he stumbled as he crossed the high threshold.

He showed no demeanor of a crown prince, scrambling and crawling on his hands and feet as he rushed toward the emperor's knees.

The young man's face was filled with terror, and tears mixed with snot streamed down his face.

Startled by this sudden turn of events, Xiao Yuzhen took a half-step back, her brows furrowing almost imperceptibly.

"What kind of behavior is this, all this panic!"

When the emperor saw the crown prince's outburst, he reprimanded him sternly, but a hint of doubt flashed in his eyes.

"Father...I dreamt of Mother last night!"

The crown prince clung to the emperor's leg, his voice hoarse and shrill, filled with extreme fear.

"The Empress Dowager was bleeding from all seven orifices, her eyes were almost bulging out! She was clutching her own neck with both hands, screaming at her son... She said it was so cold down there, so painful..."

Upon hearing this, the emperor's pupils suddenly contracted.

The tragic circumstances of the late empress's sudden and bizarre death were instantly unearthed from the depths of people's memories, sending a chill down their spines.

He shivered uncontrollably, his face ashen.

The crown prince hastily wiped his face with his sleeve, tilted his head back, and said in a trembling voice:

"Father, I initially thought it was just a nightmare, but rumors started circulating in the palace last night that someone has been practicing witchcraft on me for years!"

"This morning, I obtained the Empress Dowager's permission and, accompanied by the matrons, thoroughly searched the entire palace, but we found nothing!"

He turned his head abruptly, his gaze turning cold as he looked at Xiao Yuzhen.

"The only place...the Empress's palace and her personal attendants have not yet been searched!"

These words were met with a thunderous roar that echoed throughout the hall.

Xiao Yuzhen's face turned deathly pale. She took two steps back in terror and pointed at the Crown Prince in disbelief.

After a brief moment of panic, she collapsed to her knees with a thud, tears streaming down her face like broken beads, heartbroken and devastated.

"Your Majesty, please be wise! I have been in the palace for many years without a child. How could I possibly do such a heinous thing to harm the Crown Prince?"

"This is clearly a trap set by someone to kill me!"

She glanced at Pei Yan with resentment out of the corner of her eye, then subtly gave a wink to Consort Yu Hongzhu, who was beside the emperor.

Hongzhu immediately understood and leaned against the emperor's arm, her body as soft as if it had no bones.

"Your Majesty, Her Majesty the Empress is a paragon of virtue and has always been kind and benevolent. How could she...?"

"Shut up!" The emperor shoved Hongzhu away, his eyes bloodshot.

He was still immersed in the nightmare about the Crown Prince, and with a flick of his sleeve, he pointed at the Crown Prince and shouted.

"Go! Search! Search thoroughly!"

Pei Yan stood with his hands behind his back to the side, his posture as straight as a pine tree, coldly watching everything, his deep eyes as calm as still water.

This was precisely the trap he had set, luring the Crown Prince here and taking advantage of the Emperor's suspicious nature to turn the tables on Xiao Yuzhen.

The Crown Prince ordered his wet nurse to step forward, and together with several strong and capable old women, they surrounded Xiao Yuzhen and her personal maid.

A moment later, the wet nurse knelt down on the ground, covered in sweat.

"Your Majesty, there is nothing unusual about the Empress and the palace maids; not a trace of witchcraft was found on them."

No?

Pei Yan's eyes flickered slightly, a hint of surprise flashing across his face.

With the help of palace maids, Xiao Yuzhen calmly stood up, her earlier panic completely gone, and a cold smile curled at the corner of her mouth.

She pointed at Pei Yan instead, her voice sharp and shrill.

"Your Majesty! You see! This is a completely fabricated slander! It is clearly the treacherous minister Pei Yan who harbors sinister intentions!"

"He fabricated lies about witchcraft, disrupted the harem, sowed discord between the Crown Prince and his concubine, and created enemies for His Highness!"

"He has already overstepped his authority, formed cliques for personal gain, and now he wants to use the Crown Prince to deal with me. His intentions are despicable, Your Majesty!"

The emperor was already on the verge of exploding with rage, and had little reason left.

On one hand, she was ashamed and annoyed by the rumors circulating in the harem; on the other hand, she was deeply wary of Pei Yan's overwhelming power in the court over the past few years, which had led to the loss of imperial authority.

New and old grudges flared up instantly, like hot oil being poured on them.

He stared at Pei Yan in silence for a long time before finally uttering two words: "Take him down!"

Inside the main hall, dozens of Imperial Guards instantly drew their swords, their gleaming blades flashing coldly, all pointing at Pei Yan.

With swords flashing and shadows looming, Pei Yan broke out in a cold sweat.

Xiao Yuzhen must have deduced his plan last night and hid the doll in advance.

The situation has once again reached a deadlock.

Just then, Jiang Guo'er's voice echoed in Pei Yan's mind.

Strangely, this time he heard complete sentences, not fragmented words.

[Xiao Yuzhen is truly wicked; she actually ordered two old, vicious women to put disgusting insects in a porcelain jar, claiming that even pregnant concubines in the palace eat them. Bah!]

[She takes advantage of being the Empress, using palace rules as a pretext for everything she does—how despicable and shameless!]

Pei Yan was suddenly taken aback.

Surprised by the perilous inner courtyard of the Prime Minister's residence, the word "decorative" struck him like a bolt of lightning, instantly cleaving through the fog before his eyes.

He got it!