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

She tilted her head slightly. "So, I brought something with me."

She took out a thin roll of paper from her sleeve and unfolded it. It was a copy of a secret letter, the pages yellowed and the edges creased white. There was a blurry stamp at the end of the letter.

It is the Empress's private seal, smaller than the Phoenix Seal, but the patterns match perfectly.

"This letter was written a month before the late Empress gave birth to her daughter. It mentions that 'three altars have been prepared in the northern suburbs of Chilin City.' The recipient is listed as a general of the northern border army. I have found the descendant of that general, and he is willing to testify."

The Queen's gaze fell on the scroll, paused for a moment, and then she chuckled, a short and soft laugh, as if listening to a child say something innocent and amusing.

"An old letter from an unknown source, a testimony from a descendant whose authenticity is uncertain—the eldest princess has been away from home for too long and probably doesn't know the rules of the palace."

"Old letters can be forged, testimonies can be bought. Do you really think you can stand before me with just these two things and claim that I was the one who did what happened back then?"

She leaned back in her phoenix chair, her posture relaxed, and lightly tapped her fingers on the armrest. "You think I'd panic?"

Xi Yueli folded the letter and put it back in her sleeve. She looked up and met the Empress's gaze, which was now filled with a warm smile. Instead of responding to her words, she spoke in a different direction.

"Has Your Majesty noticed lately that since the seventeen southern supply lines were severed, messages being sent from the capital have become slower?"

The Empress's fingers paused briefly on the armrest.

Xi Yueli took two steps forward, stopping three steps from the center of the hall in front of the phoenix throne. "The secret agents of Beishuo were cut off because Fuyuan's people blocked that road. The trade routes in the south were cut off because the He family changed the seals of their accounting offices. The old routes for sending messages in the capital—"

She slightly curved the corners of her mouth. "This humble servant had three people fill out the forms and left one. Of the secret letters Her Majesty the Empress intended to send out of the palace, about seven are still hidden in a secret compartment in the last three days and have not yet left."

A crack finally appeared on the Empress's face in that instant. Her knuckles turned white as she gripped the armrest, but her voice remained gentle, though a chill began to seep from beneath that gentleness.

"Is Silver Shuttle one of yours?"

"He wasn't before, but he is now," Xi Yueli replied naturally, as if stating something that didn't need explanation.

The Empress leaned back in her phoenix chair and remained silent for a moment. The gentle smile on her lips faded, revealing the cold hardness beneath, a smile permeated by power.

"I should be happy for the return of the eldest princess to the capital. But today you stand before me and say these things—"

"Do you know that every word spoken in this palace will be spread? You said that I murdered the late Empress and sacrificed a city. If this gets out, there will be no room for negotiation between you and me."

Her voice finally deepened, no longer gentle, like a piece of bronze that had its outer patina worn away, revealing its dark undertone.

Xi Yueli met her darkening gaze without taking a step back. She took out the rolled-up letter that she had just put into her sleeve, placed it on the rosewood table in front of the phoenix chair, pressed her fingertips against the paper, and pushed it in front of the Empress.

"This humble woman has no intention of arguing with Your Majesty. I have come today merely to inform Your Majesty—"

"I, Xi Yueli, also known as Helian Xi, whose soul was split by you, have returned."

She withdrew her hand, took half a step back, and bowed. It was the proper etiquette a subject should have towards the Empress, and there was nothing wrong with it. However, there was no subservience in the curve of that bow.

"This humble woman takes her leave."

She turned and walked towards the palace gate, her figure in black riding attire gleaming in the sunlight. As she crossed the threshold, the sunlight fell on her face again, illuminating her almond-shaped eyes with a clear and bright light.

The main hall of the palace fell silent once more. The Empress sat alone on her phoenix throne, looking down at the old letter rolled up on the table. With a flick of her sleeve, she swept it to the ground. She did not immediately summon anyone in; she simply sat there, the candlelight outlining her drooping face in a half-light, half-shadow.

As Xi Yueli walked out of the palace gate and down the last step, she caught a glimpse of a gray-blue figure next to the stone lion out of the corner of her eye.

Xi Mingyuan.

His official robe was wrinkled, as if he had been standing for too long and then squatting. His back was bent, and he was clutching an official hat in his hand. The moment he saw her come out, he straightened up abruptly.

"...Sister Li." The word was squeezed out of her throat, carrying an inexplicable bitterness.

Xi Yueli stopped three steps in front of him. She tilted her head slightly and looked at his face, his graying temples, the two lines drooping at the corners of his lips, and the eyes that used to be full of authority in the Xi family, but now they had lost their hardness.

"Lord Xi, is there something you need?" Her voice was neither loud nor soft, flat, as if she were asking a complete stranger why they were blocking her way.

Xi Mingyuan's Adam's apple bobbed, his lips moved, and it took him several breaths to find his voice: "Good daughter, your father thought you... I've come to take you back to the manor."

"Your courtyard is still here, Jinxian Courtyard. Fang Shi has been confined to her quarters; I've transferred her to the estate... I know you hate me for those things, but I am your father..."

He stopped there because Xi Yueli smiled, deftly cutting off his unfinished sentence.

"Lord Xi, I am the eldest daughter of the Empress herself." She began, her voice tinged with mockery. "The Xi residence was already empty when I was tied to a mule cart and sent to the estate. The Xi residence has long been unable to accommodate me."

After she finished speaking, she took two steps forward and passed by him without stopping or turning her head, like a living person passing by a roadside stone, not worth a second glance.

"Li-jie'er—" He reached out to touch her sleeve, but his fingertips stopped in mid-air just an inch away because the carriage was stopped three steps below the steps, and the curtain was being lifted from the inside.

Helian Jing sat in the carriage, his hand outstretched, palm up, resting on the edge of the curtain.

It was a posture of waiting, a posture that made all the female officials and guards waiting outside the palace gates hold their breath.

Prince Chen, Helian Jing, the master of the Heavenly Pivot Division and the sharpest blade of the Great Ying imperial family, condescended to extend his hand at this moment, and the person he was taking was none other than the rumored mad eldest daughter of the Xi family, who had been burned to death by her stepmother in the manor.

Xi Yueli walked to the carriage and calmly placed her hand inside, interlocking her fingers.

Helian Jing grasped her hand and gently pulled her along. As she bent over, his other hand landed on her lower back, offering a light touch. The movement was so natural that the female officials waiting outside the palace gates all bowed their heads in unison.

Xi Mingyuan stood there, his outstretched hand still hanging in mid-air, unsure whether to retract it or not. He watched as the carriage curtain fell before him, the finely woven fabric completely obscuring his daughter's face, making it impossible for him to see anything.

The carriage curtain fell, and four jet-black horses started moving side by side, their horseshoes clattering rhythmically on the bluestone slabs.

As the carriage turned past Xihua Gate, the official carriages passing by on both sides automatically stopped beside it. An older civil official peeked out from behind the curtain, saw the Tian Shu pattern engraved on the side of the canopy carriage, and then silently withdrew.

The carriage left the palace through the Xihua Gate and headed east along Changning Street. The soldiers and sentries at every intersection in the capital made way for the carriage the moment they saw it.

The carriage stopped in front of a black lacquered gate. The three characters "Chenwang Mansion" on the huge black plaque with gold lacquer were written with vigorous strokes, as if they had been cleaved by a knife.