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

"I sensed something was wrong and rushed back." Helian Jing's voice came from below. He didn't look up, still wiping the bloodstains between her fingers. "But it was too late."

Xi Yueli looked down as he finished wiping the last finger. She swayed slightly. Ye Lan's skills were too powerful, but her body was still the same skeleton that had been starved thin for more than ten years in the backyard of the Xi family mansion. It could not support that kind of sustained output.

Helian Jing reached out the instant she swayed, his arm slipping under her knees and lower back, lifting her up in his arms. His palms were pressed against her lower back, feeling the fabric there was soaked with cold sweat, warm but powerless.

He carried her quickly across the courtyard and placed her on the soft cushions laid out in the carriage. "The Prince Chen's residence is too tainted with bloodshed. Let's go to the other courtyard to rest first."

When her head nestled into the crook of his shoulder, the phoenix pattern between his brows had dimmed considerably, leaving only a faint sliver of warm light peeking through his skin, and the luster of the Nine Heavens Hairpin was slowly fading.

As she closed her eyes, the last words floated from her lips: "...Ye Lan's technique is good, but it's too strenuous..."

She sank into Helian Jing's arms, her breathing steady and long, like a string that had been stretched for too long finally being released and falling back to where it should.

Helian Jing looked down at the closed face in his arms. Her breathing was gradually becoming deeper and longer, and her complexion was turning from pale to a slightly warm color.

He carried her through the moon gate of the villa and into the house, gently placed her on the couch, and pulled the quilt over her.

Helian Jing remained seated on the edge of the couch, his hands resting on his knees, showing no intention of lying down. Her breathing was steady and reassuring in his ear.

Prince Chen's villa is located on the banks of the Jade Belt River in the eastern suburbs of the capital. It is a three-courtyard complex, half the size of Prince Chen's mansion.

Across the river was the eldest princess's villa. The empress, in a last-ditch effort to win her over, sent her a message with only one sentence: "If I fall, you'll be next. Do you think she'll let you off?"

The message reached the ears of the eldest princess that afternoon. After listening to the messenger's report in the warm pavilion, the eldest princess gripped the round fan in her hand so tightly that the ribs turned white.

If the empress falls, she will be nailed to the position of an accomplice; if the empress does not fall, she will die even if she accompanies the empress to the end. She is caught between two walls that are closing in, with no room to even turn around.

She hesitated all night, the light in the warm room stayed on until midnight, and her knuckles tapped repeatedly on the edge of the table, leaving two faint white marks.

Xi Yueli learned that the Empress was trying to win over the Eldest Princess when the news was delivered to her by someone from the Secret Pavilion at midnight that night.

Hua Jian Zui's informant had been lurking on the second floor of the teahouse opposite the Princess's villa. He was seen when the Empress's people entered the villa, and he was also seen when the Princess's lamp was lit until midnight.

After reading the secret report under the eaves of the detached courtyard, Xi Yueli folded the pages and put them into her sleeve, then looked up at Helian Jing by the window.

He was leaning against the windowsill, with a cup of cold tea beside him. When she looked up, he tilted his head slightly, as if waiting for her to speak.

"The eldest princess is hesitating," she said. "The empress's people are pressuring her to choose sides, and she's stuck between two walls. If no one gives her a push before dawn tomorrow, she might be persuaded by the empress's people."

Helian Jing straightened up from the windowsill and took two steps toward the door: "I will go with you."

"I'll go." Xi Yueli folded the last corner of the secret report, tucked it into her sleeve, and straightened her collar.

"She'll be even more scared if you go. She'll panic halfway if she sees you standing outside the door in the flower hall. If I go alone, she can sit still and talk to me."

Helian Jing stopped at the door, turned his head to look at her. Her face was half-lit and half-shadowed in the lamplight. The phoenix pattern between her eyebrows had disappeared, but her eyes were brighter than before.

The next day, just as dawn broke, Xi Yueli's carriage stopped in front of the Princess's villa. The gatekeeper peeked through the crack in the door, then looked again, before rushing inside to deliver the message.

The eldest princess was trying on her newly tailored spring clothes in the warm pavilion in the backyard when she heard the name of the person who came, and the round fan in her hand fell to the ground on the blue brick.

"What is she doing here?" The princess's knees buckled as she stood up, and she had to hold onto the edge of the table to steady herself.

A few days ago, she sat in the main seat at the flower banquet, half of her face covered by a round fan, and said in a shrill voice to the noble ladies in the garden, "What eldest princess? Who knows where this bastard came from?" The guests laughed in agreement.

At that time, she didn't even bother to remember Xi Yueli's name properly. She only felt that the Empress had recognized a concubine's daughter of unknown origin, who was at most a pawn placed on the front stage and should kneel tremblingly at the palace gate waiting for the Empress to summon her.

However, Xi Yueli moved directly into the Prince Chen's residence. When the Empress tried to probe her background, she grabbed the Empress's wrist.

The man she called "bastard" stood in the Hall of Diligent Governance and, in front of all the officials, unfolded the Empress's secret letter, causing the Empress to lose all her dignity.

That madwoman from the Xi family, known throughout the capital, threw the Empress into disarray, forcing her to send someone in the dead of night to win over someone she had previously disdained to even glance at.

The Queen was afraid. It was the first time she had ever seen the Queen afraid, and the person who was frightening her was standing at the entrance of her villa.

She hesitated for a moment, then took a breath, adopted her usual haughty demeanor, and walked towards the front hall, her steps a beat faster than usual.

Xi Yueli was already seated in the flower hall. She did not sit in the guest seat, but in the chair next to the host's seat. Sunlight shone through the window paper and fell on her face, illuminating the phoenix pattern on her brow that was slowly fading, revealing a layer of residual warmth.

Today she wore a plain white dress, without riding attire or a tied-up hairstyle. Her long hair was loosely tied up, with a delicate hairpin gently tucked into her bun. But when she sat in that chair, the air in the flower hall seemed to unconsciously become half an inch heavier.

When the princess stepped across the threshold, the first thing she saw was a figure in plain white sitting next to her usual seat, relaxed as if she were at home.

Her gaze lingered on that figure for a moment, then she put on a smile, stretching the corners of her mouth to their widest extent, and raised her voice by half an octave: "What brings the eldest princess to sit here with me? You should at least call me your aunt, so I'll naturally prepare some fine tea."

Xi Yueli glanced at her, then took a thin roll of paper from her sleeve and placed it on the table beside her, her fingertips tracing the edge of the paper. "Your Highness need not trouble yourself. I'll just say a few words and then leave."

The princess's smile froze on her lips. She took two steps forward, intending to sit down opposite Xi Yueli, but when the figure in white raised her eyes, she dared not sit down.

Xi Yueli pushed the page forward half an inch and unfolded it. It contained a sentence that the Eldest Princess blurted out during a conversation with one of her advisors: "The Empress has colluded with the enemy. Sooner or later, this matter will affect her. Let's just watch and see, and not get ourselves involved."

The princess's gaze fell on the line of words, and the color drained from her face as if someone had ripped it out from under her feet, turning her face ashen and pale.