No one expected Prince An to suddenly pull such a stunt; after all, his existence was not a factor in any of the other factions' considerations.
Minister Liu's eyes widened. "Prince An, how can you falsely accuse this old minister like this?"
"Your Majesty, please see clearly, yesterday this old minister... yesterday..."
Xiao Yi lazily interjected, "What about yesterday? Was Minister Liu in his manor all of yesterday without making a single move?"
Naturally, that was not the case. Yesterday, he was busy dealing with the incident where Liu Wanting poisoned Tang Qingwan, trying all sorts of ways to smooth things over.
The Emperor also looked at him. "Continue."
Minister Liu fell to his knees with a thud. "Your Majesty, this old minister dares to guarantee with his own head, this old minister has absolutely never poisoned the prince."
"Is Minister Liu slandering this prince?"
"..."
"This old minister..." The gazes of everyone in the grand hall fell upon Minister Liu. Surrounded by a pack of wolves, he was the target of public criticism, a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.
"Who is slandering who?" Minister Liu had so many crimes listed against him that he no longer knew where to begin defending himself.
His face was as white as paper.
Xiao Yi looked straight ahead, his voice slow and contemptuous. "Minister Liu truly has a lot of nerve. Poisoning this prince on one hand, and the Crown Princess on the other. What, do you want to wipe out my Xiao family in one fell swoop so your Liu family can reign supreme?"
"Crown Prince, brother, people are trying to kill your wife and poison your child, can you still endure this?"
The ministers in the hall all shrank their heads, breaking out in cold sweat. No one dared to make a peep, terrified that Prince An would shift his firepower onto them.
Each of these sentences left absolutely no way out for the man.
The Emperor said, "You shut your mouth first."
Whether what Xiao Yi said was true or false remained to be investigated, but his intention to stir up trouble was already exceedingly obvious.
The Crown Prince had clearly taken the words to heart. He stepped forward and said, "I beseech Imperial Father to deal with Minister Liu impartially. As the Crown Prince, for my wife and child to be persecuted by a mere subject—if this grudge is not avenged, what face do I have to continue standing in the royal court as the Crown Prince of Great Liang?"
The officials led by Prime Minister Cui also stood out. "We second the motion. The daughter of Minister Liu persecuting the Crown Princess is a display of contempt for imperial authority, and there are various other evil deeds. Her crimes are too numerous to record. We beg Your Majesty to punish them severely."
Prince An added, "Minister Liu persecuted a prince of the blood; I ask Imperial Father to execute him."
Except for a few scattered officials from the Ministry of War who hung their heads and shrank back like quails, almost all the other officials knelt on the floor.
Prime Minister Cui, Prince An, and the Crown Prince's faction, all under the subtle cues of their respective masters, loudly demanded the execution of Minister Liu.
The Emperor was put on the spot, his face looking terrible. "Minister Liu, you truly have quite the ability."
To be able to make the civil and military officials of the entire court unite like this, acting in collusion and sharing a bitter hatred to the point of demanding his death.
The Emperor's gaze swept over everyone in the grand hall one by one. "Since I ascended the throne, this is the first time you all have been so united."
"In the past, you would fight bloody battles over trivial, insignificant matters, but today, every single one of you..."
The Cui and Tang families truly had capabilities!
A person could make enemies, but they shouldn't make enemies of everyone all at once.
As the target of public wrath, when everyone wants you dead, even the gods would find it hard to save you.
The Emperor's hands resting on the dragon throne tightened again and again, his knuckles turning pale. "Where is My beloved Minister Shen? Why didn't he come to court?"
A eunuch nearby hastily replied, "To reply to Your Majesty, Lord Shen caught a cold yesterday and asked for a leave of absence."
"Caught a cold?" The Emperor frowned. "How severe of a cold that he couldn't even attend court?"
"It is said that he cannot move."
The only person who could control the court situation was absent.
...
Shen Xiabai twisted his arm, and the two pincers clinging to his arm immediately tightened.
"..."
"Master, is your arm numb? This subordinate will massage it for you." Yu Feng glanced at Cui Yunchu, who was keeping her eyes closed while stubbornly hugging his master without letting go.
"No need." Shen Xiabai's voice was extremely cold. He lowered his eyes, staring unblinkingly at the sleeping woman's face.
A moment later, he suddenly forcefully pulled his arm out, but those arms immediately climbed back up, tightly hugging his waist, and dragging him toward the edge of the bed along with his movements.
As long as one wasn't dead, they should have woken up, but she still kept her eyes tightly shut.
"Cui Yunchu, let go."
Because of his movements, Cui Yunchu sat half up, but her beautiful face still maintained a sleeping appearance.
With her arms raised upwards, her sleeves slipped down to her elbows, revealing a section of fair, smooth arm. Her pale wrists were incredibly slender, looking as if they would snap with just a bit of force.
Yu Feng craned his neck to look.
It was hard to tell if the look in his eyes was disdain or some other emotion.
Skinny as a rail, was she really that hard to push away?
"Master, leave it to this subordinate. This subordinate will chop off her hands for you."
"What are you looking at?" Shen Xiabai looked back, his face showing displeasure. "Get out."
While speaking, his hands weren't idle either, forcefully pulling down the sleeves at Cui Yunchu's elbows.
"..."
Yu Feng thought: Fine, what's there to investigate anyway.
They were like a scale hugging its weight, inseparable, almost sticking together like malt candy.
If you asked him, his master didn't even need to pretend anymore. Why be so reserved? Just claim the title and be done with it.
He cast a disdainful glance and curled his lips. "Yes, this subordinate will go prepare breakfast for you... both."
The door was closed from the outside.
Shen Xiabai's gaze lowered, falling on the girl's jade-white face. His tone was indifferent. "For the Cui family, you don't even care about a girl's reputation. You really are willing to risk everything."
The woman still showed no signs of waking up.
"Alright, the morning court session has ended, and Minister Liu has been sentenced. You've achieved your goal, you can let go now."
"..."
"Yu Feng, bring a knife."
The arms around his waist immediately moved away, and the person pressed against his abdomen lay back on the bed at top speed.
Shen Xiabai's lips curled in mockery as he looked at her coldly. "Not pretending anymore?"
Cui Yunchu shrank her head into the quilt, opening her clear eyes to look at the man standing before the bed. "You look really good in a white brocade robe, very pleasing to the eye."
Shen Xiabai averted his gaze and coughed lightly, the tips of his ears rapidly turning red. "You are a girl, do you know no shame at all?"
"I praised you for looking good, how is that shameless?"
If she said he was ugly, heaven knows if he would throw her back into prison to scare her.
"Truly hard to please."
"Get up," Shen Xiabai said.
"I won't." Cui Yunchu wrapped herself in the quilt. "I'm cold."
"You were so brave yesterday when you dragged this official into the lake, but now you know you're cold."
Shen Xiabai's eyes were cold, and his tone was slightly chilly, completely contradicting his flushed face. "Deliberately preventing this official from attending court, Eldest Miss Cui's mind works truly fast. Good calculation."
"Prince An must have received hints from the Second Miss Cui, right? And the Crown Prince. If this official's guess is correct, the poison was taken by the Crown Princess herself. So effortlessly gathering several factions to simultaneously attack the Liu family, while taking the opportunity to trap this official. The daughters of the Cui family are truly formidable, each and every one of them."
He looked down at Cui Yunchu, his posture condescending.
"Lord Shen's quilt is not as fragrant as mine, but it has a kind of cold crispness of a man, and I like it very much."
"..."
"Cui Yunchu." If Yu Feng were here, he would definitely see Shen Xiabai's flushed face.
"What does Lord Shen want to say, whether I know shame or not?" Cui Yunchu smiled. "What do you think?"
"You certainly know shame, aren't you so shamed by me that you can't even say half a word? You only know how to shout my name."
Shen Xiabai was never a man of many words.
Especially when being... flirted with by Cui Yunchu in such a manner.
Shen Xiabai turned his back to her. "Throwing yourself into a man's arms just to achieve your goals. Is this how the Cui family raised you?"
He stopped just short of calling her completely shameless.
Cui Yunchu pursed her lips.
She was worried about saying something too harsh, yet she also didn't want him to get too smug.
Getting off the bed, she smoothed out her slightly wrinkled dress, walked around to stand in front of Shen Xiabai, and tilted her head.
