In the Qi Palace.

Di Qing was supposed to ask for help, but he didn’t expect that the Triple Alliance failed to beat Xiao Qi. Di Qing was quite upset.

“Your Majesty, you are back at last.”

Leng Cang came up to meet him.

“What’s the matter?” Seeing Di Qing looking sullen, Leng Cang became cautious and thought, “It seems His Majesty didn’t get any benefit.”

“The refugees are demanding food. Some people wounded some of the officials of the eastern city’s government house,” he replied, his voice fading.

“You get paid and don’t do anything. What do I keep you for?” Di Qing slapped him in the face. A red handprint immediately appeared on his face. As the prime minister of the Qi Kingdom, Leng Cang was Di Qing’s lackey and could be abandoned at any time.

“Please educate me on that, Your Majesty.” Leng Cang had to bite the bullet. If the riots weren’t handled properly, there would be chaos. As a result, Leng Cang was afraid to assert himself.

“Punish all those who made trouble.” Leng Cang accepted the order and withdrew from the hall. The more Di Qing thought, the angrier he got.

“Here comes Her Majesty, Your Majesty…” A maid told Di Qing through the door. Ou Jingyu walked over slowly. Di Qing’s face cleared, and he thought that the Queen was really sweet and caring. Due to the relaxation of his strain, Di Qing fainted in Ou Jingyu’s arms. The woman had never been in such a situation, so she was quite frightened. She immediately sent for the imperial physician. The imperial physician felt Di Qing’s pulse and found that he had fainted from fatigue. Ou Jingyu kept looking after Di Qing until dawn before she fell asleep. When Di Qing woke up, it was late in the morning. The sunlight from a gap in the curtain slowly moved to the woman’s face. Under the gold light, she looked very pretty. Di Qing lifted her hair. Soft hair ran between his fingers. Perhaps because of the morning wind or hair disturbed the woman, she groaned. Di Qing was turned on. He took off the woman’s clothes and lay down on her. A chill came over Ou Jingyu, and she screamed with fear. When she opened her eyes, she saw Di Qing. At this moment, there was still a calculating look in her eyes, but Di Qing didn’t care about it at all and only focused on making out with her. Ou Jingyu was afraid of revealing her secret. After all, she was not the real Queen.

“Your Majesty,” Ou Jingyu kept begging, but Di Qing ignored her request and turned more passionate. The woman struggled. Di Qing was furious. Ou Jingyu’s tears made him hornier. He worked harder to make out with her, and the shy women gradually accepted him. Di Qing’s heart was full of love for her. He liked what the women looked like now. When their passion had receded, all was quiet again.

“Your Majesty, I have missed you so much during your absence these days…” Ou Jingyu uttered in a weak voice deliberately. In fact, the Queen’s words needed to be considered carefully. Ou Jingyu’s life was full of plots. She was not weak at all.

“I know you care about me.” Di Qing lay on his side while thinking about the woman’s tears when they had enjoyed a great time. “Did she not like my favor?” Di Qing felt upset at the thought. At that moment, the weeping outside rang and eased the erotic atmosphere inside. Shui’er had been waiting outside the door. When the door opened, Di Qing’s arbitrary look scared Shui’er to lower her head.

“It is still morning. Are you crying for the dead?”

Di Qing took a glance at the beautiful girl kneeling on the ground and found that it was the Queen’s half-sister.

It was You Qingmo.

“Your Majesty, my sister died a terrible death!”

You Qingmo’s face was full of tears. Di Qing started and thought, “What the hell was the woman talking about? You Qingcheng is fine. Why did she curse her sister?” Ou Jingyu was stunned in her heart, thinking who had revealed the news. “There are only two people who know about it besides me. Did Fan’er betray me?” Ou Jingyu immediately denied the possibility and confirmed that the old woman betrayed her. Ou Jingyu had been a spy and seen all kinds of big waves. “I cannot let His Majesty know that I pass for the Queen. Looks like someone spread the news and wanted me dead.” At the thought of the Queen’s death, Ou Jingyu was still a little alarmed. In order to live a glorious life, she killed several people. She didn’t want anyone to know about that. She had to make Di Qing fall in love with her. Only in this way, when she exposed, she still had the support. Ou Jingyu just wanted to keep it a secret. To her surprise, the news leaked out so quickly. If the nobles of the Qi Kingdom knew that the Queen was a fake, she would get into great trouble. Ou Jingyu was determined not to let it happen. She decided to try to entangle the Emperor. If she gave birth to a prince, even the crown prince would have to give way to her son. Everyone wanted to be Queen. The struggle in the harem needed chips, but she had no previous power. Everything would be difficult for her. Only Leng Cang could help her now. Thinking of this, Ou Jingyu suddenly got several tricks. Fan’er was in the prime of her life when she noticed that she was flirting with Leng Cang. She thought she could help Leng Cang on condition that he should help her. Ou Jingyu got more and more pleased when she thought about it. “It’s time for Fan’er to know the world.”

Two figures flashed by in the distance. They were Xu Yin and Xiao Liuzi. It was Xiao Liuzi who told the others that the Queen was pregnant. They spent a lot of money to buy off Ning’s woman. In order to avenge his brother, Xu Yin was ready to risk everything. They only let her do it after a mixture of carrot and stick. As a result, the enemy was removed, but the benefits were taken away. Ou Jingyu pretended to be the Queen, but the Western Palace did not get any benefit. Although You Qingmo was You Qingcheng’s half-sister, they were bitter enemies. Her sister’s death did the false Queen a lot of good.

You Qingmo cried louder, which made Di Qing lose patience and think, “Does this woman want to die? The Queen is perfectly well. She wants to put a curse on her. What a wicked woman!” Di Qing jerked his leg and kicked You Qingmo to the ground. Ou Jingyu rushed out of the door. Di Qing, fearing that she would lose her mind and get hurt, pulled her into his arms and held her tightly. You Qingmo, who was on her knees, put on a cold expression.

“Your Majesty.”

You Qingmo reminded Di Qing that she was still on her knees. At the moment, Di Qing’s attention was on the woman in his arms and completely ignored her, an imperial concubine. Liu’er had been in a corner, watching everything. She had seen something similar. These were all common palace tricks, and she was inured to them. At first, she thought it was a proud thing, but when she entered the palace, she realized that all the people here lived a seemingly good life, and only they themselves knew how bitter they actually were. Women had to depend on men to satisfy their desires.

Liu’er was still a virgin, but she saw through everything. She thought that women were stupid to put their lives on the line for love.

“Your Majesty, the imperial court is engaged in an heated argument.”

A eunuch hurried over. As he saw a person kneeling on the ground, he immediately stepped back. Women’s positions in the palace were changeable, so no one knew whether the woman would become his master one day. So the eunuch thought he’d better stay away from her so as not to get into a fatal disaster. Di Qing was unwilling to leave, but the affairs in the imperial court were waiting for him. Ou Jingyu in his arms became calmer, but Di Qing was afraid that his woman would do stupid things. He threw a glance at the little maid in the corner and came up to grab the eunuch. Ni Shang lowered her head more with a scare, only hoping Di Qing would leave soon.

“Take care of your master,” Di Qing said.

When the footsteps were gone, Liu’er looked up. Ou Jingyu stepped forward to help You Qingmo up. Although she was a false Queen, she could not leave any subject for ridicule. You Qingmo was more wary of her, thinking, “This woman is really powerful. In the face of these difficulties, she was surprisingly calm. She is fit to be a spy.” You Qingmo smiled more gently.

“Sister, I heard that you met bad people. I was terrified.”

You Qingmo got up with tears in her eyes, while Ou Jingyu could not help but wailing, never expecting that how good was her acting. But when the day came, she acted with ease. Seeing Ou Jingyu so sad, You Qingmo had to accompany her to cry. Xu Yin who had been observing them in the corner acknowledged himself inferior to them in acting. It was not an easy job to play. Before succeeding in cheating others, the actors should deceive themselves first. “Ou Jingyu is shrewd indeed.” Fan’er began worrying about her master. Her heart had been hanging in the air just now.

Di Qing went to the imperial court and found all the important ministers present there. It seemed that everyone wanted his family or relative to be the imperial concubine, even the Grand Tutor Liu who had been sick for a long time also turned up. Di Qing had his own candidate, the girl of the Ma family. Glancing at the ministers in the imperial court, Di Qing spotted Leng Cang, who lowered his head. Since he worked for Di Qing in the underground palace, Leng Cang’s promotion skyrocketed, so he had assumed that the Emperor would choose a girl from his family to be the imperial concubine, but unexpectedly, he miscalculated again—the Emperor ordered him to recommend Ma Su’er, which made Leng Cang somewhat displeased. But he could not resist the Emperor’s cold eyes and had to brace himself to do it. Now it was his turn to speak.

“Your Majesty, I want to recommend a girl.”

“Who’s she?”

“Our assistant minister’s daughter, Miss Ma.”

“Your Majesty, I disagree with the proposal. My daughter is more beautiful and talented.”

As soon as Leng Cang finished, Grand Tutor Liu was the first to raise an objection, followed by a group of ministers to support him. Di Qing knew that it was not easy to marry Miss Ma, but he was well-prepared. Grand Tutor Liu had a son who was a general in the frontier and was always dissatisfied with You Hu. Now Di Qing’s father-in-law was dead, which was sudden happiness to Grand Tutor Liu. But to his surprise, a person rushed out halfway to stand in his way. How could Grand Tutor Liu tolerate it? So he was the first to stand up to oppose it. If his daughter became the imperial concubine, Grand Tutor Liu would become the second Yan Shen, with his son owning military power, and his daughter helping him calculate the Emperor in the imperial harem. By then, Di Qing would be under attack from both sides. Therefore, Di Qing was the last person to marry his daughter. But he thought the father-in-law did die for him. If someone spread it to the people on purpose, it would be awful. Now the only solution was to find a helper. At the moment there were many refugees in the capital, and the war between them and the Jin army was losing ground. He insisted on turning the domestic contradictions to the outside, but his country not only failed to expand the territory but also lost 10 cities.

“Do you have suitable candidates, everybody?”

Standing on the right was a civil official, and he recommended Grand Tutor Liu’s daughter. There was a burst of agreement in the imperial court, as if his daughter would definitely become an imperial concubine. Obviously, all the ministers in the imperial court were currying favor with Grand Tutor Liu. Di Qing cast a glance at Leng Cang. Having received his master’s hint, Leng Cang knew that it was time for him to play. He stepped out of the queue steadily in the direction of the throne where Di Qing was seated on. Di Qing fully knew what Leng Cang was going to do. Since they had grabbed the vulnerable point of others, they would grab tightly and not let it go. When Leng Cang knelt down closest to Grand Tutor Liu, something dropped on the ground. Leng Cang picked them up in a hurry, but his hands trembled and the things in his chest fell down on the ground. Grand Tutor Liu took a glimpse at the ground, and what he saw scared him. There were his son’s signatures on those fallen documents, but these revised documents had to be submitted to the Emperor. In other words, his son took some kickbacks and kept those documents secretly without handing them over to the higher level. So the Emperor and people of the upper level knew nothing about it. Grand Tutor Liu felt bitter in his heart. If the Emperor looked into it, his son would be charged with treason without a doubt. The more Grand Tutor Liu thought, the more frightened he was. Then he made up his mind immediately. Since the Emperor wanted Miss Ma, he would like to do the Emperor a favor and make him happy. So he stepped up, faster than Leng Cang. Although the old man was sick, he walked so deftly that he came to the front of the hall within several steps. Then he knelt on his knees. Di Qing narrowed his eyes and waited for him to speak.

“I think, Miss Ma is the most suitable candidate for the imperial concubine.”