When Liu Changqing took her hand, it felt like all the hair on her body instantly exploded. She felt a fishy sweetness in her throat, so she hastily pulled her hand out of his grasp and lifted a cup to drink water.

  When Liu Changqing saw that Ning Shu’s hand was trembling as she held the cup, worry appeared on his face. “Your Majesty, what’s wrong?” As he spoke, he took her hand again. “Your Majesty, are you not feeling well? Why is your hand so cold and trembling like this?”


  Ning Shu: …


  Fuuuck, couldn’t he talk properly? Could he stop grabbing her hand?

  Ning Shu’s facial muscles contorted, then she forced her lips to curve up and said, “It’s just hunger. We’re so hungry that we’re shaking.”


  A faint smile appeared on Liu Changqing’s face, it was extremely elegant. He asked, “Your Majesty, what do you want to eat?”


  Ning Shu furrowed her brows. What was Liu Changqing trying to do now?

  “Just soup. One that you personally make.” Ning Shu just wanted to make Liu Changqing quickly leave. She was in so much pain that her entire body was convulsing.

  Liu Changqing released Ning Shu’s hand and nodded. After saluting, he turned to leave, but after a few steps, he turned back and said, “Your Majesty, Changqing hopes that Your Majesty will deal with the crown prince’s matters carefully. Please do not damage your mother-daughter relationship. No matter what happens in the end, Changqing still hopes that both Your Majesty and the crown prince would be safe.”


  Ning Shu finally realized that Liu Changqing had come here because of the incident with Mu Xue. She had place Mu Xue under house arrest for a month because of that incident with the male mistresses.

  Liu Changqing had come here to plea for leniency. However, this attitude didn’t seem like he was asking for a favor. What was with his expression of disappointment and frustration?

  Ning Shu said coldly, “We’ve placed high hopes on her, but the things she’s done has truly disappointed us. She didn’t restrain her actions at all and even allowed the imperial censor to obtain evidence of her wrongdoings! She made no secret of the fact that she was raising a bunch of mistresses! What would this make the citizens think!? Have her reflect properly on this in her residence!”


  Liu Changqing just looked at Ning Shu quietly. He didn’t try to refute on behalf of the crown prince, but he also didn’t seem to be concerned by Ning Shu’s rage. “Changqing will go simmer soup for Your Majesty.”


  The moment Liu Changqing left, Ning Shu bent over and vomited several mouthfuls of blood. The blood contained several shocking dark-red clumps. Ning Shu could imagine how horrible the situation was inside her body.

  She sent out several of the imperial hidden guards to assassinate Mu Xue. Once Mu Xue died, everything would be resolved. If she really couldn’t find someone suitable for the throne, she’d just give the throne to the mediocre second prince. She really didn’t have much time left.

  During dinner, a servant from Phoenix Perch Palace brought over the soup that Liu Changqing had simmered. As the servant took out the soup from the food box, Ning Shu smelled a rich fragrance. It was obvious that this soup had been simmered slowly over a very long time.

  She still didn’t drink the soup. She couldn’t help but keep her guard up around this phoenix empress.

  She didn’t know if Liu Changqing had noticed anything and she couldn’t guarantee that she’d act just like Mu Nichang, so the only thing she could do was try to interact with Liu Changqing as little as possible.

  One thing that disappointed Ning Shu was that all the hidden guards she had sent out had returned in defeat. Several had been killed and the ones that managed to come back were heavily wounded.

  The hidden guards said that the crown prince’s residence was guarded very tightly and that the crown prince herself was quite strong as well.

  The people that had been captured alive by the crown prince had no choice but to bite through the poison sack in their mouths to commit suicide.

  Ning Shu’s heart sunk. The crown prince really was strong. If taking action in the dark wouldn’t work, then she’d just have to take action openly.

  She had to get rid of the crown prince’s status as heir apparent.