Upon hearing this, Fan Zhen twitched the corner of his mouth forcefully.
Whose territory was this exactly? How could she say such a thing?
After Shi Muyuan said this, she then realized what she had just uttered, and suddenly felt a bit embarrassed.
"What I meant was, you don't know what that thing looks like, so you can't help me."
Fan Zhen felt even more confused. This was clearly his place, so why didn't he know about the things here? Logically, he should be the one who was most familiar with this place.
While thinking, he voiced his doubts.
It took Shi Muyuan a long time to react, and she couldn't come up with a reasonable explanation for a while. So the two of them just stared blankly at each other.
After a long while, Shi Muyuan moved her lips and casually came up with an excuse.
"I've always heard that there's a rare red coral in the world, but I've never seen it before. I thought there were so many treasures here, so I wondered if I could find one to broaden my horizons."
So that was it. Fan Zhen hadn't suspected her much in the first place, and now he easily believed her words.
"Logically, there should be red coral here, but I don't know exactly where it's placed. If Your Majesty really wants it, I'll help you look for it."
Shi Muyuan didn't expect that the thing she had casually mentioned actually existed here. When she was in the palace, she had always heard how valuable the red coral was. Now that she thought she was about to see it with her own eyes, she was still a bit in a daze.
The two then each found a place and started rummaging around.
Shi Muyuan originally thought that she would return empty - handed today, but unexpectedly, she found a fragment in a particularly unnoticeable corner.
When she saw the fragment, she was so excited that she almost cried out, but she quickly calmed down.
She quietly approached it, afraid of attracting Fan Zhen's attention. If he knew the origin of this fragment, it would be very difficult for her to leave here today.
However, no matter how careful one is, there will always be oversights. Even though she thought she had done everything seamlessly, something seemed amiss and was still detected.
Fan Zhen had just found the red coral and was walking over in this direction.
As a martial artist, he was used to walking silently. By the time he got close, the person squatting on the ground still hadn't noticed.
"Isn't Your Majesty looking for red coral? What's that in your hand?"
Hearing his voice, Shi Muyuan instinctively wanted to hide the thing behind her, but it had already caught his eye.
"What is this? It looks so strange. Could it be from my secret chamber?"
Before Shi Muyuan could answer, he had already taken the thing into his hand. She had no choice but to answer boldly.
"This thing looks quite nice, so I just picked it up to take a look. Don't you know what this is?"
When she asked this question, she actually had some guesses in her heart. If he knew what it was, he wouldn't have asked her like that just now.
Sure enough, Fan Zhen nodded slightly and was quite honest: "Maybe I brought it back at some time before, but it probably doesn't have much use. If Your Majesty likes it, you can take it. By the way, I just found the red coral here."
Hearing this, Shi Muyuan was surprised when she saw the red coral in his hand.
It was indeed red coral, but she had only mentioned this thing at first to divert his attention. She didn't expect him to take it so seriously.
Now that she had found what she wanted, she pushed the red coral back.
"Since I've already got one thing, there's no need for this one. I can't take too much advantage of you. It wasn't easy for you to obtain these things back then."
But once Fan Zhen made a decision, it wasn't easy to change it. He stuffed the red coral in his hand into Shi Muyuan's arms.
"It doesn't matter if Your Majesty takes a couple more things. Besides, you like both of them. Consider it my way of repaying you."
She didn't expect him to be so kind to her. Thinking about her original purpose of coming here, she suddenly felt guilty and thought she was being sorry for him.
That was clearly a deal between her and a man, but now an innocent person who trusted her was involved. She knew it wasn't right, but it was something she had to do, and she didn't know how to make up for it.
Her eyes drooped, and her expression was a bit sad. This really startled the person in front of her.
"Does Your Majesty not like it? If you don't like it, you can choose other things. You can take whatever you want here."
Shi Muyuan quickly waved her hand to stop his next move.
"No, I'm really grateful for your kindness. These two things are enough. If you need my help in the future, just ask."
"Okay."
The two thus made an agreement. Granny Liu was waiting at the exit. When she saw them come out, she let out a sigh of relief. However, her face was solemn, and even without a careful look, the two of them could notice it.
"Granny Liu, what happened?"
After Granny Liu made sure there was no one around, she spoke to them.
"Your Majesty should go back as soon as possible. There's been a big incident in Changjing City recently, and some people have started to get restless."
Shi Muyuan couldn't quite understand Granny Liu's words: "What do you mean?"
Granny Liu sighed, stuffed a letter in her arms, and then urged the two of them to leave.
Sitting in the carriage, Shi Muyuan carefully read the letter in her hand. Her expression gradually became serious, which made Fan Zhen beside her also start to take it seriously.
"What's written in it? Why is even Your Majesty so solemn?"
"You can read it yourself."
After Fan Zhen finished reading, there was uncontrollable disgust on his face: "So I've always disliked some people in the court. I'd rather be a free - spirited killer than follow those people and live a humble life."
"I didn't expect things to turn out like this. It seems that the plague has become serious. We should hurry back to the palace and discuss countermeasures with the Emperor. You find a day to invite the divine doctor back. The sooner, the better."
Because of what happened to Lin'er before, Sanqi had been taking her out for a stroll. They didn't know where they were recently. They just hoped it wasn't too far from Changjing City.
Fan Zhen pursed his lips: "Why wait so long? We should act as soon as possible. Didn't the divine doctor say that he had started his journey back a few days ago? I'll go and meet him now. Maybe I can pick him up soon."
The two discussed and settled this matter. When Shi Muyuan returned to the palace, she rushed to the imperial study.
Unexpectedly, she saw that man there.