"Pearls of the Mermaids?"
Liu Mei looked at Xia Chuli in front of her, her expression turning solemn for a moment. "Your Highness the Crown Prince, I have no idea what you're talking about."
Xia Chuli let out a soft laugh. "Auntie, you know our relationship. I won't beat around the bush. I'm here today to make a deal with you."
Liu Mei looked up at him. A flicker of surprise flashed across her charming eyes, and then her expression darkened. She even put down the tobacco pipe she was holding on the table.
"You arranged the meeting between Qingfeng and Lu Yan, didn't you?" Xia Chuli's eyes were curved in a smile, but his words carried no warmth.
Liu Mei looked at him and suddenly laughed. "My dear nephew, before you question me, shouldn't you first tell me how you found out about our relationship?"
"Does it matter?" Xia Chuli scoffed through his nose. He picked up the teacup and waved it in front of his eyes. "I know what your goal is, and you should also know what I want to do. We share the same blood. You don't have to use Lu Yan. I can help you."
Liu Mei snorted. "Based on your current powerless state?"
"Then how long do you think Lu Yan can hold onto his military power?" Xia Chuli countered. There was a hint of killing intent in his words. "Father has long been dissatisfied with him. Lu Yan already has a high reputation among the people. If he dies in the battle against the Donghu tribe, it's easy to deal with. But if he survives, do you think Father will allow him to continue to outshine the king?"
Liu Mei covered her mouth and laughed. She propped her head up in a comfortable position and said, "Then what can you do? To put it simply, do you have any military power?"
"Who says I don't?" Xia Chuli suddenly said with confidence.
Liu Mei was stunned.
Xia Chuli leaned forward and lowered his voice. "I have a plan. Auntie, why don't you listen to me..."
-
Liu Mei looked at the steaming black tea in front of her. Her mind kept replaying Xia Chuli's words. Her two slender eyebrows unconsciously knitted together.
A slight sound came from the door. Liu Mei paused. She slowly covered the teacup with the tea lid, sat up straight gracefully, smoothed her hair, and resumed her charming appearance. She said with a smile, "Come in."
The door opened, and Sen Ya slipped in. He clasped his fists and said, "My Lady, as you ordered, we have withdrawn the people who were interfering with Yu Shuang."
"Good." Liu Mei nodded. Suddenly, she looked at Sen Ya and said, "If I remember correctly, you used to work under Yu Shuang, right?"
Hearing this, Sen Ya suddenly knelt down and clasped his fists. "My Lady, that's right. But after the collapse of Wu Hen, I lost contact with Yu Shuang."
Liu Mei looked at him. Her face still maintained a charming appearance, showing no emotional fluctuations. "I see... Many people in the Shifang Pavilion were your colleagues in Wu Hen. I also remember the rules of Wu Hen. If Yu Shuang has already recognized Shen Qingfeng as her master, is she no longer useful?"
Sen Ya paused for a moment and said, "Yes... Once a person from Wu Hen recognizes a master, they will serve until death."
"So, Yu Shuang is like a wild wolf that can't be tamed." Liu Mei said. She lowered her head and slowly stroked her fingernails. She let out a soft laugh and said, "The young Crown Prince should also know this. So what he's after is not Yu Shuang, but to use Shen Qingfeng's hand to build the Tingfeng Pavilion for him. No wonder the first thing he asked me to do was not to compete with Shen Qingfeng for people."
Liu Mei paused and asked, "But Shen Qingfeng is not an easy person. How long do you think he and the young Crown Prince can conspire together?"
Sen Ya lowered his head and said, "I dare not make wild guesses."
"Humph." Liu Mei snorted. She stood up and walked step by step to the window with a swaying gait. She leaned on the window lattice with one hand and folded her arms across her chest with the other. Her eyes stared directly at the high wall of the Bian Palace not far away through the soft window screen.
"Regarding Shen Qingfeng, the young Crown Prince will surely compete with Lu Yan. However, no matter how they compete, we can't be involved. Since Yu Shuang's camp has been determined..." Liu Mei suddenly called out, "Sen Ya."
"I'm here, My Lady."
"Go and check the people in the Shifang Pavilion. Select those who had close contact with Yu Shuang..." Liu Mei's eyes turned cold. "Kill them."
Sen Ya replied in a deep voice, "...Yes!"
-
Although Xia Chuli's injuries looked serious, he had made some preparations before being punished. He had bribed the executioners one by one, so he didn't really endure all thirty strokes. Based on this injury, he would be fully recovered after ten more days of rest.
Shen Qingfeng lit a calming incense and placed it beside Xia Chuli's bed. Xia Chuli let out a few comfortable groans and soon fell asleep under Shen Qingfeng's gentle massage.
Seeing that Xia Chuli was no longer moving, Shen Qingfeng bent down and got closer to check. After confirming that Xia Chuli wouldn't wake up, he let out a long sigh of relief. He slowly stood up and walked to a corner beside the bed.
Now, he was going to look for the relics of Princess Liuli.
He had lived in the Eastern Palace for a long time and was extremely familiar with it. However, even so, Xia Chuli had never told him that there were relics of Princess Liuli in the Eastern Palace.
However, Shen Qingfeng remembered that in his previous life, he had accidentally seen Xia Chuli crying alone in this corner of the room - on the night when King Xia Jie was killed. That night, the moon in the sky was as red as blood. The Shanhe Hall was filled with the bloodstains left by the fight. The troops that were forcing the king to abdicate gathered in front of the Shanhe Hall. When he was counting the troops in his armor, he looked back and found that Xia Chuli was gone.
Shen Qingfeng traced his steps back to the Eastern Palace and saw Xia Chuli's trembling back in the room where he slept.
At that time, Shen Qingfeng was hiding in a corner against the moonlight, listening to Xia Chuli shouting over and over again in the dead - silent Eastern Palace, "Mother, I'm going to be the King of Lixia."
Due to various reasons, Shen Qingfeng had never carefully investigated this place, and he never saw Xia Chuli stay here again.
Shen Qingfeng stretched out his hand and slowly felt along the wall, carefully looking for a place that could be moved or pressed.
Finally, when his hand touched a piece of wood near the candlestick, a clear "click" sound came from the wall under his hand.
Shen Qingfeng's eyes lit up. He controlled the strength of his hand and slowly pressed down.
With a series of clear sounds of the mechanism, the small wooden grid on the wall sank, and then a wooden board about the size of two palms opened directly above it, revealing the dark interior.
Shen Qingfeng took the lamp from the candlestick and held it in front of his eyes, looking carefully. There weren't many things in the hidden compartment. After all, when Princess Liuli passed away, King Xia Jie didn't pay much attention to her, and she didn't have many good things to leave for Xia Chuli. Most of the things she left were the dowry she brought from the Xirong tribe, but those expensive things had almost all been used to reward the servants. So Shen Qingfeng only rummaged in the hidden compartment for a while before he found the spherical object wrapped tightly in brocade cloth.