Chapter 929: Deep Yearning, Do You Know?

King Qi always felt his smile was strange, though he couldn't pinpoint why. Just then, seeing other ministers arriving one after another, and not wanting too many people to know their relationship had improved, he took the opportunity to leave.

Zu An went straight to wait outside the imperial study. To his surprise, after learning of his presence, the emperor came over before the morning court session began.

“I heard you made quite a splash at the brothel last night. Why are you here so early in the morning? Do you have something urgent to report?” the emperor asked after sitting down.

Zu An's heart tightened. The palace gates hadn't even opened last night, yet the emperor clearly knew everything that had happened outside.

“I had to sacrifice my innocence to complete the mission,” he said with a "grieved and indignant" expression.

The emperor: "..."

"This fellow is truly shameless," the emperor thought. "No one among all my civil and military officials dares to speak to me like that."

“From your tone, it seems the mission is complete?” he asked. Although he posed the question, he knew it was highly unlikely; how could something be accomplished so quickly in just one day? He was prepared to reprimand Zu An after his reply, telling him not to be so reckless.

“It is indeed complete,” Zu An replied.

The emperor instinctively nodded: “As expected, you must work harder in the future...”

Mid-sentence, he suddenly froze: “What? Complete?”

Seeing the emperor's expression, as if he'd just been constipated, Zu An secretly gloated, though he dared not show it. He then recounted everything that had happened last night, naturally omitting any details concerning the demon race or Nanxun.

After finishing his account, he handed over the prepared audio-visual mirror. This mirror, which he had requested from the Embroidery House's storeroom, could only record a single image, making it far less advanced than the Chu family's audio-visual mirror, which allowed real-time communication.

Watching the video of Yu Nan whining and acting coy in Bi Zi'ang's arms, the emperor's face twitched, and he felt his stomach churn. He then looked at Zu An with a complex expression, thinking, "This fellow really... how did he come up with all this absurd stuff?"

However, he had to admit that despite how disgusting it looked, it was quite useful.

“Alright, with this, Yu Nan is finished,” the emperor said, setting down the audio-visual mirror to avoid vomiting his overnight tea if he kept watching.

Zu An tentatively asked: “May I ask how Your Majesty plans to use the content in this mirror?”

The emperor frowned slightly, instinctively displeased that a subject was probing his thoughts. However, Zu An had just completed the task brilliantly, so it wasn't appropriate to reprimand him. He could only patiently explain, “The content in this mirror is too… too indecent. It certainly cannot be released directly.”

“So, all that effort was for nothing?” Zu An was immediately disappointed, realizing he wouldn't get to see the two of them publicly humiliated.

“Of course not,” the emperor said. “Actually, the incident yesterday where Yu Nan was jealous of you was already enough. However, while many people know about it, it's still confined to a small circle. Therefore, someone needs to make this matter even more widely known.”

Zu An's face showed caution, thinking, "He wouldn't give this to me again, would he?"

As if reading his thoughts, the emperor continued: “That Bi Zi'ang and his 'Eighteen Friends of the Green Garden' have extensive connections. They spend all day discussing romantic and artistic matters and seem to be extremely popular among the common people. So, when the time comes, summon Bi Zi'ang, show him the content of this audio-visual mirror, and he will naturally know what to do.”

If Bi Zi'ang doesn't want to suffer public humiliation, he will definitely try his best to prevent this audio-visual recording from being exposed. He is a smart man and naturally knows that as long as Yu Nan is publicly humiliated first, this recording will lose its significance. Therefore, he will certainly do his utmost to achieve this.

Zu An listened, dumbfounded, thinking, "When it comes to cunning schemes, no one can compare to the emperor."

The crucial point was that the Bi family still supported the Crown Prince. Yet, the emperor had "sold them out" like this. It could be foreseen that the two families would inevitably clash fiercely over this.

Indeed, for the emperor, no matter how loyal his subjects were, the primary concern was always maintaining balance. As long as his ministers were happily warring among themselves, the emperor could rest easy.

“Your Majesty is sagacious!” Zu An thought, "This is good too." He had originally been somewhat worried about retaliation from the Yu family, as Yu Yanluo still owed him a favor, and a real conflict would not be ideal.

Next, the emperor was to attend court, so Zu An naturally took his leave discreetly.

Watching Zu An's departing back, the emperor frowned. Logically, this fellow was indeed a satisfactory subordinate; these recent tricky missions had been handled beautifully, so the emperor should have been very fond of him.

But for some reason, whenever he saw him, an unconscious dislike arose within him.

…

After leaving the imperial study, Zu An went directly to the Eastern Palace.

Given his current official position, he didn't need to attend morning court, so he was glad to have some leisure.

As he was about to reach the Eastern Palace, he suddenly thought of something. He found a passing maid, asked for some green oranges, then peeled them and squeezed the juice from the peels onto himself.

Smelling only the strong scent of green oranges on himself, he finally felt relieved. He had gotten into trouble a few times before by carrying other women's perfume scents, but this time he had finally learned his lesson. It was truly ingenious.

Upon arriving at the Eastern Palace, Pu Duandiao and Jiao Sigun saw him and came over with smiles to greet him. Their relationship was already good, and with the life-saving grace from the secret realm, they were almost like sworn brothers.

Zu An tentatively asked: “Don't you have anything you want to ask?”

The two paused, then asked: “What do you mean?”

“Nothing,” Zu An said, letting out a breath of relief. Given the nature of these two, especially Pu Duandiao, if they knew about last night's events, they would certainly wink and ask about it, even more detailed questions than that fellow Pei You.

Their expressions clearly showed they were unaware, which meant the news hadn't spread to the palace yet. "Good," he thought, "that means I won't mess things up when I see Bi Linglong later."

Next, Zu An went to pay his respects to the Crown Prince. However, the Crown Prince had only recently woken up and seemed to be in a bad mood, showing no interest in anything.

After dealing with the Crown Prince, Zu An went to see Bi Linglong. Unlike the Crown Prince, she was already dressed in splendid attire, noble and beautiful, without a single flaw. “Greetings, Crown Princess!”

In front of others, proper etiquette still had to be observed.

“Lord Zu, dispense with the formalities,” Bi Linglong replied casually, then continued to look down at the memorials on the table.

To train the Crown Prince, the emperor would specifically hand over some memorials concerning national affairs to the Eastern Palace for handling, though these were, of course, not urgent matters.

The Crown Prince clearly did not handle these matters; typically, Bi Linglong managed them.

“You’ve just returned from the secret realm, Crown Princess, and your body hasn't fully recovered. You shouldn't overexert yourself,” Zu An said with concern. Her hair, which had turned white from black, constantly reminded him of her significant loss of vitality.

Bi Linglong simply acknowledged him with an "Oh" and then ignored him.

Zu An was taken aback. Her attitude was off.

He secretly asked through spiritual energy transmission: “Linglong, what’s wrong?”

Unfortunately, she still didn't respond.

He called out a few more times, but she remained unresponsive. Instead, he continuously received a series of rage points in his system. Zu An was puzzled, then his eyes twinkled as a plan came to mind: “If you keep this up, I’m coming over to hug you!”

“How dare you!” Sure enough, upon hearing him, Bi Linglong looked up with a hint of panic and glared at him. Of course, all this communication was done secretly via spiritual energy transmission.

“See if I dare!” Zu An retorted, showing no weakness.

Bi Linglong knew he was always bold and was indeed worried he might cause a huge uproar in the Eastern Palace on a whim. She snorted, “Why don't you rest a bit longer with that courtesan, instead of rushing over to me first thing in the morning?”

Zu An chuckled wryly. So, she was jealous about this.

It seemed that as the Crown Princess, she also had her own intelligence channels.

Damn, all that effort with the green oranges was for nothing.

However, he was quick to react and immediately said: “You misunderstood, I went to the brothel to handle a case.”

As he spoke, he briefly explained how the emperor had ordered him to find fault with Yu Nan.

However, Bi Linglong was not as easily fooled as Chu Youzhao. She scoffed, “Just investigating a case? Did you need to stay overnight there?”

“If I had left under those circumstances, wouldn't it have aroused suspicion?” Zu An quickly explained. “I swear, I absolutely did not have the same physical contact with that courtesan last night as I did with you, otherwise may I be struck by five bolts of lightning.”

Indeed, Bi Linglong had never helped him in that specific way.

Seeing him make such a severe oath, Bi Linglong was instead startled: “Are you crazy? Don’t make such vows lightly!”

“My conscience is clear, so there's no problem,” Zu An said earnestly.

Bi Linglong already believed him, but she was somewhat reluctant to admit it, so she still said coldly, “Then why did you write poems for that courtesan, like 'Spring Chamber' and 'Dream Lover'? They sound sickeningly sweet.”

Zu An realized this was the reason, and he laughed: “Wasn't that also for the investigation? Oh, by the way, I have a secret report to give to the Crown Princess.”

He then asked a nearby maid to bring paper and a brush.

Bi Linglong's heart stirred, and she roughly guessed his intentions, thinking, "He thinks he can appease me so easily? I'm not that courtesan; I'm not so easily fooled."

Soon, Zu An finished writing, folded the note, and handed it over: “This is an urgent intelligence report. I hope the Crown Princess will give her instructions.”

Bi Linglong hummed, then secretly unfolded the note. Her cheeks immediately flushed, and her breathing quickened.

Because a poem was written on it:

“A lamp at the well's base, deeply shining on you;Let us journey on, no need for Go.Red beans placed within a delicate die,This deep, bone-piercing longing—do you know it or not?”

---

Yesterday, just before going to bed, I suddenly learned that Zongheng had been acquired by Qimao. Chatting with friends about various concerns for the future led to insomnia, and I only slept 3-4 hours last night, resulting in a headache all day today.

Sigh, why do we laborers, eating pickles, worry about such things? We just can't shake the habit of acting like online political commentators.

Also, I haven't forgotten the chapters I owe for updates. They will eventually be made up, but it's not realistic to do so in the near future. I need to find some time to go into seclusion and build up some drafts.