Ling Buzhan glanced at her.
“You…”
“Don’t you have anything else to say?”
“I came to the capital to find myself a good husband.” Liu Yueti didn’t shy away from it at all. She deliberately asked, “Since you won’t agree, why don’t you help me look around?”
“Do you have any promising colleagues?”
She had only met Ling Buzhan a handful of times. If she immediately insisted that she would rather die than marry anyone else, that would inevitably make her look suspicious.
It was better to dispel his doubts first.
Ling Buzhan: “…”
“I am merely a seventh-rank official. The colleagues around me aren’t exactly high-ranking either.”
“That’s exactly what I want!” Liu Yueti nodded enthusiastically. “I’m not really the Prime Minister’s daughter, after all. I can’t exactly marry into one of those powerful aristocratic families.”
She rested her chin in her hands.
“I originally thought that since Master Xie is also from a humble background, and you’re only the top three’s third-place winner rather than the top scorer, maybe I actually had a chance.”
She gave Ling Buzhan another glance.
Ling Buzhan couldn’t help laughing.
“Then I suppose I should thank Miss Liu for taking a liking to me.”
The top three candidates in the palace examination were personally selected by the emperor. Besides, he had deliberately imitated Xie Anshi’s handwriting to avoid arousing suspicion, and he hadn’t changed the political arguments in Xie Anshi’s original essays. Otherwise…
Ling Buzhan took a deep breath.
“Didn’t the top scholar, Pei Yu, join the Prime Minister’s residence?”
“You live there. Why don’t you consider him?”
“Pei Yu?”
Liu Yueti waved her finger.
“No way. How could I make a move on someone my friend likes?”
“Oh?”
Ling Buzhan suddenly became interested.
“Could it be that Miss Bai has feelings for him?”
He had already noticed something between Shen Hanzhi and the Prime Minister’s daughter at Princess Pingyang’s residence. Now Pei Yu was being dragged into the picture as well…
Could it be that the Regent was about to be dumped?
A wicked smile appeared on his face.
“Brother Pei is gentle as jade and exceptionally talented. Everyone says he’s the next Prime Minister Bai. He would indeed make a fine match for Miss Bai.”
“What are you talking about?”
Liu Yueti raised an eyebrow.
“It’s not Zhen’er!”
“Not Bai Zhen’er?”
Ling Buzhan was genuinely surprised.
“You have another friend in the capital?”
“What kind of thing is that to say?”
Liu Yueti glared at him.
“At Princess Pingyang’s residence that day, Miss Lin was grateful that Zhen’er and I helped her. She’s been coming to the White Residence to visit us lately.”
“Wasn’t it you who told her that the poems she’d fallen for were actually plagiarized by Yuan Shaoqi?”
“We helped her find out where Yuan Shaoqi had stolen those poems from—”
“Oh…”
Ling Buzhan deliberately drew out the word.
“Then why didn’t you just ask me?”
He said casually,
“They were copied from Brother Pei’s work.”
“We found that out later too. Our Miss Lin values talent above everything else. Once she heard that the poems were written by the top scholar Pei, she dragged the two of us along to secretly take a look at him. Her face turned completely red.”
Liu Yueti blinked.
“But she still put on a tough front and insisted she’d already given up on love.”
She was clearly making an indirect jab at someone.
“Some people are all tough talk on the outside, but they can’t control their hearts when they fall for someone.”
Ling Buzhan: “…”
He picked up some food and placed it in Liu Yueti’s bowl.
“Eat more, Miss Liu!”
He was clearly trying to shut her up.
Liu Yueti pouted but obediently ate it anyway.
Ling Buzhan watched her eat, while the letter continued weighing on his mind.
He needed to uncover what had happened to the Third Prince all those years ago.
But who would casually bring up such a closely guarded imperial secret?
Even if he were willing to expose his identity, there was no guarantee he’d be able to learn anything.
He didn’t actually feel any sense of being a prince.
All he felt was a bewildering uncertainty about whom he was supposed to take revenge on.
“Miss Liu.”
He asked almost casually, as though he didn’t expect much from her.
“When you have a thousand tangled thoughts and don’t know what to do, what would you do?”
Liu Yueti knew that his mind was probably a complete mess right now.
He was likely trying to figure out his true identity—and wondering where he could uncover such a closely guarded imperial secret.
Her eyes shifted.
She raised a finger.
“Pray to Buddha!”
“Huh?”
Ling Buzhan froze, then laughed helplessly.
“That’s true. Praying to the gods and Buddha isn’t a bad method.”
“Perhaps I’ll find a temple to visit another day…”
“You can’t just pick any temple.”
Liu Yueti spoke with complete seriousness.
“Who knows whether the monks there actually have any spiritual power?”
“Go to Xiangguo Temple. It’s the imperial temple. I heard several imperial consorts are practicing there as lay devotees. It should be effective.”
Ling Buzhan’s eyes lit up.
Imperial consorts!
Those consorts who had lived in the palace alongside the Empress Dowager might know something.
But Liu Yueti’s answer…
Why did it sound as though she were deliberately pointing him in that direction?
Ling Buzhan’s gaze settled on her face.
She was still resting her chin on her hand, thinking.
“Maybe I should go there too?”
“If I happen to hit it off with one of the imperial consorts, perhaps…”
“No.”
She suddenly shook her head.
“An imperial consort’s son would at least be a prince. There’s no way he’d be interested in me.”
Ling Buzhan said coolly,
“Unfortunately, there are no princes left in this dynasty.”
“Huh?”
Liu Yueti looked up blankly.
“You didn’t know, Miss Liu?”
Ling Buzhan raised an eyebrow.
“During the previous emperor’s reign, a shocking incident occurred.”
Liu Yueti immediately leaned closer.
“Tell me!”
A flicker of amusement appeared in Ling Buzhan’s eyes.
He played along.
“The Crown Prince and Crown Princess Consort once led troops in a rebellion and stormed the imperial palace. To eliminate all future threats, they slaughtered almost every other prince.”
“The Crown Prince had barely reached adulthood before impatiently attempting to take the throne. He led soldiers into the imperial harem and personally killed the Second, Fourth, Fifth, and Seventh Princes, all of whom were still minors and had never even left the palace.”
Liu Yueti sucked in a breath and counted on her fingers.
“The First Prince was the Crown Prince, and the current emperor is the Ninth Prince. Then what happened to the Third, Sixth, and Eighth Princes?”
Ling Buzhan watched her reaction carefully.
“The Third Prince died before he was even a month old.”
“The Sixth Prince died of smallpox at the age of four.”
“The Eighth Prince drowned when he was three.”
“As for the current emperor, he was still an infant at the time. Empress Dowager Shen hid him inside the statue of Buddha in a small prayer hall, allowing him to escape the massacre.”
“Ah…”
Liu Yueti pressed her palms together.
“Thank Buddha for that.”
“Indeed.”
Ling Buzhan’s gaze was meaningful.
“Which is why Xiangguo Temple is truly an excellent place.”
Liu Yueti had no idea what he was getting at, but she still smiled and nodded along.
Ling Buzhan leaned closer with a grin.
“Miss Liu, discussing imperial affairs is punishable by death.”
“You’d better keep our little secret.”
“Haha.”
Liu Yueti couldn’t help shaking her head.
“I’ve noticed that you really do specialize in doing things that could get you executed.”
“Wrong.”
Ling Buzhan smiled lightly.
“We do.”
Liu Yueti froze with her teacup halfway to her lips.
“I was only listening!”
Ling Buzhan answered matter-of-factly,
“Listening is a crime too.”
“So if you betray me, I’ll definitely drag you down with me.”
“When our heads roll, Miss Liu will have to accompany me.”
“You!”
Liu Yueti pointed at him, then suddenly changed tack.
“If you marry me, I wouldn’t mind dying alongside you.”
Ling Buzhan choked.
“You… What nonsense are you talking about?”
“As the saying goes, marry a chicken and follow the chicken; marry a dog and follow the dog.”
Liu Yueti smiled at him.
“If I really marry a dangerous man who lives with his head on the line every day, then I suppose I’ll just have to let my head swing alongside his.”
Ling Buzhan: “…”