After writing the name, Su Fengyi continued speaking to Lu Hong:
“His family met with misfortune, and he entered the palace. He may not go by this name now, but he is easy to find. Just look for the most beautiful sixteen-year-old eunuch in the palace.
No matter what he is called now, you will know it’s him once you see him. There is no one in the world more beautiful than him. When you find him, come and tell me quietly. Do you understand?”
Su Fengyi’s feigned politeness with Qiao Gui today was merely a temporary measure.
Su Fengyi disliked Qiao Gui. With someone like Qiao Gui by the Emperor’s side, the Emperor would never improve. Su Fengyi planned to select someone to replace him.
The Emperor’s current state was partly due to his own love of amusement, but more so because of Qiao Gui’s flattery and deliberate indulgence.
If the Emperor did not change, the court would fall into chaos, the people would suffer hardships, and the world would descend into turmoil. With King Pingliang watching covetously, the main storyline would inevitably lead to the male protagonist’s rebellion.
But the Emperor could not do without eunuchs to serve him. Without Qiao Gui, there would have to be someone else. To avoid driving out one wolf only to invite in a tiger, Su Fengyi decided to find someone from the original male protagonist’s inner circle.
A man verified by the original plot, with a reliable character, worthy of trust.
Xue Yu, age sixteen, courtesy name Jiayan. This courtesy name was given to Xue Yu by the male protagonist, King Pingliang, to commend his courage and virtue in daring to admonish the ruler.
If the original plot unfolded, he would become the most powerful eunuch by the male protagonist’s side in the future.
In the original story, Xue Yu came from the imperial merchant Xue family. The Xue family offended Qiao Gui and should have been executed to the last member. But Xue Yu was simply too beautiful—so beautiful that even the chief judge could not bear to kill him upon seeing him. The sentence was forcibly changed to castration, allowing him to enter the palace and keep his life.
Xue Yu and Qiao Gui had a deep-seated blood feud. Such a person was most suitable to be the blade that would overthrow Qiao Gui.
While Su Fengyi was writing, Lu Hong felt that itching sensation grow even stronger.
This time, it spread from his palm all the way to the depths of his heart. Lu Hong looked at his palm, clenched it tightly around those two characters, as if grasping the most important matter in the world.
He nodded heavily, then suddenly shook his head and said, “There is.”
Su Fengyi was taken aback. Was he refuting her words?
It was rare for Lu Hong to actually contradict her—truly one of the rarest things under heaven!
Su Fengyi found it novel and became interested, laughing:
“You mean there is someone in the world more beautiful than him? What kind of beauty is that? I really want to see. When will you take me to meet them?”
Lu Hong lowered his head slightly but refused to say more.
At Lu Hong’s age, having someone in his heart was perfectly normal; not having one would be strange. Since he did not want to speak, Su Fengyi did not press him. When he was ready, he would surely tell her.
Su Fengyi skipped over the topic:
“Remember my task, alright? Hurry back now. The Emperor will be looking for you, and I should return as well.”
With that, she flicked her whip and rode off, leaving the Leopard Garden and heading back to her residence.
Watching the Grand Princess who had already ridden far away, Lu Hong stood still for a moment. He felt that itching sensation—from his earlobe, from his palm, from the depths of his heart, from his very organs—gather in his chest, coalescing into a blazing fire that scorched his heart, burning fiercer and fiercer.
He clenched his teeth, swallowing the words “Your Highness” back down. In the end, he did not utter a word, silently returning to the White Tiger Palace to find the Emperor.
The Grand Princess did not allow him to speak, so he would not speak. At the critical moment, his blade would speak for him.
…
Su Fengyi returned to the Eldest Princess’s Residence. Setting everything else aside, she first went to the bedchamber to find General Shen.
Before she left, she instructed Wutong to guard General Shen and the princess’s residence well.
Wutong carefully pondered the meaning of “guard well,” employing a rigorous approach, and indeed carried it out thoroughly.
After Su Fengyi departed, Wutong tightened security, placing the Eldest Princess’s Residence under strict lockdown.
No one was allowed to enter or leave through any gate of the residence. Every room, courtyard, post, and position was checked every half-hour.
If anyone was found missing from their post, their entire room would be held accountable, and they would be tied up and beaten on the spot to interrogate their whereabouts. As a result, the first round of checks actually uncovered a young gardener who had sneaked out to deliver a message.
Wutong sent someone to capture the spy who was halfway to his destination. Without asking any questions, she first had him severely beaten, then interrogated him, beat him again, and interrogated him once more. After several rounds of beating and questioning, she finally extracted information.
As Wutong followed Su Fengyi toward the bedchamber, she reported concisely:
“At first, I only announced the lockdown without mentioning the roll calls, so he took the chance to sneak out.
He confessed that a steward from the household of Vice Minister Liu of the Board of Revenue is his fellow townsman and had asked him to gather information about General Shen.”
Vice Minister Liu of the Board of Revenue—the father of Princess Pingliang, the father-in-law of the male lead, King Pingliang, and a staunch ally of the male lead.
It seemed the male lead’s people, seeing that General Shen was still alive, refused to give up.
When buying information failed, someone else tried to infiltrate the residence to carry out an assassination. However, during the second round of roll calls, Wutong caught them again.
Wutong felt deeply remorseful:
“This person was carrying weapons. I am incompetent and have yet to uncover the mastermind behind this.”
Wutong was a maidservant, and her primary duty was to attend to Su Fengyi’s clothing and meals. Interrogation and torture were not her responsibility—that was Xie Xuan’s job.
Xie Xuan had finished interrogating the prisoners who attempted the jailbreak in the afternoon and had left the residence to arrange evidence against Eunuch Gao. He had not yet returned.
Without Xie Xuan, relying solely on Wutong, achieving this much was already commendable.
As Su Fengyi walked toward the bedchamber, she saw guards stationed every five steps and at every ten-step interval, securing the area tightly and methodically. She praised Wutong:
“It’s fine. I have an idea of who is behind this. You’ve done very well.”
The Grand Princess was unexpectedly reasonable and easy to talk to today, which greatly relieved Wutong. She then reported the third matter.
This matter made her even more uncertain, and she spoke with trepidation:
“The consort came earlier, requesting to see the Grand Princess. I didn’t dare let him enter the residence.”
Upon hearing this, Su Fengyi didn’t immediately understand and asked:
“What consort?”
After asking, she realized her mistake. In the original book, the Grand Princess was a supporting female character, so many details about her background were only briefly mentioned and not clearly explained. She had actually forgotten that the Grand Princess was already engaged in the book.
This engagement was something the Grand Princess had recently forced the Emperor to decree. Royal weddings required extensive preparations and a long timeframe, so the wedding was scheduled for the following year.
In the original book, before the male lead ascended the throne, this consort was largely a background character and rarely appeared.
By the time the Grand Princess died, their wedding had not taken place.
It was only after the male lead ascended the throne that the consort formally entered the story, becoming one of the male lead’s key supporters in the later stages.
The consort’s surname was Pei, given name Yu, courtesy name Zhaoming. He was twenty years old, the newly appointed Tanhua (third-place scholar), and the eldest grandson of the head of the Jiangnan Pei Family.
Adhering to the principle that nothing good should be left for the male lead, Su Fengyi immediately added:
“Pei Zhaoming, is it? If he comes again, have him stay for tea. I have words to say to him.”
Wutong quickly agreed. It seemed that even with General Shen, Her Highness still could not let go of her consort.
The reason she had been uncertain today was because anyone could see that Her Highness had once been utterly infatuated with her consort.
In the past, if the consort had unexpectedly taken the initiative to visit the princess’s residence, the Grand Princess would have set off firecrackers in celebration. The consort was the one held closest to the Grand Princess’s heart. If not for General Shen, how would she have dared to drive the consort away?