Chapter 5

Chapter 5

My whole body went rigid.

Guilty on instinct, I shrank my head down and didn’t dare look at Fu Zhaoting.

Shen Jingshu, pinned beneath me, suddenly started coughing and cried weakly, “Your Majesty, save me! Consort Xi is trying to kill me and silence me…”

My eyes went wide. In utter confusion, I pointed at myself.

“Huh? Me?”

Shen Jingshu trembled as she sat up. Without even looking at me, she turned her tearful eyes toward Fu Zhaoting as he approached.

“Your Majesty, I was sleeping peacefully tonight when a servant suddenly came to report that they had seen Consort Xi outside the palace hall with…”

She bit her lip, as if what came next was too shameful to say, and skipped right over a section of the plot.

“It was the middle of the night. I didn’t believe it, but I was afraid it really might be Consort Xi, so I dismissed the guards and came alone to see what was happening. And then I saw…”

She paused, shot me a terrified glance, and skipped over another highly suggestive section.

“I came with good intentions, not wanting to alarm Consort Xi… but then she attacked me. Wuu, wuu, wuu.”

Shen Jingshu covered her face with her hand, weeping as prettily as pear blossoms in the rain.

Her head was lowered just enough that the wound on her temple was perfectly exposed within Fu Zhaoting’s line of sight.

I stared, dumbstruck, and listened until my head spun.

I couldn’t believe it. I had actually encountered one of those legendary palace-intrigue masters.

Fu Zhaoting’s chilly voice snapped me back to my senses.

“Consort Xi, what do you have to say for yourself?”

I looked up and met Fu Zhaoting’s bottomless eyes. A blazing anger burned within them.

The hand hanging at his side was clenched into a fist, veins bulging at his temple, and the killing intent around him was icy cold.

I shuddered. “I…”

From the distance came an abrupt shout.

“Your Majesty, disaster has struck! Consort Xi has been abducted by villains!”

Hai Fu rushed over with a large squad of guards and fell to his knees before Fu Zhaoting, wailing, “Not only did the villains abduct Consort Xi, they also stole her favorite jade scepter, night pearls, gold melon seeds, jewelry…”

As Hai Fu recited the list, his gaze landed on a night pearl not far away, and his voice suddenly died.

The lanterns carried by the guards lit up the entire flower thicket, and also illuminated the gold, silver, and treasures that had rolled all over the ground.

Hai Fu followed the familiar-looking valuables upward with his eyes, slowly meeting my face.

“Your Highness, what are you…”

He cried out, then seemed to realize something and immediately shut his mouth, kneeling behind Fu Zhaoting.

Trapped in the despair of a thief caught with the stolen goods, I couldn’t say a single word.

In the eerie silence, Shen Jingshu’s faint, tear-choked voice was especially clear.

“Consort Xi wanted to flee the palace with her lover and was caught by me, but there was no need to try to kill me for it…”

“Shut up!”

Fu Zhaoting’s voice was nearly a growl. The emperor’s fury frightened everyone into dropping to their knees.

Only I remained standing there in a daze.

Inside my mind, the System urged frantically, “Host, hurry and pretend to faint! Pretend to faint!”

My eyes had only just started rolling upward when-

Without warning, someone collapsed at my feet.

Shen Jingshu had fainted first!

The System and I were both stunned speechless, and we unanimously determined that she was faking it!

Right then, Fu Zhaoting had already walked up to me.

He laughed in anger.

“Lu Xi, even at a time like this…”

“You’re still rolling your eyes at me?”