Derong, the chief eunuch, was really helpless. What was going on? He just hurried to get something from the Empress’s place, but the Emperor had disappeared when he came back.

Since the Emperor was missing, Derong went to look for him. When he did that in a panic, the Empress came and said that something had happened to the Emperor over there, so he hurried over with the Empress. Then what he saw made him shocked. In this situation, he had to deal with the aftermath instead of making a big deal out of it.

The matter was a scandal.

Derong walked to the door and knocked gently on it. “Your Majesty, Your Majesty!”

It was very quiet in the room and there was no response, so Derong looked uneasy. He looked back at the Empress, whose face had turned pale out of anger. Seeing that the Empress couldn’t hold back her anger, he pushed the door open and went in.

When the door opened, a stuffy and pungent smell of medicine rushed over. Derong was caught off guard and couldn’t help coughing loudly.

Hearing his racking cough, the Emperor said in the inner room, “Derong, come in!”

“Your Majesty, I’ll come in right away!” Derong said hurriedly. Then he turned around and entered the inner room which was behind the screen. He lowered his head and did not dare to look straight at the scene there.

When he came in just now, he could roughly understand what was going on inside. Miss Shao was crying on the bed, and her clothes were a little messy. Meanwhile, the Emperor stood by the bedside and frowned.

The Emperor strode out as he said, “Get someone to help her dress up.”

When the Emperor walked out and took a breath of fresh air, the anger in his heart dissipated a little. Then, he met the Empress’s angry eyes, and when he looked around, he saw many people kneeling on the ground.

“Your Majesty, I heard that you were here, so I came to see what happened!” The Empress suppressed the anger in her heart and stepped forward to bow to the Emperor.

“Ask a maid to help her dress up!” The Emperor’s face turned grave. He went into the room just now to ask Shao Yanru who she liked. His son was not like the cabbage on the market that could be chosen by people at will. He was really disappointed with Shao Yanru.

She had seduced two of his sons, and now, she even dared to seduce his youngest son.

Unexpectedly, after entering the room and asking her some questions, he felt that she was as beautiful as a fairy, and he couldn’t help walking over to hug her.

The Emperor had many women around him and he was experienced. He sensed something fishy after entering the room, but he also felt that Shao Yanru was increasingly pitiful, especially when she started crying later. Her pitiful look even made him hallucinate, making him feel like the woman in front of him was his sweetheart.

Thus, he couldn’t help being gentler to her. Then, he heard Derong’s racking cough. He suddenly sobered up, stood up, and asked Derong to deal with it.

Now when he breathed in some fresh air, he immediately realized that something was wrong.

When the Empress heard the Emperor’s words, her expression changed greatly, and she looked at the Emperor in disbelief. Her lips trembled, but she still waved her hand and asked two palace maids to go into the room.

“Call an imperial physician over!” The Emperor was even more suspicious and felt that he seemed to be bewitched just now. How could he become interested in Shao Yanru? He knew exactly who he loved.

No matter how beautiful Shao Yanru was, it was impossible for her to get his affection.

The Empress waved her hand, and a eunuch behind her hurriedly turned around and ran to call imperial physician. There was an imperial physician serving in the Phoenix Palace and it was not far away from here.

The Empress took a deep breath to suppress the anger in her heart. “Your Majesty, you…”

“How do you manage Phoenix Palace? How could such a thing happen? If she stays here for recuperating, she has almost recovered; why haven’t you sent her out of the palace earlier!”

The Emperor rebuked coldly.

“Your Majesty, I…” The Empress was about to cry. She did not expect that she had to take the blame for such a matter. She was the most innocent and angry person among them, and she was also the one who lost face.

“Check out the smell of medicine in the room and the person in charge of decocting medicine. After finding out the truth, you report it to me,” the Emperor said coldly and strode out.

Derong came out of the room and hurriedly followed the Emperor to leave. This matter was thus left to the Empress to deal with.

Sure enough, this mess was left to her again. The Empress was so angry that her face turned pale and livid. Then, she turned around and walked to the side hall.

In the room, Shao Yanru choked with sobs, and her face was very pale. The incident happened so suddenly that she didn’t know how to react for a while. She wanted to plot against Chu Liuxin, but why did the Emperor come over instead? It was obvious that the Empress was in charge of the affairs in Phoenix Palace, but why did the Emperor come to her room?

She did not want to accompany an old Emperor. What she expected was to marry the prince who had a bright future. She wanted to become the Empress in the future.

Two palace maids came in to help her tidy up her messy clothes. Then they stood aside when the Empress came in.

Shao Yanru hurriedly knelt down in tears. Before she could say anything, the Empress bent slightly and slapped her hard twice in the face. The corner of Shao Yanru’s mouth immediately broke and blood flowed out of it.

“Your Majesty…” Shao Yanru said in a sobbing voice.

The Empress straightened up her back and looked at the messy things on the bed in disgust. As long as she thought that Shao Yanru had seduced her son and even dared to seduce the Emperor, she got so furious that she wanted to kill the bitch soon.

She had never seen such a shameless woman like Shao Yanru. It was absurd that Old Madam of Duke Xing’s Mansion told her that Shao Yanru was dignified and decent. With regards to her base conduct, even the women in the brothel were more dignified than her.

Taking a deep breath and trying hard to suppress the anger in her heart, the Empress sneered coldly and said, “Shao Yanru, I heard that you are a lady from a noble family and have a good reputation. It seems that it is all fake. It’s ridiculous that the Duke Xing’s Mansion still values you!”

“Your Majesty, I…” Shao Yanru was panic-stricken and her face turned pale.

“Do you really think that you have won His Majesty’s favor? There are many beauties in the palace, but all of them are virtuous and decent. None of them is as shameless as you. You really surprised me today!” Looking at Shao Yanru, the Empress disliked her even more.

The Empress had just come in, and she was wearing thick clothes, while Shao Yanru’s was wearing thin clothes. Moreover, the Empress could tell that she had specially dressed up. Her belt was tightened around her waist, which made her look slender and lovely, and any man who saw her would think so. However, the Empress could figure out the scheme behind it.

Thinking of what the Emperor had said just now, the Empress gradually became less angry. She thought that it was a waste of time to argue with such a bitch. Even the Emperor did not pay much attention to this woman and thought that she had plotted against him. Being different from others, the Empress could figure out Emperor’s thoughts better. It was impossible that the Emperor could be attracted by Shao Yanru’s beauty.

The imperial physician arrived quickly. As soon as he entered the room, he sensed something unusual. After greeting the Empress, he said that he smelt aphrodisiac in the air.

There were no other unusual things in the room but a bowl of cold medicine on the table, emitting an unpleasant smell.

The imperial physician walked to it and tested it with a silver needle. After finding nothing wrong, he took a small drop of it and licked it. Then he reported to the Empress. “Your Majesty, there is an aphrodisiac drug in this medicine.”

“How… could it be possible?” Shao Yanru knelt on the ground and said, trembling all over and staring at the sky blankly. “It… is my medicine. It was made for me!”

The Empress lowered her gaze and asked, “Did you drink it?”

“I… just took a sip. I was going to drink it up, but it was too hot, so I left it to cool down. Then I… saw His Majesty coming in. If… if… I had drunk it all…” Shao Yanru burst into tears.

She had calmed down a little just now, but now she cried bitterly in front of the Empress and became anxious.

It seemed that the medicine was for Shao Yanru. If Shao Yanru had finished taking it, she might have done something more errant when the Emperor was here just now.

“Bring me the palace maid who decocted the medicine!” the Empress said in a harsh tone. If this matter was actually a plot against the Emperor, it had to be handled seriously.

The palace maid was called over and knelt down beside Shao Yanru, trembling. She was always in charge of decocting the medicine. At this time, she did not know what had happened. “Could it be that there was something wrong with the medicine?” She wondered. She was just a little palace maid and was afraid of this kind of thing the most.

“Why is there something else in the medicine? Who gave it to you?” asked the Empress.

The palace maid was trembling violently. “Your… Majesty, I… didn’t put anything else… It was… just like before, nothing… nothing else…”

The general steward of Phoenix Palace looked at the palace maid and asked, “Nothing else? Did you find anything unusual?” Judging from the palace maid’s expression, she really didn’t know anything. Moreover, if it was really a plot against the Emperor, it was impossible to find out the guy behind it so easily.

However, nothing could prove that the palace maid really had nothing to do with it.

“Let… me… think…” The palace maid was so frightened that she opened her eyes wide and didn’t know what to say for a while. After a long while, she suddenly remembered something. “Fifth Miss Shao came over with painkillers and asked me to add it into First Miss’s medicine.”

“Where is Fifth Miss Shao?” The Empress asked with a gloomy face.

The general steward of Phoenix Palace cautiously asked, “She’s right outside the door. Shall I go to call her in?” He knew that the Empress had been suppressing her anger, so he should be more cautious at this moment.

The Empress nodded with a cold face. She felt very annoyed when she heard the name “Duke Xing’s Mansion”. “None of the people in the mansion are good,” she thought.

Shao Wanru was led in, knelt down in front of the Empress, and greeted her.

Looking at Shao Wanru, who was relatively calm, the Empress took a deep breath and was no longer that angry, and then her face also relaxed. “Get up!”