After her luck was taken away, she fell in love with the woman who traveled through time.

Cui Ling said politely: "Eunuch, please protect me. It is my duty to respect you."

"Don't talk about these useless things. Let's talk about business. Why do you want to talk to me?" Eunuch Li sneered.

Cui Ling smiled and said a few words to him.

There was a hint of surprise in Eunuch Li's eyes, and after staring at him for a long time, he finally agreed.

Cui Ling breathed a sigh of relief and immediately followed him to the Imperial Household Department.

Looking at the thin sheets of paper in front of him, Eunuch Li raised his eyebrows: "Are you sure it will work?"

"How do you know if you don't try?" Cui Ling didn't say anything definite.

Eunuch Li sneered: "Try? That's easier said than done."

Cui Ling lowered his head humbly and did not respond to his words.

When the two came out of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, it was already completely dark. When they arrived in front of the Chenshi Palace, Cui Ling suddenly thought of something and hesitated: "Eunuch..."

"I know, but I won't tell Her Majesty." Eunuch Li interrupted him.

Cui Ling then felt relieved and went back to the house in front of him.

After a long time, several sneaky figures came into Cui Ling's room under the cover of night, and jumped onto the bed with quilts in their hands as if they were familiar with the place.

However, it came to nothing.

After realizing that there was no one on the bed, they looked at each other.

"Aren't you back?" someone asked in a low voice.

Another person said, "Could it be that the Queen has called him away again? That's not right. It seems that no one is serving the Queen's room today. I asked the two gatekeepers."

"He made me have no clothes to wear in winter. I will kill him sooner or later."

Several people left cursing, and because they were unwilling to give up, they searched the yard for a while, but still did not see Cui Ling. Now they were completely sure that he was in Liang Tan's room, so they had to give up temporarily.

Because there were few servants in the Chenshi Palace, the houses were sufficient, and each room had two or three partitions, so each person had a small room. After several people left, they went back to their rooms to sleep. The leader fell directly on the bed to rest after returning. He felt a chill on his neck while he was drowsy, and he woke up suddenly. When he opened his eyes, he met a pair of dark eyes.

"what!"

"Shut up!" Cui Ling said expressionlessly.

The eunuch shut up instantly, but after a while he felt that he couldn't do it, so he whispered, "What do you want to do?"

"I want to try out how sharp this knife is." Cui Ling said, pushing the dagger directly in.

The eunuch's face was twisted in pain, and he could clearly feel the blood flowing out. Realizing that the kid in front of him was really capable of anything, he panicked: "Calm down, if you kill me, you will die too!"

"You're right, I can't kill you." Cui Ling said, and put the knife away.

Just... like that? The eunuch was a little stunned, but when he came to his senses, he jumped up and said, "You bastard, I'm going to beat you up right now..."

"If you touch me, your son in the suburbs of Beijing will lose a finger." Cui Ling said lightly.

The eunuch was stunned: "What do you mean?"

"You entered the palace at the age of seventeen, and you already had a son before entering, right?" Cui Ling looked at him.

His eyes were darker than the night, revealing a chill in the silent night.

The eunuch shuddered and turned pale: "What do you mean?"

"It's nothing. It's just that the Cui family's centipede is still alive. If I want to, killing someone is still..."

"You can't touch him!" The eunuch's eyes turned red.

Cui Ling raised his eyes and looked at him: "Then it depends on what you do."

The eunuch was stunned for a moment, then showed doubt on his face: "Do you really have such a great power? Are you just asking about my family affairs?"

Cui Ling had no expression on his face: "Then let's verify it."

After saying that, he walked towards the eunuch. The eunuch was a head taller than him, but was forced to retreat again and again by his momentum, until his heels hit the wall and he had no way to escape. Only then did a trace of fear flash in his eyes.

"Your son is fourteen, one year older than me. He is looking for a marriage partner this year," Cui Ling narrowed his eyes. "I heard that he already has someone he loves. It would be a pity to kill him like this. It would be better to bring him into the palace so that he can be reunited with you and your son."

"What do you want to do? What exactly do you want to do!" The eunuch's voice trembled.

Cui Ling said indifferently: "That depends on what you want to do."

The eunuch knelt down, trembling and begging for mercy. Cui Ling looked at the man who was so arrogant a few days ago, now kneeling and trembling, and a strange feeling rose in his heart.

This was a kind of pleasure that came from stepping on someone, a pleasure that he couldn't describe accurately at his current age, but he had tasted the marrow and tasted it. He was so happy just by borrowing a little of his former power, so how much more joyful would it be if he had real power?

At this moment, he suddenly understood what Liang Tan had said, telling him not to regard himself as a slave and to move up.

Cui Ling stood there quietly for a long time before turning around and leaving.

The night was as cool as water, and the moonlight covered the palace at Chenshi, as if covered with a layer of white frost. Cui Ling stepped out of the door and saw Eunuch Li standing in the courtyard.

He paused, walked forward, and bowed solemnly to Eunuch Li: "Thank you, Eunuch."

"I just took you to the Ministry of Internal Affairs to check some files. I didn't do anything else. If you want to thank someone, you should thank yourself." Eunuch Li raised his eyes and looked at him.

Cui Ling said humbly: "If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I would still be bullied by them."

"Is it going so smoothly?" Eunuch Li had heard of his plan before and was not optimistic about it at the time, so he was waiting in the courtyard now to avoid making things worse.

In the end, he came out intact.

"Yes." Cui Ling said with his head lowered.

Eunuch Li stared at him for a long time and understood: "If you were from an ordinary family, he would not believe you even if you said anything. But you are the son of a former minister, so he dare not disbelieve you."

"My Lord, you are wise." Cui Ling did not deny it.

Eunuch Li sneered, not knowing what to say. After a long while, he finally said, "I suddenly don't know whether it was right or wrong for the queen to save you."

Cui Ling paused and lowered his head even deeper.

"You are indeed a smart person. I hope you won't use these tricks on the queen in the future."

After that, he turned and left.

Cui Ling stared at his back for a long time before she smiled faintly: "You really worry too much."

Cui Ling dealt with the people who were the leaders of bullying him, and his life in Chenshi Palace became much easier afterwards. Liang Tan had to "recover" after being stuck in the house for more than ten days.

Liang Tan returned to the days of getting up before dawn and going to Fengxi Palace to stand as usual, but he felt it was ten times more difficult than before. One reason was that his bones were too lazy, and the other was that the weather was getting colder.

Especially in the early morning of winter, standing in the courtyard with wind blowing in from all sides, her hands and feet would become cold in a moment, and she had to stand for at least an hour. When she went into the house to pay her respects, if she was a few steps slower because of her stiff hands and feet, she might even be scolded.

"This life is simply not a life for human beings." Liang Tan sighed.

Because she had just come back from a cold day, in order to prevent her from getting frostbite due to the alternating hot and cold weather, the heating was not turned on in the room. Cui Ling poured her a cup of hot tea to warm her up: "The Queen is targeting you alone?"

"Not really. All the concubines who are not favored are like this. They get up before dawn and stand in the courtyard for an hour." Liang Tan drank some hot tea and felt much better. "It's just that I am the highest-ranking concubine who has fallen from favor, and the only one who is about the same age as her. I fought with her to the death in the past, so now she focuses on me."

Other concubines who had fallen out of favor would be free from the rules after standing for an hour, but she had to stay until noon. She was sent away at mealtime, and then within half an hour she was called to the Buddhist temple to copy scriptures together.

God knows she had no interest in copying scriptures, but now that she has been trained, she has memorized all those scriptures and is forced to cultivate her character.

Thinking of this, Liang Tan sighed again: "She is very smart. She never provokes those favored concubines directly. When she is angry, she will vent her anger on us. Anyway, we can't do anything wrong. If it weren't for her mother's family supporting her in the court, I'm afraid she would have killed me long ago."

Fortunately, she has the support of her maternal family, so the servants in the palace dare not follow the empress in tormenting her. As for those noble ladies and concubines who always try to flatter her...it's because she is not favored, so just flatter her and get away with it.

Cui Ling frowned and said, "I didn't know before that your Majesty's life was so difficult."

Liang Tan smiled when he heard this: "Did you think that I was the highest-ranking person in the harem besides the queen, so I had a good life?"

"……Yes."

Liang Tan sighed and said, "It's true. The emperor is incompetent and violent. People come and go in the palace. I am one of the few who can survive for more than 20 years."

When she mentioned the emperor, Cui Ling's eyes darkened and he clenched his fists unconsciously.

Liang Tan glanced at him and said, "I know you have hatred in your heart, but you are in a low position now. If you let others see your hatred easily, I am afraid your life will be in danger and it will also affect Chenshi Palace."

Cui Ling immediately knelt down and said, "I admit my guilt."

"Okay, get up." Liang Tan smiled and reached out to him.

Cui Ling looked at her hand carefully, thanked her, and helped her to stand up.

The two chatted for a while before Cui Ling left. When he left, he glanced at Liang Tan again and saw her tapping her neck with a tired look on her face. She pursed her lips before leaving.

It was evening, and most of the palace people were sweeping the courtyard. When he appeared in the courtyard, several eunuchs who had bullied him looked at each other and tried to hide away. Cui Ling looked at them and noticed the relatively short eunuch among them. A trace of thought flashed in his eyes.

After Liang Tan finished his dinner, the servants also started to eat. Cui Ling served some food and walked to the corner. He glanced at the short eunuch who was eating and chatting, and then slipped out.

He was small and had a weak presence, so no one noticed he had been gone for a long time.

After dinner, everyone swept the courtyard and went back to their rooms. The short eunuch sat down beside the bed and felt something was wrong, but when he looked inside the room, everything was the same as before.

"You're overthinking..." He muttered casually and closed his eyes.

Three days later, the queen felt unwell and temporarily did not allow concubines to pay their respects.

Liang Tan was playing chess with Cui Ling when he received the news. He immediately looked at Eunuch Li and asked, "Do you know what's going on?"

"It is said that it is diarrhea." Eunuch Li looked mysterious.

"Pfft..." Liang Tan couldn't help laughing, "Why would you have diarrhea for no reason?"

"Maybe he ate something bad. I heard that the servants in the house also had diarrhea. Now Fengxi Palace stinks."

Liang Tan raised the corner of his lips and said, "It stinks so badly. I really can't go to pay my respects. If people knew that the queen had diarrhea and it stinks so badly, it would damage her dignity."

Cui Ling lowered his eyes and placed a piece on the chessboard.

Liang Tan glanced at his red hands and remembered: "It's getting cold. The Ministry of Internal Affairs should give the servants new clothes, right?"

"To answer your Majesty, it is being distributed these two days. I plan to bring people to collect it this afternoon." Eunuch Li replied.

Liang Tan paused: "Why are you going? Where is Zhao Fu?"

"Zhao Fu...is also suffering from diarrhea." Eunuch Li answered cautiously.

Liang Tan was stunned: "He too?"

"That's right. I speculate that he must have eaten their food when he went to Fengxi Palace to report." Zhao Fu was the queen's spy, and they all knew it. When Eunuch Li mentioned this, he pouted, "Served him right!"

Liang Tan had a subtle expression and his gaze gradually fell on Cui Ling.

Well, this person seems to be proficient in medicine.

Cui Ling blinked her eyes and said, "My queen, it's your turn."

Liang Tan put down his chess piece, and immediately asked after Eunuch Li left, "Did you do it?"

"Yes." Cui Ling did not deny it.

"I knew it was you!" Liang Tan smiled. "Tell me, how did you do it?"

"I rubbed some colorless and odorless licorice seeds on his clothes. This medicine is very powerful and takes effect when it is warm. Your Majesty said that Zhao Fu is a spy in Fengxi Palace, so he must go in and out of Fengxi Palace often. The Queen's body is precious, so I think she will only see him in a warm room." Cui Ling answered honestly.

Liang Tan understood and laughed: "What if he didn't meet the Queen directly?"

"Then anyone who sees him will also be infected with the sweet smell of Gan Wei Zi." Cui Ling was certain.

Anyone who sees him always has to see the Queen as well, and in the end the effect is the same, except that the Queen's symptoms will be much milder.

Liang Tan had a subtle expression and stared at him for a long time.

Cui Ling was getting nervous and was about to say something to ease the atmosphere when Liang Tan suddenly exclaimed, "Cui Ling, you are amazing."

Cui Ling was stunned: "... Your Majesty, don't you think that I have evil intentions?"

"That's just the beginning. Besides, how can you survive in the palace if you don't have a vicious mind?" Liang Tan didn't take it seriously.

Cui Ling breathed a sigh of relief and finally smiled like a child.

The two chatted for a while, and Cui Ling said goodbye. Before leaving, he did not forget to remind: "My queen, it will take several days for the Ganweizi to dissipate, so you must not burn the earthworm."

"...Not burning." Liang Tan was speechless.

Cui Ling smiled, then turned and left.

Since the queen fell ill, Liang Tan has been lazy for a few days. It would be better if those favored concubines did not come to provoke him.

If anyone is to blame, it is the emperor who has not given any position to anyone in the palace over the years, so that she is the only concubine under the queen. Those favored newcomers are arrogant and proud, and they are suppressed by her, who has been out of favor for many years. Naturally, they are unhappy, and always like to find fault with her.

Liang Tan always had a compassionate look on her face as if she didn't understand what they were saying. She just nodded and said yes to everything they said. Gradually, no one wanted to show off to her anymore.

But there are always some exceptions, like the noble lady Zhou in front of us.

Ever since the Queen fell ill, this woman has been called by the Emperor for three consecutive days. Unable to show off at Fengxi Palace, she could only come to Liang Tan and keep talking about how much the Emperor cared for her and how deeply he loved her.

Liang Tan had been listening to this for three days, and his ears were almost numb. While she was drinking water, he whispered to Cui Ling, "She must have never met a good man before, so she treats the emperor like a treasure."

"Have you met the Queen?" Cui Ling continued the conversation following her words.

Liang Tan paused, looked at his slightly childish face, and raised a malicious smile at the corner of his lips: "I have seen him, several of them."

Cui Ling: “?”