The queen is spoiling the king and madly criticizing him for spoiling her

"Of course it's true. It's a misfortune for the court that such a scum can serve as an official." Gu Jianchu echoed the curse.

Yunhe was very efficient, and the news soon reached Li Shurong's ears.

Inside Xianfu Palace, Li Shurong threw all the teacups on the table. "Go and find out for me where this news came from. This is nonsense and accusations against my father."

"I'll go right away." The little palace maid immediately left the palace after receiving the order.

As soon as the young palace maid left, Qiuju, the maidservant accompanying Li Shurong, quickly entered the room and closed the door behind her, cautious of eavesdroppers. "Someone from the Empress's residence has delivered a message."

Hearing this, Li Shurong couldn't help but frown.

"What did Dad say?"

Qiuju whispered, "The old mountain ginseng that the queen sent to the queen was sent to the palace by Eunuch Cheng. The master asked the queen to be careful."

"The Queen must have known that there was something wrong with the old mountain ginseng, so she sent the old mountain ginseng sent by the Empress to the palace. Could those rumors in the palace recently also be rumors spread by the Queen?" Qiuju guessed.

Li Shurong paced back and forth in the room with a cold expression on her face.

"The Queen is so stupid that she shouldn't have noticed the problem with the old mountain ginseng. The old mountain ginseng was sent to the palace. It's very likely that the Queen took the opportunity to curry favor with the Emperor and accidentally did it. Unexpectedly, the Queen was lucky this time and escaped the disaster."

After getting angry, thinking about the rumors outside, Li Shurong grabbed Qiuju's arm and said, "Spread the news now and tell Dad to be careful during this period. The emperor must have heard this news. Even though it's completely false, if it gets involved, Dad will still be implicated to some extent."

"I will ask someone to pass the message out right now." Qiuju was about to leave when Li Shurong suddenly stopped her.

Qiuju paused and looked at her master hesitantly, "What's wrong, Madam?"

Li Shurong couldn't help but recall that before she entered the palace, she had seen her father go to the homes of his staff to drink many times and stay there for the whole night. At that time, she just thought that her father had a good relationship with his fellow townsmen, but now she felt something was wrong.

"Don't tell father about this for now. Send someone to the mansion to tell him that I miss mother and ask her to come to the palace tomorrow." Li Shurong twisted the handkerchief in her hand, feeling a little uneasy.

On the other side, Gu Jianchu lazily leaned on the chaise longue and ate oranges that were tributed from southern Jiangxi.

There were many disasters in southern Jiangxi this year, and the citrus harvest was not good, and even fewer were sent to the palace. Xie Ci'an specially asked Cheng Song to pick out a few baskets and send them to Kunning Palace and Nanping Marquis Mansion respectively.

As the Empress, Gu Jianchu knew that it was not good to eat alone, so she asked Zhu Xia to deliver the food to the concubines in each palace.

Yun He came back from outside and couldn't help but approach Gu Jianchu to report, "As expected by the Empress, Li Shurong sent someone to the Minister of Rites' residence to summon Madam Li to the palace."

The Minister of Rites has been putting labels on his colleagues for so many years, it is impossible that Li Shurong and Madam Li did not notice it. They probably would not think that way, she was just deliberately misleading them.

Li Shurong has already taken action.

It's not enough for the emperor to just know the rumors. We have to find a way to make the emperor take action. "Yunhe, go to Chuigong Hall and ask the emperor if he wants to come over for dinner tonight."

Yunhe never had any doubts about Gu Jianchu's arrangements and immediately did it.

The Queen had always pushed him away, and this was the first time she took the initiative to invite him to have dinner with her in Kunning Palace.

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

After dealing with the mountain of memorials, Xie Ci'an came to Kunning Palace.

Gu Jianchu and a group of people were waiting outside the hall.

She was wearing a crimson dress, which made her look even more delicate. As the cold wind blew past, she couldn't help but shiver. Before she could even salute and greet him, Xie Ci'an raised his hand to stop her, "Didn't I tell you not to wait for me outside in such a cold day?"

"I heard from the palace maid that the emperor was coming soon, so I came out to take a look. I didn't wait for Your Majesty on purpose." Gu Jianchu let Xie Ci'an hold her hand and lead them into the inner hall.

The table was already filled with delicious food. Gu Jianchu deliberately served the dishes at a delayed time, and the food was steaming hot.

Faced with the Queen's abnormal behavior, Xie Ci'an simply did not expose it and sat down with Gu Jianchu.

Gu Jianchu personally took the rose water from Zhu Xia and handed it to Xie Ci'an, "Your Majesty, please wash your hands before eating."

Seeing the queen being so attentive, Xie Ci'an hesitated for a moment.

The queen was so attentive that she might have done something wrong to him, or she might have something to ask of him.

After washing her hands, Gu Jianchu personally helped Xie Ci'an pick up some food. "Your Majesty, this shredded vegetable dish was specially made by the kitchen. Please try it and see how it tastes."

"And this tofu and fish soup is also a specialty of my small kitchen."

"The Queen asked me to come here, I'm afraid it's something important." Halfway through the meal, Xie Ci'an suddenly put down his chopsticks.

"Your Majesty, what are you talking about? I asked Your Majesty to come here just to have dinner with you." Gu Jianchu felt like he was caught. He lowered his head and buried his attention in his food to hide his embarrassment.

Is my intention so obvious?

It's written all over my face, but it's not obvious.

Xie Ci'an simply didn't ask, and the two of them ate in silence.

When the meal was almost over, Gu Jianchu said in a roundabout way, "I heard something recently in the harem."

"What's the matter?" Xie Ci'an took the hot tea handed to him by Zhu Xia.

"I have heard that the Minister of Rites's imperial examination results were obtained by impersonating a friend from the same hometown. I do not know whether this is true or not, and I dare not make any rash decisions. So, I am telling Your Majesty this. If it is true, this Minister of Rites is extremely audacious in deceiving Your Majesty. If it is false, the person who spread the rumor must be punished. He must be arrested and thoroughly interrogated. We must not wrongly accuse a minister of the court in this way."

No one knew what the Minister of Rites did except the Queen, so this matter could only have been spread intentionally by the Queen.

Xie Ci'an fiddled with the teacup and didn't say anything.

Gu Jianchu looked up at Xie Ci'an worriedly.

"I have heard this rumor and have asked Wen Zhu to investigate. The Minister of Rites is a key figure in the court. How can we allow such criticism?"

"The emperor is truly a wise ruler throughout history." Gu Jianchu couldn't help but flatter him.

Unexpectedly, this rumor has already been exaggerated by those palace servants and spread to Chuigong Hall. The Minister of Rites went to Chuigong Hall this afternoon to discuss important matters with the Emperor and overheard the palace servants' discussion as he was leaving.

[The Minister of Rites, who had done so many bad things, immediately felt guilty and broke out in a sweat.]

He was constantly wondering how this incident would become known to outsiders and how it would spread. He was even more worried about the Emperor finding out. Under these multiple anxieties, the Minister of Rites became so distracted that he fell from his carriage and broke his leg.

He has done all the evil things that are against heaven and morality. A broken leg is the least of his worries. This kind of person deserves heaven's punishment.