My elder sister is so noble, this time it's my turn to strike back

However, who would have thought that the next second, what Guo Yian said made the queen stunned on the spot.

He said, "Qingqing said she only wants to be with her forever. I don't want to let her down, so I plan to find her an official with a clean family background, remove her from her status as a slave, and then bring her into the palace to meet my sister."

When the queen heard this, she stopped drinking tea, thinking she had misheard.

"What did you say?"

A couple for a lifetime?

Lowly status?

She must have heard it right. Her proud brother actually fell in love with a lowly woman.

The queen's first reaction was that her brother had been deceived and exploited by the seductress outside, and had become a stepping stone for the other party without knowing it.

Then Guo Yian added, "Qingqing is not only exceptionally talented, but also gentle and kind, yet clever. As for her status, it's not what she wants. I've already promised her, and a man shouldn't break his word. Now that I've given my heart to her, there's no reason for me to marry another woman."

The queen knew that her brother seemed aloof, but once he made up his mind, no one could change it.

She forced herself to maintain a calm expression and asked, "Brother, what you said is truly foolish. I will pretend I didn't hear it today. Not only will I disapprove, even Father and Mother will certainly not agree with you doing this. Right now is a critical moment for the Crown Prince to show his ability. Brother, please don't let someone with ulterior motives take advantage of you at this time."

"As a lowly woman, even as a concubine, she would never be able to enter the prime minister's residence. As for your suggestion of finding a family to adopt her, that's absolutely impossible. My Guo family is a big tree that attracts the wind. Who knows how many eyes are watching us from the dark? Naturally, we should be cautious these days."

Guo Yian also knew that what the queen said made sense.

But when he thought about how he, as a great general, could not even protect the woman he loved and had to watch her struggling in the quagmire, how could he be content?

"I've made up my mind. Sister, there's no need to persuade me. I've already left the album of poetry with me. It's entirely up to you whether to use it or not. I'll also try to convince Father and Mother to agree."

After Guo Yian said this, he bowed and left without waiting for the queen's reaction.

Before he had gone far, he heard the sound of cups breaking from the Queen's palace.

After hearing this, Guo Yian's expression remained unchanged and he continued to stride forward.

He also had to go to the East Palace to continue teaching the prince how to ride a horse.

Moreover, he did not expect the Queen to agree immediately when he entered the palace today. He just wanted to give her a heads-up so that she would find Qingqing useful and give her some time to make things right.

When he arrived at the East Palace, he found that the door of Xiao Yuche's palace was closed. There was a young eunuch guarding the door. When he saw Guo Yian coming, he quickly lowered his head.

"My humble servant greets General Guo." The young eunuch saluted Guo Yian.

Guo Yian didn't miss the flash of panic in the other man's eyes. He instinctively thought that the prince must have been naughty again and had done something mischievous. So he asked with a stern face:

"Where is the prince?"

The young eunuch was frightened by the fierce momentum and moved his knees. "General, His Highness... His Highness has ordered that no one is allowed to disturb him."

Guo Yian's eyes swept over, "You mean the prince hasn't stood up yet?"

It's almost noon, are you still sleeping?

A surge of anger rushed to Guo Yian's head. But when he thought that this was in the Eastern Palace after all, he suppressed his temper and ordered the young eunuch to knock on the door.

But the eunuch became even more flustered, hesitating and not daring to move forward.

Guo Yian snorted coldly, stepped forward, raised his left foot and kicked the door with a bang.

"General, please don't. The Crown Prince is really still resting..."

However, Guo Yian didn't care about all this. At this moment, he just wanted to pick up the naughty Xiao Yuche and run a few laps in the backyard to wake him up.

As the crown prince, how can you be so lazy and idle?

However, when he approached the bed, he saw the person on the bed covering his head and face with the quilt. He didn't know whether he was asleep or doing something.

Guo Yian thought that he was the crown prince after all, so he suppressed his anger and greeted him, "Your Highness, it's time to get up!"

The person on the bed didn't respond.

Guo Yian called out again, but there was still no response. Just as he was about to take action, he saw the quilt suddenly shake.

Guo Yian no longer hesitated and immediately threw back the quilt. As a result, a gray figure rolled down from the bed and finally knelt at his feet, begging:

"General, please spare my life. This is the order of the Crown Prince. I have no choice but to obey!"

Guo Yian looked carefully and wondered who else could it be but Xiao Zhuozi?

With a "bang", he kicked Xiao Zhuozi in the chest and shouted, "How dare you! Where is the prince?"

Xiao Zhuozi quickly stood up, clutching his chest, and replied, "The Crown Prince... The Crown Prince slipped out of the East Palace last night and ordered this servant to pretend to be asleep, saying he would be back this morning. This servant... this servant..."

When Xiao Zhuozi looked out the window and saw that it was already bright, he immediately realized that something was wrong and his heart began to lift.

"General, the prince has been out all night. I really don't know where he went."

"Waste!" Xiao Zhuozi was kicked again and rolled on the ground in pain.

"What time did the prince leave the palace? What clothes did he wear? Where did he leave the palace? Summon him immediately. If anything happens, even if you have a hundred heads, they won't be enough to chop off."

Xiao Zhuozi also realized the seriousness of the matter, and immediately reported to Guo Yian everything that happened after the prince returned to the palace last night.

Afterwards, Guo Yian sent someone to notify the queen immediately, and he found the dog hole in the wall and jumped out.

The prince is missing, this is a serious matter.

In addition to searching on his own initiative, Guo Yian also contacted his subordinates and began a private search inside and outside the capital, with the East Palace as the radius.

At the same time, after learning about this, the queen fainted from anger on the spot. When she woke up, Emperor Shengjing had already learned about it and rushed over.

As soon as the queen opened her eyes, she heard that Emperor Shengjing was personally interrogating a group of guards and servants in the Eastern Palace and had beaten several of them to death.

The Queen propped herself up and hurried to the Eastern Palace. On the way, she happened to run into Wan Rongyue, who was also heading towards the Eastern Palace with several concubines from the harem.

The queen paused in her hurried steps.

"Greetings, Queen. I heard that the Crown Prince is missing and that Your Majesty fainted from anger. The harem is left without a leader, and we, the sisters in the harem, are deeply worried. So, I, your concubine, have taken the initiative and brought the other concubines to visit you."

The queen's face turned ugly.

Damn it, this evil concubine must have done this on purpose.

I had originally thought that I could quietly retrieve the prince through my own influence or that of my mother's family. But now this evil concubine has spread the news so quickly that everyone in the harem knows about it. Even if the prince is found, his reputation will definitely be ruined.

There was no doubt that the censors would seize the opportunity to impeach the prince for things like immorality, instability, stubbornness, and unfitness for important tasks.