Poisonous Goddess: I'm just lazing around in the mortal realm.

Philadelphia Villa

Pei Zhiheng entered the room with a dark expression, then sat down on a round-backed chair in the main hall. He glanced at Pei Suisui, who was dressed as a man, and couldn't help but let out a cold snort.

"Why aren't you kneeling down? What kind of behavior is this!"

With a "thump," Pei Suisui knelt down with remarkable speed and precision.

Thirteen closed the door, and upon turning around, he saw this scene and couldn't help but step forward to speak up for Pei Suisui.

"Prime Minister Pei... there's a reason for this. It's because Sui Sui is so worried about you."

"who are you?"

He, who was usually so dignified, suddenly raised his head and looked at Thirteen, who had now reverted to her female form. He felt that the girl's face seemed vaguely familiar.

But this face doesn't seem to match the boy in his memory.

So, fueled by his anger towards Pei Suisui, he inadvertently interrupted Thirteen, who was about to plead for mercy.

Upon hearing her father berate Thirteen, Pei Suisui, whose head should have been drooping, immediately raised it and hurriedly spoke.

"Father, she's Thirteen! How could you yell at her!"

Thirteen? Shouldn't he be a man?

Pei Zhiheng frowned first, but instead of standing up, he stumbled back down. He had previously suspected Thirteen's identity.

However, due to her initial behavior, speech, and appearance, he had to abandon the idea.

Seeing Pei Zhiheng looking at him with a questioning expression, and since there was no one else in the room, Thirteen stepped forward, bowed, and explained.

"Prime Minister Pei, this is a long story. I did indeed deliberately conceal my identity for some reasons."

Thinking that Pei Zhiheng was going to make things difficult for her, she quickly lowered her head, waiting for his ridicule.

But after waiting for a long time, Pei Zhiheng didn't say a word.

Instead, it was the curiosity of Thirteen that made him raise his head, and he saw Pei Zhiheng sitting comfortably in a round-backed chair.

"Shouldn't you be angry?"

Why should I be angry? Isn't this a good thing?

Pei Zhiheng, on the other hand, secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He had originally thought that his daughter's close relationship with Thirteen was because the two had developed feelings for each other.

Although he wasn't a stubborn old man, he didn't insist on a marriage between people of equal social standing for his daughter.

But whenever he saw Thirteen's thin, frail body, he was genuinely worried about whether Thirteen's body could protect his daughter, to the point that he had recently lost his appetite and couldn't eat or drink.

Especially when Pei Suisui told him that she wanted to break off her engagement with the Third Prince, he almost thought that this girl wanted him to ask a matchmaker to arrange a marriage between him and the Thirteenth Prince!

Good thing...

Fortunately, she was a girl!

Thinking of this, Pei Zhiheng couldn't help but smile, leaving both Thirteen and Pei Suisui completely bewildered, and for a moment, everyone fell silent.

Yoshihisa

Pei Zhiheng was the first to break the silence.

"Now that you have revealed yourself as a woman, you will surely have to admit your true identity when you are in front of the Crown Prince, since you know about the Crown Prince and the Third Prince..."

"That's why Sui Sui and I have been following closely at the very back of the army. I never expected that Sui Sui would fall ill, which would delay our journey by a few days."

Is Sui Sui sick?

Pei Zhiheng probably finally remembered that his daughter was still kneeling. He quickly lowered his head to look at her, but he saw that Pei Suisui's face was rosy and she looked full of energy.

He really doesn't look like a sickly person!

"She's sick? I think she's hit her head! How dare she sneak off to a dangerous place like Philadelphia? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

At this point, he became extremely angry.

If Shen Mu hadn't stood up for him and protected Pei Suisui, he would never have allowed her to come all the way to this border with them.

“I…I was worried about Father! I didn’t think much of it, I just secretly ran away after receiving the news of your departure, who would have thought that the clothes I stole were infected with the plague…”

Pei Suisui's voice grew softer and softer as she spoke, and she became increasingly less confident, so she had no choice but to obediently kneel on the ground and listen to her reprimand.

After all, she was afraid that if her father got upset, he would turn around and send her back to the capital.

Seeing this, Thirteen quickly tried to help exonerate himself.

"Prime Minister Pei, you may not know this, but Sui Sui has indeed been ill for quite some time. Fortunately, the towns we passed through along the way had plenty of medicinal herbs, which saved her life. Please don't be too harsh on her; she was just too worried about you..."

"Why should I worry about her! What kind of behavior is it for a young woman to be running around outside every day!"

At this point, Pei Zhiheng couldn't help but poke Pei Suisui's head, but as soon as he finished speaking, he realized that the thirteenth girl in front of him was also a girl, so he could only smile apologetically.

"I wasn't talking about you, Mr. Thirteen. If it weren't for you protecting her, she would have suffered even more!"

"It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter."

Thirteen touched her nose somewhat awkwardly, even she hadn't gotten used to the fact that she had already returned to her true form.

So much so that these days, whenever she sees Pei Suisui changing clothes in the inner room, she blushes and hides away, afraid that she might see something she shouldn't.

“Father…please stop criticizing me. I’ve already arrived in Philadelphia…and now I’m being held captive by the Crown Prince. It’s bad enough.”

Seeing that Pei Zhiheng seemed to be softening, Pei Suisui quickly climbed forward and hugged his leg. She knew her father was someone who responded better to gentle persuasion than force.

Whenever she did this, her father would always lift her up heavily and then put her down gently.

"You! I don't know where you learned such shamelessness!"

Although Pei Zhiheng was still verbally abusive, he pushed her away with much less force, as if afraid that he might push her over if he pushed too hard.

Seeing that the father and daughter had stopped arguing, Thirteen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

"Prime Minister Pei, I had something to discuss with you, but I didn't expect to be invited here by the Crown Prince today. Are we still in Feicheng?"

Thirteen couldn't hold back in the end. After all, this was an urgent matter. If she could resolve the internal strife as soon as possible, she could focus all her attention on finding the Demon Lord's clone.

Pei Zhiheng nodded upon hearing this, his expression gradually becoming serious.

"I really didn't expect the Crown Prince's methods. Originally, it was my suggestion that he fight General Weiyuan..."

"You're making this suggestion? Are they doing it on purpose for others to see?"

Thirteen was slightly taken aback. She clearly hadn't expected that all of this on the surface was actually orchestrated by Prime Minister Pei behind the scenes.

"Since my Pei family owes you so much, I might as well stop hiding it from you. Indeed, the matter in the Imperial Study was something I wanted to do to get the Crown Prince to withdraw from the campaign against the Southern Barbarians..."

"But you didn't expect that while the Emperor was suppressing the Crown Prince's faction, he insisted on having the Crown Prince personally lead the troops. So you were afraid that the An family would take action in secret, so you simply let the situation in Philadelphia escalate, which would make the An family dare not make any rash moves behind your back, is that right?"

Upon hearing Thirteen's words, Pei Zhiheng's cloudy eyes suddenly lit up; he was genuinely surprised.

"You guessed it a long time ago?"