After my whole family overheard my thoughts, they went berserk.

The Empress breathed a slight sigh of relief upon hearing that things were looking promising.

Once she uncovers the person behind this, she will have accomplished something, and the Emperor's relationship with her will surely return to what it was before.

"Cough!" The Empress suddenly coughed.

Seeing this, Jin Shu quickly helped her sit down and handed her a cup of tea, saying, "Your Majesty, please have some tea."

I didn't get a good rest last night, and today I accompanied the Emperor to interrogate Consort Jing. I didn't have a moment to rest.

She also felt that she was getting old and was starting to feel less and less capable.

Looking back at those princesses of Sangnan, they died a worthy death, so as not to remain in the harem and compete with her for favor.

She had barely managed to outcompete the other concubines in the harem, so she was truly unsure of herself in the face of the arrival of several young princesses.

"Mother must be too tired. She shouldn't worry too much about the affairs of the inner palace," Mu Xiuyan said with concern.

The Empress sighed, "This is a good opportunity for Mother to turn things around. There must be no mistakes. If Mother loses her position, it will be detrimental to you in the future."

All she did was not only because she was unwilling to relinquish power, but also because she worried that the crown prince would lack a strong support system and his future position would be unstable.

"Did you make a mistake again in court today?" The Empress asked Mu Xiuyan, taking a sip of tea.

Mu Xiuyan asked, "And who is it that's stirring up trouble in front of the Empress Dowager?"

"It was your father, the Emperor, who sent Eunuch Qi to tell me to properly instruct you. You must have angered your father again," the Empress said.

She increasingly felt that the Crown Prince was a worry, leaving her physically and mentally exhausted.

She had to outwit and outmaneuver the concubines in the harem while also keeping a close eye on the crown prince, fearing that he might do or say something wrong that would give others an opportunity to seize upon.

"Today, the envoy from Sangnan questioned Father Emperor in the court, and I merely exchanged a few words with them."

"The Tianqi Kingdom is a powerful nation now. It's just that a few Princess Sangnan have died. What is there to fear from them?" Mu Xiuyan said confidently.

Upon hearing this, the Empress's expression changed, and she said, "You said these words in the court today, in front of your father, the officials, and the envoy from Sangnan?"

"What I said is true!" Mu Xiuyan didn't think he had done anything wrong and felt that what he said was the truth.

"Foolish!" The Empress slammed down her teacup, but accidentally dropped and shattered it, cutting her finger and causing it to bleed.

"Your Majesty the Empress..." Jin Shu wanted to step forward, but Mu Xiuyan beat her to it.

Mu Xiuyan quickly took out a handkerchief and wiped the wound on the Empress's finger, saying, "Mother, please don't be angry."

Then, he looked up at Jin Shu and said, "Hurry up and summon the imperial physician!"

"No need!" The Empress's brows furrowed in pain, but her heart ached even more.

Now, the Crown Prince's personality has changed; he no longer listens to her.

If this continues, we'll anger the Emperor sooner or later!

"Mother, please take care of yourself." Mu Xiuyan wrapped her wound with a handkerchief.

When the Empress looked down at the wound, she noticed a deep bloodstain on the back of Mu Xiuyan's hand.

"Your Majesty the Empress..." Jin Shu carried a medicine box, preparing to bandage the Empress's wounds, but the Empress refused.

"Go down!" the Empress ordered Jin Shu.

Before leaving, Jin Shu dismissed all the palace maids in the room and closed the door behind her.

"Does Your Majesty have something to say to me?" Mu Xiuyan asked, sensing that the Empress was about to scold him again.

The Empress's gaze sharpened as she looked at the injury on the back of Mu Xiuyan's hand and asked, "What happened to your hand?"

Mu Xiuyan subconsciously withdrew his hand, but the Empress grabbed it.

"I was playing with the cat yesterday and was accidentally scratched, but it's nothing serious," Mu Xiuyan said with a smile, offering an excuse.

The Empress looked into Mu Xiuyan's eyes and said, "Yan'er, you are only thirteen years old. You are still too young. There are some things you think you can hide from your mother!"

"What do you mean by that, Mother?" Mu Xiuyan asked, feeling somewhat guilty, but still maintaining a faint smile and pretending to be calm.

The Empress grasped his hand, looking at the wound on the back of his hand, and asked, "How did you get this wound?"

Just now, Jin Shu also said that when Princess Sangnan died, she fought with the murderer, and there was still flesh of the murderer under her fingernails.

Looking at the wound on the prince's hand now, a piece of flesh is gone, and the wound is shaped like a fingernail.

Now, she suspects the murderer is the Crown Prince!

"Empress, you still won't tell the truth to your mother!" The Empress was furious and growled at Mu Xiuyan in a low voice, afraid of alerting those outside.

If this matter were to reach the Emperor's ears, it would surely bring them trouble.

"Mother..." Mu Xiuyan was unwilling to admit it, nor did he want to tell the truth to the Empress.

It was clear that if he told the truth, he would be reprimanded by the Empress.

"Yan'er, do you know that Princess Sangnan's death involves the friendship between our two countries? If Sangnan is not given an explanation, Sangnan will never let this matter rest."

"Your father has already ordered your mother to find out the mastermind behind this and give the Sangnan Kingdom an explanation!"

Hearing the Empress's words, Mu Xiuyan didn't realize the seriousness of the matter; he only felt that the Empress always liked to overcomplicate things.

"What's wrong with killing a few Sangnan people?" Mu Xiuyan retorted. "Does Father Emperor really think he can hold a grudge against his own people for the sake of a few Sangnan people?"

"It really was you!" The Empress had basically concluded that Mu Xiuyan was behind this.

She looked at Mu Xiuyan in disbelief and said, "Mother never imagined that you would actually go to the inner palace to kill someone..."

Last night, she interrogated the concubines and thought that this might be the work of the concubines, but later she realized that the information she received was all bought with money by Jin Shu.

The other concubines were probably unaware of this matter.

Thinking about it again, this might be a treacherous scheme by the Sangnan people, deliberately making things difficult for Tianqi Kingdom and exacerbating the conflict between the two countries.

She had considered all sorts of possibilities.

She even considered that if the real culprit couldn't be found, she would arrange for someone to take the blame.

But she never expected... that the murderer was actually the Crown Prince!

He's her own son!

She was in charge of investigating the case, but the murderer was her son, something she never expected!

"Yes, I killed those Princess Sangnan!" Mu Xiuyan admitted directly. "Father Emperor ignored you and wanted to take Sangnan people as concubines. I am not convinced and feel sorry for Mother Emperor!"

"Your Majesty, you and Father have been husband and wife for over a decade, working tirelessly for the affairs of the harem, only to be ignored by Father in return. Your son will not allow you to be bullied!"

The Empress did not believe that the Crown Prince was doing this for her own good.

All of this is simply the consequence of his impulsive nature!

"Have you considered what kind of trouble this matter will bring?!" the Empress roared at Mu Xiuyan in a low voice.

She looked at Mu Xiuyan with disappointment and said, "Your mother teaches you every day to be steady in your actions, but you always insist on doing things your own way. Sooner or later, you will implicate your mother and harm yourself!"

Mu Xiuyan also said disappointedly, "Your Majesty, I risked my life for you and even got injured. Not only did I not get your understanding, but I was also blamed by you. Has Your Majesty ever thought about how I feel?"