The empress was speechless. No matter how much she flaunted her strong will, she almost broke down under those words.

Zu An thought to himself, Don’t try these tricks with me. If you knew I really said that in front of the emperor not too long ago, you might just faint from shock!

“Your highness, what’s happened in the capital while I was gone?” he asked. He had been brought into the palace and kept there ever since he left the dungeon. He had no idea what was happening outside of the palace.

Without enough intelligence, it was easy to create errors in judgment. But who knew better about what was happening outside the palace than the empress herself?

“Is this empress not beautiful enough? You can still afford to think about these matters?” The empress harrumphed. However, she still replied, “After you all went into the dungeon, King Qi Manor’s side seemed to be pretty confident, while his majesty’s side was struggling to look calm. Even though I don’t know what kind of trump cards both sides were hiding, I’m more inclined to trust his majesty. Zhao Jing can’t win against him.”

Zu An nodded in deep sympathy. Zhao Han really was an old fox. He had fooled everyone from start to...