The two of them play-wrestled for a bit, then Zu An grabbed her hands and said, “I want to make a trip out of the palace. Do you have any ideas?”

He had his identity as an Embroidered Envoy too, so it wasn’t impossible for him to leave. However, the emperor knew about all of his identities, so that wouldn’t work.

“Nope,” the empress said without hesitation.

Zu An became upset. “Come on, you’re a freaking empress! You can’t even send a single person out of the palace?”

“Even if I do have a way, I can’t send you out.” The empress harrumphed. “The emperor already made it clear that all of you were to be kept here to prevent information from getting out. It’ll definitely draw too much attention if I try to send you out. Visiting you during the day is already the limit of what I can do as the empress. If I try to help you further, the emperor will definitely suspect our relationship.”

Zu An figured that made sense as well. The emperor...