No one noticed that Qiu Che's face turned as pale as a sheet the moment he saw the scene in the room.

The emperor was furious, and Qiu Che, hidden among the crowd, suddenly snapped to attention.

At a glance, he saw that the room was crowded every one of the big names from the banquet, people he couldn't afford to offend.

Forgetting that he was still completely naked, Qiu Zhe instinctively fell to his knees with a thud, his face ashen. "Your Majesty, Your Majesty—"

"Chatter, chatter, chatter! Do you want to make a mockery of me?!"

Li Shi was seething with anger and interrupted him, "I wondered why you were taking so long in the bathroom, and now I see you've been here fooling around! In broad daylight, do you take the royal garden for a brothel?! Ridiculous... utterly ridiculous! This is no way to behave!"

He was about to have Fuzi drag him away when he suddenly heard a light voice behind him: "Huh? Why are there so many people?"

The emperor turned, displeased, and asked, "Who is it now... Qiu Che?!"

The newcomer walked through the crowd of eunuchs and palace maids, casually bowing as he approached. "Your Majesty, Empress Dowager, Empress... what is going on?"

Everyone’s gaze, including the emperor’s, shifted between the kneeling "Qiu Che" and the newly arrived one, circling in confusion:

How could there be two Qiu Ches?!

To everyone’s surprise, the new Qiu Che looked at the kneeling person in shock. "Brother?"

Hearing this, Qiu Chudong finally couldn’t hold back, and with a thud, he too fell to his knees.

...

"So," Li Shi's gaze grew dark, "you came here looking for your father?"

Qiu Che nodded. "I heard that Father, along with Your Majesty and other noble guests, had come to the royal garden. I feared that Father, being timid, might accidentally offend the imperial presence, so I came along."

Li Shi then raised his hand, pointing at the trembling Qiu Chudong. "Is this your father?"

Qiu Che nodded again.

Li Shi pointed next to the figure of Qiu Zhe, who had been draped in a thin blanket to avoid offending the nobles' eyes. "And this your brother?"

Qiu Che nodded once more. "Yes."

Li Shi looked at them both closely. He could see subtle differences in their features, especially their mannerisms, which made it clear that they were two separate individuals.

He had heard that the Qiu family had two sons, but since he wasn’t very familiar with Qiu Che, it was understandable that he might mistake them.

Li Shi sighed, his head pounding. He slammed the table. "Start from the beginning! What’s going on?!"

"I... I don’t know either," Qiu Che said helplessly, "I went out for a bathroom break, then returned to the banquet. As soon as I spoke to someone, they started speaking awkwardly. I found it strange, so I casually asked where Father had gone, and that’s how I ended up here."

The Empress then asked, "So, you had no idea about what happened in the royal garden?"

Qiu Che nodded. "Exactly."

The Empress let out a subtle sigh of relief and glanced at Li Shi.

Li Shi narrowed his eyes, seemingly deep in thought. "Did anyone hear you say this?"

Qiu Che cupped his hands and replied, "There were over a hundred people at the banquet, someone must have heard me. I swear on my life, Your Majesty can ask anyone."

"Your Majesty," another voice interrupted from outside the room, "I can vouch for this!"

Before he appeared, his voice rang out.

Wu Yiqi walked in, taking his time, fanning himself, and gave Qiu Che a smug look, as if saying, "What would you do without me?"

Qiu Che suppressed the surprise in her gaze.

How childish.

Since he had come to help clear her name, even after she had dismissed him, she couldn't express her disdain openly, so she just silently looked away.

Li Shi rubbed his temples, clearly used to Wu Yiqi’s nonchalant attitude. He didn’t mind and asked, "Where did you come from?"

Wu Yiqi replied, "Your Majesty, Brother Qiu and I went to the lavatory together. He just returned first. It’s impossible for him to have come back to the royal garden in such a short time, isn’t it?"

False.

Qiu Che had clearly run off the moment she reached the lavatory, anxious to find the princess.

When she returned to the banquet, she had a vague sense of something being forgotten, but then thought, if she could forget it, it probably wasn’t important.

Now, she realized she had left her unlucky partner behind in the lavatory.

She awkwardly touched her nose.

Seeing that the emperor didn’t seem convinced, Wu Yiqi continued, "But surely the focus now shouldn’t be where Brother Qiu came from? Don’t you think the real question is what’s going on with these two?"

"One is slandering the princess and defying the emperor, and the other is leading an orgy... really," Wu Yiqi said with a meaningful look, "they certainly have a lot of guts."

Li Shi took advantage of this moment to unleash all his frustration on the two kneeling individuals. "Speak! What are your intentions?"

"Your Majesty, spare me!" Qiu Chudong cried out first. "My son, Qiu Zhe, is the most innocent and naive! He could never do such a thing! Someone must have framed him! Please, Your Majesty, investigate!"

The Empress suddenly called out to Li Shi.

"Your Majesty... I recognize them."

Li Shi furrowed his brow and looked at her, noticing her gaze was fixed on the group of people who had been with Qiu Zhe.

Since the situation was still unclear, the group of palace maids, now wearing clothes, knelt in a row, shivering.

"You recognize them?"

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"These three maids are... from the Xianfei’s chambers. I’ve seen them before," the Empress said softly. "And the two eunuchs are from the Laundry Bureau."

Li Shi’s face darkened immediately.

After all the questioning, the people who had caused the embarrassment came from his own harem.

What a joke.

Qiu Che, sitting at the lower end of the room, noticed the emperor and empress whispering for a while. The emperor’s expression grew worse, and she guessed that the empress must have recognized those people.

At that moment, Fuzi hurried in with the imperial physician. After diagnosing the people in the room, he stood up and looked around.

Finally, he pinched some incense ash from the burner and his face grew serious.

"Your Majesty, these people... have been poisoned with rosemary."

Rosemary, as its name suggests, was an aphrodisiac that caused uncontrollable lust, leading people to lose their sense of reason.

Li Shi’s eyes widened in disbelief. "Impossible! That’s a southern exotic drug, how could it be here in the royal garden’s rooms?!"

The Empress calmly reassured him, "Your Majesty, don’t be hasty. Let’s get to the bottom of it first."

Li Shi shot her a cold glare. "I don’t need your reminders!"

The Empress fell silent, knowing the emperor was in a bad mood and wisely chose not to provoke him further.

The atmosphere in the room grew tense, only Qiu Che lowered her head slightly, hiding the flash of amusement in her eyes.

Everything was going just as she had expected.

In the past, it was these very maids who had taken Li Qingwu into this room to change clothes.

The two eunuchs had made up other reasons to send her companion, Fu Ling, away.

As for Fu Feng, she didn’t know where he was, but he was certainly not around Li Qingwu at this moment.

Li Qingwu, having inhaled the aroma from the incense burner, staggered out of the room, her vision spinning. But when she stepped outside, no one was in sight.

According to the plan devised by the Qiu family, this was the moment when Qiu Zhe would appear and force Li Qingwu into an inevitable situation.

However, an accident occurred in the previous life—Qiu Che had drunk the wine, and Li Qingwu had arrived at the imperial garden much later than Qiu Chudong had intended.

This was why she had collided with Li Qingwu, who was also affected by the drug, and had stumbled, entering a nearby room.

This time, Li Qingwu had managed to find her way out, which was also due to an unexpected twist.

She hadn't drunk the wine meant for Qiu Zhe, but since Qiu Zhe was pinned at the banquet, he couldn’t escape. Thus, his time to find someone had also been delayed.

This allowed Li Qingwu to wander out alone.

In her previous life, she had wondered why, in such a vast imperial garden, she couldn’t find a single soul.

Was Qiu Chudong truly capable of making the entire imperial garden, including its private rooms, so empty, while spreading the drug? It didn’t make sense, especially since Qiu Chudong had intended for the entire palace to witness the “defilement” of the princess.

Now, it seemed, it had most likely been an accident.

The Empress and the Commander of the Imperial Guard, Yuan Fu, had been involved in a secret affair, and they had dispersed everyone early on.

When Qiu Che realized that Li Qingwu had still been affected by the drug, she immediately decided to get her out of the palace, since dealing with the situation within the palace, with so many eyes around, would have been difficult.

Additionally, she had to take care of the intermediaries who had drugged Li Qingwu and send them to the room as well.

Then, she would appear in front of everyone, playing the role of an innocent bystander in front of the Emperor.

The plan was simple.

The drug had been prepared in advance, and the scandal had been orchestrated by Qiu Chudong. Qiu Che’s role was just to bring the people into the room and make the situation more chaotic.

All of this was a result of one missed glass of wine, completely altering the outcome from her previous life.

Meanwhile, Qiu Chudong continued to cry, claiming that she had mistaken who was in the room, knowing only that someone had been misbehaving but unaware it was her own son.

“Your Majesty, if I knew my son was inside, how could I possibly come to you to catch him in the act? That would be like digging my own grave!” Qiu Chudong cried as she forced Qiu Zhe to bow. “Please, Your Majesty, forgive us! I have no ill intentions!”

The Emperor’s expression darkened even further at her words.

Did you realize how embarrassing it would be if it were your child caught in the act?

Why don’t you think about how much more humiliating it would be if it were the princess? Where would I save face?

While Qiu Chudong cried, the eunuchs and palace maids also wept, claiming they knew nothing and had been knocked unconscious before being brought there. When they awoke, they found themselves in this predicament.

In summary, everyone had no clue about what happened. The Emperor would have to decide.

The scene was chaotic, resembling a funeral with loud cries everywhere.

Li Shi’s head felt like it was going to explode.

The Empress sat in the highest seat, clutching her prayer beads, her eyes closed as she murmured, "Amitabha."

Meanwhile, Qiu Che sat calmly, watching her father and brother cry and sob. Her heart was as still as water.

She could see that the Emperor, still conflicted, would likely not punish this father-son pair.

This scandal at the Empress's birthday banquet, even though both parties had been drugged, would undoubtedly shock the palace once it spread.

With the Empress, the Queen, and even the Chancellor’s grandson present, they couldn’t just execute everyone to silence the matter.

To smooth things over, the Emperor would likely bury the issue.

Just like in her previous life.

But that was fine.

This was just the beginning.

Qiu Che closed her eyes for a brief moment, then suddenly stood up, lifting her robe and kneeling. “Your Majesty, I too am guilty.”

Li Shi, his thoughts already in disarray from the chaos, frowned as he looked at her. “What is it now?”

“As a child, I failed to watch over my father’s actions and did not take care of my brother properly. That is my first crime.”

She spoke with righteous conviction. “The second crime is that, for this matter, I should have only brought one family member, but my father and brother both entered the palace, causing this disgrace. Although my brother entered the palace without permission, since it caused the Emperor distress, it is my fault. That is my second crime.”

She bowed her head, then looked up with a steady gaze. “I beg Your Majesty, in light of my sincere repentance, to spare my father and brother.”

Li Shi’s expression softened slightly, and he looked at her for a moment.

This child was quiet and knew how to ease his burden, giving him a way out.

Just as Li Shi was about to speak, Qiu Chudong suddenly interrupted, shouting, “No! No! It was I who entered the palace without permission, not Zhe’er!”

“Qiu Che, what are you saying? Be quiet!”

Others might not have noticed, but as the planner of the entire scheme, Qiu Zhe immediately recognized that Qiu Che had misused words.

The difference between him entering the palace and Qiu Zhe entering the palace was vast.

If it were Qiu Chudong who entered the palace secretly, it could be explained as a lapse in judgment due to worry over both of his sons being in the palace.

But if it were Qiu Zhe, a young boy daring to do such a bold thing, sneaking into the palace today could easily lead to him entering the Emperor’s chamber tomorrow.

Qiu Zhe was still young and needed to build a career!

In the past, the Emperor had no idea who Qiu Zhe was, so the plan to let Qiu Che die for Qiu Zhe’s succession could proceed.

But now that the Emperor knew, and knew in such a way, he would remember Qiu Zhe, the “outrageous elder brother who looked like Qiu Che.”

The plan to have Qiu Che step aside could never happen now, as it would be discovered in an instant.

Now that the Emperor knew, he could no longer be allowed to take the fall for this!

This was a scandal that would haunt him forever, and he could never enter politics again.

Qiu Chudong almost screamed in desperation, “How could this happen—”

Li Shi could no longer tolerate his incessant whining, picking up a teapot and throwing it toward him, shouting, “Silence!”

The teapot hit Qiu Chudong’s head, causing it to bleed. He screamed in pain, trembling all over, but dared not speak again.

The crying in the background also ceased.

Only Qiu Che remained kneeling, calm and composed, her gaze steady.

Li Shi stared at Qiu Chudong for a moment, then suddenly spoke, “What he says makes sense.”

“Minister Qiu, if what you say is true... then how do you explain why your father is wearing a servant’s clothing?”