[No, not my CP!]

[No, I don’t believe it. This woman must be pretending to poison him. She loves him.]

[Good news: Ruan Qiu is not on the side of the Empress Dowager. Bad news: Ruan Qiu wants to kill Xue Wu and the Empress Dowager and become the Emperor herself.]

[Xue Wu is really in danger and so unlucky. Everyone around him wants to kill him.]

[How did this happen? Ruan Qiu, who should be on Xue Wu’s side, is not!]

[Ah, you’re ruining my CP! Director, I hate you!]

[There must be a twist, right? There has to be!]

Many viewers rushed to Xue Wu’s live stream, shouting across the virtual space for him to run away; his wife was coming to kill him.

Xue Wu, of course, was oblivious to the cries of the audience. He continued to the Imperial Garden, followed by a few scattered palace maids and young eunuchs sent by the Empress Dowager to monitor him.

Xue Wu stopped at the place where he lost track of the man earlier. He carefully examined the surroundings and found an unusual mark on the second hill.

Here, the hills were intricately arranged, and it was easy to lose one’s way among them. Xue Wu fixed his gaze on the clearly man-made circle on the hill, taking a few steps closer. However, nothing stood out – just an ordinary circle with nothing else around it.

However, Xue Wu pondered for a moment and instructed the eunuchs and palace maids behind him, “Go find someone to chisel down this stone along with the circle.”

Upon hearing Xue Wu’s words, the expression of the director backstage momentarily froze.

[Wait, is this the second hill? When I was lurking in Jiang Yan’s livestream, I remember someone arranging to meet him here tonight, right?]

[Yes! I suspect that this circle is the secret signal for the meeting!]

[Hahaha, Director, didn’t expect that, did you? You had Jiang Yan burn the clue, and now Xue Wu has found the remaining evidence. Hahaha.]

[Turnabout is fair play! Brilliant!]

The chief director backstage:…

He glanced at Ruan Qiu, who had discovered her true identity early on, and then at Xue Wu, who had meticulously destroyed the clues he had arranged. Numbly, he wondered if these two were heaven-sent to punish him.

The circle was painted with a special fluorescent powder, glowing in the dark. This allowed Jiang Yan to quickly locate the person he was meeting, advancing the subsequent plot.

But now…

The director covered his eyes, unable to bear seeing the stone with the clues being chiseled down by the guards, nor did he want to read the mocking comments flooding the live chat.

Here, Ruan Qiu calmly contemplated her hidden identity and the possible conditions for her demise.

On the surface, she was loyal to the Emperor, trusted by him, but behind the scenes, she was influenced by the Empress Dowager. Following the Empress Dowager’s orders, she drugged Xue Wu, leading him step by step into a dangerous path. However, in reality, she aimed to play both sides and seize the throne for herself, betraying them both.

In the course of this, she might be discovered by both parties due to an inadvertent mistake, leading to her “death”. Ruan Qiu also considered that if the murderer this time was the Empress Dowager, it wouldn’t be easy to overthrow her. She could only temporarily avoid the confrontation.

After a brief contemplation, Ruan Qiu, following her accustomed pattern of infinite plot scenarios, set main and sub-tasks for herself.

Main Task: Portray the role of a bystander well, interact moderately with Xue Wu, and avoid elimination endings.

Sub-tasks: Conceal her true intentions, navigate the relationship with the Empress Dowager.

Having set her tasks, Ruan Qiu raised her hand, tore each paper from the record, and placed them on the oil lamp. She burned each paper one by one until all evidence was eradicated. Expressionless, she still had the bottle of drug in her sleeve. Silently, she watched the papers curling in the firelight, turning into ash. Only when all the evidence was eliminated did she rise and leave.

At the moment she opened the door, she once again put on a faint smile, as if she had discovered nothing. Addressing a eunuch not far from the doorway, she said, “We’re going to attend to the Emperor now. No one is allowed to enter this door. Be vigilant, understand?”

The eunuch, confronted with her smile, quickly lowered his head and replied, “Yes, Grand Tutor.”

[Wow, a complete change in a second… Ruan Qiu’s acting is giving me goosebumps]

[No, please, Ruan Qiu’s demeanor just now scared me. She wouldn’t actually “kill” Xue Wu, right…]

[Love and kill, I guess I can get into it (contemplating).]

Ruan Qiu, accompanied by her supposed godson, headed back towards the main hall. She turned to the young eunuch and asked, “If, hypothetically, your godfather wanted a higher position and more power, what would you think?”

The young eunuch respectfully bowed and said, “Godfather certainly deserves the best! Everything now is just a stepping stone for the godfather, who naturally should rise above all!”

Ruan Qiu nodded.

The young eunuch was in the know, one of her own, not sent by the Empress Dowager.

The director backstage sighed deeply, realizing that the plot was off again. Ruan Qiu should have found the medicine first, and then the young eunuch would tell her those words, making Ruan Qiu mistakenly believe she was affiliated with the Empress Dowager. After completing the subsequent plot, she would eventually discover her own ambitions.

The storyline had to be adjusted again. The director sighed, watching the screen as Ruan Qiu walked on the stone path, coincidentally encountering Xue Wu returning from the Imperial Garden.

Xue Wu instructed someone to throw the stone into the pond in the Imperial Garden. As he contemplated the connection between this mark and the mysterious figure in black he had encountered earlier, he noticed Ruan Qiu approaching from another path. He immediately relaxed, wearing a smile as he briskly walked up to her, asking, “Did you find anything?”

The young eunuch behind him quickly bowed to both Xue Wu and Ruan Qiu. Xue Wu waved his hand, paying little attention to the eunuch, and focused on Ruan Qiu, ready to hear what she had to say.

Speaking in a hushed tone, Ruan Qiu said, “Let His Majesty speak first.”