I stood in the center of the room, hesitating whether to demand an immediate explanation. Instead, he saw my hesitant expression and took the initiative to explain the situation.
It was indeed related to the Eastern Palace. An Jin had previously fallen out with the Eastern Palace—he glossed over the specifics, which I assumed was some romantic entanglement involving a woman—he was worried the Eastern Palace might harm me. After having offended the Seventh Princess, he had Que’er monitor my movements closely. Today, when the Eastern Palace was at the Spring Wind Tea House, Que’er ran to the Ministry of Personnel to notify him, and they hurriedly rushed towards the tea house but encountered some obstruction. Regarding the lipstick marks on his collar, he merely said a woman was among those obstructing them.
Later, they arrived at the tea house to find that both I and the Eastern Palace had already left. They could only return home to check and fortunately found that I had indeed returned safely.
With this explanation, I felt suddenly enlightened. No wonder An Jin had suddenly appeared when I was dining with Miss Song San—it was likely because the Eastern Palace was also in that restaurant.
An Jin asked about the details of my meeting with the Eastern Palace, and I simply said we chatted briefly. An Jin clearly didn’t believe me but didn’t press further, only instructing me to be extra careful in the future. However, I couldn’t understand how the future emperor could engage in such an unscrupulous act of transferring hatred and using his enemy’s wife for revenge.
An Jin scoffed, “Knowing someone’s face doesn’t mean knowing their heart. Just because he’s the future emperor doesn’t mean he can’t have a narrow mind or be unscrupulous.”
