Suddenly, a few people, who had been standing outside the group, elbowed to the front. They looked like thugs in their 20s. Clearly, they bore no good intentions and then surrounded her. “You look so pretty. Why are you alone? Have you got company? Why don’t you let us keep you company?”

“You must feel lonely while you’re walking alone. I see that you don’t have anyone by your side. Your face is really pretty, even a top courtesan in the Flower-Blooming Hall can’t compare.”

“That’s right. I thought Xiao Yanyan in the Flower-Blooming Hall is the prettiest girl. Now, she doesn’t seem to deserve to be your servant. Young lady, don’t be afraid, come to my home. I’ll feed you with good food and drinks.”

Did Wang Xiuxiu arrange these people?

Mo Xuetong was thinking of numerous possibilities in her head. These people were obviously just thugs, who Wang Xiuxiu couldn’t have contacted. Moreover, Wang Xiuxiu couldn’t have thought about laying a finger on her. They entered the tea concession stand just because she shot a curious gaze at it. Then, Wang Xiuxiu didn’t set these people here.

The surrounding crowd gradually dispersed. Thus, these people must be the local thugs and mafia, and difficult to handle. Therefore, other common people didn’t dare to say anything even if the thugs caused trouble. However, if Wang Xiuxiu didn’t set this up, what was Wang Xiuxiu up to?

Mo Xuetong managed to stay calm and reached for her belt. She didn’t wear the two sword-shaped hairpins on her head but put them in her belt. People would surely suspect if she had worn the same hairpins every time she went out.

“In the capital, someone should harass an innocent lady.” Someone shouted on top of their voice. Mo Xuetong couldn’t make out who they were. However, she didn’t let her guard down and slightly tilted her body. Before she was done shifting her position, a sword shadow dived at her. It should travel across the crowd and be exactly directed at her face.

Before the cold and sharp weapon arrived, the sword aura struck first.

Did Wang Xiuxiu want to kill her? Mo Xuetong was startled and thought. “When have I threatened Wang Xiuxiu?”

On the other side of the bamboo tent, a sword shadow as fast as lightning, giving out a chilly light and slicing through the curtains. It pierced through the curtains and warded off the sharp weapon in the nick of time.

“Assassin.” Someone shouted and the entire crowd got restless. They ran to tell each other the news. If they couldn’t avoid other people, they would tramp on them. A few lanterns fell on the ground and then the flames rose up, igniting the nearby curtains. The sword shadow still carried that chilly light. No one knew who had been hurt. Some were shouting, some were screaming, while some were madly snapping…

A piece of the curtains on fire fell before Mo Xuetong’s eyes. The burning sparks almost touched her face. Flustered, Mo Xuetong retreated and almost hit the table and chairs behind her. As she just supported herself on the edge of the table, she was already facing a sea of fire and there was no way she could make it out of here. No matter how poised she had been, she couldn’t stay calm at this time.

Just as she didn’t know where to go, a purple shadow slid to her side. She felt someone grab her waist. Mo Xuetong immediately froze but then soon her body softened.

By her ears, somewhat seductive and languid laughter rang. “Don’t worry. Hold me tight.”

Mo Xuetong subconsciously hugged Feng Yuran tightly and closed her eyes. Feng Yuran picked up Mo Xuetong and dashed out of a nearby door. His narrow, long, and pretty eyes glanced at his arms. When he saw the person in his arms clinging to him wholeheartedly, the smile by his lips grew bigger.

He dashed and ran, moving lightning fast. In an instant, he already left the crowd, which seemed restless.

Feng Yuran held Mo Xuetong and landed on a rooftop after a few jumps and falls. After landing, he patted Mo Xuetong’s head and smiled gently. “Do you miss me that much? You don’t let me go until now?”

He was really…

Mo Xuetong flushed. Feeling her feet on the solid ground, she pushed him away with force. Then, she found herself on a rooftop again. After knowing Feng Yuran, she had been on top of a rooftop several times.

Mo Xuetong frowned and awkwardly looked away to ask, “Mo Feng is still entangled with that man there. Will he be OK?”

Feng Yuran’s bright eyes shone, his white-jade-like handsome face glistening under the moonlight. He was in a good mood and helped Mo Xuetong sit by him in a comfortable position. “Relax. Mo Feng is better than the man. They’re both shadow guards. At least, mine is better than the other’s.”

The man was also a shadow guard?

Mo Xuemin slightly knitted her brows. “When have I offended some noble official who possesses shadow guards. And I don’t have any important secrets they might want to know. Who hates me so much that they sent shadow guards to kill me?”

Mo Xuetong asked, “Are they King Yan, King Chu, or the royal’s…?”

Feng Yuran smiled with his eyes squinted, and he fixed his eyes on Mo Xuetong all the time. “You’ll know soon.” The enthusiastic eyes carried tenderness Mo Xuetong couldn’t ignore. With moonlight as clear as water, she felt her heart skip a beat. Mo Xuetong didn’t dare to look at him any longer and only felt her cheeks hot.

Looking away, she asked, flustered. “Wang Xiuxiu doesn’t seem simple. Who is his father, Sir Grand Secretariat, close to now?”

While speaking, she casually tapped her feet on the rooftop. She looked awkward and her heart was racing.

Feng Yuran smiled. “Grand Secretariat Wang is either Eldest Brother or Third Brother’s person.”

Chewing over Feng Yuran’s words, Mo Xuetong looked up in surprise. “He’s yours?”

Looking at her confused and watery eyes, Feng Yuran lazily speak. His voice contained a feeling of affection. When it rang in the tender night, the atmosphere even became ambiguous. “How come? The cunny fox is very sly. He won’t so easily take sides. And if he’s my person, I’ll disable him if he dares to hurt you.”

Mo Xuetong bit her lips and managed to focus on his words. “People in the court all think either King Yan or King Chu will take the throne. Doesn’t the Grand Secretariat think so? In the future, no matter which one takes the throne, people who take sides earlier will be promoted. I heard Sir Grand Secretariat is still young, and he wants to retire so much?”

This was the key point that Mo Xuetong felt the most confused about!

The Grand Secretariat had one of the highest positions in the cabinet. He was nearly second only to the one and was on top of all of the rest. Since Wang Xiuxiu’s father had taken the Grand Secretariat position, which this Grand Secretariat Wang was said to have defeated many people to get, he shouldn’t give it up so early. Three years hadn’t passed since his taking office. Was the power-oriented Grand Secretariat content with only three years?

One must know that once the new emperor took the throne, he would first promote his group of supporters. If the Grand Secretariat didn’t take sides now, he would surely lose the position. With this Grand Secretariat Wang’s political talent, how couldn’t he sense it? Was it that Grand Secretariat Wang had lost his ambitions and couldn’t carry on because of his declined energy at an old age?

It couldn’t be. Just a few days ago, Mo Xuetong heard that he had issued a few essays on politics, which clearly showed that he was full of energy.

Feng Yuran blinked, looking happy. The smile on his handsome face was too seductive for people to stare at. When his smile looked the brightest, it would stir people’s hearts. “Well, he’s a sly wily old fox. There’s no way he wants to retire. He’s always wanted to gain a big name in the political world. But he’s set his heart on the Empress Dowager’s power, so he’ll only suck up to Her Highness.”

What a devilish man!

Mo Xuetong exclaimed in her heart and couldn’t take her eyes off him at that moment. Feeling his warm and masculine breaths around her, which carried his usual pleasant smell, she felt herself like a tiny flower surrounded by fragrance. She was breathing in his smell. When seeing his smug smile, she suddenly came to her senses.

She quickly looked away and secretly blamed herself for the bad manners.

Though a handsome man like him was devilish, she shouldn’t be affected by one’s looks in her second life.

However, when thinking like that, she still had to praise him in the heart. “No wonder he’s famous for being rakish. With his looks, how many women can escape? If he stares at them with these tender eyes, he can almost get all the girls in the world.”

A lecher!

Thinking about his reputation, Mo Xuetong felt a little upset. She looked up to glare at him. Feng Yuran had been smiling brightly, and now he was confused by her stare. He didn’t know what he had done wrong to upset her.

Mo Xuetong glared and said, “Isn’t the Empress Dowager’s person the Empress’s? And what’s Empress’s is also King Yan’s. Why are you playing these word games with me?” She didn’t know her glare, in the moonlight, made her look like she was pretending to be mad. Thus, the man with the handsome face was first startled and then raised the corner of his lips.

Wait? The Empress Dowager’s person?

Mo Xuetong paused, and her open cheery-like lips quivered but didn’t make a sound in the end. A thought that never occurred to her popped into her mind. Looking at Feng Yuran in shock, she should not make a sound at that moment.

“Tong’er is indeed smart.” Feng Yuran knew she had realized it and gently chuckled. Reaching out his slender fingers, he mildly flicked her white and soft forehead, making her cover her forehead with a cry of protest.

Both the Empress and the Empress Dowager came from Ding General Manor. The Empress had always been in charge of the harem affairs. Mo Xuetong heard that the Empress didn’t even receive visitors, but only occasionally chatted with those old officials, and spent the rest of her time in the temple. She seemed to live in seclusion. No matter what trouble the Empress and King Yan had caused, never did she put in a good word for King Yan before Emperor Zongwen.

She seemed to be fair.

Nonetheless, Mo Xuetong knew the Empress Dowager wasn’t. She remembered one thing clearly from her last life. Not long before her death, something big happened in the harem. The Empress was related to a rebellion case and Emperor Zongwen removed her from the power of running the harem. The power didn’t fall on any of his beloved consorts but the Empress Dowager, who had always been living in seclusion.

In other words, when the Empress fell from power, the person who benefitted the most should be the Empress Dowager!

At that time, she never thought about the difference. Both of them came from Ding General Manor, and no matter who ran the harem, Ding General Manor wouldn’t be involved. That being said, now, the deeper meaning in Feng Yuran’s words immediately reminded her.

She was wrong!

She was heading in the wrong direction!

The Empress and the Empress Dowager were heading in different directions!

She first startled herself with this shocking conclusion, asking in broken words, “Does Her Highness, Her Highness has her own… choice…” It was too shocking that the secluded Empress Dowager had her own thought and the successor to the throne she chose was another person.

The two who were most favored in the country and the one beside her were obviously not the Empress Dowager’s choice, and then he should be…

Sensing her shock, Feng Yuran felt tender for her. He involuntarily held her soft and warm hands in his palm, smiling. “Don’t worry. Her Highness never sees my father as her son, so she hides behind the scene after my father came into power. All these years, she’s been secretly planning and gains much more power than the Empress who draws too much attention before people.”

Mo Xuetong forgot his rude behaviors, swallowed, and looked at him. A chill surged up through her spine. All the shock she had felt in her previous and this life couldn’t compare to the one she was feeling now.

Empress Dowager didn’t treat Emperor Zongwen as her son, and then she wouldn’t choose Emperor Zongwen’s sons. If the person she selected wanted to succeed Emperor Zongwen, he must plot a rebellion.

It was said that more than 30 years ago, the entire King Jin Manor was executed because of a rebellion attempt.

It was said that even the royal descendants of the peerless talent, King Jin, weren’t spared. Once, when her mother told Mo Xuetong about the matter, she should quiver and couldn’t carry on. Then, she deeply sighed and started to weep. They must have killed many people, which was really horrifying.

Mo Xuetong never expected after only more than 30 years, history repeated itself. How could Mo Xuetong not feel shocked?

More importantly, her father was in Emperor Zongwen’s selected contender’s manor and must be loyal to the ruling Emperor. He supported an entirely different person from Empress Dowager’s choice. Should the selected man attempt a rebellion, the man would first kill Mo Xuetong’s father, the lord mayor, to turn the capital into a mess, leaving the capital short of military power. Then, the man could seize the power in the mess and take the throne.

Her father was the first target of the Empress Dowager’s rebellion.

Mo Xuetong’s rosy cheeks instantly turned ashen in fright.