"I'll be damned!"

Lu Xiaoyao's shout was a complete performance in itself.

Mingmei stood by, looking at her with an innocent expression.

"Y-you're the mysterious merchant?!"

She had been ordered to the Cold Palace by Emperor Jing'an to keep Mingmei company for dinner, but she never expected this!

This Cold Palace Consort was actually the mysterious merchant?!

The system notification in the background completely stunned Lu Xiaoyao!

"Is there a problem?"

Mingmei raised an eyebrow. Now that she knew, there was no need to hide it. She held up the box lunch and said, "Do you want to buy one?"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Lu Xiaoyao nodded like a chicken pecking rice. Surprise aside, she couldn't miss this box lunch.

She bought two box lunches directly from Mingmei.

"Lion's head... Aren't you going to buy a few more?"

Mingmei remembered the effects of the Lion's Head box lunch, but Lu Xiaoyao shook her head repeatedly. "This little eunuch doesn't have any allies, and my power is..."

Lu Xiaoyao drawled, "I only have Xiao Shizi as my adopted son. As long as he's loyal to me, the rest... There's also His Majesty, so I don't worry."

Mingmei: "..."

How could she be the Chief Eunuch with this mindset?

Mingmei couldn't understand how Lu Xiaoyao had managed to get this far.

But she seemed to be enjoying it. She felt that as long as she followed the Emperor's lead, she didn't need to make any small moves.

It was both stupid and smart.

At least, Mu Chen was too lazy to use her to pit her against the Empress Dowager.

Ever since Leng Youyou found out that Lu Xiaoyao had stopped the tea-serving palace maid, she had secretly looked for Lu Xiaoyao twice afterward, but fortunately, Lu Xiaoyao had pretended to be foolish and muddled through.

However, Mingmei knew from Leng Youyou's camera that Leng Youyou had long wanted to get rid of Lu Xiaoyao, but she hadn't succeeded.

Thinking of this, Mingmei looked at Lu Xiaoyao, who was squatting there eating her box lunch. She beckoned her over to sit at the stone table in the courtyard.

Perhaps because Mu Chen wasn't around, Lu Xiaoyao's courage had grown. She sat right next to Mingmei, eating and curiously asking, "Can you go anywhere when you sell box lunches?"

"No, just here."

Mingmei shook her head and glanced at the round moon overhead. There were fewer clouds tonight, and many people would come later in the night.

Thinking of this, Mingmei's mood improved a lot. She would be able to sell her box lunches tonight!

"Ah? Then how can anyone buy the box lunch?"

Now it was Lu Xiaoyao's turn to be confused. Then, when Mingmei's meaningful eyes fell on her, she heard Mingmei say, "Some people come looking for me."

"Ah! That last time..."

Lu Xiaoyao suddenly remembered Bai Xiao and Yuan Fang, and she shrank her neck in fear. "Oh dear, buying this box lunch is risky. You might lose your life if you're not careful."

Mingmei: "..."

Very good, she knew that Lu Xiaoyao had misunderstood again. Did she think that Bai Xiao hadn't bought the box lunch that time?

Thinking this, Mingmei didn't plan to explain it clearly to Lu Xiaoyao, but she added, "Besides you, there are two other players who haven't bought the box lunch."

"Really?"

Hearing that she wasn't the last one, Lu Xiaoyao immediately perked up. "Who, who? Who is more slow-witted than me?"

"That's not it."

Regarding Lu Xiaoyao's subtle way of saying that she wasn't very bright and wanted to drag others down with her, Mingmei decided to pull those two up.

"It's just because they're outside the palace and can't be in the palace every day." After saying that, Mingmei looked at Lu Xiaoyao with cold eyes and said quietly, "We see each other often."

*Pfft!*

Lu Xiaoyao seemed to hear the sound effect of a knife stabbing her heart.

She vaguely remembered that Mingmei seemed to have asked her if she wanted to eat a box lunch at the beginning of the game. What had she said then?

Let His Majesty eat it first!

Yes, she let the NPC eat the box lunch that was meant for the players!

Lu Xiaoyao, you're really something!

At this point, Lu Xiaoyao silently buried her head in her bowl and didn't speak. Forget it, just eat the box lunch.

When the game was over, Lu Xiaoyao felt that she should go see a neurologist instead of a psychologist.

After Lu Xiaoyao had finished all the box lunches, she discovered another sad fact.

"What's wrong?"

Mingmei saw that she had eaten two box lunches in a row and kindly took her for a walk around the Cold Palace, but she saw that Lu Xiaoyao looked even more depressed than before.

"The secret that the box lunch told me, I already knew it even if I didn't eat it~"

Mingmei: …

Wasn't that right?

She was by Mu Chen's side every day, so she knew more about Emperor Jing'an's secrets than the box lunch did.

After eating, Lu Xiaoyao looked at Mingmei and silently added, "Even if I didn't eat it, I would know that you are very important to His Majesty!"

"Now that I've eaten it and know this, I feel like what I just ate wasn't a box lunch."

"Oh?" Mingmei turned to look at Lu Xiaoyao. "Then what did you eat?"

"I ate dog food! And I bought it myself with my hard-earned points!"

Mingmei: "..."

Not mentioning this matter anymore, Mingmei took Lu Xiaoyao for a walk outside, and her mood gradually improved.

Especially when Mingmei saw the Zhen brothers who had appeared in front of her on the pretext of going out to work off their alcohol, her mood became even better.

With the suspicion of *#Why does the mysterious merchant look so much like my classmate from the same school#*, the two brothers were very impolite and bought four box lunches each.

Of course, during this time, the two of them kept looking at Lu Xiaoyao, who was accompanying the mysterious merchant, with a look of suspicion that said, "Why aren't you staying by Emperor Jing'an's side tonight?"

What could Lu Xiaoyao say about this?

But at least her standing here was a hint that the merchant小姐姐 had a relationship with His Majesty.

Lu Xiaoyao felt that this kind of hint was already benevolent, but she didn't expect that after the two people who had been reminded by Lu Xiaoyao went back, Zhen Hu was gone that night.

He drank too much, and his vomit got stuck in his throat while he was sleeping, suffocating him to death.

And Princess Yong insisted that Prince Yong had been murdered, but everything seemed like an accident, and there was no evidence to prove what she said.

Although Princess Yong did not give up, Zhen Hu was already offline, and Prince Yong's line was not to be feared in this game. On the contrary, the forces of the noble family behind her, the Prime Minister's line, were coveted by many parties.

Even Prince Ying (Julian), who had not been very active, took the lead in contacting them.

However, what was embarrassing was that he was rejected. The Prime Minister's side did not give him any face, and the whole capital knew about it.

That's right, Prince Ying had always been without money or power, and it would be better for the Prime Minister and the others to support the Emperor or remain neutral than to support him.

Not to mention the other officials, their eyes were still more on Prince Qing, who had the support of the Su family in the military and political circles, and Prince An, who was supported by the Empress Dowager's faction.

Emperor Jing'an had always turned a blind eye to the struggle between the princes. While these people were fighting inextricably, one official transfer order after another from the Ministry of Revenue came down.

Unknowingly, more and more unfamiliar faces of officials appeared in the court.

By the time everyone realized something was wrong, this group of unfamiliar faces had formed a powerful force and begun to show its head, following the lead of Prince Ying, who had previously been ridiculed and ignored...