The old maid knelt on the floor on both knees, her fingers trembling slightly and her face turning pale. After a while, she slightly raised the edge of her lip, her body shivering, and said tentatively.

“The altar… Your Grace, where did you learn about it?”

The old maid’s reaction aroused doubt and curiosity in Lengmei. She asked.

“Nothing serious though. I just overheard it from the chat of several maids and felt confused, so I sent for you, and hopefully you should know about it.”

After hearing Lengmei’s explanation, the old maid got less nervous than just now. She calmed down and replied.

“It is not serious itself, but the name is not very pleasant. It has been a long time since it last happened.”

“There should not be anyone who knows about it now, and I was too surprised just now. Perhaps it was a young maid who overheard it somewhere, gossiped about it and disturbed you.”

Lengmei got more curious as she found that the old maid was not willing to talk and was trying to muddle through. She wanted to know more than ever what this idea from Zui Linglong could be.

Lengmei put up an air of great interest in the altar and kept asking, “Granny, I’m a curious person, especially about this kind of thing. I don’t mind being disturbed.

“I’m so curious about it. Tell me more in details!”

Judging from Lengmei’s reaction, the old maid knew it was impossible to muddle through and replied resignedly.

“Your Grace, when someone in the harem is wronged and no one believes her, she may request to step onto the altar, speaking out her story and asking the public to judge. However…”

The old maid showed some signs of embarrassment on her face and shot a hidden glance up at Lengmei, only to find that she was listening enthusiastically. She had no choice but to continue her speech.

“No matter how the altar hearing ends, it inevitably does harm to her reputation, and you know how important reputation is for us women. Besides, everyone can only step onto the altar once. Even after her story is justified and she is exonerated from all accusations, people will still talk about the emperor’s failure to manage his harem and families.

“And they will proceed to doubt his ability to rule the nation. After all, the altar hearing is humiliating for the emperor, and its initiator will be estranged and live a hard life ever after. No emperor is going to accept the request of an altar hearing willingly.”

Lengmei’s face turned serious after hearing the old maid’s explanation. She finally understood what Zui Linglong’s idea meant!

It was a one-shot deal. If she succeeded, it would deal a heavy blow to Tang Xia and probably depose her from the position of queen.

But if she failed, she would be completely estranged from His Majesty and relocated to the cold palace. She could even be tortured to death.

She was fully aware that what she had suffered was far from enough to overthrow Tang Xia. Those were merely squabbles between girls competing for the emperor’s favor.

Should she request an altar hearing for such trivia, she would be criticized as unreasonable and frivolous. She would not only lose reputation, but forever become an object of ridicule. She needed more careful thinking and elaborate scheming to nibble away Tang Xia’s advantage and deal a fatal blow to her!

Now that she knew about the altar, she sent the old maid away and contemplated alone in her chamber how she could topple Tang Xia’s dominance with a big plan.

After a long time, a sinister smile crept up on Lengmei’s lips as if she came up with something. She walked up to her dresser and started to do makeup.

After careful grooming and makeup, Lengmei looked more charming and gorgeous than ever. She looked at herself in the mirror and laughed aloud happily. She stood up and made preparations to visit Chu Tiankuo.

She arrived at the gate of Chu Tiankuo’s study and was about to enter when a personal eunuch of Chu Tiankuo stopped her. He bowed to Lengmei and said.

“Your Grace, His Majesty is reviewing national affairs and should not be disturbed by anyone. Please leave him alone and return to your place!”

Lengmei was perfectly aware of the eunuchs’ duties and exclaimed at the gate.

“His Majesty is reviewing national affairs and should not be disturbed by ANYONE? I’m his concubine. Am I just ANYONE? Or is it just me that His Majesty doesn’t want to see? What if the queen comes and seeks an audience?

“You minions dare stop her? I have something very important to tell His Majesty today and I have to see him. Stay away!”

The eunuch had no other choice. He couldn’t ask the guards to send her away by force for fear of offending her. What if she should later be favored and secretly frame him? No one knew for sure where the emperor’s favor would go!

Lengmei was making a scene persistently at the gate of the study, as if she wanted everyone to know about her being stopped by the emperor’s eunuch from entering the study. The eunuch realized it was impossible to send her away, and had no choice but to enter the study and report to Chu Tiankuo what had happened.

Chu Tiankuo was furious at what he heard. He said coldly, “Who does Lengmei think she is? She’s just an ordinary concubine and she dares to compare herself with the queen? Ridiculous! She’s thinking too much of herself. Just ask the guards to drag her back to her chamber.”

“But, Your Majesty,” the eunuch said worriedly.

“It does not look too good if we send her away by force, but it does not look good either if we let her keep shouting out there!”

“No matter how hard I reasoned with her, she did not want to leave. She said she had to see you and she had something important to tell you in person.”

“Fine, let her in!” Chu Tiankuo gave it a second thought and admitted Lengmei to his study.

To his surprise, Lengmei rushed to him arrogantly, stared Chu Tiankuo in the eyes and said.

“Your Majesty, do you hate to see me so much? Last time the queen came here, you let her in straight away, yet today, you were treating me differently! It’s not right for you to be partial towards her both in public and in private!”

Chu Tiankuo thought Lengmei was going to tell him something important, and it turned out to be trivial complaints of jealousy. He was further annoyed and said coldly, “So? You’re blaming me just because of these petty matters?”

“That’s right, Your Majesty, I’m blaming you!” Lengmei resolved to risk everything to make her point. She said blatantly.

“You are the emperor! You should treat all your women equally and give every one of them the fair share of your love! You should not just favor the queen and ignore the others! Do you know how painful it is for the rest of us?”

Chu Tiankuo got more furious at Lengmei’s words. He stepped down, walked over to Lengmei and grabbed her by the throat, his face black and threatening as if it was dripping ink.

“Who are you to blame me? You think I’m afraid of you just because I let you in? I can deprive you of your life at my will!

“I should treat all my women equally? I should not just favor the queen and ignore the others? With so many beautiful words, you just want me to sleep with you, right? What, you felt ignored and lonely deep in the harem?”

Lengmei was unable to breathe while she was grabbed by Chu Tiankuo by the throat. She struggled to grab Chu Tiankuo’s arm back, her mouth gaping and her face turning purple.

Despite his fury, Chu Tiankuo knew he couldn’t throttle her in the study, or he would be criticized for being cruel by the conservative officials in the court, and they might even attack Tang Xia as the cause of the tragedy.

He just wanted to give Lengmei some punishment and released his hand after seeing that she was barely breathing.

Lengmei slumped onto the floor immediately and started panting heavily. After a while, she recovered and said in a soft tone while secretly staring at Chu Tiankuo.

“Your Majesty, have you ever thought about the position of the queen? If you continue to favor her and ignore all the other concubines, you will drop her in great danger!”

Lengmei paused for a while and continued.

“Everyone in the court is unsatisfied with your partiality for the queen. They say she is Daji reborn and she will enchant you and bring disaster to the nation.

“People are talking about her bad influences all over the place, and you still want to favor her alone?”

Her voice turned hoarse as a result of her throat being grabbed just now, but it did make her more charming in a different way.

Of course, Chu Tiankuo did not notice it. He became silent at Lengmei’s words. He knew some officials in the court were criticizing Tang Xia. He just didn’t care about it so far.

But the severity of the situation described by Lengmei was beyond his expectation. He frowned and said reluctantly to her despite his disgust at her.

“I got what you said… You may now leave!”

Seeing that Chu Tiankuo had taken in her words, Lengmei was filled with joy and her distaste for Tang Xia grew ever stronger. She didn’t say another word and left as she was told.

After Lengmei finished washing and combing that night, a eunuch came to her chamber.

“Your Grace, His Majesty ordered you to sleep with him tonight. Please make necessary preparations and follow me.”