After Chu Tiankuo heard about the diagnosis that Lengmei lost her child, he knew how serious the matter was.

Whether it was because the imperial physician was bribed by Lengmei or there was something hidden in this matter, the fact was that Tang Xia framed Lengmei and Lengmei lost her child.

Chu Tiankuo was quite aware of Lengmei’s scheme and he knew that Lengmei framed Tang Xia. Even if Tang Xia did make Lengmei lose her child, Chu Tiankuo would protect Tang Xia. Besides, he did not believe that Tang Xia would do such a thing.

Chu Tiankuo also suspected that Lengmei was not pregnant at all and that she might want to make use of this matter to expose Tang Xia to mortal danger.

In Chu Tiankuo’s view, Tang Xia was always an optimistic, sanguine, strong and kind girl. How could she do such a thing? It was impossible!

As for Lengmei, she was quite an insidious and cunning woman who wanted to take everything to frame Tang Xia. Tang Xia was so kind that she would never and dared not care about such a thing, but the consequence would be quite terrible.

Tang Xia was so tenacious that she would never admit something she did not do. Besides, as an envoy, Bai Bulun was involved in this matter. Domestic shame should not be made public, let alone such a terrible matter.

This was exactly what Lengmei planned—she wanted more people who was ignorant of this matter to support her. Now that Bai Bulun was in the hall, it was time for Lengmei to take action.

At this critical moment for negotiation between Chu Tiankuo and Bai Bulun, it would be too rash for Bai Bulun to sue peace with Chu Tiankuo after he knew Chu Tiankuo could not manage his own imperial harem well.

Besides, there was conflict between two sides. It would be hard for Bai Bulun to disarm all hostility as such thing had happened. Instead, it was just like washing dirty linen in public.

“Your Majesty, please help me! I lost my child; he should be the prince! Your child!” Lengmei pretended to cry out on the ground.

Everyone would feel sorry at the sight of this situation as Lengmei was acting so well. That she fell on the ground and showed how shattered she was after losing her child. Her hysterical cry made people have more sympathy for her suffering.

All the ministers and Bai Bulun were quite angry. They must feel sorry for Lengmei’s helplessness and spurn Tang Xia’s cruelness.

Chu Tiankuo was rather embarrassed as there were too many people here so that he could not favor Tang Xia. He would lose credit and be regarded as an emperor who indulged the woman and set state affairs aside if he pointed out that all this was planned by Lengmei.

Chu Tiankuo did not know what he should do to pay attention to the interests of the whole and protect Tang Xia. The best solution for him was to lock Tang Xia up and punish her, which could show his sincerity.

Only in this way could he make Bai Bulun believe that he laid emphasis on truth and state affairs instead of Tang Xia.

Also, it could help their negotiation, but Chu Tiankuo could not do it. Tang Xia did not do anything wrong and he would never let Tang Xia be framed by Lengmei, let alone make Tang Xia suffer for solving his own problem.

Chu Tiankuo was suffering from inner conflict, not knowing what he should do. He must make a decision in the face of Lengmei’s complaints and the ministers’ argumentation.

If he could not punish Tang Xia for the moment, people would regard him as an impulsive man who did not attach importance to the truth. Moreover, his people would lose their faith in him and defect to other countries. The plan of cooperation would also be impossible.

Chu Tiankuo was quite annoyed as Bai Bulun knitted his eyebrows. Chu Tiankuo knew it clearly that he would be counter-attacked by Bai Bulun if he spoke up for Tang Xia.

Not knowing anything about Lengmei and Tang Xia, Bai Bulun would only believe what he saw—Lengmei was trying to get sympathy from him by pretending to be innocent.

After pondering for a while, Chu Tiankuo said slowly, “Just leave for the moment. I’m discussing official business now. We’ll talk about your matter later.”

This was his only way, which would not delay their negotiation of cooperation and could avoid punishing Tang Xia hastily.

Chu Tiankuo must find the proof to disprove Lengmei and clear Tang Xia’s name, which required much time.

What Chu Tiankuo could only do was to slight over Lengmei for the moment and to say that they would talk about it later, which could buy time for him to seek for countermeasure. He could not concentrate his efforts on this matter, or he would gain nothing.

He must protect Tang Xia as he believed that Tang Xia would never do such a thing. Besides, Lengmei had set up Tang Xia for several times. However, he could only stop talking about it because too many people were gathering in the hall.

Right, that was his only way.

But how could Lengmei give up so easily? Lengmei had racked her brains in scheming so that she gained such a good opportunity to bully Tang Xia in public. How could she miss the chance?

With so many efforts, Lengmei found Bai Bulun who could be her solid backer. She would never miss such an opportunity. Hence, she pretended to be sad for Chu Tiankuo was not willing to help her and moved to Bai Bulun, kneeling on the ground.

Lengmei continued on crying out and grasped Bai Bulun’s trouser legs tightly. Then she pleaded with tears, “Young man, did you hear it? I’m so wronged! Please help me!”

Bai Bulun was the god for Chu Tiankuo at the moment. In order to sue for peace with the border area, Chu Tiankuo must be able to take temporary setbacks and could only show some respects to Bai Bulun.

What Chu Tiankuo thought was quite helpful for Lengmei’s plan as Chu Tiankuo could only entertain Bai Bulun mannerly at the moment. Hence, it was the best way for her to seek help from Bai Bulun.

“Look at what His Majesty did! He just favored Tang Xia who made me lose my child! Please uphold justice for me!”

Lengmei’s words stressed how malicious Tang Xia was and how partial Chu Tiankuo was to Tang Xia, which would make people hate Tang Xia more.

“Tell me, how could His Majesty slight over me in this way! As his imperial concubine, I am not favored by him. Moreover, he did not speak for me after I lost our child! What a miserable life I’m living! ”

As Lengmei grasped Bai Bulun tightly, she complained tearfully about her completely fake tragedy, which made Bai Bulun, the envoy from the border area, quite angry.

In his border area, men were all unconstrained and upright and would never make their women be wronged. Hence, Bai Bulun became angrier and angrier with Chu Tiankuo.

Actually, Bai Bulun did feel sorry for Lengmei who could not claim justice after losing her own child. Therefore, he could not stand it anymore and clapped on the red sandalwood table with his eyebrows knitted.

The sound of “bang” frightened everyone including Chu Tiankuo. Apparently, Bai Bulun was angry, quite angry.

Bai Bulun’s opinion on Chu Tiankuo was changing gradually. He was suing for peace under orders, but he could not carry on the negotiation in the face of the muddleheaded Chu Tiankuo. He must uphold justice for the poor imperial concubine.

Moreover, Bai Bulun thought that Chu Tiankuo was quite coward and inadequate to be an emperor as he could not protect his own imperial concubine and cast his child away so easily.

And Bai Bulun could not figure out why Chu Tiankuo should delay dealing with this matter as Chu Tiankuo could solve the problem by punishing Tang Xia. Why did Chu Tiankuo say that they could talk about it later?

Bai Bulun could not help thinking that punishing Tang Xia severely in front of him was the best way to show sincerity to the border area. Besides, Chu Tiankuo should know that dealing with it in this way could be conducive to their negotiation as Chu Tiankuo was wise enough.

Was it like what Lengmei said that Chu Tiankuo could abandon the state affairs because of Tang Xia?

As he thought so, Bai Bulun could not stand it anymore and said to Chu Tiankuo,

“Your Majesty, in my humble opinion, I would not get involved in this matter if I were not here. Now that I see what happened, I must uphold justice for this poor imperial concubine!”

Hearing Bai Bulun’s angry words, Chu Tiankuo felt that he could do nothing as he should and must listen to Bai Bulun’s words.

“Your Majesty, all your imperial concubines are women who can bear your children. Their babies are all likely to be the emperor in the future. How could you not care even if you lost your child?”

“I don’t understand why the empress is so important to you that you do not prevent her from taking advantage of her authority and framing other imperial concubines. How could you react like this?”

“I insist that you do not show enough sincerity as you don’t punish your empress who framed the imperial concubine in such an important occasion.”

…

Chu Tiankuo felt quite flustered in the face of Bai Bulun’s interrogation. He must promise that he would punish Tang Xia on this occasion if he wanted to show his sincerity. Hence, Chu Tiankuo forced himself to do so.

“Brother Bai, what are you talking about? I understand you and I’m going to punish my empress. I just don’t want to embarrass her in public. Lengmei, just leave for now. I will definitely claim justice for you.”

Hearing Chu Tiankuo’s words, Lengmei thought her plan succeeded and left the hall reverently, wiping her tears.

After Lengmei left, this matter ended temporarily. As Zui Linglong standing aside saw through everything, she went to Lengmei’s palace with the excuse of visiting her to warn Lengmei that she should not be happy too early and Chu Tiankuo knew it was her scheme.

As Lengmei did not expect that Chu Tiankuo could see through her scheme, she shouted unwillingly,

“That is impossible!”