Chapter 181: Don't spring a trap

The Empress Dowager could only scowl in reply to the servant's announcement.

"Perhaps this Emperor should see to this issue personally." He addressesthe worried young ladies with a courteous smile. "Guards will remain behind to ensure the young ladies safety, although this Emperor is sure young miss Li merely got lost in the palace."

He raises from his pillow confidently, Han Yu getting up to his feet after him, his face arranged in a perfect mask of apathy.

"This princess will go as well, young miss Li must be feeling embarrassed, and scared," Bai Mi says, perfectly solicitous.

The Empress Dowager gets up from her sofa with the help of the servants around her. "Perhaps this widow should go as well, it won't do to give young miss Li the impression her absence wasn't noticed."

Her words meet the polite laughter of all the other girls. Whether the Empress Dowager believes nothing untoward has happened to young miss Li or not, she has managed to efficiently diffuse the situation. 

Xi Zirui only hopes the rest of their plan works out just as smoothly.

---

Obviously, Xi Zirui orders the guards stationed outside the great hall to start a search for young miss Li as well.

Their search won't prove very fruitful, unfortunately.

He and Bai Mi lead the Empress Dowager on a merry goose chase, putting on ever more worried looks, while edging closer towards the official's study rooms.

As previously agreed, Xi Zirui raises his voice to tell Bai Mi that they should go back, as it's very unlikely they'll find young miss Li in this wing of the palace.

Just as they're making their way out, a loud crash sounds in the next room, which the palace guards investigate, surfacing promptly with a restrained Liao Min between the two of them, and a bound and gagged Li Siqi, who tearfully pulls the gag away from her mouth as another guard helps her out the room.

The Empress Dowager looks incredulous at the scene in front of her. "What's the meaning of this?" she asks Xi Zirui, who has no answer for her besides a matching look of incredulity.

Liao Min struggles in the guard's grip, her upper lip curling up in disdain. "Where is that Su bastard? This is all his fault."

The Empress Dowager goes deathly still. Xi Zirui can almost see the gears in her mind turning.

Very slowly, she turns to one of the guards. "Take the prisoner to my winter study, have minister Su brought there as well, and speak nothing of what has transpired here."

She turns to a still shaking Li Siqi and asks her. "I'm sorry to impose on young miss Li after such an ordeal, but this Empress will have to trouble her to accompany us as well."

---

No one exchanges a word until Su Xueyi arrives in the Empress Dowager's study, the atmosphere tense and stifled, until he walks through the doors flanked by two guards.

His face immediately falls the moment he sees Liao Min being restrained by two other guards, the Empress Dowager takes it as an admission of guilt and slams her hands onto her desk before standing up.

"What have you done?" she asks her upper lip trembling with barely suppressed rage.

Su Xueyi looks in shock from the Empress Dowager to Xi Zirui and Bai Mi, his gaze lingering on Bai Mi.

He's probably wondering why his former ally is participating in an attempt to implicate him in a crime.

"He said if I took one of the girls, and made your Emperor look bad, he would send me back to my people," Liao Min says, glaring at Su Xueyi.

"She's lying, your Imperial Highness," Su Xueyi says, his fingers shaking where he tries to keep them clasped behind his back.

The Empress Dowager isn't convinced. "Why would a prisoner who was caught in the act lie about it?"

Su Xueyi's  eyes immediately drift to Xi Zirui, standing stiffly at The Empress Dowager's side. "Perhaps she's following someone else's orders to do so."

"Whose?" The Empress asks, and rolls her eyes when Su Xueyi opens his mouth, an accusation on the tip of his tongue. "And spare the accusations towards his Majesty, you embarrassed yourself enough the last time."

Su Xueyi's mouth snaps closed with an audible click. 

The rage burning in his eyes is incendiary, and he's now turned it on Bai Mi.

"Youngest princess has been vying for throne, she's could have planned all of this!"

The Empress Dowager shakes her head in disappointment. "Minister Su will accuse anyone to get attentions off himself, it seems." She points towards Bai Mi. "Youngest princess is clearly a simple girl, who could never have had a hand in any of this."

Xi Zirui clears his throat.

"Actually, Imperial mother is wrong," he says.

The Empress Dowager turns to him with a stony expression, the thin line of her lips compelling him to elaborate and make it good.

"Youngest princess has long tried to warn me of the danger minister Su represented," Xi Zirui sighs dispiritedly. "I'm afraid, that as Imperial mother, this Emperor has underestimated youngest princess."

Bai Mi keeps her head lowered demurely, and says nothing.

The Empress Dowagers turns her keen eyes on her now, inspecting her under a new light. "Indeed?..."

"In fact, not long before the first attempt against my life, youngest princess tried to warn me that Minister Su had treasonous intentions."

"And how did youngest Princess come upon this information?" The Empress Dowager asks.

For the first time, Bai Mi lifts her eyes and addresses her directly. "This princess overheard a conversation of Minister Su's, and when she confronted him so that he could clarify what this one hoped was merely a misunderstanding, Minister Su tried to enlist this princess's help in a treasonous plot of overthrow his Majesty."

"Why didn't you say anything, foolish child?" The Empress Dowager bellows, the loose skin of her jowls trembling in anger. Most of all, she's embarrassed at herself for not noticing something a minor princess did.

Bai Mi lowers her gaze once again. "Begging Imperial Mother's forgiveness, this princess wouldn't dare make accusations without proof. As Imperial Mother said, this princess is only a simple girl and Minister Su is a respected court official. This Princess tried to find evidence, and in the meantime warned his Majesty to stay on high alert."

Su Xueyi listens to all of this with a look of utter betrayal written on his face. He tries several times to cut Bai Mi off but the Empress Dowager's chilling glares keep him quiet and cowed.

Xi Zirui sighs dramatically. "This Emperor asks Imperial Mother for forgiveness for his lack of oversight, he should have taken younger princess's warnings more seriously."

"Has younger princess found any proof of minister Su's involvement."

She falters for a moment, this is where their plain is weakest. They'll have to rely on the Empress Dowager already believing the tale they have spun, and a series of circumstantial evidence.

"This princess's maid saw letters, written in Minister Su's calligraphy, revealing Xin army's movements, and promising barbarians land and provisions in exchange for help with his plans to ascend to the throne." She clasps her hands together in front of her chest and bows deeply towards the Empress Dowager. "This princess apologizes but it wasn't possible to retrieve the letters. And they were gone the next time this one's maid tried to get them."

Su Xueyi scoffs. "How convenient."

"It is indeed a shame that the letters couldn't have been retrieved," Xi Zirui says with a forlorn nod. "However, what youngest princess says matches what this Emperor has found regarding the investigations into the attack against this life."

He turns to Han Yu with a smirk. "Weren't you too instructed over letters on how to infiltrate the palace, gain access to my quarters, and poison me?"

Han Yu nods. "Yes, but this lowly one never once saw the person who was in contact with him."

"Her Imperial Highness can't take the word of a barbarian criminal!"

"No, but I can take the word of two," the Empress says, turning towards Liao Min. "Was it this man you were in contact with?" she asks, her gaze unwavering. "There is no saving you from the noose, but if you cooperate this widow won't seek any further retaliation against your people for the grievous offences you have committed."

"I've said so already," Liao Min insists. "He tricked me into this, both times. I was foolish to believe he would keep to his word the second time around. Like the little princess said, we talked via letters, but I said I needed to talk with him in person, as the last person we sent," and here her eyes drift towards Han Yu. "Never got back to us."

Su Xueyi is beside himself now. He realizes how perfectly everything all fits together, and how much of it is his fault. He walked right into this, because a great deal of what they're accusing him of is true.

"They're lying, your Imperial Highness," he pleads, one last time. "This lowly official has always been her Imperial Highness' most loyal servant..."

The Empress Dowager gives him a look down her nose filled with so much disdain it's a miracle Su Xueyi doesn't curl on himself like a bug and disappear into the the ground. "Guards, take this man away."

It's a long time before any of them stop hearing Su Xueyi's indignant protests as he's dragged away between two towering guards.