It was in the embassy located in Dongjiang Alley.

Sakata Aki was allowed to come into the room of General Yuancang.

On a chair in the outer room sat a man with a mustache. He was General Yuancang, wearing casual white clothes without a crown on his head.

"You come to me in the midnight. So, what happened?" General Yuancang asked.

The General was tired. He picked up a thin tobacco pipe on the table and lighted it with a flint.

Sakata Aki narrowed his eyes, wearing a meaningful smile.

"I apologize for interrupting your bedtime. I come here to ask you about your opinion of Huanan He, the Ninth Prince of Da Yi." Sakata Aki said.

"What?" The General asked.

The General was confused. He stared curiously at Sakata Aki who stood upright.

"What do you want to know?" The General asked.

Sakata Aki lowered his head obediently.

"After I followed you across the ocean to Da Yi, I came across Huanan He, the Ninth Prince, at the post house."

"At that time, Huanan He was in red robe and sat on the horseback, accompanied by a leopard. He argued with us fiercely with proper behavior. I believe that you, together with me, regard him as a god."

"In the reception banquet, I was drunken, so I went back. Then the warriors told me that Huanan He suddenly seemed to have become another person..."

General Yuancang was stunned.

He asked, "What do you mean?"

Sakata Aki paused and then looked at the General sharply.

"General, at that time, Huanan He drank at the same table with you. Did he really leave the banquet?" Sakata Aki asked.

The General puffed out a cloud of smoke and tapped his smooth forehead with his fingertips, remembering.

"It happened a few days ago, but I remember that clearly. After the first round of the firework show, the Ninth Prince left the banquet because he wanted to change his clothes. In about fifteen minutes, he came back. He still shared a table with me, but he was not happy as before while drinking and playing finger-guessing games. At that time, I thought he was tired, so I didn't care about it."

"After that, Ritual Minister invited us to listen to operas."

Sakata Aki said, "Well..."

Sakata Aki was a little excited, and he rolled his eyes and smiled coldly.

The General was curious about that.

The General asked, "Why do you begin to care about Huanan He?"

Sakata Aki calmed down and raised his eyebrows significantly.

He answered, "I'm just curious about what warriors said."

The General made a gesture of asking him to go back.

The General said, "It's too late. You have to go to bed. Tomorrow the second-round competition will begin. I don't want to see a draw between you and that woman again!"

"Yes." Sakata Aki said.

Sakata Aki nodded violently. As he went out of the room, the General asked him to stop.

"Wait!" The General said.

The General put down his tobacco pipe and looked around, smiling.

The General said, "Did you remember that I told you that when the first-round competition finished, I, together with my wife, came across Commandery Princess Jingle on my way back to the embassy?"

Sakata Aki was serious.

"She told you that Concubine Yun had a cookbook in which twenty-eight unique recipes for rare ingredients were included." Sakata Aki said.

"Yes." The General said with a half smile.

The General added, "You have to get that cookbook before we leave Da Yi."

"I want to give it to our Emperor as a gift. I believe he will be very happy if he eats those delicious foods. He will greatly reward you and me."

Sakata Aki said, "Yes. I'll try my best."

Sakata Aki nodded his head firmly.

The General suddenly remembered something. He glanced at Sakata Aki with a hint of warning.

The General said, "I have to remind you that you can do anything to get that cookbook. But you can't get that cookbook at the cost of losing the competition. Understand?"

"Yes, sir!" Sakata Aki said.

Sakata Aki lowered his head, smiling coldly and evilly.

"You can believe me. I'll win the competition and get that mysterious cookbook." Sakata Aki answered.

After Sakata Aki went out of the room, his assistant chef, Heren, walked towards him. The assistant was cunning.

"Mr. Sakata, how is it going on?" The assistant asked.

Sakata Aki stopped, wrapping his arms around his body. He was gloomy.

Sakata Aki said, "As expected, the man who left the reception banquet and then sat down with the General was not the Ninth Prince."

The assistant was shocked.

"So, the man who you found in the Book Hall was the Ninth Prince." The assistant said.

Sakata Aki said, "Thanks to your relatives serving in the Tianyan Faction, we can get the important news. What we have done these days was not in vain."

Looking into the assistant's eyes, Sakata Aki smiled cunningly.

Sakata Aki said, "Believe it or not, in the next competitions, I will be the winner and will get that cookbook. Also, I will get another beautiful thing..."

...

At autumn dusk, it drizzled. And it stopped raining by nightfall.

The moon was so faint in the sky that it seemed to be soaking in moisture.

Yue Xilou stood outside the Qinming Hall for a long time. Then Liang Zhen, the Imperial Chief Eunuch, came towards him and led him to the Emperor.

The hall was filled with candlelight. Huanan Xin was tired. A high pile of memorials was put on the table.

As he walked into the hall, Yue Xilou smelled the perfume, which attracted people.

Yue Xilou realized that a concubine was here.

The Emperor was accompanied by a beauty. No wonder the memorials that should have been examined weren’t dealt with now.

A few days ago, everyone at the reception banquet was impressed by Ruiji who played The Peony Pavilion. Then Noble Concubine Hui welcomed her. Later, she was sent to Huanan Xin to entertain him. Now, she became the Lady-in-waiting Xiang.

There were many troubles and disputes in the imperial harem. Someone hated Lady-in-waiting Xiang while someone gloated.

Some thought that Noble Concubine Hui ingratiated herself with Lady-in-waiting Xiang. She might pretend to be virtuous because she wanted to be the Empress in Kunning Palace. So, she welcomed Ruiji as she welcomed Concubine Yun.

Yue Xilou's lover became the concubine of the Emperor. Thinking of that, Yue Xilou was not so sad and wouldn’t kill himself. He just got angry.

He did not believe the rumors in the imperial harem.

Yue Xilou thought, "The confrontation between the Eastern Depot and the cabinet has been for a long time. Ruiji was sent to the Emperor by the daughter of the head of the cabinet."

"If it is true, it is Noble Concubine Hui and her father who made me into trouble."

"But I am not sure that it has nothing to do with the b*tch in Jingyang Palace."

"Maybe she played an important role..."

Tonight, Yue Xilou came to the Emperor to give him the document because he wanted to see Ruiji.

Qinming Hall was the place where the Emperor dealt with the memorials and slept. In the past dynasties, few concubines could share a bed with the Emperor there.

Now, after Ruiji shared a bed with the Emperor, she was asked to accompany the Emperor in the Qinming Hall. So, the Emperor must like her very much.

Huanan Xin said, "You should give it to me earlier."

Huanan Xin sat around the table and skimmed through the document, blaming Yue Xilou.

The Emperor had asked Yue Xilou to find and kill the agents in the Palace and the Eastern Depot before. Yue Xilou eliminated the death with corrosion powder. Now, their names and duties were on that document.

Yue Xilou was easy to find that Huanan Xin was angry. So, he made a fist-and-palm salute and explained it to the Emperor obediently.

"Your Majesty, please calm down. After we finished killing the agents, many people knew what we had done. But we didn't know why they knew that. They caused trouble. At that time, the envoys of Ying State came to Da Yi, so I hurried to deal with the trouble. Then I put the document aside. After I pacify it, I present the document to you as soon as possible."

"Humph, it sounds nice!" Huanan Xin glanced at him dismissively, curling his lips.

"You have said that you don't know why many people knew that. So, go to find the reasons..."

Suddenly, a loud noise came because the Emperor threw the document angrily.

Yue Xilou knelt right now with his hands and feet on the ground.

Under the warm light, Yue Xilou felt cold.

Yue Xilou gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in his sleeves.

"Your Majesty..."

A delicate and gentle voice came as if a warbler had been singing in the hall.

Then a young woman walked out of a room gently.

She did not mind the cold, only wearing thin cyan nightclothes made from chiffon.

Her clothes were open. One could see her underwear and tender waist.

She walked gently. And the hem of her dress fluttered.

The dress had side vents through which her slender fine legs and delicate feet could be seen.

The beauty put a small jade bowl on the table. Seeing that, the Emperor was not angry as before.

"Why do you come out?" The Emperor asked.

The Emperor took the beauty into his arms as Yue Xilou was there, not feeling embarrassed at all. He stroked her beautiful and straight back gently and his big hand glided slowly.

The beauty wore a graceful smile.

"I heard the noise, so I was worried about Your Majesty. Don't be so angry, Your Majesty. The jelly of rock sugar and white fungus is ready for you. Please have it!" The beauty said.

There was more and more affection in the Emperor’s eyes. The Emperor was attracted to her.

"I have told you many times that you are the lady-in-waiting of mine. You should not serve me as a female servant, and you are the master of those servants. Do I have to spank you so you can remember?"

"I'm wrong." The beauty said.

The beauty smiled. Her watery eyes were very beautiful.

Since the beauty became the lady-in-waiting of Huanan Xin, Huanan Xin was charmed by her every night.

A strange perfume was always on her body, which was light but pleasant. Even though she took a bath with flowers, the elegant perfume could not be washed away as if the perfume had come from her bones. Huanan Xin was attracted by that perfume.

Ruiji wore a smile, raising her watery eyes. She quickly glanced at Yue Xilou's cold and gloomy face and then looked away.

Her beautiful eyes showed that she had no choice but to become the lady-in-waiting of Huanan Xin. Yue Xilou got that from her eyes.

As the saying went, "Prostitutes would not truly love others and actors would not truly uphold justice."

Yue Xilou spent a lot of money on her. So, he thought she might like him.

Maybe she did not want to become the lady-in-waiting. She had no choice.

"What are you looking at?" Huanan Xin asked.

Huanan Xin found that Yue Xilou strangely stared at Ruiji.

As Huanan Xin shouted at him, Yue Xilou hurried to lower his head.

"Forgive me, Your Majesty." Yue Xilou said.

"How dare you! Get out of here!" Huanan Xin shouted.

Huanan Xin got angry. He picked up the bowl and hit it on Yue Xilou's head.

The soup was splashed all over Yue Xilou.

"I'm wrong, Your Majesty. I'll get out of here." Yue Xilou said.

Although he was extremely angry, Yue Xilou stood up quickly and left Qinming Hall.

Behind him came the voice of Huanan Xin and Ruiji. Huanan Xin was flirting with Ruiji.

"Your Majesty, the soup was splashed by you. I have to prepare another one for you." Ruiji said.

"It's okay. I'll hold you with me." Huanan Xin said.

"Your Majesty, you're so sweet..." Ruiji said.

"Ha-ha..." Huanan Xin laughed.

Yue Xilou was in a bad mood. He walked down the steps and turned back suddenly, staring at the vermilion door with his scarlet eyes and shouting in his mind.

"Huanan Xin, you're a lascivious Emperor. You make your uncle's wife become your concubine. Now, my lover also becomes your woman."

"Let’s wait and see! I'm not a dog that can be abused at your will!"