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The person on night duty was also able to get a full sleep, not needing to stay alert and wait for orders like with other masters.

Thinking this way, I felt that being with such a master was undoubtedly not a bad deal.

Liu Ying’s consciousness sank heavily, and she slowly drifted to sleep.

In the inner chamber, Changzai Zhou, having removed her makeup, lost the softness she presented before others, revealing a distant demeanor, devoid of her usual approachability.

If one looked closely at her now, they’d see that she, too, possessed a pair of phoenix eyes similar to the Noble Consort’s, only hers were slightly longer and finer, her thin lips normally rendered quite indifferent when not smiling, giving her face a sharp, cold beauty.

On ordinary days, she deliberately softened her eyes and features with makeup so that even when she was silent, the corners of her mouth would curve upwards ever so slightly, easing the harshness of her features and making her face seem gentle.

Now in the darkness, she had taken off her mask, no longer showing any of the smooth sophistication of days past, nor the gentle and respectful amiability of daylight hours, but rather a sense of distance, as if warning strangers to stay away.

This was the real her, the person she was beneath the daily pretense.

She had grown to love the darkness more with each passing year, especially after entering the palace. Only in the shadow could she relax, not having to deal with anything or fear being discovered, a shroud that concealed her true self.

Her father was a merchant of considerable standing, with countless concubines and a myriad of offspring.

Having been in the palace for many years now, she must have gained many more "brothers and sisters," so many that she could no longer keep count; she wondered where she would rank in the family hierarchy.

She had managed to stand out amongst her numerous siblings, not out of luck, but through years of patience and pretense. She became whatever her father liked.

The sisters in her family were many, all pawns her father used to climb the social ladder: some married into high society as concubines, some became mistresses to landlords, and some were married off to impoverished scholars in hopes that they would eventually gain titles and wealth.

There were even those given to local bullies and ruffians.

In short, as long as someone was useful to her father, he would eagerly send a daughter to secure a bond with them.

A saying her father often repeated was that there were no set paths in life, but having sons-in-law opened many doors.

She was the chess piece her father had carefully chosen from among the sisters to send into the palace for a brighter future, the lowest-ranking Cainv selected for the imperial court while the Great Empress Dowager was still alive.

Her father’s calculations were meticulous - he had aspired to nurture a daughter enchanting enough to bewitch His Majesty, paying a great price for her entry into the palace, hoping to emulate a certain great merchant who had presented a daughter to the Late Emperor and thereby risen above his merchant status to reap many benefits.

What he failed to see was the fate of the said great merchant now - long ago eradicated by His Majesty.

Perhaps he was aware that the hope was slim, but after all, it was only a daughter he was giving up. What if it worked out?

When she first entered the palace and laid eyes on His Majesty, she knew immediately that her father’s wishful thinking was in vain. After evaluating the situation, she changed her strategy.

Although now just a mere Attendant, she considered herself to have the most promising prospects among her sisters - she was in the palace, serving the most revered person under the heavens.

Even if she wasn’t favored, once she entered the palace gates, her father had to comply with her words to some extent.

Moreover, whether or not she was favored, how much could her father really know from outside the palace walls?

Even if he had doubts, he would continuously send streams of silver into the palace to pave her way.

She always knew her father was blinded by the prospects of gain, easily deluded by the merest chances. He would not abandon a possibility, even if it was one in ten thousand.

Thanks to her father’s silver, she had come from being the lowest-ranked among the concubines, the despised daughter of a merchant whom everyone looked down upon and trampled on, to a position now where no one dared to belittle her. It was far from an easy journey.

Compared to when she first entered the palace, she had improved immensely, but the heartache went without saying—over the years, who in the palace hadn’t benefited from her generosity?

At this moment, she was playing with an exquisite rouge box in her hand, sitting quietly on the vanity stool, merging into the darkness.

She was silently contemplating the things to come; lately, in the harem, it seemed as though an invisible pair of hands was manipulating everything. On the surface, everything appeared normal, but she sensed something unusual.

The anomaly was first noticed during a garden stroll with Beauty Zhao.

At that time, Beauty Zhao complained to her that a new servant at Fangfei Hall had pruned her favorite plant too harshly, and she feared it wouldn’t bloom the following year.

She suddenly realized that within the Imperial Garden, many new faces had appeared without her knowing, and she recalled overhearing a servant from the Bureau of Palace Attendants complaining about increasingly strict checks at the palace gates.

She began to be alert, realizing that she had been too careless. After Talented Lady Sun was moved out of the palace, she promptly managed the cleanup, but she still had been too negligent.

On the surface, His Majesty had taken action: the reprimand of Talented Lady Jia during a small banquet as a means of warning to the others, and today’s appointment of Lady Xu as a concubine, assigning Consort De to assist with managing the harem—all were promoted with much fanfare.

However, she felt that this was merely a distraction, minor disruptions at best. By using these actions to divert attention, people would subconsciously believe that His Majesty’s only moves were out in the open, disregarding other possible undertakings.

Her intuition told her that His Majesty’s actions were more than this surface display; those were just the tip of the iceberg visible to outsiders, while the real tempest hid beneath the water.

She didn’t think her scheming could outmatch His Majesty, so she dared not make any further moves, even stopping her contacts outside the palace.

The emperor’s heart is unfathomable. His Majesty’s thoughts and whereabouts were too elusive to control, and she wasn’t confident enough to pull off any tricks under His Majesty’s watchful eye.

After much consideration, Changzai Zhou looked back at the tiny rouge box she was fiddling with in her hand. This hot potato, hidden for so long, was time to be destroyed; it couldn’t stay in her possession any longer.

She made her decision and called out, "Liu Ying, come in."

Liu Ying, who had been sleeping fitfully, jolted awake at the summons from within, quickly became alert, and hurriedly went to the inner chamber, "My lady, what are your orders?"

Changzai Zhou handed over the rouge box, "Take this and destroy it. Remember, let no one else see it but you."

"Yes." Liu Ying accepted it, unable to make out what it was in the dim light, only sensing it was a small, exquisitely feeling box.

Although unaware of what it was, the smoothness hinted at its value—why destroy it?

She hesitated slightly, "My lady..."

"What is it?" Detecting the hesitation, a pair of sharp eyes hidden in the dark focused intently on the person before them.

Upon hearing the indifferent voice, Liu Ying immediately dismissed her doubts, quickly shook her head, "Nothing, I was just wondering whether to smash it before burying it or to find a deserted place to bury it."

The master was fairly lenient, but she dared not take any liberties.