Best Served Cold

Change happened overnight. Yan Zheyun wasn't sure how Liu Yao had done it but word of what had transpired at the entrance of Tianlu Pavilion, including Noble Consort Li's and his arrests, hadn't reached the rest of the inner palace. Perhaps Liu Yao's network was more powerful than he'd let on. 

That evening, after the dowager had stormed out in a rage, the flimsy veil that had concealed her bad blood with her son was finally ripped away for everyone present to see—or in Yan Zheyun's case, to hear, Liu Yao had dismissed his subordinates before stepping behind the screen to pull Yan Zheyun into a hug.