52 Chapter 52

"Is this girl confused? She must be! Because if not, why would she mistakenly claim something that had already been claimed by the princess as hers..." Imperial Consort Ming chuckled. Although her words appeared to be gentle and too familiar, the meaning though was certainly not.

"But this book is really mine." Tang Kexin looked at Imperial Consort Ming with an innocent and solemn expression.

"But Xin'er, even if you're bewildered, you still can't speak carelessly. That book is obviously the secret book the princess had planned to present to the Emperor, how did it become yours?" The corner of Imperial Consort Ming's lips curved up into a smile. Of course, with a trace of ridicule in it.

"Imperial Consort Ming kept on saying that this is the secret book. Had the Grand Consort already seen the secret book in question? Could you prove that this is it?" Tang Kexin looked at her, her eyelashes batting as she blinked innocently. She asked in earnest.

For a moment, Imperial Consort Ming became speechless. She didn't expect Tang Kexin to suddenly asked these questions, but she immediately replied, "The princess had already confirmed it herself."

"But the princess also said that she did not open the package and did not even take a peak at the the book inside. She only recognised it thru the packaging which was a black cloth." Tang Kexin then deliberately shook the black cloth that was used to wrap around the book in her hand. "This kind of black cloth is very common that it could be bought anywhere."

The person who planted the book was very careful to use an ordinary cloth to avoid attracting too much attention.

"Princess, was this the same packaging that was used to cover your secret book?" Tang Kexin looked at the princess and smiled radiantly.

"Yes, it looks like the same. But again, this princess did not dare open the packaging, so she hasn't seen the book inside." The princess naturally replied to Tang Kexin's heartfelt question. She had to admit that the princess was a good and an honest child.

"If that is not the secret book, then could you prove that it is yours?" Imperial Consort Ming coldly snorted, her voice was no longer as gentle as it was earlier. The annoyance on her face was just too obvious.

Tang Kexin didn't reply but her brows were knitted as she looked oddly at Imperial Consort Ming.

Seeing that Tang Kexin didn't say anything, Imperial Consort Ming was pleased with herself. She then turned to speak to the Emperor. "Your majesty, it seemed that this girl was being too reckless today. This matter about the secret book is important, yet she's making fun of it. She should be managed properly." Her gentle words were said with the intention of provoking him.

The Empress' eyes darkened and was about to say something when the Emperor suddenly spoke. "Tang Kexin, how can you play around with this matter?"

The emperor had also felt that Tang Kexin was simply fooling around to his expense, causing his expression to darken.

Actually, it wasn't just the Emperor. Majority of the crowd now were starting to get annoyed by Tang Kexin's antics.

"Replying to Your Majesty. But this humble girl is not playing around. This book really belongs to me, Your Majesty. Hearing the princess' words, this humble girl thought that she might have been mistaken, so this humble girl specially asked to look at it closely to be sure. After browsing at it a little, this humble girl had confirmed that this book was indeed mine. It was even the book this humble girl had been reading for a long time now." Tang Kexin looked at the emperor calmly as she spoke each word with absolute certainty.

"Oh? How are you going to prove it? This is no small matter. You better not waste my time, girl." Seeing how confident she was, the emperor's eyes narrowed slightly.

"This humble girl has a way. She wonders if His Majesty would like to hear about it?" Tang Kexin seemed to ponder for a moment then she asked as if with some hesitation.

"Tell me." The Emperor's eyebrows shot up. In truth, he didn't believe that Tang Kexin would have any method to prove her claim at all. However, under such circumstances, he had to give face to the Empress and the Prime Minister, so, he couldn't reject her suggestion directly.

"Although this humble girl's memory isn't too good due to her past illness, but she had been reading this book for a very long time. But to prove my ownership of this book, this humble girl would like to recite some of its content if His Majesty would allow." Tang Kexin's face sank, her expression became a bit more gloomy. "If this really was the secret book, then this humble girl would never in anyway knew of its content, more so recite it."

This was her intended purpose. Of course, she had to emphasised them that she was still suffering then an illness to achieve its maximum effect.

"Pfft! You know how to read books? And you can even recite them? You don't suppose that just by knowing how to read a book that you can memorise it, do you?" Imperial Consort Ming couldn't hold it in and laughed. "Well, you read the book just now, so maybe you could remember some of the words..." The sarcasm could not be any more obvious.

And from the look of it, almost everyone in the hall mirrored the same thoughts as Imperial Concubine Ming as they silently nodded in agreement.

Even Ye Lanjue's eyes widened slightly. Had this woman gone crazy? He was sure of the authenticity of the book in Tang Kexin's hand, and Tang Kexin definitely had not seen it before. Yet she suddenly announced, undaunted, that she would want to recite some of the lines to prove her claim?!

If she would just recite a line or two, it would not be enough to prove anything, unless…

Suddenly, Ye Lanjue's heart took a lurch. A strange feeling of excitement filled him as he watched her.

"Alright, let's do as you say." The Emperor thought about it for a moment, then nodded in agreement.

Upon hearing the emperor's words, Eunuch Liu quickly took the book from Tang Kexin's hand and bring it over to the emperor.

The emperor took the book and glanced at Tang Kexin. He then slowly opened the first page.

Tang Kexin's eyes flashed. She cleared her throat and started to recite the words one by one.

Everyone originally thought that she would only say a couple of sentences at most, but they didn't thought that she would actually recite them continuously. Moreover, she delivered them fluently without unnecessary pauses.

The emperor, who was at first casually sitting on the throne, started to get stirred as he stared fixedly at the book in his hands as he rapidly read along, flipping one page to another.

The emperor had already flipped five times to the fifth page. At this point, aside from Tang Kexin's voice, there was no other sound that could be heard in the entire hall. It was even as if the crowd was holding their breaths so as not to disturb her.

Everyone was dumbstruck. For an average person, to memorise a book in a spontaneous and flawlessly way, it would be a feat. But for a person who had just recovered from being a fool, to had done this so perfectly, it was truly shocking! And if the book was not truly hers, with Tang Kexin casually flipping the pages earlier, it would be impossible for her to memorize them in less than a quarter of an hour.

Moreover, from the contents of the book, it could be said that it was no ordinary topic. It talked about some astronomical geography which was one of those subjects that was not easy to understood and remembered. Even somebody who were skilled in this area of study would have to read them for at least two or more hours to be able to memorise a part of it.

At this moment, everyone was gawking at Tang Kexin in awe and with astonishment. Along with this admiration, no one now doubted her claim of the book. Because in their hearts, there was no other explanation of Tang Kexin's knowledge of the book but that she owned it and that she had been reading it for a very long time.

Ye Lanjue, who had always been composed and not easily moved, was thoroughly stunned. It was because he knew what was going on, and what was Tang Kexin's intention, that he was more shocked that anyone else. She actually had such an ability and even came about this plan in just a short span of time? How did this woman do it?!

The Crown Prince's eyes swept across the book in the emperor's hands, then looked at Tang Kexin. His eyes grew more profound and dark.

When Tang Kexin suddenly stopped, she lightly coughed to indicate that her throat was dry. "Does His majesty still want this humble girl to carry on? It's just that this humble girl is getting a little thirsty with all this talking that she wonders if she could have a drink of water first?"

Actually, she had only browsed until the fifth page, and in such a short period of time, she could only skim that much. But it was already enough to create the effect she wanted.

The modern Tang Kexin actually didn't consider herself a gifted one. It's not like she could read ten lines at a glance and never forget it. But the reason why she could remember a huge amount of information in such a short time was all because of the method of memorisation she had learned from when she was studying psychology—the method of loci also known as the memory palace.

*The method of loci (loci being Latin for "places") is a strategy of memory enhancement which uses visualizations of familiar spatial environments in order to enhance the recall of information.*

"No, no! That is enough..." The emperor didn't seem to have fully recovered yet, a trace of bewilderment could still be noted on his face. "It seems that this isn't the secret book."

But still, the Emperor's tone carried a hint of scepticism, but with what had unveiled, he had no choice but to absolve Tang Kexin and disregard the evidence.

Tang Kexin's pupils constricted as she chuckled inside her head. Although she didn't know who wanted to harm her, but she was sure that it was planned quite well. To put up an evidence that would definitely charge her with a crime was indeed a master stroke.

Even if the Emperor hadn't ordered her to be executed, she would definitely be put in prison. And with the secret book as a leverage, the Empress and the Prime Minister will undoubtedly be implicated.

"For a girl, why would you read such a book?" The moment Imperial Consort Ming came back to her senses, she immediately expressed her stern disapproval of Tang Kexin, obviously unwilling to let her off the hook.

"Imperial Consort is magnanimous. To tell what this humble daughter could do and not do really showed her benevolence. However, no matter how high one's position is, can she control the heavens, and the earth? Furthermore, why care about the s**t of others?" Tang Kexin looked at her and bluntly replied.

Within the imperial harem, the grand imperial consort and the empress had always been irreconcilable. Thus, every word of Imperial Consort Ming until now were clearly aiming at her being the niece of the empress, so she really couldn't be polite with her.

Of course, Tang Kexin didn't just said this to rebut the grand imperial consort's scolding. Her statements were full of double meanings but to the people around, the meaning was more than obvious. Because what she had just said complemented with what she had said earlier toward Old General Li—that the imperial consort just now was acting like some phoenix, flaunting her authority and dominance.

As soon as she said this, the entire hall fell silent. It was unprecedented for a girl to say something like this. However, for some reason, no one felt that what she said was rude and out-of-bound. On the contrary, they found it natural and smooth, and it even gave them a sense of satisfaction.

Especially to those concubines who were usually dissatisfied with Imperial Consort Ming's bullying that a few of them couldn't hold back their laughter.

And while the Imperial Consort Ming was so angry that she was on the verge of vomiting blood, the empress just slightly pursed her lips, fighting to conceal her smile.

"Xin'er, how can you speak to Imperial Consort Ming like that? It's not good..." The Prime Minister's voice sounded a few times.