In Zhang Fengxi's defense, Mingyu misled him when she said that "Qingyun is gone".
"How am I supposed to know that she literally meant that Qingyun left the palace?" Zhang Fengxi reasoned.
"So you think that Qingyun killed herself or worse, I killed her?"
"No, of course not," Zhang Fengxi quipped, although he had assumed that it was the first one.
"So, why did Qingyun leave?" Zhang Fengxi asked further in order to shift the focus of the conversation.
"She said that her parents were looking to match her with a good man. So she asked to be dismissed from the palace."
"..."
They both knew that Qingyun's excuse to leave was nothing but a blatant lie.
For commoners like her, being employed in the palace was practically a dream come true. It enabled her to get close to the highest-ranking ruler of the clan, and live at the center of power.