The news reached the Yan Kingdom. When the Empress Dowager Yan learned that Zhong Xingxiao had been imprisoned because his subordinate attempted to assassinate a high-ranking minister of the Zhou Imperial Court, she was so shocked that she nearly fainted, exclaiming that it was all a sinister scheme by the Zhou, a machination by Bai Qingyan. She claimed Bai Qingyan was merely taking revenge for her betrayal of the Zhou, deliberately targeting her brother.
After receiving the news, the Empress Dowager Yan, despite having been injured upon entering the Zhou palace for the first time, did not enter the palace again to plead with Bai Qingyan for Zhong Xingxiao. Instead, she stopped Zhong Xingxiao, who was trying to escape back to the Yan Kingdom, and sent him back to the Zhou. Unable to sit still, her face pale, she hurriedly went to Murong Li's bedchamber, supported by her maid.
