In the past week, the routine within the Xinyang Imperial Palace had not changed drastically just because of rumors circulating outside the palace. The Emperor would still hold daily meetings with all the officials in the palace, and they would discuss the current situation in Wu Li that they needed to deal with.
At first glance, everything still looked the same, but on closer inspection, one would be able to see that even the officials in the Xinyang Imperial Palace behaved differently because of the rumors.