The maid's road to success

An Zizhong asked Zhushan to pretend to be himself in his study to confuse the spy's sight, and then he came to An Wenniang in a roundabout way by pretending to be a servant. Now there are still many demons and monsters in the three-story An family, and he can't stay here forever. An Zizhong looked at An Wenniang's increasingly beautiful face, stood in front of her, and stared at her cheek.

An Wen Niang pretended to be flipping through the account book and refused to look at him. An Zizhong sighed softly, reached out and rubbed An Wen Niang's head gently twice, and spoke when she reacted and was about to hide.

"Keep this account book safe. For the time being, no one can know the full contents. I will silently send over a portion to the Sixth Prince, and the Emperor will arrange for someone to hand over a portion of the stockpiled weapons. The rest must be hidden, otherwise it will be a disaster for your life."

Seeing him retreat, An Wenniang nodded obediently, which made An Zizhong feel itchy. If his opponent was not so powerful, every step would have to be carefully planned. An Zizhong really wanted to push all the plans into action now, take revenge as soon as possible, settle the tablets of his family members, ensure the innocence of Huaiyuan Marquis Mansion, and then lock this little quail by his side, leaving her with no way to escape.

The courtyard on An Wen Niang's side is simple in staffing, and the people inside are all trustworthy people. Except for Su Niang and her daughter and An Yun, the others are all from Xishan. But just in case, it is better to be more reliable.

An Wen's mother put the account book back into the pillow and sewed it up. On weekdays, only Baimei and Hongmei would come into her room to clean it. She did everything else herself and rarely asked others to move or change her bedding, so no one would touch her things at will.

After An Zizhong returned to his study, he sat at the table and simply wrote a few records of Cheng'en Gong selling official positions and accepting bribes. He stuffed them in the pen holder and put them on his body. As for the emperor, he was afraid that he would need eunuch Cheng to help.

An Zizhong went into a bookstore early the next morning and secretly slipped the pen to the shopkeeper when he approached.

"Send the evidence of Lord Cheng'en's corruption to the prince as soon as possible."

When the other party saw that An Zizhong brought such an important gift on his first visit, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. Suddenly, a few young men came in from outside. They looked like they were here to buy books. They quickly held the pens in their hands, as if they had just stood up in a hurry and had not put down the pens yet, and took out a few travel notes for An Zizhong.

"These are the new books that have arrived in our store. You can take a look at them. They are all copied by people with excellent calligraphy. There are ten sets in total."

An Zizhong simply flipped through it, then took out some money to buy the book. After strolling around for a while, he went back home. Li Changan had been very busy recently and had been staying in the Ministry of Justice. An Zizhong planned to look for Li Changan to see what the Ministry of Justice was planning to do recently.

Sure enough, as soon as An Zizhong left, someone came to where An Zizhong had just been, pulled out a lot of books, flipped through them, and put them back when they didn't find anything unusual. The bookstore owner originally thought that it was just evidence of corruption. Although it was beneficial to the Sixth Prince, it would not cause too much loss to Lord Cheng'en. But at least he was in charge of the correspondence between Kyoto and the fiefdom for the Sixth Prince, so he was not that simple. When An Zizhong entered the bookstore, several people followed him in to read books. Some of them really wanted to buy books, while others didn't look like they would buy books. As soon as they left, someone went to look through the books that An Zizhong had just touched.

Having run a bookshop for so many years, his eyes were very sharp. He immediately realized that An Zizhong was being monitored. He was also wondering why he had to use a pen as a cover to pass on the message. It turned out that An Zizhong was being followed by someone. This meant that the evidence on Lord Cheng'en's side was not a small case of embezzlement. The amount of embezzlement was probably huge. Perhaps there was hope for the prince to return to Beijing.

Thinking of this, the bookstore owner went directly to the backyard to find the person with the best martial arts skills, sewed the letter into the sole of his shoe, and quickly left Kyoto.

An Zizhong asked someone to send the books back to the mansion first, and he went to look for Li Changan himself. The people in the yamen only said that Li Changan was in the dungeon now, and might not come out for a while. They asked An Zizhong if he wanted to sit down, etc. Li Changan had been doing a good job recently, even the Shangshu praised him, and the guards at the gate were also more respectful when they mentioned Li Changan, not to mention that An Zizhong gave him silver as soon as he came up, and they were even more willing to help him.

"No need to bother, I just came to visit. This is some braised beef for Lord Li. Please give it to him when he is not busy."

An Zizhong himself did not really come to see Li Changan, but just to take a look at the situation in the Ministry of Justice. Among the six ministries, only the Ministry of Justice is truly in the faction of Duke Cheng'en. The Ministry of Revenue is neutral with the Ministry of Personnel. The Minister of Works is the uncle of the Fourth Prince, the Minister of War is the nephew of the Empress Dowager, and the Minister of Rites is the eldest son of Prince Li. So if you want to know what Duke Cheng'en's attitude is towards the account book issue now, you can get some clues just by looking at the Ministry of Justice.

The Ministry of Justice has now added a lot of officers and soldiers, and they are all very busy. It seems that Duke Cheng'en is still using the Ministry of Justice's power to arrest and try people to help him secretly find the account books.

When Eunuch Cheng received the letter with a special pattern printed on it, he knew that An Zizhong wanted to see him for something. He looked at the ordinary-looking little palace maid in front of him.

"What's the matter, Mr. An?"

The little palace maid had been carefully observing the situation around her. Seeing that no one was paying attention to this side, she took out a thick gold leaf from her bosom and handed it to him.

"My master asked the eunuch to deliver the contents to the emperor's desk."

After saying that, the little palace maid left immediately when she heard someone coming. Eunuch Cheng looked unhappy, and he looked at the person who was coming, trying hard to control his expression.

"Who are you talking to, Eunuch Cheng? Do you know that little palace maid?"

Eunuch Cheng seemed to be suspected by the Empress Dowager recently. There were always eunuchs following him whenever he did things. He finally got rid of those people and sneaked into the garden, but he was followed again.

"I don't know her. She just wants me to find her a better job. There are palace maids and eunuchs like this every day. If I need my help with every one of them, I will be exhausted to death."

The eunuch looked at the gold leaves in Eunuch Cheng's hand with envy in his eyes. A small eunuch like him had only spent money to bribe the senior eunuchs and had never received bribes from others.

Eunuch Cheng calmly took out a gold leaf from his sleeve that was very similar and of about the same size and threw it to the young eunuch.

"Here's a reward for you. Go back and watch your tongue and don't cause any trouble for our family."

The young eunuch took the gold leaf, which was quite heavy. He couldn't stop smiling and nodded in agreement very attentively.

Eunuch Cheng didn't believe the young eunuch's guarantee at all. His job was to keep a close eye on him and tell his superiors everything. How could he really hide things for him?

Sure enough, as soon as they returned to Shou'en Palace, the young eunuch took out the gold leaf and told the story of Eunuch Cheng in the garden. The nanny beside the Empress Dowager took the gold leaf, twisted it open carefully and saw that it was just an ordinary Jinyezi. The girl was indeed a maid in the laundry department, so it was reasonable for her to ask Eunuch Cheng for help to transfer to another palace.

However, the Empress Dowager kept hearing people around her talk about Eunuch Cheng's unusual behavior and became suspicious of him, so she asked the young eunuch to continue watching him and gave him the broken gold as usual.

After all, Eunuch Cheng had served the Grand Empress Dowager for such a long time, how could he not know that he was suspected by the Grand Empress Dowager because of the instigation of the nanny who had served the Grand Empress Dowager for many years just like himself? He was not the kind of person who could be bullied by others to climb up to his current position, and he also had his own people in Shou'en Kilometer. He heard what the Grand Empress Dowager said in the inner room just now.

The Empress Dowager is the Emperor's biological grandmother. If they want to deal with me, it would be as easy as crushing a bug. But if they want to step on my flesh and blood to strengthen their interests, I am not a pushover.

The housekeeper and I had followed the Grand Empress Dowager for many years. She had her own children and nephews, so she naturally didn't understand the hardships that Eunuch Cheng had to endure. Moreover, he was blindly loyal to the Grand Empress Dowager and didn't realize that the Grand Empress Dowager was already old, and when she passed away, I and the housekeeper would be the first to be buried with her. Moreover, he fought and instigated troubles every day for the petty gains in Shou'en Palace.

He admitted that he had paid too much attention to the situation in the harem before, which led to the discovery of clues by the housekeeper, but he had been immersed in the palace for many years after all, so he reacted quickly and cleared up the evidence. Want to convict himself? Wishful thinking.

Now that Eunuch Cheng has chosen to be on the same side as An Zizhong, he will certainly not let anyone block his way. After all, they have worked together for many years. Eunuch Cheng does not want to take action against the housekeeper unless it is absolutely necessary. But she was the one who came to trouble him first. Such a serious matter that the Emperor attaches great importance to was sent out by that noble lady in the palace in a shameful way. This person cannot be kept.

Eunuch Cheng stayed in Shou'en Palace and seldom went out. The managing nanny was too overbearing, relying on the fact that she was the confidant of the Grand Empress Dowager, she oppressed the palace maids and eunuchs in Shou'en Palace. Eunuch Cheng had been a cold-faced chief eunuch for many years, and although he seldom got along with others, he helped many people in private. Therefore, in Shou'en Palace, even the Grand Empress Dowager was not as well-informed as he was.

Eunuch Cheng has always known that the housekeeping nanny was having an affair with an ordinary guard in the imperial guard corps. The two of them often hung out in remote palaces under the pretext of going to the Imperial Household Department to get something. Eunuch Cheng felt it was time to expose it and teach the housekeeping nanny a lesson.

Three days later, Shou'en Palace was suddenly under martial law. The Grand Empress Dowager looked at the palace maids and eunuchs kneeling below with a gloomy face. They had been busy all morning but had not yet found out what was going on. She had just coughed more often in the past few days, but people knew about it. When the Empress Dowager came to pay her respects in the morning, she was sarcastic and mocking. All of this was a reminder to herself to take good care of herself as she was old and not be too busy, as coughing was also a very difficult disease to treat.

They are all shrewd people. Everyone can tell that the Queen Mother is mocking the Grand Empress Dowager for wanting to control the harem and win over the former dynasty at her old age. To these people in high positions, their physical condition is private and a secret. Not to mention that everything they put in their mouths will be carefully checked, even if they coughed a few times recently, slept for a few hours at night, or went to the toilet a few times, they cannot let others know about it.

This incident meant that someone in her Shou'en Palace had passed on the news. Today, the news was that she was not feeling well. Tomorrow, people would know that she had been in poor spirits and unable to sleep for the past two years. After another period of time, people would know that she had an old illness, which had a great impact on her.

Once these things are exposed, who will help the Sixth Prince to bear the brunt of it? Who will help the Sixth Prince to stabilize those restless old ministers? Who will suppress those who want to seize power from the Sixth Prince?

The Empress Dowager did not dare to take the risk and, in anger, ordered everyone to conduct a thorough investigation. However, Eunuch Cheng seemed to sense that she had suspected him in recent days and had been staying by her side to serve her. He had not even left the gate of Shou'en Palace. Moreover, there was a young eunuch who could prove that he had been doing his job in accordance with the rules. He was the eunuch she had placed by Eunuch Cheng's side to monitor him.

Everyone said that they had never passed the news on, but the fact that she had been coughing for the past few days was known to others. The Empress Dowager really felt that she was getting old. Even people in her own palace dared to play tricks on her. Who would dare to do that when she was young? But now she couldn't even find someone to leak the news.

"The Empress Dowager, why don't you search the entire palace? We used to have a routine of regular searches to prevent people from bringing things they shouldn't have into the palace. We haven't had a search for half a year. If we can find anything, that would be great. If not, we can check whether the people in our palace behave themselves."

Eunuch Cheng reminded from the side that in order to show his attitude and let the Empress Dowager search Shou'en Palace smoothly, he asked everyone to search his own room first. Everyone looked carefully. Although there was a lot of gold and silver, it was not out of the ordinary. It was just that some items were too luxurious. The Empress Dowager glanced at him and told him not to be too extravagant. She did not doubt him too much. After all, he was the chief eunuch in her palace. It was not difficult for him to have money, but he could not let everyone know that a eunuch like him could have such valuable things.

"I know, and you, the Empress Dowager, also know that I like these dazzling ornaments. There are so many, but this one cannot be changed. However, this is what I bought myself, and I still have the receipt."

This was specially placed in the room by Eunuch Cheng. He took the initiative to propose a palace search in order to uncover the fact that the housekeeper had a lover in the palace. However, if he himself had no flaws, he would surely be suspected, and he had been prepared for it. He deliberately let the Empress Dowager discover his little flaw, which, although a bit problematic, would not affect the Empress Dowager's opinion of him.

The eunuchs looked room by room, and some even hid some smooth and unique wooden sticks in the rooms. It was obvious at a glance that this man had a special hobby. The Empress Dowager's face suddenly turned dark, and she asked Eunuch Cheng to drive this man away and not to pollute the Shou'en Palace.

Seeing such a big scene, the housekeeper, Zi Gu, became more and more worried. Her room was right in front of her. Although she promised that she was loyal to the Grand Empress Dowager, having an affair with a guard was a taboo in the palace. Even if the Grand Empress Dowager didn't mind protecting her, if the Empress Dowager and the Emperor knew about this, they would definitely accuse her of defilement in the palace, and it would also involve Shou'en Palace. She was afraid that she would die without a complete body.

Zi Gu glared at Eunuch Cheng fiercely. She didn't expect that he would dare to use such a trick.

Eunuch Cheng pretended to be innocent, as if he knew nothing. He looked at Zi Gu and asked her to open the door quickly.

After Zi Gu opened the door with trembling hands, Eunuch Cheng saw that she seemed to want to take the initiative to confess and plead with the Empress Dowager, so he rushed in with the eunuchs to search before she opened her eyes.