After crossing, I surrounded the capital from the countryside

Zhao Mansion

When Xu Qingqing arrived, quite a few people had already arrived in the courtyard, including children of officials, businessmen and celebrities. No matter what they were thinking, they all had a festive smile on their faces. People kept wishing Zhao's grandmother a happy birthday and saying some festive and pleasing words of congratulation.

He Anran handed the gift to the servant at the door, who took it and gestured to the person beside him to lead the way.

After Xu Qingqing and the others walked away, the servant looked around, and seeing that no one was paying attention, he quickly left the Zhao Mansion.

"Since Miss Xu is here, you should go down and prepare well, and don't make any mistakes." The Prime Minister's wife sat in front of the mirror, looking at herself in the mirror, her face had aged and her youth had faded. A gleam of determination flashed in her eyes.

The two maids behind him heard this and quickly knelt down and replied, "Yes."

After saying that, the two of them left quietly.

The Prime Minister's wife looked at the priceless mirror in front of her, and then thought of the countless rare treasures in Lun Xiaoyao, her eyes filled with greed.

Logically speaking, Xu Qingqing, a daughter of a merchant, is not qualified to become the legitimate wife of the Prime Minister's Mansion. However, the emperor has been acting crazy for some reason in the past two years and is very wary of powerful officials in the court. Among them, the Prime Minister's Mansion, which is famous and prosperous, is a thorn in the emperor's side.

But the prime minister was so smooth and worldly-wise that the emperor could not find any handle on him. He could not pull it out or remove it, which made the emperor feel annoyed. The once glorious prime minister's mansion gradually became silent under the emperor's cold face and fear.

Now that his son Shuhan is getting older, and since he has no chance of marrying a girl from an aristocratic family, he has to choose the best one among the limited conditions so that he can be worthy of Shuhan.

And Xu Qingqing was the woman chosen by the Prime Minister's wife as the best match for her son among the merchants.

She was able to build such a large Lun Xiaoyao with the help of a woman, and even opened it in Kyoto, which shows that she has extraordinary means.

He has good looks, means, abilities, and a lot of money, but he has no power and no maternal family that has lasted for generations.

In the eyes of the Prime Minister's wife, these conditions equated Xu Qingqing with being easy to control. After all, there is a reason why the people have never fought against the officials since ancient times.

If Xu Qingqing knew that she was targeted for these reasons, she would not know whether she would lament that she had suffered an unprovoked disaster or that the prime minister's wife had big breasts and no brains.

After all, how could a person who single-handedly brought Lun Xiaoyao to all parts of the country be as easy to control as the Prime Minister's wife thought?

But Xu Qingqing didn't know why she was being targeted. At this moment, she was walking into the Zhao family courtyard.

At first glance, his eyes met Zhao Chanjuan, who was wearing blue clothes.

Zhao Chanjuan nodded imperceptibly at Xu Qingqing, then rolled her eyes and turned away as if she had seen something unlucky.

Xu Qingqing also seemed to be fed up with Zhao Chanjuan and turned around and left.

A strong smell of gunpowder spread between the two of them, and the guests around them all knew more or less about the grudge between the two of them. Seeing this scene at this moment, they could only sigh a little more that the two of them were like water and fire that repelled each other.

This was exactly what Xu Qingqing and Zhao Chanjuan had agreed upon. In order to clear Zhao Chanjuan of suspicion in today's incident, even if the people in the Prime Minister's Mansion had doubts, they would at most suspect that Xu Qingqing knew about their plan in advance, and they would take advantage of the situation and let Zhao Chanjuan, who had a grudge against her, replace her.

In this way, Zhao Chanjuan would not suffer too much harsh treatment in the Prime Minister's Mansion.

Since she sat down, Xu Qingqing has been wondering when the Prime Minister's Mansion will start to take action and what the action will be.

But I didn't expect it to be the water-splashing and changing of clothes that can be seen everywhere in palace fighting dramas. This...

"How do you do your job? If you can't do good things, you don't have these hands anymore!" He Anran looked at the stains on Xu Qingqing's body, pointed at the maid kneeling in front of Xu Qingqing angrily and shouted at her.

Xu Qingqing sighed helplessly, and pulled He Anran, whose eyes were blazing with anger and who seemed to want to slap the maid, and said, "Okay, I'll go change my clothes first, you wait here."

He Anran's voice froze, and he turned back to meet Xu Qingqing's eyes. He realized something instantly and suppressed his anger: "Do you need me to accompany you?"

Xu Qingqing shook her head, and He Anran didn't ask any further questions and just agreed.

Seeing that the maid was still kneeling on the ground, He Anran frowned: "What are you standing there for? Why don't you take my girl to change her clothes?!"

"Yes, yes..." A look of success flashed across the maid's lowered eyes, and she quickly responded as if she was frightened.

He stood up and saluted Xu Qingqing: "Miss Xu, please follow me."

Xu Qingqing followed the maid to the backyard, and when she passed by He Anran, she gently touched her fingers to comfort her.

Zhao Chanjuan, who witnessed Xu Qingqing following the maid to the backyard, waited for a while and found a reason to separate from the women who were chatting happily around her, and entered the backyard under the unnoticeable cover of He Anran.

Zhao Mansion Backyard

"Miss Xu, the clothes are ready in the room." After saying that, the maid bowed and wanted to leave.

Xu Qingqing looked at the maid, raised her eyebrows slightly, and asked in a playful voice: "What? You won't change my clothes for me?"

The maid's eyes panicked when she heard this: "Miss Xu, please stop joking. Isn't it that the front yard is busy and needs help? How about I go find someone for you?"

Xu Qingqing looked at the maid in front of her whose acting skills were obviously not up to par, and stared at her silently without saying a word.

The maid became more and more uneasy in Xu Qingqing's silence. She knew what was in the room, and she also knew that if she disrupted that person's plan, she would surely be killed, and she didn't want to get involved.

Feeling the gaze of Miss Xu in front of her falling on her, the maid broke out in sweat and her mind was full of thoughts.

Seeing the maidservant in front of her trembling slightly, Xu Qingqing looked away, opened the door and walked in: "Okay, go now."

When the maid saw Xu Qingqing enter the room, she took two steps forward to help close the door before she let out a breath, looked around, and after making sure there was no one there, she turned around and left in a hurry.

As soon as Xu Qingqing walked into the room, she smelled the fragrance of Albizzia julibrissin in the air. The smell was quite strong.

Xu Qingqing quickly held her breath, took out a porcelain bottle from her arms, poured out a pill and swallowed it.

Although I held my breath after just one sniff, I still had to be careful.

She flashed into the space and changed her clothes. Hearing the footsteps outside the house fading away, Xu Qingqing immediately opened the door and walked out. In a flash, she landed on a tree with dense branches and leaves in the courtyard.

After hiding his body well, Zhao Chanjuan appeared in the courtyard after a while. Seeing that there was no tail behind her, Xu Qingqing appeared in front of her.

"Ah!" Zhao Chanjuan was startled by Xu Qingqing's sudden appearance.

Xu Qingqing looked at Zhao Chanjuan and asked again with a serious expression: "Let me ask you again, have you really thought it through? Chen Shuhan is not a good man..."