Peach Blossom.

Xiaowan was really worried about the so-called "knocking drug" given by Chen Ji, so before taking any formal action, she asked someone to bring a dog for testing.

Of course, she didn't dare to make public such an ulterior motive, and claimed that she just raised the dog to relieve her boredom.

When the dog was brought in, she couldn't wait to dismiss the palace servants and stayed in the room alone. Then she pinched a small handful of medicine from the paper bag and put it in the dog's food.

After the dog ate it, it fell asleep soon after, and woke up after a long time.

She picked up the dog, looked at it again and again, and found nothing unusual.

Cai Ling's voice came from outside the door: "Shuyuan, I have cooked the lotus seed soup that the emperor likes. Do you want to go and see the emperor?"

Xiaowan looked at the dog in her arms. Knowing that Chen Ji did not lie to her, she had no excuse to refuse.

At this moment, she felt like she was kidnapped.

At the beginning, she persuaded Tao Ye to leave the princess's mansion, and then persuaded the princess to let her enter the palace in Tao Ye's place. She once thought that she was very smart and everything was under her control.

Now she knew that from the day she entered the palace, a loyal spy had switched his focus from monitoring the princess to monitoring her, and she had fallen into the hands of others.

Xiaowan took a deep breath and opened the door.

Cai Ling held the lotus seed soup in her hand, bowed slightly to Xiaowan, walked into the room, placed the earthenware jar of the soup on the table, and opened the lid.

The lotus seed soup was steaming, so Xiaowan had no choice but to pour the remaining knockout drug into the soup.

After pouring it in, Xiaowan fell into endless entanglement again. She looked at the powder in the lotus seed soup and became more and more flustered.

She suddenly made a move and scooped out more than half of it with a small spoon before the knockout drug completely dissipated.

Cai Ling watched from the side without saying a word.

When Xiaowan took Cailing out of the room again, her legs and feet felt weak, and she just tried to stay calm.

Cai Ling called other palace maids and told Xiao Wan to go to Hanzhang Palace to pay a visit to the emperor.

When Taoye and Caiwei heard this, they, like the other palace maids, hurried over.

Cai Ling handed the lotus seed soup to another palace maid and told Cai Wei, "Miss Tao Ye is not well yet, so she shouldn't go out. You should stay with her!"

After being left behind last time, Caiwei no longer felt surprised about this.

So, Xiaowan took Cailing and others and left Fangle Palace. Not long after they walked away, Xiaowan looked back at Taoye.

Tao Ye was about to go back to the house when she caught a glimpse of Xiao Wan looking back. She felt that her gaze was as cold as autumn water, as if it contained thousands of words choking on her.

However, Xiaowan quickly turned back and continued moving forward.

Tao Ye was very surprised, so she asked Cai Wei beside her: "Do you think Zhang Shuyuan is a little strange today?"

"She's been acting weird every day lately." Caiwei also looked at Xiaowan and the others who were walking away.

"No, she is weirder today than in the past few days!" Tao Ye shook her head. She thought that she understood Xiaowan better than anyone else.

Tao Ye's sixth sense gave her a sudden idea: "I want to go over and take a look."

Caiwei tried to dissuade him: "Don't! Don't go!"

"why?"

"Her current character is becoming more and more unpredictable. I'm afraid you'll get into trouble!"

Tao Ye smiled lightly, even more puzzled: "What disaster? Look at what you said, can she harm me?"

"I don't know. But since that time in the princess's mansion, when I almost had my legs broken, I later understood a truth: unexpected disasters may not always have prior signs. For small people like us with weak abilities, it is best to stay away from all right and wrong in order to protect ourselves." Caiwei spoke word by word, very seriously.

Tao Ye seemed to think it made sense, so she listened to the advice and went back to her room.

Tao Ye sat quietly in the room for a long time, feeling bored. She kept thinking about Xiao Wan's eyes when she left. In the past, Xiao Wan's eyes would also be filled with sadness, grievance, and resentment, but today... it was more like helplessness and frustration...

After hesitating for a while, Tao Ye was still worried about Xiao Wan. She did not tell Cai Wei and quietly left Fangle Palace and ran towards Hanzhang Palace.

At that time, Xiaowan had already arrived at Hanzhang Palace. Just like last time, she left all the other maids outside the palace and only brought Cailing in.

The lotus seed soup was, of course, brought in by Cai Ling.

Xiao Wan took the lotus seed soup from Cai Ling and walked to Si Yu: "This is the lotus seed soup I made myself. Your Majesty, please eat some while it's hot to warm your body."

"I just finished my meal and can't eat much. Put it aside for now!" Si Yu seemed very busy and had no time to care about Xiaowan too much, so he just dismissed her casually.

Xiaowan had no choice but to put the lotus seed soup on the table. At the same time, she glanced at the pile of memorials on the desk and did not see the envelope from last time.

Si Yu didn't even look up, and casually said, "I have a lot of things to do today, and I can't be there in two places. You don't have to stay here all the time, go back and rest early, I will visit you when I have time."

Xiaowan had the urge to back out again and wanted to go back. As soon as she turned sideways, she saw Cailing staring at her with an urging look.

Xiao Wan had no choice but to continue standing beside Si Yu, lowering her head and asking weakly, "Is the emperor angry with me?"

Si Yu was stunned for a moment, then he finally looked at Xiao Wan and smiled politely: "What do you mean?"

"The entire harem is talking about it, saying that I deliberately let Sister Taoye push the emperor into the water... The identity of Shuyuan is just a false name..." Xiaowan pouted, deliberately showing a look of resentment and grievance.

Si Yu obviously didn't care, still smiling: "If I believed those words, I wouldn't have met you. Tao Ye is innocent and kind, how could she intentionally hurt others? You are the weakest person in the palace, how could you have the courage to do that?"

"Since Your Majesty is not angry with me, why don't you drink the lotus seed soup I sent you? Last time when Concubine Zhou sent me the jade belt, you felt sorry for her and said it was freezing cold. Today's weather is even colder than that day! I have walked such a long way..." Xiaowan muttered, showing off her pitiful attitude.

Si Yu was used to being treated softly and not hard, and he could not resist being played with pity, so he fell for it: "Okay, okay, can't I drink it?"

When Xiaowan heard this, she quickly opened the lid of the earthenware jar, filled a small bowl and handed it to Si Yu.

Si Yu took a few sips from his lips and said with a smile: "I'm not lying to you! It's really not long since we finished our meal, so I can't drink much."

Xiaowan smiled and said nothing more, just paying attention to Si Yu's next reaction.

Because it was extremely cold that day, the door of Hanzhang Palace was closed. The chief eunuch Xie Cheng and a group of maids following Xiaowan were standing outside the door, and there was no one else nearby.

The drug was so effective that Si Yu only took a few sips, but he felt sleepy while looking at the memorials. He felt weak all over and soon fell asleep at his desk.

Xiao Wan gently pushed Si Yu and called out twice tentatively: "Master...Master..."

Si Yu was sleeping soundly, not moving at all.

Xiaowan and Cailing looked at each other and started working at the same time, searching on the desks on both sides of Si Yu. They opened every memorial on the desk and found that there was an envelope in one of the memorials. There was a word on the envelope, but it was not "Wang", but "Wei".

"It's not right, right?" Xiaowan pointed at the "Wei" on the envelope and looked at Cailing opposite her.

Cai Ling took a look at the memorial in the envelope. There was no signature on the memorial, and there were only a few words on it. It was not a well-written document at all. However, the handwriting was very similar to the word "Wei" on the envelope.

Cai Ling stuffed the memorial and the envelope into herself and whispered, "Keep looking."

Xiaowan didn't quite understand, but she didn't dare to ask more.

The two looked down together and saw two drawers under the table, one of which was locked.

Xiaowan first opened the unlocked drawer and saw so many trivial things inside that she didn't know where to start.

Cai Ling ignored the unlocked drawer. She swiftly pulled out a silver hairpin from Xiao Wan's head, squatted down, and began to look into the keyhole of the locked drawer.

Xiaowan had several strands of her hair cut off and felt a little pain, but she dared not say a word and just watched Cailing throw the keyhole.

After trying for a while, the lock didn't open, so Cai Ling simply reached out to Si Yu.

Xiaowan watched from the side, her heart beating faster and faster. She saw that Si Yu was sleeping very soundly and did not wake up even though Cailing touched his whole body.

Finally, Cai Ling took out a key from her boots.

The key turned out to be the key to the locked drawer. Cai Ling successfully opened the drawer, and there was a whole drawer full of envelopes!

She squeezed the envelope, which was empty, with a pile of papers underneath. Obviously, the letter had been taken out of the envelope and stored separately.

"Divide them among us." Cai Ling whispered, took out all the letters, and handed half of them to Xiaowan.

Xiaowan kept staring at the palace door, her heart almost jumping out of her throat. She took the letters with trembling hands and stuffed them into every possible place on her body like picking wild vegetables.

Cai Ling still locked the drawer and put the key back into Si Yu's boots.

Si Yu was still sleeping soundly at his desk.

Xiaowan took Cailing out of Hanzhang Palace and met Xie Cheng who was guarding outside the door.

Xie Chengxiao asked: "Is Zhang Shuyuan going back now?"

Xiao Wan tried hard to suppress her inner uneasiness and forced a smile: "The emperor was too tired from reading the memorials and fell asleep while sitting. Go and get him a cloak."

"I obey your command!" Xie Cheng bowed to Xiaowan and went into the hall.

Xiaowan hurriedly took all the maids out. As soon as she walked out of the second door, she saw Taoye running towards her.

Tao Ye had been near Hanzhang Palace for quite some time, but she did not dare to disturb it easily. She just wandered around outside, looking inside from time to time, trying to hear any movement.

Many of the guards stationed near Hanzhang Palace and the maids doing odd jobs saw Tao Ye's sneaky appearance and couldn't help pointing and talking about her, but everyone knew that Tao Ye was not an ordinary maid, so they didn't dare to stop her and just whispered.

Tao Ye had long been immune to public opinion, so she didn't care and kept wandering around Hanzhang Palace until Xiaowan came out.

Tao Ye ran to Xiao Wan and stopped, looking at her, and asked with concern: "Xiao Wan...are you okay?"

Xiaowan was a little surprised and touched to see Taoye at this time and place, but she didn't dare to say anything in front of Cailing. She just shook her head and forced a smile.

"I'm glad you're okay." Tao Ye also smiled.

They returned to Fangle Palace together. Cai Ling dismissed everyone and stayed alone to serve Xiaowan.

Of course, serving was just an excuse. When Xiaowan and Cailing were the only ones in the room, Cailing began to ask Xiaowan for something: "Give me those letters!"

Xiao Wan had already expected that once she got the things, would Chen Ji still care about her life or death? If she obediently gave the letter to Cai Ling, she would probably never see Chen Ji again, right?

She loved herself so much, how could she just sit there and wait for death? So she refused outright: "No! I must see Chen Ji in person and hand him over to him in person!"

Cai Ling said: "It is the same if the servant hands it over to you, young master."

Xiao Wan shook her head. Although she was nervous and fearful, she looked determined. "He promised me that he would take care of the aftermath for me! If I can't wait for a solution, how can I let you guys order me around? I won't hand it over to you for nothing. Either you kill me! Anyway, when the emperor wakes up, he will definitely not let me go. I'm risking it!"

"Do you think I dare not kill you?" Cai Ling still held Xiaowan's silver hairpin in her hand, and suddenly grabbed Xiaowan's neck with her other hand.