After rebirth, she became the favorite of the powerful minister.

The Great Elder goes to bed early and gets up early, but he usually goes to the back mountain to meditate for a while before returning to the courtyard to wash up and eat.

Therefore, most of the servants in the courtyard would not get up until the hour of Mao.

Only today is different.

The wind started to blow in the middle of the night, followed by rumbles of thunder. The servants woke up in a daze, looked around, and fell asleep again. However, they could not sleep well in the second half of the night. There were whistling sounds coming from far and near, as if something was wailing and howling, screaming at the top of its lungs... Before the hour of Mao, the courtyard was brightly lit, and the servants who were sleeping in a daze were soon awakened. They were brought to the courtyard for no apparent reason, and they all knelt on the ground.

The old man stood there with his hands behind his back, looking at everyone in the yard with a sullen and dark face without saying a word. Two women stood on his left and right, also with serious faces. Even Young Master Nanyin, who was usually the most joking and playful, stood there quietly. The wind and thunder were raging, and the courtyard was so dull and depressing that one could hear a pin drop.

The steward bowed and waited, carefully looking at the four people standing in silence in the corridor, and took a few steps forward tremblingly, calling softly, "Grand Elder..."

The word "plague" is enough to cause an undoubted uproar no matter where it is.

The old man hadn't had time to digest the news. His first reaction was to ask Yuan Ge to leave immediately. But the girl refused to leave no matter what he said. He couldn't beat her or scold her. The girl was still playing tricks on him, saying that it was too late and that instead of going down the mountain to harm others, it would be better for them to live and die together here... Live and die together?! Who wants her to live and die together?! Even if there is only one person who can survive in the entire Zhixuan Mountain, it has to be her, Yuan Ge!

Countless pairs of eyes were secretly watching. The old man put his hands behind his back and coughed before he said carefully, "Well, this is what happened. You know, I usually don't care about the things in this yard, but I always feel uncomfortable these two days, as if something around me has been replaced... But I'm old and I can't remember it for a while, so I'd like to trouble you all to think together, has anyone replaced the things in my room recently?"

Just like that? Just because of such a small matter, they called everyone here before dawn? Everyone looked at each other, knowing that things would never be so simple. They said yes on the surface, but they were worried in their hearts and dared not say a word.

Yuan Ge swept his eyes across the ground. After the previous streamlining, there were only seven or eight people kneeling in the yard. They were all old people around his grandfather. In addition to the manager, there were two servants who swept the floor, two guards, and a maid who took care of his daily life. Apart from them, there was only an old nanny. The nanny had served for most of her life, and had nowhere to go when she died, so she was kept in this yard. She didn't have much to do on weekdays. She just trimmed the flowers and plants, occasionally served tea or water, or chatted with him.

If you say that there really is a spy from Zhan Yanfeng's side here...even Yuan Ge is unwilling to believe it.

The steward bowed again in the corridor, and then said carefully, "The elder's food and daily life are usually taken care of by this old servant. If you ask me if I have changed any utensils recently... it seems that I haven't. You are nostalgic, and we who serve you will naturally not easily change your things."

The servants below responded one after another, "Yes, yes, I just felt that your pajamas were a bit old, and I thought you said they were comfortable, so I haven't changed them yet..."

"We won't easily move the items in your house."

Amid the chatter, Jianshu, who had been watching the silence from beginning to end, frowned and said, "No."

She looked past the Great Elder to Yuan Ge and said in a particularly powerful voice, "Two days ago in the afternoon, Nanny brought a bowl of Tremella soup. The Great Elder was not used to eating Tremella soup, so I thought it was strange at the time, but Nanny explained that the kitchen made too much... It was a white porcelain bowl with an inconspicuous small hole. I thought the servants in the kitchen were so careless that they brought food to the Great Elder in a bowl with a hole... Now that I think about it, if there is anything unusual, it is only that bowl."

The sound was not loud, but it was not deliberately suppressed. The servants in the courtyard heard it clearly, but they didn't quite understand: two days ago, the great elder used a bowl with a chip, so two days later, he suddenly couldn't sleep in the middle of the night, and he mobilized so many people to interrogate them before the morning?

The steward didn't understand what she meant, and was about to ask tentatively, but he saw that Madam Song had stepped forward, staring directly at the elderly nanny, and asked in a cold and deep voice, "Mammy...is this true?"

The normally smiling Maitreya-like nanny was trembling visibly at this moment. She knelt with her head lowered, and answered haltingly, "The Tremella Soup was brought by this old slave. It is true, but I am old and my eyesight is not good. I didn't notice the gap on the bowl... It is my fault. I deserve to die! I deserve to die!"

The nanny kowtowed and kowtowed, saying "damn it" with a trembling voice, looking frail and pitiful amid the distant thunder.

The kneeling servants had many complaints in their hearts, but seeing the great elder's sullen face, they did not open their mouths to plead for mercy.

Yuan Ge turned to look at the steward and instructed, "The kitchen should be preparing breakfast by now. Please go and verify whether this is true."

The steward subconsciously looked at the elder, and saw him nodding silently with his hands behind his back and his face stern, his cheeks tightly clenched, not saying a word. The steward's heart skipped a beat, and although he didn't know what had happened, he knew it must be a big deal, so he bowed briefly and hurried out.

The return was also very fast. In just a cup of tea, the steward ran in breathlessly, reporting, "Grand Elder, Young Madam, the kitchen said that they haven't cooked Tremella soup in the past few days, and they have a special person responsible for checking the bowls and chopsticks, and they will definitely not find a single chip... They also said that if you use a bowl with a chip for the master, you will be severely punished, so this kind of thing will never happen."

Yuan Ge was not surprised.

Zhixuan Mountain's rules were not strict, but the servants were mostly reliable. How could they carelessly send a broken bowl to the master? Moreover, even if the kitchen really made extra Tremella soup, it would not be sent here, but to Ma's family, where there were more female relatives. These reasons full of loopholes were just to deceive Jianshu, who had just arrived... But, to deal with Jianshu, who was meticulous, such a crude method was really all that was needed.