The uncle borrowed some merits, and the princess drew the talisman fiercely

The Old National Guild came looking for them, which surprised Zhou Shiyue and the others.

Judging from the timeline, the old Duke should have been almost out of the palace by now.

So they've turned back again?

However, to their surprise, the old Duke came to see Lu Zhaoling.

Moreover, when he came over, his expression towards Lu Zhaoling was somewhat strange, as if he felt extremely guilty.

Lu Zhaoling was completely dumbfounded.

They actually knew that the old Duke and the retired emperor had a good relationship.

However, the old Duke was a royalist, and after the retired emperor passed away, the old Duke stood firmly on the emperor's side.

It can be said that he is the legitimate one, the one who rightfully occupies that position, and the one that the old Duke wanted to support.

Just now in the Emperor's palace, they could all see that the old Duke was still on the Emperor's side and did not fully support the Crown Prince.

It wasn't until later, when everyone said that the emperor needed to rest completely and was absolutely unable to manage state affairs, that the old Duke's attitude changed somewhat, and he probably began to think about standing on the side of the crown prince.

Now that he's come to us, does he still want to do one last good deed for the Emperor?

"Ahem, old Duke, are you looking for me?" Seeing that he was staring at her without saying a word, Lu Zhaoling had no choice but to ask first.

The old Duke actually nodded.

"Yes, I would like to ask if Your Highness could let me see that bell from earlier?"

Everyone was surprised.

Even Zhou Shiyue raised an eyebrow and said coolly, "How come I didn't know that you, old Duke, are also a member of the Xuanmen sect? Are you practicing the righteous path?"

"Shut up!" The old Duke glared at him.

He gets angry as soon as he hears Zhou Shiyue's tone of voice. It sounds so unreliable.

Princess Jin seemed more composed than him.

Zhou Shiyue's expression at this moment was somewhat nonchalant. It was clear that he had often annoyed the old Duke when he was young.

"Why do you want to look at my bell?" Lu Zhaoling asked curiously.

"To be honest, I saw this thing at a friend's place when I was young."

His friend?

Upon hearing this, Lu Zhaoling immediately took out the bell.

In her memory, this thing was given to her by an old man on the street, and later Changning took it back.

After she transmigrated, she remembered this incident and went to the Changning Princess's residence to retrieve it.

But she couldn't remember what the old man looked like.

Hearing the old Duke say this, Lu Zhaoling felt that he might actually know the original owner of the bell.

This bell is a top-grade esoteric artifact, and it helped her a lot; in a way, it even saved Zhou Shiyue.

Therefore, Lu Zhaoling would be very willing to find the original owner.

The old Duke took the bell. He had probably seen Lu Zhaoling use it before and knew it was no ordinary object, so he handled it very carefully.

As he took it, he added an explanation.

“My friend saved me with a bell back then. I couldn’t remember how she saved me, but when I saw you using it just now, I suddenly remembered.”

"How were you saved?" Lu Zhaoling asked curiously.

"When I was young, I was a bit frivolous," the old Duke said, glancing at Zhou Shiyue. "Back then, I heard that strange things were happening in a certain place, and many people in the capital were curious, so they formed a team to investigate."

“I wanted to go at that time, but my friend heard about it and advised me that it’s better not to join in the fun. But I didn’t listen to him and went anyway. After I came back, I was in a daze all day. My family said I was like a lost soul, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with me.”

"My friend was about to say goodbye when he saw me. He sighed, took a bell and shook it a few times in front of me. I heard him call my name and I came back to my senses."

“I didn’t think anything was wrong at the time. It was only after he left that my family noticed I seemed to have more energy and told me that I hadn’t been feeling well a few days ago.”

The old duke looked closely at the bell as he spoke, "I remember there was a small scratch on the inside of his bell back then."

His eyes lit up, and he immediately said to Lu Zhaoling, "Look, this is it!"

He looked at it carefully for a long time before he finally found the tiny scratch.

Lu Zhaoling took it and carefully examined the location he pointed to.

Sure enough, there was a small scratch there.

She wouldn't have noticed it if the old Duke hadn't pointed it out. Or rather, it wasn't that she didn't notice; the scratch didn't seem to affect anything, so she didn't pay it any mind.

"How did you know about such a tiny scratch?" Lu Zhaoling asked.

The old Duke said, "He said it himself."

"He told you about such a small scratch for no reason?" Zhou Shiyue didn't believe it. "Besides, weren't you in a daze at the time?"

"You brat..." The old Duke couldn't help but glare at him again.

What Prince Jin? In his eyes, he was just a junior.

He used to be so angry with Zhou Shiyue that he almost died.

"I felt better after he rang the bell, didn't I? He was holding the bell in his hand at the time. The first thing I saw after I regained consciousness was the bell. Otherwise, do you think I wanted the princess to let me see the bell just now?"

The old Duke snorted and said, "Besides, I was in a daze when I heard the bell, but after being rescued, I was suddenly alert and clear-headed, so I could feel that I was in a great mood all of a sudden."

“I said to him then,” the old duke said, “Hey, this bell sounds quite clear and melodious. Let me see what it’s used for.”

"You also asked if you could give me a ride?" Zhou Shiyue added coolly.

Even Yin Yunting thought he was being quite annoying this time.

Unexpectedly, this time the old Duke didn't glare at Zhou Shiyue, but said somewhat embarrassedly, "Hey, you guessed it this time."

Everyone fell down.

"I felt that this bell was unusual, so I thought I'd ask him for it, just in case he gave it to me."

"He then pointed to this small scratch and said it was an old item and inconvenient to give it to me."

The old Duke snorted and said, "He just didn't want to give me a gift, but I'm still quite sensible."

Therefore, he knew that there was a scratch on the bell.

Lu Zhaoling couldn't help but ask, "Where is your friend from? What does he do? Where did he go?"

The old Duke was taken aback. "The Princess doesn't recognize him? Then this bell wasn't given to you by him?"

He couldn't help but start to have doubts again.

"Could it be that Zhou Shiyue stole it from somewhere...?"

"Stop," Zhou Shiyue immediately interrupted him, "When have I ever stolen anything?"

"Didn't you steal my family's roast chicken when you were a kid?" the old duke retorted.

Zhou Shiyue: “…”

Everyone: "..."

Your Highness, I never imagined you'd done such petty theft.

“That was done by Zhou Ze. I took him to the Duke’s mansion, and he was hungry,” Zhou Shiyue said.

The crown prince, who had just arrived, was speechless.

Uncle, didn't you say we could go eat there?