In my previous life, I killed my whole family. In my next life, I killed the royal family.

During the Chinese New Year, the Lu family was in a gloomy mood. The eldest son Lu Fengyun and Princess Yonghe both disappeared at night!

They were extremely worried, but they dared not make it public, so they had to secretly send people to search everywhere. However, no matter how hard they tried, they could not find any trace of the two people.

Master Lu was extremely anxious and couldn't help but guess sadly: "Could it be that Empress Dowager Lu sent someone to kill her?" The more he thought about it, the more worried he became. After all, the loss of the princess was no trivial matter. If something really happened, the Lu family would probably suffer a devastating disaster.

However, because they were afraid of being pissed off by the royal family, they could only search for people in secret and did not dare to make it public. This made the already tense atmosphere even more depressing and suffocating.

On the afternoon of the first day of the Lunar New Year, Qi Xiang returned safely and brought back two million taels of silver to the court.

He said to Empress Dowager Lu: "Some of the silver was washed away by heavy rain on the way. I and the soldiers who were escorting the silver did our best to protect the two million taels of silver. We took a detour and returned, which delayed our mission. Please punish us, Your Majesty."

Empress Dowager Lu smiled and said, "Master Qi has worked hard on the journey, and the New Year is still on the road."

The harem's storehouse was originally empty, but now it is filled with gold, silver and jewelry, and she is very happy.

Empress Dowager Lu didn't care about the late delivery of the silver. She was even glad that it was not sent back earlier. Otherwise, she would have to hold a grand national funeral, which would have wasted money, time and energy.

In addition, she urgently needed someone to support her orphan and widow to secure the throne. Prime Minister Pei and the people in the Qi Mansion were all for her use.

Empress Dowager Lu praised him: "Lord Qi is a great contributor and a loyal minister."

"Thank you for the compliment, Your Majesty!" Qi Xiang bowed.

Empress Dowager Lu also rewarded Qi Xiang and his army with a sum of money for the New Year.

This year has been peaceful.

Due to the national mourning, no one dared to set off fireworks during the Spring Festival.

Qi Xiang returned safely, and the Qi family was reunited and very happy.

As in previous years, he sent back several carts of gifts for his family and distributed them one by one.

This year, he also sent an extra cart of gifts to his eldest niece. "Ah Wan, I learned that you opened an aromatherapy shop. Second uncle bought some Western spices. You can sell them. There should be no shop in the capital that sells such incense."

"Thank you, second uncle." Qi Wan thanked him respectfully.

"This is the jewelry your aunt and two sisters gave you." Qi Xiang took out a brocade box.

Qi Wan took it and thanked him, then opened the box, which was filled with dazzling jewellery.

"Thank you, Second Aunt, and thank you, my two sisters." Qi Wan said with a smile, "I like it very much."

She decided to go downstairs to prepare gifts and bring them to her second aunt and two younger sisters when her second uncle left.

"My brother and sister-in-law and nephews and nieces didn't come back this year, and we missed them very much." Pei said regretfully.

"Sister-in-law, a lot of things happened this year. Bring them back next year." Before Qi Xiang returned with the silver, he learned that the prince had ascended to the throne. In order to prevent the prince from attacking the Qi family, he did not bring his family back.

Old Master Qi praised him, "This is an excellent job.

Qi Xiang said with relief: "Fortunately, someone from home came to inform us, and we were escorted away on the way. Otherwise, if we had returned early, I'm afraid we would have lost both our money and our lives."

Old Master Qi looked at Qi Wan with a smile, but did not tell Qi Xiang that this was Qi Wan's arrangement.

He whispered again: "Don't do business for the royal family for the time being."

Qi Xiang nodded, "My son knows."

Two emperors died in succession within a few months, and now a five-year-old emperor has succeeded to the throne.

There was no normal handover between these three emperors.

Under such circumstances, Qi Xiang continued to do business for the royal family as he had done before and handed over a large sum of silver to the inner treasury.

Empress Dowager Lu would certainly be suspicious: Why did you, Qi Xiang, do this? How much benefit did your Qi family gain from this?

With the attitude of "less trouble is worse than more trouble", Qi Xiang will no longer work hard for the royal family in doing business of gold and silver as he did before.

The family talked about the third room again.

Qi Xiang said: "My family sent someone to deliver the letter, and I know everything."

For small things, my family will write letters.

If it’s a big event, the family will send someone over.

Qi Xiang whispered something, "A businessman named Wang from Yangzhou who has business dealings with me once told me that an official named Huang in the Yangzhou government office bought a concubine."

"That woman was originally a skinny girl from Yangzhou. When she was serving wine to the shopkeeper Wang, she told him that she was the niece of General Qi Lu."

"She changed her name to Ding Jinxiu."

Officials' concubines not only accompany their masters, but also their superiors and distinguished guests.

"Ah, she is still alive? And she is a concubine?" The Qi family was shocked.

Qi Xiang nodded, "After I heard about it, I sent someone to inquire about the situation. It turned out that she was sold to a merchant by the Third Prince's men. She was first made into a skinny horse, but when they saw that she was pretty, they heard that she was related to the Prime Minister, so an official named Huang paid a large sum of money to buy her as a concubine."

"I'm afraid this man will bring her to the capital this year to ask for an official position at home."

Qi Lu asked the old man, "Father, should we recognize her?"

"I don't recognize her!" Old Master Qi said decisively, "Ding taught her children bad things, and as a result, no one in the third house is a good person."

He got angry when he mentioned it, "In the past, whenever I disciplined the children, she would argue with me. Both of our children were corrupted by her."

Qi Lu consoled him, "Father, you are often away in charge of the army, so you don't have time to take care of the family affairs every day."

"If they don't learn well themselves, no one else can do anything about it."

"That's true." Old Master Qi nodded. "You two brothers have been sensible and obedient since childhood, so I don't have to worry that much."

He cursed, "That fourth girl is actually a concubine. She has the nerve to come back and recognize her relatives, but I don't have the nerve to recognize her. I treat her as if she is dead."

Qi Lu thought for a moment and suggested, "Since she is alive and married, we should support her and give her all the things from the third room as her dowry."

"From now on, no one owes anyone anything."

Old Master Qi nodded, "Okay, that's it."

Pei said sympathetically: "It's so hard to be a concubine. It would be better if the dowry was a little more generous."

Zheng also said: "Yes, she was implicated by her parents and ended up in such a miserable way."

The people in the Qi family were very kind. They wanted the third daughter to live a better life and gave her more dowry.

Only Qi Wan shook her head slightly, thinking to herself, "I know what she's thinking from the fact that she changed her name to Ding Jinxiu."

She smiled and said, "Whoever dares to come to Qi's house to cause trouble and harm my family will only have one way to go: the Yellow Spring Road!"

On the second day of the Chinese New Year, Imperial Physician Yuan came in person, presented gifts to the Qi residence, and said two things:

"Qi Yuehua is not in good health. I am afraid she won't survive the first month of the year."

"The Yuan family did not hold a big wedding banquet, but married off the eldest daughter first. Luckily, the emperor died the day after she got married."

Everyone in the Qi Mansion understood that they were under siege at the time and the Yuan family could not come to explain.

The Qi family sent an additional generous gift as a dowry.

Qi Wan gave him a shop and said, "It's for my eldest cousin's dowry."

Doctor Yuan quickly refused, "It's too expensive. Ah Wan also gave me a book last time."

Qi Wan smiled and said, "Uncle, don't refuse. This is for my cousin and her husband to open a medicine shop."

Pei smiled and said, "His brother-in-law should accept it. This is Ah Wan's intention."

"Thank you very much." Doctor Yuan accepted the shop contract.

He also talked about his second daughter, "She was confined to her home to learn needlework, and her grandmother arranged a marriage for her with a cousin from the fourth branch of the Yuan family."

"That man is studying at the Imperial Academy, with excellent grades. His father and brother are both officials. He has a good chance of being on the imperial list in the future."

"That's good." The Qi family all nodded with a smile, "Second Miss Yuan can marry into a good family."

Qi Wan just smiled and said nothing. She did not think highly of Miss Yuan Er, just as she did not think highly of Ding Jinxiu.

Some people are bad from the root, just like a dog that will never stop eating shit.

Miss Yuan Er has a very bad nature. She despises the poor and loves the rich, does not recognize her relatives, and tells lies all the time. Her character is even worse than Qi Yuehua's. Let's see which unlucky man will take on this hot potato.

After the banquet, Imperial Physician Yuan said goodbye and left, while the Qi family filled several carts with gifts and sent people to deliver them to the Yuan residence.

At this time, Pei whispered to Qi Wan: "This can be regarded as the last annual gift from our Qi Mansion to the Yuan family."

After Qi Yuehua passed away, Doctor Yuan would definitely marry a second wife, and as a result, the relationship between their two families would not be as close as before.