After the system set its sights on the dragon throne, the princess started courting death every day.

Xiao Ling shook her head frantically, saying in horror, "This servant doesn't know, I really don't know."

Xiang An sighed softly, and after a long while, she spoke: "Sun Yi."

Sun Yi, who had been waiting outside the door, entered with two guards: "Greetings, Princess."

Xiang An asked, "Did you hear everything?"

"I heard you. Don't worry, Princess, even a piece of wood can be squeezed for its own good in my hands." Sun Yi smiled sinisterly, stepped forward, and lightly lifted Xiao Ling's pretty chin with his finger. "Look at you, such a beautiful girl, how come you're all dirty from crying? How unrefined. It seems I'll have to wash you thoroughly with boiling water first, and then scrape you with a fine-toothed comb, so you can be as white and rosy as ever."

"No...no...Princess..." Xiao Ling broke free from Sun Yi's grip, crawled on her hands, feet, and knees to Xiang An's feet, her fingers tightly clutching Xiang An's skirt, crying with tears streaming down her face, "Princess, spare me!"

“This servant has never done anything to wrong the princess. What does the princess want this servant to say? Even if the princess forces this servant to death, this servant still cannot say it.”

“My mother was seriously ill before. If the princess’s mansion hadn’t bought me and given me money to buy medicine, my mother would have died long ago.”

“The princess’s residence has been kind to me. Not to mention that before my mother passed away, she repeatedly told me to serve the princess wholeheartedly and never have any other thoughts.”

"With my mother's dying words still in mind, and now that I've been promoted by the princess to serve by her side, how could I possibly betray the princess?"

Xiao Ling cried so hard she could barely breathe, and her words were incredibly moving. The two guards who followed her in couldn't help but show a hint of heartache in their eyes.

The guard on the left suddenly knelt down on one knee and whispered, "Princess, what Xiaoling said is true. Her mother passed away last year, and I went to help her."

Upon seeing this, the guard on the right was surprised, his previous heartache replaced by a look of seriousness. He stood still without moving or speaking.

Xiang An's gaze swept across the faces of the two guards. Of course, she knew that in the original owner's memories, there was a scene where the original owner saved Xiao Ling.

It was March, a time of bright spring sunshine, when poplar catkins were in full bloom. An old man with white hair knelt before the princess's mansion, his face covered and weeping. His clothes were tattered, and his body was emaciated.

Passersby crowded around the princess's mansion, pointing and whispering, piecing together the reason why the poor old woman was kneeling—she was seriously ill and not long for life, and wanted to find a good home for her only daughter.

But the princess's residence was not so easy to enter. Without connections or influence, one could not even get close to the threshold.

With no other options, the old man simply knelt at the door, waiting for the princess to speak.

Bystanders who knew the whole story laughed—

"Just watch, the princess's residence won't even open its doors today."

"I guessed so. The princess's residence isn't a slave trading company where they just take anyone who comes along."

“I’m actually hoping the princess will buy me. My mother is sick, so if I buy her today, I’ll have her kneel down tomorrow and beg the princess’s mansion to buy me.”

"That's a great idea! The princess's residence pays well, the work is easy, and the people are respectable. No wonder that old woman knelt there for an hour without leaving. If it were me, I wouldn't leave either."

Amidst the discussions and commotion, the gates of the princess's residence quietly opened, and Xiao Ru came out, bent down to help the old man up, and led him into the princess's residence. The gate behind her closed, shutting out the sudden uproar outside the princess's residence.

Later, some people tried to do the same, bringing their own mothers to kneel outside the princess's residence, but no one ever succeeded again.

Princess Miankang ordered a sign to be erected at the entrance of her residence, which read: "If you wish to work in the Princess's residence, please go to the slave trader shop in the fourth alley of the back street. The Princess's residence will select people when it is short of staff."

Everyone knows about buying and selling through slave traders, but when people are sold to slave traders, the traders have complete control and can arbitrarily arrange the buying and selling of customers. If they are unlucky, many slaves are tortured to death by their masters.

The old woman kneeling at the door back then was Xiaoling's mother.

Back then, the original owner of this body listened to the old man's complaints and, out of a moment of pity, bought Xiao Ling for several times the price of human slaves at the time.

Although the original owner quickly forgot about Xiao Ling after buying her, she was undoubtedly a lifesaver for Xiao Ling's family at the time.

In fact, it was because of the original owner's rescue that Xiang An brought Xiao Ling to his side to serve him after Xiao Ru injured her leg.

"Could it be that some villain is sowing discord among the princess's entourage, or that someone is plotting to harm her?" Xiao Ling said with increasing conviction, and her tears gradually stopped.

Xiang An put down his brush and looked at Xiao Ling kneeling at his feet. Her face was round and radiant, with a healthy pale pink on her cheeks. She was dressed in fine silk, no longer in coarse cloth patched upon patched.

As she grew more and more beautiful, Xiang An found her increasingly unfamiliar, no longer showing the pitiful side he had when they first met.

People look different than yesterday, but the cicadas sing just like last year.

Once people's hearts change, they can never go back to the way they were.

He initially thought of simply having Sun Yi drag her away, but that would be unfair to the original owner's kindness. After thinking for a moment, Xiang An felt it necessary to explain, "You sent a message to He Tao to go to the toilet room, so she died."

Upon hearing this, Sun Yi retreated to the door without changing his expression. The two guards also retreated. Xiao Ling's body stiffened, as if she were frozen in place. She even forgot to blink. A tear unconsciously flowed from her eye and slid down her cheek.

After a long while, she came to her senses and began to argue, "It wasn't me. Not to mention that I've never seen He Tao before, on that day... on that day, the person guarding He Tao was Xiao Ru. It was Xiao Ru who personally locked He Tao in the room, and it was Xiao Ru who accompanied He Tao to the toilet."

As she spoke, Xiaoling suddenly burst into laughter, "I know! I know! This servant understands!" Tears still clung to her face, but her laughter didn't stop. "I never imagined that the princess would be so ruthless in protecting Xiaoru, accusing me of a crime without even distinguishing right from wrong. The princess is so good to Xiaoru! It's truly enviable! I just wonder if the princess would protect the other servants in the princess's residence in the same way?"

It's not only a great way to provoke someone, but also a response that will lose people's hearts no matter how you answer.

But Xiang An did not intend to answer, and continued what he had just said: "The princess's mansion is very large, with more than a hundred rooms whose names you can name. If no one had sent a message, He Tao, who was entering the princess's mansion for the first time, would have had no idea which toilet room was closest to the courtyard wall, facing the street, and with few people, making it convenient for He Tao's husband to avoid being seen and easily climb the wall by stepping on the stones to successfully send a message into the mansion."

“During the days I was beaten, injured, and bedridden, I suspected everyone in the entire princess’s residence. I even went through the roster and investigated everyone thoroughly.”

"After investigating to the end, I even suspected that it was Xiao Ru's carelessness, and even mistakenly thought that such coincidences could happen in the world, and that I was just unlucky, which is why someone died."

"Until I heard the old beggar at the crossroads say that He Tao's husband had stayed outside the Princess's Mansion for a long time."

"Therefore, I went to check outside the wall myself and found that the footprints on the mud led straight to the wall where He Tao died, without any hesitation or doubt. This shows that He Tao's husband was sure that He Tao was behind the wall."

"But what could be the reason that made He Tao's husband, who had never stepped foot in the princess's residence before, so certain that he had not come to the wrong place?"

"Without a doubt, the message must have come from someone in the princess's residence."