After being sentenced to death, she came to her senses.

After a few days of rest, Fang Xiaoran's injuries had almost fully recovered, and she was only missing the most important ingredient to prepare the antidote for the Gu poison.

This herb is Blood Toad Grass, one of the ten most poisonous plants. It grows deep in the miasma swamps of the northern frontier, and only one plant can grow there every hundred years, making it extremely difficult to obtain.

In addition, the Blood Toad Grass itself is highly poisonous; without special methods, anyone who gets within a hundred paces will undoubtedly die.

This is the most effective antidote for Gu worms that Fang Xiaoran has recently developed. It is impossible to find anything other than this poisonous herb; there are more or less substitutes for others.

Therefore, Fang Xiaoran had to go out and use her pharmacies and intelligence network to collect this poisonous herb. Once she obtained it, she could refine an antidote to the poison.

However, she did not tell Jiu Yuan this. She could not completely trust this person. Although he had helped her many times, a large part of the reason was for this antidote.

Therefore, she will keep the antidote a secret from Jiu Yuan until it is completely refined.

Putting everything else aside, she must venture into the Netherworld Path. With the Nine Abyss, her chances of success will be much greater. In order to rescue her master, she has no choice but to resort to some means.

Moreover, her relationship with Jiuyuan is mutually beneficial, and it is good for both of them.

Fang Xiaoran left early in the morning. She hadn't seen Gu Yuqing much in the past few days. She had thought he was a carefree young nobleman, but lately he had been leaving early and returning late, sometimes not even coming home at night. She wondered what he was doing.

Anyway, Gu Yuqing never told her anything, so she didn't ask any more questions, since asking would be pointless.

Fang Xiaoran first went to the pharmacy and explained the matter of finding the Blood Toad Grass. He Chunming obeyed Fang Xiaoran's orders without question and immediately summoned all his subordinates to begin collecting the grass.

Next, Fang Xiaoran went to the pharmacy, since Blood Toad Grass was extremely difficult to obtain, and relying solely on the pharmacy was far from enough; other means were needed, and intelligence was of paramount importance.

Now that the advantage of proximity has been fully established, gathering intelligence is very easy.

Unlike other places, being close to the water tower meant she didn't need to disguise herself; those who came here were all officials' wives and noblewomen.

Wearing a light veiled hat, Fang Xiaoran calmly stepped into the waterside pavilion. Inside, incense wafted through the air, and several noble ladies were sipping tea and chatting. Upon seeing her enter, they all cast inquiring glances at her.

Xinglan, who was chatting with several ladies, recognized Fang Xiaoran at a glance. She immediately stood up and greeted her with a smile. In order not to reveal that Fang Xiaoran was the real big boss who was close to the source, she gently waved her round fan and put on a very enthusiastic expression, "This lady looks unfamiliar. Is this your first time here?"

At this moment, Madam Sun chuckled and said, "Third Manager, you may not know this, but this man is a big shot in Yancheng. He once single-handedly saved Rongcheng and is highly regarded by the Empress Dowager and the Imperial Concubine. Recently, he even married the second son of the Marquis's family. Such an experience is truly enviable."

After hearing her say this, another woman with a languid expression and stunningly beautiful face lightly ran her fingers over the perfume, her beautiful eyes sweeping over Fang Xiaoran, and said with a smile, "I thought that someone like the princess would not come here, but I didn't expect to have the honor of meeting her here. I wonder if the princess would do us the honor of having a drink with us?"

Fang Xiaoran had other purposes for coming here and was not interested in the group's invitation at all. Besides, she had never associated with them before. She was about to refuse when another beautiful woman spoke up: "Or is it that the princess disdains to associate with us? Although we are not as good as those in the side room, we are still noble ladies of officials and no different from the princess. Oh no, now I should call you Madam Gu."

She emphasized the words "Mrs. Gu" very heavily, as if she was deliberately saying them to tease Fang Xiaoran.

After all, in many people's eyes, Gu Yuqing only had the title of a young master of a marquis's mansion, and he was no match for the other young masters in any other way.

This is why Fang Xiaoran was looked down upon after marrying him.

Fang Xiaoran narrowed her eyes slightly at this, a chill emanating from them. Xinglan wanted to speak up to smooth things over, but Fang Xiaoran didn't seem to care. She chuckled and walked towards the group, saying casually, "It's just a form of address, it doesn't matter."

Fang Xiaoran's lips curled slightly, but there was no smile in her eyes. Her fingertips lightly traced the dark pattern on her cuff, and her voice was cold: "Since you ladies are so hospitable, it would seem disrespectful of me to refuse again."

She approached slowly, her skirt remaining perfectly still, yet she exuded an aura of frost and snow, causing the woman who had just spoken sarcastically to instinctively take a half-step back.

Seeing that she had come at their invitation, the others smiled. After all, they had invited her first, so they couldn't very well refuse.

They had never interacted with Fang Xiaoran before and didn't know her temperament. They thought she was an easy target, but after meeting her today, they realized she was quite formidable.

Fang Xiaoran sat calmly beside them, and the women immediately began chatting with smiles, pouring tea and offering snacks, completely different from before.

Fang Xiaoran didn't care about this. She only wanted to teach them a lesson because she saw that they were being provocative. She didn't expect them to change their attitude so quickly.

"I've heard that Mrs. Gu and Miss Liu had a past relationship?" Mrs. Li leaned closer and asked with a smile.

She clearly stirred up this matter on purpose, wanting to embarrass Fang Xiaoran. However, Fang Xiaoran didn't think it was a secret; hadn't the Liu family already made it public? Her purpose was to provide a reasonable explanation for Liu Ruyan's identity.

Otherwise, it would be easy for people to make a big deal out of it. The Liu family tried every means to protect Liu Ruyan.

Fang Xiaoran smiled and said, "I'm sure anyone who has attended the Liu family's grand gathering knows this, since it's not exactly a secret."

Several of them had never been invited by the Liu family, since the Liu family wouldn't look down on ordinary people. Fang Xiaoran said it so casually, and although it wasn't meant to be sarcastic, it still dealt a heavy blow to their already pitiful inferiority complex, making them feel that she did it on purpose.

"We are not worthy of the Liu family, so naturally we don't know these things. Unlike Young Madam Gu, who married into the Marquis's mansion and was granted the title of Princess, she came from a humble family but suddenly rose to prominence and became a wealthy household. It's truly enviable." Another woman covered her face and chuckled, but her words were tinged with sourness.

Madam Wang picked up a cup of tea, gently blew on the tea leaves floating on the surface, and said coldly, "Even if you admire someone, you have to consider whether you have the ability. If you want to be like her, you must first have superb medical skills to save Rongcheng from crisis. Otherwise, saying anything is meaningless and is just jealousy."

"You talk as if you're so high and mighty, but you're just hanging out with us. As the saying goes, 'One who stays near vermilion gets stained red, and one who stays near ink gets stained black.'"

Fang Xiaoran had no interest in their idle gossip and simply sipped her tea indifferently. Xinglan, on the other hand, became uneasy, fearing that Fang Xiaoran would be angry about it. At the same time, she secretly made a note of these few people who had spoken rudely.

How could the powerful owner, who had such a close relationship with the company, allow them to ridicule him?

Just then, Madam Sun suddenly looked up and smiled, "I heard that Young Master Gu's legs are healed and he will no longer need to use a wheelchair. We should really congratulate Young Madam Gu. I'm sure all those rumors about Young Master Gu are false."

"Oh?" Fang Xiaoran narrowed her eyes, looking at Madam Sun with interest. "What rumor? I don't know anything about it?"