The First Venerable of the Prosperous Age

Chang'an was standing between Lianxue and Yulei, while Liu Rao, still half-dressed, fanned herself and came forward first, "Sister Furou, I heard that someone in the building has been poisoned. Fortunately, a divine doctor has come. Let her take a look at us too."

“Miss Wen is a noble lady from the Three Venerable Palace. She is currently resting. Let’s find her again tomorrow,” Fu Rou said.

Liu Rao covered her mouth in surprise, "It's actually someone from the Three Venerable Palace."

Fu Rou's eyes sharpened, but the smile remained on her lips. "Did you only find out now that someone in the building has been poisoned?"

Liu Rao smiled sweetly, "I'm sorry, Sister Fu Rou, I was sleeping so soundly just now that I only found out now."

No matter how she tried to ease the tension with laughter, Fu Rou's piercing gaze remained fixed on her.

The two looked at each other, both with smiles on their faces, but remained silent for a long time.

"Sister Furou, do you think I'm the one who poisoned you?"

"I didn't say that."

Seeing her like this, Liu Rao leaned close to Fu Rou's ear and said, "Everything needs to be based on evidence."

Fu Rou smiled and replied, "Of course, we naturally need to find evidence first."

Liu Rao shrank back and said loudly, "Sister Fu Rou, you're the best. First, find out where the poison got into the building. Did someone go out to buy it, or... did some important person deliver it to us? Once you find the poison, you'll find the evidence, hehehe."

Fu Rou replied, "It's really troubled Sister Liu Rao. I will definitely investigate thoroughly to see which thief is up to no good here." The last sentence was much more stern, with a hidden meaning.

"Well... good luck then. I'll come back to her for the antidote tomorrow."

Liu Rao glanced at the remaining three people, waved her hand, and smiled, "Then I'll take my leave now."

The four watched her walk away until her alluring figure returned to the house.

Fu Rou looked at the three of them again and couldn't help but ask, "Why didn't you go in to detoxify earlier? If anything happened to you, how many people in the whole city of Luo would be heartbroken for you?"

Yu Lei sighed and said, "Oh, Sister Fu Rou, you don't know, just as we were about to go in, Sister Liu Rao came out of the room and started asking us all sorts of questions..."

“So… it was intentional obstruction.” Fu Rou pondered, looking down.

"Not only was it intentional obstruction, but Liu Rao was also most likely responsible for poisoning the parrot," Chang'an said coldly.

Fu Rou's eyes lit up. "What did you discover?"

Chang'an shook her head. "No, all I know is that she is the only person in the building who knows that the wine jars in the kitchen will be opened in advance."

He then recounted how Lu Xiaosan had secretly smelled the wine, and how he had inadvertently revealed the truth to Liu Rao in his attempt to cover up his lie.

Fu Rou nodded and said, "Indeed, she is the most suspicious, but... why did she lure me to find the poison just now?"

Lianxue sighed, her brows furrowed, her eyes lowered, and she said softly, "Her words implied that I was the one who poisoned her."

"why?"

"The important person she mentioned should be Prince Xue, who came to cause trouble in the building a few days ago... But Prince Xue only went to my room..." Lianxue said.

Chang'an was taken aback upon hearing this. "So there was such a thing after my grandfather and I left." His heart was filled with turmoil, and an indescribable sense of distress gradually arose.

Looking at Lianxue's worried expression, Furou said, "It seems to be a deliberate frame-up. It appears this matter is also related to that Prince Xue."

Lianxue's frosty eyes finally saw a glimmer of hope as she said, slightly excitedly, "Sister Furou, you...believe me?"

Fu Rou smiled and said, "Of course, I've always believed in you."

Lianxue smiled with relief, "Since that's the case, then I have nothing to hide anymore."

She then recounted how rats had appeared in her room and how she had asked Chang'an to buy arsenic, among other things. Chang'an and Yu Lei stood by, nodding in agreement from time to time.

Fu Rou crossed her arms in front of her chest, lowered her head and pondered, "One moment it's Prince Xue, the next it's the rats that disappear without a trace. It seems there really is a problem with your room, Sister Lianxue."

The four of them tacitly agreed that if they wanted to find out the truth, they would definitely have to go to Lianxue's room again.

“However, there is one more thing before that…” Fu Rou finished speaking and then turned around and pushed open the door.

As soon as the door opened, Lu Xiaosan, who was squatting beside Wen Ying's bed, suddenly turned his head and shot her a gaze as cold as an arrow:

Resentment, coldness, and aggression; intended to tell others that no one is allowed to come near.

Fu Rou gave him an awkward smile and slammed the door shut again.

"Is my elder brother inside? I want to go in and find him." Chang'an said as he walked to the door and was about to go in.

Fu Rou gently stopped him with her jade-like hand, "Let's forget about it for now. Your elder brother doesn't want to see anyone right now."

Chang'an was taken aback by these words, then said softly, "He wouldn't want to avoid seeing me..."

“It’s not too late for us to come back later,” Fu Rou said.

"Yeah, let your good brother spend more time with her, hehehe." Yu Lei said with a grin.

Thinking of the way Lu Xiaosan looked at Wen Ying, Chang'an slowly lowered his hand as he was about to push the door open, his expression complicated.

Fu Rou looked at him with tender eyes and comforted him, "Let's go, let's go to Lianxue's room first. You still have to tell me everything you know, Xiao Mei."

Seeing that Chang'an was still in a daze, Fu Rou took his hand, and he followed the three most beautiful girls in Luocheng to their boudoirs in a daze.

Upon entering Lianxue's familiar boudoir, a faint fragrance filled the air, and the furnishings were elegant and neatly arranged.

“It looks quite ordinary…” Fu Rou said.

“At first glance, it’s really impossible to tell anything…” Lianxue said quietly.

Fu Rou paced slowly around the room. "Liu Rao asked me to look for the poison. Could it be that she deliberately hid it somewhere in your room? Let's search around..."

They searched every possible hiding place—corners, cabinets, and so on—but found nothing.

In her moment of despair, Fu Rou seemed to remember something and suddenly asked, "Where did the rats disappear from? And what places in the room did that Prince Xue touch?"

Lianxue, dressed in a white dress, walked to the center of the room, looked around the room, and finally fixed her gaze on her bed.

"In bed?"

Lianxue nodded slightly, "Prince Xue once stayed under the bed, and that rat disappeared from under the bed."

"Why did he stay under your bed?" Fu Rou asked.

Lianxue's eyes were slightly dazed, but her expression remained aloof. "He said he wanted to play hide-and-seek with me, so he hid under the bed."

Fu Rou walked to the bedside and looked around. "Under the bed?"

The gap under the bed was tiny and pitch black, barely big enough for one person to crawl through.

"Why does Prince Xue, who is such a grown man, have to squeeze into such a cramped place?"

"Let me see," Chang'an volunteered.

He was a young boy, short in stature, yet he could move freely inside, making him perfectly suited for the current situation.

Chang'an crawled under the bed, while the three girls squatted by the bedside. Fu Rou lit a tinderbox outside and handed it to him.

He held the tinderbox and shone it around, but the place was so clean that he could hardly smell any dust, let alone any poison or rat carcasses.

Chang'an touched around again, everything was normal except for the hard spot on his chest.

He reached down to the floor beneath his chest and felt a slight bulge there compared to other areas. It was difficult to notice with the naked eye unless you touched it.

Chang'an revealed the bulge, "Sister Furou, there's... something wrong here."

Fu Rou stretched out her slender, jade-like hand and touched the protrusion, then frowned. "A hidden panel?"

Then she exerted force with her hand, and with a "click," the door opened, and light shone up from below, revealing another hidden world.

All four were taken aback and hurriedly asked, "What's down there?"

Chang'an stared at the area under the board, his face darkening. "I'll go down and take a look."

Before they could stop her, Chang'an flipped over and slid down the opening.