After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

creak-

The heavy palace gates were pushed open, and a slender figure peeked out, looking around. After confirming that no one was around, she quietly and cautiously stepped out.

The night was very quiet, especially in this deep palace, the silence was almost eerie. People moved along the corridors, and when they saw or heard the footsteps of guards, they hid in the shadows, letting their dark clothes blend into the thick of the night.

As the guards passed by, she nervously held her breath. Only after they left did she exhale heavily and tiptoe towards Ronghua Palace.

The guards who had already walked away all turned around at once. The guard captain pointed to a junior guard and told him to go to the East Palace to inform His Highness the Crown Prince that Lu Jinyao had made her move, sneaking around as he had guessed, heading towards Ronghua Palace.

Thinking of the rumors circulating in the palace, and of the Crown Prince's high regard for the young lady from Ronghua Palace, the captain of the guards led the remaining guards back and followed Lu Jinyao to Ronghua Palace.

Arriving outside Ronghua Palace, Lu Jinyao tentatively pushed the door. The palace door was tightly shut, and she couldn't open it with her strength. She went around to the back door, made two cooing noises into the room, and the door creaked open from the inside.

"Miss Jinyao." A head popped out from inside the door, with a fawning expression on its face. It was the old nanny who had served the Seventh Princess.

"Did we disturb the people inside?" Lu Jinyao looked around, pushed the nanny inside, and closed the door behind her.

The old woman shook her head: "No, they're all asleep, sound asleep."

Lu Jinyao took out a silver ingot and stuffed it into the old woman's hand. The old woman quietly weighed it in her hand and said with satisfaction, "Miss, be careful and don't alert anyone. There is no one simple in Ronghua Palace."

Lu Jinyao rolled her eyes at the nanny unhappily: "I know, where's the kitchen?"

For the sake of the money, the old woman didn't argue with Lu Jinyao and pointed towards the kitchen.

The night is deep and quiet, the moonlight is serene.

Lu Jinyao stepped into the small kitchen under the moonlight. The medicine was bought from the ghost market before entering the palace; it dissolves in water and is colorless and odorless. As long as it is put into the water vat, it will guarantee that everyone in Ronghua Palace will die within seven days.

No, we cannot let everyone in Ronghua Palace die.

Lu Zhiyuan deserved to die, but the Seventh Princess was a member of the Emperor's bloodline that had never been publicly revealed, and then there was Xiao Yebai, who was both a descendant of the royal family and a prince of Southern Chu. With them dead, the royal family would surely investigate. After a thorough search, he might not be able to escape unscathed.

By the moonlight, I looked around the small kitchen and my gaze fell on the small bowl.

The small wooden bowl had a very smooth surface, and upon closer inspection, there was a faint, lingering smell of milk. In Ronghua Palace, there was only one child who needed milk: the three-year-old, simple-minded Seventh Princess, who could only cry and never laugh.

If a foolish princess dies, who will everyone suspect? Of course, it will be Lu Zhiyuan, who was ordered to take care of her.

Moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating Lu Jinyao. A smile played on her lips as she gently shook the wooden bowl, ensuring the poison coated the inside evenly. The seller had said this poison was extracted from eighty-one kinds of venomous insects and herbs, and just a small amount was enough to kill. The silly princess was only three years old; the amount on the bowl was sufficient.

The old woman was waiting anxiously at the back door, but she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Lu Jinyao return.

"Has the matter that Miss asked you to handle been completed?"

Lu Jinyao gave a soft "hmm," then called the nanny over and whispered a few words in her ear. The nanny was shocked and exclaimed, "You want to harm the Seventh Princess?"

Lu Jinyao quickly covered her mouth: "What are you yelling for? Do you want to die?"

The old woman grabbed her hand and whispered, "Miss Lu, I'm only helping you because of Grand Tutor Wei. The Seventh Princess is of royal blood; plotting against a royal heir is punishable by the extermination of the entire clan."

Lu Jinyao pushed her hand away: "What's the panic? Whether you say it or not, it was Lu Zhiyuan who poisoned her. Everyone in and outside the palace knows that Lu Zhiyuan is skilled in medicine and knows how to use poison. His Majesty asked her to take care of the Seventh Princess, but she thought the Seventh Princess was stupid and a burden, so what's wrong with deliberately killing the Seventh Princess? You are the nanny who took care of the princess as she grew up, they will definitely believe what you say."

The old woman was frantic and grabbed her sleeve, saying, "If the princess dies, I will die too. Miss Lu, my life is worth living too."

"It won't implicate you. As long as you obediently follow my instructions, I will guarantee your safety." Lu Jinyao said, "You have a son outside the palace who is over twenty years old and unmarried. Once this matter is settled, I will have my godfather arrange a job for him. With the Grand Tutor's mansion behind him, your son can marry not only girls from ordinary families, but even the legitimate daughter of a county magistrate."

Lu Jinyao's eyes flickered, and she grasped the old woman's hand: "Whether you resign yourself to serving the mentally challenged princess in this palace, or take a gamble and leave the palace to enjoy family life with your son, the choice is yours."

The old woman clenched her fists.

Three years ago, when Consort Yu gave birth, she was summoned to the palace as a wet nurse. According to custom, they would return home once the princess turned one year old. However, the seventh princess was mentally challenged and unlike other children, she did nothing but sleep and cry, making her extremely difficult to care for. The other wet nurses were either punished or dismissed by Consort Yu for neglecting their duties, leaving her as the only wet nurse left when the seventh princess turned one year old.

It wasn't because she was more capable than other wet nurses, but because she was poor.

Her husband was a bricklayer who injured himself while working. The employer ran away, leaving her with nowhere to claim medical expenses. With elderly parents to support and young children to raise, and her husband bedridden, she had no choice but to leave her infant daughter behind and enter the palace, relying on the meager monthly allowance from the palace to support her family.

Perhaps because they were of similar age, she always held the Seventh Princess as if she were holding her own daughter. The Seventh Princess was also attached to her, and only she could soothe her when she cried. So, one year became two years, two years became three years, and the day she could leave the palace seemed far away.

In her second year in the palace, her youngest daughter, left unattended, ran away and fell into a pond, drowning. Upon hearing the tragic news, she wanted to leave the palace to bid farewell to her daughter, but was severely reprimanded by Consort Yu and forced to kneel before the palace for three whole days.

During those three days, only the Seventh Princess visited her, just like her youngest daughter, stumbling and falling. Everyone said the Seventh Princess was a fool who only knew how to cry and make a fuss, but she remembered her kindness and would bring her food when she came to visit.

The day after she was forced to kneel as punishment, it rained in the palace. Despite objections, the Seventh Princess joined her in the rain, and it was on that day that she uttered the first word "Mother" in her life.

Not "mother" or "concubine," but "mother."

She hated the palace, she hated Consort Yu, but she didn't hate the Seventh Princess.

She couldn't bring herself to kill the child she had raised. Stepping back, she looked into Lu Jinyao's eyes and said coldly, "It's getting late, Miss Jinyao, you should go back now. Tonight, let's pretend you were never here."

"Granny, do you really not care about your own son?" Lu Jinyao gritted her teeth. "He's your only son, your only support for the rest of your life. Are you really going to abandon your own son for that fool? Granny, you don't actually think you can live in this palace forever, do you?"