Transmigrated into a seven-year-old child, my fate is in my own hands, not in the heavens.

He Meixiang took the silk garment back to the laundry department and summoned the He sisters.

"Greetings, Aunt He!"

The three He sisters were filled with unease, wondering what He Meixiang wanted them to do.

“I got a few sets of clothes from the Empress Dowager. These clothes are very precious. They must not be wrinkled or mixed colors. There are exactly three sets. You can each wash one set.”

Upon hearing the words "Empress Dowager," the three sisters trembled involuntarily; it seemed the Empress Dowager had no intention of letting them off the hook.

The sisters each took a set of clothes and left. Looking at the three sets of clothes, they wondered what trick the Empress Dowager was playing.

The moment the clothes went into the water, they realized what had happened: a magical scene unfolded as soon as the clothes were submerged.

The clothes had turned white, but the water remained clear. This terrified the three sisters, who scrambled to their feet to report to He Meixiang.

He Meixiang was stunned when she heard this. She didn't dare to be negligent at all. When she saw the three sets of white clothes in front of her, there was no trace of yesterday's clothes. She was so frightened that her legs went weak.

He Meixiang sternly rebuked, "What have you three done? You've ruined this dress! This is the Empress Dowager's favorite dress. She repeatedly instructed that there must be no mistakes. Do you know that this is a capital offense?"

The three sisters quickly knelt down and said in unison, "Auntie, we didn't do anything, we just put the clothes down, but the clothes turned out like this."

"You've done something wrong, and you still dare to argue? Guards, arrest all three of them!" He Meixiang insisted that the three of them were the ones who had made the mistake, and ordered the other women to arrest them.

Because of their beauty, the He sisters were favored by the emperor several times, and they were extremely arrogant in the laundry department.

Many people had long been unable to stand by and watch, and now that they saw the three of them make a mistake, they were overjoyed. At He Meixiang's command, five women volunteered to come out and tied the three of them up.

At this point, He Yuxi couldn't care less about anything else. She struggled desperately and blurted out, "How dare you disrespect us? You fools, do you know that the Emperor has taken a liking to us sisters? How dare you treat us like this? You're tired of living. If you know what's good for you, let us go right now."

"Yes, we were with the Emperor last night! Aunt, you know that, please let us go!"

He Meixiang said coldly, "Gag them."

He Meixiang was a very clever and perceptive person. There were some things she didn't quite understand before, but now she finally understood the Empress Dowager's intentions.

She knew that the three sisters had been favored by the Emperor these past few days. They were lowly servants, so how could the Empress Dowager allow them to get close to the Emperor?

Since they can't stop the emperor, they can only make them disappear.

The Empress Dowager went to such great lengths to deal with them, something that would have been a simple matter of talking; she needed a pretext.

She could deal with the three sisters while also saving face for the Empress Dowager, so as not to give rise to gossip.

"Waaah..." The He sisters had their mouths stuffed with rags. They looked at each other in terror, their eyes filled with despair.

They had previously dreamed of rising to prominence and working hard to please the emperor, but unexpectedly, in the end, their lives were in danger.

He Meixiang looked at them with exasperation: "Look at the mess you've made! You've ruined perfectly good clothes like this. If the Empress Dowager blames us, our laundry department will be in serious trouble."

"Yuxi, don't blame your aunt for being ruthless. It's your own fault for wanting to climb the social ladder. Now, I have no choice but to sacrifice you to save the lives of so many people in the laundry department."

After saying that, He Meixiang waved her hand and said, "Take them away and hand them over to the Empress Dowager." Then she picked up the clothes and turned to leave.

The other women quickly escorted the He sisters and followed them.

……

Qiankun Palace

Having received the inside scoop, Eunuch Li ran to report to the Emperor: "Your Majesty, I heard that the girls in the Laundry Department messed things up and were escorted to the Empress Dowager by the head of the Laundry Department to receive their punishment."

The Emperor was reviewing memorials in the Imperial Study and grunted in response without even looking up.

Seeing the Emperor's unpredictable expression, Eunuch Li cautiously asked, "Your Majesty, is there anything this servant can do for you?"

The Emperor gave him a cold look and slowly said, "Li Deyong, you've been a eunuch for decades, do you still need me to teach you?"

"Don't try to be clever. You dare to meddle in the Empress Dowager's affairs? Watch your mouth, do your job, and don't talk nonsense or cause trouble, understand?"

Eunuch Li broke out in a cold sweat. He wiped his brow and groveled, saying, "Your Majesty is right. This servant was too talkative. I will slap myself." As he spoke, Eunuch Li slapped himself twice.

The Emperor's face remained indifferent: "Step down!"

"Yes!"

As if granted a general amnesty, Eunuch Li fled in panic.

Even after stepping outside, Eunuch Li's legs were still trembling. It was truly like serving a tiger; the emperor was unpredictable, and he could never fathom what the emperor was thinking.

Seeing Eunuch Li leave, the Emperor put down his brush, his coldness deepening.

This was the Empress Dowager's usual trick. It was just a pity for those women, who lost their lives so inexplicably. All of this was caused by her.

Because they damaged several sets of clothes that the Empress Dowager cherished, the three He sisters were punished by the Empress Dowager and thrown into prison. That same night, the three sisters died mysteriously in prison.

Once the news spread, many people in the palace felt insecure.

……

After spending a day in Hengnan Prefecture, Zhao Lian received her resettlement letter, until they were assigned to Chaoyang County.

Chaoyang County is 50 li away from Hengnan Prefecture. After receiving the resettlement letter, the group hurried along and arrived at the Chaoyang County government office in less than two hours.

Upon arriving at the Chaoyang County Government Office, one had to queue up again before the county magistrate would assign them to a village.

After another half-day wasted in Chaoyang County, Zhao Lian finally got a specific resettlement location. They were resettled in Huaihua Village, which is a nice-sounding name.

Because they didn't know the way, they asked everyone they met along the way. This small mountain village was probably 20 li away from Chaoyang County. Because the mountain road was difficult to travel, it took them about an hour to get there.

When they arrived, they discovered that the small village was pitifully poor. The original inhabitants numbered only about thirty households, and the government had resettled ten more families of disaster victims into Huaihua Village. This brought the total number of households in Huaihua Village to just over forty.

Upon arriving at Huaihua Village, the first priority is to find a place to stay.

As is customary, their first task was to locate the village chief who had taken them in.

When Zhao Lian and Liu Jinzhu went to find the village chief, the village chief was in a dilemma.

Zhao Lian and her group were among the later group of disaster victims to arrive; those who arrived earlier had already been settled.

According to basic procedures, the disaster victims were temporarily housed in the homes of villagers with relatively better living conditions.

Huaihua Village has more than 30 households. A few households are relatively well-off and still have unused thatched houses or pigsties.

The village chief instructed these households to vacate their unused thatched huts and tiled roofs, and arranged for the disaster victims who had arrived earlier to stay there.

When it was Zhao Lian's turn to arrive, there was nowhere to settle them, because the other families didn't even have enough room for themselves, let alone a place to lend them temporary accommodation.