After breakfast, Xue Huan went to Ningshou Hall to pay her respects to the old lady. Of course, she didn't really want to pay her respects to the old lady, but to take this opportunity to see who was in the mansion and find out the situation.

Arriving at Ningshou Hall, as soon as Xue Huan entered, everyone waiting inside looked at her, their expressions varying from astonishment, surprise, hatred, to indifference.

Xue Huan glanced around, her eyes sweeping over everyone present, matching their faces with their identities one by one.

Perhaps in order to demonstrate her authority as the head of the family, the old lady required everyone in the marquis's mansion to come to pay their respects to her every morning and have breakfast together. After breakfast, everyone went about their business.

Sometimes the old lady would give some instruction and guidance to her children and grandchildren.

But today, the usual breakfast time had long passed, but the old lady had not yet gotten up.

Due to the old lady's usual majesty, no one dared to complain and could only sit quietly and continue waiting.

After Xue Huan entered, she found an empty seat and sat down. Suddenly, she heard a slight rumbling sound from her stomach, which was obviously her stomach protesting.

She couldn't help but think that it was a wise decision to have breakfast before coming. Otherwise, if she had come too early, she would have had to wait on an empty stomach like these people.

There are three branches in the Marquis's Mansion. The eldest branch is the branch of Changyang Marquis Xue Zhi and Han. They have four children, from oldest to youngest, namely Xue Qin, Xue Yun'er, Xue Qi and Xue Cheng. Among them, Xue Qin and Xue Qi are both concubines' daughters.

Mr. Xue Erye of the second house and his wife had five children in total, only one of whom was a legitimate son, Xue Heng, and the other four were born out of wedlock.

Mr. Xue Sanye, the third master of the third house, has not yet married. He sits there alone, with his head lowered and a somewhat gloomy temperament.

Xue Huan knew why. Xue San was born out of wedlock. Although he had poor aptitude in martial arts, he was knowledgeable and talented. If nothing unexpected happened, he could have taken the imperial examination and become a civil official. However, the night before the exam, his arm was suddenly bitten by a bug, paralyzed, and he couldn't even hold a pen.

The next day, instead of getting better, the condition became even worse.

Naturally, I failed to take the exam.

From then on, Xue San's arm became disabled and he could no longer write. He was devastated and never recovered.

Why did Xue Huan know all this? Because long before arriving in Kyoto, Yuan Xi had inquired about the situation in Changyang Marquis's mansion and told her.

So although she seemed to have recklessly plunged into the deep and sea-like Marquis' Mansion, she actually knew the situation inside very well.

Xue Huan secretly surveyed everyone in the hall, wondering why the old lady hadn't come out yet. She sent her spiritual sense into the inner room, but saw no one.

Just as they were about to expand the scope, a wall in the inner room opened from the middle like a door, and the old lady walked out with a radiant look.

There is a secret room?

Now that she had seen it, Xue Huan naturally had to investigate to see what secrets the old lady had hidden in it.

You won’t know until you see it, and you’ll be shocked when you see it.

There was actually a woman locked up in the secret room. Her limbs and body were tied up with thumb-thick chains and she was hanging in the air. Her toes could touch the ground, but her heels could not, so she had to keep tiptoeing.

The woman's hair was disheveled, her face couldn't be seen clearly, and she was only wearing two pieces of cloth that barely covered her private parts. One could see that her body was covered with cuts one after another, with new wounds covering old ones, and there was almost no good flesh.

It's really shocking.

Who is this woman? Why was she locked up in a secret room by Madam Zhu? And why did she inflict so many wounds on her?

Xue Huan naturally had a series of questions in her mind.

Zhu had sent her, her "granddaughter", to the family temple to worship Buddha for the rest of her life without asking any questions. She did not treat her as her granddaughter at all. It can be seen that she was extremely cold-hearted and cruel, and was not a good person.

Xue Huan was not surprised that she had imprisoned a woman here and treated her like this. Now that she had discovered this woman, there was no reason for her to ignore her.

Xue Huan lowered her hands, and two small paper figures fell from her sleeves. The paper figures landed silently on the ground and moved flexibly, just like real people.

This is the paper figure she made. It only has simple intelligence and can help her do some work that does not require too much brainpower, such as weeding and farming.

At this moment, after receiving her instructions, the two little paper figures cleverly avoided the eyes and ears of everyone in the hall, slipped into Zhu's room, and drilled in through the gap in the secret room.

After entering the secret room, the two paper figures grew bigger and taller, becoming the size of normal people. They cut the chains on the woman, rescued her, and carried her together, using the earth escape beads to quietly leave the secret room.

When he appeared again, he was in the courtyard of Wutong Garden.

Ya Gu and Xiao Yu were surprised by the sudden appearance of two strange paper figures and a woman covered in scars and in a coma.

One of the paper figures spoke, but the voice that came out was Xue Huan's: "Ya Gu, Xiao Yu, don't be afraid. These two paper figures belong to me. Please help me settle this woman down."

Hearing her voice, Ya Gu and Xiao Yu felt relieved and hurriedly did as she said.

After the two paper figures handed the woman over to the mute girl and the other two, they returned to the secret room and set it on fire.

In the hall, Zhu was sitting at the head of the table, eating breakfast surrounded by her daughters-in-law, children, and grandchildren. Suddenly, a maid ran over in panic, "Old Madam, something bad has happened! There's a fire!"

Zhu: "How can you be so flustered? What's the fire?"

The maid pointed to the inner room and said, "It's your room. Thick smoke suddenly came out from the wall. We wanted to put out the fire but couldn't get in..."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Shi lost her composure. She threw down her chopsticks and hurried back to her room. She pushed aside the servants gathered outside the secret room and shouted, "All of you, get out!"

The servants were busy and dispersed.

Zhu opened the secret door of the secret room and walked in quickly. Before she had taken a few steps, she was choked by the thick smoke that rushed out from inside, and started coughing violently.

But because she was eager to go in and see what was going on, she covered her mouth and nose with a handkerchief and went in despite the thick smoke, only to find that there was nothing inside.

Where's Ji Xuetong? !

Zhu was horrified. Could it be that she had broken free from her chains, set a fire and escaped?

No, the door to the secret room was tightly closed when she came. Ji Xuetong couldn't have left! It's not like she can fly!

Zhu was suddenly shocked when she thought of something. Could it be that the fire was just a smokescreen, designed to lure her in so she could escape from there?

not good!

Zhu hurried out of the secret room and asked the servants guarding outside, "Did anyone come out of my room just now?"

The servants looked at each other and shook their heads.

Zhu's face suddenly became extremely gloomy.

"Mom, what happened?" Xue Zhi walked over.