At some point, a group of young ladies from noble families came to Huadao and clamored to look for Jiang Qingqing.

There was a huge crowd of people standing at the door, and those in the first row naturally saw the scene where the Second Prince, Chi Dao, and Jiang Qingqing were stuck in a stalemate.

They were all smart people. Some of them didn't want to get into trouble, so they turned their heads away quickly, or walked back, or urged the people behind them to walk faster.

"Everyone is here. My second brother was just talking to Master Chi about something, and I just happened to run into them. It's a good opportunity for us to talk together."

Jiang Qingqing reacted quickly. She immediately smiled and greeted these young ladies from the aristocratic families, then walked towards the central hall.

The people at the back can’t see the excitement, but they can read the expressions on people’s faces.

Suddenly, the crowd stopped noisy and chaotic, and they all smiled and followed Jiang Qingqing back to the central hall.

As Jiang Qingqing led the way away, she couldn't help but look back in the direction of the Second Prince and Chi Dao, a deep meaning flashed across her eyes.

Then, she glanced at Princess Qi Yang.

The latter nodded in understanding, deliberately fell behind the team, walked to the side of the Second Prince and Chi Dao, and in the name of the backyard being the boudoir, he invited the two of them to the central hall right under his nose, and personally closed the door to the flower path.

The young lady from the aristocratic family sat in the middle hall and chatted with a forced smile. Jiang Qingqing seemed to be dealing with this group of people, but in fact she walked to Jiang Chen.

He raised the round fan in his hand, covering half of his face, and said to Jiang Chen: "Go check who Xin Juan has been in contact with recently, and what large amounts of money suddenly appeared in the room. Something is wrong with her."

Jiang Chen had always thought that Jiang Qingqing had just entertained a young lady from a noble family. When he heard the unreasonable instructions, his eyes became more serious.

"Don't worry, your brother will do the job, so you can rest assured. I will give you news in the evening."

After saying this, Jiang Chen stood up and went back, using the excuse that there was something he hadn't brought from the Zhongning Palace.

The princess's mansion was full of guests. Jiang Qingqing entertained them until the sun set, and then she reluctantly sent away the last young lady from a noble family.

Princess Qi Yang and Jiang Qing Qing stood at the gate of the princess's residence. After they watched the carriage leave the alley, their expressions immediately became much duller.

"You mean to say that there was a traitor around you, and then you let Chi Dao in, and the Second Prince helped you. Now you suspect that the Second Prince is actually the one behind the Chi family?"

Princess Qi Yang pulled Jiang Qing Qing back, and as they walked, she lowered her voice and asked back.

Jiang Qingqing didn't say anything, but nodded seriously.

"What power can the Second Prince have!? Although he works in the Ministry of Revenue, he cannot touch any of the accounts or money."

Princess Qi Yang pondered over it for an entire afternoon but still couldn't figure out the twists and turns here.

Thinking of this, she suddenly missed her uncle who was far away at the border.

"If Xiao Linting was here, there would be no chance for Chi Dao to jump around for the past two days. He would have been pressed to death in his bed on the first day of the trip!"

Jiang Qingqing curled her lips and smiled, "How can I let the emperor's uncle help me all my life? He will get married sooner or later. With the emperor's sister-in-law, we 'younger generations' will not be in his eyes."

When Princess Qi Yang heard these words, she felt as if she had heard something strange. Her pretty face suddenly tightened and she looked at Jiang Qing Qing with complicated eyes, unable to say anything else for a while.

"Don't think about it for now. You let so many people see Chi Dao walking on the flower path in your backyard. Won't the rumors about him spread out like wildfire?" Princess Qi Yang perked up and changed the subject.

Jiang Qingqing shrugged her shoulders. She was quite concerned about these rumors at first.

"Let it spread. It's impossible for the people in the palace to really let me marry into the Chi family with rumors. If I really marry, some people will be restless."

Jiang Qingqing was still pondering the relationship between the Second Prince and the First Prince. She always felt that the person who came today was the Second Prince, and she felt uncomfortable everywhere.

"Okay, go to bed early. Tomorrow is my coming-of-age ceremony, and you are the one who helps me."

Jiang Qingqing patted Princess Qi Yang on the shoulder and took Gan Yuan and Gan Lin back to the backyard.

The central hall is reserved for Jiang Chen, and the side rooms in the backyard are reserved for Princess Qi Yang to rest.

Jiang Qingqing went straight into the main hall in the backyard. She sat calmly on the Luohan bed and took a sip of warm tea.

"Your Highness! Your Highness, you really misunderstood me."

Xin Juan's hands were tied and she knelt on the ground. However, the place where she knelt was very secretive, and if an outsider happened to walk into the yard, he would not be able to see her kneeling in the room.

Jiang Qingqing seemed to have turned a deaf ear to him. She drank half a cup of tea before putting it down and wiping the corners of her mouth.

"You said I wronged you?" she asked softly.

When Xin Juan saw that Her Royal Highness the Princess had finally spoken, she rubbed her knees together and tried to get closer to Jiang Qingqing, but Gan Yuan and Gan Lin held her down and prevented her from getting any closer to Jiang Qingqing.

"I really didn't do anything!"

She seemed to be determined to stick to this sentence and kept repeating it.

Jiang Qingqing lowered her eyes, took out a stack of letter papers from her sleeve, and then threw them on the ground. She sat on Luohan Mountain, the girl's expression was cold, as if this matter had nothing to do with her.

"I gave you a chance. If you had just told the truth, you wouldn't have ended up like this."

The girl's voice was deliberately cold, like the chilly wind in winter, making people feel chilled and panicked.

Xin Juan looked down at the familiar envelopes of all sizes on the ground. Her face, which had just been struggling, suddenly turned pale. She fell to the ground. Before her vision faded, she vaguely saw a letter on the ground.

"This letter is not yours! What are you looking at!" Gan Yuan scolded, and quickly picked up the envelope that Nafu gave her this morning from the ground and handed it to Jiang Qingqing.

She had just received the evidence of Jiang Chen, and she stuffed it all into her sleeves. In her anger, she forgot that there was a letter from the emperor's uncle in her sleeves.

"Huaning Palace has never treated you unfairly, and I believe I have never let you suffer any injustice. You betrayed me, and I don't want to hear your reasons for betraying me."

Jiang Qingqing placed the envelope on the table and looked at Xin Juan with cold eyes.

"From today on, you are no longer the head maid of Huaning Palace. You will be stripped of your duties as a first-rank head maid and exiled to Cining Temple."

Cining Temple is a temple in the Tianqi Palace, which is usually used for worshiping Buddha. In the past, the Empress Dowager loved to worship Buddha and often went back to Cining Temple to worship Buddha and burn incense. Later, when the Empress Dowager passed away, Cining Temple gradually became deserted.

Sending Xin Juan to Cining Temple was tantamount to completely exploiting and suppressing the rest of her life.

When Xin Juan heard the execution, her eyes widened. She struggled to get up, but was picked up by Gan Yuan and Gan Lin and walked out. During the process, a handkerchief was stuffed in her mouth to avoid waking up others.