Xing Er answered, "Of the one thousand taels, six hundred taels are banknotes and four hundred taels are cash."

"The real murderer only wants the banknotes. The cash is all here with us."

Wu Qing asked: "How did you give him the banknotes?"

"After I take the files, I will put the banknotes into the stone trough."

Xing Er said, "The real murderer was extremely cunning and vigilant. This servant and Eunuch Xiang were unable to catch him, so we had no choice but to give up in the end."

Wu Qing lowered his head and thought: "So..."

Zhu Hanfei asked again: "Then how did you convince him to make a deal with Miss Ruan?"

Xing Er: "Write it on a piece of paper and pass the message on."

She pulled out a crumpled piece of paper with the real murderer's reply on it.

The general idea is that seven hundred taels is no problem, but you have to find out who Ruan Yue's mother is from the Liu family.

Zhu Hanfei took the paper, examined it carefully, and shook her head, saying, "It is the most common rice paper in the palace, and its origin cannot be seen. The writing is left-handed, deliberately concealing the identity."

Wu Qing: "If there are no clues, I'll have to trouble you to fish the person out."

She pulled out a bulging purse from her sleeve and then pulled out two silver bills.

One for five hundred taels, the other for two hundred taels. The two silver notes shone with an alluring luster under the dim light.

Ruan Yue's jaw dropped in shock.

She carefully took the banknote and touched its texture with disbelief.

"Seven hundred taels? Is that true?!"

Miss "Jinxiu" was so rich that she could easily take out a huge sum of seven hundred taels.

"Real money, of course."

Wu Qing casually lifted her sleeves, and four bulging pouches hung on her arms like a string of bells.

Zhu Hanfei was surprised and asked, "You also put banknotes in here?"

Why did “Jinxiu” carry such a huge sum of money with her?

Wu Qing smiled and nodded, pretending to be calm and said, "Yes. The amount is not large, only about 2,498 taels in total."

Zhu Hanfei: “…”

The calculation is so detailed, how many times have you counted it privately?

"I'm not afraid of ten thousand, I'm afraid of one. If one day the emperor gets angry and decides to kill me, I will run away with the money and go to the south of the Yangtze River to become a hero, doing justice and living a free and easy life." Wu Qing explained.

After the system became silent, Wu Qing has been saving money in preparation for his escape.

Ruan Yue looked at Wu Qing curiously, envious and jealous: "How come you are so rich? Was it all given to you by Concubine Ji?"

Wu Qing nodded slightly: "That's right, following our nobleman, you can eat delicious food and drink spicy drinks. So you two——"

She turned her gaze to Xing'er and Eunuch Xiang and continued, "Do your job well. If you do it well, in addition to detoxifying, the nobleman will certainly receive benefits from you."

The two of them responded in agreement, saying that they would do their best to serve Lady Ji.

Wu Qing turned around and asked, "Miss Li'er, do you have anything on you that can be used as a mark?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Hanfei took out a half-dried scarlet flower from her purse.

She crushed it between her fingers and rubbed off a pinch of pollen.

"This flower is called 'Dry Fragrance'. The pollen is odorless and only releases fragrance when it comes into contact with water. It has a very strong adhesion. Once it is contaminated, only clean water can wash it off."

In other words, only by soaking the silver bills in water can the 'dry and fragrant' pollen be washed off.

【Ah, I know this! 】

[The book says that once this powder comes into contact with water, it will emit a fragrance that cannot be ignored!] Wu Qing's eyes lit up.

This is exactly what she needed! Miss Li'er helped her a lot.

Zhu Hanfei smeared red pollen on the ink of the silver note, making the pollen and the silver note blend into one.

Zhu Hanfei said to Xing'er and Eunuch Xiang, "When you two go back tonight, put the banknotes back into the stone trough and wait for his instructions."

…

Wu Qing thought that the real murderer would remain hidden for a few more days, waiting for the right opportunity.

After the Queen resumed her routine morning meetings, Wu Qing basically never slept in.

She curled up in a chair in the corner of the main hall, propped up her face with one hand, and began to catch up on her sleep as if no one was around.

Sister Lu Changzai was sick, and there was no one around Wu Qing, so they had to leave a medium-sized area in the slightly crowded main hall, which became an isolated island.

After the voodoo doll incident, the Queen's word was final and the toughness of her methods was comparable to that of the Imperial Concubine.

Perhaps because of this, the concubines have stopped quarreling at morning meetings recently, which is cause for celebration.

"…Liu Yuanzheng said that Zhao Changzai is expected to give birth the next day or the day after tomorrow."

"...Yes, she's finally going to give birth. The due date has been delayed again and again, and I'm really worried about her."

After catching the key plot, Wu Qing blinked and woke up in a daze.

[…Zhao Changzai? ]

[Oh oh oh, Zhao Changzai is finally going to give birth? ]

[Okay, I'll start pretending to be sick once I finish the things I'm doing.]

Pretending to be sick?

Why pretend to be sick?

The noise in the main hall died down instantly, even more punctually than the time Wu Qing woke up in the morning.

The concubines were all busy, some drinking tea, some looking up at the sky, but in fact they all calmed down and listened to Wu Qing's voice.

But Wu Qing's thoughts changed the subject.

Wu Qing yawned and thought a little tiredly: [Preparing the test papers is really a headache. My knowledge level is not enough, and I often have to stay up late to look up information. ]

[It’s not good to bother Master Xun every day... How about finding someone to help me? ]

[Who should I find? ]

[How about... learning from Qin Li? His illness should have been cured. He will be an art teacher in the palace anyway, so why not exploit him again?]

Wu Qing nodded with satisfaction and then touched her belly.

[I'm a little hungry. Is the morning meeting over? ]

The queen coughed lightly and said, "My sisters, we have talked enough. Let's stop here today."

Without hearing the rest of Lady Ji's words, the concubines stood up and greeted reluctantly, "Yes. We respectfully send the Queen off."

So why did Concubine Ji pretend to be sick?

Could it be that something went wrong with Concubine Zhao's delivery? But hadn't the Queen punished Concubine Wang and the others before?

They really wanted to grab Concubine Ji's shoulders and shake her hard, making her tell them everything she knew.

...Just don't reveal their secrets.

The concubines in the room stood up, taking light steps and making almost no sound when walking.

Wu Qing was sitting closest to the gate.

She rubbed her sleepy eyes, stepped out of the door, and bumped into a palace maid who was passing by.

Both were knocked back by the recoil.

Wu Qing was shocked for a moment, then stood still.

The palace maid flew more than a meter away, and the things she was holding tightly in her hands fell to the ground.

Three ingots of silver fell out of her arms. The white silver scattered on the ground, attracting the attention of all the concubines behind her.

Wu Qing knelt down in shame and tried to help the palace maid who had fallen to the ground, "Are you okay? Get up quickly."

Yuepin followed closely behind, frowning and asking, "What big thing happened that made you so panicked?"

She just saw the whole thing clearly.

Lady Ji went out as usual. The maid was in a hurry and didn't look at the road, so she bumped into Lady Ji.

Unexpectedly, the maid knelt on both knees and kowtowed to Wu Qing: "My lord, I am guilty. I really didn't mean to steal your silver. Please forgive me!"

Concubine Yue was slightly startled.

She picked up a silver ingot that had fallen to the ground and said in a playful tone, "You said... this is Concubine Ji's silver?"

The kneeling maid continued to kowtow and said, "Yes, yes. Madam Yue, there are a full four hundred taels in that box. Everyone was scrambling for it, and I just took a little while the chaos was going on."