On the day of Princess Changle's birthday, Aunt Su stood in front of the dressing mirror and tied Hua Yuanshan's hair with her own hands.

"Our Shan'er's outfit today should be eye-catching, but not steal the princess' limelight." Aunt Su muttered, her hands moving deftly.

Hua Yuanshan was sitting impatiently, muttering, "I don't know what that fat pig bought with the five hundred taels! Mom, that's five hundred taels——"

"Okay, okay." Aunt Su hurried to comfort her. She glanced outside and happened to see Yulan walking towards her with her head down.

"Mother has already asked someone to inquire about it." Aunt Su said, nodding to exempt Yulan from the formality.

"how's it going?"

Yulan bowed her head and said respectfully, "The eldest lady bought a dagger from Jusui Pavilion. It is said that it was a personal item of the former female general Huang Ge, and it can cut iron like mud."

Aunt Su sneered: "This eldest daughter of our family really knows how to please her husband. It's a pity that although Princess Changle loves weapons, it's too unlucky to give such a weapon as a birthday gift!"

Even if he could win the favor of Princess Changle, he would definitely face the dissatisfaction of the Third Prince and even the Emperor and Empress.

She bowed her head and warned, "This Hua Yuanzhao doesn't know the overall situation, so don't worry about it. Just remember your mission today. There's no need to divide your attention to deal with her, understand?"

As long as Shan'er captures the third prince, will the mother and daughter still have to worry about not having a good life?

"Mom," Hua Yuanzhao said with a long tone, dissatisfied, "That fat pig has been cheating people recently. Maybe he has some tricks up his sleeve?"

She glanced at Yulan, who was hesitant to speak, and asked, "She went out with great fanfare yesterday. Did she only go to Jusui Pavilion?"

Yulan hesitated for a moment before saying, "Miss, Miss also bought some herbs, but, but..."

"But what?" Hua Yuanshan glared at her impatiently.

Yulan said hurriedly, "These herbs were bought by the eldest lady from the outskirts of the city. I took them to a doctor for a check-up, but the doctor said they were just ordinary herbs and had no medicinal properties..."

Hua Yuanshan's expression froze for a moment. That bitch had endless ways of using medicine. How could she possibly buy something useless?

Could these unknown medicinal herbs be used to treat the old woman's illness?

Hua Yuanshan glanced at Aunt Su in the mirror and saw that the latter did not take the matter to heart, so she couldn't help but cough lightly.

"Go and change the box containing the daggers and herbs." Hua Yuanshan ordered.

Aunt Su frowned: "Why do you have to provoke her?"

"Just to embarrass her~" Hua Yuanshan acted coquettishly as if nothing had happened, secretly feeling proud in her heart.

Her mother always said that she could not do this or that, so this time she would use a little trick to let her mother see whether she could do it or not!

Making the fat pig embarrassed at the birthday party was only one of the reasons. The more important thing was that if the fat pig ran out of herbs and couldn't make medicine to treat the old woman, the old woman would definitely not trust her anymore!

In Linyuan Garden, Hua Yuanzhao almost lay in front of the dressing table and let Fuling comb her hair.

"Miss, why do you look so listless?" Fuling asked worriedly while pointing the pearl flower at her head.

"But have you been eating too little recently? I see that your waist has become thinner..." Fuling said ramblingly.

Hua Yuanzhao weakly lifted his eyelids, the corners of his mouth twitching slightly.

During this period, she was asked to perform autopsies almost every night. How could she not be tired?

All of these people who died were servants in the palace. They had little interaction with each other and their causes of death were different.

Some of them really died of suicide, some died suddenly from being frightened, but there were also some whose cause of death was unknown like the first victim...

But one thing is certain, that is, these people suffered great shock when they died!

When Hua Yuanzhao closed his eyes, all he saw was a bloody corpse and various test data. How could he concentrate?

She let Fuling manipulate her and got into the carriage in a daze, even taking a nap while the carriage was driving.

Hua Yuanshan looked at her stupidly and felt even more disdainful.

If this fat pig hadn't taken the title of the legitimate daughter, she wouldn't have bothered to deal with her!

Hua Yuanzhao's mind was full of corpses, and he didn't socialize with others like Hua Yuanshan did. He just maintained good etiquette.

She took a seat under the guidance of the servants and continued to daydream in another place.

Several noble ladies were talking next to her, and one of them exclaimed, and the sound went straight into Hua Yuanzhao's ears.

"Is the palace haunted?"

The people next to her hurriedly pulled her sleeve and pulled her off.

"Shh—keep your voice down..."

Hua Yuanzhao pricked up his ears calmly, wondering: Is there a ghost in the palace?

"Recently, a number of people in the palace have been killed by ghosts. It is said that Princess Qionghui died with regrets and has come here to seek revenge!"

"Didn't she die of illness?"

"She didn't die of illness. It was said that that person... was dissatisfied with her being favored, so he secretly made some moves..."

"You mean the Queen Mother, uh, uh, uh…."

Before the girl could finish her words, her companions covered her mouth tightly, and only a series of struggling sounds came out of her mouth.

"You're asking for your life! You dare to say anything!"

Hua Yuanzhao frowned and tried to make a simple guess from what these people said.

According to them, the Queen Mother killed Princess Qionghui, so the princess turned into a ghost and came to seek revenge?

But isn’t Princess Qionghui Gu Ci’s biological mother?

Hua Yuanzhao thought about it and moved his eyes to the male guests, but saw a red ribbon above the first one, and Gu Ci was not among them.

When Gu Changsu saw Hua Yuanzhao looking at him, he straightened his back unconsciously, and smiled with satisfaction.

This woman is really difficult to deal with. She doesn't even know how to restrain herself in this situation!

She actually spied on him so blatantly!

Hua Yuanzhao thought absentmindedly, maybe it was because that person was of noble status that he came a little late?

But from the time the banquet started until it was halfway through, Gu Ci did not show up.

Seeing that the atmosphere was good, someone suggested that they take a look at the gifts Princess Changle received.

Princess Changle nodded indifferently. It didn't matter whether these things were put directly into storage or displayed for people to appreciate after they were delivered. It all depended on the wishes of the gift giver.

Anyway, those who dare to take it out are those who want to show off, so there shouldn't be anything embarrassing happening.

Hua Yuanshan watched as several princes finished presenting their gifts, then he chuckled and stood up, ordering people to bring out the screen he had given.

The screen is embroidered with a double-sided picture of eight horses galloping in a majestic and magnificent manner.

The woman didn't notice anything yet, but the man was already full of praise.

Seeing this, Gu Changsu chuckled and said, "Miss Hua's embroidery skills are really getting better and better."

Princess Changle stared at the screen and asked in surprise, "Did you embroider this screen yourself?"

"Yes, the embroidery is crude, I hope Princess won't mind." Hua Yuanshan said shyly and agreed to the matter.

No one would check whether this thing was embroidered by her!

"This embroidery is better than that of the embroiderers in the palace!" Princess Changle praised casually.

Hua Yuanshan's expression suddenly twisted. What did this mean? Did he mean that she was as lowly as an embroiderer who could only do hard labor?

She took a deep breath to calm herself down, and said with a smile, "Although I prepared the birthday gift for the princess myself, my gift cannot compare to my elder sister's."

Hua Yuanzhao looked up blankly, secretly alert in his heart.

——What is this guy trying to do?

"My eldest sister said before that she had not prepared any gifts. The old lady of my family specially asked the public treasury to allocate funds and let my eldest sister take the money to Jusui Pavilion to buy gifts!" Hua Yuanshan said with a smile.

"The gift prepared by my eldest sister must be extremely valuable and worthy of the princess's status." Hua Yuanshan said softly.

Hua Yuanzhao's mouth twitched slightly. Doesn't this mean that she was not serious about preparing the gift and had to wait until the old lady got the money before she was willing to buy it?

"The treasures in Jusui Pavilion are indeed extraordinary." Gu Changsu chuckled and came to Hua Yuanzhao's rescue: "The jade bracelet that the king gave to Changle is also from Jusui Pavilion."

He had asked Hua Yuanzhao for help many times during this period, so he just gave her a reluctant hand.

But who would have thought that when the servant took the gift box and opened it, the red silk inside was filled with messy pieces of grass.