Zhao Yunwan was furious. Looking at the garden full of destroyed opium poppies, some of which were in bloom and some had already grown small fruits, ready to be used to make drugs, they had all withered and died at this time.
At the same time, the opium poppies in the garden withered and died, which was definitely not due to natural causes.
Zhao Yunwan knew that this garden was being watched.
In the entire palace, who could possibly make such a big move under her nose?
Zhao Yunwan really couldn't think of anything.
So they immediately sent people to check the recent records of people entering and leaving the palace.
Everyone was passing through normally, and there was no suspicious person among them.
If any suspicious person were to enter the imperial city, they would be unable to penetrate the inner palace, because the outer city of the imperial palace was protected by the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams Formation personally arranged by Lu Dacheng.
Whenever someone breaks into the palace, Lu Dacheng and the Empress will know immediately.
Even if the visitor is highly skilled in martial arts, they will be confused by the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams Formation, and will only end up wandering around the outer city like a maze.
Unless the person is well-versed in the Five Elements and Eight Trigrams, once they enter the formation, there is no way to escape!
The investigation eventually led to the Crown Prince, but he had returned to the Eastern Palace six days prior and only stayed one night. The opium had already died this afternoon.
Besides, he only had one useless eunuch by his side. The people he brought into the palace were all palace servants that Zhao Yunwan had personally arranged to serve in the Li family.
Unable to uncover the truth, Zhao Yunwan was so angry she gritted her teeth.
Lu Dacheng's next words made her so angry she wanted to flip the table.
"Your Majesty, I don't have much opium left. If I can't keep it up, a large number of ministers will be without opium when they get addicted, and we will definitely be exposed."
"According to the laws of Nanchen Kingdom, opium use is a capital offense. What do you suggest we do?"
"What else can we do? We have spares at our estate near the capital, right? We can just get them from there."
"But that's for exchanging for money, otherwise if the emperor's brother-in-law asks, our private army's pay will be gone."
"It's not the right time to replant." Zhao Yunwan thought for a long time before finally making a difficult decision.
“Send someone to contact the Qinglian Society; the Qinglian Society is doing this business.”
"Your Majesty, you mustn't! The Green Lotus Society is neither entirely good nor entirely evil; we cannot trust them!" Lu Dacheng exclaimed in terror.
"Teacher, we can just not reveal our identities. We can buy from them as people from the Great Liang Kingdom."
"Silver? With so many people using opium, where can we find the silver?" Lu Dacheng posed another difficult question.
Zhao Yunwan felt a headache coming on; nothing she was doing lately was going well! She thought for a while.
"Just manipulate that tax payment from the south."
Lu Dacheng had no choice but to comply and leave Kunning Palace.
At the Li family's martial arts training ground, Li Ting was leading a large group of young men in training.
The nine members of Tingquan Manor arrived at the Li family's martial arts training ground on time every day. Li Ruizhang and his five brothers were also brought to the training ground by their father. Along with Xiao Sheng, every afternoon, fifteen boys of different ages and heights would sweat it out on the training ground.
The nine men secretly praised the prince for his rapid progress, seeing that he neither complained of hardship nor fatigue, nor cried when injured.
When General Li was teaching military strategy, His Highness the Crown Prince was able to keep up. He carefully wrote down anything he didn't understand and would ask Li Ting questions whenever he had a spare moment. This was not the Crown Prince that people were talking about; this was exactly the kind of ruler that the Southern Chen Kingdom needed.
In his free time, the Crown Prince played and chatted with the others, speaking politely and behaving with propriety, without the aloofness of a superior, which won the favor of the nine people.
Xu Ningyou would also push Li Xingran to the martial arts training ground to watch her brothers practice kung fu.
[Sob, seeing Daddy's students reminds me of my own naughty kids. I wonder if they miss me.]
Alas, our teacher-student bond from the previous life has come to an end. I can only pray for my beloved children in this space within the book, wishing you all success in your examinations!
[You stinking devil, have you heard my prayers? To make up for my students losing their teacher midway through their studies, you must ensure they are blessed with good fortune and their wishes come true, otherwise, you know what will happen!]
[Oh dear, I almost forgot, the opium in the cold palace must be wilting away by now, right? Zhao Yunwan must be furious. I really want to see her get what's coming to her!]
[This weather lately is truly a godsend! Two days of heavy rain followed by blazing sunshine—tsk tsk tsk, Zhao Yunwan can't find any evidence. Even if she dug up the opium and saw the roots were cut off, she couldn't investigate. She only knows it was destroyed, but there's no way to prove it. Haha, just thinking about it makes me happy. Who told you, this white lotus flower, to be so full of wicked schemes?]
Xiao Sheng listened from the side, feeling very pleased; he had also made a contribution.
Hearing this, the older brothers focused even more intently on their training, because if they didn't work hard, they would be holding their smart sister back!
Li Ting and Xu Ningyou exchanged a smile from afar. They had finally retaliated.
[Zhao Yunwan's supply of opium is almost exhausted, and there's no new stuff available. What will happen to the ministers who are already addicted?] Li Xingran asked another question.
Li Ting told everyone in the martial arts training ground to rest first, and he and Xu Ningyou pushed Li Xingran's cot to the pavilion outside the training ground to rest.
Xiao Sheng sat quietly, pondering Li Xingran's question.
Li Ruizhang was also wondering how he would handle the emergency if he were in that situation.
In Kunning Palace, after Lu Dacheng left, Zhao Yunwan was turning around to go to Qianqing Palace to meet the emperor when she saw Xiao Ding standing blankly not far away.
"Ding'er, when did you get back?" Zhao Yunwan was a little anxious. She was afraid that Xiao Ding would hear her conversation with Lu Dacheng, so she ran over, squatted down, and took Xiao Ding's hand.
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