Tea House, elegantly known as: Teahouse.

It is a place for guests to sip tea, chat, enjoy snacks, and discuss business. With its elegance, many scholars and literati gather here to compose poems and couplets.

At certain times, there will be "storytellers" performing. Patrons listen while sipping tea, feeling quite leisurely.

Ye Zhi didn’t know why she felt guilty, secretly crawling up a lush old locust tree, furtively watching the Muyuangeer Teahouse.

A quarter of an hour later.

Two handsome youths and a graceful young girl entered the shop.

From the entrance, the shopkeeper greeted them and asked a few questions. Upon hearing the answers, his eyes lit up, and he quickly ushered them inside.

Too far away to hear what was said, Ye Zhi couldn’t make anything out.

The dense foliage of the old locust tree concealed her, as she clung to the trunk in a gold-thread-embroidered peony-patterned Shu pink ru long skirt, unnoticed by anyone.

After Ling Que and the others went inside, they didn’t come out. Ye Zhi waited for half an incense stick but saw no one; she stopped waiting.

A little girl in a peony-patterned Shu pink ru long skirt flew towards the Minister Ye Mansion at incredible speed.

She needed to ask the Little Traitor for clarification.

Meanwhile, Liu Qingxi, having left the Ye Mansion, felt increasingly resentful, her eyes filled with a chilling coldness like a snake venomously coiled in darkness.

She could ascertain that the dream was partly true and partly false.

Or perhaps Ye Zhi had the same dream, which led to her great change of heart towards Shen Chen? She didn’t know and was uncertain.

The only thing she was certain about was that the third miss of the Minister’s Mansion, Ye Zhi, must not be allowed to remain.

Liu Qingxi planned to enact revenge on these people once she becomes Empress. Yet, yesterday’s dream seemed like a warning from the heavens, indicating that waiting would only make her the weaker party. At that moment, a fleeting thought crossed her mind, and she captured it—a three-word village appeared in her dream, Jiyin Village. The bandits there were notorious criminals, tyrants who had been causing chaos for a long time, known for their chameleon-like disguises as regular families to evade the authorities, whose hidden dealings even top officials couldn’t trace.

In two years, Shen Chen would destroy it, but for now, it remained intact.

All one had to do was take silver coins to Nongfeng Hall and name the person they wanted killed. The shopkeeper would register the request and relay it, hiring those outlaws to hunt down the designated person.

Nongfeng Hall was precisely a branch that connected to Jiyin Village.

Understanding this, Liu Qingxi headed straight towards the Liu Mansion, and upon returning to her room, checked her surroundings to ensure no one was there, then shut the doors and windows tightly.

After a thorough search, she gathered a total of three thousand taels of silver notes, along with a half moon-shaped scroll grass lion pattern carved flower hairpin, a carved jade pendant, and an amber and lapis lazuli bracelet... and more.

As a concubine’s daughter, she naturally didn’t possess such vast amounts of silver coins.

Yet as one of the Four Beauties of the Capital, many aristocrats favored her, bestowing her with much gold and jewelry. To maintain a reputation of purity, she refused what she could, though some overly enthusiastic gifts she could only accept. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

The crown prince’s gifts were notably abundant.

Nongfeng Hall only interested in silver and assassination targets, without questioning the purchaser’s identity, made it an ideal choice.

Fearful of the jewelry tracing back to herself, she took the silver notes and a shawl, stealthily slipped out of the Liu Mansion, heading towards Nongfeng Hall.