latelenovela Chapter 367
Chapter 367
"Could there be some secret hidden in the Qin Pavilion?" Zhu Jingchen tapped lightly on the table, wondering to himself. If there was nothing in the Qin Pavilion, why would Prince Lanhuai's Manor be so obsessed with it?"There shouldn't be anything in the Qin Pavilion. After all, it was a restaurant given to me by the previous owner. I managed it for some time before, and there were no issues," Cheng Qingli quickly replied.
Otherwise, if there was a problem with the Qin Pavilion, she would have discovered it long ago.
"Your Majesty, looking at it this way, could it be that the side consort of Prince Lanhuai's Manor was dissatisfied that the Second Miss Cheng won so much money from her, and thus developed murderous intent?" Xu Heming quickly suggested.
"Put that way, the likelihood of Prince Lanhuai's side consort doing this is indeed higher than the Miss of the Li family," the Grand Princess thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
"Your Majesty, if this matter was truly the doing of the side consort of Prince Lanhuai's Manor, I beseech Your Majesty to give my Cheng family justice." Without a second thought, the Empress knelt directly before Zhu Jingchen and pleaded.
"Rest assured, Empress. If this was truly the doing of Prince Lanhuai's Manor, I will absolutely not tolerate it." Zhu Jingchen did not have much of a relationship with his imperial uncle, Prince Lanhuai.
Although he was his imperial uncle, the late emperor had many brothers, and the true full brothers born of the same mother were long gone.
The only reason he kept Prince Lanhuai around was that the man posed no threat to him, so he simply hadn't bothered to deal with him.
However, if he proved to be ungrateful and ignorant of his place, Zhu Jingchen wouldn't mind taking action against him.
"Your Majesty, I have something to say," Cheng Qingli said, mustering her courage as she recalled the words Li Zhiwei had entrusted to her.
"If you have something to say, Qingli, go ahead." Zhu Jingchen was quite curious about this sister-in-law of his. Normally, her personality was quite lively and unrestrained.
Yet, in front of him, she was incredibly well-behaved.
"Sister Li said to ask Your Majesty to carefully investigate Prince Lanhuai's Manor. After all, the Huo family was originally punished by Your Majesty to be exiled, but he married a daughter of the Huo family. The land deed I won was also taken from that Huo family daughter. Sister Li said there might be some conspiracy between them," Cheng Qingli said, deciding to relay these words after some thought.
"Your Majesty, the Huo family's assets were all confiscated, and the family was sentenced to exile. However, right before the exile, Prince Lanhuai took that Huo family daughter as a side consort. Crimes do not extend to married daughters," Eunuch Liu quickly chimed in from the side.
"Have someone find Shopkeeper Xu and tell him to give you the land deed that Second Miss Cheng gave him today. Prince An, have someone investigate that mountain later." Zhu Jingchen thought to himself, could there be some treasure hidden in that mountain?
At the Li Residence
After Li Zhiwei finished freshening up, she had someone invite the servant girls over.
The six servant girls had already changed into the dresses prepared by the Li family. Standing before Li Zhiwei, they all bowed obediently.
"Dispense with the formalities." Li Zhiwei looked at them and nodded in satisfaction. Dressed in the Li family's attire, they looked much more spirited than they had in their previous clothes.
"Please bestow names upon us, Miss!" Feng Wu stepped forward, bowed to Li Zhiwei, and requested.
After all, now that they had a new master, they could no longer use their old names.
This was also a decision the few of them had made after discussing it.
"If you wish to keep your current names, that is fine too," Li Zhiwei said, looking at them.
After all, their names might hold their own unique stories.
"Please bestow names upon us, Miss!" They exchanged glances and ultimately decided to let Li Zhiwei name them.
Li Zhiwei looked at them, finally nodded, and said.
"I hope that in the future, you will know what your duties are. Therefore, you shall be named with the character Zhi. From now on, you will be called Zhiqin, Zhiqi, Zhishu, Zhihua, Zhiya, and Zhiyi!" Li Zhiwei pointed to Feng Wu, Qin Ya, Qiuyue, Dujuan, Liuzhi, and Cui'er in turn.
"We thank you for the names, Miss!" Hearing this, they quickly bowed to express their gratitude.
"You will stay in the manor for now. If I need anything, I will have someone call for you." Having met them, Li Zhiwei addressed the group.
After all, her shop hadn't opened yet, so she temporarily had no use for them.
However, to run her shop well, just these few people would not be enough.
"Yes!" Not daring to ask too many questions, they all obediently withdrew.
Seeing them leave, Li Zhiwei realized Qingyue hadn't returned yet and asked, "Has Qingyue returned?"
"Miss, Qingyue hasn't returned yet. She should still be in the palace," Qinghua thought for a moment and replied. After all, she didn't think any accidents could happen on a trip to the imperial palace.
Li Zhiwei nodded, thinking that since it wasn't too far from the palace, nothing should go wrong.
"Miss, there is a young lady outside requesting an audience," a servant boy hurried over at that moment, speaking with some hesitation.
"Which family's young lady?"
Li Zhiwei was a bit puzzled; after all, she didn't know many people in the capital.
"It's Miss Zhang from the neighboring family. I already told her it was inconvenient for you, but Miss Zhang has come several times," the servant boy said awkwardly.
"Then I suppose I should meet her." Li Zhiwei frowned. She indeed hadn't visited her two neighbors, but since she had come knocking, it would be rude to refuse again.
After entering the Li residence, Zhang Zifu couldn't help but look around. This Li residence was much larger than her courtyard next door, and every blade of grass and tree here was better than those at her home.
Thinking of this, Zhang Zifu secretly decided that she must build a good relationship with this Miss Li. After all, the Li family had so much money; perhaps just a little bit leaking from her fingers would be enough to let her live a comfortable life.
Besides, she was going to marry Prince An in the future. If she interacted with her more, there would be more opportunities to meet him.
It wasn't impossible for Prince An to take a liking to her.
Her own brother was the second-place winner in the imperial examination, and there were plenty of people who wanted to curry favor with him.
Thinking of this, Zhang Zifu felt a bit more confident.
However, she also felt a bit displeased in her heart. This Miss Li was merely a merchant's daughter. Even if her father was now a second-rank official, so what? Everyone in the capital knew that the position was just bought with silver.
Even if he wore an official's robe, it still couldn't change his past identity as a merchant reeking of copper coins.
Li Zhiwei soon met this Miss Zhang.
From her appearance, she was quite good-looking, but Li Zhiwei had seen many beauties in the capital. The one before her could probably only be called delicate and pretty.
Looking at Li Zhiwei sitting gracefully there, Zhang Zifu was momentarily dumbfounded.
Even though she had heard that this Miss Li was extremely beautiful, seeing her in person still filled her chest with jealousy.
How could this merchant's daughter be so beautiful?
However, remembering her purpose for coming to the Li residence, she deliberately put on a well-behaved expression and gave Li Zhiwei a greeting suitable for peers.
"Miss Li!"
Looking at the woman before her, Li Zhiwei's intuition told her that she and this girl could never be friends.