At night, twilight enveloped the capital.

The lights in the streets lit up one after another, and the seemingly prosperous and peaceful imperial city was already permeated by subtle undercurrents.

The high walls of the Prime Minister's Mansion are solemn, and the internal and external secret guards are hidden among the shadows of the trees in the corners of the corridors, holding their breath and keeping watch silently.After being fortified throughout the day, the entire mansion was so impregnable that not even a flying insect could enter or leave at will.

The candlelight in Tinglan Courtyard was warm and soft, but it could not illuminate the tense atmosphere in the room.

Shen Qingyuan sat quietly by the window, her fingertips gently touching the skirt of Zangyu's clothes.Liu's words before his death, "Jade is not a treasure, blood is its root" have always been lingering in my heart, and every word is shocking.

She finally fully understood that she had never been involved in conflicts for no reason.

From the moment the biological mother settled in the Shen family anonymously, from the time the black jade pendant was passed down from generation to generation, this pursuit and hiding that spanned decades was already doomed.

But in her previous life, no one told her or protected her, so she died in ignorance and became an abandoned piece in the chess game.

In this life, the layers of fog are peeling away. She has the opportunity and will never be manipulated by others again.

Xiao Yuci sat aside, flipping through the secret report sent by the secret guard with his fingertips, his dark eyes as cold as abyss.

"We have been investigating all day today. There are as many as thirty secret agents who have sneaked into the capital. They are all hiding in the city. They are not making trouble or spying on military affairs. They are only looking for two things - the past events of your biological mother and the whereabouts of the black jade pendant."

Their goals are precise and they only come for blood and tokens.

Shen Qingyuan raised his eyes and said softly: "They don't dare to attack the Prime Minister's Mansion. Firstly, they are afraid of your military power, and secondly, they have not yet determined whether the bloodline really belongs to me, so they dare not completely break up. Now they only dare to test in secret and wait for an opportunity to spy."

An Pavilion has a century-old heritage and is the best at forbearing and forbearing, never fighting an uncertain battle.

Xiao Yuci nodded: "So they will definitely send someone to visit. Pretending to get married and reminiscing about old times, they are actually testing the situation."

As soon as he finished speaking, the steward quickly walked in with a respectful and cautious expression:

"Your Majesty, the eldest lady, a scholar in plain clothes came outside the house. He claimed to be an old acquaintance of the mistress. He had been wandering for many years and returned to the capital. He came here to pay homage to the mistress and wanted to see the eldest lady."

Coming.

The two of them looked at each other with clear coldness in their eyes.

How can there be such a coincidental old friend in the world?

After dormant for more than ten years, there was no news, but at the critical moment when Liu died and the secret pavilion surfaced, he came back from thousands of miles away.

He was clearly an envoy carefully selected by the Ange, pretending to be an old friend, and came to explore the situation.

Xiao Yuci said calmly: "Tell him to come in. Monitor him the whole time. He is not allowed to touch anything in the house, and he is not allowed to be alone for even half a step."

"Yes."

Not long after, a thin and elegant figure slowly stepped into Tinglan Courtyard.

The man is in his early thirties, wearing plain clothes, with gentle eyebrows and an elegant temperament. He looks like a scholar who is full of poems and books, and he can't find any flaws.He bowed and saluted, with the right amount of nostalgia and humility in his eyebrows.

"Su Wen was born late. He was kindly taken care of by Mistress Shen when he was young. He has been living in a foreign land for many years. He returned to Beijing today and came here to pay homage to his old friend and visit the eldest lady."

The etiquette is thorough and the words are sincere. If you are an ordinary boudoir woman, you will definitely believe it.

But Shen Qingyuan has experienced two turmoils in his life and has already seen through all the disguises.There was a faint smile on the corner of her lips, but there was no warmth in her eyes. She responded lightly: "Sir, you have come all the way from afar. You are very considerate."

Su Wen's eyes seemed to be casually sweeping across the courtyard, but in fact his eyes were wandering secretly, carefully exploring the aura around her body, searching for traces of the jade pendant, and chatting gently: