The painting depicted a scaled-down drawing of Duke Chen’s residence, with a notation beside it: Duke Chen’s Residence.

After Duke Chen’s residence was drawn in miniature, at a glance it looked exactly like the regular script character for “dragon.” The Great Zhou was popular with regular script, and Emperor Delong wrote excellent regular script, particularly favoring writing the character “dragon.” Ministers also took pride in receiving the character “dragon” personally bestowed by Emperor Delong.

But for the Chen family residence to be arranged like the character “dragon”—what did this mean?

This was plotting to usurp the throne!

No wonder Emperor Delong wanted Zhao Quansheng to lead people to thoroughly investigate the Chen family.

Duke Chen cried out: “Your Majesty, this subject is utterly loyal. Censor Zhao is deliberately creating trouble! The Chen family residence is not like this at all. Please, Your Majesty, investigate clearly!”

Censor Zhao said: “Duke Chen, don’t rush to cry injustice. This diagram was drawn by the habitual thief who stole from your house—it wasn’t drawn by me.”

Duke Chen was both urgent and angry, but no matter what else he said, or what the Fifth Prince said, Emperor Delong’s darkly grim face looked ready to rain. He threw the items on his desk and actually walked straight away.

The ministers looked at each other—did this count as dismissing court, or not?

…

The next day.

Princess Yongjia had someone send over an invitation, inviting Qin Shuying to visit for conversation.

When Qin Shuying arrived at the Princess’s residence, Princess Yongjia was reading upstairs.

Qin Shuying, as usual, didn’t disturb Princess Yongjia and just read books where she normally did. After reading for a while, she noticed someone beside her. Princess Yongjia’s beautiful eyes were looking at her. “Why are you targeting Zhou Li?”

Qin Shuying was stunned.

Although she was on good terms with Princess Yongjia and even knew Princess Yongjia’s secret, she had never thought to tell Princess Yongjia about these hidden matters of her own.

The imperial family had many conflicts—she avoided as much as she could.

“Could it be that she asked you to do this?”

Qin Shuying was stunned again. “Your Highness, who are you referring to?”

“Isn’t it so?”

Qin Shuying shook her head. “Your Highness, this subject’s wife doesn’t know what you mean.”

Princess Yongjia stared at her for quite a while before finally smiling. “If it’s not so, then what is this for? The Chen family was turned completely upside down yesterday. This morning they still haven’t finished counting the wealth and possessions—it’s said that even three more days and nights wouldn’t be enough to register and catalog everything. Combined with that seemingly accurate dragon character, the Chen family is completely finished. Noble Consort De has been kneeling outside His Majesty’s study for a full day. His Majesty won’t see her, and Noble Consort De finally couldn’t hold on this morning and fainted. This palace consort is curious—how did you manage to get those jewelry pieces into the Chen family?”

Qin Shuying remained silent.

How had she managed to get those jewelry pieces into the Chen family’s treasury? A family like the Chen family, prosperous and wealthy for nearly a hundred years, living in luxury and splendor with treasures everywhere—their treasury would naturally be heavily guarded inside and out.

People thought of things too complexly. The more such families existed, the fiercer their internal struggles became, especially the struggles among those stewards and servants—they were absolutely heated.

Buying off one or two people and offering them benefits beyond their imagination made sending these jewelry pieces in easier than anything.

When a great building is about to collapse, the ants flee first.

With countless internal parasites, no matter how shrewd Duke Chen was, he couldn’t manage every aspect or every corner. Especially with a Duke’s wife who, like Noble Consort De, had always harbored great ambitions—the rear courtyard was even more chaotic.

“Your Highness, the Chen family brought this upon themselves. The Chen family has been prominent for decades. Although they have many talented people, they also have no shortage of people like Third Master Chen. It’s said that the Chen family has accumulated so much wealth, much of it through improper means. Today, people have already impeached the Chen family for selling offices and titles, oppressing the weak, living in excessive luxury, forced buying and selling—all sorts of evidence, too numerous to list.”

The items confiscated from Duke Chen’s residence were breathtaking: a jade longevity Buddha three feet six inches tall, a jade Guanyin three feet eight inches tall, a jade horse four feet three inches long and two feet eight inches tall… not to mention Eastern pearls the size of longans, pearl bracelets, and rubies and sapphires measured by the pound—it was simply dazzling.

Just like the former Marquis Pingxi’s residence, the size of the estate and the abundance of wealth were breathtaking. Liang Zhe felt like a thorn in his back and only managed to move out by using the opportunity to scheme against Old Madam Liang.

Even so, the Marquis Pingxi’s residence didn’t have this much wealth.

Ever since deciding to fight Zhou Li to the end, Qin Shuying had been planning what method to use for revenge. Zhou Li was very shrewd—getting hold of his weaknesses was easier said than done. Qin Shuying pondered for a long time without figuring out any approach.

Once, when Qin Shuying and Ziteng went out, they happened to encounter Third Master Chen talking with someone on the street. Ziteng covered her face and wept bitterly with hatred. Qin Shuying understood something and at that moment hated so much her teeth chattered.

Zhou Li and Third Master Chen were actually shameless to this extent!

The Chen family aided the tyrant—she would mercilessly bring down this butcher’s blade!

From that time on, Qin Shuying had a plan. First, she had Mi Luo send people to gradually buy off people inside Duke Chen’s residence, gather information, collect useful intelligence, and so on.

Subsequently, she personally drew this map and had people scatter it where a habitual thief would pass.

What followed happened naturally.

However, this Censor Zhao wasn’t directed by Qin Shuying, but was Zhou Qin’s doing.

…

“With the Chen family’s fall, Zhou Li will surely be thrown into chaos. Sigh, this child also grew up under this palace consort’s watch. This palace consort doesn’t want him to walk a path of no return.”

Qin Shuying remained silent. This was imperial family business—she had no position to comment.

Emperor Delong was determined to put the Crown Prince on the throne. Since Zhou Li could see this clearly but still wasn’t resigned and insisted on obtaining the firearm in her hands, this was clearly the rhythm of making big trouble.

With the Chen family in trouble, Zhou Li would probably still go down this path to the bitter end.

Then, she might as well give him another push.

It didn’t matter. Although Emperor Delong was suspicious, he was indeed a kindhearted emperor. When the Kang family had such troubles, Consort Kang was kept in the cold palace, and the Seventh Prince was released. Although he no longer had power and influence, he was much better off than ordinary people.

If Zhou Li insisted on making big trouble, Emperor Delong would probably spare his life.

Ziteng had suffered such humiliation back then—wasn’t she still alive? Zhou Li had enjoyed a lifetime of glory and wealth—this life was already worthwhile.

Moreover, he had twice sent people to conduct night raids on the Liang family. This account had to be settled with him properly.

After thinking, Qin Shuying asked: “Your Highness, what you meant earlier was that the Empress asked Ziyu to deal with Zhou Li?”

Princess Yongjia nodded. “This palace consort originally guessed so, but it seems she didn’t ask you to do anything. This palace consort was narrow-minded, thinking that since she’s finally willing to show herself, it was for the Crown Prince, and she wouldn’t hesitate to use any means. Now it seems His Majesty probably wanted to move against the Chen family long ago—he just lacked a suitable opportunity. That jade longevity Buddha in the Chen family that’s three feet six inches tall—His Majesty’s study has one that’s barely three feet tall, actually inferior to the Chen family’s.”