Noble ladies attending banquets always prepared an extra set of clothing in similar or identical color and style to what they wore, precisely to handle such unexpected situations.

The clothes were carried by their own maids. One only needed to send word to the maids drinking tea outside, and they could change in a room provided by the host family.

This was normally nothing unusual, but thinking of the manor’s successive mishaps with serving maids today, Luo Sheng furrowed her brow.

She wouldn’t naively believe that both serving maids had merely made mistakes.

“When my Fourth Sister goes to change clothes, there won’t be any more maids with slippery hands or slippery feet, will there?” Luo Sheng looked directly at Wei Wen and asked with a smile.

Wei Wen was choked with anger, but could only smile on her face: “How could there be.”

Once or twice was one thing, but if another serving maid caused a mishap, the noble ladies present weren’t deaf or blind—Prince Pingnan’s manor would find it very difficult to remain uninvolved.

No one enjoyed being on edge while visiting someone else’s home.

Moreover, Miss Luo Si was just a concubine-born daughter who hadn’t interfered with her—what benefit would there be in scheming against Miss Luo Si?

“That’s good then.” Luo Sheng returned the smile equally.

The two made eye contact, seemingly polite and courteous, but the atmosphere was somewhat strange.

Luo Qing spoke up: “I’ll accompany Fourth Sister.”

Watching as Luo Qing and Luo Yue were led away by a serving maid, Luo Sheng smiled at Wei Wen: “I’ll stroll through the garden—no need to trouble the County Princess to accompany me.”

“Please, Miss Luo, as you wish.”

Luo Sheng stepped out of the pavilion.

Zhu Hanshuang withdrew her gaze, no longer concealing the disgust in her eyes: “County Princess, look how arrogant she is!”

Wei Wen’s tone was icy: “Isn’t she always like this?”

“But she doesn’t even regard you with any respect.”

Wei Wen gave a cold laugh: “What’s so unusual about that? She has a good relationship with Princess Changle—what am I, a mere County Princess, compared to that?”

Zhu Hanshuang sneered: “She’s just using a chicken feather as an imperial arrow, truly thinking Princess Changle regards her as a close confidante. In my view, in Princess Changle’s eyes, she’s just a cat or dog to relieve boredom and provide amusement.”

Wei Wen walked out gracefully, saying softly: “Even if it’s just to relieve boredom, as long as the Princess still likes her, she can use that chicken feather as an imperial arrow. Moreover, her father is the Grand Commander in charge of the Jinlin Guard. If she disregards propriety and acts unreasonably, others truly can’t do anything about it.”

When it came down to it, Grand Commander Luo was Luo Sheng’s real backing.

As long as Grand Commander Luo remained valued by the Emperor for even one day, Luo Sheng could be arrogant for that day.

But so what if she was arrogant? Even if Grand Commander Luo’s power reached the heavens, he couldn’t force prestigious households to marry his daughter. And if he married his daughter to social climbers who wanted to forge marriage ties with the Grand Commander’s household, there would be even less need to regard such a person.

This was still assuming Luo Sheng could at least marry off while her father held power. If Grand Commander Luo fell from favor one day, Luo Sheng’s fate would probably be worse than even a manor maid’s.

Wei Wen thought coldly about these things and felt somewhat better.

“But I just can’t stand it. She even slaps Miss Chen whenever she wants—what wouldn’t she dare to do? Who knows, maybe one day she’ll bully you too, County Princess.” Zhu Hanshuang spoke as if standing up for Wei Wen, but had other worries in her heart.

With Luo Sheng’s lawless temperament, she had her eye on Prince Kaiyang—what if she made a fuss about marrying Prince Kaiyang?

Grand Commander Luo was the Emperor’s favored subject. What if the Emperor simply agreed?

When that time came, even if she was furious to death, she would be powerless to do anything.

Rather than feel desperate and regretful then, better to find an opportunity now to ruin that wretch and see how she could still set her sights on Prince Kaiyang.

Wei Wen admitted that Zhu Hanshuang’s words made her detest Luo Sheng even more, but she also understood her friend’s thoughts and said indifferently: “Evil people will meet their natural nemesis. I believe such a person won’t be arrogant for too long.”

Since her family moved to the capital, even she as a County Princess couldn’t do as she pleased—why should Luo Sheng be able to?

Zhu Hanshuang reluctantly nodded and raised her hand to shield against the sunlight hitting her face: “The sun is quite strong today. Let’s go walk in that bamboo grove over there.”

Wei Wen casually nodded.

Luo Sheng appeared to wander aimlessly, but secretly committed every object and scene in the garden to memory.

Prince Pingnan’s manor had destroyed her family—this enmity would be avenged sooner or later. Being more familiar with the enemy’s residence could only be beneficial.

Without realizing it, she walked deep into the garden and stopped beside a cluster of peony flowers.

Logically, the peony blooming season had passed, but somehow the manor’s gardeners had used some method—the patch of peonies before her eyes bloomed exceptionally brilliantly.

The flower stems stood nearly a zhang tall, with enormous blossoms, rich and fragrant, truly worthy of the praise “national beauty and heavenly fragrance.”

Luo Sheng couldn’t help but examine them a few more times. Thinking that Luo Qing and the other had been gone for a while and should be returning, she turned to head back.

This patch of peonies had obviously also attracted other noble ladies’ attention. On the return path, she successively encountered people walking this way.

Behind her came the laughter of young ladies.

“Oh, I didn’t expect there would still be peonies in full bloom here. The ones in my family’s garden all withered days ago.”

“Mine too.”

“After all, it’s a Prince’s manor. Every flower and blade of grass may seem ordinary, but actually always has something extraordinary about it.”

“Yes, a Prince’s manor is naturally different.”

“Huh, what’s this? Ah—”

Luo Sheng stopped and turned around at this abrupt scream.

Several noble ladies either retreated or covered their faces, and some fell to the ground in excessive panic. Screams rose one after another.

Luo Sheng didn’t know what had happened and stood in place without moving for the moment.

Soon a noble lady shrieked: “There’s a dead person—”

This shout carried tremendous fear and panic, and quickly drew people rushing over from all directions.

Luo Sheng stepped forward and saw a hand extending out from beneath the peony flowers.

“What happened?” Wei Wen asked as she hurried over.

Several noble ladies were deathly pale, looking as if they’d just barely recovered from shock. One of them said in a trembling voice: “There’s… there’s a dead person beneath the peony flowers!”

Wei Wen’s expression changed immediately, and she blurted out: “Who?”

The several noble ladies cast their gazes on a noble lady who had fallen to the ground.

After hearing the scream, they had only seen one hand before being scared out of their wits—how would they dare look closer?

The noble lady who had fallen was the first to discover the abnormality. At this moment, she was clearly badly frightened and said trembling: “It’s, it’s Miss Chen!”

These words immediately caused a commotion.

The dead person was Miss Chen?

The ladies’ first reaction was that it was impossible.

They might be frightened by encountering a dead person, but deep in their hearts, they had never imagined the deceased would be a noble lady of status equal to theirs.

It wasn’t unusual for prestigious households to occasionally have servants die unnatural deaths. In their thinking, this hand extending from the peony cluster should belong to some servant.

Who would have thought it was actually Miss Chen!

The deceased was one of them—this wasn’t ordinary fear, but great terror.

Under this great terror, some bolder noble ladies couldn’t help but peek.

The owner of that hand lay behind a deep red peony flower, eyes wide open, expression twisted—if not Miss Chen, then who!

That dagger that had taken Miss Chen’s life was thrust right into her chest. Under the bright sunlight, the jewel-encrusted dagger hilt shone brilliantly.