Do Not Offend the Reborn Wicked Wife-Chapter 313: Entering the Palace Again!

The Mid-Autumn Festival is approaching, and the weather is gradually cooling down. However, at noon, the sun is still blazing hot, scorching the earth, and it seems as if white smoke is rising from the ground.

In front of the Xieji Restaurant, a carriage slowly comes to a stop.

A burly man with a bushy beard jumps off the carriage, throws the reins onto the carriage board, and then walks inside.

"Shopkeeper, five jars of the finest Yuan Hong Wine!"

He said broadly, then stood aside, waiting for the attendant to carry them out.

The owner of Xieji Restaurant responded, and shortly after, an attendant came out holding the wine jars.

These jars were loaded onto the carriage one by one, and the bearded man left afterwards.

A shadow appeared in the corner of the street, staring at the carriage, its figure ghostly, following along.

The carriage continued forward, detouring around the bustling Zhuque Street, and winding through narrow alleys before finally exiting the city gate, heading towards the northeast outskirts.

This is a lush forest area, where sunlight falls on the tree branches and leaves, casting small round holes in the projections, and leaves were scattered across the muddy path.

The carriage continued moving until a small courtyard appeared ahead. It looked very rundown; the paint on the wooden door had peeled off, showing its age.

The carriage stopped here, and the door of the courtyard opened, with two other men coming out, both very burly and strong-looking.

Each of them took two jars of wine and went inside, one of them cursing: "Why not buy more at once? Every time I purchase these, won’t I be exhausted to death?"

"No way, buying too much will easily arouse suspicion," the other said.

"When will we act?"

"There hasn’t been any order from above yet, we just stockpile the wine here!"

"Damn it, how long do we have to wait? I miss women!"

"Hahaha..."

Then there was a burst of laughter.

Behind a big tree, the tree’s shadow swayed for a moment, and the shadow disappeared.

...

General Mansion.

"Are you sure you didn’t hear wrong?"

Long Yue was half reclining in a wicker chair, but upon hearing this, she sat upright, looking at the shadow across with extreme seriousness.

"I didn’t miss a word, that’s exactly what they said!"

The shadow was Qingming. Even though Qi Jingyu came, these two still stayed beside Long Yue, awaiting her commands.

Qingming, with his ghostly presence and superb Qinggong skills, once he focuses on someone, it’s nearly impossible for them to figure out they’re being tracked.

Li Qingmu was painting nearby when he heard this, raising his head with a cold smile: "Are they planning to make Xieji Restaurant a scapegoat?"

Stockpiling wine, and it’s specifically Yuan Hong Wine from Xieji Restaurant — this surely isn’t an attempt at framing. If they wanted to frame, there wouldn’t be the need to go to such trouble. This only suggests that they’re planning something with this batch of wine, and intending to pass the blame to Xieji Restaurant.

But what exactly do they plan to do with this wine?

Li Qingmu pondered while painting, accidentally letting the ink from the brush drip onto the white rice paper, causing the liquid to spread and ruin the completed patterns at the edge.

Looking at the ruined painting beneath his brush, Li Qingmu shook his head slightly, tore up the painting, and burned it.

"Keep watching."

"Yes!"

Qingming went out, and Long Yue came to his side. This man had been painting for days, depicting courtyard scenes, but the lines were chaotic, making it impossible to decipher what he was drawing.

Long Yue stepped forward to inquire about it.

"A map," Li Qingmu said. "I’m drawing the entire layout of the Imperial Palace, but I haven’t been to some places, so it’s difficult to depict."

The Imperial Palace is divided into the previous dynasty and the harem, and the harem isn’t a place one can stride into freely. Even at Empress Dowager Xue’s birthday banquet last time, officials were confined to a very small area, and those concubines’ palaces weren’t seen at all.

Li Qingmu wanted to draw the layout map of the Imperial Palace, which is indeed somewhat challenging.

"You draw the front part; I’ll tell you the layout of the back part!"

Long Yue had been to the harem; before, Consort Xue had called her once, and Empress Dowager Xue also invited her once, hence she remembered some parts.

But Li Qingmu shook his head: "No, it has to be very detailed; half-truth isn’t usable."

"Why do you need this?"

"I’m wondering what path they would take if they wanted to assassinate the Emperor. Within the Imperial Palace, the harem side is actually easiest to enter and exit."

Upon thinking, Long Yue realized that’s indeed the case!

But she knew that the other party wouldn’t use the harem route, and would instead enter openly as the Da Liang Envoy.

But she couldn’t say this.

No!

Suddenly, Long Yue realized a problem.

In her previous life, the Da Liang Envoy tried to assassinate the Emperor with a weapon hidden inside a wine jar, so to prevent it, they must act before the jar is opened. Once the weapon is drawn, it would be too late.

And the wine itself is hidden in the harem...

It seems creating a layout map of the Imperial Palace is quite necessary, not just for this instance of the envoy assassination attempt, but also for future use.

"I can go to the Imperial Palace again and memorize the arrangements inside, then tell you when I return."

"But there’s no reason, how would you go?"

"What do you mean no reason? Isn’t Chang Lexi and A shao involved romantically? I imagine Consort Xue is quite attentive to her niece, right? Would she ignore her lifelong affairs?"

Long Yue recalled the argument she had with Chang Lexi at an inn, causing her to lose face. Consort Xue later tried to entrap her but ended up suffering instead.

This clearly shows that the Chang Family members are protective, and the Third Prince is extremely so.

Li Qingmu pondered for a while and said: "But the Imperial Palace is full of dangers."

Long Yue chuckled lightly: "Don’t worry, there won’t be any immediate danger. At this point, the other party doesn’t want unnecessary complications."

"Let Qingming follow you."

"Is that appropriate?"

Qingming said from the side: "Master, there are people from Yulong Pavilion in the Imperial Palace; it’s difficult for me to follow."

Impossible?

Li Qingmu frowned: "Then you be careful."

"Mm!"

Long Yue then sought out Chang Lexi, casually speaking a few words, and soon news from the Imperial Palace arrived — Consort Xue was looking for her.

In fact, Consort Xue had long wanted to cause trouble for Long Yue; she had suffered multiple times at her hands. Not to mention the incident in the Imperial Garden, last spring hunt went awry and as yet no culprits had been identified.

Though the matter was unrelated to them, the Emperor still vented his anger on her, requiring her to transcribe Buddhist scriptures a hundred times, only now completing them.

After finishing her tasks, Consort Xue turned around only to hear her niece complaining about enjoying the company of Long Yue’s nephew, Cao Xiao, infuriating her.

Unable to confront Chang Lexi, she decided to trouble Long Yue.

Following a palace maid, Long Yue walked slowly, carefully observing and memorizing the layout of the Imperial Palace’s harem along the way.

"Hey, walk this way. Where are you going?"

Long Yue detoured slightly, and the palace maid immediately halted her.

Long Yue said: "Just saw a mouse run by, wanted to catch it for my nephew to play with."

"Mouse?"

Upon hearing the word mouse, the palace maid’s face turned ashen: "Such filthy mice, what’s there to catch? Hurry up, don’t keep the Imperial Concubine waiting!"

Long Yue mumbled a bit and followed slowly.

At Feixue Palace, Chang Wenxue was leisurely sipping tea — a premium Bi Luo Chun — whose leaves unfurled to reveal an emerald green broth, fragrant and inviting.

Chang Wenxue took a gentle sip and heard a report from outside: "Imperial Concubine, Lady Jiao is here!"