It was almost noon when Wan Yuyao returned to Yongning Palace, and with her were the Seventh Prince Huanan Lin and Nanny Tong who took care of him.

As soon as she entered the warm room, Wan Yuyao couldn't wait to take off her clothes, urging the palace maid to prepare the bath water in the bathroom.

"Quick! Quick! I have to take a bath right now. It's so dirty! Wearing that bi**h's clothes made me get goose bumps."

Wan Yuyao complained and stared at the white underwear on the soft blanket with an expression of resentment.

That dress was exactly the one that Concubine Xu wore before. Wan Yuyao wouldn't have put on it certainly if it hadn't been that Concubine Xu's smell remained on it.

As a mother, she had always been aware that children liked the smell of their mothers most.

If she wanted to get the Seventh Prince, she had to perform well in front of Emperor. The secret weapon that could help her successfully appease the infant was naturally the underwear that had the scent of his mother.

The bathroom was veiled and lit by candlelight.

Wan Yuyao sat in the water of the floating dried flowers. Her plump shoulders were half exposed, her skin was white and soft, and her watery and charming eyes were blurred by the heat in the bucket.

Smelling the scent of flowers deeply, Wan Yuyao closed her eyes intoxicatedly. Lihu was massaging her arms and shoulders behind her.

In the past few days, the plan had been going very smoothly. The things that she wanted were obtained and the person she hated was removed. At this moment, nothing could affect her happy mood!

The woman's lips opened slightly and she murmured then,

"No need to keep that one in Chuxiu Palace anymore. Arrange it and let Ming Lan take action at night."

Lihu stopped the massage and then bowed her head obediently.

"Yes, Your Grace."

"After I finish the bath, ask Nanny Tong to bring those clothes to see me."

"Yes."

In the water vapor, Wan Yuyao stood up suddenly, which caused water waves and the petals swayed.

After lunch, Wan Yuyao sat cross-legged on the goose-yellow silk futon in the Dao Hall and recited Ling Bao Sutra calmly.

Every time she harmed someone, Wan Yuyao would hide into the side palace hall of the Dao Hall, facing the Sanqing Sacred Statue enshrined on the incense table and chanting.

She had the deep-rooted thinking that even if she had done evil things like murder and arson, as long as she was devoted to Dao, the power of the scriptures could help her redeem her from sins.

When Lihu entered the hall, Nanny Tong, a humble woman who breathed cautiously with a stack of children's clothes in her hands, was behind her.

Wan Yuyao got up and sat on the armchair, looking at the clothes in Nanny Tong's hands and smiling coldly.

"Just put the things on the table."

“Yes, Your Grace. Yes, Your Grace."

Nanny Tong looked so anxious and replied at once. When she put the clothes on the square table, her arms were even trembling.

Wan Yuyao checked the number of the clothes quietly. The number was right, so she smiled evilly with satisfaction.

"What is the Seventh Prince doing now?"

"Your... Your Grace, the Seventh Prince... have been sleeping peacefully."

"Well, okay."

Wan Yuyao stared at her intently with shrewdness in her eyes.

This stupid woman didn't know that Xier had added a certain amount of wine to the dried goat milk sticks eaten by the Seventh Prince. And so he slept well certainly.

"Nanny, don't worry. Now that you come with the Seventh Prince to Yongning Palace, I won’t make things difficult for you. As long as you are obedient, besides monthly salary, I will give you extra rewards."

"Yes, yes, I'm your person right now. I'll do what you ask me to do with all my heart. Your Grace, you are Avalokitesvara in the world. I can leave Duanben Hall all because of you. I'm grateful to you so much."

Nanny Tong's heart jumped so quickly. She knelt on her knees and kowtowed again and again, showing her loyalty.

Wan Yuyao was amused by her sincere and fearful look. She turned her hands over, checked her red-stained nails repeatedly with her beautiful eyes, and said in a modulated voice with ulterior motives,

"How can I be Avalokitesvara? I believe in Dao but not Buddhism."

"Sorry, Your Grace."

Nanny Tong almost fainted with fright, cold sweat shedding from her temples.

Wan Yuyao turned her eyes lightly to look at the clothing. Her smiling expression turned somewhat restrained.

"Didn’t you want to know why I asked you to put on these clothes for the Seventh Prince before?"

Nanny Tong trembled and shook her head hard,

"No, no, I know the rules. I won't ask or be curious about it if my master doesn't talk about it."

Wan Yuyao nodded slightly,

"Okay, you are a good slave. As long as you are obedient, I will keep you with the Seventh Prince all the time. Okay, just leave and serve the little master with all your heart."

Nanny Tong bowed and scraped and then stood up. The moment she turned around and went out, she felt that her back was soaked in cold sweat.

Lihu looked at the empty doorway, approached her master, and asked in a low voice,

"Your Grace, what should we do next?"

Wan Yuyao looked at the clothes for children on the table and said casually,

"Find a place without people and burn these clothes together with Concubine Xu's underwear. Keeping them will be a disaster after all..."

Wan Yuyao's pupils suddenly condensed. She raised her delicate eyes and fixed her eyes on the cuffs of a coat.

The suture there was a bit strange. Not only the stitch was too thick, but the color of the suture was also different from other places.

Wan Yuyao hurriedly checked the other clothes. As expected, they had been tampered with in different positions.

She turned so angry with a strong murderous intent in her eyes. Wan Yuyao gritted her teeth,

"Lihu, Nanny Tong should be killed."

...

The dark night was suitable for murder and arson.

Nanny Tong walked on the silent palace road alone. She looked back every several steps to keep an eye on the surroundings.

She came to the gate of the Imperial Ceremony Office cautiously, stretched her neck to look at the closed gate, and then walked closer.

Below the lintel were two unicorn beasts making threatening gestures each with a ball in their mouths.

Nanny Tong fumbled for a long time and finally found a suitable gap between the ball and the throat of the stone beast. She put a cloth bag from the placket of her clothes into it.

A few days ago, when people of Yongning Palace sent some children's new clothes and fifty taels of gold to her secretly, Nanny Tong knew she was in great trouble.

No gains without pains, not to mention it was the Imperial Noble Concubine Wan Yuyao.

If you took money from someone, you always had to do things for him.

Her request was very simple. She asked Nanny Tong to put the Seventh Prince in the new clothes in turn without telling anyone else.

Nanny Tong was humble and didn't dare to ask about the specific reasons, let alone refuse the "reward" of the Imperial Noble Concubine, so she had to obey and follow her words.

In the later days and nights, the Seventh Prince always cried and lost his appetite.

The imperial doctor came and checked his health carefully, but found nothing wrong with him.

Nanny Tong looked at him with distress and thought instinctively that the Seventh Prince's situation must have something to do with the clothes sent from Yongning Palace!

At one night, Nanny Tong found a coat and used scissors to cut the stitches of it. She was dumbfounded the moment she pulled off the lining.

There was a thin layer of cotton between the lining and the outer material. In addition to the suspicious orange powder on it, there were strands of floating silk with a strange appearance mixed with the cotton.

Nanny Tong looked at it for a moment and finally understood that the powder and the floating silk on the cotton were pollen and catkins of the "iron reed".

This kind of iron reed was very rare. It only grew in the poisonous marsh pond in Southern Jiang. Due to the characteristics of the landform, this kind of reed grew actively all year round and never wilted.

The pollen and catkins of the iron reed were toxic. Although it wouldn’t cause redness swelling and ulceration by skin contact, it would make people feel itchy and painful.

There was a way to punish palace maids in the Palace named "wearing iron clothes", which was to force them to wear clothes with pollen and catkins of iron reed in it.

Even adults couldn't bear it, let alone a child who was barely two years old.

Nanny Tong cried badly under the light. She really didn't have the heart to hurt the child. Although he was not her son, she had a deep relationship with him since she had taken care of him for two years. She hated the viciousness of Noble Concubine Wan, but also knew that she would die soon.

After the sadness, Nanny Tong took off a piece of the cotton with pollen and catkins on it and wrote down the fact that she was offered money by the Imperial Noble Concubine and then found that something was wrong with Seventh Princes’ clothes. She then put the piece of cotton and the gold ingot into the cloth bag with the letter.

Thinking that she would be wronged by Yongning Palace when she came to a bad end one day, Nanny Tong decided to hand over this evidence to a reliable person as soon as possible.

However, who should keep this evidence?

After thinking about it, Nanny Tong thought of a person. Only he could fight with Noble Concubine Wan, namely the Commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot, Leng Qingtang.

At night, Nanny Tong took an opportunity to hide the evidence outside the gate of the Imperial Ceremony Office and then fled outside the Palace quickly.

Suddenly, there were someone else's footsteps in the quiet palace road, which sounded so scaring and weird in the quiet night.

Nanny Tong paused, slowed down her steps, and looked back. Five meters behind her was a strange eunuch.

Nanny Tong's face changed drastically. She accelerated her speed and ran, but suddenly a person appeared in front of her. He was exactly the chief eunuch Ren Yi of Yongning Palace. There was a vicious smile on his face,

"Nanny Tong, why don’t you take care of the Seventh Prince at the night? It's so late. Where are you going to?"

"I... I... "

Nanny Tong trembled and stepped back. Her teeth collided violently and she was overcome by unprecedented helplessness and despair.

The eunuch behind her rushed a few steps towards Nanny Tong and blocked her mouth with his palm and then he hit her with a rock in the other hand violently.

Nanny Tong fell to the ground and lost consciousness. Lord Ren bent over, looked at her by the cold moonlight, and said to the eunuch,

"Take her away. Tie a stone to her and sink her into Jinli Lake."

"Yes."