"From what you've said, Mrs. Huang, I assume you must have other matters to discuss with me during this visit?"
As Qiao Meng spoke, Mrs. Huang looked a bit embarrassed.
"Yes, nothing can escape Miss Qiao's notice. Let's sit down and talk."
With the poise of the mistress of the household, she personally poured tea for Qiao Meng.
"Sigh, the other ladies have been pressing me so hard. As Lord Huang's wife, I had no choice but to trouble Miss Qiao myself."
"Please feel free to speak your mind, Mrs. Huang."
"We've all heard about what happened these days. I hope Miss Qiao won't mind my meddling. It's just that everyone thinks the Empress Dowager has gone to great lengths, and it would be better for Miss Qiao to show her some respect."
Hearing this, a flicker of mockery flashed across Qiao Meng's eyes. Well, it's all because Shi Muyuan is the lofty Empress Dowager that these people have the audacity to ask me to back down.
She suppressed her dissatisfaction instead of showing it.
"I assume you think the same as those merchant ladies, don't you, Mrs. Huang?"
Instead of answering directly, she changed the subject and asked about Mrs. Huang's thoughts.
Hearing this, Mrs. Huang was taken aback for a moment and then felt embarrassed.
"If Miss Qiao minds, I'll take my leave now."
"No, no, no. I know the ladies mean well. I've already told the Empress Dowager that I'll follow her arrangements and have no objections. If you don't believe me, you can ask the Empress Dowager."
Of course, no one would dare to ask the Empress Dowager. But now that she had received Qiao Meng's answer, Mrs. Huang quietly felt relieved.
"Miss Qiao is a sensible person. It seems my visit today was unnecessary. By the way, I've been having people prepare some new pastries. If you'd like to try them, you're welcome to come to the kitchen."
"Thank you, Mrs. Huang."
Mrs. Huang left with a smiling face and told everyone about this. Everyone was looking forward to how things would develop next.
After Mrs. Huang left, Qiao Meng quietly slipped out of the Huang Mansion under the cover of night. After several turns, she arrived at a small alley.
She noticed the figures moving in the dark and her eyes darkened.
"How's the preparation going? Try to act as soon as possible. Otherwise, all our efforts will be in vain."
"Don't worry, Miss Qiao. We're still waiting for the others to arrive. Once everyone is here and we have enough manpower, we'll go get the things."
"Okay, then it's up to you to make the arrangements. I'll try to buy some more time."
"All right."
...
Time flew by, and half a month passed in a blink of an eye. It had already been a long time since they arrived in Jincheng. If they continued to stay here, they might not be able to return to Changjing City until the end of the year.
Cui Qizhou thought for a while and then took the initiative to visit the young lady who had been refusing visitors for a long time.
"How much longer does the Empress Dowager need to call back the eldest young master to settle this matter? We've already wasted a lot of time here. We can't keep dragging it on. Changjing City is waiting for us to go back."
Shi Muyuan knew that it wasn't a good idea to keep delaying. After thinking for a while, she said, "Well, three days from now, we'll settle this matter in public. This will also put everyone's minds at ease."
"Okay, I'll follow the Empress Dowager's instructions."
As soon as Cui Qizhou left, two figures walked into the room.
"Little sister, I guess you can't keep dragging this on any longer. Have you made all the decisions?"
"That depends on how much information big brother has found out. Otherwise, how can we stage this play?"
"We should be able to find the whereabouts of those people in the next few days."
The two were discussing what would happen three days later when they didn't expect that something unexpected would happen before then.
On the eve of the settlement, Xiao Xiao rushed into her mistress's room in a panic.
"Something terrible has happened, Empress Dowager."
"What's the matter? Are you so panicked that you think the sky is falling?"
"It's even more serious than that. All the gold, silver, and jewels in our storeroom have been stolen. It's completely empty."
"Tomorrow is the day when we're supposed to settle this matter in public. For something like this to happen at this time, there must be someone behind it pulling the strings."
Just as the man walked in, he heard the last sentence, and a flicker of doubt flashed across his eyes.
"Does the Empress Dowager know who's behind the disappearance of the gold, silver, and jewels? If so, it's better to tell us as soon as possible."
Shi Muyuan came back to her senses, rolled her eyes, and changed the subject.
"You must have misheard, Grand Tutor. You came here because you wanted to ask me to go and take a look at the storeroom, right?"
"That's right."
"Then let's go quickly. We don't want any clues to be destroyed."
Based on the crime - solving shows she watched in modern times, there's no such thing as a perfect crime in this world. There must be some traces left at every crime scene. Maybe she could use them to catch the person behind it.
The man didn't think much of it when he saw Shi Muyuan being so proactive and quickly followed her.
When they arrived at the storeroom, they saw an empty room. Yes, everything in the storeroom had been ransacked, including the decorations.
Shi Muyuan twitched the corner of her mouth and couldn't help but sigh, "This technique is really professional. It seems they've done this before."
No one understood the first half of her sentence, but everyone understood the second half.
"Does the Empress Dowager have any unique insights?"
"No, I'm just a bit curious since it's the first time I've seen such a scene."
As she spoke, she kept scanning the ground with her eyes, hoping to find something amiss.
As luck would have it, she found a jade pendant in a corner.
The jade pendant was lying quietly on the ground, looking rather out of place in the empty storeroom.
Seeing Shi Muyuan pick up the jade pendant from the ground, Cui Qizhou slowly approached her. "The position of this jade pendant is really strange. Could it be that those people left it on purpose?"
As he said this, he reached out his hand to take the jade pendant from the young lady, but she dodged his hand.
"What are you doing, Empress Dowager?"
"I think this jade pendant is rather suspicious. I'd like to take a look at it first. Grand Tutor, you can have it after I'm done."
There was nothing wrong with what she said, and no one suspected anything.
Only Xiao Xiao, who had been by her mistress's side for a long time, noticed something was off.
Normally, her mistress never took the initiative to get involved in such matters. But today, not only did she get involved, but she also refused to let go of the jade pendant. Her look at the jade pendant was also rather strange.
Could there be some hidden secret? She decided that she must ask her mistress about it when they got back.