While Bai Lianhua was consuming brain cells to understand Feng Minyan's schemes, Long Aotian was also preoccupied at Li Zhenzhen's courtyard. In his opinion, Li Zhenzhen was actually the best looking woman in his house and the person he felt most comfortable with. On top of that, she has earth-shattering luck - almost comparable to a heroine in a novel. Even though they have been married for almost 5 years, he hasn't been able to absorb all her luck.
His mind also strayed back to Bai Lianhua and the charming look that she gave him on their wedding day. He didn't know how her affection for him had decreased but he knew that he needed to win her back quickly.
"System, can you lend me a charm prop?"
The system ridiculed Long Aotian: "No! You're already a million points in debt - the luck you've absorbed barely pays the debts you have. I cannot lend you any more props. Just use your current charm and change tactics. I remember that before you acted as the taciturn but kind official and you helped Fang Lianhua solve many difficulties. Maybe now that you're married, you should show be more romantic and suave. I've heard that women often like that kind of heart-racing passionate love."
Li Zhenzhen noticed that her husband was in a daze and she hurriedly offered some freshly baked osmanthus cakes. "Msang-gong, these cakes were just made in the small kitchen. Please eat some!"
In fact, Long Aotian didn't like sweet cakes but he lied to Li Zhenzhen that he did and this caused the current situation. He forced the sweet cake down his throat and then suppressed the nausea that came with it. "It's very nice! Did you make it yourself?" Li Zhenzhen blushed and nodded. He stroked her hands that were dirty because of soot and said some generic romantic words.
"Msang-gong~ Will you be staying here tonight?"
Long Aotian nodded and then took Li Zhenzhen to the inner room. All the maidservants withdrew and the last one to leave closed the door. He stood and spread his arms and Li Zhenzhen took off his outer robes and inner layer. Long Aotian grasped her waist and then they went to bed. He made sure to be gentle because Li Zhenzhen was two months pregnant - it was a critical time and any big movements may cause her to lose her baby.
Li Zhenzhen's dowry maid Xiaoyue heard the movements inside and smiled. She looked right and then left to make sure no one was watching her. Then she walked past an abandoned courtyard and took a turn in an inconspicuous place. No one saw her disappear at all. She walked along the dark path for about 10 minutes and arrived at another abandoned courtyard. This courtyard was even worse than the one before - there was no door and there were weeds on the ground in various places. There was also a thick layer of dust on all the furniture and some dirty clothes that no one bothered to pick up.
Xiaoyue put two pieces of special paper in a gap in the wall and blew a small whistle. This whistle made a special sound that alerted her ally. She then quickly left the place and went to the kitchen to eat dinner. All of this was done within the span of 20 minutes and she arrived just as the other maids from Li Zhenzhen's courtyard were arriving for dinner.
--
Bai Lianhua gave up trying to think so much and resolved to find Li Zhenzhen the next day. At least, she would warn her in advance about Feng Minyan's plans. Whatever happened later would be none of her business.
Of course, she knew that she would still have to guard against Li Zhenzhen just in case she also decided to deal with her using this incident.
The next day, she asked her dowry maid to give her a list of the dowry she brought into the house. Checking the list, she noticed that she had the odourless musk in her dowry. This was a big red flag for her because Feng Minyan could use this to frame her. She couldn't trust anyone in her yard so she asked the system for help. "System, is there anything in the mall that guarantees someone's loyalty?"
The system snorted: "Remember, l told you that whatever you don't buy before the mission isn't available during the mission. Besides, there is a function that you haven't used yet - a favorability panel. You can use this to see whether the maid likes you enough to do the tasks you want her to do."
Bai Lianhua checked the side of the normal system panel and sure enough, there was a tab for favorability. She pulled it up and checked on all the maids in her courtyard. What was shocking was that the maid who usually brought her dinner had the highest favorability! It was even higher than her dowry maids'. So, Bai Lianhua called her after she'd finished eating breakfast and sent her to move the odourless musk to Wen Lili's courtyard.
"Niang, I remember that Wen Lili had a pot of chrysanthemums near her sitting area. I'll drop the musk there!" Bai Lianhua didn't ask how she would do it and just left everything to her. Meanwhile, she also sent her dowry maid to buy some common musk whilse she personally changed her dowry list. Her plan was to replace the odourless musk with the common musk. If Li Zhenzhen had an accident, the culprit couldn't be her since by that time, she wouldn't own any odourless musk. Then, she can frame Wen Lili for this and also pull Feng Minyan into it since Wen Lili doesn't own any odourless musk.
She planned to visit Wen Lili superficially and leave the note Feng Minyan sent her in an inconspicuous place.
She made sure to attend the morning meeting but had nothing much to say or do during the meeting. She just stood and watched the concubines stab each other painfully with vicious words.
While she wasn't paying attention, Wang Xiuying suddenly asked: "How are you feeling today, Aunt Fang? Yesterday, the master..." But those unspoken words let Bai Lianhua know that Wang Xiuying was gloating at her apparent lack of favour. Still, she replied calmly: "The master makes his own decisions." Then she smiled and glanced meaningfully at Wang Xiuying's belly and didn't say anything. Wang Xiuying also smiled but she looked a little pale and she was scolding Bai Lianhua in her mind. 'Tch! Pretentious bitch!'
Li Zhenzhen cut in and tried to remedy the situation: "Sisters, there's no need to ask. The master was with me yesterday!" Then she proceeded to knead her waist and her eyebrows furrowed at the soreness of her muscles. These statements attracted a lot of hate from all the other concubines but Bai Lianhua seemed more concerned about the colour of her nails.
Wen Lili complained and asked Li Zhenzhen to be more gracious to the concubines. "This concubine hasn't seen the master for many days!" She even lowered her head and wiped the corners of her tear-filled eyes. Bai Lianhua couldn't resist rolling her eyes. Feng Minyan caught onto this movement and exposed her: "Aunt Fang, what do you think?"