I want to make progress

Chapter 132 Fishing in troubled waters
Shu Yunfu didn't know how far the old Duke and his men would go, but she knew that these were no longer things she could interfere with. However, the recent events in the capital city gave her a bad feeling, as if a storm was about to come. The old Duke of England was playing such a big game, and he must have a big agenda.

She doesn't care what others do, and she can't care. It's not her turn to manage the Duke of England's Mansion, and she doesn't have the ability to do so. What she is thinking about is whether she can find a way to seize opportunities in such a chaotic situation and achieve her small goals. If she is bolder, maybe she can... touch the person who has never been able to touch her!
So when everyone was busy, Yuyan was sent out by her.

However, Shu Yunfu did not expect that she was just trying to fish in troubled waters, and she was caught just as she started to do so.

When night fell, when she was blocked by Gu Changting in a remote room and asked what she had sent Yuyan to do, she realized how strict the Duke of Ying's Mansion was now.

Gu Changting's imposing aura and his face that looked like it was about to storm made Shu Yunfu tremble with fear. She hurriedly explained, fearing that the man would think that she had evil intentions and was going to betray the Duke of Yingguo's Mansion, which would be a big misunderstanding.

But she couldn't tell the man that she wanted to cheat the Duke of Huguo's Mansion, so she could only hook her arms around the man's neck, act coquettishly, and seduce him, asking him to be gentle with her.

"I'm not a fool. What good can I get from harming the Duke's Mansion? Moreover, even if I really have evil intentions, I won't be stupid enough to let Yuyan tip me off so blatantly."

She pouted her red lips, grasped the man's front with one hand, and poked the man's chest with the other hand, her face full of displeasure, "I really want to cheat the Duke's Mansion, I won't be so useless!"

After some banter, the vigilance in Gu Changting's eyes was dispelled, and he hugged the woman in front of him and held her in his arms.

However, the two people who were so affectionate didn't notice that at all. Their ambiguous entanglement was seen by a pair of beautiful eyes. A person outside the door covered his lips tightly, tears streaming down his face. The anger and hatred in his eyes almost burned everything out.

Although she managed to fool Gu Changting, she also knew that he didn't completely believe in her, and the same would be true for her.

She shouldn't have moved at this time, but this was a rare opportunity. If she missed it, she wouldn't know when she would have the chance to meet that person again. She really didn't want to miss this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Judging from the news brought back by Yuyan, the old Duke of England is indeed playing a big game of chess. On the chessboard is not only the entire Duke of England's mansion, but also the entire court. The chessboard is frighteningly large.

The Duke of Yingguo's Mansion has occupied a pivotal position since the founding of Dayong. It holds not only part of the military power, but also a powerful shadow guard.

The military power is under the control of the old dukes themselves, but this shadow guard was handed over to the Duke of Ying's Mansion by the founding emperor when Dayong was founded. This is a layer of protection left by Dayong's Taizu Emperor to every subsequent emperor.

Of course, although this shadow guard is in the hands of the Duke of England and is under his command, their highest responsibility is to protect the emperor and take action in the emperor's critical moments to ensure the emperor's safety.

However, as time went by, this secret guard became a fear in the emperor's heart. The emperor was worried that this secret guard would completely become the private property of the Duke of Ying's Mansion, so he relied on the Duke of Ying's Mansion but was also very wary of it. The old Duke of Ying knew the emperor's fear, so he kept a low profile over the years. This secret guard would not easily appear in front of people, in order to reduce the emperor's speculation about the Duke of Ying's Mansion.

With such a secret guard in his hands, every move of the Duke of Ying's Mansion is in the eyes of the emperor. Such an act of faking death cannot be hidden from the emperor. It seems that the emperor is also a very important player in this plan.

Shu Yunfu was unaware of the various conflicts between the Duke of England's Mansion and the Emperor, but when the old Duke of England passed away, news came from the palace that the Emperor would come to the Mansion in person to pay tribute. She knew that this plan was inseparable from the Emperor, and perhaps the center of this plan was the Emperor.

She, Shu Yunfu, is just a small person, so small that she doesn't even have the qualification to be on the chessboard. But even ants can bite elephants to death. Now the elephant that she, the ant, is targeting is on the chessboard. How can she remain indifferent?

The old Duke's funeral was held in a grand manner. From morning till night, people kept coming to pay their respects. This was expected. After all, given the current status of the Duke of England's Mansion, there were many people who wanted to climb up to the Duke of England's Mansion.

But this also created a problem: there were too many visitors and everyone was too busy.

Fortunately, Shu Yunfu was just Gu Changheng's concubine. Even if there were many guests, she, a concubine of low status, was not qualified to entertain them. Even Aunt Zhou and Aunt Zhao were not as good as her. She became the most idle person in the mansion. But it was also a good thing, as it gave her the opportunity to complete her plan.

Winter comes earlier in the north than in the south. Shu Yunfu, who has been a southerner for two lifetimes, spent her first winter in the north. She made a wrong estimate. When everyone was burning charcoal for heating, her Yizhuxuan did not have charcoal ready.

As the mistress of the Duke of Ying's mansion, she didn't need to worry about a lack of charcoal. But she was only a concubine of the second room, so the things she could get were the worst except for the servants. And now it happened to be the funeral of the old Duke, so a lot of charcoal was all given to the front. As a humble concubine, she could only be the last one in line.

However, no matter how much she didn't care, she was still very unhappy after seeing the small bag of charcoal she was given. When she lit the charcoal and found that the thick smoke almost choked her to death, she couldn't bear it anymore. Is this usable?
There was not enough charcoal and it was of poor quality. Shu Yunfu could no longer bear it and asked someone to take some money to go out and buy some. The charcoal distributed by the government was too bad, so she thought it would be okay for her to pay for it out of her own pocket.

Although she was from the south and didn't have much idea about how cold the winter in the north was, she knew that people could be frozen to death in the north without heating, and that life in the capital without charcoal fire could be fatal.

What surprised Shu Yunfu was that when she asked someone to buy charcoal, the person could go out but could not bring anything in. The reason was that it was a special period now and there were many people in the mansion. For safety reasons, no one in the mansion was allowed to buy things from outside and bring them into the mansion for any reason.

If we don't mention that this was actually a setup, even if it was just a funeral, this reason would be quite reasonable.

When asked again, they said that they were allowed to come and go freely, but they were not allowed to bring anything into the house. This was already a great leniency, and special treatment was given at special times.