Reincarnated as the daughter of my mortal enemy, all I want is to ascend the throne.

The night Li Qingyan visited Hui Niang, Hui Niang suddenly fell ill and died.

When Li Qingyan heard the news, she was still having lunch, having argued with Li Yan over a piece of sweet cake. Li Yan pressed his finger against her forehead, "Stop thrashing around like a drowning dog."

"Don't you even look how fat you are? You still want to eat sweets."

"Be careful not to get mistaken for a wild boar and captured one day."

Today, Li Qingyan wore her hair in two buns tied with light blue ribbons, adorned with a few pale blue flowers. She wore a light blue robe, with matching cuffs embroidered with golden rabbits, tied tightly around the cuffs for martial arts practice.

Li Yan sat beside her, dressed similarly, with only a jade hairpin in her hair bun. The hairpin was carved with a rabbit pounding medicine, which made Li Yan appear much gentler.

Taking advantage of Li Yan's inattention, Li Qingyan grabbed his hand and tried to bite it.

At this moment, Su Xue rushed in. "Your Majesty, Your Highness, the people we've been keeping an eye on have sent word that Mother died in prison. They say she had a sudden illness."

"Even after he died, he was still holding this thing in his hand."

Su Xue handed it to Li Qingyan. It was something woven from straw, resembling both grass leaves and orchid leaves.

Li Qingyan took it and placed it on the table. She wrinkled her nose at Li Yan before sitting up straight. "A sudden illness? Wasn't Hui's mother murdered? The murderer has already broken into the Ministry of Justice prison, so where would a sudden illness come from?"

"Change to two coroners to perform the autopsy."

Su Xue immediately clasped her hands in greeting, "It is Your Highness."

He then walked out.

Lai Fu rolled his eyes at her, wishing he could kick her, while Su Xue raised an eyebrow at him with a defiant air.

Li Yan clicked his tongue twice as he watched Li Qingyan calmly set a trap for someone.

"That little brat is really cunning and treacherous."

While he wasn't looking, Li Qingyan grabbed a sweet cake and stuffed it into her mouth, filling it completely. She spoke incoherently, "Take this as me praising you."

The person is already dead, and it's uncertain whether the case can proceed, but she's still very willing to take advantage of the situation and bring the Ministry of Justice under her control.

Li Yan used a handkerchief to wipe her mouth with disgust and had someone take the rest of the sweet cakes away.

"Hongyu just went to the Luo residence to inquire about it," Li Yan said, only finishing half of her sentence.

They simply wouldn't tell Li Qingyan what had happened at the Luo residence.

Li Qingyan was so anxious she almost jumped off the stool, and Li Yan took the opportunity to push two cups of chrysanthemum tea over.

Seeing the petals floating in the teacup emitting a faint bitter taste, Li Qingyan's lips almost contorted in pain.

"Old Deng is so stingy. I only ate a piece of cake, is it really that big of a deal?"

[A true hero is one who can bend and stretch.]

"I'm just a child, not a grown man."

[If you don't drink it, Li Yan won't tell you anything, and he definitely has a way to make it impossible for you to find out.]

"Can't you find it?"

[Host, earning points is no easy feat...]

Fei Cha rattled off a long string of instructions on how Li Qingyan should be thrifty and manage the household well, until Li Qingyan's ears ached from hearing it.

"Shut up, you tightwad, I'll drink it, okay?"

Li Qingyan glared at Li Yan with her round eyes and angrily drank both cups of tea in one gulp.

When Lai Fu took the teacup, he tried to secretly slip some candy to Li Qingyan, but Li Yan glared at him and stopped him.

Laifu lowered his head and backed away. "Poor little prince, it was just a couple of bites of sweet cake! You've lost a lot of weight these past two days investigating the case."

Cuiping, whose arms had developed considerable muscle from carrying Li Qingyan, glanced at him and said, "Cifu is such a spendthrift."

In the end, Li Yan still ladled out a spoonful of sweet soup to feed Li Qingyan, but Li Yan drank the rest of the bowl.

"Red Rain".

Li Yan called out, and Hong Yu appeared behind Li Qingyan in the blink of an eye. Lai Fu patted his chest in fright; the assassins in the shadows appeared and disappeared without a trace, like ghosts.

The same goes for the guards outside. A while ago, several of Li Qingyan's guards and Li Yan's guards fought for half the night, and more than a dozen of them fell into Lai Fu's house.

I only realized we were all family after Laifu scolded me.

The group of people under Li Qingyan who belonged to the Lian generation were five generations removed from the An generation, which is why they made a fool of themselves.

In the middle of the night, this group of guys dressed in all black repaired Laifu's house together.

The next day, when Li Qingyan learned of this, she laughed so hard she almost fell over. However, both sides were taken back by their respective leaders and given a good scolding.

Hongyu stood behind Li Qingyan and told her about the scene she witnessed at the Luo residence.

After learning of Hui's mother's death, Luo Jun closed the door and burst into laughter inside, "Hahaha..."

"My poor daughter, she has done her father a favor in this way."

He's so happy about his beloved concubine's death, and he can even laugh when he talks about his missing daughter. Is this the reaction of a normal person?

Li Qingyan slammed her hand on the table. "I knew this bastard was up to no good."

Li Yan gestured for her to calm down. If they wanted to arrest an official of the imperial court, they needed solid evidence. These guesses wouldn't be enough to capture Luo Jun.

Moreover, how could Luo Jun possibly do all these things?

Li Qingyan stroked her chin. "I don't believe he didn't leave a single clue."

She led her men to continue searching the accounts of Hui Niang's businesses.

These places were already deserted, and Li Qingyan simply nodded when she heard the news.

Several days later, they discovered an abandoned winery in Linyang City, where more than twenty bodies were found in the wine cellar. They were all girls around eighteen or nineteen years old.

Upon receiving the news, Li Qingyan was immediately escorted by a squad of soldiers to rush to Linyang City.

The corpses had wounds on their necks and wrists. After the coroner examined them, he found that they had all died from excessive bleeding and had been dead for no more than seven days.

Those people left in a hurry and didn't have time to deal with the bodies, so they dumped these girls here. The girls' faces were all scratched up, and they could only find some belongings to try to find their families.

Li Qingyan glanced at the wounds on these people and felt a sense of familiarity, as if she had seen them somewhere before.

"Cuiping, come and take a look. Is this wound the same as the one on the girl's face at the medicine shop?"

She quickly beckoned Cuiping over. As assassins are particularly sensitive to wounds, Cuiping glanced at the wound and nodded repeatedly.

From the capital to Guiyuan City and then to Linyang City, how many places did this group of people traffic in?

However, few families in these three places reported the crimes to the authorities, which means that the homes of these trafficked girls were far from the capital.

Li Qingyan felt her head was spinning and rubbed her forehead.

Aside from the accounts Luo Jun gave her, she couldn't find any other information. It seemed that everything she knew was also arranged by someone.

The only breakthrough point is that girl in the medicine shop.

Li Qingyan had the coroner reconstruct the girls' appearances and then post the results to find their families.

She then led her people back to the capital.

-----------------

After returning to the capital, Li Qingyan made a detour to the Yan residence before leaving through the back door to head to the medicine hut.

Just as they arrived at the entrance of the medicine shop, a large yellow dog rushed out of the courtyard and pounced on Li Qingyan, knocking her to the ground and then picking her up.

Yan Xu's eyes narrowed. Da Huang tucked its tail between its legs and whimpered twice, but still refused to let Li Qingyan down.

Seeing that Yan Xu was about to use the knife, Li Qingyan gave up struggling and quickly explained, "Yan Xu, this is Dahuang, I know him. It's okay."

Hearing Li Qingyan's voice, Da Huang picked her up, tilted its head back, and walked inside, looking incredibly proud.

Yan Xu frowned and followed behind.

Dahuang released Li Qingyan and placed her on the ground. Li Qingyan had just returned and was covered in dust, so being on the ground only made her dustier, and her face became even dirtier.

Doctor Liu quickly helped the person up.

Li Qingyan stood up, hands on her hips, but before she could speak, a figure rushed towards her. Li Qingyan flashed behind the person and kicked her in the buttocks.

"Let's practice for a while longer, Wu Cuicui."

Wu Cuicui got up from the ground, dusted herself off, snorted coldly, and turned to serve tea to everyone.

Li Qingyan casually took the tea and drank a sip. "The poison was not used skillfully."

She drank it all in one gulp and then spilled it on the ground, without needing any antidote. She pestered Doctor Zhao for many prescriptions and even tried to test the medicines on herself, just like Shennong tasted hundreds of herbs, so now some mild poisons are no longer effective against her.

Wu Cuicui took a sip and spat it out. "Next time, I'll make something tasteless to poison you."

Aunt Ping looked at Wu Cuicui and didn't scold her. She gave her a small hoe and told her to tidy up the vegetable garden, since spring was approaching and it was time to plant vegetables.

When Hongyu came, she explained the situation regarding Li Qingyan and Wu Cuicui. Aunt Ping and Doctor Liu were very open-minded; the grudges between the two children were their own business, and they would not interfere but simply do their own thing.

Doctor Liu poured some tea and handed it to Li Qingyan. "This time it's not poisoned, is it? Your Highness came for that girl, right?"

Li Qingyan nodded. "You've probably heard about what's been happening lately. I think this girl is connected to the case."

He might even be the only survivor.

But Doctor Liu shook his head, "It will take at least another half month for him to wake up. Once he wakes up, I will send someone to find the young prince immediately."

Li Qingyan frowned and had no choice but to go back.

But after Li Qingyan left, the sound of weaving came from the tightly closed room again.

Doctor Liu stood up and sighed, "Young lady, I know you have a secret, and I know you don't want to trust us. But now only His Highness can help you."

"I can only buy you fifteen days at most."

"Too many young women have already died in vain..."

Doctor Liu sighed heavily.

Li Qingyan, who had just left, shook her head upon hearing the report from the guards. The little girl rested her chin on her hand, seemingly lost in thought, and simply said, "Yanxu, let's go back to the palace."