After being forced into a marriage with a wealthy family, the virtuous wife caused a huge uproar.

"We ordered seven dishes today. This soup contains the ingredients, but the other dishes also contain them, though in very small quantities. If my palate weren't so discerning, I wouldn't have been able to taste them."

This stuff makes people crave Mingyuelou's dishes so much that they can't stop eating them. If you don't have the money to afford them, you'll get used to it after a while.

But for the wealthy, the allure of poppies is immense, and Mingyue Tower enjoys a constant stream of customers. This is the key to Mingyue Tower's ever-present clientele. Through this incident, Rong Yingluo has confirmed that the Crown Prince has a master of medicine and poisons by his side.

The Crown Prince is utterly depraved, resorting to such despicable means to amass wealth; he is truly absurd.

Rong Yingluo grew increasingly disgusted with the Crown Prince.

Gu Ce got up and paced around the room.

He now understood why he couldn't stop thinking about the dishes at Mingyue Tower after only a few visits; he had also fallen for the Crown Prince's trick.

After his wife said that, it's likely that the amount of food he ate at those meals was deliberately increased.

Fortunately, he only went a few times and then stopped, thus avoiding falling into the prince's trap.

This is thanks to his self-control.

"And the poisoning you suffered from a young age was very likely provided by the physician behind the Crown Prince. Perhaps Consort Cao started plotting for the Crown Prince a long time ago," Rong Yingluo added.

"You're right. Su is my stepmother, she can't possibly plan for me, and my father is often away from Beijing."

If Consort Cao wanted to win over the Duke of Zhenguo's mansion, she could only start with Madam Su.

If she wanted to use the Su family for her own purposes, she had to plan for the Su family's future. My death was exactly what the Su family had always wanted.

"My second uncle's affair with Lady Su was ultimately for the position of heir apparent, so he could control the entire Duke's mansion." Gu Ce had long understood this.

"Shall we go and explore Mingyue Tower tonight?" Rong Yingluo suggested.

Gu Ce nodded.

At midnight, Rong Yingluo was woken up by Gu Ce.

The two changed into night clothes and quietly left the Gu residence.

Rong Yingluo's martial arts skills were average, but her lightness skills were superb, and Gu Ce had some difficulty keeping up with her.

Mingyue Tower only operates during lunch and dinner hours, and the lights are completely turned off at 9 PM.

Rong Yingluo was quite familiar with the layout of restaurants. Her Honghao Restaurant was similar to Mingyue Restaurant.

The lobby on the first floor is generally for guests to dine in, while the private rooms on the second floor are for guests who wish to use them.

The main kitchen is usually located on the first floor, leading to the backyard, while the storage is located in the backyard, making it convenient for delivery vendors and small merchants to enter through the back door.

The couple tiptoed into the backyard.

There were actually two guards.

Gu Ce was about to use a hidden weapon to take down the two men when Rong Yingluo stopped him.

The two guards were not patrolling, but instead sitting under the eaves chatting.

Rong Yingluo and Gu Ce leaped onto the roof beam and slowly moved to the top of the two guards' heads. Rong Yingluo took out a small paper packet from her bosom and crushed it.

After only a short while, the two guards began to yawn.

"This man gets extremely sleepy around midnight. I can't take it anymore, I need to take a nap." After a long yawn, the guard closed his eyes, leaned against a pillar, and fell asleep.

"Hey, you can't leave me alone to guard this place." Another person patted the first one, but he couldn't help but let out a long yawn, then closed his eyes and fell fast asleep.

"That way, when they wake up tomorrow, they won't find anything and will think they were just too tired to sleep. If we use a hidden weapon or knock them unconscious, they will definitely tell the shopkeeper that they were attacked tonight," Rong Yingluo explained.

"Madam has quite a lot of poison. When can I have some?" Gu Ce took the opportunity to ask for something.

"You want it?"

Gu Ce nodded.

"I'll buy it with money." Rong Yingluo wouldn't give it to him for free. Everything she had was either bought with her own money or gathered from the mountains herself. She wouldn't give it away easily.

The two jumped down from the roof beam and began inspecting the storerooms one by one.

Upon entering a small storage room specifically for various spices, Rong Yingluo, by the dim light of a fire extinguisher, saw a cabinet resembling a medicine cabinet, with neatly arranged small compartments.

She checked them one by one, and sure enough, she found something familiar in the top cabinet.

These dried items are about twice the size of pigeon eggs, oval in shape, plump and round, with a distinct crown-like top, and are dark brown in color.

Rong Yingluo took a piece, broke it open, and looked inside.

"That's right, this is it." Rong Yingluo said with certainty.

"Let's go." Gu Ce's voice was icy. If it weren't for Madam's visit to Mingyue Tower for dinner today, the Crown Prince's actions would have harmed countless people.

As soon as the two stepped out of the small storage room, Gu Ce immediately stopped in his tracks.

Rong Yingluo also noticed the anomaly.

Surprisingly, a room on the second floor of the main building had its lights on.

Judging from its location, this should be the place where the accountant keeps the books.

"Shall we go take a look?" Rong Yingluo whispered.

Gu Ce nodded.

The two quietly went up to the second floor, climbed directly onto the roof, and arrived at the location where the lights were on.

Gu Ce gently lifted a tile and looked down.

It turned out to be Du Liangyu, the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince's Palace, and Liao Xianda, the manager of Mingyue Tower.

"Brother-in-law, the Crown Prince sent me to ask if Madam Gu drank that soup today," Du Liangyu asked.

"No, Madam Gu had her maid pack it up and take it back to the mansion, saying it was for Lord Gu to drink." Liao Xianda's face showed bitterness.

He had already received instructions to treat Madam Gu well whenever she came to Mingyue Tower. He knew the conflict between the Crown Prince and Gu Ce well, and he knew what this hospitality meant as soon as he heard it.

I added extra ingredients to that bowl of fish soup, but she only took one bite and then spat it out.

"She discovered the problem?" Du Liangyu was taken aback.

"I saw it myself at the time. She just coughed incessantly from the choking, and then she asked her maid to buy a bowl to put it in. I didn't see that she discovered anything."

But she tasted every dish before letting everyone eat, which shows she was very vigilant, but she didn't find anything wrong, otherwise she definitely wouldn't have eaten the other dishes," Liao Xianda said.

"What a coincidence that the soup with extra ingredients you added was brought back home. Did you put in too much and she could taste the flavor?" Du Liangyu frowned.

"I didn't add too much, just five times more than usual." Liao Xianda felt that the amount used was already very small, so adding five times more wouldn't be much, and people generally wouldn't be able to taste the difference.

"You... sigh, brother-in-law, you're too reckless. Five times is too much. If Madam Gu were a doctor, she would definitely be able to tell the difference. You've alerted her."

If today's events were just a coincidence, then next time she comes, you mustn't act so recklessly as you did today. You need to gradually make her unable to leave Mingyue Tower." Du Liangyu, considering he was her brother-in-law, didn't want to scold him too harshly.

"Yes, yes, I was too hasty. I will definitely be more careful in the future." Liao Xianda cupped his hands in apology, breaking out in a cold sweat.

If he hadn't married Du Liangyu's cousin, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to become the manager of Mingyue Tower.

"Remember, we work under the Crown Prince, so we must be careful in everything we do. The slightest mistake could cost our entire family your life," Du Liangyu warned.

"I understand. There is another matter I would like to pass on to His Highness the Crown Prince. It seems that Madam Gu and the Prince of Liao are quite familiar with each other. During the meal, he even served food to Madam Gu. Knowing that Madam Gu is a married woman and that there are two young ladies from the Gu family present, he did not hesitate at all. This is suspicious." Liao Xianda saw the problem.

His words reached the ears of the two people on the roof. Gu Ce's eyes turned cold. Even though his face was covered, Rong Yingluo could feel the coldness emanating from him.

Rong Yingluo wanted to explain herself, but she couldn't speak and could only endure Gu Ce's cold stares.