Ji Zizhao did not actually make things difficult for her third daughter-in-law, Yin Wenying. After throwing down a sentence, she took a step forward again.
Her grandfather leaving the seal to her was not for her to deal with her family.
The external threats were still there. If internal strife were to break out at this moment, it would be the act of a fool.
Third daughter-in-law Yin Wenying waited until Ji Zizhao had left the courtyard before she let out a heavy sigh of relief. She glanced towards Ji Zixiu's room. She simply refused to believe it and walked over.
Wasn't it just a good-for-nothing? Why should she be able to throw her weight around?
The room was still a mess. The maids were helping the second daughter-in-law, Yu Fenglan, and the second daughter, Ji Xixiu, towards the bed in twos and threes.
The wet nurse loudly warned everyone in the room, "No one is to touch the white porcelain bottle on that table!"
Hearing this, third daughter-in-law Yin Wenying walked over out of curiosity.
The wet nurse quickly reached out to stop her, "Third Madam, this porcelain bottle seems to have been left by the eldest daughter. It shouldn't be touched..."
Didn't the second madam just touch this small porcelain bottle and then fall unconscious like the second daughter?
"What could be so untouchable about a piece of junk left by a good-for-nothing?" Third daughter-in-law Yin Wenying sneered, picked up the small porcelain bottle, and sniffed it lightly under her nose.
Instantly, the world spun. It was as if heaven and earth had turned upside down.
Third daughter-in-law Yin Wenying, with a sneer still on her lips, fell headlong to the ground without even a cry.
"Bang—!"
Her forehead hit the ground and formed a large bump.
The wet nurse was terrified and quickly called out, "Someone, quickly! Third Madam has also fainted!"
The second daughter Ji Xixiu's courtyard was...
even more chaotic.
Ji Zizhao left the Xiu courtyard and returned to the Zhao courtyard.
As soon as she entered the room, Ji Zizhao instructed Xinlan, "Go and call Lianju."
Unlike other courtyards in the mansion, Ji Zizhao always preferred tranquility and thus did not have too many servants.
In the vast courtyard, only the four people, Mei, Lan, Zhu, and Ju, who had been by her side since childhood, served her.
Before long, Lianju entered the room.
Lianju was a death warrior who had early on served her grandfather. She was pierced through the chest by an enemy's poisoned arrow while protecting her grandfather on the battlefield. When her grandfather brought her back, she was barely clinging to life.
Her grandfather, knowing her proficiency in medicine, sent her to Ji Zizhao.
Ji Zizhao stayed by Lianju's side for three days and three nights before pulling Lianju back from the brink of death.
Her grandfather, doting on Lianju, ordered her to stay in the Zhao courtyard.
Although Lianju was cold and spoke little over the years, she followed Ji Zizhao with all her heart.
Lianju, dressed in men's clothing, quickly cupped her fists and saluted upon seeing Ji Zizhao, "Eldest Daughter."
Ji Zizhao, worried about the military report from Luoyi, had no intention of being polite with Lianju. She got straight to the point, "I need you to secretly go to Luoyi immediately, find my grandfather's body, and retrieve the military journal he hid on his person."
In this backward and closed era, women could not leave the city freely and wander the streets.
Her grandfather doted on her. To let her see more of the outside world, he gradually developed the habit of recording his military campaigns in a journal. Whenever her grandfather returned safely, he would give the journal to her as a gift.
Over the years, Ji Zizhao's understanding of the world outside the imperial city had relied on her grandfather's journals.
Now that all the men of the Ji family were dead, only her grandfather's military journal could give her the truth she sought!
Lianju looked at Ji Zizhao in shock, her heart churning with intense sorrow.
She knew that the Eldest Daughter was filial and was not as incompetent and inexperienced as the outside world rumored.
But she never expected that the Eldest Daughter's return this time was for the entire male lineage of the Ji family!
Indeed, it was right for the Old General Ji to dote on the Eldest Daughter.
"Eldest Daughter, rest assured, Lianju will not fail in this mission!" Lianju clenched her fists firmly.
Ji Zizhao only closed her slightly sore eyes after watching Lianju's figure completely disappear from the room.
In her mind, the figures of her grandfather, father, and uncles flashed incessantly.
What echoed in her ears were the repeated reports of all the men of the Ji family dying in battle...
If the cause of death of the men of the Ji family was indeed due to some hidden circumstances, even if she had to turn this Yulin upside down, she swore to seek justice for the entire male lineage of the Ji family!
As for those who had framed the Ji family...
Revenge for the wronged, and retribution for the harmed.
Not a single one would be spared!
A sound of hurried footsteps suddenly rang out from outside the door.
As the curtain hanging at the door was lifted, Yongmei entered with a look of surprise, "Eldest Daughter, you really... came back?"
Yongmei looked at the pale Eldest Daughter standing alone in the room with disbelief. In her heart, she wondered, if the Eldest Daughter had truly returned to manage the Ji family as others in the mansion said, then what about the Fifth Prince?
When the Eldest Daughter had left her and Lianju to look after the mansion back then, although she was disappointed, there was still a glimmer of hope.
As long as the Eldest Daughter established herself in the Fifth Prince's manor, she would surely be brought over as well.
But now, even the Eldest Daughter had returned...
"I am tired. Help me change," Ji Zizhao opened her eyes, her black pupils slightly unfocused.
Yongmei, however, remained standing still, urgently asking again, "Eldest Daughter, you've just returned like this. Have you explained to the Fifth Prince? Why don't you let this servant help you explain to the Fifth Prince? The Fifth Prince loves you so much, he will surely understand you."
The Fifth Prince...
Xie Jingzhou!
When the Ji family was prosperous, he knelt before her grandfather and made solemn vows, speaking with full sincerity.
Now that the Ji family had not yet declined, he had come with an empty carriage to marry her and demoted her concubine rank.
Ji Zizhao never expected a relationship without an emotional foundation to be deeply loving and sweet, but she absolutely would not tolerate someone harboring sinister intentions and smiling falsely at the Ji family!
Yongmei shivered, startled by the coldness in Ji Zizhao's eyes.
Having been by the Eldest Daughter's side for so long, she had never seen the Eldest Daughter exude such murderous intent.
Yongmei was the one who had been by Ji Zizhao's side the shortest among the four maids, Mei, Lan, Zhu, and Ju. She did not understand what kind of person Ji Zizhao truly was as well as the other three.
Only after suppressing the chill in her heart did Ji Zizhao look at Yongmei and say, "Since you are so eager to speak with the Fifth Prince, go now and inform him for me. Please ask the Fifth Prince to bring me what I need as soon as possible."
Yongmei took it as the Eldest Daughter still having feelings for the Fifth Prince. Hearing this, she nodded joyfully and left.
As long as the Eldest Daughter could return to the Fifth Prince's manor, she would definitely be able to be a concubine for the Fifth Prince.
Thinking this, Yongmei's face quietly turned completely red.
Xinlan, who had just entered, looked at the blushing Yongmei with confusion. She walked to Ji Zizhao's side and whispered softly, "Does Miss really not intend to return to the Fifth Prince's manor?"
Ji Zizhao did not want to think of the Fifth Prince's extremely hypocritical face again. "Help me wash up."
The position of Crown Princess might hold fatal temptation for other women.
But for her, who retained memories from the twenty-first century, it was nothing.