Chapter 139.1 – Internal Troubles and External Threats

When the sky turned dark, another person came to the princess’s mansion.

The person who came was from the Lu Mansion, and they came to see Lu Qipei. At noon, King Wei caused an uproar and brought people to search the Lu Mansion. Although nothing was found, the people in the Lu Family were taken to prefectural office for questioning.

In the middle of the afternoon, the people from the Lu Mansion were released one after the other, but at that time they didn’t know whether Qi Yang and her group had returned to the princess’s mansion yet, so they didn’t rush to visit. When the day was getting late and Lu Qipei should more or less be home, the people from the Lu family came to visit.

Naturally, Lu Qipei wouldn’t hide this from Qi Yang, and the two of them met the visitor together.

Unlike Qi Bo, the younger generation of the Lu family were not that obsessed with hatred, and those without a high enough status didn’t even know about the past. Because of that, the accepted Qi Yang quite well. The person who came didn’t feel upset or repelled when they saw her, and there was no hatred either. He saluted properly and bowed his head, not showing any abnormality.

Lu Qipei was rather satisfied with the newly elected butler and asked, “Why have you come looking for me so late?”

She asked this really sincerely, as if she didn’t even know that the Lu Mansion had been searched today.

The new butler was silent for a moment, then replied, “It’s about how the mansion was searched at noon.” As he said that, he looked up slightly at glanced at Lu Qipei. Seeing that her expression was normal, confirming that she knew about it, he continued, “Before the officers of the Prefectural Office entered the mansion, Little Liu found something strange in the warehouse. After opening it, I saw a pile of gunpowder inside. We had just disposed of it when the officers came.”

Hearing this, Qi Yang’s expression slightly changed and she turned to look at Lu Qipei. The latter remained calm and continued to ask, “Where did the gunpowder come from? Aside from that Zhang Wu, are there anyone else in the mansion who has been bought!?”

The warehouse was not an ordinary location, and normally other families would send their trusted men to guard it. The key to the warehouse, which used to be held by Qi Bo, was now held by this new butler. Lu Qipei’s key was kept in the princess’s mansion, and no one else would be able to take it.

The new butler’s expression immediately changed when he heard this, and he quickly leaned over and said, “This Little One is loyal to the Lu family, Young Master please believe me!”

Lu Qipei didn’t doubt him at all. If there was really a problem with this new butler, she would be in serious trouble today. However, Qi Bo was no longer there, and control over the Lu family had loosened and became the target of others. She should also give him a beating or two.

Now the beating was over, so she said, “Tell me in detail what’s going on.”

The new butler breathed a sigh of relief before finally saying, “It’s the rule that Qi Bo left behind – the warehouse has to be inspected every day. This Little One does not dare to neglect it. I already opened the warehouse and checked it early in the morning, and there were no abnormalities. But at noon, Little Liu passed by the warehouse and saw that the lock was different, so he called this Little One to come and open it. After we opened it, we found an entire box of gunpowder on one corner of the warehouse!”

After speaking up to this point, the butler paused slightly and said, “We don’t have this kind of thing in the mansion. We bought some firecrackers during the New Years, and they were all used as soon as the first day of New Years came. Shangyuan, Shangyuan had such a thing happen, how would we dare keep such a sensitive thing in the mansion…”

In front of the Princess, it wasn’t easy for the new butler to bring up the Chaoyang Tower assassination, but there were so many witnesses that day. Who in the capital didn’t know that the Crown Prince and the late Emperor were killed by gunpowder hidden in the dragon lantern?

Other than to be used for fireworks and firecrackers, this thing was already a sensitive item at other times, let alone now. Right now, don’t even mention hoarding gunpowder in the mansion, if there were leftover fireworks and firecrackers at home, they would be disposed as soon as possible.

Although the Lu mansion no longer had Qi Bo in charge of it, the others there were not fools, so how could they knowingly commit an offense? Plus, if the Lu family was really related to the Chaoyang Tower case, why would they keep such clear evidence at home? Did they think they couldn’t die fast enough!?

All things considered, this matter was full of loopholes.

Of course, Qi Yang and Lu Qipei did not miss the details in this matter. For example, the timing of the box of gunpowder’s appearance. It did not appear even a bit earlier, almost as if it was planted in coordination with King Wei. Also, the Lu family was not an ordinary family of officials. It was lax on the outside but strict inside, and it’s not easy to sneak that bag of gunpowder to the Lu family’s warehouse without anyone noticing!

Qi Yang thought of something, and her eyes dimmed. She leaned to Lu Qipei’s ears and whispered, “Hidden guards.”

The hidden guards of the royal family were naturally not unique to Qi Yang. In fact, all adult princes and princesses had them, there were basically no exception. Now that the late Emperor had passed away, his hidden guards should have been handed over to the Little Emperor, but other than that, the hidden guards of the kings and princesses had never been taken back.

Unlike the other prince consorts and concubines, Lu Qipei was aware of the existence of these hidden guards, so she nodded lightly. Then, she heard the new butler continue, “The appearance of the gunpowder was too strange, and This Little One was afraid that someone was trying to frame us, so I asked Xiao Liu to move them away quickly. Sure enough, less than half an hour later, the officers from the Prefectural Office came to search the mansion.”

After he finished speaking, he seemed to think of Zhang Wu that Lu Qipei mentioned, so he added, “About Zhang Wu. Young Master doesn’t know, but he was a lazy and useless person. He owed some money from gambling a few days ago, and tried to steal something when he returned to the mansion, but he has been expelled.”

So about Zhang Wu being bribed, it’s not that he didn’t care about it, it’s just that it was already out of his hands.

After hearing this explanation, Qi Yang and Lu Qipei couldn’t help but look at each other.

Lu Qipei exchanged a few more words, then sent him back.

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