Empress Wu gazed at the kneeling servant with a glance, smiled slightly, a smile that made one's heart tremble with fear, and said: "Which palace were you serving in before?"

  The tea servant knelt on the ground, nodding and not daring to answer. After a while, he replied in a low voice: "Yingting Palace."

  Yingting Palace, Yingting Palace is where the wrongdoers are sent. How did Lin Dai find her again, was she given some task?

  "Your Highness, I'm really not a spy."

  Empress Wu beckoned her over with a wave of her hand.

  Yu Lian gave a signal with her eyes to the eunuch who was holding her back, and the eunuch let go of her.

  The tea servant walked over cautiously, still looking frightened, until she reached the front of Empress Wu, knelt down and saluted, calling out: "Your Majesty."

  The Empress Wu pinched her chin and examined her carefully, then said slowly: "A good person with a harmless appearance, it's actually a good seed for doing delicate work."

  She looks ordinary, so she won't catch people's eyes; her personality is gentle, making it hard for others to be on guard against her; when placed in a crowd, she easily gets lost, so it's not easy for people to notice her. If she wants to find someone to do the dirty work, shouldn't she look for someone like this?

  Empress Wu let go of her chin and said: "Serve tea for this palace."

  The eunuch nodded and went to the low table, picked up the teacup to test the temperature, then handed it to Wu Guifei with both hands, saying: "Your Majesty, please use."

  Empress Wu took it, and with both hands holding the tea bowl, she suddenly dropped it. The tea bowl fell from Empress Wu's hands and shattered on the ground with a "ding" sound. The fragments scattered everywhere, and water splashed in all directions.

  The Empress Wu frowned and scolded: "You dare to be so presumptuous, you want to burn the palace to death."

  The samurai was so frightened that he hastily knelt down on the ground, his body trembling violently.

  Empress Wu smiled and said, "Although you were given to me by the Empress Dowager, but with such clumsy hands and feet, I also cannot keep you." She then loudly called out, "Someone come! Send her to the Palace of Concubines, let the concubine in charge take good care of her... wherever she came from, send her back there. Let her go to the Palace of Concubines to learn some discipline again."

  The cicada watched as the tea servant was dragged out, a smug expression on his face.

  Empress Wu looked at her again.

  The cicada saw her and hastily knelt down, calling out: "Your Ladyship."

  Empress Wu asked: "Are you Xia Chan?"

  "Ah, yes, Your Highness," Xia Chan hastily replied with a smile. She continued to explain, tilting her head: "In the past, I was an apprentice of Ye Gu Gu in the palace of Xian Fei. Although I was young at that time, I often heard Ye Gu Gu mention you, so I have always admired you deeply."

  Leaf auntie, back then when she was the concubine of the Wang estate, she actually took good care of her.

  She was one of the two aunts who served as personal attendants to Empress Xiao, but unfortunately, Empress Xiao valued the other aunt, Du, more at that time. However, Aunt Du was actually closer to Lin Xian, whereas Aunt Ye took good care of her and often leaked information to her.

  The former emperor passed away, and Empress Xian also followed him after being the empress dowager for less than a year. The people around her, including Du Gu Gu and Ye Gu Gu, were all released from the palace by the Emperor.

  Empress Wu smiled and looked at her, saying: "You're very good." Then she ordered Yu Lian to "Transfer her to the inner palace to serve." After that, she entered the bedroom.

  The cicada's face lit up with joy, and he kowtowed heavily towards the back of Wu Guifei, thanking her: "Thank you, Your Highness."

  Yu Lian, however, was somewhat dissenting. The attendants inside the inner palace must be reliable and trustworthy people. Although Xia Chan had reported serving tea with merit, after all, she was sent over by the Empress Dowager. Transferring her to the inner palace might have been too hasty. What if it was indeed the Empress Dowager's intention to plant a mole, letting her sing in harmony with the tea servant? Even if she wasn't the Empress Dowager's person, it couldn't be guaranteed that she wasn't someone sent by another palace faction.

  Yu Lian followed Wu Guifei into the palace and expressed her concerns.

  Empress Wu said indifferently: "Then you go and investigate her background thoroughly."

  Changkung Palace

  Mu Qing walked in and, with a slight bow of his knee to Lin Xiang who was lowering her head to look at the book, said: "Your Majesty, the tea servant has been dismissed by the Imperial Consort and returned to the Rear Palace."

  Lin Di lowered her head and continued flipping through the booklet, nodded, and then said: "Transfer her to the Si Yi Bureau."

  Lin Yan paused for a moment and then said: "The Empress will probably not believe Xia Chan so easily."

  "Your Highness can rest assured, Xia Chan's identity will definitely withstand the investigation from the Empress's side."

  Lin Xiao didn't say anything else, Mu Qing had always been doing things without any mistakes.

  She put down the booklet in her hand, raised her head and sighed, placed her hand on the booklet, and tapped the name on the golden booklet with her fingers.

  Mu Qing followed the sound and took a look, asking: "Your Majesty, what is this..."

  Lin Xiang looked at her and replied: "This is the list after the initial selection of Xiū Girl, which was just sent over by the Ministry of Rites."

  The so-called first selection of imperial consorts is to screen the identity of the local beauties reported by officials, including whether there are criminals within five degrees of kinship in their families, whether their family background is clean, and whether their parents and brothers have held official positions. The selected person must not be a shaman, doctor, merchant or artisan. Only those who pass this level can enter the capital for inspection.

  After entering the capital, there was a first selection by the Ministry of Rites, followed by a second selection conducted jointly with the Inner Supervision Office and the Bureau of Ceremonies, and finally a final selection by the imperial consorts and the emperor.

  Lin Xiao found the daughter of Hou Jiang's family from Zhongshan in this primary election list.

  The second son of the Jiang family married Lin Ge, and the Jiang and Lin families are relatives by marriage. She is the empress, so it stands to reason that the Jiang family should send their daughter into the palace. They shouldn't not communicate with the Lin family at all, even if it's just to get their own daughter selected. At the very least, they should have asked someone from the Lin family to greet her and ask her to take care of the Jiang family's daughter.

  But so far, no one in Lin's family has ever mentioned it to her.

  Is it because her family thought this matter didn't need to be told to her, or is the Jiang family intentionally keeping it from her?

  If it's the second one, then the Lin family will have to re-examine their relationship with the Jiang family.

  Jiang Xi, Jiang Xi.

  She could remember that there was no such person in the direct line of the Zhongshan Marquis's family.

  If it's not the main branch, then it's a side branch.

  But the list said her identity was the niece of Zhongshan Hou. Zhongshan Hou had only one younger brother, and his younger brother had only two daughters, including a daughter who had already been married off and another who was born just half a year ago - an old-age daughter born to his favorite concubine. Moreover, neither of these two daughters was named Jiang Xie, as Lin Die remembered.

  Lin Di summoned Mu Zhi and instructed her: "Tomorrow, go to the Wu Guo Gong Fu and invite either the Empress Dowager or the Madame of the State to enter the palace."

  She had to ask her family to know what was going on.

  Mu Qing saw Bi and asked: "What's wrong, Your Majesty? Is there a problem with the list?"

  Lin Xuan's eyes sank slightly, and after a while, she asked Mu Qing: "Mu auntie, what do you think of the Zhongshan Hou Mansion?"

  Mu Qing furrowed his brow in thought for a moment before saying, "Yu Hou once evaluated Zhongshan Hou, 'A wall-top grass, when it sees profit, it climbs up, not to be trusted too much.'"

  It's just like Lin Ying's evaluation of him, only when Lin Ying said it, he was more straightforward and used the two words "small person".

  At that time, when Lin Ying was engaged to Zhongshan Hou, Lin Ying did not quite agree. In his opinion, he would rather send Lin Wei to the temple than get entangled in such a marriage, so as not to get stabbed in the back. Only Lin Yong, who was the Duke of the State, agreed, and Li Shi also nodded due to her reputation, and as the younger brother, he couldn't refute his elder brother's decision.

  The eunuch outside the palace announced, "The Emperor has arrived."

  Lin He had no choice but to get up first and go out of the palace to welcome the emperor.