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  On the second day early in the morning, Gu Zhao took the statue of Guanyin from Zhu Zhi's hands and changed his expression as soon as he saw it.

  Gu Man looked at her complexion and found it was off, so she curiously leaned in for a closer look.

  The abbot held a tray in his hands, and on the tray was a statue of Guanyin with a kind face, but the congratulatory message written next to it read: "Good woman Liu".

  Liu!

  It was actually Liu's family, they're a good match!

  It was all a conspiracy from the beginning.

  Since they came here to welcome and see off Zigu, they have stepped into a trap.

  Gu Yan's face also suddenly became extremely bad.

  I thought it was for the sake of a good omen for my stepmother, but in the end I ended up praying for blessings for a concubine who wanted to harm me.

  This is simply a joke of monumental proportions.

  Gu Zhao's face turned bright red with anger.

  Gu Man's face was also full of anger and discontent.

  But none of them dared to move the Bodhisattva statue, after all, it was in front of the gods and Buddhas...

  The three of them were entangled, and Ou Yang Can 'accidentally' bumped into Gu Zhao. The Buddha in Gu Zhao's hand fell to the ground with a crash, shattering into pieces of porcelain all over the floor.

  This Ou Yang Can is truly a wonderful person.

  The three sisters of Gu's family all made a frightened appearance with a hint of smile in their eyes.

  The abbot was no fool either, and being accustomed to dealing with noblewomen, he smoothly said: "I'm so sorry, I'll go ask for another one for Madame Cui."

  Fortunately, I'm not too stupid.

  Gu Man and Gu Zhao exchanged a smile, both nodding in satisfaction.

  Ouyang Can estimated that the time was about right, so he led them down from the fork in the road below Puzi Temple. Along the way, everything went smoothly and nothing happened.

  Madam Ouyang was different from them in this regard.

  They went down the mountain early in the morning and were intercepted by a group of mountain bandits just as they reached halfway down.

  Ouyang Xuan, who led the team, was furious and had all the mountain bandits tied up. Following Mrs. Ouyang's advice, they were all thrown into the Ying Tianfu government office.

  The governor of Yingtian Prefecture was worried about several cases of breaking the curfew, when he heard someone report that Ouyang Xuan, the deputy commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, had been ambushed by mountain bandits while on a mission and that all the bandits were now tied up at the prefecture.

  He suddenly stood up and rushed to the left and right, saying: "First trial this case!"

  Ouyang Xuan is the red man in front of the current emperor, the eldest son of the Minister of Works, young and promising, with unlimited prospects. He was attacked by someone. This is a big deal.

  Immediately ascend the hall and interrogate the case.

  Those bandits and mountain robbers were just ordinary people from the countryside, they would already be trembling with fear when they saw an official, and before any severe punishment was even administered, they would already confess.

  A mountain bandit wearing a gray jacket, with his hair tied up in two chopsticks, couldn't hold back and was desperately pulling another bandit to take the fall, cursing: "Wasn't it just supposed to be killing a few little girls? How did we end up offending the officials?! You're going to get me killed!"

  "Halt!" The prefect's stern slap on the table startled him, and he asked, "Quickly, confess to me honestly. Is there something else behind this that can't be revealed?"

  The leader of the mountain bandits, with a sorrowful face, almost scared to death, confessed one by one: "We were originally bought by an old woman who said we would deal with several maidservants who had committed crimes. We really didn't know that they were actually the concubines of a high-ranking official! Master, spare our lives!"

  The prefect of Yingtian heard this and became somewhat impatient, asking him: "You say it was a woman who instructed you all? Do you know who she is?"

  The leader of the mountain bandits racked his brains for a moment, then said: "I don't know that old woman, but I heard the maid next to her call her Liu Pozi... It seems like she's from the Dingyuan Marquis' residence!"

  What does this have to do with the Dingyuan Marquis Manor?

  The prefect of Yingtian furrowed his brow and sank into thought for a moment before saying, "How do you know she's from the Dingyuan Marquis' estate?"

  The leader of the mountain bandits hastily said, "Although I don't know her, when she gave us silver, there were four characters 'Dingyuan Houfu' on that pouch, seemingly an inner creation!"

  "You can actually recognize characters?" The prefect of Ying Tian hesitated for a moment, then called over two bailiffs: "You! Go to the Dingyuan Hou Mansion and ask if there's anyone named Liu Pozi. Summon her over and say that Master wants to question her!"

  The carriage of Gu Zhao and the other two people smoothly entered the gate of Hou Fu, and Lin Cheng's family recognized at a glance that this was not the carriage sent out. He was shocked first, and when he saw the mark on the carriage clearly, he quietly pulled Wang Mama and asked her: "What's going on? It was our own car when we went out, but it became the Servant Lang's Fu when we came back?"

  Wang's mother was busy and had no time to deal with her, so she ordered Yatou to go and inform Gu Boqi. However, Gu Boqi was not there, but instead it was San Lao Ye (Third Master) Gu Boqing who was present. As a result, she told him everything from start to finish. Third Master then invited Ouyang Can to sit in the flower hall and personally entertained the guest.

  Gu Man and three others went to Wang's Qingjiang Institute first.

  The Wang family's Qingjiang Courtyard was extremely quiet. After entering the courtyard, passing through another yard and going in again, there was a square corridor. Before even entering the door, I heard Liu Liu Niang's soft and gentle voice: "Oh dear, it's so late and you're not back yet, don't tell me something has happened? I've heard that the steep slope of Luo Yun Temple is treacherous, if one isn't careful..."

  Gu Man didn't wait for her to finish speaking and lifted the curtain to enter, smiling and asking: "What did Auntie say? We're all back safe and sound, aren't we?"

  Liu Liu's face turned pale, and she turned around to see Gu Zhao and Gu Man following Gu Yan into the room, all of them unscathed.

  How could they have escaped even like this?

  What a hard life!

  She clenched her teeth in hatred and forced a smile: "It's fine as long as nothing happened, it's fine as long as nothing happened!"

  She glanced at Gu Man and Gu Zhao, then deliberately asked them: "Has the Bodhisattva of Childbirth been welcomed back? I really have to thank you girls for making this trip for me. Speaking of which, Second Master is also...". She stared at Wang Shi's face while smiling brightly: "I said it wasn't necessary to go to such great lengths and trouble the girls to personally go and invite her, but he just wouldn't listen..."

  Wang's face suddenly turned pale.

  She said how could Gu Bo Qi be so kind, originally thinking of welcoming and sending off the Bodhisattva to help herself stabilize her pregnancy, it turned out...it was all just for this person in front of her!

  Gu Yan couldn't help but let out a cold laugh, and went forward to support Wang Shi, smiling brightly at Liu Liu Nang: "What are you saying, Auntie? Father clearly said it was an image of Guanyin that Mother had asked for help with. The congratulatory plaque we brought back even has Mother's words on it!"

  Gu Zhao smiled and instructed Huayan: "Don't you hurry up and hand over the Guanyin statue to Yue Tong sister for worship? My sisters and I have been through hardships, all for our mother!"

  Liu Liu's smile froze on her face.

  Just then, Meng Yu lifted the curtain and came in, looking at Liu Liuniang with a strange expression, and said to Wang Shi: "Madam, someone from Ying Tianfu has come and says they want to take Liu Pozi, who is beside Liu Niang, away for questioning!"

  "What?" Wang and Liu Liunan exclaimed in unison.

  Gu Zhao and Gu Yan's three people just smiled silently and lowered their heads.

  Aunt Liu, enjoy yourself well, this is a carefully prepared reward for you.

  Wang looked at Liu Liuniang with a suspicious gaze and hastily asked her: "What is it that you have come to ask about?"

  It's better for someone from the Marquis' residence to go out and ask questions, otherwise, wouldn't the Marquis' residence lose face?

  Meng Yu said, "I heard that the county magistrate escorted Mrs. Ouyang down the mountain this morning, but unexpectedly was intercepted by mountain bandits at the foot of the mountain. The bandits confessed that it was our Hou Mansion's Liu Mama who instructed them."

  "Absurd!" Wang didn't think of anywhere else to go, and angrily said: "Without any evidence, you dare to say such a thing? Our Hou Mansion is fine, why provoke the Servant Lang's Mansion?"

  Liu Liu's mother was so startled that she almost spilled the tea cup in her hand.

  No wonder these few dead girls all came back safely, nothing happened at all. It turned out that those fools actually found the wrong person!

  She nodded in agreement with Wang's words: "That's right! We can't even leave the mansion, let alone control the mountain bandits. I'm afraid someone is framing us on purpose."

  Gu Manchao glanced at Gu Yan, who understood and let out a surprised cry, rushing to Wang Shi: "Mother, it's really strange, yesterday when we went up the mountain, the horses suddenly went mad for no reason on the halfway slope, I and San Jie Jiu Jie almost fell off the cliff and died..."

  Wang's face turned pale, and he hastily pulled them aside, looking left and right, asking if they were injured.

  Gu's face showed a look of grievance, but his eyes shifted towards Liu Liuniang as he continued: "Later on, I don't know how it happened, but in the middle of the night, our courtyard suddenly caught fire. Luckily, Wang Mama was alert and we managed to escape. Afterwards, people from the temple all said that it was Liu Pobazi, who did rough chores in our courtyard, who colluded with the horsemen to set the fire..."

  Wang's face turned pale with anger, and she shouted in a shrill voice: "You wicked slaves! How dare you!" She also scolded them: "Why didn't you say so earlier?! Did the people Wang's mother brought up the mountain die too? Just watching you being trapped?"

  Gu Zhao choked back a sob and replied, "Last night's fire was thanks to Mrs. Ouyang and the others, who not only put out the fire but also helped us catch the culprits, working hard till midnight. Wang Mama and the others have already brought the person back, just waiting for Father and Mother to deal with them." At this point, Gu Zhao glanced at Liu Liu Niang, continuing, "The strange thing is that the groom insisted on saying it was Liu Mama by Liu Niang's side who instructed them..."

  Before Liu Liu's mother could retort, Gu Yan took over Gu Zhao's words: "At that time, we just thought he was talking nonsense and didn't take it seriously. But... but Mother, this morning Mrs. Ouyang said she would go down the mountain first, and we borrowed someone else's carriage because we were afraid of having an accident again on the original road, so we took a detour from the fork in the road at Pujisi Temple, if we had gone down the mountain by the original road, wouldn't...

  She didn't finish speaking, but everyone already understood the implication of her words: would they be the ones to be ambushed by the mountain bandits?

  Wang didn't play dumb, she immediately turned her head and stared at Liu Liuniang with a cold smile, saying to Meng Yu: "Tell them later. You bring a few wives and personally escort Liu's wife out."

  "Ah!" Liu's wife glared at Gu Yan with gritted teeth, opening her mouth to argue: "Liu's mother is such an honest person, how could she do something like this? Someone must be intentionally slandering her!"

  "It's unnecessary to say!" Wang shouted: "Whether she has anything to do with this matter, the Tianfu government will naturally give a conclusion!"