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“Human nature cannot withstand temptation. You’d better move into my palace. Yunhua, if there’s anyone in the world who wouldn’t harm you, it’s certainly your mother. Do you understand?”

Wu Yaqing found this hard to take, retorting, “You’re assuming the worst in people.”

Fangruo quickly tugged at Wu Yaqing’s sleeve, reminding her that her words were a bit harsh, “Princess…”

The queen became somewhat angry, “There’s no room for negotiation on this.” She ordered Fangruo, “Start packing immediately, no delays!”

Fangruo dared not disobey and immediately complied.

Seeing no way out, Wu Yaqing hung her head, stuck in place, sulking.

The queen couldn’t help but comment, “After being away for half a year, you still haven’t matured a bit!”

Just as Wu Yaqing was about to retort, she suddenly thought of Chu Qingzhi and thus closed her mouth, pondering how Qingzhi would resolve such a situation.

After a moment, she decided to take a softer approach and so her tone became more conciliatory, “I have matured, it’s just that I was upset just now and spoke out of turn.”

The queen looked unconvinced but said nothing in rebuttal.

Wu Yaqing continued, “Mother, please don’t be angry. I’ll listen to you. I’ll move. It’s been so long since I’ve been in the palace; it will be good to spend time with you and share the interesting experiences I’ve had.”

The queen raised an eyebrow at this sudden change of attitude.

“Let’s go.”

Wu Yaqing hurriedly followed.

Just as the mother and daughter were returning to the palace, an eunuch came in to report, “Your Highness, the queen, an envoy from the royal uncle’s residence has arrived, claiming that a man named Lu Yichen seeks an audience, saying he can help solve the bandit problem to the south.”

Wu Yaqing’s eyes brightened immediately, and she urgently inquired, “Are you sure his name is Lu Yichen?”

The eunuch replied, “That’s what the people from the royal uncle’s residence said.”

Wu Yaqing, gripping the queen’s arm and shaking it pleadingly, implored, “Mother, don’t let Yichen go. The bandit problem in the south has been relentless, and many officials sent by the court have died. It’s too dangerous.”

The queen was genuinely surprised; she had thought Lu Yichen would come directly to her to request Yunhua’s hand in marriage, not expecting his decision to be this.

Ignoring Wu Yaqing’s plea, she was curious to see what this man was capable of. “Tell my brother to arrange it so that Lu Yichen is given full authority over this matter. If he resolves the bandit issue, he will be richly rewarded.”

The eunuch bowed, “As you wish, Your Highness.”

The queen dismissed him with a wave of her hand, “Go.”

“Wait!” Wu Yaqing exclaimed anxiously, “Mother, send someone else. It’s too dangerous. Yichen just wants to marry me; he means me no harm.”

The queen clarified, “Yunhua, let me be clear, you’re not to marry him, nor will you marry someone of Lu Yichen’s status, unless he can make a significant contribution and elevate his status to match yours.”

With heartfelt words, she added, “Yunhua, I am now giving him a chance to clear his name. How far he goes depends on him.”

Seeing the unwavering determination in the queen’s eyes, Wu Yaqing had no choice but to compromise, “Mother, then can a few people be sent to secretly protect him? He is General Tang’s best friend, and if something happens, I fear General Tang might blame our Anhuai Kingdom.”

The queen, reassured that someone of Tang Jinghong’s caliber regarded Lu Yichen so highly, felt somewhat relieved. “I understand, someone will be sent to protect him in secret.”

Wu Yaqing was immensely grateful, “Thank you, mother.”

Chu Qingning had set aside a room in the medicinal herb shop specifically for preparing medicines.

Following suit, Chu Qingyan also set up a room next door for her own medicinal preparations. Chu Qingzhi had mentioned to her that if Qin Yunfei was interested in the ointment business, she could start mass-producing her whitening and freckle-removing ointments. Chu Qingyan took this advice to heart—after all, who would pass up the opportunity to earn money?

However, it was still uncertain whether Qin Yunfei would come.

This was a big project, requiring not just tables and chairs but also many bottles and jars, which was quite troublesome.

Chu Qingyan and Chu Hongxiu had been working for two days and were still not finished, so they decided to hire help.

But they didn’t know how to choose the right people. Looking at the crowd waiting outside the medicinal herb shop, Chu Qingyan felt overwhelmed.

Chu Hongxiu then saw Chu Qingzhi returning and suggested, “Your fifth sister is back; why not ask her for help?”

Chu Qingyan searched for Chu Qingzhi’s figure and, without seeing her, dashed out, “Fifth sister, fifth sister…”

Chu Qingzhi was returning from the county town and planned to check on Chu Rong’s supervision of the road construction.

“Fifth sister, let’s talk while we walk.” Chu Qingyan grabbed Chu Qingzhi’s hand and ran towards the medicinal herb shop.

Arriving at the shop, Chu Qingzhi understood the situation, “How many people do you want to select?”

Chu Qingyan answered, “Ten.”

Chu Qingzhi stepped forward and instructed the young girls, “Form three lines and stretch out your hands side by side.”

The girls quickly complied, neatly extending their hands.

After inspecting them, Chu Qingzhi chose ten girls with the cleanest palms and most neatly trimmed nails, as cleanliness and attention to detail were crucial for preparing medicines. These small details were enough to reveal their character.

“You’ll be helping Qingyan from now on. Good work will be rewarded, and poor performance will be penalized. Everyone must be diligent. Understand?”

The ten girls answered in unison, “Yes, Sister Qingzhi.”

Since they were already there, Chu Qingzhi decided to train the girls a bit more, “You must wear clean clothes every day, wash your hands with soap, and wear gloves…”

She covered the dress code, the rules for working, wages, rest days, and so on.

“If there’s anything you don’t understand, feel free to ask me separately.”

“Yes.”

Chu Qingzhi waved them over, “Follow me inside, and I’ll assign your tasks.”

The girls orderly followed her into the preparation room.

There were raw materials, methods for processing medicinal herbs, and proportion formulas. Once arranged, it was like an assembly line, making the preparation process very straightforward.

The team was split into two groups: one person fetched the herbs from the storeroom, another did a simple processing, two ground the herbs into powder, and the last person filtered and weighed the powdered herbs. The final step of mixing the powders into ointment was done by Chu Qingyan herself, requiring absolute secrecy to ensure the formula remained protected.

With Chu Qingzhi’s organization, everything fell into place efficiently.

Chu Qingyan expressed her gratitude, “Fifth sister, thank you. If I had been in charge of organizing this, it might have taken many more days.”

Chu Qingzhi reassured her, “A delay isn’t a problem; consider it as gaining experience.”

“Okay.”

Thus, Chu Qingyan’s preparation room became operational.

Good news followed soon after: Qin Yunfei arrived.

In the days that passed, he had his people test the three types of medicine Chu Qingyan had prepared. The trials opened up a new business avenue for him, and he concluded that money earned from women, especially related to beauty, was the easiest.