I'll Go In Myself

She was about to knock on the door outside the room when the crown prince said, 'Stop.'

"I'll go in by myself."

He walked into the room after opening the door. Meiruo, who was taking a bath at the time, mistook the visitor for Liu'er.

"You should have waited for me, but since you left, I decided to take a good bath," Meiruo said, and the crown prince wondered to whom she was referring.

"How did it go, did you almost die of fear when he asked of me?" Meiruo asked of Liu'er.

After a while, Meiruo noticed she wasn't responding to her, so she asked, "Liu'er, what's wrong, why aren't you responding?"

Now the crown prince realized that Liu'er was staying in the same room as Meiruo.

And she mistook him for her after he cleared his throat and said, "Your really slacking off, I don't think you value the opportunity I gave you."

"That voice," Meiruo muttered, her eyes brightening with recognition.

She quickly wore a robe and greeted the crown prince who entered the room where she was bathing.

"You still know how to greet me."

"Talk, why didn't you come to your duty?"

the crown prince inquired

"I..." Meiruo stuttered.

"I wasn't feeling well, and I thought I'd feel better soon, so I didn't report it, but it was too late to come clean about the study now." As Meiruo spoke, the crown prince approached her.

"Really!?"

"Why do I feel it's all a lie?" Crown Prince Yang Lei inquired.

"I dare not deceive your highness," Meiruo said quickly.

"I suppose you're aware of the punishment for a slacker maid."

"I forgive you, but you must complete two additional tasks: serve noble lady qin and clean my room."

Crown prince, Yang Lei stated, and Meiruo knelt and bowed saying

"I thank Your Highness for your grace,"

scoffed Crown Prince Yang Lei before exiting the room.

When the crown prince emerged from the room, Liu'er quickly bowed. "As for you," crown prince Yang Lei said, referring to Liu'er.

"You will also have additional tasks for deceiving me," said Crown Prince Yang Lei said as he walked away, followed by Imperial Guard Yunxi.

Liu'er dashed into the room to see meiruo dressing.

"How come you told him I was staying in the same room as you?" Liu'er inquired.

"How was I supposed to know you didn't tell him the truth?" Meiruo asked as she climbed into bed.

"So, why didn't you come to the study?"

Liu'er asked

if meiruo had come to the study on time,she wouldn't have to lie.

"I was busy," Meiruo explained.

"What are you doing?"

Liu'er inquired once more.

"Do you really want to spend the entire night questioning me? Remember, we have extra work to do tomorrow."

Meiruo said and Liu'er sighed then went to bed.

The next day, Liu'er and Meiruo went to the register to get their name tags.

"What are we going to do today?"

Meiruo asked the man who assisted them register their names.

"You bring noble lady Qin's food," the man said

"How come we never had to do this before?" Liu'er stated

"No, but now you do, his highness the crown prince personally came here to inform us of your change of duties," the man explained.

"Ah, so he was the one; I was curious what he meant by extra task."

Liu'er scoffed as she collected their tags and led them to the kitchen.

When they arrived at the kitchen, they encountered a cook and inquired, "Where is noble lady Qin's food?"

"It's with her," said the cook, motioning to a cook who was packing food for the noble lady.

"OK, thank you," Meiruo said as he went to collect the food from the box.

"Are you the one delivering the food?" inquired the cook.

"Yes," Meiruo said before the cook handed over the food.

liu'er and meiruo exited the kitchen and went to the palace of the noble lady Qin.

With the assistance of a few other maids

When they arrived, a maid was testing the food before serving it to Noble Lady Qin.

It gradually became meiruo and liu'er's turn to have the food they brought tested.

The box was dropped on the table, and the maid who was testing the food,

Lu min, took a needle and inserted it into the dish, only to have it come out black, indicating that the dish was poisonous.

Noble lady Qin and Lu min's eyes widened.

"Who told you to poison her highness, noble lady Qin?"

Lu min inquired. It appeared that Lu Min was Noble Lady Qin's personal maid.

Meiruo and Liu'er acted quickly.

They got down on their knees because they were the ones who served the food.

"Did I ask you to kneel, I asked a question?"

Lu min inquired.

"Perhaps you don't value your life."Lu min said

"We only served the food; we have no knowledge of it," Meiruo responded.

"Really!?,

Take the guards to the kitchen and find the person who prepared the dish for me."

Noble Lady Qin stated, Lu Min bowed and went to the kitchen, followed by some guards.

When she arrived at the kitchen, she brought the food and inquired, "Who cooked it?"

Instead of answering the question, the cooks in the kitchen began murmuring. Lu Min became irritated and said

"You can't speak right" Lu min asked.

"Take them away"Lu min said

The guards dragged all of the cooks who prepare the noble lady's meals.

Within the palace

Liu'er tapped meiruo on the shoulder and said

"Who do you believe poisoned the food?"

Meiruo read Liu'er's lips as she lip synced.

"I'm not sure," meiruo lip synced.

"You know, if you had come to the study yesterday, we would not have gotten into this mess."

Liu'er lip synced.

It was true,If Meiruo had come to clean up the study, the crown prince would not have punished them, they would not have served the food, and they would not have been a suspect.

"It's not entirely my fault; we should have tested the food when we picked it up."

lip synced meiruo

"Do you think the crown prince poisoned the food to implicate us because he knew we'd be the ones to serve it?"

Only to the hearing of meiruo, Liu'er said

Noble lady Qin was staring at them, wondering 'what were the two of them doing?'

"What are you on about?"

Meiruo screamed and the noble lady Qin heard.

"What's the matter with you two?"

"How come you poisoned my food?"

Qin, the noble lady, inquired.

"In response to your highness noble lady qin, we were only involved in the delivery of the food under strict supervision; we did not poison the food," Meiruo said with a bow.

"Really?"

"We'll know if you're telling the truth soon," Noble Lady Qin said, and soon after Lu Min and all the cooks came in and fell to their knees before the guards let them go.

"Who cooked this dish?" Noble lady Qin inquired, referring to the dish that was sampled and found to be poisoned.

All of the cooks bowed, unable to speak.

"You're not going to talk right."

"Take them to the palace of meticulous punishment for fifty strokes each."

"And if you don't bring out the person who cooked this dish after three days, you will all be beheaded."

They all bowed in fear as Noble Lady Qin spoke.

"Your highness, it's her who cooked the dish," a cook stood up and bowed.

The cook's name was Mi uyu, and she was pointing to another cook named Huamin.

"Really!?"

"Is it true she cooked the food?" Lu Min inquired.

"Yes," they all agreed.

"All right, you all go, but she stays," Noble Lady Qin said.

The cooks bowed and left the room while gossiping about meiruo, liu'er, and huamin.

"How do you think the food ended up being poisoned?"

A cook inquired.

A cook inquired, "Do you think Hua Min will be beheaded?"

"What about Liu'er and Meiruo, they just delivered the food and came into the palace, they are so unlucky," another cook remarked.

Yunxi happened to be passing by at the time and overheard their whispers.

"Stop," he told the cooks.

"What are you on about?"

Yunxi, an Imperial Guard, inquired.

"Huamin, Meiruo, and Liu'er appear to be involved in a poisoning of noble lady Qin's food," said the cook.

The Imperial Guard Yunxi nodded, and the cooks returned to the kitchen as Yunxi walked to the study.

Imperial Guard Yunxi knelt in the study and began grinding ink for the crown prince who was drawing

After a while, Crown Prince Yang Lei inquired, "Aren't those maids going to clean the study?"

"No, I don't think so."

Yunxi, an imperial guard, shook his head.

"Why so?" asked Crown Prince Yang Lei, holding his brush without drawing.

He inquired before continuing his drawing.

"They served food to noble lady Qin, and it was found to be poisoned."

Yunxi, the imperial guard, said, and the crown prince erupted in rage.

"What!?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" he wondered as he dropped his brush.

He was the one who told them to serve the noble lady, and her food was poisoned.

"I..."

"I didn't know you cared," Imperial Guard Yunxi said, and the crown prince looked at him.