Rebirth of the Merchant Woman's Revenge

Without waiting for everyone's reaction, Li Junze walked over to several servants holding trays and lifted the red cloth on the first tray. Inside was a jade Buddha statue carved from a whole piece of jade. The statue was emerald green and translucent, and lifelike. It was obvious that it was not an ordinary item.

Since the Empress Dowager got older, she has become obsessed with worshiping Buddha. She spends one or two hours every day chanting sutras in the small Buddhist temple, so this jade Buddha statue should be something she likes.

The second item, after Li Junze lifted the red cloth, everyone couldn't help but exclaimed, it turned out to be a night pearl the size of an egg. Although it was still daytime, they could still see the bright light it emitted.

The third piece was even more shocking. It turned out to be a piece of Hetian jade raw stone that was more than one meter tall. However, half of the raw stone had already shown a warm jade color, while the other half was covered with a faint reddish-brown color.

The most amazing thing is that these red and jade colors form a magical pattern.

"This, isn't this... the word Lu?" Wen Jiaxiang was the first one to blurt out after seeing it, and others immediately started talking about it.

“Yes, this piece of raw stone was found by me after spending a huge amount of manpower. It really took a lot of effort.” When Li Junze saw their performance, he knew that his efforts were not in vain.

"Your Highness, I feel that this piece of raw stone is the most suitable as a birthday gift for the Queen Mother. Putting aside its value, the thoughtfulness is truly precious." Wen Jiaxiang stepped forward and bowed.

Many people echoed his words, but Cao Xingwen shook his head. "In my opinion, Your Highness is not suitable for being too prominent in your current situation. After all, you have just been released from house arrest. It is always right to keep a low profile."

After listening to this, Li Junze lowered his head and thought for a while. He felt that what Cao Xingwen said made sense. He had just been released from house arrest. Although he was allowed to attend the empress dowager's birthday celebration, he was still a criminal after all, and it was indeed not appropriate for him to be too ostentatious.

Cao Xingwen then continued, "So I think it is more appropriate for Your Highness to give me the Jade Buddha statue."

Wen Jiaxiang disagreed with Cao Xingwen's idea. He still insisted on his own idea, "Since the house arrest has been lifted, Your Highness is the same as other princes. There is no such thing as low-key or high-profile. Giving gifts depends more on the intention."

Li Junze frowned. One of them was radical, the other conservative, but what they said made sense. Besides, this was a birthday party and there were other more exciting arrangements. The birthday gift was not an important matter.

Today, he just used this incident as an excuse to let those who stayed behind know that he had been released from house arrest, in order to prevent more people from leaving.

So they started another round of discussion, and finally Li Junze decided to follow Cao Xingwen's advice and give the jade Buddha statue as a birthday gift.

The butler watched the expression on Li Junze's face, which seemed to be a little happy. After everyone left, he said carefully, "Your Highness, what are you going to do with Qingzhu?"

"Qingzhu?" Li Junze took a sip of tea and then asked, "What do you mean by how to deal with it? Hasn't he been surrendering to me? Just let him come into the mansion and have a talk. Now is the time to use people. What is there to ask?"

The housekeeper had no choice but to tell Li Junze the news he had found out, "That Qingzhu is actually the aunt of the newly crowned number one scholar Xie Cheng'an, her name is Gu Qiongsi..."

"What, it's them?" Li Junze was furious when he heard it. The two of them were really good. Ever since he won the top spot in the imperial examination, they stopped contacting him. Even Hu Er, who was used to contact them, had disappeared. Now they actually dared to come and contact him.

"Haven't they already left my camp? Why are they coming here to surrender now?"

The housekeeper thought for a moment, organized his words carefully, and then said, "Their current situation is not very good. Because they framed my wife and father-in-law, they have been imprisoned by the Dali Temple. I'm afraid they won't be able to get out for a while."

"Well, such a thing actually happened. These two are really not a worry-free person." After hearing this, Li Junze was not angry, but became happy instead.

When they asked Hu Er to contact them, they probably brought a lot of famous poems and verses with them. They also saw Xie Cheng'an's talent, so they decided to help him with the imperial examination. They didn't expect Hu Er to disappear.

He finally showed up, but when his people went to look for him, he was captured by people from the Dali Temple.

"Four of our people are also imprisoned in the Dali Temple. Do you need me to go over and inquire about the news?" the butler asked tentatively.

"No need. Yan Nangui can't get anything out of those people. They are all assassins. But you can go and find out what Hu Er did he do wrong. Where has he been hiding all this time? Who did he offend? Why didn't he come to me for help?"

Each of these things made Li Junze feel confused about the relationship between them. If Hu Er had really offended someone he shouldn't have offended in the capital, he should have come to Prince An's Mansion for help as soon as possible. Why did he flee the capital to hide?

The housekeeper agreed and asked again, "What about Mr. Xie and Aunt Gu?"

Li Junze tapped his knuckles on the armrest of the chair unconsciously and said, "Xie Cheng'an is talented, and Aunt Gu is also courageous. I really like them both."

After hearing his words, the butler did not dare to say anything more and waited quietly for his instructions.

After a long time, Li Junze nodded. Now that he had lost so many guests at once, it was the time to hire people. As long as Xie Chengan and others had talent and courage, even if they had lost the title of top scholar and their official positions had been abolished, it would not affect their ability to give advice to him.

"Let's find a way to get them out. It's not easy for us to deal with Yan Nangui, so let's start with Xie Chengan's wife." Li Junze pointed out a clear way to the housekeeper. After all, they couldn't openly recruit two people with such a bad record under their command, so they had to operate secretly.

The butler received the order and was about to go out, but was stopped by Li Junze again, "For the birthday banquet the day after tomorrow, you must greet everyone and make sure everything goes well, especially with the Empress Dowager. There can't be any mistakes."

"Yes, I understand. Please rest assured, Your Highness." After the butler said this, he left the meeting hall.

Li Junze sat alone on the chair, without moving for a long time. After all, his grandfather was amazing, as he actually organized such a big show...