Dressed as the villain's stepmother

"Because the Queen Mother is not the emperor's biological mother, and she and the Prime Minister are siblings of the same mother, in order to reduce the Emperor's suspicion, the Queen Mother lives in the national temple all year round." Seeing Jiang Lianzhu's confused face, knowing that he was not done with the Queen Mother, Liao Yunchuan Then he explained clearly to her, "It is not easy for the Queen Mother to climb from being a talented person to being a phoenix. If the Queen Mother and her two princes had not died inexplicably in their early years, I am afraid that the Xiao family would be the only one in the world now.

"As for this invitation, although it was sent by Concubine Xi, it was requested by the Queen Mother, who named you to attend."

Jiang Jiang Lianzhu frowned. If it hadn't been for the banquet held by the Queen Mother, she would not have known about the Queen Mother, let alone how she, a commoner, had become known to the Queen Mother.

"This time the Queen Mother invites you to the birthday banquet, I'm afraid the visitor is unkind. I will also go to the banquet. When the time comes, you will stay with me and don't wander around." The Queen Mother is ruthless, and Liao Yunchuan is afraid that she will take advantage of her. The banquet attacked Liao Yunchuan.

The dim candlelight danced on his clear-cut and handsome face, and his eyelashes cast a shadow, covering up the excess emotions in his eyes.

Jiang Lianzhu thought of how the Prime Minister was sure of victory yesterday. It was unlikely that the Prime Minister deliberately used the Queen Mother's hand to suppress them. After all, in the Prime Minister's view, he had already understood all their plans. The only explanation was that although the Queen Mother was in the national temple, Privately, he has been paying attention to the movements outside.

Because Liao Yunchuan would also talk to her about court affairs, Jiang Lianzhu also knew that the Prime Minister had lost face one after another in front of the Emperor recently, and some of his rights had been taken back by the Emperor and delegated to others. She was afraid that the Queen Mother thought that the Prime Minister's Palace had begun to decline and wanted to take advantage of it. This is an opportunity to warn her.

"Okay, don't worry." She also knew that this matter was not simple, and she listened very carefully to Liao Yunchuan's words, "I'm glad you made this extra trip."

Hearing this, Liao Yunchuan pursed his lips and smiled, his eyes were extremely serious, and her figure was reflected in his dark pupils: "I mainly want to see Dr. Jiang, and sending the invitation is secondary."

Recently, I have seen Jiang Lianzhu running out from time to time. He came several times but failed every time.

Being used to him speaking these words in a serious manner, Jiang Lianzhu no longer reacted much, and mocked: "Master Liao is getting better and better at talking, isn't he just going to hold a class?"

"You speak from the bottom of your heart, why should you give me advice?" Liao Yunchuan raised his eyebrows, feeling that continuing like this was not an option.

Thinking of Yang Fei's suggestion that traveling more with Jiang Lianzhu would enhance his relationship, he thought about it this time and felt that this was also the case.

When we go out to work, we often see men and women having a good time together, and the atmosphere is very good.

Not to mention those unmarried men and women who look at their partners, they are serious and married.

Glancing at Liao Yunchuan angrily, Jiang Lianzhu chased him away: "It's getting late, Master Liao, please go back and rest soon."

He smiled helplessly, followed her wishes, left the invitation and left.

There were still two days before the Queen Mother's birthday banquet. Knowing that the Queen Mother was not a good person, Jiang Lianzhu had no intention of preparing congratulatory gifts.

Thinking of just picking out some decent gifts, I went directly to the Zhenbao Building in Beijing.

If you want to choose the right gift without any hassle, Zhenbao Pavilion is a good choice.

The Zhenbao Pavilion was already very popular among the noble ladies in the capital. Perhaps it was the Queen Mother's birthday party, and the business at the Zhenbao Pavilion was obviously much better than usual.

"Girl, what kind of treasures do you want to pick? I can show you." As soon as Jiang Lianzhu entered the shop, some waiters gathered around him enthusiastically.

"No, I'll take a look for myself first." Not knowing what to choose as a gift, Jiang Lianzhu declined the clerk's kindness and started looking at it in the store.

She believed that the Queen Mother would have no shortage of gold and silver jewelry. If she didn't give them valuable gifts, it would be the same as humiliating herself.

It was just that it was too expensive to give to the Queen Mother, and she felt it was not worth it.

Jiang Lianzhu finished looking at a batch of jade stones and was about to walk to another area when she was stopped by someone.

"Hey, isn't this Doctor Jiang?" A strange voice sounded, and the man firmly stopped her in place.

Jiang Lianzhu glanced at the visitor indifferently, and saw Xiao Xiyan covering her mouth and smiling proudly, looking at her provocatively, "Can Divine Doctor Jiang afford to come to Zhenbao Pavilion? The prices of the things here are pretty good, I'm afraid Divine Doctor Jiang can't afford it. Get this money."

Because the Queen Mother has returned, Xiao Xiyan's arrogance has also increased a lot, and she has completely disappeared from the embarrassment of staying behind closed doors some time ago.

The two noble ladies beside her looked Jiang Lianzhu up and down, and then agreed in an awkward manner: "Isn't that right? The clothes she is wearing are quite shabby, especially if she comes here to touch porcelain."

Jiang Lianzhu smiled slightly and looked at her with pretended disdain: "How do you know I can't afford it? Man, wrap this jade for me."

She pointed at the jade raw materials beside her.

"This is fine jade, worth 500 taels of silver. I'm afraid Miss Xiao can't even afford 200 taels of silver now." She said in a provocative tone.

Xiao Xiyan spent a lot of money to treat her to a doctor earlier.

The prime minister has always acted in a low-key manner, so he must not be able to give her too much money.

This Xiao Xiyan was just making a joke.

"It's just 500 taels. Who said I can't get it?" Feeling that she was being despised, Xiao Xiyan sneered, "I'll pay 600 taels for this piece of jade."

The clerk was about to explain, but when he saw Xiao Xiyan directly adding 100 taels in one go, he immediately froze on the spot.

"I'll pay 800 taels." Jiang Lianzhu's smile disappeared instantly, and she looked at Xiao Xiyan with displeasure in her eyes. "This jade is very important to me. I must have it today. Please don't embarrass me, Miss Xiao."

Xiao Xiyan snorted coldly in her heart. Seeing her increase the price, she became more and more certain that this jade was important to her, and she was so happy that she added: "One for two!"

There was silence all around, and everyone held their breath watching the tit-for-tat confrontation between the two people.

Xiao Xiyan's original intention was to raise the price a lot so that she could spend money to buy it.Just as she was waiting for Jiang Lianzhu to raise the price again and then give up, she saw Jiang Lianzhu looking at her with a half-smile but not a smile: "Since Miss Xiao likes this jade so much, then I won't win anyone's love."

As soon as these words came out, Xiao Xiyan's eyes widened: "Are you kidding me?"

"How could it be? I just saw that Miss Xiao really liked it and didn't have enough money to bid with Miss Xiao, so I had to give up." She looked at the jade again, and immediately covered her mouth in "surprise", "Ah, I remembered it wrong. Yes, this jade originally seemed to cost 100 taels of silver, and it’s my fault that Miss Xiao spent so much extra money.”

When Xiao Xiyan heard this, her eyes dimmed. Seeing that the clerk had already wrapped the jade and handed it to her, Xiao Xiyan couldn't regret it in front of so many people, so she had to grit her teeth and swallow the bitter pill.

But her father only gave her a few taels of silver to choose as a gift. Now that the money was spent, she bought something that her brother couldn't afford.