The maidservant is too charming. I want to help her become the queen.

Chapter 156 Find a breakthrough

The female sisters of Xuguan were practicing in the backyard of the East Palace. When they heard Lu Qingqing's voice, they went to the front hall to greet her despite being sweaty.

Xu Ming'er deliberately pretended to be a chivalrous woman, clasped her fists towards Lu Qingqing and said:

"I am a chivalrous woman who has always been chivalrous and righteous. If there is anything urgent, please tell me quickly!"

Lu Qingqing was amused, and her mood, which had been suppressed for most of the day, instantly improved.

She giggled and patted Xu Ming'er's shoulder with her little hand.

"Wow! I didn't know my neighbor was such a chivalrous woman!"

If it were any other time, Lu Qingqing would have joked with Xu Ming'er for a long time, but today the situation was urgent, so she went straight to the point.

"Ming'er, no more jokes. I came here today to ask for your help with something urgent."

Xu Ming'er instantly became anxious, "What happened?"

Lu Qingqing and Lu Qingqing told the Xuguan sisters the whole story of the counterfeit money.

Afterwards, Lu Qingqing mentioned the bearded escort and asked Xu Ming'er:

"I know your father used to be a courier. Do you know any way to distinguish between real and fake money?"

Xu Ming'er thought carefully and said:

"Qingqing, real and fake coins look exactly the same. The biggest difference between them is the different proportions of metals in them."

Xu Ming'er then asked Xu Yue'er to take out a string of copper coins from the box, spread out the string and took out a copper coin, gave it to Lu Qingqing, and explained while looking at the copper coin:

"Look, this is the copper coin issued by the late emperor. This copper coin issued by the government is made up of half copper and half lead."

"However, the counterfeit coins made by the people have a lower proportion of copper and a higher proportion of lead. Copper is expensive and lead is cheap. In this way, they can use the counterfeit coins with lower costs to exchange for silver that is the same as the real coins and make a profit from it."

Lu Qingqing picked up the copper coin, looked at it carefully in her hand, and kept muttering to herself.

"The copper ratio is low, the lead ratio is high..."

However, as she was reading, she suddenly remembered what Lord Wang Jie had just said in the Qianqing Palace.

He seemed to say that the counterfeit currency seized from the Mixue Ice Palace was lighter than the real Dasheng Tong Bao.

Lu Qingqing's mind quickly retrieved the physics knowledge she had learned in junior high school.

She recalled that the density of lead seemed to be greater than that of copper. Since counterfeit coins used more lead and less copper, the weight of the counterfeit coins should be heavier than the real Dasheng Tong Bao. How could it be lighter?

Realizing this, Lu Qingqing blurted out and asked Xu Minger.

"Ming'er! Is it true that the fake money from the people is heavier than the real money from the imperial court?"

Xu Ming'er nodded and said:

"Qingqing, you are really smart. You understand it immediately. That's right, the counterfeit coins made by ordinary people are indeed lighter than the real coins. We escorts have handled a lot of coins, so we have a good sense of balance. It is for this reason that we can distinguish the real coins from the fake ones in an instant."

Lu Qingqing was overjoyed. She finally found the illogical part in the whole thing and found a breakthrough.

She immediately stood up and thanked the Xu sisters.

"Thank you so much, you guys helped me a lot!"

Afterwards, she hurried back to her palace and immediately wrote a letter to send to Prince Jing.

When Li Xuansheng put her under house arrest, he specifically told her that if she found out anything, she could send a letter to Prince Jing's mansion. He had already instructed Prince Jing in advance to assist in the investigation.

Prince Jing has a group of elite soldiers under his command. They are Li Xuansheng's private guards. They are not listed in the court guards and only act secretly for Li Xuansheng.

Lu Qingqing wrote her findings in a letter, sealed it with red wax, and asked Erxi to give it to the chief guard standing outside the palace, asking him to hand it over to Prince Jing personally.

After finishing all these things, Lu Qingqing breathed a sigh of relief, leaned back on the chaise longue, relaxed physically and mentally, and enjoyed the rare quiet time.

At this moment, the fire has been lit in the hall.

It was freezing cold outside the hall, but the fire inside made it warm as if it were spring.

Lu Qingqing wrapped herself in a soft blanket made of white fox fur, closed her eyes comfortably, and lay on the chaise longue, gradually falling asleep in the gentle soothing incense.

While she was sleeping, she heard a restless sound beside her ears, pulling her back to reality from her beautiful dream.

Lu Qingqing rubbed her eyes in annoyance and asked softly in a hoarse voice:

"What happened outside?"

Seeing that Lu Qing was awake, Xiao Tao hurried forward to reply.

"My lady, it was the maid from the Queen's palace who usually delivers things to us that started a quarrel with Erxi."

Lu Qingqing woke up completely. She opened her eyes, took the cloak from Xiaotao's hand, stood up and walked out of the hall.

Erxi was standing with his hands on his waist, angrily yelling at the palace servant who came to deliver the gift:

"How dare you! Look at what you sent here. Our Concubine Ming is pregnant. Do you dare to bring this kind of stuff to Yinglan Pavilion to deal with our Concubine Ming?"

Standing opposite Erxi was a tall and thin eunuch.

Lu Qingqing looked at him for a few times and felt that he had a treacherous face and bad intentions.

She stepped forward, stopped Erxi, and spoke directly to the young eunuch.

"What did your queen send me today?"

Unexpectedly, the young eunuch did not greet Lu Qingqing when he saw her. Instead, he snorted arrogantly and pointed at the bamboo basket in front of him in a displeased manner. His voice was thin and sharp.

"Ming Guiren, the Empress said that it is already winter and she is worried that you will be cold, so she sent a servant to bring you some charcoal."

"But who would have thought that this girl would be so ungrateful and act like a fool. She said our products were not good and then bit us back. Ha!"

After the young eunuch finished speaking, Erxi got a little angry and was about to go up and argue with him again.

Lu Qingqing quietly tugged at Erxi's sleeve to stop her.

Right now, she was deeply involved in the counterfeit currency incident and was openly under house arrest by Li Xuansheng. She really didn't want to get involved in any more trouble with the Queen.

So, Lu Qingqing decided not to bother with him, and she said to the little eunuch.

"Put the things down and tell your queen to thank her for her kindness on my behalf."

The young eunuch snorted, twisted his thin body, and swaggered out of Yinglan Pavilion.

Lu Qingqing took off the lid of the bamboo basket, and saw that there was no charcoal in the basket, but only some scattered burnt charcoal strips.

Erxi looked at the basket of carbon bars, feeling indignant, and complained to Lu Qingqing.

"My lady, this is too much for us. How long have we been confined to our palace and you have already sent these things? How are we going to burn these broken pieces of carbon?"

Lu Qingqing's eyes darkened.

This queen is too impatient. She has only been under house arrest for a short time, but she can't wait to step on her.

Lu Qingqing doesn't want to suffer this kind of idleness.

She patted Erxi's shoulder to comfort him, and then ordered:

"Erxi, find a few palace servants to carry this basket of charcoal to the most conspicuous place outside the courtyard."