Actually, she wasn't stupid at all.
On the contrary, she was actually pretty clever.
After serving by the General's side for so many years, Anna knew exactly how he treated Cecilia Chen.
He treated Cecilia Chen very well.
Day in and day out, year after year.
So, when Cecilia Chen came to her and promised that if Anna helped her out, she’d become the General’s personal maid someday—
If she could give birth to a child with a Prime Spirit Root, she might even become a favored concubine.
She was instantly tempted.
First, she figured the General treated Cecilia Chen so well that if Cecilia insisted on marrying him, he’d eventually agree.
Second, Anna herself was already at the age for marriage proposals.
Her parents had arranged for her to become a concubine to a Spirit Master in his forties.
If she was going to be a concubine anyway, obviously no one could compare to the General.
Third—and most importantly—from the moment she first laid eyes on the General, with his imposing presence and striking good looks and that... indescribable something, she’d fallen for him!
So, as long as there was even a sliver of hope, she wanted to grab it!
She glanced at the food Lily Bai had eaten, her eyes flashing with a look of desperate resolve.
After today, Lily Bai would be gone from here forever!
......
"Cough, cough, cough!" Suddenly, Grace started coughing violently.
Anna hurried over to pat her back, asking what was wrong.
"I choked! Cough, cough, cough!" Grace said. "Could you get me a glass of water?"
"Okay." Anna went to pour her some water.
But as luck would have it, there was no water left in Grace's room.
"How come you don’t even have water here?" Anna said.
"Go to your room and get some for me! Cough, cough!" Grace said, tears and snot running down her face.
"Okay." Anna grabbed a teacup and went out, heading across the hall to her own room for water.
The maid rooms here were arranged in a U-shape, with a courtyard in the middle where the maids did laundry and hung clothes to dry.
At that moment, there were a few sheets drying between Anna’s and Grace’s rooms. As Anna’s figure disappeared behind the sheets, Grace kept coughing while scraping the rice in her own bowl, shaping it to look like the rice in Anna’s bowl.
Then she swapped the two bowls of rice.
Anna came back quickly, and Grace gulped down the water. Then, both of them happily finished all the food.
Afterward, Anna tidied up and left.
The color shown on the Violet Spirit Bamboo wasn’t faint, which meant it was a high-grade spiritual herb—at least grade three.
Grace figured that if an ordinary person ate that herb, it would take effect pretty quickly.
She climbed out the window and sneaked over to Anna’s back window to check on her.
Sure enough, through the slightly open window, she could see Anna lying on the bed, breathing heavily, legs squeezed tightly together, her face flushed as she twisted around.
Grace thought about it—whoever drugged her probably noticed that only Anna was around today and wanted to take advantage of the situation...
Yep... that had to be it!
She blinked her big, adorable eyes, grabbed a thin goose feather tube, and blew some knockout powder through the window crack.
Anna quickly fell into a deep sleep.
It was lunchtime, the busiest time over at the banquet.
All the maids had gone to serve the guests, so there wasn’t a soul around here.
Grace swaggered right into Anna’s room, carried her to her own room, and tucked her in.
After thinking for a moment, she pulled out the wad of cloth stuffed under the window.
There was a piece of wood under the window that had been eaten away by bugs. When she first moved in, it was hot, so she didn’t notice. Later, when it got cooler, cold air started blowing in at night, so she stuffed it with cloth.