CHAPTER 107: CHAPTER 106: COME HERE, I PROMISE I WON’T BEAT YOU TO DEATH

The doctor Jin went outside to avoid intruding, and let Xiaocui unbutton Yu Wanying’s clothes to check if there were any severe injuries elsewhere on her body.

After a thorough examination, Xiaocui reported back to the doctor Jin, "My young lady’s head, neck, and arms are more severely affected; other areas are fine."

Doctor Jin was feeling a bit overwhelmed. The poisons involved were not lethal, but he couldn’t bear the sheer variety.

The interactions between these poisons might produce unknown toxic effects, which were uncertain.

Moreover, this was the young lady of a general’s family; if there was any slight mistake in the treatment, he couldn’t afford the responsibility.

After much deliberation, doctor Jin decided to pass this hot potato onto someone else.

He recommended his old rival, doctor Sun, at the adjacent pharmacy.

After sending off doctor Jin, doctor Sun was brought in.

Doctor Sun, shrewd as ever, went through the motions and said that detoxification was not his specialty, recommending Madam Ji instead.

Yu Zhenwen was at his wit’s end; if he could invite Madam Ji in the first place, why would he bother going through all this rigmarole?

Madam Ji was notoriously peculiar and treated everyone with indifference. Now that she had lost two sons suddenly, it was even less likely she’d be willing to help.

But Yu Wanying had to be saved somehow, so Yu Zhenwen ultimately decided to send the steward to personally visit Madam Ji and see if he could invite her.

The steward returned from the Ji residence, reporting that the doors were shut tight with no visitors allowed.

In the following days, Yu Zhenwen repeatedly sought out a few more doctors, but none claimed proficiency in detoxification techniques.

Xiaocui watched her young lady’s condition deteriorate by the day, so worried that her heart was about to leap out of her chest.

Yu Zhenwen feared that if Wanying died in Yangcheng, he wouldn’t be able to give a proper account to Yu Zhenwu, so he personally went to beg Madam Ji.

Strangely, Madam Ji agreed as soon as Yu Zhenwen asked, as if she had been waiting for him to come.

Yu Zhenwen had prepared a whole speech but didn’t get to use it, thinking that Madam Ji truly lived up to her odd reputation.

He had sent the steward several times to invite her, but Madam Ji had refused to come. Yu Zhenwen had low hopes, and yet all it took was a face-to-face appearance.

Though Madam Ji did everything within her power to heal, Yu Wanying still departed this world...

...

Mingxiang Pavilion

Zheng Yuanfeng, Su Jingchen, and Yu Xiaolian sat around a charcoal brazier.

Yu Xiaolian never expected to be able to warm herself by the fire while discussing Yu Wanying’s cause of death.

"I told you guys not to take any lives, yet why did you lay such a heavy hand on her?"

Yu Xiaolian showed no sign of it, but inside, she was bursting with joy, a classic case of feigning innocence after gaining an advantage.

"I only added a bit of itching powder and Mimosa Powder to her Eight Whites Powder; it wasn’t my fault."

Zheng Yuanfeng shot a glance at Su Jingchen, silently accusing him—the murderer—to confess.

Su Jingchen calmly took a small sip of tea, "I merely added something to her incense; it wasn’t lethal."

Good grief, these two were even being modest.

The medicine Su Jingchen added to the incense reacted with the ones Zheng Yuanfeng added, producing a peculiar poison.

But all it would do is muddle a person’s mind, cause limb paralysis, and make them suffer for a month, truly not lethal.

Yu Wanying’s death was thanks to the several doctors in Yangcheng who passed the buck, delaying the best time for treatment.

Some of the doctors, even if they sincerely wanted to save her, were encountering such a mixed poison for the first time, and Yu Wanying’s status made them hesitant to treat her like a guinea pig.

Yu Wanying bewilderingly lost her life like this; she probably never knew how she died, even at the end.

But Yu Wanying dying in such confusion, it’s unlikely Yu Zhenwu will let it go without a fight.

"You two didn’t leave behind any evidence, right? If the government finds out, it could be catastrophic."

Zheng Yuanfeng whispered, "Relax, I heard from Teacher Wan that Yu Wanying left a dying statement accusing Yu Yanran."

Truly, the vicious supporting character couldn’t leave the protagonist alone, even in death.

Saying the protagonist has plot armor, Yu Xiaolian believed.

But aside from the plot armor, the protagonist also attracted trouble, with rivals coming at her from all directions, every scheme planned against her.

The romantic journey between the protagonist and the hero was equally turbulent, with misunderstandings making their love so tumultuous, often resolving one crisis only for another to arise.

Yu Xiaolian felt no sympathy for Yu Yanran unfairly taking the blame, as long as the investigation didn’t point to her, she couldn’t care less.

Su Jingchen seriously added, "Yu Wanying had been at the Women’s Virtue Academy for three years; under normal circumstances, she would have received her graduation document this year’s December and returned gloriously to the capital. For her to die so easily, maybe someone didn’t want her to go back."

Yu Xiaolian furrowed her brow, "You mean... there were others involved in Yu Wanying’s death?"

Su Jingchen lazily glanced at Yu Xiaolian, "Isn’t it obvious?"

Yu Xiaolian: "..."

Come here and I promise I won’t beat you to death.

Zheng Yuanfeng added, "I heard from Teacher Wan that the county government is currently focusing their investigation on people from the women’s academy who had conflicts with Yu Wanying, with Xiao Fangfei taking the brunt of it, unable to defend herself. She’ll be hard-pressed, even if she survives."

Xiao Fangfei, in the future, is going to be Jun Yian’s beloved, and though he didn’t give her the position of official wife, everything else was hers.

Xiao Fangfei was set to be a sure winner in life, as depicted in the book, so there’s nothing to worry about.

Su Jingchen gave a meaningful smile, "I think that Madam Ji should be the one investigated closely."

Zheng Yuanfeng agreed for once, "Great minds think alike."

Yu Xiaolian was shocked—could it be that Madam Ji used the guise of treatment and detoxification to secretly kill Yu Wanying?

Both Ji Da and Ji Er were people of Jun Mobai; it’s possible that Madam Ji was as well. Jun Mobai might have removed a thorn in his little fiancée’s side.

Yu Xiaolian sighed; indeed, the matters inside were incredibly complex.

Yu Xiaolian changed the topic, asking Zheng Yuanfeng, "How’s the renovation going on that restaurant of yours?"

Zheng Yuanfeng looked troubled, "I was initially planning to open it at the start of the winter month, but the copper pot you mentioned is quite cumbersome to make, and it’s not even halfway done. I guess it won’t be ready until mid-month."

"It doesn’t need to take that long." This hotpot can absolutely be supplied in limited quantities, available to those who reserve early.

Recently, she had been accumulating a lot of hotpot base and dipping sauce, and with other items included, the two small storage rooms were almost full.

Yu Xiaolian couldn’t wait half a month and urged Zheng Yuanfeng to dispatch people to buy cattle and sheep, so they could prepare to open at the start of the month.

One good year of earnings, they must seize it, as once drought struck the next year, all efforts might be for naught.

Within a year, earn enough to buy a shop, then she can develop in Jiangnan without restraint.

Due to discrepancies in the profit-sharing of cosmetic products, Zheng Yuanfeng specially brought up the matter of the restaurant’s profit share.

Zheng Yuanfeng would provide the venue and manpower, and also stock the supplies, so he wanted the larger share: an eighty-twenty split, with sixty to her and forty to him.

Yu Xiaolian barely refrained from scratching Zheng Yuanfeng in impulse, showering him with flattery to try and get an extra twenty percent.

Zheng Yuanfeng replied seriously, "At most, I’ll give you an extra ten percent."

This penny-pincher really had a knack for learning the essence of being a businessman.

Yu Xiaolian tried hard to argue logically, but couldn’t change the fate of a seventy-thirty split.

Seventy-thirty is alright; she didn’t have to work, yet she could count the money every month, something many envied. Yu Xiaolian consoled herself.

To make sure hotpot branches bloom everywhere in the future, Yu Xiaolian decided to copy the recipe for the hotpot base from the ingredient list and give Zheng Yuanfeng a recipe.