CH 79
Fu Zhiyu sent away Dr. Chen and stayed in the room to read the documents.
Yuan Jiangxing was also there. He asked the soldiers under his command to pack up the two boxes of things for the medical centre and help carry them back, and then returned to the inner room quietly and asked, “Were you serious just now about going to various places in Jiangnan?”
“Of course I was serious, is it possible to lie about this?” Fu Zhiyu looked up at him, “When I finish this volume, I will leave the day after tomorrow, not going too far, just picking a village near Luanzhou.
I don’t plan to take many people. It is best for me to go alone, so I didn’t tell Uncle. Otherwise, when the people see a huge group of people, they will be terrified. How can I see what I want to see then?”
Yuan Jiangxing frowned, and before he could say the words “No, it is too dangerous”, Fu Zhiyu was the first to continue: “Uncle, don’t worry about it, nothing will happen. I have decided, that’s it, we won’t discuss this anymore.”
Yuan Jiangxing was not the kind of parent who protected his children too much. After all, he was a general and he was not too stubborn. Seeing Fu Zhiyu say that, he didn’t object again.
He just poured Fu Zhiyu a cup of hot tea, patted him on the shoulder and said, “Don’t tire yourself out too much, take your time.”
Fu Zhiyu went back to look at his documents again, nodding to indicate that he knew. He was indeed thirsty and took a sip of the tea that Yuan Jiangxing poured for him.
“What is this?” He took a sip and frowned, “So bitter.”
Yuan Jiangxing took a sip himself and said, “It’s Ujeon, a famous tea in Jiangnan. You didn’t drink much of it, so you might not be used to it. This tea is slightly bitter in the mouth, but it has a long sweet aftertaste and a rich fragrance. I think you are too tired, so I ordered it for you. What, don’t you like it? I’ll make you something else next time.”
After a while, Fu Zhiyu felt the sweetness on the tip of his tongue, and the fragrance of tea also came out, but when he heard his uncle’s words, he felt something was wrong.
He looked at the tea in his hand with a puzzled expression: “I have drunk Ujeon before, but it didn’t taste like this. Does the taste of different grades of tea differ so much?”
He remembered that the servant who delivered the tea last time said that it was the top one, and there was only the last bit left.
Yuan Jiangxing was also puzzled: “This is the top one. Jiangwen gave it to me. Which one do you drink?”
Fu Zhiyu stopped talking. Although he usually drank tea, he was not addicted to it. Unlike Yuan Jiangxing, he didn’t know what was the top or not. But even if he wasn’t too fond of tea, he knew in his heart that the cup of Ujeon in front of him was not the same as the “Ujeon” he drank last time.
“What’s the matter?” Yuan Jiangxing saw that his face wasn’t right, “What’s the problem?”
Fu Zhiyu shook his head and didn’t say anything right away.
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This matter could be big or small. After all, this tea was just something to drink. Whether a servant who delivered the tea was talking nonsense, passing the tea for a good thing, or deliberately served it to him, it was difficult to tell clearly. But after drinking the pot of tea at that time, he was indeed much more comfortable.
Fu Zhiyu recalled what happened at the time, and then remembered the servant’s voice and back, and suddenly guessed something.
“It’s okay,” Fu Zhiyu said to Yuan Jiangxing, “I remembered it wrong.”
He put down the teacup and never drank the tea again, but after Yuan Jiangxing left and the servant came to deliver the hot tea again, Fu Zhiyu stared at him for a while, and then asked, “Since I came here, have you always been responsible for delivering the tea?”
The servant didn’t expect his master to talk to him, so he knelt down in fright, almost knocking over the teapot, and said tremblingly: “Your Highness, this slave’s old mother was sick some time ago, and I had no choice but to rush to help her. This slave only came back the day before yesterday. There are five tea servants in this house, and they usually take turns on duty.”
“What kind of tea do you usually make for me?”
“Your Highness, the tea brewed is usually good Biluochun. If any of the lords need it, there are also teas such as?Pu’er,?Longjing, and?Yunwu?in the mansion, all according to your preferences.”
“Ujeon.. is there any?”
“Your Highness, there is no such thing in the house. The former governor didn’t like this tea, so we didn’t prepare it.”
“It’s fine,” Fu Zhiyu saw him frightened so much that his voice was trembling. He actually had a guess in his heart and he just confirmed it. He also took a closer look at the servant’s figure and appearance, which was very different from the previous one.
“You can leave, I’m just asking casually.”
When the servant heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the master wasn’t going to blame him, so he quickly retreated.
Meanwhile, Dr. Chen brought Qian Manguan’s gift from Fu Zhiyu to his medical centre. He didn’t intend to avoid suspicion, taking a carriage and putting the box directly in the hall of the medical centre where the people who came and went could see it.
The next day, the medical centre opened its doors as usual, but a large tent was erected in front of the door.
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“Wang Zhao is benevolent and has set up a medicine tent in our medical centre to administer medicine for free for three consecutive days. All men, women and children can come to get it!”
In early spring, the weather was still cold, and it was easy to get wind chills and catch a cold; that was the case with most of the patients treated in the medical centre at that time.
Now that a medicine tent was set up, patients could come to receive medicine free of charge. Even those who were not sick or suffering could come to the medicine tent to ask for a bowl of hot ginger soup.
If children came, the medical staff would also give them a piece of sweet ginger candy; the elderly would have ginseng tea to replenish their vitality, and those who were in trouble and starving would be also given rice porridge.
At the beginning, the scene was a bit chaotic because of too many people, but the medicine centre saved a lot of people, and people who lived nearby came to help maintain order, so the afternoon was much better.
“Come one by one, don’t worry, there is something for everyone.”
“It doesn’t matter if you don’t get it today, there will be more tomorrow.”
“....”
After hearing about this, Fu Zhiyu felt that it was well done. He originally planned to go out of Luanzhou today, but in the morning he deliberately went around to the shop in front of the medical centre to take a look.
“The medicinal materials for wind chill medicine are limited. The amount has been set and three days is just right. If there is more, it will be unsustainable,” Dr. Chen said to him, “But ginger soup and rice porridge can be distributed again.”
Fu Zhiyu had no objection: “Do as you wish. If you don’t have enough money, just tell me.”
“Enough is enough, the Qian family gave a lot,” Dr. Chen said. “In a few days, when the weather gets hot, we can do it again and distribute some heat-relieving tea or something.”
When Fu Zhiyu left the medical centre, he opened the curtain and took a look.
It was still early, but the queue was already very long. Although some people came with the idea of being cheap and taking advantage to get something for free, there were also a lot of ragged people in the queue. A bowl of ginger soup and a bowl of rice porridge were not worth much money, but for many people, it was already a rare gift.
When Qian Manguan received the news, his impression of Fu Zhiyu was refreshed again.
The four families had all done this kind of thing, and they were not that unkind to the poor, even if they were just making a name for themselves. But Qian Manguan knew very well that this kind of thing could only treat the symptoms but not the root of the problem.
But he also knew that after so long, Fu Zhiyu hadn’t found a new governor of Luanzhou. Instead, he ran to the government office every day to look at the documents. With these actions, it was obvious what he was going to do.
The King of Jiangnan, who didn’t care about anything, probably no longer existed.
Thinking of this, Qian Manguan sighed and went to clean up the mess in his hands.
As for the Deng family’s affairs, Qian Manguan moved faster than anyone else.
As soon as he got the medicine, he went to the Deng mansion immediately.
Since he had decided to do it, Qian Manguan wasn’t going to be polite. Not only did he intend to extort, he intended to extort a lot.
“Your Deng family is ruthless and unrighteous. I have been running around and working hard, and you stabbed me in the back!” Qian Manguan was full of confidence. Deng Qian wasn’t here now, and facing this family, he naturally had a crushing combat effectiveness. To put it bluntly, the family couldn’t lift their heads, “Since that’s the case, then we’ll settle accounts between us brothers. You’ll have to pay for all the effort I’ve put into this antidote!”
Deng Jinghe sat in the back with his head lowered and said nothing. As a concubine’s son, he couldn’t be blamed for not standing in the front at this time.
How could this happen?
With a gloomy expression on his face, he glanced at Qian Manguan who was bossing around in the hall, and then remembered that person again.
Deng Jinghe actually didn’t see Fu Zhiyu much. He saw him in Yuan Lu’s shop at first, and during the sacrifice at second, but he remembered him deeply every time.
The first time he saw Fu Zhiyu, he felt that this King of Jiangnan was a vase (beautiful but without abilities). He would like to lock him at home and raise him well so that he belonged only to him, without letting others see him. But Fu Zhiyu’s status was too high and this kind of idea was too difficult for Deng Jinghe to realise now.
At that time, Deng Jinghe had already known about the Deng family’s actions during the sacrifice. He even deliberately contributed to the situation, hoping that if this person fell from a high place, one day, sooner or later, he would really fall into his own hands and the idea he had when he first met Fu Zhiyu might be realised.
But what he didn’t expect was that Fu Zhiyu was hiding too many tricks in his sleeve.
Not to mention what had happened earlier, but this matter was in front of him now.
Where did Qian Manguan get the medicine? It was clearly from Fu Zhiyu.
Deng Jinghe deliberately encouraged Deng Lang to arrange the coachman’s business. Deng Lang was Deng Qian’s son from the main wife, but he had been protected too well since he was a child and couldn’t handle these things at all. He also wanted to follow Qian Manguan to beg Fu Zhiyu, but Deng Jinghe persuaded him not to go, saying that the Qian family’s lesson showed them that it was useless to beg.
Next, he sent the coachman to Deng Lang and taught him to kidnap Fu Zhiyu. From beginning to end, Deng Jinghe never showed up, and Deng Lang didn’t expect his most trusted steward to be Deng Jinghe’s person a long time ago.
Deng Lang thought for a while and decided that this was the right thing to do. If the kidnapping was successful, Wang Zhao would naturally hand over the antidote in order to save his life. When his father woke up, everything would be fine. In case it didn’t work, the coachman also promised that he would say that it was done by the Qian family and had nothing to do with the Deng family. It could be said that the plan was foolproof.
But Deng Jinghe knew that the probability of success in this kidnapping was basically zero. Deng Lang didn’t know about the incense burner incident but Deng Jinghe knew. He knew that it was basically a pipe dream to tie Fu Zhiyu up with the coachman’s three-legged cat kung fu.
Deng Jinghe just didn’t want Deng Qian to wake up. He’d better stay asleep until he died. Deng Lang was not someone to be afraid of. As long as Deng Jinghe used some little tricks, this huge family business would be rightfully delivered to him sooner or later. He liked to hear about the escape of the shopkeeper and the trouble in the backyard. It was nothing to lose some money. Deng Lang couldn’t handle it, so Deng Jinghe handled all of this. His right to speak in the family naturally expanded a lot.