Chapter 31 White Plum

As he squeezed out these words, his throat broke and with a gurgling sound, pus and blood gushed out of his throat. However, he did not dare to cough hard because of the severe pain in his throat. The heart-wrenching gasps sounded extremely painful.

Seeing him shaking and gasping violently with his head covered, Madam Dingxiang quickly told him to rest. She then left with Qiandeng and the others, weeping and saying, "Dengdeng, you must stand up for your cousin and your aunt! Your husband is so arrogant and cruel, he's actually harmed Huaijiang like this... Fufeng, you Dali Temple, quickly arrest Shi Jingning and torture him severely!"

It seems that Lady Dingxiang has been here all night to look after Yang Huaijiang and has no idea that Shi Jingning is in trouble.

Ever since Qian Deng learned of Yang Huaijiang's plan, her heart had turned cold towards her, her aunt. She sat down in a chair and said to her, "Aunt, please be patient. We must first understand the whole story of this matter. Let's wait for the doctor to come and let my cousin speak so that we can fully understand the entanglement between him and Shi Jingning yesterday."

Madam Dingxiang complained, "I know this best. I'll talk to you, my niece! Yesterday, your cousin...he needed to get something in the kitchen, so he went to borrow..."

Qiandeng knew that Yang Huaijiang was going to the kitchen to make some drugs for him, but he didn't point it out and just listened coldly.

"Because your backyard doesn't allow outsiders to enter, I personally brought Madam Ge to help him settle down. Unexpectedly, not long after, your cousin suddenly stumbled back from outside..."

Seeing Yang Huaijiang covering his face and stumbling several times onto the rockery, Lady Dingxiang was startled and hurried over to support him.

Yang Huaijiang refused to let go and just shouted at them to get out. Lady Dingxiang vaguely saw the exposed flesh between his fingers, which was red and swollen, with blisters all over. She hurriedly ordered Madam Ge to ask someone in the mansion to get medicine for burns, and then quickly asked Yang Huaijiang what had happened.

Yang Huaijiang's mouth and throat were burned, and his speech was difficult and unclear, but he finally told the whole story.

It turned out that he had just entered the kitchen to boil water to make medicine, and Shi Jingning also came in and said that his brother and sister-in-law had a poor appetite recently, so he boiled some medicine for them.

He was familiar with the kitchen and knew that Yang Huaijiang also needed to decoct medicine, so he found two small stoves and clay pots and helped him do it.

The fire burned brightly, and the medicine in the pot soon boiled. Shi Jingning lifted the lid and took a look, then called out, "Young Master Yang."

When Yang Huaijiang looked up, he saw Shi Jingning holding up the can of drugs. He quickly flipped the can and poured the whole can of boiling hot medicine straight into his face.

The boiling water splashed on his face, causing him excruciating pain. Yang Huaijiang subconsciously covered his eyes and fell to the ground with a scream.

Unexpectedly, Shi Jingning stepped on his shoulder again, picked up the pot of medicine from the medicine bag, and poured it towards his face again.

Yang Huaijiang's hands, face, and mouth, which was wide open in shock, were all covered in the boiling medicinal juice.

As soon as the medicine touched the wound on his skin, it was like thousands of needles piercing into it. His already injured body was instantly corroded and melted. The pain made his whole body twitch and he could only wail briefly.

Yang Huaijiang struggled to get up in severe pain and wanted to fight with Shi Jingning, but he saw that the other party had already grabbed the shining kitchen knife and was staring at him coldly, as if the knife in his hand was going to chop his neck at the next moment.

Although Yang Huaijiang was in extreme pain, he also knew that Shi Jingning was used to wielding a kitchen knife in the kitchen and he was no match for him. He could only flee in panic to avoid death at his hands.

Lady Dingxiang cried and complained bitterly about Shi Jingning's cruelty and horror.

Qian Deng and everyone else had not expected that Shi Jingning, who had always been shy and gentle, would be so decisive at that moment and punish the person who wanted to hurt her so efficiently.

She suppressed the bitterness in her heart, took a deep breath, and calmed herself down: "In this case, I'm sorry to have wronged my cousin."

"Deng Deng, your cousin has been harmed to this point. How can you just brush it off with a simple word of grievance?" Madam Dingxiang was clearly extremely dissatisfied with her reaction. Pointing at Yang Huaijiang's closed door, she said, "Your cousin looked so miserable last night. As his mother, my heart is broken! He groaned in pain all night, and I stayed by his side and cried all night. Oh, God, the ancestors of the Yang family must bless Huaijiang to recover safely..."

Qian Deng was too lazy to listen to her crying anymore, so he stood up and said, "In that case, Auntie, please take good care of my cousin. I'll take my leave now."

Madam Dingxiang grabbed her and said anxiously, "Huaijiang is my aunt's only hope. Now Shi Jingning has made him like this. Dengdeng, you must seek justice for him!"

Qiandeng lowered his eyelashes and calmly pulled the sleeve back from her hand.

Madam Dingxiang turned back to look at Cui Fufeng and said, "Fufeng, Huaijiang and you are cousins ​​after all. You must urge the Dali Temple to punish Shi Jingning!"

"I'm afraid this will put my aunt in a difficult position," Cui Fufeng said calmly. "The Dali Temple is in charge of all matters under the heavens, and I'm afraid they won't be able to seek justice for Yang Huaijiang in the underworld."

Madam Dingxiang was stunned for a moment and asked blankly, "What do you mean?"

"What I'm saying is, if you're not convinced, you can go find Shi Jingning in the underworld," Ling Tianshui scoffed. "To be honest, Madam accused Shi Jingning of harming Yang Huaijiang, and we even suspected Yang Huaijiang of murdering Shi Jingning. Now that the truth has yet to be revealed, Madam, please keep a close eye on your son. After all, he's under suspicion of murder—a far more serious charge than throwing hot water on someone."

Lady Dingxiang's face was pale, and she opened her mouth but couldn't utter a word.

Qiandeng turned and left. When she reached the gate, Madam Dingxiang woke up as if from a dream. She hurried out and held Qiandeng's hand, deliberately showing the red gold plum blossom bracelet on her wrist: "Dengdeng, you can't ignore your cousin! Your mother also liked Huaijiang very much back then. She...she and I have a deep sisterly love..."

Unfortunately, no matter what she said, it was all in vain.

Before leaving, Shi Jingning gave the county lady a last gift.

No matter how despicable Yang Huaijiang's methods were, or how powerful the person who sent him into her backyard was, it was only seven days before Lady Qi was buried, and there was no way he could restore his appearance within seven days.

How could a man with a face rotten like a pig's head and injured hands hold the soul cloth for the queen?

Even though the disfiguring medicine prescribed by Meng Lanxi is only effective in the short term and can be slowly restored in the future, at least now, Yang Huaijiang has completely lost the possibility of becoming the county lord's husband.

Qiandeng pushed Madam Dingxiang's hand away and tried to leave, but she held onto it tightly, pointing at the gold bracelet on her wrist. She said anxiously, "Dengdeng, look at the gift your mother gave me. Have you grown up and forgotten your mother's kindness?"

Qiandeng looked at the bracelet, which was made of twisted plum branches, and also at the red-gold plum blossoms dotted on it. For a moment, he didn't know whether he should be cruel enough to push her away.

At this moment, a voice suddenly came from the side: "The white plum blossom looks better on this red gold bracelet."

These inexplicable words were completely incoherent and very strange. Qian Deng turned around and glanced at the person who spoke, and it was Lu Wulin.

Perhaps because he was Lady Dingxiang's nephew, he was usually very bold, and he actually said such a strange thing at this moment.

Qiandeng still didn't understand what he meant, but Madam Dingxiang's face suddenly turned purple. She stared at Lu Wulin and opened her lips. The hand she had tightly grasped around Qiandeng's loosened unconsciously, and she subconsciously pulled her sleeve down to cover the red gold plum blossom bracelet.

"What did you say? Why don't you... go and take care of the young master?" Lady Dingxiang barely squeezed out these words from her throat, but her right hand unconsciously grasped her left wrist tightly through her sleeve, as if the gold bracelet was burning her hand, and her expression was extremely ugly.

Lu Wulin lowered his head, looking respectful. "Yes, I'll go right away. I just remembered some small things that happened when I was helping my aunt twenty years ago..."

Lady Dingxiang suddenly turned around and walked inside, mumbling, "Why are you bringing up old things here? Let's go."

Qiandeng became suspicious and wondered what the white plum blossom on the gold bracelet meant.

This was a completely insignificant matter, clearly just a casual chat between his nephew and his aunt, so why did he insist on saying this in front of her and Lady Dingxiang?

Before she could sort out her thoughts, Lady Dingxiang and Lu Wulin had hurriedly rushed to the courtyard and disappeared.