No matter how uneasy she felt, Old Madam Feng knew that she couldn't show her weakness at this moment. She raised her eyelids and pouted at Wei Yunlan: "I sent you the herbs with good intentions, could it be that I sent the wrong ones?"
"No, it's just that the herb didn't smell right, so we didn't dare to boil it for the child to drink as the old lady said."
Wei Yunlan took a handful of herbs from the basket and handed them to the maidservant in front of Madam Liang. "You can smell it. Does it have a faint sour smell?"
The maid took the herb, sniffed it, nodded, and handed it to Mrs. Liang.
"Madam Liang can call Madam Liu who is beside Madam Bai to ask. These two herbs are called bitter herb and silver hemp leaf. They are commonly seen in folk remedies for removing phlegm and relieving cough. However, they are not very useful and are often used as fodder for livestock."
At this point, Wei Yunlan's brows also showed anger. "Yesterday, I smelled that the herbs in this basket were a little sour, and I thought that Madam Feng was negligent and didn't pay attention. Today, after seeing what happened to the young master of the Liang family, I realized that Madam Feng was not negligent at all, but clearly had the intention of killing him!"
"Miss Wei, please be careful with your words." Lord Feng looked stern.
Wei Yunlan became more and more excited as he spoke, "Isn't it? Giving us herbs soaked in pigeon juice, could it be that he has some good intentions?"
"If it's really as Madam Feng said, and we boiled this herb into a medicinal soup and drank it, I'm afraid everyone in the family would be sick by now."
"Let's take a step back. We didn't boil these herbs, but fed them directly to our livestock. Everyone knows that my little niece is only one month old and drinks a bowl of goat milk every day. If we really fed these bitter herb and silver hemp leaves to the ewe, how could my little niece be alive now?"
Gao and Cheng Yue'e came to Wei Yunlan's side, with Cheng Yue'e holding the sleeping little Jiarong in her arms. She looked at the Feng family as if they were enemies, with a face full of fear: "You didn't even let go of a one-month-old baby. You have such vicious minds!"
Gao also had a stern face and said in a cold voice: "My family only punished your child slightly for snatching things. It was your family that was wrong in the first place, and you are taking revenge on us. This is really unreasonable!"
The two parties in dispute changed from the Liang and Feng families to the Feng and Wei families. Mrs. Liang was holding a few bitter herbs and silver hemp leaves, wondering what she was thinking.
Wei Yunlan said bluntly: "Madam Liang, we are not even halfway to the North Gate yet, and we still have to travel together for more than a month. If we don't get to the bottom of this matter, how can we feel at ease during this journey?"
"Then according to Miss Wei, how should we investigate this matter?" asked Mrs. Liang.
"If you don't want others to know, then don't do it. Everything will leave traces once it's done. Madam Liang, you can just start by investigating the fodder for the horses and sheep." To find out, they need to send someone back to the inn where they stayed yesterday. Other families can't do this, but the Liang family can do it. They can just send a few servants and runners back together. I think the official Jie wouldn't mind making this concession for the Liang family.
Seeing that Madam Liang seemed to have been persuaded by Wei Yunlan, Lord Feng sighed, his face full of humiliation and depression, and he cupped his hands and finally advised: "Madam Liang, this matter is strange. I hope that even if Madam Liang sends someone to verify it, she will not listen to other people's one-sided words. After all, sometimes what you see is not necessarily the truth!"
"Lord Feng, just take care of your own family. As for how I should act, I do not need your advice." Mrs. Liang's face turned cold. She looked deeply at Lord Feng and Wei Yunlan, then turned around and walked towards Lord Liang and Officer Jie.
As expected, Lord Liang had already persuaded Officer Jie to agree to let the team stay in Qingfeng County ahead for two days.
The hundred miles covered in these two days will be spread out over the following days, with several more miles covered each day.
This is certainly not a big deal for the Liang family who ride in the carriage every day, but it is a heavy burden for other families in the team.
Miss Bai Si, who had just walked up to Wei Yunlan and asked her about the dispute between the Feng family today, couldn't help but complain in a low voice, "Hey, I don't know how much benefit Jie Guan received from the Liang family. He has been speaking in favor of his family all the way."
"Stop talking."
Wei Yunlan gently patted the back of Fourth Miss Bai's hand on her arm and said, "Since you feel that Jie Guan has done a great favor to his family, don't provoke them in the future, and don't get too close to them."
Fourth Miss Bai was a little surprised: "Sister Wei, my grandmother said the same thing."
Wei Yunlan was not surprised. Old Madam Feng was a confused person who couldn't figure things out, but Old Madam Bai was a truly wise elder.
With such an elder acting as the "stabilizing force" in the family, the morale of the Bai family will not be dispersed. Even if they cannot be rehabilitated and return to Beijing in the future, their lives will at least be good.
In order to avoid bumping the carriage of the young master of the Liang family, the team moved extremely slowly on the way to Qingfeng County.
Wei Yunlan noticed that Lord Feng, who was walking in front, had been trying to talk to Lord Liang.
For some reason, Lord Liang's attitude towards Lord Feng was not as cold and hard as Mrs. Liang's.
However, Wei Yunlan no longer cared about these things. Lord Feng was scheming, and the Liang family might not be easy to fool. The bigger the incident between the Feng and Liang families became, the better, and the more people left the team to investigate the incident, the better.
As a result, the number of people in the guard team was reduced, and they were unable to pay attention to their movements in time.
When the Wei family was no longer in the team and only the Feng and Liang families were left, no matter how eloquent Lord Feng was and how he tried to shift the blame elsewhere, once the seeds of doubt were planted, they would not be easily erased. As long as they had to travel together with the Liang family, there would definitely be disputes again.
By then, it would be hard to say whether they could reach Beiguan safely!
"Qingfeng County is ahead. I didn't expect this county is so big." Many people in the team had excitement in their eyes.
Along the way, they stopped at inns and hotel rooms near the official road and had never entered the city.
Accustomed to the hustle and bustle of Beijing, and after such a long period of boring and hard life, coming to a place like this is like a fish that has been dehydrated for a long time returning to the water. I can't help but feel excited.
However, before they even got close to the city gate, they heard the officer say, "Stop outside the city tonight and rest for two days. We will set out again at noon the next day!"
After saying this, the officer ordered his deputy to find a suitable place to stay nearby.
He himself, accompanied by four runners, Lord Liang, Madam Liang, the young master of the Liang family, and several servants, went straight into Qingfeng County.
“I thought we could enter the city today!”
"It's better to stay in those rural inns the past two days than to sleep in the open air!"
No matter what, having a bed to sleep on is better than sleeping on the floor.
Listening to the continuous complaints from the team, Wei Yunlan felt fortunate.
There's nothing wrong with staying outside the city.
The city was densely populated with houses and a large population, but there was only one team of theirs in the woods outside the city.
If something really happens, it's easier to escape outside the city than inside!
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