Chapter 50
Fu'er felt a heavy weight in her heart.
Finally, because he was busy, he didn't have to worry about Ning Shiyu's safety.
Now, they have successfully brought her back to reality.
The goods and spices had already been moved here, and she had no choice but to accept it.
And she no longer has to go home and sleep in the shed.
My heart was filled with mixed feelings.
Her eyes instantly welled up with tears, and she murmured, "What's the point of doing all this? Our relationship is destined to be short-lived."
The Imperial Palace in the capital.
Ning Shiyu's entry into Chang'an this time was very secretive. He had many guards and could not travel by passenger ship.
They could not travel on official roads, but could only travel on his private passenger boat.
They arrived in Chang'an two days earlier than usual.
Ning Shiyu could not show his true face, so he disguised himself as an ordinary-looking merchant.
He was surrounded by many guards, including a hundred elite soldiers assigned to him by the King of Qin.
Ning Shiyu did not bring them into Chang'an City, but instead settled them outside the city.
He only brought a few guards with him, disguised as servants carrying things.
They settled in an inconspicuous inn and didn't leave for several days.
Every night, Mu Li, Zhuang Xing, and Zhu Qing would go out to gather information.
After several days of hard work, they finally got back the Emperor's murder case that Ning Shiyu wanted.
This imperial physician was indeed suspicious; he had prepared two copies, one of which contained the true condition of Emperor Taihe's body.
One of them is a medical record of a doctor's haphazard treatment.
After Ning Shiyu had Doctor Qu examine him, Doctor Qu cursed, "These quacks! The Emperor is already experiencing excessive thirst and urination."
"When qi and blood are stagnant, they not only fail to prescribe medicines to clear phlegm, unblock meridians, and promote blood circulation."
"The prescription given to the Emperor was actually for clearing liver fire."
The people inside the room were all furious after hearing this.
Only Ning Shiyu remained calm; he had already witnessed the ruthlessness of the Cui family.
He asked calmly, "If we don't stop it, how long can the Emperor stall?"
The atmosphere instantly became tense, and everyone looked nervous.
Since Doctor Qu was able to enter Chang'an with Ning Shiyu, he must have known Ning Shiyu and his group's purpose.
He sighed, "Given the Emperor's current health, if they continue to harm him like this, he can only last two to three months at most."
Everyone gasped in shock.
In the first half of the month, spies reported that Cui Mingyou had deployed additional troops to the southwestern border of Ruzhou and also increased the number of imperial guards from the palace.
Ning Shiyu had a bad feeling.
He's preparing for both possibilities.
I suspect they're planning to tamper with his uncle's body.
The imperial physicians must have noticed the pills that Ning Shiyu had sent last time.
Ning Shiyu was unaware of the details, only knowing that the people he had arranged in the palace could no longer deliver the life-saving pills he had prepared for his imperial uncle.
He guessed it.
Doctor Qu, a kind-hearted physician dedicated to healing the sick, continued, "Your Highness, for the sake of His Majesty's health, I believe we should act as soon as possible."
Ning Shiyu's trust in Doctor Qu this time was solely due to the fact that the two shared a common enemy.
Doctor Qu was upright and unwilling to participate in the Empress's conspiracy to harm the concubines in the palace.
Framed by the Cui family, his younger brother and brother-in-law, who were officials in the court, were also implicated and dismissed from their posts.
The entire family, numbering several dozen people, were exiled to Lingnan.
When Ning Shiyu rescued her, her parents and very young children had all died from illness because they could not endure the harsh climate of Lingnan.
Fortunately, the rest of the family survived.
Now, Ning Shiyu has settled his family in Lin'an and Chengdu respectively.
Of course, we must avenge this doctor Qiu Qu.
Ning Shiyu only mentioned it briefly, and he agreed to join the Qin King's forces.
Everyone in the room was waiting for Ning Shiyu to give the order.
After a moment of contemplation, Ning Shiyu said, "I would like to trouble Doctor Qu to prescribe a few more days' worth of appropriate medicine for His Majesty."
"I have my own purpose."
Doctor Qu was puzzled. How should he send the prescription to the Emperor?
But Ning Shiyu looked confident, knowing that he would say what needed to be said.
If someone is unwilling to talk about it, it's not appropriate for me to ask further.
He nodded in agreement, "Your Highness, rest assured, I will open it immediately."
The following night, Ning Shiyu disguised himself as another middle-aged man in his forties.
Wearing a blue Taoist robe with a Buddha head design, and accompanied by Mu Li in disguise, they slowly walked out of the inn.
The master and servant arrived at the Lu residence in Shengye Ward. After inquiring around, Mu Li took the lead and leaped into the mansion.
Upon hearing Mu Li's coded signal from inside, Ning Shiyu tiptoed into the courtyard.
Ruyi Street.
In the first few days after the new shop opened, business was still slow.
This street was frequented by wealthy merchants and prominent families from Lingyang.
They used famous and precious fragrances such as agarwood, musk, and styrax.
They also had no desire to try these mixed fragrances.
Chen Qiao went back to get married, leaving only Dongyue and Fu'er at the shop, along with Agui, the shop assistant they had just hired a couple of days ago.
This person is very clever and has a sweet tongue, so he knows many noble ladies.
He actively brought many customers into the shop.
Seeing that the spices on the counter were all bland, I just glanced at them and left, not wanting to buy anything.
Fu'er realized that the old methods wouldn't work, and the business wouldn't last long if things continued this way.
Dongyue calmly said from the side, "If business is bad, it's bad. Anyway, the young master asked you to move here, not that he expected you to make money."
"It's about letting you do what you love."
Yu Cuicui knew she couldn't hide it any longer, and admitted that it was Ning Shiyu's arrangement.
This shop is Ning Shiyu's private property.
He also advised Fu'er that one shouldn't be so rigid, and that buying twenty boxes of spices on Qingyu Street was not as good as buying one box on Ruyi Street.
Hearing Dongyue's words, Fu'er smiled.
Dongyue's thoughts were different from hers. She was just a worker, and since there were few customers at the shop, she was quite relaxed.
These past two days, Fu'er could tell that she was extremely uncomfortable and was just putting on a brave face.
“Sister Dongyue, I can’t rely on the young master for the rest of my life.”
"The shop is his, but the business is mine."
“I don’t care what he’s thinking, but I have to get my business up and running.”
"Since the customers don't like the scent of pear blossoms, I'll switch to something else and try to make the pear blossom scent business a success."
Dongyue and Agui immediately became interested. "Miss, what would you like to exchange?"
Fu'er smiled mysteriously, "You'll find out in a few days."
Dongyue and Agui took it as a joke.
Five days later, Fu'er brewed fresh flower dew.
I tried it, and this floral dew can be applied to the body.
Even without scenting your clothes, you'll smell wonderful.
The material used this time is the same osmanthus flowers that were sold last time.
Therefore, Fu'er was named Osmanthus Dew.
The day after they moved here, Fu'er inspected the entire street.
There were two spice shops that sold incense favored by the wealthy.
Then there's the adjacent Dongdaemun Main Street, which also sells incense.
There were no shops selling scented dew, and that's when she had this idea.
The shop also had ready-made distillation equipment, which Xianglu had learned from Ning Shiyu when she was a child.
I've done it before, but the procedure was too complicated.
She then gave up and devoted herself to making incense.
Fu'er made twenty small sachet bottles.
The small perfume bottle also uses a ceramic bottle, which is currently in fashion.
The exterior is painted with colorful designs.
Because she has been blending fragrances for many years, she has a good grasp of the proportions of flowers, and the fragrances are fresh and not bland.
Even Dongyue, who doesn't use incense, said it smelled good.
Because the amount of fragrant dew is small, I heard that a bottle of rose water in Chang'an costs ten taels of silver.
Excluding the twenty coins for each small sachet, Fu'er decided to sell each bottle for five taels of silver.
After setting everything up, A-Gui took the sample of the perfume and went to Dongmen Zhengjie to attract customers.
Fu'er and Dongyue greeted customers on Ruyi Street, and passersby were involuntarily drawn in by the aroma.
Most of them came to the shop voluntarily to buy, and also bought a lot of other spices.
Including the fragrance of pear blossoms that had been ignored for the past few days.
After a busy day, the three of them not only had five bottles of fragrant dew left, but they also sold a lot of other spices.
After a whole day, Fu'er calculated that, after deducting costs, she had actually made sixty taels of silver.
In the past, it would take two or three months to earn this much in Qingyupu, but now in Ruyi Street, I can earn this much in just one day.
Although I can't guarantee that I can buy such good things every day.
But in any case, it's still much better than Qingyu Street.
This fueled her desire to make a fortune; she couldn't handle all the work of making this fragrant dew by herself.
We need to find someone.
When Dongyue saw that she had asked Agui to find someone, she immediately reminded her, "Why don't you let your own people earn the money?"
"Have your sister come over."
"Are you sure you can trust outsiders? They might steal your skills."
Fu'er hasn't been home these past few days; Man'er has been bringing her meals.
Seeing that Fu'er had such a big shop, her sister was genuinely happy for her.
Fu'er hesitated and said, "My sister has suffered too much in the past, I don't want her to work so hard."
"Half of the money I earn belongs to her."
Dongyue disagreed and continued to persuade her, "You don't want her to work hard, but she's still busy at home."
"Your nephew is so well-behaved, why don't you let your sister come here?"
"Just give her her wages."
"It's spacious here, and there's enough room to stay."
After thinking about it for a while, Fu'er realized that it made sense and readily agreed.
She reached out and rubbed Dongyue's stern face. "My sister Dongyue is the most knowledgeable."
Dongyue awkwardly pulled Fu'er away, saying, "Even though you are my master, you can't just touch my face like that."
Fu'er thought to herself, "I'm finally not afraid of you anymore." She rubbed her hands together, then chuckled, "Want me to rub you a little more and smile a bit more?"
"Only bamboo green will like it."
A blush suddenly rose on Dongyue's face, which had remained unchanged for a thousand years, and she asked in a daze, "Really?"
Seeing that she had guessed what was on her mind, Fu'er patted her chest and assured her, "Really."
The next day, Fu'er asked Dongyue to pick up her sister.
Fu'er was busy in the incense-making room, while A-Gui was receiving guests in the shop in the front yard.
When Dongyue brought Man'er and her son back, she found that Fu'er was still at the incense shop.
There were no signs of struggle inside the house.
It was only then that Dongyue panicked. The group searched the entire shop but couldn't find Fu'er.
Dongyue thought to herself that something was wrong, and didn't bother to explain to the two of them.
She had the groom take her back to Songtao Garden to find Uncle Jiu.
*
Fu'er didn't know how long she had slept. She was awakened by a strong smell of rouge and powder. When she opened her eyes, the room was completely unfamiliar.
Panic gripped me; I realized it wasn't a hallucination, but that I had truly been kidnapped.
She was making incense in her room when suddenly a rich, exotic fragrance wafted over.
Fu'er is sensitive to the smell and knows that this is not something she made herself.
Just as he went out to check, he felt dizzy, his vision went black, and he fainted.
At this moment, she got up and pulled the door open; it was locked from the outside.
I shook and patted the door for a long time, but no one answered.
Fu'er calmed down and carefully looked around the room again.
Looking at the furnishings inside, it didn't resemble the bandit's den that people described at all.
It's more like a woman's boudoir.
Looking at myself, I see that I am all neat and tidy, with my clothes on me properly.
I didn't do anything inappropriate to her.
She went through it in her mind, and realized that her only enemy right now was Xu Yuan.
Xu Yuan has already left Lingyang.
Who could have brought her here? And why were they doing that?
Just as Fu'er was racking her brains trying to figure it out, she heard a sound of beating and cursing and a woman crying outside.
"Once you arrive at our Tianxiang Pavilion, your life and death are in my hands."
"If you run again next time, it'll be your leg that gets broken."
Tianxianglou?!
Fu'er's face turned pale. This name was familiar; it belonged to the largest brothel in Lingyang City.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
