Chapter 114 Poisoning
The work in the cold government office is heavy and the pay is low, and promotion is slow. It may take ten years to get promoted.
Of course, Duke Qing was reluctant to let his daughter suffer with a poor pawnshop clerk, so soon after his daughter's marriage, he asked the officials to transfer his son-in-law to the Ministry of Revenue.
Over the next ten years, Tan Qingzhou was promoted step by step from a sixth-rank official to a second-rank minister. His promotion speed was not fast, but each step was steady.
He left far behind the first and second class Jinshi who ranked ahead of him in the palace examination that year.
It can be said that he is the person that those who once said to their brother-in-law, "Having a good father-in-law can save you 30 years of hard work," most want to emulate.
But for Cui, fate was too unfair.
She grew up in luxury, but was forced to marry a scholar from a poor family. Her husband rose to prominence, but she didn't even have a child, so she had to raise the child adopted from her widowed sister-in-law for him.
It would be fine if my widowed sister-in-law lived far away, but she lived next door with her youngest son.
The biological mother is always around, and the adopted son was raised by her, so he may not be on the same page with her.
However, Feng Qingsui did not see any sadness on Cui's face. Perhaps she had her own world in her heart and did not feel that the world was unfair, nor did she feel suffering from it.
She is the only one who doesn't worry about anything.
In the afternoon, she took Wuhua and drove a donkey cart with Cui to the Duke of Qing's Mansion.
The maid in the room of the Duke of Qing's wife apologized, "The wife is still asleep. Please wait outside for a moment and have some tea first."
Cui frowned: "Mother didn't sleep well last night?"
The maid nodded.
"Last night, the old lady was just like the other days. She dreamed as soon as she closed her eyes. When she woke up, she felt like she hadn't slept at all. She always tried to catch up on sleep during the day, but she couldn't sleep well."
There was a hint of sadness between Cui's brows.
Feng Qingsui drank tea silently.
When the old lady of Duke Qing woke up and invited them into the inner room, she frowned slightly when she smelled the fragrance coming from the incense burner.
"It's hard for you to come to see me every day."
The old lady of Duke Qing looked at her daughter and sighed.
"My health is getting worse day by day. I won't be able to get better. You don't have to come to me all day. Take care of yourself."
Cui's eyes reddened: "Mother, don't curse yourself. You are still young and you will get better."
"I'm over sixty, and I'm still young."
The old lady of Duke Qing laughed at herself.
"Mrs. Ji, this is what youth is."
Feng Qingsui smiled slightly: "Old Madam is blessed with long-lasting fortunes, and her later years will be prosperous. She will definitely be able to overcome this minor obstacle smoothly."
The old lady of the Duke of Qing praised him, "Your words are so apt, they open my heart more clearly than the fortune-telling in the temple."
After saying that, he invited Feng Qingsui to sit next to him.
Feng Qingsui sat down below her, took her pulse, and asked about her diet and daily life. He smiled and said, "You are fine. It may be that your diet is not right that causes the recurring rashes."
The old lady of the Duke of Qing frowned and said, "I eat the same thing every day, and I never got a rash before."
"The form and energy of a person are ever-changing."
Feng Qingsui explained.
"Things that were overcome before may not be so now. Don't force it."
The old lady of the Duke of Qing thought her words made sense, so she asked, "Which one is inappropriate?"
"It's probably fermented bean curd," Feng Qingsui replied. "The rest of your food is fresh food with neutral properties, but fermented bean curd is prone to impurities due to fermentation, which can easily damage the spleen and stomach's yang energy."
"If the spleen yang is deficient, dampness and turbidity will turn into heat, causing rashes on the skin."
The old lady of Duke Qing suddenly understood.
"No wonder I didn't get better after taking so many medicines. It turns out I was taking poison all the time."
Feng Qingsui chuckled: "If you stop eating for a few days, you should be able to recover."
"No need to take medicine?"
"Need not."
The old lady of the Duke of Qing was overjoyed. She held Feng Qingsui's hand and sighed, "You really understand me. All the other doctors made me take medicine, which made me suffer so much."
Cui said with a smile: "Mother, you are already a great-grandmother, why are you still afraid of taking medicine?"
The old lady of Duke Qing glared at her: "My generation has increased, but my sense of taste hasn't. Even if I were a great-great-grandmother, this medicine would still taste bitter."
Cui was left speechless.
After the old lady's excitement died down, Feng Qingsui said, "But I'm afraid you need to change the incense in your incense burner."
The old lady of Duke Qing was puzzled: "This spice is for sleep, why change it?"
"This spice of yours is primarily meant to help you sleep, but it also contains another spice. Combined with the spice in the sachet that Madam Tan carries, it will cause insomnia and nightmares at best, and even complete annihilation of your body and soul at worst."
Cui was shocked.
"How, how could it be? This sachet of mine is clearly filled with calming spices, and I put it in there myself..."
Feng Qingsui said, "You can open it and smell it carefully. My sense of smell is more acute than that of ordinary people. I can smell that there are two more spices in your sachet."
"No wonder I've been using the same incense lately but can't sleep well."
The old lady of Duke Qingguo's face darkened.
"Someone had tampered with it."
She did not announce it to anyone, but only called her trusted nanny in to clear the ashes from the incense burner.
Cui took off the sachet from her waist and poured out the spices inside. The spices had all been ground into powder, and she couldn't tell what was new from the outside. But after she sniffed it carefully, she found that it was just as Feng Qingsui said.
“It actually contains other spices…”
She was shaking with anger.
"I come to see my mother every day, and she came to poison me."
The person who set up the trap was so vicious that he wanted to use her to kill her mother!
She is a peaceful person, so how could she have offended such a vicious person!
"Fortunately, I listened to my eldest sister-in-law's suggestion and invited you over."
After the shock, Mrs. Tan expressed her gratitude.
"otherwise……"
She didn't dare to think further.
Feng Qingsui didn't think that Cui's widowed sister-in-law made this suggestion out of kindness.
After all, if the old lady of Duke Qing died after taking the medicine she prescribed and no one noticed the problem with the spices, she would become a murder suspect.
She reminded him, "Only someone close to you could tamper with your sachet. It might not be easy to find out."
Cui frowned, "Indeed. The people serving in my house have all been with me for many years. I'm familiar with their temperaments and personalities. None of them seems like someone who would betray me..."
Feng Qingsui lowered his eyes.
Maybe the one closest to you is the one who betrayed you.
But they have been married for twenty years, and if she, an outsider, rashly raised doubts, it would be suspected of provoking the relationship between the couple.
Moreover, she had no idea about the other party's motives for murdering the old lady of Duke Qing and framing her.
So far, she has no connection with the Tan family.
Therefore, she suggested, "Until we find the culprit, to avoid alerting the enemy, I suggest you two pretend you never discovered the tampering with the spices. If anyone asks about my diagnosis today, just tell me the first half."
The old lady of Duke Qing nodded: "It should be so."
He also warned Cui: "When you return, don't mention the matter of spices to anyone."
"Is Qingzhou not allowed too?"
Cui asked.
"He's very careful and meticulous, maybe..."
The old lady of Duke Qingguo only regretted that she had raised her too naive, but it was not easy for her to say it directly at this time. Otherwise, with her character of not being able to hide things, she was afraid that she would be exposed as soon as she saw someone.
"Forget it, don't go back to the mansion for now. Send someone back to tell me that I am in a state of restlessness and need you to stay in the mansion with me."
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