Lu Jingyan felt that Lu Xingli was dissatisfied with Lu Xingli's behavior because he thought the medicinal herbs were too stingy to give as gifts.
Seeing his attitude, Qingying understood that Lu Xingli had not told her the truth, and it seemed that Madam Lu still wanted her to marry into the Duke of Lu's mansion.
So she had no choice but to go along with their wishes.
Qingying was not annoyed at all, but still looked gentle and weak, and said softly, "Then sister should rest well. I will come to visit you again when you are feeling better."
She turned and left the room, and Lu Jingyan followed her out.
"Miss Liu, don't be sad or blame yourself. Fourth Sister is probably just in a bad mood today."
Qingying nodded. "I understand. I'll have to trouble Young Master Lu to give those medicinal herbs to Sister Lu on my behalf, since they are indeed very nourishing herbs."
"Alright, she'll understand your good intentions later." Lu Jingyan instructed the servants to put away all the medicinal herbs.
Just as she was about to bow and take her leave, Lu Jingyan suddenly said, "Last time I witnessed Miss Liu's superb painting skills, so I suppose you enjoy calligraphy and painting. I recently acquired a painting by Tang Huaishan; I wonder if you would be interested?"
Qingying's eyes immediately lit up.
Tang Huaishan was a famous landscape painter of the previous dynasty. His paintings were unique. Unfortunately, he died of illness when he was only 30 years old. A large number of his paintings were lost in the war, and very few have survived to this day.
Qingying had seen Tang Huaishan's paintings by chance a few years ago and was immediately awestruck, only regretting that such masterpieces had been lost. Now that she could see them again, how could she not be moved?
Where is the painting?
Seeing her interest, Lu Jingyan was delighted and said with a smile, "You can wait a moment in the pavilion in the garden in my bedroom. I will go and fetch it myself."
"Okay, thank you for your trouble."
Just as Qingying arrived at the waterside pavilion, Lu Xingli suddenly appeared.
She had changed her clothes and came up to me with a fawning smile. "Sister Liu, I was wrong just now. I shouldn't have lost my temper with you. Perhaps it's because I was injured and took medicine, but I'm always easily angered. It wasn't my intention, so I hope you won't take it to heart."
Seeing her like this, Qingying felt that something was amiss and became wary, but she still maintained a weak and innocent appearance: "Don't worry, Sister Lu, I won't blame you."
"It's good that you're not angry." She sighed, her face sad. "In the past, I admired His Highness the Crown Prince and always hoped that one day he would accept me. Unfortunately... perhaps my fate with him was too shallow. Now that I know that you two are in love, although I am sad, I sincerely hope that he can be happy."
Qingying said with emotion, "I'm so happy that Sister Lu thinks this way."
Lu Xingli took her hand and asked, "Sister Liu, can we still be friends in the future?"
She nodded.
Then, Lu Xingli beckoned to the maid, who came over with a tray on which was a teapot and two teacups.
She continued, "This is a tea for reconciliation. After drinking it, let's put aside our grudges and remain good sisters, okay?"
Qingying looked at the tea that was handed to her; it was still steaming and fragrant.
The tea is good, but the person is not necessarily a good person.
Qingying smiled and raised her cup, but before the rim even touched her lips, it suddenly shattered, spilling tea everywhere and wetting her clothes.
Lu Xingli and she were both stunned.
What's going on?
Everything happened too fast. Lu Xingli was drinking tea with his head tilted back and had no time to notice, but Qingying saw it clearly. It was a small stone that flew from somewhere and broke the teacup.
She pursed her lips and said apologetically, "It seems I need to change my clothes first."
When a noble lady goes out, her maids will always prepare a change of clothes for her in case of emergency.
Lu Xingli could only send someone to take her to a private room to change her clothes.
Qingying knew that Ashu had been secretly following her, so she could roughly guess that he had broken the teacup and that something had been put inside it.
She entered the room, and Tongxia was about to help her change her clothes when she quickly stopped her, saying, "Wait a moment."
Tong Xia asked, puzzled, "Miss, your clothes are wet. If you don't change them soon, you might catch a cold."
"It's only a little wet, it's okay." She frowned and glanced towards the door.
The guards outside the door were Lu Xingli's men, while inside the house...
She looked around and found that the doors and windows were indeed sealed shut.
"Girl, what's wrong?" Even though Tong Xia was naive, she noticed that something was amiss.
Qingying didn't answer, but took out a handkerchief, gave one side to her and used the other herself, saying, "Cover your mouth and nose."
Although Tong Xia was confused, she still did as instructed.
She pointed in a direction.
Tong Xia looked in the direction of the window and saw a small bamboo tube-like object poking through the paper window and sticking in. Then, a wisp of white smoke slowly emerged from the mouth of the bamboo tube.
Her eyes widened immediately. She turned to look at Qingying, only to find that her young lady was very calm, as if she had expected this.
A short while later, the bamboo tube was taken back.
A moment later, Qingying kicked over the large vase next to her, then pulled her to crouch down against the wall.
A faint voice came from outside the door:
"How about it?"
"Judging from the noise, it must have collapsed."
"Let's wait a little longer until the drug wears off before helping him to bed."
"Um."
Despite covering her mouth and nose, Qingying still felt dizzy after staying there for a while, while Tongxia next to her had long been dozing off.
This drug must be extremely potent.
She was contemplating whether to just give up and run away to save her own life, and then find an opportunity to deal with Lu Xingli later.
Then they heard the sound of someone pushing open the door and entering.
"So fast! What happened to 'a little while'?" she thought to herself, nervously pulling Tongxia inside. She was afraid that if she didn't faint, the other party would find out and beat them up.
But as they hunched over and took only two steps, a hand gripped her shoulder, and a cold voice came from behind: "Where are you going?"
Tong Xia quickly shielded her, shouting, "What are you going to do to my girl? If you have the guts, come at me..."
Her voice grew softer and softer, and the next second she collapsed to the ground, unconscious from the drug entering her nose.
Ashu scoffed and said, "Your maid is ridiculously stupid."
Qingying clung to his arm, barely managing to stay upright. "Take me out of here! This drug is too strong; I'm about to collapse too."
"So weak."
Ashu's tone was still cold, but he still squatted down and carried Qingying on his back, protecting her with one hand and lifting Tongxia up with the other.
Once outside, Qingying breathed in the fresh air, and her mind cleared up a bit.
She saw two people lying outside the door: the maid who had led her there, and a servant she didn't recognize.
Ashu carried the two men into the house, and soon came out again to help her up. "Let's go, there's going to be a good show soon."
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