Chapter 109 Qi-Liang Realm (Twenty-One) Only children demand people all the time...
Jiuli slept for an unknown amount of time. When she woke up, she found herself on a daybed. The bright moon was rising in the east outside the window, and she could faintly hear voices. It was the yamen runners on duty drinking and laughing. Yu Qi was sitting behind his desk reading. A dim lamp on the table cast a warm glow on his face through a pale yellow silk shade.
She looked at him quietly for a while before lifting the covers, slipping on her shoes, and walking to the table. "Did you carry me to the couch to sleep?"
Yu Qi closed the book, a doting smile on his face, "You sleepwalked there by yourself."
She glanced at her and said, "I never sleepwalk."
"Then isn't your question redundant?"
How long have I been asleep?
He emerged from behind the desk. "It hasn't been long, just over half an hour. I'll have a constable escort you home."
Jiuli hurriedly grabbed his arm, but when he turned his head, she just lowered her head and didn't say anything.
Yu Qi understood and could only say, "Then let's go back around midnight, so the family won't worry." He then went back to sit behind his desk. "Do you still want to sleep?"
"I'm not going to sleep."
It was just past midnight, and it was chilly. Seeing that Jiuli was dressed in thin clothes, he said, "Even if you're not going to sleep, go to the couch. It's very cold now."
She shook her head, then walked behind the desk to him and plopped down on his lap. He leaned back and laughed, "There are so many places to sit, why did you have to sit on my lap?"
"Sit down! Sit down!" Jiuli deliberately moved, hanging her arms around his neck. "It's been so many years since I sat on you!" she said, implying that she was complaining about his estrangement in the past few years.
Yu Qi leaned back in the chair, smiling slightly, and patted her lower back lightly. "You don't have any bones, why do you have to sit on me? Only little kids want to be carried all the time."
She muttered under her breath, "Then I'd rather never grow up. Back then, I even thought, if you got married and had another daughter, I wouldn't want to live anymore!"
"Don't talk nonsense." He stroked her sleepy hair, his heart softening, but he didn't say anything.
Jiuli stared at him longingly for a while, then suddenly pouted, "Do I lack a woman's charm?"
Why are you asking that?
"Look at you, you're like Liu Xiahui, unmoved."
"Does being with you mean we have to do *that*?" He smiled, his eyes full of tenderness. "We should be moderate in these things, so you don't feel uncomfortable."
"What discomfort might I experience?"
He whispered a few words in her ear, and Jiuli blushed and felt her heart flutter. She let go of his arm and nodded, "I hope you really mean it for my own good and aren't just making excuses for yourself."
What excuse could I possibly make?
She whispered a few words in his ear, and Yu Qi's expression changed. He grabbed her neck and kissed her fiercely for a while, saying, "Don't talk nonsense again!"
Jiuli nearly suffocated, now gasping for breath, and couldn't stop laughing so hard she fell backward. He quickly moved his arm up to catch her back, laughing and annoyed at the same time, "What kind of girl is like you, saying whatever comes to mind?"
Jiuli swung her legs, "That's not my fault. It's the father's fault if the son is not taught. I was raised by you. If I'm not good, it's because you didn't teach me well." She lost her composure for a moment and pinched his face, "You can only blame yourself."
Yu Qi grasped her hand, "You have no manners!"
"You're not allowed to act old in front of me!"
He smiled, picked her up and swayed her gently, just like when he held her as a child. The two chatted idly, and glancing at each other, they could see the blurry lanterns and the bright moon on the window, two halos of light, one white and one yellow, creating an indescribable tranquility and tenderness.
Before they knew it, the conversation turned to Qi Xuyun and Manbao. Jiuli swung her leg and said, "They seem like a perfect match, so how could they be so incompatible?"
"The ways of the world are always hard to explain. Some two people seem mismatched to outsiders, yet they stay together for a lifetime." "Then what do you think of Zhang Manbao?" Jiuli smiled and sighed, "I think she really likes Brother Qi. Otherwise, what shady affair could she possibly have that she wouldn't bother to cover for him?"
"It doesn't necessarily have to be a matter of romantic love." Although he said this, he himself felt that if it weren't a romantic affair, he wouldn't have gone to Zhang Manbao to extort money. It was more likely that this affair was shocking and could not be exposed to the public.
A memory suddenly flashed through his mind of the day he first went to see Sirou. Sirou had cried out that there was a ghost, which startled Enoki, who immediately hid between the Qi brothers. Thinking back now, he realized that she seemed to have been closer to Xu Yun at the time. When people are frightened, they instinctively gravitate towards their closest loved ones.
"What are you thinking about? You haven't heard me speak!"
He snapped out of his reverie. "I'm listening. What did you say?"
Jiuli snorted, "I'm not happy to talk about it!"
He smiled at her and said, "Okay, I'll listen carefully this time. Say it again."
Jiuli scrutinized his face for a moment, then smiled and her eyes crinkled. "I say, it's good that you and I are a good match."
"How can you just talk like that?"
Jiuli let go of his hand, giggled, and turned to look at the book he was reading. It was a book called "Essentials of Agriculture and Sericulture". "This kind of book is so boring. You're not going to be an official, so learning these farming techniques is useless to you."
"These are all the books here. Feel free to flip through them."
Jiuli flipped through a couple of pages and then put them down, turning back to hug his neck. "Who exactly is your master? And who taught you martial arts?"
After pondering for a moment, Yu Qi told her, "My master is called Bai Qian. He taught me martial arts and medicine, but he doesn't make a living by practicing medicine."
"If doctors don't make a living by practicing medicine and treating patients, what do they make a living by?"
Yu Qi sat up straighter, a slight disdain in his smile. "He made a pill through extortion, called the 'Resurrection Pill.' He taught me martial arts only to let me understand the various acupoints on a person's body. He would pick people who seemed wealthy and have me secretly strike their acupoints, causing them pain, numbness, or soreness for days without any apparent cause of illness. Then he would come knocking on their doors, selling his Resurrection Pill at a high price. In reality, he had only secretly removed their acupoints; the pill was just made of some tonics. It wouldn't kill them, nor would it cure any diseases. But these people thought it was his medicine that cured them. Once they believed him, he would sell them other 'Longevity Pills' and 'Eternal Beauty Pills.'"
After saying this, he cautiously instructed, "Don't mention this person to anyone else."
"Why?"
“Back then, your mother invited my master to the palace to take the late emperor’s pulse. Later, when the ‘Huang Liang Rebellion’ occurred, some people said that your mother’s hiring of a traveling doctor to treat the late emperor was malicious and that she intended to let the quack doctor delay the emperor’s health.”
Jiuli sat up on his lap. "Since Bai Qian taught you all your medical skills, how could he be a quack?"
He sneered, "If you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext. Your master was executed immediately, and not long after, the current emperor ascended the throne, dealt with Prince Feng, and your mother also died in the fire."
Jiuli suddenly frowned. "Could that fire have been an accident? I remember when you saved me, you were fighting with someone."
"That's why I've always refused to tell you about your background, because I'm afraid that the people who killed your mother back then would find out about your existence and want to eliminate you completely."
She paused for a moment, then wrapped her arms around his neck and said, "Then tell me, could I be the daughter of that Prince Feng? Since everyone says that my mother conspired with him to tamper with the imperial edict, they must have a close relationship, so it's understandable that my mother helped him usurp the throne."
Yu Qi looked at her and sneered, "Qi Xubai told you?"
"Never mind who told me, just tell me how likely this is?"
Yu Qi shook his head. "I don't know."
Seeing that he had indeed pondered seriously for a while, and remembering how he had always been so secretive about her background, Jiuli couldn't help but burst into laughter, as if she had defeated him, her little legs swinging wildly under her skirt.
Seeing her laughing incessantly, and not knowing what she was laughing about, Yu Qi grew increasingly annoyed. He lowered his arm, bent down, and kissed her, saying, "Stop laughing. What's so funny?"
She held his ears, and her laughter subsided in his kisses.
After a while, Yu Qi was a little out of breath. He pulled her up and said, "It's time to go back. I'll have someone take you." She pouted and didn't say anything. This time, he had no choice but to lift her off his lap, get up and go to open the door. Soon after, he called a yamen runner.
Jiuli had slept for a while at the yamen, and couldn't sleep when she got back. She didn't get up until the sun was high in the sky the next day. Du Zhong had been waiting for her for a long time and urged her repeatedly, "Don't dawdle. If we just ask that bastard Fan Yi today, we'll probably be able to guess who the murderer is. Then we can follow the clues and find the evidence, and then Master can go home!"
After Jiuli finished washing up, the two hurried to the Qi residence. Jiuli, thinking of his words, was overjoyed and bumped into the door. Several yamen runners carried two stretchers out of the residence. Both stretchers were covered with white cloth. The two had a bad feeling and quickly went forward to lift the white cloth to look. They found the bodies of two Taoist priests, one of whom was Fan Yi!
Jiuli hurriedly asked, "What happened? How did they both die?!"
The constables all shook their heads: "It looks like poisoning. Lord Qi, Mr. Yu, and Constable Zhang are inside questioning them."
Jiuli Duzhong hurriedly entered the mansion and rushed to the two guest rooms in the southeast corner where the Taoist priests lived. It turned out that the five Taoist priests lived in two rooms, which were connected by a corridor. The three Taoist priests living in the other room were all well, while Fan Yi and Tian Qing lived in this room.
At this moment, the room was crowded with people, including servants from the Qi family, yamen runners, and the three Taoist priests. The group was chattering noisily, but Si Rou, Enoki, and Manbao were not there.
The two squeezed through the crowd and saw Yu Qi, Zhang Da, and the Qi brothers inside. Xu Yun was asking Yu Qi, "Mr. Yu, may I ask what kind of poison these two have been afflicted with?"
Yu Qi slowly paused and said, "Judging from the state of the corpses and the vomit on the ground, they must have died suddenly from oleander poisoning."
A servant immediately came from outside the door and said, "We have oleanders planted in our mansion, and we touch them all the time. How come we're fine?"
Everyone chimed in agreement, and Jiu Li quickly squeezed through the door, saying, "You have no idea that the entire oleander plant is poisonous, just to varying degrees. You've only touched it and it won't cause any serious harm, except that some people might experience itching, which will naturally subside after a while. What can kill people is the sap in its roots, stems, and leaves. Those two Taoist priests must have ingested that sap."
Xu Bai walked over with a smile and waved to the crowd watching outside the door. "Manager Chai, stay and wait for instructions. The rest of you may leave." He then looked at Jiu Li with a smile and said, "Even I didn't know that this oleander was so poisonous."
"It's not surprising that you don't know this since you don't read medical books."
Yu Qi glanced at the two of them, but fortunately Jiu Li immediately walked inside. He was afraid that she would discover that he was watching the two of them all the time, so he immediately looked away. However, out of the corner of his eye, he saw Xu Yun standing to the side, deep in thought.
As the people at the gate left, they overheard a few more comments: "Could it be that the two monks picked those oleanders to eat?"
"Nonsense, who would pinch that and eat it for no reason? It's not like we're not going to run out of tea!"
Speaking of tea, Yu Qi withdrew his gaze from the corner of his eye and walked to the round table outside the screen to examine a large white porcelain teapot with a handle. There was a little tea soup left inside, which could not be seen in the white porcelain. He poured it onto the dark table and took a closer look. The color was indeed a bit cloudy.
Du Zhong also leaned closer to take a closer look, his expression extremely solemn. "If it could still be discerned if it were dissolved in tea, then there must have been quite a significant amount. It doesn't seem like something that was accidentally ingested; it appears that someone deliberately poisoned it."
"You're really clever." Yu Qi sighed, his gaze filled with both helplessness and a hint of disdain. "But others aren't necessarily stupid. Of course, someone deliberately poisoned it. Who would eat oleander juice?"
Du Zhong gave an awkward smile, and Zhang Da walked over with a smile and patted him on the shoulder, "Don't get in my way here, come with me."
Where to go?
“Since this tea is poisoned, we should ask the person who brewed it.” With that, he and Du Zhong walked to the corridor and asked Chai Fang to lead them to the kitchen.
Yu Qi returned to the screen and noticed that Qi Xuyun was still lost in thought. He didn't disturb him but asked Qi Xubai, "May I ask how Lord Qi discovered it this morning?"
Xu Bai was hesitant to speak directly in front of Xu Yun, but just then Xu Yun came to his senses and smiled, "Xu Bai, I won't interfere with your investigation here. Let's go see Madam first." As he spoke, he bowed to Yu Qi, "Mr. Yu, the two Taoist priests died in our house. Regardless of whether they were killed by people from our household, we are not exempt from responsibility. Please take the trouble to investigate the case. Once it is cleared up, we can give Baiyun Temple an explanation."
Yu Qi returned the greeting, and the three of them escorted him to the door. Even after he had walked a little further away, Yu Qi still stood in front of the door watching his retreating figure.
Jiuli returned to the house, looking around as she asked Xubai, "Did you find the body?"
Xu Bai then recounted the whole story without hesitation. It turned out that the ritual was canceled, and the Taoist priests were going to return to Baiyun Temple this morning. Because he was concerned about the secret of the treasure that Fan Yi had, he wanted to ask Fan Yi about it before he left. So, before dawn and before everyone else had set up their tents, he went to the guest room to find Fan Yi.
To his surprise, no one answered the door after he knocked for a long time. Suspicious, he called a servant, who inserted a knife into the crack of the door and pried open the latch. He then saw two Taoist priests, one lying face down on the Luohan bed and the other lying in front of the canopy bed. Both had wide-open eyes and purple faces, and there was some vomit on the ground.
Jiuli laughed and said, "You didn't say anything just now because you were afraid your elder brother would ask you why you came to see Fan Yi so early in the morning, right?"
"It's still unclear why my sister-in-law was extorted by Fan Yi. I don't want my brother to misunderstand my sister-in-law first, because suspicion is the worst thing between husband and wife."
"You really are thinking of your elder brother." Yu Qi smiled indifferently as he checked the door latch. Sure enough, there were some knife marks on it, and the window was tightly closed from the inside. It seemed impossible for someone to enter and poison the door in the middle of the night. He could only wait for Du Zhong and Zhang Da's investigation.
"Lord Qi, please take us to see the oleanders planted throughout your residence."
So the three of them went out and looked around the mansion. Du Zhong and Zhang Da followed Chai Fang to the kitchen. They saw that there were five people in the kitchen. They asked them all but found nothing suspicious. They only said that after dinner last night, as usual, they brewed a pot of tea and put it in the two guest rooms in case the guests were thirsty at night. The servant who delivered it was named Changshun.
Chai Fang immediately summoned Changshun, who was so frightened that he waved his hands repeatedly, "It has nothing to do with me! I delivered two pots of tea yesterday evening, and the three Taoist priests in that room were perfectly fine! Besides, when I delivered them yesterday, I chatted and laughed with them for a while, and I even had a cup of tea. How come I'm fine?"
A servant boy who was watching the commotion said, "Changshun's words are true. I can testify that yesterday evening when I was on patrol, I saw him and those two Taoist priests drinking tea and talking inside the guest room."
Before Zhang Da could speak, Du Zhong interrupted and asked Chang Shun, "When did you leave?"
"It was around 1:30 in the morning. It had been dark for a while. As soon as I left, the two of them locked the door and went to rest."
Afterwards, Du Zhong dismissed him and turned to Zhang Dachai, saying, "It wasn't him. He was poisoned by oleander. If it were a lethal dose, the poison would take effect in no time. This shows that the teapot wasn't poisoned when he drank the tea."
Chai Fang exclaimed, "So, someone went in and poisoned it in the middle of the night?"
The three of them wandered around the mansion, looking for Yu Qi and the others. Finally, they found them on the road leading out of the second gate, where they were examining an oleander plant closely. Du Zhong walked up and peered at it, noticing many fresh breaks in the oleander, indicating that many stems had been plucked.
"The murderer most likely picked the branches and leaves here, took them back to grind them into juice, and then went to Fan Yitian and Qing's room last night to poison them."
Jiuli squatted on the ground, looking up at him, "Do you need to tell me?"
Du Zhong retorted angrily, "You always have to say something to me!"
Jiuli stood up, supporting herself on her knees. She was a little dizzy from squatting for so long. Xu Bai saw her sway and quickly reached out to help her, but his hand touched her instead. Yu Qi had already pulled her arm and dragged her to the other side.
Yu Qi put an arm around her back and tilted his head to look at her, "Are you alright?"
She shook her head, becoming much more sober. Yu Qi lowered his hand and looked indifferently at Xu Bai, "Is there anyone in the manor who knows anything about pharmacology and medicine?"
Xu Bai lowered his hand from the air and gave a stiff smile. "I don't know either. Manager Chai, do you know?"
Chai Fang hurriedly stepped forward and said with a smile, "I don't know much about this either. Let me go ask them and then I'll report back to you, Second Master."
The four returned to Xu Bai's study. It was nearly noon when a maid came to deliver a message from Man Bao, inviting Jiu Li to her room for lunch. Jiu Li was eager to go, wanting to see how Zhang Man Bao would react to Fan Yi's death.
She followed the maid over and saw lunch being laid out on the couch in the inner room. Manbao got up from her and greeted her with a warm smile, "Our master said he was going to have lunch with Mr. Yu. I thought it would be boring for you to sit alone at the table, so I invited you to come in and eat with me. It's more enjoyable to eat with two people."
Jiuli thanked him and sat down. "Has Brother Qi gone out? I didn't see him when I came in."
"He's only been gone a little while, let's ignore them and eat our food."
Before they finished speaking, the meal was laid out. Jiuli picked up a bowl of white rice and looked closely at her. He then noticed that her eyes were slightly red, as if she had been crying. Could it be because she thought of Fanyi's death?
So he deliberately tested her, "Did you see the bodies of the two Taoist priests this morning, Madam?"
Manbao shook her head, her eyelids drooping, and she would occasionally glance up at her. "I didn't see them. I was almost scared to death when I saw Chen Zifang's body last time. Why would I go see them again? The old man came in and said they were poisoned? That was terrifying!"
"It's not that scary, but aren't you afraid that two Taoist priests died mysteriously in your house?"
"How could I not be afraid? They all died outside, so I haven't left the inner gate these past few days." Manbao held her bowl, not picking up any food for a long time, only slowly putting a few grains of rice into her mouth. "You've helped with a few cases, do you think the deaths of these two Taoist priests might be related to Chen Zifang's death?"
It turned out that inviting her to dinner was a pretense; his real intention was to probe her for information. After a moment's thought, Jiu Li deliberately leaked some news, hoping to scare her as well. "There must be a connection! Yesterday, Constable Zhang bumped into Daoist Fan coming from the money exchange on the street, and it seemed like he had exchanged a lot of silver. I heard that Chen Zifang made a fortune somewhere before he died. These two people just made a fortune and then they both died. Could it be a coincidence?"
Manbao smiled, her lips trembling, "How much did you find out about Fan Yidao's long hair?"
Jiuli smiled, but his eyes were fixed on her intently. "Two hundred taels. It's strange now that I think about it. How could a Taoist priest suddenly have so much money?"
Manbao suddenly laughed and said, "So it was the two hundred taels of silver. No surprise, that was given to him as a reward for their hard work at our house these past two days."
"Two hundred taels of silver for two religious ceremonies?"
"Of course not, it's just that I thought our wife's illness had improved thanks to Mr. Yu and the others, so I'm giving her extra money as a reward."
Jiuli was silenced by her words and waited until she finished eating to say goodbye. Just as she was about to leave through the second gate, she bumped into Enoki at the side gate, where she saw Chai Fang being questioned in front of the artificial hill. Jiuli's mind raced, and she slipped behind the artificial hill, where she overheard the two of them talking.
"Oleander? Oleander can be poisonous enough to kill people?" Enoki asked in astonishment.
"This is the first time I've heard of this. Mr. Yu's apprentice said that if you pound oleander into juice and give it to someone to drink, it will poison them to death in no time."
Enoki murmured, "Who in our family would have a grudge against those two Taoist priests?"
"Who would have a grudge against them? We only bumped into them a few times when we went to Baiyun Temple to burn incense and perform rituals, or occasionally invited them to our home to perform rituals. In the past year or two, we've only done that once or twice. They've been staying at our home for the past two days, and everyone outside has been very polite to them. I just can't understand how those two Taoist priests could have died in our house!"
Enoki pondered silently, sensing something amiss. Could it be related to what happened at Baiyun Temple? And was Chen Zifang not the only one who knew about that incident?
"Have Second Master and Mr. Yu found anything?"
Chai Fang sighed and shook his head. "Second Master just instructed me to inquire about who in the mansion knows anything about medicine and medicinal properties. I suppose that person who knows something about medicinal properties should know that oleander can kill people, and should be the murderer."
“Someone who knows about medicine—” Enoki pondered for a long time.
"If you know, Auntie, you should tell me now so I don't have to ask everyone individually."
Enoki looked up, smiled, and waved at him, "I don't know either, you'll have to ask him yourself."
Chai Fang turned to leave, but she called out again, "Have you seen the old man?"
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Author's note: Thank you for reading.
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