Chapter 302 This Fragrance is Addictive
Li Jixian was woken up by someone splashing him with cold water.
Seeing his mother's cold face, Li Jixian didn't feel scared. He wiped the water off his face and said unhappily, "Mom, why did you splash me?"
"You still have the nerve to ask why? The Wei family was so kind as to welcome you together, but you brought this slutty, vile woman into the Wei family's home and even tried to molest the young lady in front of so many people. Luckily your father isn't home right now, otherwise he would have broken your legs!"
Zhao's face was filled with disappointment, but Li Jixian didn't think he was wrong. He raised an eyebrow and asked, "Did Aunt Wu complain to you?"
Seeing him like this, Zhao became even more angry: "Shen Qingchi is dead, and I didn't want her daughter who was a loss of money. I was just waiting for your fifth aunt to help you find a good marriage. You caused such a scene at the Wei family today. The Wei family will definitely not be willing to marry their daughter to you. Do you know how much trouble you have caused?"
Li Jixian didn't take it seriously. He yawned, took out a packet of powder from his pocket, poured it into the incense burner, lit it, and leaned close to the incense burner to take a deep breath. He showed an expression of ecstasy: "Mom, come here and smell it. This is a good thing I brought back from Wengzhou. Smell it once and you'll feel refreshed. Smell it twice and you'll feel ecstatic. With this thing, we will have endless money in the future. Are you still worried that no woman will be willing to marry me?"
Li Jixian laughed out loud as he spoke.
Zhao didn't believe him, but seeing how much he enjoyed it, she couldn't help but move closer to smell it.
The fragrance from the incense burner was very special. She had never smelled it before. After smelling it, she felt an indescribable refreshing feeling, and her anger towards Li Jixian was swept away.
Zhao took two more deep breaths and asked curiously, "What kind of incense is this? Where did you get it?"
"Mother, take a guess."
Li Jixian was being mysterious, and Zhao had no idea. She raised her hand and gave Li Jixian a nudge, and Li Jixian finally said, "My fifth uncle and fifth aunt have bought a lot of land in Wengzhou over the years and planted a rare spice. They asked a perfume maker to make a soul-stirring incense with this spice and secretly sold it to the nobles in Hanjing. One penny of incense costs ten taels of gold. What we're using now are just the leftover scraps from making the soul-stirring incense."
Yun Wantang is the most favored by her mother-in-law among the five ladies in the Taifu Mansion. In addition to Yun Wantang's good temper and ability to handle things, more importantly, the fifth branch pays the most money to the public treasury every year, and the other branches also benefit from them.
No wonder the Fifth House was so generous. This one-cent incense was sold for ten taels of gold. The Fifth House must have earned more than a mountain of gold over the years.
Zhao suddenly felt jealous. She then heard Li Jixian say, "Fifth Aunt and the others are hiding this good news from us. It's clear they don't consider us family. I don't intend to care about their face. I've already spent money to buy five carts of leftover materials to make incense. In a few days, I'll ship it back to the capital. I'll use a different name then and make a lot of money."
"Is this... not good?"
Although Zhao was jealous of the fifth branch's money, she didn't want to fall out with Yun Wantang. After all, her mother-in-law was partial to the fifth branch, and if a quarrel arose, her mother-in-law might not stand on her side.
Li Jixian rolled his eyes at Zhao. "Mother, what's wrong with this? We're not stealing Fifth Aunt's business. We're just turning waste into treasure, making a little money with their unwanted scraps. You're the eldest daughter-in-law in the eldest house, after all. Are you willing to be outshined by Fifth Aunt all the time?"
Li Jixian's words touched Zhao's heart. Zhao fell silent. She sniffed the fragrance carefully for a while and felt that it tasted really good, so all her worries were dispelled.
Xianer is right.
The fifth house has already made a lot of money. Yun Wantang only needs to give a little benefit to make everyone in the mansion respect her. When Xian'er's business is successful, the first house will also be able to hold its head up high, and then she, as the eldest sister-in-law, will also be able to be powerful.
**
Half a month later, Lan Shu sent someone to deliver the incense on time.
Of course Chunxi would not try the fragrance herself, so she had someone catch a dozen mice in advance.
The mice were kept in two cages, one of which was fed normally, while the other was filled with food and fumigated with incense for the duration of an incense stick.
While lighting the incense, Chunxi couldn't help muttering, "Such expensive incense, I couldn't bear to buy it myself, but I gave it to you guys to use. You can count your lives as rats without regrets."
The mice naturally couldn't understand human language, but when they smelled the intoxicating fragrance, they all came over curiously.
After lighting the incense, Chunxi retreated a few meters away and waited. After about a cup of tea, the mice in the cage stood up one after another.
This scene was a bit weird. Chunxi covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief and walked forward. He found that these mice did not make any other movements after standing up. They just held their stomachs with their front paws and stared blankly at the front, as if... they were so comfortable that they were stupid.
After burning a stick of incense, Chunxi extinguished the incense burner.
After waiting for a while, all the mice returned to normal, running around in the cage more vigorously than before they smelled the ecstasy fragrance.
Chunxi observed them for a while, then handed them over to A Li to take care of. The next day, she lit the incense at about the same time.
On the fifth day, when the mice smelled the intoxicating fragrance, they would lie on the ground, expose their bellies, and make squeaking sounds of joy. However, after the fragrance disappeared, they would not regain their vitality, but instead look listless and without energy.
In the evening, Shen Qingyuan came home from work. Chunxi immediately told him about the changes in the mice. The two went to the yard to watch the mice together. As soon as they approached, they heard the squeaking sounds of mice.
Following the sound, I saw the cage in a mess.
For some reason, the mice that had been smoked with the incense went crazy and started biting each other. One of them was so fierce that after the other mice had killed each other, it began to bite the cage desperately.
The cage was made of iron and it couldn't bite it open at all. Soon its mouth was full of blood, but it seemed to feel no pain. Not only did it not stop, it became even more crazy.
This scene was very strange. Chunxi felt an inexplicable chill on her back and took a step back unconsciously. Shen Qingyuan immediately put his arm around her waist and whispered, "Don't be afraid."
After Shen Qingyuan finished speaking, he stepped forward and lit the incense.
As soon as it smelled the fragrance, the crazy mouse fell down and enjoyed it like it did in the past few days.
Chunxi and Shen Qingyuan both looked solemn.
According to observations over the past few days, these mice must be addicted to the incense. Their sudden madness just now was probably due to their incense addiction.
The madness of mice is already so strange, so what will happen to people who use the incense?
Did Lan Shu really not know that this incense would be so powerful, or did she do it on purpose even though she knew it?
Is there someone behind Lan Shu? If so, what is their intention?
Shen Qingyuan and Chunxi had the same idea. He extinguished the incense, picked up the cage of mice, and said solemnly, "The palace gates are still unlocked. I'll go in. You can rest assured. Don't go to Wuyou Pavilion again, and don't interfere in this matter anymore."
"Okay," Chunxi nodded in agreement. Seeing Shen Qingyuan about to leave, she couldn't help but follow him. "Husband, this ecstasy incense is so expensive, so not many people should have used it, right?"
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