"I didn't wrong him!"
"He poisoned Qingwan's medicine! Shouldn't we kill him and keep him around for the New Year?!"
Jiang Zhenlin's eyes were bloodshot, and his breath was filled with scorching anger. The servants dared not approach him and eventually knelt down, begging him to stop.
But Jiang Zhenlin was not someone who could be persuaded. After a few more punches, the physician saw stars, spat out blood, and began to convulse.
Lin was horrified by what she saw, so she stepped forward herself and said, "Ah Lin, stop hitting him!"
"He is the physician of the imperial family, not a servant. If he is guilty, he should be sent to the yamen. You are using torture. Stop it immediately!"
Jiang Zhenlin kept muttering, "He wants to poison Lin Qingwan."
"He dared to poison the medicine!"
Seeing that he seemed a bit delirious, Lin said, "He didn't poison Qingwan; you saved her."
"Stop hitting him."
"Mother, don't worry about it. Go back to Lan Garden, and don't get your clothes dirty later." Jiang Zhenlin wiped the tip of his nose with the back of his blood-stained hand, his voice unusually gentle, yet it made people even more terrified.
Seeing Lin Qingwan sitting calmly in the room, as if none of this concerned her, Madam Lin's face darkened. "Aren't you going to try to persuade A-Lin?"
"How many people do you want him to kill for you before you're satisfied?!"
Lin Qingwan then walked over and performed the curtsy according to custom. Madam Lin said helplessly, "Enough, enough, what time is it for you to still be curtsying! Are you deliberately trying to make a fool of us, mother and son?"
"Mother is wrong. Young Master Jiang didn't kill anyone for my sake."
“He’s beating up those who disregard the rules of the Prime Minister’s residence and commit evil deeds there. It’s not my place to interfere.”
Lin Qingwan deftly deflected the attack.
Lin choked and gave up on asking her for help.
Lin Qingwan walked to Jiang Zhenlin's side, looked at the dying physician, and said, "I have no grudge against you, why did you put such a strong poison in the medicine?"
Jiang Zhenlin stopped when she asked him a question.
The physician, struggling to breathe and with his left eye swollen shut, hoarsely replied, "No, there's no poison in the medicine..."
Jiang Zhenlin kicked him, breaking one of his ribs. "Still not telling the truth? Let's see how long you can hold out!"
"Ah!" The physician cried out in pain and fear, curling up in agony. "Stop hitting me! Stop hitting me..."
"The poison is in the incense; the medicine only has the effect of warming the blood and is not poisonous at all."
"It wasn't me."
The physician could no longer bear it and finally told the truth.
That's right, the poison in the medicine couldn't be detected at all. The bowl that Jiang Zhenlin spilled was one that Lin Qingwan had Mu Xue re-brew.
But when he said it now, Jiang Zhenlin refused to believe it. He licked his back teeth and kicked again. The doctor was in so much pain that he couldn't make a sound. He murmured two words, "Save, save me."
Seeing that Jiang Zhenlin was still going to kill him, Lin Qingwan thought he really had some kind of violent addiction.
What's the point of beating him to death like this?
Jiang Zhenlin, panting heavily, said, "I'm here to avenge you and stand up for you, and you're making sarcastic remarks."
Lin Qingwan didn't argue with him, but pointed it out in front of her mother, "Lao Pozi's poison last time was very suspicious. If it was also made by the family physician, it shows that this is not the first time he has caused trouble in the Prime Minister's mansion."
"He might have his own channels for purchasing poisonous herbs. What you should investigate is who outside is colluding with him to plot against the Prime Minister's residence."
"What's the point of just beating him to death to vent your anger?"
Jiang Zhenlin was just irrational when his temper flared up, but he wasn't completely brainless. The thought that the poison had caused his mother to break out in a rash last time set off alarm bells in his mind.
Looking at her mother, she also had a solemn expression and did not refute Lin Qingwan's words.
Jiang Zhenlin loosened his fist. "Take him away for questioning."
The physician, barely clinging to life, cried out, "This servant is innocent! It's... it's Miss Qingwan who has wronged this servant!"
Jiang Zhenlin slapped him across the face. "Shut up! Who are you to bite?"
He was blatantly protecting Lin Qingwan without thinking; it was a completely subconscious action. However, Lin Qingwan didn't appreciate it and coldly remarked beside him, "I get scolded and kicked by Young Master Jiang the moment he opens his mouth. What kind of master am I?"
“He dared to take my life, so why can’t he bite me?”
Jiang Zhenlin felt a tightness in his chest, turned around fiercely, and got angry at her indifferent face. "Don't you know anything about right and wrong?"
Lin Qingwan didn't disappoint him, "I don't understand."
"you!"
Lin Qingwan is like a ball of cotton now; no matter how much he hits or kicks her, it only lands on soft needle tips—it won't make you bleed, but it hurts a lot. And he's the only one suffering.
"The physician refused to speak because he knew that once he confessed, he would surely die. Rather than wasting our breath arguing with him, we should ask his long-time apprentice first."
"After all, their friendship hasn't reached the point where they would risk their lives for their master."
Lin Qingwan dared to say this because Mu Xue heard from the medicine apprentices that the physicians of the manor had always only received a small reward, and these medicine apprentices must have been dissatisfied for a long time, but were powerless to resist.
Jiang Zhenlin forgot about this, so it's no wonder. He always only cares about his own pleasure and rarely does things that require a lot of thought.
But hearing it from Lin Qingwan's mouth made him uncomfortable, and he frowned. "I don't need you to teach me how to do things."
Lin's gaze lingered on Lin Qingwan for a moment, the heaviness in her heart written on her face. Without saying much, she left with Jiang Zhenlin.
Mu Xue tidied up the courtyard and breathed a long sigh of relief. "Miss, you scared me to death."
Lin Qingwan was on edge the whole time. Jiang Zhenlin acted without thinking, but her mother was different. If Jiang Zhenlin had listened to her advice and left the matter to her today, Lin Qingwan would not have fared well.
"It's alright. Even if it turns out that the poison in the medicine wasn't added by the physician, then the physician's past misdeeds will be exposed, and that won't be the main point."
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