171 Pipe
◎Set up a plan◎
Just as Qi Qiuxue analyzed, this is indeed possible.
"She seems to be a very ambitious person." Li Yiqing lowered his eyes in thought and said seriously, "I guess I need to find an opportunity to verify what Master Li put in his tea."
Qi Qiuxue nodded and continued, "What about that Fu Cong you mentioned? He's gone, yet Master Li keeps making mistakes. He either wrote his name on the invitation list, or he inexplicably conjures up a gift signed by him."
"He really seems to be overly concerned about this person." Qi Qiuxue paused and asked Li Yiqing beside her, "What did Master Li buy back from the auction?"
"We don't know yet." Li Yiqing shook his head. "But according to the servants, these items returned from the auction, along with other rare treasures, are all placed in a compartment in his study."
"Perhaps you can find an opportunity to request a visit," Li Yiqing said. "Given Mr. Li's personality, perhaps he would agree."
Qi Qiuxue did have this idea: "Yeah."
"It's getting late." Li Yiqing glanced at the clock on the wall, then reluctantly stood up and sighed, "I still have some unfinished business, so I need to leave first."
"If things are handled quickly enough, I'll take the time to talk to Madam Han or Mr. Li's personal servants to see if I can get any other clues."
At this point, Li Yiqing slowly frowned. "I've always felt that something as obvious as the difference in the tea wouldn't have been completely unnoticed by Mr. Li. To get him to drink it, Madam Han must have given him a reasonable explanation."
"For example, tell him that there is some tonic in it that can prolong life." Qi Qiuxue speculated.
"As to whether it's true or not, that's unknown."
“…”
-
After lunch, Qi Qiuxue and others took a short rest.
During this time, she kept an eye on the movements in the study. Master Li left the room around three o'clock in the afternoon and returned to the study to work. Just like before, his personal servant was always standing at the door, waiting quietly with exquisite tea and snacks in his hands.
For three consecutive hours, the study was quiet. It seemed that Mr. Li was concentrating on his work and had no time to pay attention to other things.
Three hours later, feeling tired, Master Li finally opened his mouth and called the servants in to serve him.
Right now.
Qi Qiuxue, Liu Ge and the others looked at each other and quickly left the room. They once again played the role of ordinary travelers with limited knowledge and curiosity about everything. They raised their hands and gently knocked on the study door.
"Who?" Master Li's voice came from inside the house, sounding a little arrogant.
"It's us," Qi Qiuxue said politely. "Thank you and Madam for your care during this time. We've wanted to express our gratitude to you two in person, but we haven't found the right time. It just so happens that we just visited Madam this morning, so we might as well strike while the iron is hot and discuss visiting you together again."
"Excuse me, is it convenient for you now?" Qi Qiuxue's tone was a bit solicitous and flattering, even sounding a little cautious. "Can we come in?"
After he finished speaking, the room was silent for a long time.
Master Li didn't say yes or no, but just continued to sit on the chair, enjoying his tea and snacks leisurely and elegantly. Qi Qiuxue looked inside through the bamboo curtain hanging at the door and saw his arrogant and conceited demeanor. He would have a group of servants surrounding him and serving him busily just for a simple drink of tea and a snack.
Su Wen at the door subconsciously rolled his eyes and whispered, "How about coming back next time?"
"No." Qi Qiuxue shook her head, "Wait a little longer."
This wait lasted about half an hour.
Master Li finally finished his tea and waved his hand for the servants to leave. As if he had just come to his senses, he looked back at the door and said in a pretentious tone, "Oh, sorry, I forgot you were still waiting."
"It's okay." Qi Qiuxue said quickly, "We are the ones who should be embarrassed. We are really sorry to disturb you."
After she finished speaking, Mr. Li in the room chuckled, and it was obvious that he was very pleased with her attitude.
"Come in." This time he finally nodded and agreed to their request, and ordered his servants to lift the bamboo curtain and let Qi Qiuxue and others in.
Qi Qiuxue walked in with everyone else. She looked around calmly. It was different from an ordinary study. Master Li had definitely put a lot of effort into the decoration. Wherever she looked, she saw the finest materials, carvings and workmanship, showing luxury.
Everyone quickly expressed their admiration and appreciation, fully satisfying Master Li's vanity. Qi Qiuxue then brought the topic back on track—
"I had the pleasure of chatting with the young lady during our meal. She told me that Master Li has collected quite a few rare treasures."
"We are all unsophisticated people and usually have no chance to see these things. I wonder if you could fulfill our wish and take us on a brief tour."
Liu Ge, standing by, echoed her, "Yes, this may be the only chance in our lifetime to see so many treasures. Master Li is kind-hearted, so he'll just let us open our eyes and broaden our horizons."
She said sincerely, "I hope you can agree to our request."
These words pleased Mr. Li to a great extent.
In fact, everything has its own rules. Generally, rich people may be low-key or flamboyant. It all depends on their character and behavior.
But the other type of people who have been living in poverty and suddenly become rich find it difficult to suppress their inner impulses. They urgently want to prove themselves to the outside world, hope to defeat those who once rode on their heads, and be respected, envied, sought after, and looked up to.
It is not difficult to see from the decoration of the Li family and the other party's behavior that Mr. Li is obviously this type of person. Often when facing such people, praise and compliments are the quickest way to achieve the goal.
"Come with me." After a while, Mr. Li took out the key from the drawer and slowly stood up.
-
It turns out that the partition in the study is so big.
Qi Qiuxue and others followed Mr. Li's steps and went deeper, taking in all the treasures displayed inside, including porcelain, ancient paintings, statues... Until this moment, Qi Qiuxue finally had a further understanding of the financial resources of the Li family. Any treasure here was very expensive, and some were even unique and hard to come by.
But she couldn't tell for the time being which treasures originally belonged to Mr. Li and which treasures originally belonged to Fu Cong.
Until she saw a pipe.
It looked out of place among the rest of the collection.
This pipe is light green in color. Judging from the carving and style, it should be a common style during the Republic of China period. Even if its texture is really good, if it were brand new, it might be sold at a good price. Unfortunately, it is covered with signs of use, which greatly reduces its collection value.
“…”
Qi Qiuxue frowned and observed the pipe more carefully. Soon, she noticed two small English letters engraved on the bottom of the pipe -
【FC.】
Fu Cong?
This seems to be Fu Cong's thing.
"Excuse me..." Qi Qiuxue called out to Master Li, who was walking in front, and casually raised her hand to point at the pipe beside her. "The shape of this pipe looks very unique. Where did you get it from..."
Before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by Master Li. As if recalling some bad experience, his tone suddenly became unfriendly: "It's just an ordinary pipe."
He was clearly lying. "It's just something I bought when I first started working. It's been so many years now, it's already broken. I just kept it because I was nostalgic and didn't throw it away."
"But..." Qi Qiuxue seemed to have something else to say.
Master Li seemed completely annoyed, his expression instantly becoming extremely gloomy. He waved his hand and said, "I'm tired. Let's end the tour here. I still have a lot of work to do. Please leave as soon as possible."
After he finished speaking, he called the servants and asked them to leave.
"He really has a changeable personality." Qi Qiuxue wasn't the only one who noticed the strange pipe. The other players had also apparently noticed it. Liu Ge asked Qi Qiuxue for her opinion. "Although I don't know the reason, that pipe might be his most important treasure."
"Yeah." Qi Qiuxue nodded in response, "I think so too."
"The sun is about to set." She looked up at the sky and said, "Let's come back in the evening."
“…”
At night.
As usual, Li Yiqing returned before sunset. Later, she found time to find Madam Han and Mr. Li's personal servant and got the secret in the tea out as she wished.
It turned out that something had been put in the teacup before the tea was poured into the cup. The effect was just as Qi Qiuxue guessed. It was a tonic that Mrs. Han had taken great pains to prepare personally at a high price.
It is a white powder with a slightly pungent smell, made from many precious herbs through various procedures. It can keep you young forever, prolong your life and keep you healthy.
In order to make it easy to use at any time, several personal servants carried some medicine on them. Li Yiqing pretended to suspect that they were hiding the powder and ordered them to take it out and check it one by one.
The servants were all miserable, yet they dared not disobey. They anxiously explained, "No, no, how dare we use something so precious? We always brew it for the master on time and in the correct amount. We put it away immediately after use and dare not touch it. Please check, the grams are accurate."
They seemed to be scared by being bullied, and a random question would scare them half to death. Li Yiqing sighed secretly, sniffed and checked the medicinal powders one by one, and confirmed that they were indeed non-toxic.
It is even really as Mrs. Han said, a good thing that is beneficial to the body.
But if it is really useful, how do we explain Mr. Li’s increasingly declining physical condition?
"I suspect the real key lies in Madam Han's own hands," Qi Qiuxue speculated with a frown. "Medicine usage emphasizes the principle of mutual promotion and mutual restraint. The fact that the servants' powder is non-toxic doesn't mean that the tea Master Li drank is non-toxic. Perhaps simply adding something else could achieve the exact opposite effect."
She thought of Mrs. Han's mother and father, who had died one after another due to illness. Perhaps Mrs. Han had adopted the same approach to them: "Even... killing people without being seen."
Wu Shanyue clenched his fists: "How terrifying."
Su Wen immediately complained, "Except for Miss Li and Miss Li San, who haven't shown any suspicious behavior so far, all the members of the Li family are troublemakers."
"Shall we go to the study now?" Bai Shien looked out the window. The fog from last night had gathered again, and today, it seemed thicker than yesterday. "There's no one outside anymore."
"Go." Qi Qiuxue nodded in response, "But not everyone needs to come together."
"Ah Qing, Ah Liu," she said, "You two should stay with me."
“…”
There are no hallucinations tonight.
The three of them gripped their weapons tightly and quickly passed through the fog and arrived at the study.
There was no one guarding the study door at this time. In order to protect the important documents and treasures inside, a heavy lock was put on the door.
Qi Qiuxue looked at Liu Ge beside her: "A Liu, can you open it?"
"Let me try." Liu Ge responded, and worked with the props for a while with his eyes lowered. After a while, the lock was opened.
There was no one inside. Qi Qiuxue and others entered the room lightly and quickly found the key to the compartment in the drawer.
But then they found some other things. There was an inconspicuous baffle at the bottom of the drawer. When they took it out, they found several notebooks and some envelopes underneath.
Li Yiqing picked up a lighter and turned it on, providing Qi Qiuxue with some faint light so that she could see what was written on it more clearly.
"It seems that Fu Cong's imprisonment was the work of more than one person." After a while, Qi Qiuxue said softly, "Behind this is a conspiracy set up by Master Li and someone in a high position of power."
【Author’s words】
Here we come!
Thank you for your Bawang tickets and nutrient solution, thank you for leaving comments and reading ~ Mmmmmmmmm
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
