Chapter 215
"Madam, there are plenty of folks like this in Heping County, why must you bother?" The servant boy sighed.
He thought Li Zhiwei was just being naively kind-hearted. But people like this were a dime a dozen in Heping County; he was long used to it.
"Let the physician examine this elderly lady," Li Zhiwei sighed, offering no further explanation.
"Madam?" Qinghua frowned. They had just arrived in Heping County and were unfamiliar with the situation here. Moreover, the Old Madam and the Young Master were back at the inn; they ought to return sooner rather than later.
"It's fine," Li Zhiwei shook her head. Since she had come across this situation, she certainly couldn't stand by and watch without helping.
Seeing someone had paid the consultation fee, the physician didn't delay and promptly checked the elderly woman's pulse. "Nothing too serious, just a bit malnourished. The rest are old ailments. She needs proper care and nourishment."
The old physician spoke with grave concern.
Li Zhiwei looked at the hunched-over old woman and sighed inwardly.
There must be many people who can't get enough to eat and can't afford medical treatment.
"Please prepare the medicine for her, physician," Li Zhiwei said with another sigh.
"Cough! Cough!" Just as the medicine was ready, the old woman woke up.
"Madam, are you feeling better?" Li Zhiwei asked, supporting her.
"I'm fine, thank you." The old woman looked around, realizing she was inside the medical clinic, and assumed Li Zhiwei had let her rest there. She felt immensely grateful.
"Old one, since you're awake, you should hurry home," the servant boy urged upon seeing her awake. After all, this was a clinic, and the bed was for those in need.
Most importantly, the woman looked rather dirty, and he was worried she might soil their bed.
He'd be the one who had to wash it later.
"Madam, let me see you home," Li Zhiwei said, seeing the old woman's state and deciding to escort her back.
"No need for the trouble, I can go back myself. Thank you, Madam." The old woman felt that since her daughter had gone with that corrupt official, this person was the only one who had shown her any warmth.
How could she trouble her further?
Li Zhiwei was still uneasy and insisted on seeing her home.
Fortunately, the old woman's dwelling wasn't far from the clinic, though the house looked terribly dilapidated.
"Who are you? What are you doing to my mother?" A sharp female voice rang out.
Li Zhiwei looked up to see a woman dressed in bright, fine clothes, hands on her hips, pointing at them angrily.
"What are you doing here?" The old woman's previously gentle demeanor vanished, replaced by a look of disdain as she glared at the girl.
"Mother, I came to bring you some silver," Luo'er said, her eyes reddening as she looked at the old woman.
"I don't want your dirty money. Get out of here, now," the old woman said with utter disgust.
Li Zhiwei, Qinghua, and Qingyue exchanged glances, confused by the situation.
After all, this young woman was dressed so finely; she didn't seem like someone who would let her mother suffer from malnutrition.
"Mother, why must you be like this?" Luo'er's eyes were red, her heart aching terribly.
Ever since she had become Tang Youquan's concubine, her mother had wanted nothing to do with her.
"Hmph! If you still regarded me as your mother, why were you so determined back then to marry that corrupt official as a concubine? What did Er Zhu ever do to wrong you?" Old Madam Zhou's heart ached whenever she thought of her daughter becoming Tang Youquan's concubine.
The daughter she had raised with such care, for whom she had even arranged an excellent match—Er Zhu, a hardworking and honest young man from the village. Yet this foolish girl had insisted on becoming that corrupt official Tang Youquan's concubine.
It had made Old Madam Zhou lose face in the entire village.
But her daughter was determined to become a concubine, and ordinary commoners like them were no match for that corrupt official. Even though Er Zhu had pleaded bitterly, she still stubbornly insisted on marrying Tang Youquan. Old Madam Zhou had since acted as if she had no daughter.
Thinking of this, Old Madam Zhou turned away, unwilling to look at Luo'er.
"Mother, I know you're unhappy that I became the master's concubine. But, Mother, have you ever considered that if I hadn't agreed, would you and Brother Er Zhu even be alive?" Luo'er cried, her eyes swollen, kneeling before Old Madam Zhou in supplication.
Old Madam Zhou stiffened upon hearing this. She knew her daughter's words held truth, but the anger in her heart remained. She wanted no further connection with her daughter.
"Mother, even if you're angry with me, please don't take it out on your own health. Why won't you accept the silver the Tang family sends you?" Luo'er looked at the drafty, ramshackle house and then at her mother's frail body, her heart wrenching with pain.
The Tang family did offer silver to Old Madam Zhou.
But Old Madam Zhou refused to take it.
"Hmph! I won't take that corrupt official's dirty money," Old Madam Zhou said with contempt.
Li Zhiwei observed the old woman and, piecing together the mother-daughter conversation, roughly guessed that Old Madam Zhou's daughter was Tang Youquan's concubine.
Recalling that the Prince had come to Heping County precisely to investigate Tang Youquan, she never expected to have accidentally saved the mother of Tang Youquan's concubine.
And this old woman seemed to despise Tang Youquan greatly, given how she kept calling him a 'corrupt official'.
"Madam, don't be angry. This young lady must have had her reasons," Li Zhiwei stepped forward to comfort her.
"Even if she was unwilling, could that man have forced her?" Old Madam Zhou thought of this and began to weep sorrowfully.
Old Madam Zhou cried, and Luo'er cried too.
Her life in the Tang household was also extremely difficult. The main wife didn't treat them harshly, but Tang Youquan had no shortage of women in his rear courtyard.
What frightened Luo'er most was that once Tang Youquan grew tired of them, he would make them serve people he wanted to curry favor with, or even give them away as gifts.
You never knew who those people were. Some of her sisters had even lost their lives because of it.
She lived with utmost caution, yet her mother still didn't understand her.
Believing she had merely wanted to climb the social ladder.
When Xu Heming returned to the inn and didn't see Li Zhiwei, his brow furrowed with worry. Thinking of Tang Youquan's conduct in Heping County, he grew concerned for Li Zhiwei's safety.
"Where is Madam?" Xu Heming asked.
"Master, Madam said she was going to the pharmacy to get some medicine for Old Madam, but she hasn't returned yet," the guard left at the inn promptly replied.
"How long has she been gone?" Xu Heming grew more uneasy, worried that Li Zhiwei might have encountered some danger.
"Father, Mother has been gone for so long. She still isn't back. Has she abandoned us?" Xu Qingshi complained unhappily.
"Don't talk nonsense," Xu Heming was both amused and exasperated by his son's train of thought. Even if she didn't want them, Lady Yao was still here, after all.
"I'll go look for them," Xu Heming said and went out to search for Li Zhiwei.
Li Zhiwei was, at that moment, also on her way back to the inn.
After all, they still had to catch a boat back to the capital and couldn't stay long in Heping. Still, she hoped the information she had gathered from Luo'er would be useful to him.
