The plum rain season arrived early in Yangzhou this year, starting right in June.
The clothes hung out to dry in the courtyard never seemed to dry, so Su Zhenzhen simply bought a whole month's worth of clothes.
With the continuous dreary rain, Su Zhenzhen's apothecary, situated in a low-lying area, began to flood. She crouched on the ground, scooping the water out.
The rain poured from the eaves of the apothecary, forming an impenetrable curtain of water that battered the bluestone slabs below.
Only after Su Zhenzhen managed to clear the accumulated water from the shop did she realize her back was completely soaked by the rain.
She asked her newly taken-in little apprentice to keep an eye on the shop while she went into the courtyard to change her clothes.
The courtyard was not large, consisting of three wing rooms, along with an outdoor washroom and a kitchen.
Su Zhenzhen lived in the main room, which had its own independent washroom and bath. The outdoor washroom was prepared for the occasional patient who needed it and for her little apprentice.
Sitting before her dressing table, Su Zhenzhen brushed her hair and looked at herself in the mirror.
Slightly sallow skin, coarse features, dry and lifeless long hair, and a spotted face. Only her eyes remained clear and pure to the bottom.
Su Zhenzhen opened a box on the dressing table, took out a few dried gardenia fruits, and walked into the kitchen.
Gardenia fruits were non-toxic and had no side effects. Every day, Su Zhenzhen would boil them to extract the juice and apply it to her skin, which effectively turned her complexion a yellowish hue.
Although it was troublesome, she had no other choice in order to save her life.
According to Xiaoyuan, there had been no news of the Jinyiwei searching for her over the past two years.
It seemed they had given up.
Previously, she had left behind a corpse. Obviously, Lu Hexu had not believed it was her.
But it had been five years now, and he still could not find her. He must have no choice but to believe it by now, right?
After pouring the boiled gardenia juice into a jar and sealing it, Su Zhenzhen was just about to brew herself a cup of milk tea when a knock came from the door of the small kitchen.
Her little apprentice was only fifteen or sixteen years old. He could not speak and only communicated through gestures.
Do you want some too?
Su Zhenzhen pointed at the unfinished milk tea.
The little apprentice shook his head and pointed outside.
Su Zhenzhen poked her head out to look.
The shop and the back were separated only by a small courtyard door. With that door open, she could see that the apothecary was packed with people.
Is business this good today?
Su Zhenzhen put down her cup and walked out, seeing a dense crowd gathered in her apothecary.
The plum rain season had brought ten consecutive days of overcast skies and rain, causing the water levels to surge. The riverbanks were mostly built of rammed sandy soil, which became soft and crumbly after soaking in the seasonal rain. A section of the riverbank in the southern part of the city had been washed away. The local authorities had already led people to block the breach and were sending injured residents to the nearest apothecaries in the city.
Su Zhenzhen's apothecary was the closest, so she received the most wounded. Most of them had been moving about in the floodwaters and had suffered from crushing injuries from heavy objects, cuts, or bone fractures.
I specialize in internal medicine here! Go further ahead and find Doctor Liu! Su Zhenzhen had barely finished speaking when a man rushed in, carrying a woman in his arms. Someone is drowning here!
Su Zhenzhen took a quick glance; the situation was urgent.
Put her on the ground.
The woman was placed on the ground. Su Zhenzhen rolled up her sleeves, reached out directly to clear the mud from the drowning victim's mouth and nose, and then began performing artificial respiration and chest compressions.
Cough, cough, cough... The woman choked out a few mouthfuls of water, gasping heavily.
Su Zhenzhen took out the silver needles she carried with her and inserted them into the woman's Renzhong, Yongquan, and Neiguan acupoints. The woman immediately recovered her breath.
Little Persimmon, go boil a bowl of ginger juice. Su Zhenzhen breathed a sigh of relief and stood up.
Su Zhenzhen's little apprentice was named Little Persimmon. When she found and brought him back, he was still unconscious. At that time, he could still speak, constantly muttering persimmon, persimmon... in his sleep.
Su Zhenzhen had picked a persimmon and placed it by his bed.
It sat there for a day, and since he did not wake up, Su Zhenzhen ate it herself.
By the time he woke up, he could no longer speak and had lost his memory.
What a mess it was.
Su Zhenzhen took him to the local authorities to register. Because Little Persimmon remembered nothing, they could only wait to see if anyone would report him missing.
With nowhere for him to go, Su Zhenzhen could only take him in temporarily.
At first, he did not know how to do any chores, but now that he had been here for half a year, he worked much more nimbly.
Little Persimmon had delicate features, knew how to write, and learned things quickly. He was just a picky eater.
This made her uncontrollably think of another, even more beautiful young man.
Su Zhenzhen zoned out for a moment. Over there, Little Persimmon had already brought the ginger juice over.
Pour it down her throat.
And fetch a few doses of Wuling Powder.
Wuling Powder could alleviate symptoms such as chills, coughing, edema, and dampness invading the body after a person drowned.
While packing away her silver needles, Su Zhenzhen shooed the patients with external injuries over to Doctor Liu's place.
Before long, her shop became much quieter.
Su Zhenzhen finally had time to brew her milk tea.
She took out a little green tea from the tea canister, then added freshly boiled milk and a touch of honey.
A cup of green milk tea was ready.
Su Zhenzhen held her green milk tea and sat in the shop. Just as she sat down, someone arrived.
Lady Su, I have come to buy medicine. A young man wearing a constable's uniform walked over. He was not particularly handsome, possessing merely regular features.
Alright, the usual?
Yes.
Su Zhenzhen fetched the medicine for him. Ten cash.
Zhao Ahai took out his coin pouch and pulled out ten cash from inside.
Zhao Ahai took the medicine but did not leave.
His gaze circled around Su Zhenzhen's apothecary before finally landing on her face.
Although the woman had yellowish skin, coarse features, and lacked beauty, her pair of eyes was exceptionally lovely.
Lady Su, has your husband not returned yet?
Su Zhenzhen lowered her head, revealing a section of her slender neck. Him? He is still in the military camp. I heard he achieved some merit, and His Majesty rewarded him with quite a few things. As she spoke, Su Zhenzhen raised her hand to adjust the silver hairpin tucked into her dry bun.
Look, I heard this is something only found in the palace.
Although Zhao Ahai had never seen items from the palace, there was an old eunuch in their city of Gusu.
That old eunuch had served the late Emperor. After returning to his hometown in Yangzhou Prefecture, he built a large mansion in the suburbs, making it look like a minor prince's estate, and named it Qushui Garden.
He not only married a wife but also took in an adopted son, living a very flavorful and comfortable life.
Even though the old eunuch lacked that certain part, his lust had not diminished. He wanted to lay his hands on anyone with a decent face, not even sparing someone like Su Zhenzhen.
Because there were few female doctors in the city, Su Zhenzhen's business was quite busy. She would even frequently go into estates to treat female patients, who were either young ladies of noble families or wealthy madams.
Su Zhenzhen had long heard of the old eunuch's mansion in the suburbs, jokingly referred to by local commoners as the minor prince's estate.
One day, she was invited over by a maidservant who came from Qushui Garden.
Sitting in the carriage specially sent for her, Su Zhenzhen brought her medical box to treat the old eunuch's wife, and coincidentally bumped into him.
It was in the inner courtyard. The sick madam lay on the sickbed, coughing.
Su Zhenzhen sat by the bed to take her pulse.
The old eunuch sat opposite her. His gaze brushed past her face and lingered on her body.
It was so brazen that it bordered on insolent.
The old eunuch picked up the teacup by his hand and took a light sip.
Although her face was ordinary, her figure was actually quite nice.
Later, the old eunuch's wife fell ill a few more times. When Su Zhenzhen went for the third time, she accidentally left her hairpin behind.
Carved upon that hairpin was the emblem of the Imperial Silverware Bureau.
The old eunuch was a veteran of the palace, and he could tell at a glance that the silver hairpin was the real deal.
Then, while taking out the hairpin, Su Zhenzhen inadvertently revealed that she had a husband who was about to become a great general.
Later, his wife's illness was cured.
For an orphan girl like Su Zhenzhen, with neither power nor influence, to open a pharmacy in Yangzhou City, it was inevitable that she would be bullied. However, she had backing.
She had a husband who was currently fighting in the war. It was said that he had earned many military merits and would become a great general in the future!
This future great general had also sent her many gold and silver pieces of jewelry that could only be found in the palace, claiming they were rewards from His Majesty.
The current Emperor, since the Qingxu Taixuan Society uprising five years ago, had employed iron-fisted methods even more severe than before.
He carried out widespread purges of the powerful noble families. Rumor had it that the streets of Jinling City were stained with blood every single day. The Imperial Guards, led by Han Shuo, had completely become his personal blade, executing killings and judgments entirely at his whim.
"Lady Su, your husband hasn't returned in five years. Aren't you worried?"
Zhao Ahai hinted pointedly.
Su Zhenzhen smiled and said, "What is there to be worried about? My husband sends me so much gold and silver jewelry every year; he must be thinking of me in his heart. Just last month, he even wrote me a letter. Let me look for it. Ah, found it. I'll read it to you... To my wife, it has been five years since we parted, and I think of you day and night..."
Su Zhenzhen had barely read the beginning when Zhao Ahai left.
Holding the medical prescription in her hand, Su Zhenzhen continued to read a couple more lines. Only when Zhao Ahai was far away did she put the prescription back.
In truth, the only piece of jewelry she had brought out of the palace was that single silver hairpin, which she had received when she was a palace maid.
Wei Heng was benevolent and provided the palace maids with quite a few benefits. During the late Emperor's reign, a palace maid would never have been able to obtain such a silver hairpin.
Therefore, that old eunuch actually believed the silver hairpin was some kind of reward from His Majesty.
As for the other hairpins, having someone make fake ones and adding some fake marks didn't cost much money at all.
Furthermore, she wouldn't wear them out every day; the one she wore the most was still this silver hairpin.
It was getting late. Su Zhenzhen asked Little Persimmon to watch the shop while she headed over to Doctor Liu's place up ahead.
Doctor Liu was already so busy that his feet barely touched the ground.
Seeing Su Zhenzhen arrive, he was so exasperated that his beard practically flew up. "Why are you only getting here now? Hurry up and help!"
Doctor Liu's place was packed with commoners suffering from external injuries.
Su Zhenzhen took out the golden sore ointment and hemostatic powder from her shop to treat their bleeding wounds. For patients with fractures, she used cedarwood splints to secure them. For those with infected, red, and swollen wounds, she applied a fresh poultice of mashed dandelion and purslane to reduce inflammation and prevent tetanus.
By the time everything was handled, the sky was already turning dark.
Su Zhenzhen was exhausted. Doctor Liu's wife had cooked dinner and asked Su Zhenzhen to stay and eat.
Su Zhenzhen did not stand on ceremony; she sat down and ate two bowls, then packed a bowl of noodles for Little Persimmon on her way back.
Little Persimmon really liked eating noodles, making him seem like he might be a northerner.
"Still can't remember anything?"
The young boy shook his head and continued eating his noodles, picking out the chopped green onions.
Su Zhenzhen stretched lazily. After a busy day, she felt like she stank.
Su Zhenzhen bathed and washed up, then enjoyed a good, long sleep.
When she got up the next day, Little Persimmon was already sitting in the pharmacy reading a book.
"Doctor Su, the government office has sent someone looking for you."
A shout came from outside.
Su Zhenzhen got up and went out to look, seeing several constables leading a few doctors away. Seeing Su Zhenzhen, they raised a hand to beckon her to join them.
The Prefect of Yangzhou, Jiang Xun, although overly rigid and inflexible, was considered honest and uncorrupted.
Faced with this sudden emergency, he immediately arranged temporary tents to settle the disaster-stricken people, and then gathered the doctors in the city to help.
The scale of the disaster this time was not small. By count, there were fully a hundred people injured, and some whose houses had been washed away could not return for the time being.
Su Zhenzhen followed the constables to the temporary treatment site and found that it was organized in an orderly manner. The men's and women's tents were separated, and constables were patrolling to ensure safety and handle civil disputes.
Su Zhenzhen helped out in the women's tent.
After treating the wounds of the injured women, she distributed herbal medicines to them, instructing them to brew and take the medicine themselves.
"Hey, I heard that Doctor Su came too."
"Which one?"
"The one whose husband is fighting a war outside and says he's going to be a great general. Oh my, she talks about it so proudly. Never mind whether it's true or false, even if it is true, men always love the new and abandon the old. If he really becomes a great general, how could he still remember his humble wife? It's been five whole years; he probably has a new woman out there already... Don't you agree?" After the auntie finished speaking, she noticed that the other aunties sitting opposite her suddenly turned their heads away and stopped talking.
Confused and feeling that her enthusiasm was unreciprocated, she turned to the young lady beside her seeking agreement.
"Yes, indeed," Su Zhenzhen nodded with a beaming smile, and then increased the dosage of medicine for this auntie, making it so bitter that the older woman cried out for her parents despite her age.
After dealing with this group of aunties, Su Zhenzhen finally finished her shift.
Carrying her medical box on her back, she walked outside and saw a crowd gathered not far ahead.
Su Zhenzhen stood on her tiptoes and moved closer to look, seeing several constables covering something with a white cloth.
The newly arrived onlookers kept asking the people standing in the front, and those in the front were very happy to share the gossip.
"A skeleton appeared in the washed-out riverbank."
A skeleton?
So there was actually a murder case too.
A coroner had already arrived at the scene, and the constables were driving people away.
The crowd of onlookers was dispersed. Having had her fill of gossip, Su Zhenzhen also carried her medical box back to the pharmacy.
Little Persimmon was still guarding the shop. Su Zhenzhen praised him a bit, then went back to wash up and sleep.
-
The summer rain was relentless. She heard that the riverbank was being repaired, and the collapsed houses were also being rebuilt with government funds.
Besides these, during the day, people delivered free medicine brewed in large cauldrons.
Su Zhenzhen took a sip. It was a summer tea drink brewed from honeysuckle, forsythia, kudzu root, and licorice. It could clear heat, detoxify, support healthy energy, and dispel pathogenic factors, helping to reduce the infection rate.
Constables also came over to distribute free medicine packets containing calamus, mugwort leaves, and alum, instructing the commoners to add them to their drinking water.
Su Zhenzhen, despite running a pharmacy, also received a packet.
She opened it to take a look; the quality was quite good.
Calamus and mugwort leaves were antibacterial, and alum could precipitate sediment, preventing disease from drinking unboiled water.
While Su Zhenzhen was guarding the shop, an auntie came over to have her pulse taken.
She invited the person to sit behind the curtain. As soon as the auntie sat down, she started talking about the gossip from a few days ago.
In fact, such things rarely happened in Yangzhou City. Therefore, everyone was extremely interested in the skeleton from a few days ago, guessing who it might be.
"I heard there was a jade pendant on the skeleton. The constables are now investigating which family it belongs to."
Items like jade pendants were generally hard to trace unless they were particularly distinctive.
"Where are you feeling unwell?"
"I always feel hot, sweat easily at night, and I can't sleep..."
"Has your menstrual cycle stopped?"
"It stopped. It just stopped half a year ago."
Su Zhenzhen wrote on the medical record: Unexplained body heat during the day, night sweats soaking the pillow, restlessness whether sitting or lying down.
It was probably menopause.
"Let me take your pulse."
The auntie extended her hand.
"Dr. Su, what kind of illness do I have?"
After carefully taking her pulse, Su Zhenzhen replied, "You are approaching fifty, and your heavenly water is drying up. Every woman goes through this; it's not some strange disease." After speaking, Su Zhenzhen asked, "Would you prefer to take medicine or have acupuncture?"
"I'll take the medicine."
"Alright, I'll prescribe you a decoction of licorice, wheat, and jujube mixed with Xiaoyao powder. Drink it for a month and see how you feel. In your daily life, you can also eat more wolfberries, red dates, longans, lotus seeds, and sesame. Eat less spicy food, and avoid overworking or getting angry."
"Okay, thank you, Dr. Su."
After seeing a few more patients, it was getting late. Just as Su Zhenzhen was preparing to close the shop, she saw constables coming over again, burning atractylodes, realgar, and mugwort leaves around the shacks.
This was done to use the smoke to drive away filth and ward off plagues.
Su Zhenzhen closed the shop door and prepared to rest.
Late at night, she lay in bed. The window was covered with a layer of green gauze and a reed blind. The summer breeze blew in from outside; this way, outsiders couldn't pry into her privacy, yet she could still enjoy the breeze.
Sushan was already five years old. Its daily sleep time had grown longer, and its favorite thing to do was to curl up and sleep in the shadiest corner of the courtyard.
Previously, Su Zhenzhen had diligently made cat food for it, but now this task had been taken over by Little Persimmon.
Although it was quite relaxing to be a hands-off boss, Su Zhenzhen felt that Sushan was becoming increasingly picky with its food under his feeding.
Just as Su Zhenzhen lay down, Sushan squatted by the window and meowed.
Resigned to her fate, she climbed out of bed to open the window for it.
Sushan ran in, lay down at the foot of her bed, and kept her company as she slept.
Su Zhenzhen left a crack open at the window for it.
According to its habit, Sushan would wait until she fell asleep before going out to the courtyard to play on its own.
Su Zhenzhen hugged her bamboo wife to sleep.
The summer days were hot, and she was a light sleeper. Therefore, when the window was opened by someone, Su Zhenzhen woke up.
She opened her eyes and saw Xiaoyuan jumping in through the window.
"This is bad."
"What's bad?" Su Zhenzhen looked at her torn green gauze. "You have to pay me silver for that."
"Master has been taken away."
-
According to Xiaoyuan, the corpse washed out from under the riverbank in Yangzhou City was actually Master Liaochen's husband, who had been missing for twenty years.
That jade pendant proved his identity.
According to the investigation by the Prefect of Yangzhou, the skeleton's neck had been severed, and after being killed, he was buried in the riverbank that was under construction at the time.
Back then, after Master Liaochen's husband went missing, she was so heartbroken that she shaved her head and became a nun. After a parting of twenty years, her dead husband had returned.
He had been missing for twenty years; why pop up now?
"I sneaked a peek at the case files. Master did indeed kill him. It happened like this."
According to Xiaoyuan, Master's husband always had a bad temper. At the time, he got drunk and took a sickle to hack at her.
Master was slashed several times. Just when she thought she couldn't escape this time, the sickle in the man's hand suddenly slipped. In a flash of lightning, she picked up the sickle and hacked him to death.
Afraid of being discovered for her crime, Liaochen threw the body into the riverbank that was being built. She then claimed her husband had gone out to do business, and later said he had run off with another woman, leaving her disheartened enough to become a nun.
Because the man had no parents and the authorities couldn't find a body, Liaochen's lie was never exposed.
Until the appearance of this corpse today.
The jade pendant on the corpse was specially commissioned by Liaochen when she married her husband. It bore not only her and her husband's birth dates and eight characters, but also their surname. Therefore, the Prefect of Yangzhou quickly locked onto the target.
"Master should be able to get out of this, right?" Su Zhenzhen was puzzled.
Xiaoyuan said, "I heard the Embroidered Uniform Guard has been mobilized for this."
Su Zhenzhen's heart skipped a beat.
The methods of the Embroidered Uniform Guard... had their reach extended this far?
Xiaoyuan was very nervous. "What should we do now?"
The Great Zhou Code stated that wives or concubines who beat their husbands would receive one hundred strokes of the cane; if it resulted in death, they would be beheaded immediately; those who plotted to murder their husbands would suffer death by a thousand cuts.
The imperfections in the Great Zhou laws meant there was no concept of a wife's self-defense against her husband. A husband beating or scolding his wife, or even using a knife to commit violence, was considered a domestic matter of a husband disciplining his wife.
Even if the wife fought back, she would be guilty of insubordination, thus violating the law first, with absolutely no possibility of escaping punishment.
"Let me think..." Su Zhenzhen began to ponder a countermeasure.
Xiaoyuan stared at Su Zhenzhen for less than three seconds. "I can't wait." She slammed the table and stood up, startling Sushan, who was sleeping at the foot of the bed, wide awake. Its tail puffed up like a white feather duster pointing at the sky.
"What are you going to do?" Su Zhenzhen grabbed her.
"Break her out of prison. I heard the Embroidered Uniform Guard has already escorted Master to Yangzhou."
They moved so fast; it seemed like she was about to be sentenced.
Su Zhenzhen forced herself to calm down. "That is the worst possible plan. Think of something normal."
"I'll go kill that dog official."
Even less normal.
"Sit down."
Xiaoyuan sat down, but she couldn't sit still, as if there were thorns on the stool. "Then what do you suggest we do?"
With the laws as they were, there was absolutely no chance of overturning the case.
After thinking for a moment, Su Zhenzhen said, "I can make a fake death potion to let Master escape through feigned death." Time was tight. After speaking, Su Zhenzhen immediately got up to put her plan into action.
She went into the inner room separated by a curtain, where her medicinal herbs were kept.
Sushan jumped down from the bed and walked to the toilet first.
"No, I'm not going to the toilet."
She didn't know what was wrong with the little cat; it always had to accompany her to the toilet. Even when it was so sleepy it could barely open its eyes, it still forced itself to follow her in.
Su Zhenzhen found the necessary ingredients and quickly began making the potion.
Hyoscyamus seeds, jasmine root, datura flowers... To make the effect more realistic, she also needed to add a little light bamboo leaf water to mix it.
Hyoscyamus seeds could cause loss of consciousness and dilated pupils. Combined with light bamboo leaf water, the two would strengthen the suppression of breathing and pulse, making the fake death state much harder for a coroner to see through. The coroners of the Great Zhou relied solely on observation, listening, smelling, and feeling the pulse; without modern testing methods, it was very difficult to distinguish true from false.
Once Master Liaochen took this medicine, she and Xiaoyuan would spend some silver to bring her corpse back, and then they would leave Yangzhou far behind and go to Mongolia.
-
Although Liaochen was a death row inmate, the final judgment had not yet been passed, and there were no explicit orders from above forbidding visits.
Carrying her basket, Su Zhenzhen appeared at the entrance of the Yangzhou women's prison.
It was near dusk, but the weather was still muggy.
Su Zhenzhen walked forward along the shadows at the base of the wall and saw a carriage parked ahead.
It was a very ordinary-looking carriage draped in green silk.
Parked outside the Yangzhou Prefecture prison, the man driving the horses wore coarse linen clothes and a bamboo hat. His face was dark, his build was sturdy, and the hands holding the carriage reins had thick, prominent knuckles.
Judging by his attire, he didn't look like a Yangzhou local. He sat there quietly with his head bowed, looking like a martial artist servant.
Su Zhenzhen's gaze quickly passed over him and looked toward the inside of the carriage.
The carriage sat there quietly. Occasionally, a summer breeze blew by, causing the carriage curtains to sway slightly, but she couldn't see the scene inside clearly.
It was very dark.
She couldn't see clearly.
It seemed someone was sitting inside.
Su Zhenzhen only took a quick glance before retracting her gaze.
Because she noticed that the carriage driver was very sharp.
After confirming that this carriage posed no general threat and was likely just there for a prison visit like her, Su Zhenzhen continued forward.
The curtain of the carriage swayed slightly. A pale, slender finger with distinct joints rested on the edge of the curtain, opening it just a crack. After a brief pause, it slowly and deliberately withdrew.
"Go." A deep, hoarse voice emerged from within the carriage. It sounded like shattered jade striking ice or the clashing of gold, cold, aloof, and carrying the innate, commanding presence of a superior.
The carriage rumbled away.
There were guards stationed at the entrance of the women's prison. Su Zhenzhen handed over some silver before being allowed inside.
The women's prison was located in the deepest part of the prefectural jail. As soon as she entered the small door, she was hit by a damp, musty, and foul odor. Because the walls were high, the windows narrow, and the iron bars as dense as a spider's web, it was very dark inside even during the day.
Several cells were lined up side by side. Male guards were not allowed inside, so an official matchmaker took over to lead her in.
Su Zhenzhen followed the official matchmaker further inside.
The prison was terrifyingly quiet. Only occasionally would there be a few suppressed coughs or the low sobbing of a woman. After the official matchmaker walking ahead of Su Zhenzhen scolded them in a rough, hoarse voice, the women did not dare make another sound.
Su Zhenzhen's gaze swept over them.
Most of the female prisoners had unkempt hair and dirty faces, wearing tattered clothes. Some huddled in the rotting, wet straw, shivering, while others sat leaning against the wall, their eyes numb and hollow, as if they had lost their souls.
It was only when she reached the very end that Su Zhenzhen finally saw Liaochen.
As a felon, Liaochen was locked in a separate area, wearing a wooden cangue.
When Su Zhenzhen saw her, she was sitting against the wall.
On the surface, there were no visible injuries, suggesting she had not been subjected to extrajudicial torture.
"Master," Su Zhenzhen spoke softly.
Hearing the voice, Liaochen shifted her gaze to Su Zhenzhen's face. Her pupils moved slightly. "Why are you here?" The official matchmaker standing beside Su Zhenzhen was inspecting the items she had brought in.
Su Zhenzhen explained, "Just some food."
"Involving a murder case, the prefectural magistrate personally ordered her imprisonment. No private messages or items are allowed to be passed."
Su Zhenzhen slipped her some more silver.
"My master is a vegetarian. Please make an exception."
The official matchmaker weighed the silver in her hand and turned her back.
Su Zhenzhen wrapped the steamed buns from her basket in oil paper and passed them through. "I came to see you."
"Master, eat and get a good sleep. Everything will pass. You have us."
Su Zhenzhen looked at Liaochen as she spoke.
Liaochen stared at her, reached out to take the bun, and slowly nodded.
Su Zhenzhen smiled, picked up her basket, and stood up. After thanking the official matchmaker, she followed her out of the women's prison.
The sky had grown completely dark. The carriage that had been parked at the foot of the wall earlier was gone.
Su Zhenzhen walked back to the pharmacy.
At some point, it had started raining again. She had not brought an umbrella, but fortunately, the rain was not too heavy.
It had rained frequently over the past few days, and the mud on the ground had not yet been cleared away.
Su Zhenzhen's embroidered shoes were dirtied.
She found a spot with eaves to barely shield herself from the drizzle.
Su Zhenzhen tried to walk on the cleaner spots, but she still accidentally stepped on a loose bluestone slab, splashing the hidden dirty water all over her leg.
She sighed and continued forward.
Su Zhenzhen thought that she could no longer keep the pharmacy open.
She needed to inventory the accounts and sell whatever needed to be sold.
Su Zhenzhen's footsteps paused. She saw a carriage parked at the entrance of her pharmacy.
Parking a carriage randomly carried a fine for minor offenses and a beating for serious ones. Because of such strict measures, she had not seen anyone park randomly in Yangzhou City for a long time.
However, if she was not mistaken, this was the same carriage that had appeared at the entrance of the Yangzhou prison earlier.
It seemed they were indeed from out of town and did not know the rules.
There was no one inside or outside the carriage. Su Zhenzhen frowned, bypassed the carriage to open the door, and discovered that the small side door of her pharmacy was actually open.
The small courtyard was truly tiny, allowing one to see everything at a glance.
Su Zhenzhen stood there. The hazy summer rain blurred her vision.
The courtyard was incredibly quiet. There was not even a trace of Sushan, who usually came out to greet her.
And at the door under the eaves of her room, a portable glass lantern had been placed.
The glass lantern was lit, radiating a warm halo of light. Steeped in the summer rain, it exuded a hazy, poetic vibe.
What was that?
Su Zhenzhen's heart instantly began to pound wildly.
She turned to leave, but the courtyard door behind her had already been closed.
Wei Heng, dressed in normal men's attire, stood there looking refined and scholarly, his eyes lowered. Compared to five years ago, he did not seem to have changed much, save for a few more wrinkles around his eyes, which only made him look even more gentle and elegant.
She swallowed hard and heard Wei Heng say in a mild voice, "My master is waiting for you inside."
What do you guys think Zhenzhen will feel the first moment she sees the cat?
I think it is very easy to guess.
Thank you.
Thank you for your support, babies. I will work hard to update!
