After hearing Ling Zhang’s reply, the guard wondered in astonishment, ‘How did Childe Ling come to say the same thing that Marshal once said? They’ve already developed such amazing tacit agreement even though they haven’t got married yet?’
Silently, he reached out his hand and held his chest where the heart was, feeling as if his heart had just suffered some kind of damage.
The guard followed Ling Zhang with his eyes until he was out of range. Then he returned to his original position outside the wing-room to resume his guard duty. To be on the safe side, he scattered some medicinal powder over his body to prevent unwanted contact with any poisonous bugs, poisonous snakes or poisonous ants.
As the night got darker, quietness gradually descended on Tanyang.
In Jia family.
“Master, Mistress Liu is in one of her moods again. Do you want to go there and talk to her?” the butler of Jia family cautiously asked Jia Yin.
“Will she never stop making trouble?!” There were strips of white cloth everywhere in the mansion, which had been causing Jia Yin’s eyes suffering. As a result, comforting a woman was the last thing he wanted to do. Moreover, he had never really liked Liu Chengfang very much. He had threatened to make her his concurrent wife merely to anger Mrs. Jia. Taking Liu Chengfang into this family as his concubine had been an unavoidable choice. He remembered vividly that Ling Zhaowen was the reason why Liu Chengfang showed up in the tavern that day. The very thought of Ling Zhaowen stirred his dislike for Liu Chengfang.
“Tell her she’ll end up in a temple if she doesn’t stop the madness right now!”
The butler of Jia family obediently answered “Yes” in a muted voice. Then he went to Liu Chengfang’s place and delivered the message but was abused by the furious woman and forced out of the house by her servants.
“Bah! This bitch really regards herself as a mistress now. She needs to be taught a lesson.”
Consumed with anger, the butler of Jia family returned to Jia Yin’s dwelling and dramatized Liu Chengfang’s reaction to Jia Yin’s words. Infuriated, Jia Yin directly grounded Liu Chengfang.
“Go and find out where Master is spending the night,” Mrs. Jia said to a maidservant beside her. Though the death of her son had come as a terrible blow to her, she still wanted to stay informed of which woman her husband favored.
The maidservant hurriedly left and made some inquiries. Before long, she came back and reported to Mrs. Jia the news of Liu Chengfang being grounded, and then added, “Master didn’t go anywhere. He’s sleeping in his own room.”
On hearing that Liu Chengfang had been grounded, Mrs. Jia coldly gave a snort. “That bitch got her just deserts.”
In the knowledge that Jia Yin was not with any women that night, Mrs. Jia believed she would have a sound sleep. Unexpectedly, in the middle of the night, a sudden commotion was heard in the mansion.
“Mistress! Mistress!” Mrs. Jia’s maidservant urgently ran into the room, calling her. “Something happened to Master. You need to go there immediately.”
Taken aback, Mrs. Jia hurriedly got up. “What happened to Master?”
“The butler said that Master had blebs all over, that it seemed like… like smallpox!”
“What?!” Mrs. Jia was transfixed with horror, her face deathly pale. Then she shrieked, “Smallpox?”
“There’s no confirmed diagnosis for the moment. The butler has already sent for a physician!” The maidservant was also scared.
On hearing this, Mrs. Jia had a fleeting blackout. “Hel–Help me get up. Let’s go and hear the physician’s opinion.”
The maidservant hastily helped Mrs. Jia get up and get changed. Then they hurried towards the dwelling of Jia Yin.
The whole Jia family was shocked by the incident. Everybody was afraid to get close to Jia Yin’s dwelling. The butler of Jia family was also horrified. Legs trembling, he invited a physician over but didn’t dare to enter Jia Yin’s bedroom for fear of being infected with the disease.
Wearing thick attire, mouth and nose covered, the physician went into Jia Yin’s room.
Agonized screeches of Jia Yin occasionally came from inside.
Mrs. Jia gripped the hand of her maidservant, wavering between going in and staying outside. Eventually, she chose not to take the risk, her face wild with ill-concealed terror.
After quite a while, the physician walked out of the room, took off his outerwear, burnt it and then observed, “What Master Jia developed doesn’t seem like smallpox. It’s more like he got bitten by some kind of poisonous bug or ant. The blebs on him are going red and swollen and festering. I’ll prescribe Master Jia some medicine and prepare some ointment. Then we’ll have to wait and see how it works.”
The physician’s words slightly eased the concern of Mrs. Jia and others, but they still didn’t dare to enter Jia Yin’s room. After all, even the physician wasn’t a-hundred-percent sure that it was not smallpox. What if it was indeed smallpox? They could get infected and die if they took the risk.
At last, it was the butler who was forced to go inside. The moment he entered, Jia Yin angrily swore at him. “You cheap lackey! Are you really so afraid of death?! I’ll have you meet it right now!”
“I’m sorry, Master. I’m really sorry. Just now I went to the physician’s. I was too occupied to spare a moment to come here.”
“Where’s Mistress!”
“Mis–Mistress is outside.”
“Tell her to come in here!”
“Ye–Yes, Master!” The butler rejoiced at the instruction and immediately ran out of the room to inform Mrs. Jia. “Mistress, Master requires your presence.”
“What? I–I’m not feeling well, so I’ll just stay here. You people go,” replied Mrs. Jia hesitantly.
The butler instantly saw through Mrs. Jia’s thinly disguised excuse. But if Mrs. Jia didn’t go inside, he would have to enter the room again, which was against his wish to stay alive.
“Mistress, Master said that he needed to see you. Maybe you should go in and tell this to Master yourself. Only in this way will my task be deemed fulfilled.”
Mrs. Jia tightened her grip on her handkerchief. ‘Son of a bitch! He dare to pressurize me with Master’s authority!’
The maidservant grabbed Mrs. Jia’s hand and shook her head vigorously, begging her not to go into the room.
“Mistress, please hurry. Master is waiting for you.” The butler deliberately raised his voice to make himself heard by Jia Yin who was in the room.
Unsurprisingly, Jia Yin heard the butler’s words and, in the knowledge that his wife was unwilling to go into the room, thundered, “Fang shi! Get your ass in here immediately or see yourself disowned!”
Such was the rage of Jia Yin that he actually threatened to repudiate Mrs. Jia.
Mrs. Jia felt a shiver of fear run through her, her face ghastly pale.
“Mistress, the physician said that Master’s illness didn’t seem like smallpox. Maybe you should have faith in the physician.” Eventually, an old wet nurse walked up to Mrs. Jia, trying to console her.
The fear on Mrs. Jia’s face dissolved somewhat. She replied, “You are right. It can’t be smallpox.”
Quaking in her shoes, Mrs. Jia stepped into Jia Yin’s bedroom and saw that Jia Yin was lying in bed, his clothes undone. The sight of his chest covered with red, swollen, festering blebs struck horror into her heart, leaving her too afraid to take another glance at him. “Ma–Master, I was supervising the physician prescribing medicine for you just now. I came here immediately when it was done. The physician has already confirmed that you were just bitten by some poisonous bug. He said that you would recover soon after drinking the medicine and applying the unguent.”
“Then what are you standing there for? Get your ass over here and clean my body.” Jia Yin stared fixedly at Mrs. Jia.
The very sight of those blebs gave Mrs. Jia goose pimples. Step by step, she moved closer to the bed, her lips twitching involuntarily. “Someone get some hot water here!”
“Don’t worry, Master. I’ll clean your body after the servant brings hot water here.”
As Jia Yin saw her walking over to the bed, the anger on his face was allayed and he slowly loosened his grip on the quilt.
Those blebs on Jia Yin were both itchy and painful, filling him with fright. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so insistent that Mrs. Jia come inside.
News that Jia Yin’s body was covered with blebs spread very quick. Since people of Jia family made a lot noises when they were anxiously looking for physicians and informing other people of the situation, this matter came to the knowledge of all residents nearby.
Mrs. Lin had been waiting all along. The Zi Hour (23:00-01:00) was almost over, yet there was still no news. She couldn’t help asking Lin Yuan, “My dear, why is there still no news? Was Childe Ling by any chance just joking with us?”
Lin Yuan was more patient than his wife. “There’s no hurry. It’s midnight. Even if anything does happen, news of it won’t spread here so soon. Since Childe Ling made those remarks, he must have done something. He had no reason to fool us.”
After hearing this, Mrs. Lin calmed down. When word came that something had happened in Jia family, she immediately sent someone to stake out the gateway of Jia family’s messuage to find out details about it.
The servant was a clever man. When he saw those physicians hastily going in and out of the mansion, he knew that there must have been some kind of emergency, though he had no idea exactly what it was. He returned and reported everything he had seen to Lin Yuan and Mrs. Lin in detail.
“They sent for physicians so urgently. Do you think Jia Yin was–” Mrs. Lin’s face paled somewhat.
Lin Yuan knew what she was going to say. He interrupted her, “He wasn’t. If the plan were to kill him, Childe Ling wouldn’t have told us about it. He would have done it covertly.”
Mrs. Lin gave a bob of the head. “You’ve got a point, my dear. I wonder exactly what it was that had happened.”
“Let’s wait until tomorrow morning. Definite news should have spread out by then,” Lin Yuan replied calmly.
‘Since there has indeed been an incident in Jia family, Childe Ling’s plan must have turned out to be a success. He kept his word. All we have to do is show patience and wait until tomorrow morning to find out what has happened,’ Mrs. Lin thought.
A faint smile appeared on her face. “Infliction of suffering of any form on people of Jia family would be a comfort to me.”
Lin Yuan shared the feeling of his wife. Anybody who got beaten up by people of Jia family for no good reason would harbor hatred towards them.
Ling Zhang was also waiting for the news.
After midnight, Qiu Bing quietly came to Ling Zhang’s dwelling.
Seeing him show up at such a late hour of the night, Xia Feng, who was on night duty, asked, “What’s the matter?”
“Supervisor Xia, please inform Young Master that the job is done,” said Qiu Bing in an undertone.
Xia Feng was slightly surprised, but judging from the look on Qiu Bing’s face, it was obvious that Ling Zhang knew Qiu Bing would return at this hour, so he walked inside, woke Ling Zhang up and delivered the message.
Ling Zhang, who was woken up from a light sleep, replied, “Let Qiu Bing in.”
Xia Feng walked outside and led Qiu Bing into the room. Qiu Bing reported with a delighted face, “Young Master, it’s done. Jia Yin did develop that disease. Physician Lin’s method proved amazingly effective.”
Ling Zhang said, “Keep this matter to yourself. The assistance Physician Lin offered us shall stay secret. Make sure it is known to nobody else.”
“Yes. Rest assured, Young Master. I’ll button up my mouth,” Qiu Bing promised.
“People of Jia family hastily sent for a physician. I sneaked into the mansion and eavesdropped on them for half a night. They did believe that Jia Yin developed smallpox. Everybody there was scared shitless and the situation nearly went out of control. But that physician was pretty good. He managed to find out that it was not smallpox. Currently, most people of Jia family have regained their composure.” There was manifest disappointment in Qiu Bing’s tone of voice when he was making the last remark.
“Smallpox is fatal and highly infectious. It’s very likely that news of this matter would bring the whole city into panic, which is exactly what we need. Jia Yin will be confined to bed for quite some time. Tomorrow, word will get out and Zhang Chong is bound to take immediate action. The mine would have changed hands when Jia Yin recovers from the disease.”
“Will Jia Yin reconcile himself to that?”
“Of course he won’t, but what could he possibly do about it? By no means will Zhang Chong be stupid enough to have his men storm into the mine and take it by force. He will definitely make up some excuse. Let’s just wait and see. Jia family is going to suffer.”
Qiu Bing nodded in delight. “Then I’ll take my leave, Young Master.”
“Go. Have some rest.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
After seeing Qiu Bing out of the dwelling, Xia Feng returned and asked, “Young Master, will Zhang Chong really do that?”
“He will,” affirmed Ling Zhang.
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