Sure enough, after being provoked by Wei Yuewu’s visit, Wei Yan came up with another plot against Wei Yuewu.
She anxiously promised Mo Huating that she would destroy Wei Yuewu’s reputation and make Wei Yuewu marry into the mansion of Marquis Jing Yuan. Nevertheless, when Wei Yuewu entered the mansion of Marquis Jing Yuan, she must be no more than a concubine.
The condition that Wei Yan proposed for doing that was for Mo Huating to marry her into the mansion of Marquis Jing Yuan in an open, proper way and welcome her into the entrance of the mansion with a sedan chair carried by eight people so that she would become Marquise Jing Yuan.
So, she was intent on abusing Wei Yuewu to death…
“Miss, will Marquis Jing Yuan be suspicious of your letter?” Jin Ling was worried about the substitute letter that was sent out.
“No problem. Mo Huating will think it is real.” Wei Yuewu smiled faintly, and a trace of mockery flashed across her face!
Wei Yan’s thoughts weren’t hard to guess. She obviously wanted to harm Wei Yuewu so that she could marry Mo Huating and become Marquise Jing Yuan. Because Mo Huating couldn’t break off the engagement for some unknown reason, the crux of the problem therefore lied in Wei Yuewu.
If Wei Yuewu died, surely the engagement would become void.
Of course, there was also another possibility, which was to make this engagement null and void by ruining her reputation. In this case, even if Mo Huating withdrew from the engagement, there wouldn’t be any adverse impact on him and no one would blame him. Of course, suppose he was willing to take responsibility for marrying her, even if Wei Yuewu would only be a concubine, it would seem that he was really devoted to her.
Wei Yuewu’s letter suggested precisely those ideas, but her wording was not as blunt as that of Wei Yan. Moreover, the original letter written by Wei Yan also included something that Wei Yuewu didn’t write about.
Using a drug that would make her sterile? Wei Yuewu had heard of such drugs before. Once she took all the doses, she would never have babies in her entire life!
Wei Yan was indeed extremely vicious!
Fortunately, she was ready for this. Perhaps the drug would be an opportunity for her to cause a great shock in the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang.
She had gotten so little information since she entered the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang, and everything seemed so mysterious. All this was because life appeared too placid here in the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang. However, now that Wei Yan was planning to apply drugs to her, maybe she could create some incident at a crucial moment so that the peace on the surface would be broken and she could then look for answers by taking advantage of the chaos…
Therefore, Wei Yuewu actually had to help Wei Yan on the drug issue, though, of course, she wouldn’t offer her help for nothing!
Wei Yuewu skimmed through the letter written by Wei Yan and folded it up. Her clear eyes were filled with deep hatred. Sure enough, this damned couple never stopped thinking about harming her.
Wei Yuewu put down the letter in her hand. After pondering for a moment, she instructed Shufei who was on her side, “Shufei, go to the Madam Dowager, tell her I’m sick and need a doctor.”
Shufei was startled. She hurriedly put down the teacup in her hand and asked Wei Yuewu with an anxious look, “Miss, you’re sick?”
“No, but you can just report to the Madam Dowager as I told you.” Wei Yuewu revealed a mysterious smile and casually picked up a hairpin on the side. The hairpin looked exquisite, but it was actually not precious. People could find many shops that sold such hairpins as long as they wanted to buy them.
“Yes, I will go immediately.” Although Shufei did not know what her mistress was thinking, she nodded without hesitation. Despite her extremely weak appearance, Wei Yuewu was so intelligent that deep admiration had already taken root in the heart of her personal maids.
Wei Yuewu then added, “If the Madam Dowager asked why, just say that I got scared at the banquet today but didn’t immediately fall sick when I got back. And after that, I grew sleepy and didn’t feel well and now it looks like I’m in a very bad condition.” After that, she whispered a few more words in a low voice to Shufei.
“I will report to the Madam Dowager right now.” Shufei said. Now that she understood the meaning of her mistress, she grew confident and hurried to the Madam Dowager’s Tranquility Pavilion.
Wei Yuewu asked the other two maids to help her make some powder. She then sat in front of the mirror and started putting on the makeup carefully. After that, she lay in bed and pulled down the gauze curtain. Huamo prepared a basin of hot water and put it in bed so that when the doctor arrived, she could tell Wei Yuewu to wash her hands with the hot water to pretend to be ill.
When Wei Yuewu was at her granny’s, although she always stayed at her chamber and didn’t know anyone outside the house, she had learned a lot of skills. Granny was from the renowned Xinglin family. She personally taught Wei Yuewu some basic medical knowledge. She particularly spent a period of time teaching Wei Yuewu the methods of making various drug powders.
Actually, it was very important for a weak girl living in a potentially dangerous mansion to learn such skills!
Granny sighed many times that if Wei Yuewu’s mother had known a few such tricks, perhaps she wouldn’t have passed away so early…
When Shufei hurried to the Madam Dowager’s courtyard, to her surprise, Wei Yan’s maid Shuiyue was also in a haste to go there. The two maids arrived at the place one after another and reported to the Madam Dowager that their mistresses fell ill.
The Madam Dowager immediately sent for Doctor Ming who was an appointed doctor for the mansion. Before long, Doctor Ming arrived at the mansion.
Because the two young ladies were sick at the same time, Doctor Ming didn’t dare to make a decision by himself as to which one he should see first. He went to the Madam Dowager’s and greeted the old lady. Then, he asked her which young lady he should see first.
“Madam Dowager, my mistress is seriously ill. Please let the doctor see her first.” Before the Madam Dowager said anything, Shufei looked at her with an anxious expression and knelt down. “Madam Dowager, my mistress has a weak body. She can’t afford to wait for a long time. And she fell ill so suddenly. She was still fine the last time she was with Your Ladyship, but suddenly got a fever after she came back from a visit to the Second Young Lady’s. When I came out, her… her temperature was so high that she couldn’t even recognize me.”
Shufei kowtowed a few times to the Madam Dowager. Her eyes were red and tears were about to fall. She begged with a lump in her throat to the Madam Dowager, “Madam Dowager, please save my mistress’s life!”
Now the maid even spoke of saving life and said that Wei Yuewu was in a state of emergency. Acute diseases were actually most dangerous. And Wei Yuewu did look skinny and small, as if she had a weak natural physical endowment!
What if something really happened to Wei Yuewu later? The Madam Dowager pondered over the decision and became hesitant. In her heart, of course she wanted Doctor Ming to see Wei Yan first.
Yet this maid looked so anxious that she didn’t seem to be lying. If something really happened to Wei Yuewu, it would be very difficult for the Madam Dowager to explain to her son. The Madam Dowager was conscious that Marquis Hua Yang had been estranged from her since that night in rainstorm twenty years ago. Moreover, today was not the past. She did not want to argue with her son again because of Wei Yuewu’s illness.
“Doctor Ming, please see Yuewu first. Her health is too poor. I’m worried about her illness,” said the Madam Dowager.
“Madam Dowager, my mistress is very ill too, and she also got sick so suddenly. Please let the doctor see my mistress first!” Seeing that Doctor Ming was going to follow Shufei out, Shuiyue became anxious and hurriedly uttered those words to the Madam Dowager.
In fact, most of her lines were the same as what Shufei had said. However, Shufei seized the chance to speak first and said what she had planned to say. She was caught in surprise for a while and was thus slower to report to the Madam Dowager.
“Sister Shuiyue, why did you say the same words as me? My mistress is so weak. If something really happened to her, she wouldn’t even be able to see the Marquis of Hua Yang.” Seeing that Shuiyue was competing with her, Shufei wiped her tears with her handkerchief and started weeping.
Indeed, because Shuiyue reported after Shufei, her words sounded like Wei Yan wanted to compete for the opportunity with Wei Yuewu, which was truly typical of Wei Yan’s temperament: always eager to get the upper hand in everything. The Madam Dowager frowned and said impatiently, “Enough. What are you two maids arguing for when your mistresses are still fine? Doctor Ming, please go to see Yuewu first. As for Wei Yan, please let your deputy beside you go and check on her.”
The so-called deputy was actually Doctor Ming’s nephew and student, a young man who looked a little over twenty.
Hearing the Madam Dowager mentioned him, the young man respectfully bowed to the old lady and quietly stood beside Doctor Ming without saying a word. One could tell that he was a quiet and patient person.
Since the Madam Dowager had said so, Shuiyue certainly didn’t dare to defy the decision or argue anymore. Therefore, Doctor Ming and his student each went their way to see the young ladies.
Fortunately, this student was quite competent. Normally, when Doctor Ming was away, he would help his teacher treat patients in the mansion. And he also carried his own medicine box. The two of them went to the two courtyards with their respective medicine box.
At the entrance of the Lotus Courtyard, Jin Ling saw Shufei leading the way for the doctor at a distance. She hurriedly went into the courtyard and told the news to Wei Yuewu. Wei Yuewu washed her hands with hot water and immediately wiped her hands with a cold towel to remove the hot water mist off her hands. When she lay down, Shufei happened to take Doctor Ming in.
Huamo carefully took one of Wei Yuewu’s hands out of the curtain and placed it on the jade pillow for Doctor Ming to check her pulse.
The moment Doctor Ming touched Wei Yuewu’s hand, he involuntarily frowned because the hand was very hot. It seemed that the young lady really had a fever. Yet her pulse was normal, which wasn’t a sign for an acute disease. However, the young lady’s hand was so hot that Doctor Ming didn’t dare to make a rash conclusion.
“Sixth Young Lady, may I see your face please?” After putting down her hand, Doctor Ming hesitated for a moment but still ventured to ask the young lady inside the curtain.
Since the pulse was too strange, he couldn’t decide what the disease was without looking at the patient’s face. The problem was that the patient inside the curtain was a young lady of the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang. Even though the doctor was old enough, he still hesitated for a moment before he finally asked the question.
It was best if the doctor could be allowed to do the four steps of the traditional medical science—observing, listening, questioning and feeling the pulse. Otherwise, a misdiagnosis would lead to serious consequences. Moreover, according to the maid, this Sixth Young Lady became sick all of a sudden. Patients with this kind of illness couldn’t afford a waste of time.
“Huamo, let the doctor take a look.” A weak voice came from the curtain. It was very soft and gentle, but sounded weak. It was indeed the voice of a sick person.
Huamo, who was standing at the side, immediately lifted a corner of the gauze curtain. When Doctor Ming observed the face of the patient inside the curtain, he couldn’t help letting out a low cry and a frightened look appeared on his face. Within a second, he jumped to his feet and the stool he sat was knocked down…