Exile with Storage Space: Family Fortunes in the Barren Lands-Chapter 781 - 0734: Delivering the Secret Letter (2)

Chapter 781: Chapter 0734: Delivering the Secret Letter (2)

The next morning, Li Yuzhu went to the Pei Mansion again.

Li Yuwen was not feeling well, but insisted on accompanying her.

Li Yuwen went to the inner quarters to talk to Old Madam Pei.

Li Yuzhu, accompanied by Lady Sun, first went to see Mrs. Pei.

Who would have thought, as soon as she entered Mrs. Pei’s main room, Mrs. Pei coldly said, "What is the meaning of this, Li San Niang?"

Li Yuzhu was puzzled, "What has happened, Madam?"

Lady Sun immediately stood by Li Yuzhu’s side, protecting her.

"What do you mean, hmm!" Mrs. Pei sneered, pointing at a medicine jar on the table, her face filled with anger.

Lady Sun’s eyes narrowed slightly, her expression becoming tense.

"What happened? Is this the prescription you made? The master had diarrhea all night after taking your medicine, what are your intentions?" Mrs. Pei sneered.

Li Yuzhu walked over, picked up the medicine jar and began to examine it, "There is an additional ingredient in here that isn’t on my prescription, Madam, I prescribed twenty ingredients, but there are twenty-one ingredients in this jar, there is an extra croton seed."

Mrs. Pei was taken aback, "I know what croton seeds look like, where in here is croton seed? Don’t shirk your responsibility."

"Of course Madam can’t see the croton seed because it was added as croton powder." Li Yuzhu pinched the remaining dregs at the bottom of the jar and smelled them under her nose, "If Madam doesn’t believe it, you can ask someone from the Imperial Hospital to come and take a look."

Mrs. Pei glanced at her, and immediately said to the person beside her, "Fetch Imperial Doctor Wang!"

Soon, Imperial Doctor Wang was brought in. After examining the medicine dregs in the jar, he said, "Mrs. Pei, looking at these medicine dregs, they are for promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, but why is croton powder added in it?"

Mrs. Pei looked at Li Yuzhu in astonishment.

Li Yuzhu smiled slightly.

"There must be a mistake, isn’t it being investigated?" It seemed there were problems at home, Mrs. Pei’s expression turned solemn.

After ordering Imperial Doctor Wang to be sent away, she immediately called for the person who brewed the medicine.

The ingredients were correctly gathered and Li Yuzhu had personally reviewed them after they were gathered, all twenty ingredients present.

The person who brewed the medicine was a reliable old servant of the mansion, but she knew nothing when asked.

Finally, Mrs. Pei discovered that this old nanny had gone to the kitchen to drink water halfway through brewing the medicine, and being greedy, ate a piece of chilled melon, leaving the medicine stove for quite a while.

Mrs. Pei then called in the other kitchen staff for questioning.

After investigation, it was found that a water-carrying woman had checked the medicine jar.

Mrs. Pei sternly interrogated her, and in her fright, a heavy pouch fell from her sleeve.

A woman doing rough work had unexpectedly been carrying more than a few ounces of broken silver.

This matter was too strange.

Mrs. Pei was furious and wanted to beat the woman to death.

The woman, terrified, spoke the truth.

It turned out that a fellow villager of hers, working at the Duke An’s Mansion, gave her fifteen ounces of silver and a packet of medicine powder, instructing her to sprinkle it into a medicine jar in the kitchen. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Tempted by the silver, she did as told.

"Madam, this old servant truly did not know it was the master’s medicine, this old servant deserves to die, I shouldn’t have coveted this bit of silver."

Mrs. Pei didn’t want to hear her excuses, ordered to beat her with twenty strokes and dragged her out to be locked up.

Secretly drugging Pei Shenyan’s medicine made Mrs. Pei both shocked and fearful.

After finding out the truth, she feared offending Li Yuzhu, and personally apologized to Li Yuzhu.

Court struggles had involved her family, which Li Yuzhu had already anticipated would reach this point.

She smiled, "Madam, my being falsely accused is a small matter, but if the master’s life is lost, that is a big matter. Why would someone from Duke An’s Mansion bribe a servant in your mansion to poison the master, you should investigate this matter carefully."

Mrs. Pei glanced at her, her eyes gradually deepening.

Why?

Mrs. Pei could not fathom it, but Li Yuzhu had thought of it.

She reminded Mrs. Pei, "Madam, Duke An has a daughter named Xue Wenzhen, who was once the Heir of Prince Luling’s wife, later divorced, and now, she is Yu Wen Zan’s lover."

Mentioning Yu Wen Zan, Mrs. Pei suddenly understood.

"I understand now." Mrs. Pei sneered through clenched teeth.

.

Mrs. Pei went to Pei Shenyan’s study and told him about the servant poisoning the medicine, "Master, you are already so ill, yet the Yu Wen family still intends to harm you. You must recover quickly and not let their family get away with it!"

Pei Shenyan’s eyes widened with fury, uttering "Ah ah" unwillingly.

.

That day, Mrs. Pei also sent someone to Duke An’s Mansion to question why they allowed their servants to poison Pei Shenyan.

However, Duke An’s Mansion firmly denied having that servant.

They even claimed Pei Mansion was falsely accusing them.

Mrs. Pei, unwilling to swallow the insult, angrily reported it to the authorities.

The Capital Prefect came to investigate the case, but indeed could not find the fellow villager servant mentioned by the woman from Pei Mansion.

No such person, how can you accuse?

At Duke An’s Mansion, they countered the Pei Mansion, accusing them of slander.

Mrs. Pei failed to report the case and was ridiculed by Duke An’s Mansion, which made her fall ill in anger.

The matter caused a stir in the capital, and people sighed and gossiped that the Pei Mansion had completely fallen, and even the once most insignificant Duke An’s Mansion no longer regarded Pei Mansion highly.

The most regrets were with Yu Wen Zan and the Xue Family.

"Li Yuzhu is indeed cunning, was she really able to trace that little bit of powder?" Xue Family was surprised.

"So what? Only if she can cure Pei Wenguang would it count as a skill." Yu Wen Zan smiled.

"Right, exactly, she can’t possibly cure him." Xue Family chuckled.

.

Days quietly passed, and after more than half a month, Prime Minister Pei was able to speak intermittently, and could lift a teacup with one hand.

Once he was able to speak, he discussed with Mrs. Pei, and both agreed that under no circumstances should they offend Li Yuzhu, and that they should strive to get Prince Luling and his son to return to the capital to assist the Pei Family.

Half a month later, Prime Minister Pei was able to sit in a wheelchair and go out, and could communicate clearly and logically.

.

That day, he wrote a personal letter to Pei Shenyan, instructing Pei Shenyan to personally present it to the Little Emperor Li Can.

Prime Minister Pei also said, "In three days, it will be the late Emperor’s memorial day. According to the Emperor’s past habits, he will be in Changchun Palace to pay respects to the late Emperor. Make sure to find a way to take your father into the palace to meet the Emperor early that day."

Li Can is a mood-swinging person without much decision-making ability.

When Prince Luling disciplined him strictly, he resented Prince Luling.

When Prime Minister Pei wielded power alone, he also feared and resented Prime Minister Pei.

Now that he saw the more cunning and vicious Yu Wen father and son controlling the court, Li Can hated Yu Wen father and son to death.

Prime Minister Pei understood Li Can very well, so he wanted to admonish Li Can privately.

Pei Shenyan already knew that Li Yuzhu and Prime Minister Pei had reached an agreement. When he saw this father who didn’t like him much, he didn’t treat him coldly as before.

He gladly agreed, "Understood."

He did not call him father, took the letter, and silently turned and left.

Prime Minister Pei watched his departing figure, lost in thought.

He recalled the beautiful singer, and shortly after one night of spring with her, she told him she was pregnant.

He was very furious at the time.

The family of his wife, Mrs. Pei, was then large and powerful. When he courted his wife, he promised not to have illegitimate children.

But now that the singer was pregnant, his wife was furiously demanding the death of both mother and child.

It was the Old Madam Pei who saved the singer and her child, moving them to another place to live.

Later, the singer gave birth to Pei Shenyan, and she fell ill and passed away not long after.

The existence of Pei Shenyan was undoubtedly a trouble.

Old Madam Pei arranged to send him to the old family home in Zhen An Prefecture.

The child was born with poor health, and it was said he wouldn’t live long. Who knew he would survive and even got married and established a career?

In contrast, the sons of his wife lived a life of luxury but were each unaccomplished.

What an irony.

Just as he was thinking about his few useless sons, his idle eldest and second sons came walking over.

Prime Minister Pei looked up at the brothers, "Why have you come to the study?"

"Father, we heard you have recovered, so we specially came to see you." Mr. Pei said cheerfully.

Second Young Master Pei said happily, "Father, can you attend court now? By the way, remember to arrange a good position for me. Back when I was doing well in the Ministry of Revenue, I was inexplicably removed."

Attend court?

It’s not a difficult matter, but the difficulty lies in whether it could be like before, to make all officials heed him, and Prime Minister Pei’s expression did not look well, "We’ll talk about it then!"

He waved to his Chang Sui by his side, letting Chang Sui push him into the bedroom.

The two sons stood at the bedroom door, "Father, we still have something to say, Father—"

Prime Minister Pei asked Chang Sui to close the bedroom door, ignoring the two sons.

Something to say? It was nothing more than complaining about being mocked by Yu Wen Zan again, but in his current condition, he really had no way to deal with Yu Wen Zan.

At the same age, Yu Wen Zan is as cunning as a fox, while his well-fed and well-dressed sons are useless.

The illegitimate son, who was expected to die early in the countryside, can actually compete with Yu Wen Zan.

Prime Minister Pei felt very troubled, not wanting to see his few incompetent legitimate sons.

.

Pei Shenyan presented Prime Minister Pei’s personal letter to Li Can, who thinking of Yu Wen father and son’s arrogance while he was bedridden, hoped for someone to suppress Yu Wen father and son. Seeing Prime Minister Pei’s humble letter, he was deeply moved.

"Has the Prime Minister really recovered well? That is excellent, I shall summon the old Prime Minister to the palace." Li Can read the letter, excited and elated.

Pei Shenyan said, "Your Majesty, the Prime Minister has not fully recovered yet and is still undergoing medication treatment. However, if he endures medication for two more days, he will probably be able to sit in a wheelchair to enter the palace to greet Your Majesty. He said he must recover by the late Emperor’s memorial day. He wished to go to Changchun Palace to pay respects to the late Emperor; I wonder if Your Majesty could permit it."