Quick Transmigration: Leisure

Chapter 367 The Runaway Princess is Forcibly Taken Away (16)

prison cell

Jing Si gently stopped the two men from fighting. If they raised their voices any louder, they would attract Old Li's attention, and Old Li would learn more about the young lady's secrets. At that point, both they and the young lady would be in danger.

Jing San is just trying to drag people down with him.

Jing Yi quickly spoke up for Jing Si, leaving the other two speechless.

Jing Er closed his eyes. Being too blunt would truly hurt. He wasn't a good person; he wanted too much. But hadn't he ended up with nothing? The young lady favored Jing Si more, and the Qi family physician also treated Jing Si better. It was the same at home when he was young; they preferred his older brother and younger brother, but never gave him a kind look.

In the end, the scourge lived the longest, while the older and younger brothers never had a chance to grow up.

Jing Er slowly calmed down, only feeling at ease when thinking about the misfortunes of others.

Essentially, he and Jing San are the same kind of people.

A true gentleman is always under the spotlight. Jing Er glanced at Jing Si, whose appearance remained unchanged, and thought to himself, "I really want to taste what it's like to be favored."

......

The Fourth Prince’s Mansion, study.

"Your Highness, Zhang Wei has sent word that those few in the Xia family are no good." The eunuch's cunning voice rang out softly; it was Ming Deyou, the chief eunuch who served Chunyu Huai personally.

"It's rotten, just throw it away." Chunyu Huai coldly gave the order, in his view the life and death of the guards were not important.

He married Xia Youmi for Xia Ji's sake, but now he must observe three years of mourning and cannot have any celebrations. Whether his father's health can even hold out for three more years is a question, and his strategy must be changed.

Without building a deeper emotional connection, there's no energy to torment the guards. So, when they're no longer effective, they're discarded.

“This servant understands.” Ming Deyou replied, and then spoke of Qi Gui, “This servant found out that Doctor Qi used to practice medicine in that private prison and was quite trusted by those prison wardens. Occasionally, they would even arrest some useless prisoners for Doctor Qi to study.”

"Just say it directly," Chunyu Huai said, frowning. He naturally knew that Qi Gui was discovered by his men during a free clinic in that prison, so he wondered what the purpose of bringing it up now was.

“It’s news from the villa. The steward discovered that Doctor Qi’s research seems to have hit a bottleneck, but he doesn’t dare to make any requests. I deduce that it’s because there are too few people for the experiments. Doctor Qi doesn’t dare to seriously injure the people at the villa to cooperate with the experiments.” Ming Deyou proactively explained to Chunyu Huai, “This servant had someone sound out Qi Gui. When he was replicating the original formula for the life-saving elixir, he used those four people in the prison for the experiments. After all, he knew them and was familiar with their physical conditions.”

Chunyu Huai immediately became suspicious and asked, "Is there any news about Zhu Cangna?"

"Your Highness, Zhu Cang said that Xia Gege is very well-behaved. The food, clothing and daily necessities in the manor are all carried out in accordance with the regulations sent by the Princess Consort, without any mistakes. Although Xia Gege sent him to the martial arts training ground, she has never let him out of her sight."

"Hmph! She's not a person of principle!"

“This servant knows that being too well-behaved would seem fake, so I secretly arranged for other maids to keep an eye on things, and their reports always match up.”

Did she mention the guard?

“This servant specifically inquired about this, and there was no…” Ming Deyou carefully observed Chunyu Huai’s expression. “It seems that Xia Gege has completely forgotten that there were once four guards in the manor. She spends all day with the maids. Lord Xia even specially arranged a female tutor to try to help the Gege learn some household skills, needlework, and accounting, but… whenever these things are mentioned, Xia Gege pretends to be sick and acts like a brat.”

"What's the point of her brain?!"

Ming Deyou dared not reply, knowing his master's ambitions and that he himself longed for a high position.

If that day comes, none of the women in this backyard will be people he can offend.

Besides,

It's rare for this Xia Gege to receive any attention from her master.

Although they were scolded for being stupid, they were still more likely to make their masters feel at ease than those who were clever.

"Make arrangements to have Qi Gui examine those four people and test the medicine directly. If there are any abnormalities, discard them."

"Yes."

In the afternoon, Qi Gui was escorted back to his cell by guards.

Unlike usual doctor visits, this time I brought along several young doctors.

Different drug trial plans were developed based on their different injuries. Moreover, the goal was not to achieve a cure, but rather to demonstrate the drug's efficacy at each stage.

None of the four guards dared to speak.

Qi Gui continued to examine them, then spoke in incomprehensible terms to the healers. Subsequently, the healers helped bandage and treat their wounds, and they were given pills that Qi Gui had developed to a certain extent.

They stared at each other for an hour, and apart from the unbearable itching, they saw that the drug had not knocked them out.

Qi Guicai, beaming with joy, chatted and laughed with the young doctor and the guards as he left.

The four people remained expressionless until the candlelight was extinguished, at which point they managed a faint smile.

The news quickly reached the Xia family's martial arts training ground, and Xia Youmi couldn't help but raise the corners of her mouth. Zhu Cang was not surprised by this.

He figured it out: this master was a young woman in appearance but a child in nature.

She's even more childish than him.

Her seemingly serious acts of playing the zither and painting were merely superficial gestures contrived by her maids to impress Zhu Cang. In reality, this young lady's hobbies were eating, sleeping, and reading storybooks.

She has absolutely no womanly qualities.

She played the zither with a blank expression. At first, Zhu Cang thought that the young lady was just naturally averse to smiling. Later, he gradually understood.

All of that was forced upon her. The young lady was forced to learn a few decent refined skills in order to avoid learning needlework and arithmetic. When she practiced her boxing, the young lady played the zither beside her, not only for her own benefit, but also for Lord Xia, who had just found some free time.

Once back at Jilan Courtyard and behind closed doors, his true colors were revealed as he looked at those idle books with new covers.

The young lady couldn't suppress the corners of her mouth.

Once Zhu Cang confirmed that the young lady hadn't used any strange letters and wouldn't easily talk to people, he stopped caring about these little pleasures.

He naturally never imagined that Xia Youmi had this hidden secret: Niannian.

You can see the progress of the matter without going to the handover point.

This was somewhat of a chance discovery. Initially, Xia Youmi only planned to choose the furthest point in their field of vision with Niannian, and then buy that place to use for transmitting messages.

As long as they are in that room, the other party can spread out the letters and immediately gather intelligence every year.

Furthermore, the other party had no idea who the message recipient was, and simply spread out an incense stick and burned it.

Once the supervision is relaxed a bit, someone can be arranged to deliver the message, but Xia Youmi has not yet taken this step.

The reason is that during the scanning process, it was discovered year after year that the private prison where the four guards were imprisoned was actually not very far from the Xia residence.

It could see a corner of the prison directly from the mansion. Therefore, Xia Youmi wandered around the mansion several times before finally finding the cell where the four people were being held in a small pavilion near the martial arts arena.

Seeing their situation, Xia Youmi changed her plans.

Judging from the current situation, Qi Gui is being imprisoned by Chunyu Huai and will probably not be released until the miraculous medicine is successfully developed.

In reality, the formula for the miraculous medicine was already in Xia Youmi's hands. Qi Gui was merely demonstrating a research process and incidentally seeing if it could be improved. So, sending the four directly to him would at least ensure their safety.