Chapter 144 - An Eye for an Eye

Because of Shen Ninghua’s iron hand in dealing with the situation, the Prefectural Princess Mansion was quiet and in good order. However, Xia Jingqiu and Yang Yingxue who lived in Cuizhu Pavilion were scared out of their wits by chickenpox.

Xia Jingqiu walked back and forth in the room. The expression on her face constantly changed. “I only wanted to live here temporarily and make use of Prefectural Princess Shen Ninghua’s name to find you a chance to climb up the branch. Who would have expected to encounter such an irritating thing? That’s chickenpox. It’s almost the same as the plague. As long as people get it, very few of them will be able to survive. Yingxue, we need to find a way to get out of here!”

Yang Yingxue sat beside the bed. Her thin silhouette made her look so weak as to be unable to stand any breeze. “Mother, His Majesty has already ordered the entire mansion to be sealed off. It is absolutely impossible for us to leave. Moreover, for so many days, I have always felt that Shen Ninghua is unusual. Perhaps, she can bring the whole mansion out of this crisis.”

Xia Jingqiu was anxious. “What nonsense are you talking about? No matter how capable and skilled she is, do you think she can beat the King of Hell? What Shen Xuanlin has is chickenpox. Even the members of the royal family can’t survive once they get it, let alone Shen Xuanlin.”

Yang Yingxue didn’t agree with her mother’s words in her heart. “Mother, have you forgotten how Shen Ninghua obtained her title? When there was a plague in Jiangnan, many people thought that there was no cure. But Shen Ninghua helped develop the prescription and saved thousands of people in Jiangnan. She resolved the deadlock in the eyes of ordinary people.”

Xia Jingqiu frowned and calmed down slightly.

“And His Majesty knows that we live in the Prefectural Princess Mansion and we definitely won’t have the chance to go out. Since that’s the case, why don’t we let cousin know that we’re here for her and that we’ll definitely support her through the difficulties? We can only win her affection if we share the hardships with her. As long as we get through this crisis, even if we don’t say anything, cousin will still remember our kindness. At that time, do we need to be afraid that we won’t be able to find an opportunity to make use of her?”

Xia Jingqiu was stunned for a moment before she suddenly gritted her teeth and said, “Alright, what you said makes sense. Since we can’t get out, it is best for us to give it a shot!”

“Yes.” Yang Yingxue nodded with a smile on her face. “Although we are going to share her tribulation, we cannot ignore our own safety. I will personally make two blessing satchels for Shen Ninghua and Shen Xuanlin and have someone send the blessing satchels to them.”

“Alright. My daughter is indeed a smart girl.” Xia Jingqiu’s expression became much more relaxed. Shen Ninghua had already ordered everyone to stay in their own courtyard and avoid going out unless necessary. Naturally, they had to be obedient and not go out. Since they could not go out, they could only ask a servant to deliver the blessing satchels.

In the afternoon, Shen Ninghua received the gift from Yang Yingxue. She carefully looked at the dense stitches on them, and a smile appeared on her lips. “I am glad to receive the kindness of aunt and cousin. Thank them for me. I will return the favor when the crisis is over.”

When the servant heard this, she hurriedly bowed and retreated at an extremely fast speed, as if there were poisonous snakes and ferocious beasts behind her.

Shen Ninghua handed a blessing satchel to Bai Ruo. “Tie it in front of Xuanlin’s bed. It doesn’t matter if it’s useful or not. It is just a symbol of good luck.”

“Yes, Miss.”

Shen Xuanlin was lying on the bed, and his face was extremely red. An imperial doctor stood beside him with a silver needle in his hand and shook his head awkwardly. In the past few days, the kid’s hands and body had all been inserted by silver needles. Now, his body was covered in smallpoxes, and he couldn’t even find a place to insert the needle.

“Your Highness, as you can see, Youngest Master is no longer suitable for acupuncture. We can only think of another method.”

Shen Ninghua stepped forward and felt his pulse. She was much more relaxed in her heart. The worst situation about chickenpox was that its impact wasn’t displayed on the body of the patient. If she used medicine to suppress chickenpox and didn’t allow it to spread on the surface, this would definitely damage his internal organs, which were the weakest. If smallpoxes happened on the internal organs, the patient would be really incurable. Right now, Shen Xuanlin’s symptoms seemed to be serious, but in fact, he didn’t have too much of a crisis.

“Fine. You can go down and have some rest. Let me stay here and take care of Xuanlin.”

The imperial doctors nodded and walked out with heavy steps.

Shen Ninghua pulled the quilt higher up to prevent Shen Xuanlin from being blown directly by the wind.

Shen Xuanlin tried his best to open his swollen eyes and smiled at Shen Ninghua with difficulty. “Eldest Sister, I’m fine. Don’t listen to the nonsense of those doctors. I feel much better.”

Although the kid himself was scared, he even tried to comfort her, which really aroused her pity. “I know you’ll get better soon.”

Shen Xuanlin nodded. His eyes narrowed more like a slit. “Eldest Sister, is Yun Chuan alright?”

“He’s fine. I asked Bi Zhu to take care of him.”

On the second day after Shen Xuanlin had chickenpox, Yun Chuan also got it. Shen Ninghua could not take care of two people at a time. So she could only send Bi Zhu to his courtyard to take care of him every day.

Maybe because Yun Chuan had a stronger body, he recovered faster than Shen Xuanlin.

“I’m relieved that Yun Chuan is fine. If I infected him, I would feel so guilty.” Yun Chuan was brought back by Eldest Sister. Although he was said to be his study companion, the two of them usually ate and lived together, and they wore the same clothes. Although he was not particularly smart, he knew that Eldest Sister treated Yun Chuan as her younger brother. He naturally did not wish to see Eldest Sister being sad because Yun Chuan met with a mishap.

After helping Shen Xuanlin take the medicine, Shen Ninghua returned to Ruixi Courtyard. Bai Ruo carried two boxes of medicinal ingredients into her room and said with an angry expression, “Miss, these are ingredients with problems and I put them all in the boxes.”

Shen Ninghua picked up a ginseng and looked at it. The expression in her eyes turned completely cold. “They used Pinellia ternata and Tetrastigma hemsleyanum Diels et Gilg to make medicinal ingredients? What a vicious plan.”

“That’s right. If these medicinal ingredients were used by Youngest Master, he would have died a long time ago.”

Shen Ninghua’s eyes were filled with increasing killing intent. “Have you found out who did this?”

“A lot of people, including those who served the Fifth Prince Baili Jinze, the Zhao family’s Matriarch Feng, and the Crown Prince.”

“Heh,” Shen Ninghua couldn’t help but laugh. “There are really all sorts of people. They do think highly of me. So many people are plotting against me.”

Bai Ruo snorted coldly in her heart. Seriously speaking, Miss did not have too much of a grudge with them, but they all mercilessly took advantage of the situation to attack the Prefectural Princess Mansion.

Shen Ninghua tossed back the ginseng in her hand. “Keep these ingredients properly. I will return them the same way they were sent here! Who can be deadly sure that they won’t get sick and need to take medicine?”

Bai Ruo nodded heavily. “Yes, Miss. Don’t worry, I will properly keep these.”

At this time, Chu Junyi entered the room and saw the medicinal ingredients placed on the ground. He immediately stopped Bai Ruo from taking the medicinal ingredients away. “There’s no need to wait any longer. I can return some of the medicinal ingredients now.”

Shen Ninghua’s eyes moved. “What happened?”

Chu Junyi curled his lips. A smile appeared in his eyes. “After Baili Jinze was awake, he was extremely opposed to marrying Zhao Ruyun. Therefore, His Majesty thought about not agreeing to the marriage. But unexpectedly, when Baili Jinze was walking around the garden in the afternoon, he was bitten by a snake again. This time, the snake venom was even more powerful. Fortunately, Zhao Ruyun was in the Palace. She used her mouth to help Baili Jinze suck out the snake venom. The two of them had skin-to-skin contact and Zhao Ruyun saved his lives twice. If Baili Jinze still did not agree to marry Zhao Ruyun, the censors would probably drown the Imperial Study with memorials to the throne.

Thinking of Baili Jinze’s expression, Shen Ninghua suddenly laughed. “Haha, this is really an interesting twist of fate. He was just detoxified and then he was bitten by a poisonous snake again. This must be the will of heaven.” As she spoke, she suddenly realized something. How could there be such a coincidence?

“Did you release the poisonous snake that bit Baili Jinze?”

Chu Junyi’s lips curled up mysteriously. “I just did a favor for someone. The one who brought the poisonous snake into the Palace to hurt Baili Jinze was the Third Prince.” He just secretly replaced it for a highly poisonous snake.

Shen Ninghua covered her lips and laughed. “That’s good. These medicinal ingredients are all excellent, and their processing methods are also extremely superb. Without careful examination, people won’t be able to see any problems at all. Send some to Baili Jinze first.”

“Ok.” Chu Junyi nodded and said, “Leave some medicinal ingredients for me. I’ll bring them out later.”

Just as Bai Ruo put away the medicinal ingredients, someone came to the door and announced, “Your Highness, the Xiao family’s eldest young lady sent over some medicinal ingredients. Because the courtyard has been sealed off at the order of His Majesty, she couldn’t enter the door and only asked someone to take the medicinal ingredients in.”

Shen Ninghua frowned and her eyes instantly turned cold. “Bring in the medicinal ingredients she sent.”

Soon, someone brought in the medicinal ingredients.

Seeing the medicinal ingredients, Shen Ninghua mocked. “These medicinal ingredients are all good. Take this old ginseng for example, it should be at least a hundred years old.”

Chu Junyi’s expression was somewhat sullen. “Ninghua, is there any problem with these medicinal ingredients?”

“Not a big problem. If healthy people eat them, it’s not fatal. But if a seriously ill person eats them, he’ll probably be on his way to see the King of Hell.”

Chu Junyi’s expression instantly turned cold. He took over the medicinal ingredients and said, “Did you say healthy people wouldn’t die if they ate them?”

“Right.” Shen Ninghua nodded.

“Alright, then I’ll bring back these medicinal ingredients!” Chu Junyi’s expression was icy cold. He was grateful to the Xiao family. He remembered their kindness and could endure the Xiao family. However, the purpose of his endurance was to hope that the Xiao family would know where to draw the line and enjoy a lifetime of wealth and honor. He did not want them to be so insatiable and force him to compromise step by step.

At such a critical moment, Xiao Huanxi knew that he liked Shen Ninghua, but she still wanted to hurt Shen Xuanlin. This was simply trying to gouge out his heart with a knife.

If something happened to Shen Xuanlin, he didn’t dare to imagine how sad Shen Ninghua would be. Therefore, Xiao Huanxi must be taught a lesson this time!

Shen Ninghua nodded. “Alright, you can take them with you.”

At night, just as the maidservant brought Xiao Huanxi a tranquilizing soup, Chu Junyi pushed open the door and walked in.

Seeing the person she had missed for a long time, Xiao Huanxi’s eyes were filled with joy. She hurriedly got up and ran over. “Brother Junyi, you’ve come to see me.”

Xiao Huanxi had an innocent smile on her face. She looked pure and beautiful. It was hard to imagine that such a girl would take action against a teenager without mercy. “I heard that you have been taking tranquilizing medicine these days, so I specially asked someone to make some medicine for you.”

After hearing Chu Junyi’s words, Xiao Huanxi’s eyes flashed with a trace of undetectable panic. Then, she put on a purely innocent look and said, “Brother Junyi, don’t worry. I just can’t sleep well at night. There’s nothing serious.”

“That’s good. I’ve brought you the medicine. Drink it while it’s hot.” As Chu Junyi spoke, he ordered someone to bring over the bowl of medicine. There were also a few pieces of ginseng on the tray. “I got some ginsengs from outside. They are all over a hundred years old and are extremely good for your health.”

Xiao Huanxi’s face turned completely pale. These were the medicinal ingredients that had been delivered to Shen Ninghua’s mansion under her instructions!