Mrs. Qi grabbed Qi Wu’s hand and wouldn’t let go, saying obstinately, “I’ll go with you.”
When Qi Wu tried to persuade her, Madam Qi said hurriedly, “Since Qian’er has defected to the Third Prince, we will be fine for now, I have to go and see how Qian’er is doing. ”
Qi Wu raised his hand, but Madame Qi saw through his intentions first, “Qi Wu, if you dare to knock me out, I will hate you for the rest of my life.”
Qi Wu’s hand stopped an inch from her neck, the veins in his hand bulging up.
“Let Mother go ……”
Qi Ying whispered, “Big brother and I won’t leave either, we’ll stay at the dartboard and wait for you, if we really can’t escape, we’ll die together as a family.”
“What nonsense are you talking about ……”
Qi Wu glared at her.
“The Third Prince already knows who we are, if he wants to kill us, we can’t hide even if we flee to the ends of the earth, in that case, why do we need to hide.”
Qi Wu’s hand slowly withdrew and closed his eyes in pain, Ying’er was right, the Third Prince wanted to hunt them down, they couldn’t hide no matter what.
Seeing that he had compromised, Madam Qi let go of him and walked over to the dressing table, picking up a comb and re-bunning her hair, putting on her favourite emerald hairpin and turning back to take Qi Wu’s hand, “Let’s go.”
The two of them went to the backyard and took the horses and came outside.
The guards took one look, rolled onto their horses and beat them away.
Qi Wu helped Madame Qi onto her horse first, he then went up and followed, arriving at the county courthouse, dismounting and following the guard to the back yard.
The guard stood at the door of a room, “My lord, Your Highness, the man has been brought.”
“Come in!”
The guard stood and went to one side, and the two of them, Qi Wu, walked into the room.
The Third Prince’s gaze fell on Qi Wu’s face, while the Duke of Qi glanced at Lady Qi. Back then, when the Marquis Wu’s residence was in trouble, the two young ladies of the waiting house were already more than ten years old, and the Duke of Qi had met them before.
The two knelt down and kowtowed their heads on the ground, “Greetings to the Third Prince and Greetings to the Duke of State.”
The Third Prince did not say anything, picked up the tealight, opened the lid, blew away the tea leaves on it and took small sips.
The room was terribly quiet.
Sweat was faintly breaking out on Qi Wu and Madam Qi’s foreheads.
When the tea was finished, the Third Prince placed the tealight on the table with a loud movement and a crunching sound.
Qi Wu and Madam Qi’s bodies trembled at the same time.
The Third Prince looked at them with great satisfaction before speaking slowly, “You should have been executed immediately for poisoning the old gentleman, but for the sake of my grandfather’s friendship with the Marquis of Wu Bo back then, I will let you go, as long as you work for the Prince in the future, I will keep you alive.”
The two men put their heads against the ground, “At the disposal of the Third Prince.”
“In that case, you will go and see Qin Qian first, and then come back later to answer.”
The two men retreated on their stomachs to the door before getting up and exiting.
The guards led them over.
When they entered the house and saw Qin Qian’s miserable state, Lady Qi’s eyes immediately burst into tears, “Qian’er, you have suffered.”
“Aunt, I, I am fine, you, you will not blame me, right?”
“Silly child ……”
Madam Qi tried to stroke him but was unable to do so, her tears flowing faster, “As long as you can live, no matter what you do, aunt is willing.”
Seeing that there was not a single good spot on Qin Qian’s entire body, Qi Wu knew that he had not been tortured much and was heartbroken, “You don’t know, the county magistrate had someone let the word out in order to draw us out that you had died from the torture and your body was thrown to a mass grave, your aunt fainted from the pain when she heard the news, fortunately you were fine. Your aunt was right, as long as you could live, we would do anything.”
A quarter of an hour later, Qi Wu returned to the Third Prince’s side and once again kowtowed one head to the ground, “Third Prince, just give us your orders, we will do it.”
“Get up.”
Qi Wu stood up.
“Do you know what business the Gu family has?”
Qi Wu didn’t think twice, “Restaurant, hot pot base, herbal tea, there should be others, but I didn’t find out.”
The Third Prince was shocked, “The hot pot base and herbal tea business is actually owned by the Gu family?”
“To be exact, it’s the Song family’s, it’s made by Song Wangyue and the Gu family sells it on their behalf.”
“Song Wangyue?”
“It’s the younger sister of the new top scholar, Song Si.”
The Third Prince became increasingly shocked, “I remember she’s only nine years old, right?”
When Song Si refused to marry the Sixth Princess at the Qionglin Banquet, the Third Prince was furious and had his people investigate Song Si’s family, ready to give him some credit, only to learn that Song Si’s eldest aunt Xu was actually the granddaughter of the old man who had been missing for years, and he did not have his people do it because of his concern for the old man.
“Yes.”
“How is this possible?”
The third prince was completely unconvinced.
“It’s a thousand times true. My daughter Qi Ying almost had her money bag stolen at the market last year, and it was Song Wan Yue who found out about it, so my daughter and her became good friends and know all about some of her family’s affairs.”
The Third Prince was too shocked to speak and looked towards Duke Qi.
The Duke of Qi was also surprised, he too did not expect that these two money making items were made by Song Wangyue, a nine year old little girl.
“My lord ……”
The voice of a guard rang out at the door.
“Come in!”
The guard walked in to report, “My subordinates have made a clear enquiry, the restaurant is owned by the Gu family.”
The Gu family’s?
A thought flashed through the Third Prince’s mind as he waved the guards away and asked Qi Wu, “Did Song Wan Yue also make the pills?”
Qi Wu was stunned, “What kind of pills?”
“It’s just ordinary Chinese medicine made into pills, it’s very effortless to eat and easy to carry.”
Qi Wu shook his head, “This is something the herbalist really doesn’t know, however, I don’t think the pill would be made by Song Wan Yue, it would be that doctor from the Gu family, he is rumoured to be highly skilled in medicine, after Qian’er put Old Mr Xu to sleep for ten days, we were worried that he would be able to develop an antidote immediately.”
“You mean he was the one who showed it to the old man after he was poisoned.”
“Yes.”
The Third Prince and the Duke of Qi looked at each other, the Duke of Qi nodded slightly, and the Third Prince waved his hand, “You go down first.”
Qi Wu retreated.
The Third Prince couldn’t wait, “Grandfather ……”
The Duke of Qi gestured for him to be at ease for a moment.
“Back then, King Qin had adopted a righteous sister, that woman had been weak and sickly, King Qin found her a folk doctor to tune her up, it was said that the doctor was very skilled in medicine, not only did he tune up the woman’s body, even the infertility that King Qin’s consort had suffered for years was cured.”
The Third Prince became excited, “Then what are we waiting for, let’s arrest the man immediately.”
“Don’t act rashly yet. That doctor …… he had been living in the Qin Wang Mansion at the time and rarely came out, plus I didn’t care at the time, I can’t really remember his surname.”
“Whatever his surname is, let’s find an excuse to bring him in, an old man, I believe he won’t survive a few tortures.”
“No, we’ve just arrived, if we arrest him, it’ll cause a sensation. If the Gu family takes advantage of the situation, we’ll be passive instead.