Mei Niang was inattentive, and Madam Zheng was distracted. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law were speechless. Suddenly, Madam He hurriedly came in through the curtains. She looked a little panicked, walked up to Madam Zheng, leaned over and said, "Madam, Miss Yu..."
Mei Niang looked up at Mother He, and Madam Zheng asked, "What happened to Yu'er? Where did she go to play again? I haven't seen her since this morning."
Mother He said, "Miss Yu got up early. Today, she asked Mrs. Quan to help her make some snacks in the small kitchen. She said that Master Hou would like to eat them, so she sent two plates. She was fine when she left, but Ruizhu and Ruibao, who were by Master Hou's side, helped Miss Yu back. She was foaming at the mouth, her eyes were bulging, she couldn't speak, and her face looked so scary!"
Mrs. Zheng was surprised: "What's going on? Yu'er has always been in good health and has no serious illness. This child..."
As she was talking about getting off the bed, Mother He hurriedly helped her put on her shoes. Mei Niang came forward to support her, and together they walked out of the upper room and went towards Zheng Meiyu's bedroom.
Ruizhu Ruibao was still in Zheng Meiyu's room. When she saw Madam Zheng and Mei Niang coming in, she bowed and saluted. Madam Zheng and Mei Niang went to the bed first to take a look. Zheng Meiyu's personal maid Ru'er had already wrung out a hot towel to wipe her face. She seemed to be still unconscious, staring with her eyes wide open, looking straight at the light. Madam Zheng felt distressed and anxious. She called Yu'er twice, but there was no response. She reached out and patted her face, but there was still no response. Madam Zheng turned around and looked at Ruizhu Ruibao, and asked sternly:
"What happened to Miss Yubiao? What did you do to her?"
Ruizhu and Ruibao knelt down quickly. Ruizhu lowered her head and said, "I don't know why my cousin suddenly became like this! When I got up in the morning, I saw my cousin sitting alone on the stone bench in the yard crying, not caring that the stone bench was wet and cold. I asked the woman who boiled water and found out that my cousin had sent snacks early, but didn't see the master. The master always went out at dawn. I thought my cousin didn't catch up with the master to eat snacks, so she was sad and cried non-stop. The servants coaxed her a few words and helped my cousin back. At first, my cousin just cried and could walk well. Who knew that halfway through the journey, my cousin suddenly vomited, her legs were weak, her eyes rolled back, and she couldn't stand up. The servants took great effort to support her, but my cousin was trembling all over, her face turned blue, and she couldn't speak. The servants were so scared that they almost lost their strength. Fortunately, several mothers came and helped to carry her back together!"
Mrs. Zheng was stunned for a while after hearing this, then looked at Mother He and asked, "Have you asked someone to invite a doctor?"
Mother He said, "Not yet, waiting for Madam's instructions."
"You are also a fool. It has become like this, what are you waiting for?" Madam Zheng suddenly cursed loudly: "Immediately ask the doorman to go and invite a few more doctors to come and see what kind of evil spirit has befallen him!"
Mother He turned around and went out quickly. Mei Niang heard her calling people in the corridor and giving some instructions. Then she came back and walked to Madam Zheng and comforted her, "Don't worry, Madam. There is a lot of evil spirits in spring. Miss Yu ignored her delicate girl and sat on a stone bench soaked in rain. She could make someone sick even if she was not sick! It's nothing more than a cold or something like that. The doctor will come soon and prescribe some medicine. She will be well after a few days of careful treatment!"
Madam Zheng heaved a sigh of relief. Chunyue came over to replace Mei Niang and helped her sit on the chair in front of the bed. Madam Zheng looked at Ruizhu Ruibao who was kneeling on the ground and said, "You guys get up and go back. It's not a big deal. Miss Yubiao was just possessed by evil spirits. It's just a minor illness. She will be fine after taking some medicine. There's no need to tell anyone. Do you hear me?"
Ruizhu Ruibao responded: "We heard it! We will follow Madam's orders!"
After saying that, he stood up, bowed again, walked out of the room, and hurried back.
Mei Niang didn't believe that Zheng Meiyu had been bewitched. It must have been Xu Junying who did it. She just didn't understand how he did it. Acupuncture? Sealing meridians? Zheng Meiyu looked like she had a stroke. She couldn't move at all and couldn't even speak. This situation was like being unable to die or live. If it happened to someone else, it would be really miserable to live like this for the rest of their life. She couldn't feel any sympathy for Zheng Meiyu. She deserved it. This was retribution!
Then I thought again, this Xu Mansion is really not a place for human beings to live. It's too scary, and everyone is more cruel than the other. The cousin plotted against her cousin and his wife, but the cousin didn't just kill the cousin, but tortured her and made her suffer!
Three doctors came at once. This was Mrs. Zheng's style. Last time Heng'er had a fever, she also invited four or five doctors to see him at once. As smart as she was, she understood the importance and credibility of "consultation".
The three doctors each took the girl's pulse and unanimously concluded that it was what Mother He had said, the weather was bad in the spring and the girl did not take care of herself, so she was possessed by an evil spirit.
Each of them wrote a prescription, using roughly the same combination of medicinal materials. Then the one who was good at acupuncture stayed, and the other two collected their consultation fees and left one after the other.
The doctor who gave the acupuncture was named Jiang, a thin man of medium height, about 40 years old. He said that the young lady's illness was caused by a cold, which had caused an imbalance of yin and yang, blocked meridians, and obstructed circulation of qi and blood. In addition to taking medicine, she should be supplemented with acupuncture to harmonize yin and yang, strengthen the body and eliminate evil, in order to achieve better therapeutic effects.
As long as her niece could get better as soon as possible, Madam Zheng had no objection. She didn't care about avoiding suspicion and asked the maid to pull down the thin curtain, revealing Zheng Meiyu's bed. Because he had just been diagnosing Zheng Meiyu's pulse, Doctor Jiang went in again this time to take a closer look at Zheng Meiyu's face. After asking Madam Zheng, he asked the maid to pry open Zheng Meiyu's mouth, looked at her tongue, and lifted her eyelids to take a look. He frowned and thought for a long time, then finally took off the backpack on his shoulder, slowly took out a roll of white linen from it, and spread it out. Mei Niang couldn't help but be surprised to see that the white cloth was densely packed with silver needles, shining brightly, arranged horizontally and vertically, in an orderly manner. It seemed that this was not a quack doctor who was cheating people under a guise. Judging from his serious and rigorous look, he should be a well-known and established professional doctor.
Doctor Jiang sat upright, inserting dozens of thin and long silver needles into Zheng Meiyu's face, forehead, and hands, rubbing, lifting, and rotating them gently. Mei Niang's scalp was numb. She didn't know how painful it would be to have so many needles inserted into her body, but Zheng Meiyu seemed to have no feeling at all, and didn't move at all. When Doctor Jiang pulled out the needles, Zheng Meiyu's eyes moved slightly. Doctor Jiang nodded and said, "That's it for today. We'll give you another acupuncture tomorrow. After a few days of acupuncture, the young lady will get better!"
Madam Zheng hurriedly ordered Madam He to fetch a larger purse, and personally handed it to Doctor Jiang, saying, "Thank you for your trouble! This is today's consultation fee. Doctor Jiang, please come on time tomorrow. If you can cure the young lady, I will reward you handsomely!"
Doctor Jiang took the purse and said, "Thank you, Madam. I will come on time tomorrow."
After sending Doctor Jiang out, the maid also came back with the prescription and the medicine. Mother He immediately ordered them to be boiled and gave the medicine to Miss Yu to take as soon as possible so that she could get better sooner.
Madam Zheng walked to the bedside and looked at Zheng Meiyu who lay motionless. The more she thought about it, the angrier she became, and she scolded the servants around her. Ru'er had been with Zheng Meiyu since she was a child and was brought from home. She stood beside the bed with her head down and cried silently. The young lady seldom took her with her except to use her in Qiuhua Courtyard and go out for walks in the garden. She even didn't want her to go with her when she went to Qinghua Courtyard to deliver snacks early in the morning. She had done nothing wrong, but she deserved to be scolded in vain.
Seeing that the work had been done and Zheng Meiyu was just like that, Mei Niang thought it was meaningless to stand there, as she still had things to do, so she took her leave from Madam Zheng and wanted to go to Ziyun Hall. Madam Zheng didn't say anything and waved her hand to let her go.
The morning was almost over, and Mei Niang came to Ziyun Hall to deal with affairs quickly. The housekeepers had long been accustomed to her working style and were very cooperative. In less than an hour, everything was done.
Cui Xi asked where to have lunch and whether to go to Ziyun Hall. After eating, she went out from the west courtyard, but saw Cui Lian hurried over. She bowed to Mei Niang and said, "Grandma, the Lord is back and has served lunch in the upper room. Please go back and have your meal!"
Mei Niang was stunned for a moment: "Why did he come back so early?"
Cui Lian said: "I don't know either. The Lord is sitting in the upper room waiting now!"
Mei Niang blinked and looked at Cui Xi: "What should we do? If he comes back, we may not be able to get out."
She was still worried about something else. Yesterday at Xiankelai, she asked Lu Xiangfeng to tell King Qi that he had promised to go to Suochunyuan in Cen's house this afternoon. If he broke his promise again, she would not be able to get away with it when they met next time.
Cui Xi advised: "Grandma, you should go back to your room first, otherwise Master Hou will get angry again, which would be bad!"
Is this the only way? Oh, never mind. She was hungry. She would go back and finish her lunch first. She hadn't finished talking last night. He hadn't made it clear when he would let her leave the house. It was a good opportunity to continue the topic. If it could be settled, she would feel relieved.
In the upper room of Tsinghua Courtyard, Xu Junying had changed out of his official uniform and was wearing a stone-blue brocade robe with small floral patterns. He sat on the couch reading official documents. The narrow low table and the wide couch were covered with various maps. As he read the documents, he would occasionally compare the place names on the map and circle the surrounding areas with his fingers. He heard Baoju shouting outside, "Grandma is back!"
He hurriedly packed up the notebooks and drawings and stuffed them all into a square purple wooden box. When Mei Niang, Cui Xi and Cui Lian entered the room, he had already finished packing and closed the purple wooden box.
There was something on the couch out of nowhere. Mei Niang noticed it and knew it was Xu Junying's thing. She quickly glanced at it and smiled and bowed to Xu Junying. Xu Junying said, "Lunch will be served soon. After lunch, I will go to Qiuhuayuan with you to see Heng'er!"
The real purpose was to see Heng'er and find out about my cousin's situation!
Mei Niang smiled and said to Cui Xi and Cui Lian, "Go downstairs and let us know when lunch is ready!"
Cui Xi and Cui Lian walked out. Mei Niang sat opposite Xu Junying, looked at him across the low table and asked, "Zheng Meiyu is not feeling well. She can't speak or move. The doctor said she had a stroke. What did you do to her?" (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets on Qidian. Your support is my greatest motivation.) (To be continued)