"Madam, this is against etiquette... isn't it?" The old woman reminded hesitantly. The usually calm Madam has been very uncalm recently. If it were in the past, if County Lord Jingyu wanted to go, Madam would not agree and would have to put on more airs.
"Find a more suitable reason first." Mrs. Liu said with a frown.
This reason was hard to find, and the room fell silent for a moment.
"Madam... if something like this happens, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince might vent his anger on the county lady." After a long time, the old woman saw that Madam Liu had been silent for a long time, and said again.
"The prince's marriage is not a joke. Even if the prince is a little unhappy with Yu'er, as long as Yu'er is careful to please him, nothing will happen. If you really can't find a reason, let Yu'er go secretly. This will not be good for the prince. The prince should also think of a way to calm this matter down."
Madam Liu glanced at the old woman and said.
"It's okay to go there privately, but I'm afraid the prince doesn't want to see the county lady now!" The old woman said worriedly for Liu Jingyu.
It would be extremely embarrassing if I were turned away by the prince.
"If it doesn't work once, then try twice. The prince can't keep people out all the time. After all, he doesn't want others to criticize Yu'er. If people see him turning Yu'er away, they will definitely be shocked again." Madam Liu gritted her teeth and said.
The old woman did not dare to continue the conversation, as this meant putting Lady Jingyu's face in front of the prince for him to step on.
It is not a good thing for her to be like this before she even gets married, but Madam Liu is the master and has always had her own ideas. The old woman dare not go against her wishes and can only obey her order and tell Liu Jingyu about this matter.
Ever since the Minister slapped the lady last time, the atmosphere in the whole mansion has become wrong. All the servants are trembling with fear, fearing that something bad might happen to them accidentally.
"Yu is dead?" Qu Zhizhen looked at the minor official sent by the Ministry of Justice with a cold expression, "What happened? How did he suddenly become violent?"
Qu Moying told him everything before returning home.
Knowing that Yu's condition was not good, he comforted Qu Moying with a few words before letting her go back.
"It's not a sudden illness. Someone gave him a drug that conflicts with the previous medicine he took. The drugs conflict with each other, so he died suddenly." said the official from the Ministry of Justice.
After something like this happened, the officials from the Ministry of Justice naturally had to inform Qu Zhizhen. After all, Yu was related to this person and now he was suddenly gone, so an explanation had to be given to the family.
Regardless of whether she was divorced or demoted to a concubine, the Qu family had to be notified of the fact that she had given birth to a pair of children for Qu Zhizhen.
"What does this have to do with my daughter? She was very frightened when she came back. She was not in good health to begin with, and now it is even worse."
Qu Zhizhen said unhappily that he didn't care about Yu's life or death, he only cared about Qu Moying's physical condition, he was a very good father.
"This matter has nothing to do with Miss Qu Si. She just happened to be there at the time and frightened Miss Qu Si." The official from the Ministry of Justice apologized hastily.
Compared to Yu's sudden death in the Ministry of Justice, the shock suffered by Fourth Miss Qu was much less serious. The minor official was responsible for coming to the Qu Mansion to inform Qu Zhizhen.
"Yu's matter... is being investigated by people from the Ministry of Justice. Since it has nothing to do with our Qu Mansion, there is no need to explain it further. If I want to know, I will ask." Qu Moying hesitated for a moment and said in a cold voice.
"Yes, I will report this to our Lord and will definitely investigate this matter thoroughly.
Our Lord would like to ask who were the people who delivered medicine to Yu in the past. This humble official would like to ask about this matter."
The official from the Ministry of Justice said.
"Come here, take him over to see the old woman who brought medicine to Yu." Qu Zhizhen nodded, called the servant over, and asked him to bring the official from the Ministry of Justice over.
The person who prepared the medicine for Yu was an old woman who worked as a handyman in the kitchen on weekdays. She would deliver the medicine to Yu every few days. This was the idea of Qu Qiuyan from Prince Jing's Mansion.
It was obvious that the Qu family was not very willing, but they did not want to offend the Jing Palace, so they sent the medicine once every three days, and only sent it today.
Although the maid was a maid in the Qu mansion, it was found out that she was Yu's dowry. She was trusted by Yu in the past and had worked as a kitchen manager. After Yu fell from power, her good days came to an end and she became an ordinary maid helping in the kitchen.
He offended a lot of people when he was arrogant in the past, and now his relationships in the kitchen are not very good either.
According to her, although she was the one who decocted the medicine, she was often called away to do this and that while she was doing it. Sometimes the medicine was even burnt and no one cared, so she could only add some water and continue decocting. If there was really something in it, anyone could add something to it.
Then, he knew nothing about anything. There were people coming and going in the big kitchen, not only people from the Qu Mansion, but also people from outside who came in to deliver vegetables, fruits, and melons. It was really hard to find out even if I wanted to.
Because this old woman had offended someone before, she was really busy and was often called away to do other things. The medicine was stewed on the stove at the side. Anyone could open the lid and take a look, but no one took it seriously. If it wasn't for the sake of the Third Young Miss, who would send medicine to a death row prisoner in the Ministry of Justice
What does it matter whether you eat or not? You’re going to die anyway, and that’s what everyone thinks.
But now something really happened during the meal. The maids and old women in the kitchen looked at each other in panic, and said that they had never gone near the medicine jar, especially the one that was delivered today.
The officials from the Ministry of Justice could not get any information out of Yu, so they went to Yu’s house again.
The Yu family also sent a can of medicine today.
Similar to the Qu Mansion's delivery every three days, the Yu Mansion stipulates that it should be delivered once a day. This is Yu Fengyong's idea. It seems that he cares more about it than the Qu Mansion. But in fact, the people below are the same as the Qu Mansion. They all think that there is no hope for the Yu family and do not take this matter to heart at all. It is good enough if they can deliver once every two days.
Sometimes, he couldn't think of it for several days, and was even lazier than Qu Fu.
This matter was managed by Yu Fengyong's wife. In the past, she always tried to curry favor with Yu. When Yu was in power, she almost obeyed Yu's words. But later, something happened to Yu Qingmeng, and Yu Fengyong's wife, Han, hated Yu to the core. Under such circumstances, how could she really take Yu Fengyong's words to heart
Similarly, the Yu Mansion could not find out anything, and when asked, the man knew nothing. There were even more people who had contact with the medicine, so it would be very convenient for anyone to tamper with it.
Both the Qu Mansion and the Yu Mansion sent herbal medicine today. Yu had drunk it before, and coincidentally, she had finished drinking it before Qu Moying arrived.
Although they were soups from both families, the quantities were actually not much. Only a bowl was delivered, and the soup in the bowl was directly rinsed away after drinking it.
There was nothing wrong with the previous drug residues, and the drug residues from the two prefectures were also checked.
The medicine that was delivered to him passed through several hands and was not delivered directly to Yu Yu. He also checked it on the way.
Since it was delivered in the same way in the past, no one took it seriously and just checked it as a routine matter.
The matter seemed to have come to a dead end at this point. There was only one thing that could prove that the fourth young lady of the Qu family had been harmed. Someone had tampered with the teacup that had been replaced before, and it happened to contain the medicine that caused Yu to suffer from sudden illness, which was what they needed to look for in the other medicines.
Qu Moying and Yu had no direct contact, and the officials of the Ministry of Justice could testify to this matter. But if it was not Qu Moying, the origin of those drugs would be very suspicious.
Was it Qu Mansion or Yu Mansion, or did someone from the Ministry of Justice do something along the way
For a time, the entire Ministry of Justice was alarmed. Not only were people in the Ministry conducting self-inspections, but even the Dali Temple and the Western Prison intervened. This matter was too horrifying. Yu, who was imprisoned, actually died in front of the officials of the Ministry of Justice.
This is simply a slap in the face to the Ministry of Justice.
The entire Ministry of Justice was in a panic for a while. When they looked at people, they would always examine them carefully. Some minor mistakes in the past were now corrected. The Minister of Justice was furious and severely punished a group of people, which eased the situation a little.
Of course, this easing was only superficial. Seeing the scar on the Minister of Justice's forehead, you could tell that he had had a very sad life in the past two days. The scar was caused by the Emperor hitting him on the forehead.
The capital city, which was already in a state of turmoil, became even more uneasy.
While things were turbulent outside, Qu Moying's place was very quiet.
She was sick again, and it was because of fright. She was so frail and weak that she was already in a weak condition. She forced herself to go see Yu when Qu Zhizhen called her. When she saw Yu lying in front of her, convulsing, she was filled with fear.
This time the illness was more serious than before. The doctor from the Yingwang Mansion stayed at Qianyue's residence again. He shook his head at Qu Zhizhen who came to visit her and said, "The fourth young lady's condition may not be good?"
"Where are the medicines? Use the good ones!" Qu Zhizhen said anxiously after turning around a few times.
"We have already used good medicine. We still have to see its effect. This medicine was sent from the British Palace." The doctor said with a frown.
"Should we ask a few more imperial physicians to take a look?" Qu Zhizhen didn't distrust this doctor, but he still felt that the imperial physicians in the palace were safer.
"Let's talk about this after these few doses of medicine. If it doesn't work by then... Miss Four might be in danger." The doctor was used to seeing life and death, so he spoke slowly and calmly. Only his furrowed brows showed that this experienced doctor was not truly calm.
"How long do we have to wait for the effect to take effect?" Qu Zhizhen wanted to get a definite answer without giving up.
"This... must be tomorrow at the latest. We need a few more herbs here. Although they are not the best, they are exactly what we are missing. Sir Qu, please see if your mansion has them. If not, please send someone to the Prince of Ying's palace to look for them." The doctor pointed out a few herbs in the prescription. They were not the main ones, but they were also indispensable.
"If it should be available, ask someone to find it. If not, go to the street to buy it." Qu Zhizhen handed the prescription to the servant and gave the instructions.
They were just some auxiliary medicines, and he couldn't go to the King of England for everything. If the Emperor knew that he had disturbed the King of England's recovery, and that it was because of these small auxiliary medicines, his affairs would become even more difficult.
"Sir, something happened!" The servant had just gone downstairs in a hurry when another servant ran in and said in a panic as soon as he entered the door.