Emperor Ji looked at Feng Jiu. Although he also disliked Leng Yue’s tendency to make a fuss and lose her dignity, if a man really had insulted her, then naturally it couldn’t be ignored.
Their own people could not be wronged for no reason either.
Feng Jiu suppressed her anger, but Qiao Mu could no longer hold back: “He came to have his eyes examined. How could he have stared at you in insult? His eyes are blind!”
This woman, daring to claim that a blind man had stared at her and taken advantage of her — was there anyone so shameless?
Leng Yue was stunned for a moment. This man was actually… blind?
No! Impossible! Just now he had clearly been staring at her chest the whole time… impossible, how could he be blind?
“Young master, young master…” The man’s attendant had just gone to fetch their number and returned, only to see his own young master coughing up blood from being beaten. He immediately burst into tears.
“Young master, what’s wrong with you? Who hit you? Young master…”
“Help him inside, I’ll examine him. However,” Feng Jiu turned back and glared at Leng Yue, saying coldly, “You — pay for the medical expenses!”
“You…”
“Leng Yue!” Emperor Ji scolded sharply.
Leng Yue bit down hard, her fingertips trembling with anger, but she knew her foster father was truly furious.
Her foster father never called her by her full name. This time, he must be quite angry.
But she didn’t believe it — she absolutely refused to believe this man was blind. They must all be in on it together, putting on an act!
“Fine, I’ll pay for the medical expenses.” She stared at Feng Jiu’s retreating back, gritting her teeth. “You wretch, just you wait! I won’t let this go!”
…
“This Leng Yue keeps making trouble — it’s really annoying!”
While eating dinner, Xiao Yingtao couldn’t help complaining. Just thinking of Leng Yue’s arrogant attitude made her so angry she wanted to tear the woman apart.
“We’re the ones running a business with our doors open — what can you do about it?” Qiao Mu also resented Leng Yue, but truly had no way to deal with her.
“We can’t very well kill her to eliminate future trouble.” Of course, this was only said in jest.
“If we could, I really would want to do her in, haha…”
But there would always be troublemakers like this — how many could they possibly kill off?
So, despite their genuine anger, it was all just talk.
Tonight, the back courtyard of Tianji Hall was rather quiet. Aunt Xue had gone up the mountain to gather herbs and hadn’t returned. Xing Zizhou had been away these past two days and hadn’t come back either. As for Nanmen Xu, after returning to the Nanmen estate, he had never come back.
These past few days, the back courtyard of Tianji Hall had truly become quiet enough to feel uncomfortable.
Nothing much was happening tonight. After giving Feng Yinan his acupuncture treatment, Feng Jiu went into the pharmacy to refine medicine.
Whenever she refined medicine, she would shut herself in the sealed chamber, not wanting to be disturbed.
Refining medicine required full concentration — the slightest mistake could, at best, affect the medicine’s potency, and at worst, turn good medicine into poison.
But tonight, she felt somewhat unsettled, though she couldn’t say exactly what was wrong — she just couldn’t focus.
She put away the half-finished batch of medicine, finally unable to continue refining, and gathered her things to head out.
The moment she pushed open the first stone door, she faintly heard sounds of chaos outside.
The stone door was so thick that its soundproofing was remarkable — only now, stepping out, could she hear some of the commotion outside.
Feng Jiu’s brow furrowed, and she immediately walked out, pushing open the second stone door as well.
As soon as the door opened, the commotion from the front hall became much clearer. She hurried over and saw a young servant boy rushing toward the back.
“What’s going on?”
The servant boy, upon seeing Feng Jiu, immediately rushed toward her as if seeing a savior: “Young master, a group of troublemakers came and hurt many of the patients.”
Feng Jiu’s figure flickered — by the time the servant boy looked again, there was no trace of her in sight.
In the front hall, the group of intruders had already been subdued by Qiao Mu and Xiao Yingtao. Qiao Mu shouted angrily, “Who sent you here? Speak!”
“We — we don’t know, we were just paid to do a job. Someone gave us a large bag of silver, so we came.”
Those who came were just some small-time thugs from the imperial city, without much real skill. But the hall was full of patients, who were already weak — how could they possibly fight back?
“Young master is here!” Xiao Yingtao immediately rushed over, saying urgently, “Many patients have been hurt.”
“Bring them all in. Hand these people over to the guards, and gather the patients first.” Feng Jiu supported the nearest patient, helping him toward the treatment room.
Xiao Yingtao waved her hand, and the guards rushed over, restraining the dozen or so thugs.
Although the guards had arrived quickly after the incident began, the intruders had come so suddenly. Tianji Hall ran an open business and didn’t restrict customers from entering.
These men had all dressed like ordinary people, so the guards on duty hadn’t paid them any attention when they entered.
Who would have known that once inside, they would suddenly draw out knives and start slashing at the patients?
The patients near them had simply been unlucky — no one had expected this.
The thugs were taken away, but the hall remained in chaos. Many patients had already fled and dared not come back in.
This incident would naturally damage Tianji Hall’s reputation, but at most it would mean a few days of turmoil before things settled down again.
Whoever was behind this sent these thugs to cause trouble — but was it really just to cause a bit of trouble? Why did something feel off?
“Steward Xiao.” Having just finished bandaging a patient, Feng Jiu turned to look at Xiao Yingtao, who was helping bandage the wounded with everyone else, and frowned slightly.
“Young master, what is it?” Xiao Yingtao wiped the sweat from her brow and hurried over.
“Go back and check on the rear courtyard…”
The words had barely left her mouth when a young servant rushed in, calling out urgently, “Young master, Steward Xiao, something has happened in the rear courtyard.”
…
Tonight, the Ninth Prince’s manor was unusually peaceful.
Since the Ninth Prince had returned to court, countless people had wished to visit him every day during this time. Although the Ninth Prince refused to see anyone, visitors still came in an endless stream.
But tonight, things seemed to have quieted down.
Perhaps everyone had realized the Ninth Prince’s impatience with them, and visitors had switched to having their lavish gifts delivered quietly instead, for fear of disturbing the Ninth Prince’s peace.
At this moment, in Emperor Ji’s room, the door was tightly shut. Aside from the hidden guards stationed at every corner of the courtyard outside, there was no one else nearby.
Leng Yue was also not by Emperor Ji’s side tonight — he had sent her off elsewhere.
“A’Jiu,” Emperor Ji looked at Zhan Qingcheng, who sat nearby drinking tea, and hesitated for a long moment before speaking, “Why don’t we return to Phoenix City instead?”
“Foster Father, why do you say this?” Zhan Qingcheng stared at the tea in his cup. Though he was speaking with Emperor Ji, he seemed to be in a trance, gazing at the tea as if lost in thought.
The tea was clear, the surface calm, with a few leaves faintly visible within — yet it seemed to reflect a smiling face.
Ninth Imperial Uncle, Ninth Imperial Uncle, Ninth Imperial Uncle… Her sweet, coquettish voice still lingered in his ears. Only, it had been so long since he’d last heard her call out to him like that.