Hearing the sound, Uncle Qiao turned around and immediately asked her, “Miss Ji, you must help! Do you have a physician here?”

Where would she have a physician here?

There were only her, two maids, two cooks, and the hidden guards concealed around the area.

“There’s no physician here. Let me take a look at her first.” Ji Yinshu pushed aside the people crowding around the bed and sat beside Liu Yunyan, grasping her currently ice-cold hand and asking with concern, “Miss, how are you?”

Liu Yunyan looked at her, opened her mouth, and said weakly, “I’m fine.”

“How is this what being fine looks like?”

Liu Yunyan didn’t know exactly what was wrong with her either. All along the journey from Minnan to here, she had been perfectly fine. Even if she caught a minor illness or pain, it wasn’t this severe. She just felt something in her stomach, a wave of nausea. She never imagined she would actually vomit blood—she was terrified herself.

She shook her head and said, “Thank you for your concern, Miss.”

The maid beside her said to Ji Yinshu with tears in her eyes, “My young miss was fine all along the journey. Perhaps she caught a cold, got caught in the rain, and ate some cold things, which is why she’s like this.”

“Does catching cold cause vomiting blood?” Although Ji Yinshu wasn’t a physician, catching cold and getting caught in the rain wouldn’t lead to vomiting blood. It must be because of some other reason.

At this moment, Liu Yunyan started vomiting again. This time it was more severe—she directly vomited blood, which spilled all over the floor in front of the bed. The sight was shocking and frightened everyone present on the spot.

The maid’s complexion was even worse than Liu Yunyan’s. Worry and fear mingled in her heart. For a moment she was at a loss, only able to wipe with a handkerchief while tears kept streaming down her face.

Liu Yunzhu cried even more sorrowfully, loudly calling out, “Sister, sister…”

Encountering this kind of situation, no one knew what to do.

Ji Yinshu turned her head to instruct A’Jiao, “Quickly go to the small medicine box in my room and bring me a small white bottle.”

A’Jiao was still relatively clearheaded and responded as she left.

After Liu Yunyan finished vomiting, her mouth was covered in blood. She was already exhausted, her whole person becoming muddled and confused. Before her eyes was a blur of indistinctness. She felt her head throbbing with pain, the world spinning. Gasping for breath, she gripped Liu Yunzhu’s hand and said, “Yunzhu, I’m afraid sister won’t make it. From now on, you’ll have to take care of yourself.”

“No, sister, you’ll be fine. You can’t leave me behind. You promised me that from now on we’d settle in Yanjing City and not go anywhere. You said so—you can’t break your word, sister…”

“I… I can’t hold on anymore.”

“Sister, don’t scare me. You’ll definitely be fine.” Liu Yunzhu cried until she couldn’t speak coherently.

Ji Yinshu grasped Liu Yunyan’s ice-cold hand and said, “Miss, don’t speak such discouraging words.”

Liu Yunyan looked at her, her pale lips slowly uttering a sentence. “I know the state of my own body. I can’t endure anymore. I’m afraid… I’ve implicated you, Miss Ji, and dirtied your place.”

“Don’t say such things!”

Liu Yunyan’s body became increasingly weak. Her eyes filled with bloodshot veins. Her head buzzed. Before her eyes was a blur. She only felt her body was light and floating, without any sense of solidity. The mass of qi in her chest rolled larger and larger.

Finally, she fainted.

Liu Yunzhu cried out loudly, “Sister!”

“Miss?”

The group rushed toward the bed.

Crying to heaven and earth, all thoroughly frightened!

It seemed everyone thought Liu Yunyan had died. Ji Yinshu felt the pulse at her wrist—it was still beating. She had only fainted. She said, “She’s just temporarily fainted.”

Uncle Qiao was so worried his voice trembled. “What’s wrong with Miss? She was fine all along the journey.”

Ji Yinshu noticed the blood on Liu Yunyan’s mouth and on the floor—it wasn’t bright red but rather dark red. Clearly this wasn’t as simple as just coughing up blood.

She said, “She may have been poisoned.”

“Poison? What poison?” Uncle Qiao asked, then thought for a moment. “Miss ate the same things we did all along the journey. We’re all fine.”

The maid at the side remembered something. “That’s right, Miss drank a bowl of porridge.”

Porridge?

Everyone’s gazes fell on Liu Yunyan’s maid in unison.

The maid said, “Miss said her stomach was uncomfortable earlier and wanted to drink some porridge, so…” She placed her gaze on A’Yi. “So I asked this young lady to prepare some porridge for Miss.”

A’Yi’s expression froze. Understanding the meaning in her words, she immediately said, “You’re not trying to say I poisoned the porridge, are you?”

Simply absurd!

The maid said tearfully, “I’m only suspicious—I’m not saying it was you.”

“I would never do such a thing.” A’Yi said.

Ji Yinshu asked, “Where’s the porridge?”

The maid quickly stood and brought over the bowl of porridge that had been placed on the table. Only a little had been eaten—there was still more than half the bowl inside. Ji Yinshu looked at it, then pulled a silver hairpin from Liu Yunzhu’s head, dipped it into the porridge, and when she took it out, she saw that the lower end of the silver pin had already turned black. There was definitely poison!

“This porridge has indeed been poisoned!”

Ah! The maid was so frightened her hands trembled. The entire bowl of porridge was knocked to the floor by her with a clang. The white porridge mixed with the blood on the ground—very terrifying. Her face showed horror. “There’s actually poison in the porridge—why? It must be…” She once again placed her gaze on A’Yi.

Suspecting it was her doing.

A’Yi was also extremely shocked and quickly waved her hands saying, “It wasn’t me. This porridge was made by the cook I instructed, but the cook would absolutely never poison anyone.”

“Then how do you explain the poison in here?”

“I don’t know either!” A’Yi hurriedly explained. “This poison definitely wasn’t put in by me. I have no grievances or enmity with you—why would I poison you? My miss also kindly took you in to stay here. How could she harm your miss?”

That’s right! Ji Yinshu had kindly let them stay here. If she harbored ill intentions, she would have simply driven them out long ago.

Everyone had no grievances or enmity!

What would be the purpose of poisoning?

Uncle Qiao was a person who distinguished clearly between right and wrong. He immediately scolded the maid, “Don’t speak nonsense. Miss Ji kindly let us stay here. They’re all good people.”

The maid had also spoken suspiciously in a moment of heated emotion. She immediately withdrew her gaze embarrassedly.

A’Jiao had already returned, holding in her hand the white medicine bottle retrieved from Ji Yinshu’s room.

“Miss Ji, I’ve brought it.”

Ji Yinshu took it and opened it, tapping out a pill from inside. She stuffed it into Liu Yunyan’s mouth and had her swallow it.

“What is this?” Uncle Qiao asked.

“This is life-saving medicine for the moment! However, it will only preserve her temporarily. Right now, the most important thing is to quickly send her into the city to see a physician.”

Uncle Qiao’s hands clenched tightly together. After thinking for a moment, he quickly grabbed the young fellow beside him and instructed, “Quick, quickly help Miss up and out. We must get on the carriage to go to Yanjing City to find a physician. We can’t delay any longer.”

The young fellow said, “Uncle Qiao, with such heavy rain right now, we simply can’t leave. Moreover, the carriage is stuck in the mud and water outside and can’t move. We have to wait for the rain to stop before we can do anything. Right now we can only leave by riding horses, but Miss is in no condition to ride a horse in her current state. We can’t leave!”

“This… we can’t worry about all that. Otherwise, you ride a horse into the city now and bring a physician here before dawn.”

This seemed to be the only solution!

The young fellow couldn’t worry about this and that. Right now, the most important thing was his young miss’s life. He responded and went out the door, but Ji Yinshu suddenly called out to stop him, saying, “I have a carriage that can take you there.”

Everyone’s eyes lit up.

Uncle Qiao said with tears in his eyes, full of hope, “Miss, can you truly take us?”

“There is a carriage, but…” She looked at Liu Yunyan who had already fainted. “Whether this young lady can hold on until Yanjing City, I dare not guarantee. However, getting to Yanjing City to find a physician is urgent.”

“Thank you, Miss.”

“Don’t be too quick to thank me. Quickly help Miss Liu up and take her to the carriage.”

“Yes, yes, yes.”

Several people helped Liu Yunyan up from the bed, put clothes on her, and carried her out on their backs.

Ji Yinshu also immediately instructed people to prepare the carriage. However, the carriage wasn’t large and couldn’t accommodate so many people going together. Only Uncle Qiao and the maid went along. Ji Yinshu summoned one of the hidden guards remaining in the bamboo house and had him drive the carriage to take them to Yanjing City. Then thinking that A’Jiao handled matters quite well and was also quite familiar with Yanjing City, she had her go along as well.

The other people all remained here.

Including Liu Yunzhu! The little girl had cried and called out for quite a while because she couldn’t go along, but she was ultimately sensible enough to know that she couldn’t go right now, so after crying for a while she was fine.