Having witnessed firsthand the attitude of the Lin household’s women toward Lin Shu, Luo Sheng felt reassured, and obtaining leverage over Prince Kaiyang was an unexpected delight.

Her enemies were the Crown Prince and the Pingnan Prince’s household. Before such powerful forces, her identity as the daughter of Grand Commander Luo meant little.

Being a female scoundrel who occasionally flirted with young masters or bullied daughters of prestigious families—after their initial anger, each household would tolerate it given Grand Commander Luo’s authority.

But if it truly came to breaking bones and threatening a family’s survival, even a weaker opponent would fight back desperately.

Of course, if the Emperor wanted someone’s head, when the sovereign demands a subject’s death, the subject has no choice but to die—that was another matter entirely.

For Luo Sheng to make the Crown Prince and Pingnan Prince’s household repay their blood debt with blood, one could imagine the difficulty involved.

Given this, she naturally couldn’t be a person of noble character. When circumstances required, using leverage to threaten Prince Kaiyang into helping with small favors was quite worthwhile.

On the road back to the estate, Luo Sheng was in excellent spirits.

Grand Commander Luo was also in excellent spirits.

To think they had actually returned just like that—it felt like a dream.

“Did you like the Taishan stone at the Lin estate? If Sheng’er likes it, we can also have one transported from Mount Tai to display in our garden,” Grand Commander Luo said, his good mood making him more talkative.

Luo Sheng smiled. “Father need not go to such trouble.”

Truthfully, she hadn’t even remembered what the Lin estate’s Taishan stone looked like—her entire attention had been focused on her grand-nephew.

Hearing Luo Sheng say this, Grand Commander Luo’s good mood dampened slightly.

Something wasn’t right. Previously, his daughter would insist on obtaining anything she liked. Why had she changed this time?

Thinking about his beloved daughter’s particular attention to Second Young Master Lin, Grand Commander Luo slapped his thigh.

He understood now—Sheng’er didn’t want a Taishan stone at home because she wanted an excuse to visit the Lin estate again in the future.

This wouldn’t do. The Lin household was a family of noble literati, with inherent pride in their bones, unlike those shameless nobles and powerful ministers.

What if his daughter did something excessive and the Lin family died to make their point? How would he handle that?

Though he was accustomed to life and death and had many deaths on his hands, this kind of situation would still be rather troublesome.

Luo Sheng raised her eyebrows. “What’s wrong, Father?”

“Nothing.” Grand Commander Luo smiled and deflected, secretly resolving to quickly find a superior Taishan stone to bring home.

Indeed, if he truly couldn’t find a good one, worst case he’d just ask Chancellor Lin to hand over the one from his household.

Between grandson and Taishan stone, surely Chancellor Lin knew which to choose.

“Then your daughter will return to her chambers first.”

“Go ahead.” After placating his daughter, Grand Commander Luo returned to his office.

A subordinate presented a letter. “Grand Commander, a letter from Fifth Master.”

Grand Commander Luo read through the letter and relaxed his brow slightly.

Fifth Brother’s letter stated that most of the mountain bandits along the route had been eliminated—his movements were quite efficient.

There were many official matters to handle at the office, and Grand Commander Luo soon buried himself in paperwork.

During these days, several incidents had occurred successively in the capital.

First, the second young lady of Elder Chen’s household had suddenly died on the night after attending the birthday banquet of the Pingnan Prince’s consort. Second, for some unknown reason, Chancellor Lin’s family had cut down several large trees in their garden. And another matter also originated from Elder Chen’s household.

Elder Chen had been impeached by numerous officials, with the primary charge being lax family discipline.

In this matter, Grand Commander Luo had naturally contributed his efforts.

Entering the cabinet as prime minister was the lifelong goal that Great Zhou civil officials strove toward. Elder Chen had trampled countless people underfoot to reach this position.

Each cabinet elder’s position had countless people eyeing it covetously, their eyes red with desire. Now that they had finally caught such an undeniable handle on Elder Chen, and with Grand Commander Luo fanning the flames, they naturally exerted every effort to pull Elder Chen down from his position.

Thus, Elder Chen, who had been prominent for many years, ended up retiring to his home. The Chen household, once a member of the capital’s top circle, was suddenly kicked out, and the entire family left the capital in dejection.

The rise and fall of official circles, the unpredictability of worldly affairs—what began as a young lady’s momentary impulse ultimately led to a prosperous family’s dissolution.

For a time, both those who had participated in bringing Elder Chen down and those who had merely watched the spectacle sighed endlessly, unanimously strengthening their discipline over their clan’s younger generation.

When educating their children, these people couldn’t help but quietly mention: “Don’t compare yourself to Miss Luo. The Luo family only looks at the present, so naturally they do whatever brings them pleasure.”

Grand Commander Luo was both a powerful minister and an imperial favorite. The more such a person was, the more they feared the changing of emperors.

In the future, the Luo family would have their debts to repay.

What? Grand Commander Luo’s daughters could turn their fortunes around by marrying good husbands?

Don’t joke—aside from the eldest Miss Luo who was already betrothed, it would be strange if the other three daughters could marry out at all.

Some people didn’t quite agree: “According to rumors, Miss Luo has something unclear going on with Prince Kaiyang.”

Those who heard this scoffed: “If you were molested by Miss Luo, people could also spread rumors about you having something unclear with Miss Luo. When a man is assaulted by a woman, can he cheerfully marry that woman into his household?”

Absolutely not—unless the man was sick.

Was Prince Kaiyang sick?

Wei Han was indeed sick, so ever since that day when he parted with Luo Sheng at the wine shop, he had been silently counting the days, just watching to see whether Divine Physician Li would enter the Luo estate’s gates within a month.

During this period, Shi Yan reported to him that Miss Luo had gone to the Lin estate and made the two young masters of the Lin family accompany her around the garden, that while shopping Miss Luo had smiled enchantingly at a handsome man and frightened him into fleeing in panic, that Miss Luo had taken her cousin wandering through streets and alleys eating, drinking, and making merry, that Miss Luo…

Wei Han sent Shi Yan back to scrubbing chamber pots and switched to having Shi Yi keep watch, finally gaining some peace and quiet.

Having obtained this peace, the young prince couldn’t help but wonder: What has Miss Luo done today?

Of course, he wasn’t concerned about what Miss Luo was doing—he was mainly curious about exactly what Miss Luo could do to attract the divine physician.

After several days of hearing nothing valuable from that taciturn gourd Shi Yi, Wei Han silently swapped the two brothers’ duties again.

On this day, the people who had obtained number tokens and entered the courtyard to wait to see the divine physician suddenly heard a thunderous roar of rage from inside the room: “How outrageous! This will be the death of this old man!”

Everyone couldn’t help but exchange bewildered glances.

Was that the divine physician roaring?

Impossible—a celestial figure like the divine physician, how could he roar so loudly?

Inside the room, Divine Physician Li clutched a letter, his face iron-blue with fury.

He had sent someone on a trip to Nanyang, wanting to confirm whether there truly was a “Divine Physician Li” operating there under his name.

Who would have thought that Nanyang City had no Divine Physician Li, but Jinsha had a Divine Physician Wang, whose reputation had spread all the way to Nanyang.

This Divine Physician Wang not only sold Nourishing Origin Pills but also sold Cold-Expelling Pills!

Yes, the other party called the Cold-Expelling Pills “Thousand Gold Pills,” but from the two pills sent back by the person he dispatched along with the letter, these so-called Thousand Gold Pills were Cold-Expelling Pills.

This alone would have been tolerable—using Cold-Expelling Pills to save lives could be considered accumulating virtue and doing good deeds. But using Nourishing Origin Pills to treat people without understanding how medicinal catalysts worked?

That’s right—Divine Physician Wang’s reputation spread to Nanyang not because of superior medical skills, but because this bastard was selling counterfeit medicine!

This infuriated him to death.

What puzzled Divine Physician Li even more was how this wretched Divine Physician Wang had produced the Nourishing Origin Pills and Cold-Expelling Pills.

Divine Physician Li stroked his trembling beard and sighed.

To resolve his doubts, he could only wait until the person he sent brought that bastard back to the capital.

Fortunately, calculating the days, it should be soon.