Chapter 028: Partridge Sky (Part 3)
Her words, "I'll learn it myself," concealed the grievances she was unwilling to express.
She really did as she said. The next morning, she was cooking breakfast in the kitchen. Ni Su had never done such things at home before. She didn't know how to light the stove, nor did she know how much rice and water to use.
The kitchen was filled with smoke, which made Ni Su cough uncontrollably. Her eyes were so choked that she could hardly open them. She felt someone carefully holding her sleeve, and she followed him out of the kitchen.
"What are you doing out here?"
Ni Su coughed and said, "If your figure were any lighter, it would snow here again."
"I thought it was on fire."
Xu Hexue let go of her and said.
Ni Su lit many lights in his room and did not allow him to come out from last night until now.
Her eyelids were rubbed red by Ni Su. When she heard his words, she pursed her lips in embarrassment.
Ni Su sat down on the wooden steps under the eaves without saying a word, hugging her knees. After a long while, she said, "Why is cooking so difficult?"
Her dejection was revealed in her drooped brows.
“You’ve always known how difficult it is.”
Xu Hexue stood behind her and said.
He was not talking about cooking. In fact, what she said was different from what she thought. Ni Su turned around and looked up at him: "Before my mother died, she said that this was a very difficult thing. She asked me if I was afraid. At that time, I told her that I was not afraid."
She tilted her neck so high that she felt tired, so she turned around again, "But actually, I was also terrified."
Yunjing is not Que County, and the world is not limited to a small Que County. In the past, although Ni Su's father did not allow her to study medicine at home, he treated her well. Later, her father passed away, and she was protected by her mother and brother. But now she is alone in the city of Yunjing. She just realized that her previous arguments with her father, the so-called resistance and disobedience, were nothing but childish rebellion tolerated by her family.
Now that her father, brother and mother are all dead, the disaster in Yunjing is far more terrible than she had imagined.
"You've done very well, but the murderer who killed your brother will feel uneasy as long as you stay in Yunjing." Xu Hexue walked over and sat down beside her, smoothing out the wrinkles on his wide sleeves out of habit.
"Is it true that the person who harmed my brother is framing me?" Ni Su was busy all morning and had not eaten. She took a carrot from the dustpan beside her and took a bite. "I always feel that the person who stole my brother's test paper is very different from the person who framed me this time."
Chuanwu is usually a medicine for inducing abortion, but it was mixed with medicine for preserving pregnancy. This cannot be explained by a momentary confusion and the wrong medicine was used. Azhou's identification was wrong from the beginning.
It was for this reason that Tian Qizhong, the magistrate of Guangning Prefecture, did not make a hasty judgment on her.
This crude method is like two extremes compared to the meticulous winter test case.
"Maybe they are not the same person, but they should all know the inside story." Xu Hexue supported one hand on the wooden steps and coughed a few times. "This person could have asked Azhou to poison the food sent to you, but he didn't. He should have been watching you in secret and knew that you were protected by the people of the Night Guard. If you died of poisoning, the winter examination case would have become even more serious. Minister Meng and Censor Jiang in the court have linked this case to obstructing the new policy, and pushing forward the new policy is the emperor's golden decree, and the emperor will definitely not let it go."
"He used legal means to send you, an orphan girl seeking justice for your brother, to Guangning Prefecture, and then used the Chuanwu found in your home as irrefutable evidence. I guess his next move is to use your previous words of 'talking nonsense and disrespecting the court' in Guangning Prefecture to make you a mentally ill person who cannot be trusted. He can even find some scapegoats to prove that you hired someone to kill your brother. As long as you are convicted of murdering someone, once you die, everything between you and your brother will be unclear."
Even if Ni Su was not in Yunjing when Ni Qinglan died, what would it matter? They could still accuse others.
"If the police officers of Guangning Prefecture had really found Chuanwu here yesterday," Ni Su said, and slowly took another bite of the radish, "then the night watchman would not be able to take me away."
Although Guangning Prefecture was willing to transfer the case to the Night Police, it was impossible for them to give in on everything. Otherwise, what achievements could Guangning Prefecture report to the government?
Guangning Prefecture would only generously hand over cases that lack key evidence and are unclear to the Night Police, but they would probably not let them do so for cases that don't seem difficult to handle.
Raw radish is actually sweet. Ni Su ate it mouthful by mouthful. She raised her head and suddenly met the gaze of the person next to her. She asked, "Do you want to eat it?"
The warm sun shone on Xu Hexue's knees. He watched her chewing the radish in such bright light. This should be her first time eating raw radish, and she was obviously curious about new things.
Xu Hexue shook her head, and suddenly took out a small porcelain jar from her arms with her hand on her knees and handed it to her.
There was a label saying "Wanyu Paste" on the porcelain jar. Ni Su knew at a glance that it was the scar removal cream from the drugstore that Cai Chunxu had mentioned to her. Ni Su even forgot to eat the radish, and stared at the ointment, then raised her eyes to look at him.
The light golden sunlight fell on his face. Ni Su took the ointment and asked, "Did you buy it yesterday?"
He was summoned by her and should have stayed by her side all the time, but yesterday he risked coming back here to help her clean up the Chuanwu that were used by someone with ulterior motives to harm her.
Also, don't forget to buy ointment.
"Ni Su, this time, it's still your money."
Xu Hexue took back his hand, "Remember the crooked tree I told you about? I already remember where it is."
The breeze in the courtyard rustled the branches and leaves. He followed the rustling sound and looked at the swaying shadow on the ground. He said, "I'll give you all the money I buried there when I was young."
Ni Su was stunned for a long time.
The warmth of her palm had warmed the small porcelain jar. In her other hand, she held half a carrot. She lowered her eyes, and her gaze unconsciously rested on his shadow on the ground.
She found her voice again: "That's the private money you hid from Mrs. Shrewd. How can I take it?"
When Xu Hexue heard her mention "the shrewish lady", he knew that she was teasing him. His gaze fell back on her face and he saw that Ni Su, who had been depressed just now, now had a smile on her face.
He blinked his eyelashes uncomfortably and said, "Ni Su, stop laughing."
"Really?"
Ni Su said while biting a radish.
there is nothing?
Xu Hexue's eyes showed a bit of confusion at first, but then he understood and shook his head: "I left Yunjing before I could get married."
After that, he was on the battlefield and had no interest in this matter anymore.
Ni Su was about to speak when she heard someone calling her from the front hall. She immediately stood up, put the uneaten radish back into the dustpan, and told Xu Hexue, "Go back and lie down. If the incense and candles are not enough, you must call me."
He couldn't stay too far away from Ni Su, but the distance of one courtyard was nothing.
"good."
Xu Hexue stood up with the help of the porch pillar and responded obediently.
Seeing Ni Su turn around and run to the front, he slowly walked back to his room. After standing in front of the screen for a moment, Xu Hexue moved his gaze to the desk.
There are some miscellaneous books piled there.
He walked to the table and bent over to search through it.
Ni Su arrived at the front hall and found that it was Chao Yisong. "Young Master Chao, why are you here?"
"I dare not call you sir," Chao Yisong rubbed his sleepy eyes, walked over and sat down on the chair in front of him, "Miss Ni, our little sir Zhou is busy, so he asked me to tell you that Ah Zhou's false accusation against you has been confirmed."
"Azhou's mother didn't die because she took your medicine. Azhou asked you to prescribe medicine to preserve the pregnancy for his mother, but he didn't know that his mother didn't want to preserve the pregnancy, but wanted to have an abortion."
"Azhou's family was penniless, and his father had been injured and bedridden a few days ago. His mother thought the family couldn't afford to raise another child, so she discussed with Azhou's father about aborting the baby. Azhou didn't know that his father knew about this."
"Azhou's mother didn't drink the medicine he prepared to preserve the pregnancy, nor did she tell him that she wanted to have an abortion. She was probably worried that Azhou would stop her, so she found a medicine woman herself."
"So, it was the medicine lady that Zhou's mother hired who gave her the wrong dosage?"
Ni Su asked.
"Yes, and it was used wrongly on purpose."
Chao Yisong continued, "Azhou's mother drank medicine the night before, and the fetus didn't fall, but she died. Azhou wanted to find the medicine woman, but he met a man outside. The man told him that if he was willing to identify you as the one who killed his mother, he would give him enough money to hire a famous doctor to treat his father's illness."
"Did you find that person?"
Ni Su stared at him closely.
"No," Chao Yisong and Zhou Ting interrogated Azhou last night, and searched everywhere for him, so tired that his eyes were bloodshot, "The man covered up, and the medicine woman couldn't be found."
"Originally, that person gave Ah Zhou a prescription and asked him to boil it and add the residue of Chuanwu used by his mother. He insisted that it was the prescription you prescribed. However, Ah Zhou lost his mother the night before, and in grief, he wanted to save trouble and directly put the residue of Chuanwu together with the residue of the medicine you prescribed."
At this point, Chao Yisong was a little confused. "But the strange thing is, why didn't the murderer come to your place to release the Sichuan aconite, nor did he steal your record books?"
Ni Su naturally couldn't tell him because she had Xu Ziling's help.
The record book must have been re-recorded by Xu Ziling in her handwriting. He remembered what prescription she had written for Azhou's mother. In these days, apart from Chao Yisong's leg injury, no one else came to see the doctor. There were only a few words on the record book, which made it convenient for Xu Ziling to rewrite the book before the Guangning Prefecture's police officer arrived.
As for the medicine that the mysterious man Chao Yisong mentioned gave to Azhou, Ni Su thought that the medicine must have further proved that she had no proper medical skills and could only prescribe random medicines, rather than mixing the abortion-inducing herb Chuanwu into a good pregnancy-maintaining medicine.
That person certainly didn't expect that A Zhou would not do as he instructed.
"But don't worry, Miss Ni,"
Chao Yisong did not expect this girl to answer his doubts. He just finished talking to himself and said to her, "The drug addict who takes money and gives drugs knows how to hide after doing these things. She must still be alive. As long as we find her, that person's tail will be unstoppable!"
"Also, Lord Xiao Zhou said that some of the officials involved in the Imperial Examination Hall are unable to hold back and are ready to speak out."
"Are you serious?"
Ni Su had been waiting for news, but only today did she hear a hint from Chao Yisong.
"To be more specific, only Envoy Han and Lord Xiao Zhou know. I am also following Lord Xiao Zhou's orders to tell you this."
The news brought by Chao Yisong almost drove away all of Ni Su's fatigue in recent days. She invited Chao Yisong to drink a bowl of tea, and after Chao Yisong left, she couldn't wait to run to the back corridor.
The daylight is shining.
Ni Su went straight to Xu Hexue's room, but heard a clear voice behind her: "Ni Su, I'm here."
Ni Su turned around suddenly.
Under the eaves, a young man in a dark blue round-necked robe with a pale face was sitting on the steps, looking at her with a pair of clear eyes.
"Why are you sitting at the kitchen door?"
Ni Su ran over and asked him, and then couldn't wait to tell him, "Xu Ziling, the fact that Azhou framed me has been investigated."
"Azhou's mother wanted to have an abortion, so the murderer bribed a drug addict to give her a heavy dose of drugs, and then..."
She said a lot of things like this.
Xu Hexue listened attentively, stood up with the help of the porch pillar, and hummed "hmm" from time to time.
"It seems that some of the officials imprisoned in the Night Bureau are about to let go."
Ni Su stood at the bottom of the wooden steps, looking up at Xu Hexue who was standing upright, and said, "And that medicine woman, it would be great if Master Xiao Zhou and the others could find her sooner..."
"We can look for it, too."
Xu Hexue said.
us.
When Ni Su heard him mention "we", her nose felt a little sore.
If Xu Ziling wasn't there, she knew she would be alone. She couldn't form a "we" with anyone here, and no one would help her in this way.
Except for the lonely soul Xu Ziling.
"But you're not well yet," Ni Su looked at him with some worry, "I will definitely light a lot of incense and candles for you every day, Xu Ziling, you must get better soon."
The sunlight was clear and fell into her eyes.
Xu Hexue was being stared at by her. For some reason, his eyelids moved slightly, and the fingers between his sleeves curled up. He turned his head and asked, "Are you still hungry?"
Hearing his sudden words, Ni Su couldn't help but look at the chair on the side.
"Where's my carrot?"
Not only the radishes, but the entire basket of vegetables disappeared.
"Come in with me."
Xu Hexue turned around.
Ni Su followed him in closely, and when she looked up, she saw hot meals on the square table.
Ni Su saw that her radish was made into soup.
"You...can cook?"
Ni Su murmured.
"Today is the first time."
Xu Hexue shook her head and took out a book from her sleeve and gave it to her. "This is what you bought. It's on my desk. I remembered seeing such a recipe book in my room, so I tried it."
Ni Su took it and took a look at it - "The Food for Clear Dreams".
"Is this the cookbook written by Mr. Meng?" Ni Su saw Mr. Meng's name and flipped through it. "I asked someone to buy the book. I asked him to buy more contemporary masterpieces for me. He should have included this cookbook because of Mr. Meng's name."
"After I made it according to the recipe, I remembered that Mr. Meng used more salt in his early years."
In fact, Xu Hexue didn’t know whether what he made was delicious or not.
"Let me try it."
Ni Su sat down at the table. Although it was just porridge and small dishes, it looked very good. She tasted a dish and then looked up and smiled at him: " The salt is a bit heavy, maybe because I usually eat light food."
"But it doesn't matter, it's still delicious."
She said.
"Try it, isn't it a bit strong?" Ni Su took a sip of the soup, looked up and asked him.
The light from outside the door fell on Xu Hexue's sleeves. He nodded gently: "Yes."
"You don't want to eat?"
"You eat it."
Ni Su knew that as a ghost, he didn't need to eat these, so he nodded and ate with the bowl in his hand. "I didn't know there was such a recipe book. If I had known, I would have followed it and this would not have happened this morning..."
"Once I learn how to do it, maybe I can even make you some sweet cakes myself."
