The hidden guard carried the young boy to Doctor Li’s pharmacy.
It had been raining these past few days, so Doctor Li hadn’t gone to the Duke Mansion to learn dical skills from Su Jin.
He was planning to go tomorrow.
The hidden guard brought the young boy to him for treatnt, and Doctor Li was fully attentive.
The hidden guard said, "Please take care of him for , Doctor Li. I’ll return to the mansion now."
"Don’t worry, keeping him here won’t be a problem," said Doctor Li.
The hidden guard bid farewell.
After buying four skewers of candied hawthorn, he returned to the Duke Mansion.
Agarwood Pavilion, backyard.
Xingxing sat on a small stool, waiting anxiously.
Su Jin said to wait another quarter of an hour.
But a quarter of an hour felt unbearably long to her.
She looked at the hourglass several tis.
Holding a stick, as soon as the ti was up, she quickly pushed aside the charcoal and picked out the two clay lumps.
The clay lumps were hard. Xingxing knocked them with a stone, and they cracked open.
An aroma spread out.
"So fragrant," Xingxing said, swallowing.
Su Jin ca over.
Ignoring the heat, Xingxing pulled off a chicken leg and handed it to Su Jin, "Miss, have a bite."
The beggar’s chicken was golden and shiny, fragrant and enticing, with its aroma penetrating from inside to outside, from bone to skin. The at was tender and lted in the mouth.
Especially the faint lotus leaf scent, which made it irresistible.
After eating half of the beggar’s chicken around the fire, the master and servant rembered Xie Jingchen’s portion.
Xingxing carried the clay lump on a tray and ran towards Xie Jingchen’s bamboo house.
"Sir, this is what the young lady asked to bring for you," Xingxing said.
Looking at the clay lump before him.
Xie Jingchen, "...."
Is this for real?
Xingxing placed the tray down and ran off.
There was also a stone on the tray.
Xie Jingchen picked it up and smashed the clay lump.
The clay lump cracked open, and a fragrant at aroma wafted out.
The entire bamboo house was filled with the sll.
Xie Jingchen tasted it, and indeed the flavor was quite good.
Xingxing ran back to sit on the small stool and continued eating.
She chewed with grease all over her mouth and said, "Miss, Madam’s birthday is coming up in a few days. Should we give her two beggar’s chickens for her birthday?"
"Is my mother’s birthday coming up soon?" Su Jin asked.
"Yes, in three days it will be Madam’s birthday."
"Why didn’t you tell earlier?" Su Jin said.
"It’s not too late to tell you now. Madam isn’t keen on celebrating birthdays and won’t make a big fuss," Xingxing said.
As Su Jin ate the beggar’s chicken, she asked, "How did we celebrate her birthday before?"
Xingxing gnawed on the chicken and said, "The brothers from Qingyun Mountain just got together to eat at and drink wine."
"What else?" Su Jin asked.
"Nothing else."
"...."
The birthday celebrations were really simple.
But since she knew, she couldn’t be careless about it.
"What did I gift my mother in previous years?" Su Jin asked.
Xingxing thought for a mont and said, "The young lady gave Madam things she made by hand herself. The year before last, it was an extrely ugly purse."
Su Jin, "...."
Couldn’t this maid be a bit more tactful and spare her mistress so dignity?
"Last year, it was a plate of braised pork that looked like charcoal," Xingxing said.
"...."
"Did my mother eat it?" Su Jin’s voice wavered a bit.
"Madam took one bite, and the rest was eaten by the Marquis and the Young Master."
"...."
"Fortunately, they just had a bit of a stomachache for a day," Xingxing said.
"...."
"The Young Master said even arsenic tasted better than the braised pork the young lady made."
"...."
From Xingxing’s description, Su Jin could imagine the power of that plate of braised pork.
But Xingxing didn’t ntion that the previous Su Jin was so impacted by the Young Master’s words that she intended to practice cooking diligently and make another dish of braised pork for her mother’s birthday.
However, after swearing an oath on the day she was hurt, she completely forgot about it.
"Miss, this beggar’s chicken, the Marquis and Madam will surely like it," Xingxing said.
Su Jin chuckled, "We can eat beggar’s chicken another day. For my mother’s birthday, I’ll give her sothing else."
"What will the young lady give?" Xingxing was curious.
"You’ll know in due course," Su Jin’s eyes glead with confidence.
Xingxing was a bit worried.
She was too familiar with that look.
Every ti the young lady was brimming with confidence, and then the results turned out completely different.
When the hidden guard returned, he handed the candied hawthorn to Xingxing, but Xingxing, who had just eaten half a beggar’s chicken, still ate the candied hawthorn.
"Why did it take you so long to return?" Xingxing asked.
"The Eldest Young Madam rescued a pair of siblings a few days ago. They were being troubled by soone again, and I took so ti to save them," the hidden guard replied.
"Being troubled again?" Su Jin frowned. Why wouldn’t they stop bothering that pair of siblings?
"It’s people from Duke Chong’s Mansion trying to find out who is helping the families of the Flying Tiger Army," the hidden guard said.
"Duke Chong’s Mansion truly isn’t made up of good people," Xingxing said.
After saying that, Xingxing felt she was wrong because the young lady had saved the Old Duke Chong.
Su Jin’s brows knitted.
The Flying Tiger Army, to so extent, could be considered under Duke Chong’s Mansion.
Soone was aiding these Flying Tiger Army families, and Duke Chong didn’t know about it, even sending people to assault the Flying Tiger Army families—
Is his brain rusted shut?
If this matter were spread, his prestige as Duke Chong would be in ruins.
Su Jin was tempted to do so, but the person assisting the Flying Tiger Army families was virtuous, doing good deeds without seeking recognition. It wouldn’t be appropriate for Su Jin to publicize it, as it might ruin things for them.
After the hidden guard finished reporting, he went to the bamboo house to inform Xie Jingchen.
Xie Jingchen thought even more broadly than Su Jin. He had always felt that Marquis Dongxiang had a secret.
In order to enter the Ministry of Justice, he went so far as to kick out the Vice Minister of the Ministry of Justice and take his place. His sole purpose seed to be targeting Duke Chong.
Although Marquis Dongxiang had an overbearing personality and feared nothing, ever since the Dongxiang Marquis Mansion entered the capital, his targets had been none other than Duke Chong and his faction.
Those Imperial Censors he scared half to death were all people of Duke Chong.
Going a step further, he even robbed the Emperor.
Besides these, he hadn’t done much to warrant criticism.
Marquis Dongxiang respected the Old Duke Chong and trained his n extrely rigorously, far beyond what military officers experienced.
And as Su Chong had said, there were over eighty people at Qingyun Mountain capable of the Hundred-step Piercing Willow.
He also recalled Xingxing ntioning that Marquis Dongxiang didn’t want to be ennobled, preferring to be a general and form an army with the brothers from Qingyun Mountain.
Marquis Dongxiang blad the Emperor for disrupting his entire plan, and he only accepted the amnesty out of necessity.
Additionally, there was the fact that, as the hidden guard just ntioned, so of the families of the Flying Tiger Army were being taken away.
These once frail families returned highly skilled in martial arts, with stable dispositions.
A bold thought surfaced.
This thought shook Xie Jingchen to the core.
He even wondered if he was going crazy.
Could Marquis Dongxiang possibly be a mber of the Flying Tiger Army who miraculously survived back then?
Not only did he survive, but through his own efforts, by plundering the court and becoming a king on a mountain, he rebuilt a Flying Tiger Army?
Is this... really possible?
Yet once this thought erged, he couldn’t suppress it.
There was too much evidence supporting his conjecture.
The two people who should oppose Marquis Dongxiang leading the Flying Tiger Army the most were, ironically, both in favor of him.
One was Marquis Jibei.
The other was the Old Duke Chong.
And there was also Marquis Dongxiang’s attitude towards Marquis Jibei.
After the Emperor presented them with jade pendants, the words of Eunuch Fu and the maidservant.
If Marquis Dongxiang was truly a mber of the Flying Tiger Army from back then.
Then wouldn’t he be the Second Master of the Jibei Marquis Mansion?!
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