Manbao listlessly took the basket and asked, "What are Fifth Brother and the others busy with at ho?"
The bailiff wouldn’t let them talk much, barking, "Take the stuff and get out quickly, do you think this jail is your ho?"
Bai Shan and Manbao silently thought: it almost is.
Zhou Lijun then waved at them and shouted, "Fifth Uncle didn’t write to tell the family, Little Aunt can rest assured."
The deputy director of the Ministry of Justice checked their baskets and saw they were all stuffed buns, then waved them through.
Seeing their listlessness, he said irritably, "Don’t look as if we’ve wronged you; the Ministry of Justice doesn’t even want to detain you."
Manbao and the others had just finished their evening al when they understood why the deputy director had said that. As Manbao was giving acupuncture to two sick prisoners, a commotion arose outside, and the two imdiately dropped the needles on the patients and ran to the jail gate, ears perked up to listen.
They heard a shrill voice outside, shouting, "Tao Yi, you’ve got so nerve, daring to disregard Her Majesty the Empress Dowager’s decree?"
"Minister Feng said, unless the heads of the three ministries personally co, or there are letters from three senior officials and His Majesty’s decree, no one can see them, please forgive us, Eunuch."
"But I heard that the Bai Family cos and goes in the sky prison as if it’s uninhabited, moving freely?"
"Eunuch must have heard wrong, the Bai Family only sent things here, they haven’t t anyone. We check everything that cos in, and handed it to the people inside only if there’s no issue; if the Eunuch wishes to deliver sothing to the jail, we can also make the transfer..."
Their voices gradually faded, and Manbao and the others strained their ears to catch the conversation.
The two grasping the jail gate couldn’t help but glance at each other and whispered very softly, "Wonder if this deputy director of the Ministry of Justice can hold them off."
"So his na is Tao Yi, that’s a good na, he should be able to stop them."
The motionless Xiang Ming and Xiang Chao: ...
Xiang Chao coughed softly and also lowered his voice to ask, "Doctor Zhou Junior, can we remove the needles now?"
Manbao glanced at the system’s ti and replied without turning back, "No, it’s still too early, you should go to sleep first."
The noise outside gradually ceased, and the two waited a long ti without anyone coming in to explain.
The two stood up straight, shrugged at each other after exchanging glances, then went to check on the needles they had inserted into the Xiang brothers, sighing together, "It seems we are all safer staying in jail."
Manbao checked the ti and began to remove the needles from Xiang Chao while saying, "But if we don’t get out soon, dicine won’t co in, and you’ll run out."
Xiang Chao imdiately said, "Then don’t use the dicine on , give it all to the Second Young Master."
Xiang Ming’s face changed, "No way!"
Bai Shan was not very anxious; he picked up a book and said, "People outside will be anxious about these things, let’s just sit tight in jail."
And they really did sit tight; from that night on, the four of them were exceptionally well-behaved in the cell, never intentionally troubling the bailiffs and even offering money daily for their help in replenishing water.
Although life in jail was quite inconvenient, Zhou Lijun still managed to have food delivered to the jail every day. She was now unable to enter herself and could only pass it through the bailiff Tao Yi.
The advantage for the bailiffs was that every ti Zhou Lijun ca, she would bring two baskets of food, with the sumptuous basket for the bailiffs and the plain one for Manbao and the others.
The als Zhou Liulang prepared for them were exceptionally simple, either noodles they could boil themselves or big plain stead buns with fresh vegetables that were easy to warm up, with more vegetables and less oil.
Yet, the four inmates always ate with gusto, never losing their appetite.
Of course, there have always been those attempting to see them or extract them for interrogation, but thus far, apart from Wei Zhi and others, no one has been able to breach the Ministry of Justice’s prison gates to see them or take them out for a hearing.
Last night was the most perilous; the four prison squatting inmates clung to the cell door, even hearing the clanging of weapons outside. In that mont, their hearts all soared with high tension.
It wasn’t until the tumult outside persisted for quite so ti, and finally they heard Minister Feng’s roaring anger, that the noise gradually subsided.
Yet, none of the three clinging to the cell door moved an inch.
Manbao, with her eyes wide and mouth agape, exclaid, "Who is it, so bold as to charge the cell with weapons?"
Bai Shan’s face looked sowhat grim, "I don’t know how Grandmother and the teacher are doing."
The only one sitting on the kang, Xiang Mingxue, sneered sarcastically, "This is what it’s like to have power."
The cell fell into utter silence.
Manbao swallowed nervously, "But we weren’t taken out, were we?"
So, are they still holding the upper hand now?
Xiang Chao is now able to walk around, he returned to the kang hunched and limping, sighed and said, "It seems the cell is safer after all."
Indeed, the cell was safer; Wei Zhi finally obtained the emperor’s decree, handed it to Minister Feng, and then Manbao was able to prescribe dicine for Zhou Lijun, who went to Jishi Hall to purchase the dicine and then delivered it to the sky prison.
Along this route, Zhou Lijun did not seek others’ assistance. With Daji for protection and the trustworthiness of Jishi Hall, nothing should have gone wrong.
Yet Manbao still noticed sothing amiss with the dicine delivered for the third ti, knowing that many sought their deaths. Thus, every ti Manbao brewed the dicine, she would select the herbs personally, opening each packet and using a small scale to weigh the proper amount.
When Manbao was handling a specific herb, she felt sothing was off, sniffed it, and, though the scent seed the sa, sothing also appeared to be slightly different. Upon comparison, she couldn’t find any significant issue, but she felt the processed aconite in her hand was not quite right. It wasn’t until she consulted Keke that she confird, "They look similar in appearance, but the processing thod should be different; so of it is poisonous."
Manbao was astounded, while she picked out what she thought was the dubious aconite, she said, "No wonder Shopkeeper Zheng always says, dicine is important, and so is the dicine dealer, it truly is very important."
Bai Shan, curiously leaning in, remarked, "Isn’t that stating the obvious? Once the dicine goes down, of course it’s important."
"You don’t understand," Manbao shook her head, "Scholars look down upon physicians, who in turn look down upon pharmacists, and the pharmacists press down on the farrs. I’ve always found it strange; they’re just engaging in different trades, why the contempt for each other?"
Xiang Mingxue, as if it was a matter of course, replied, "Their status is different, isn’t that perfectly normal?"
Yet Bai Shan looked at him with puzzlent, "Is that so normal?"
The three of them exchanged glances, with Xiang Mingxue frowning, "Isn’t that normal?"
Xiang Chao, with a headache, said, "Shouldn’t we be discussing the matter of poisoning right now? Who is adding poison to our dicine?"
Manbao had already picked out the aconite she deed poisonous, letting Keke check it over, and said nonchalantly, "What is there to discuss? Of course, it was done by soone who wants us dead."
Bai Shan nodded, "Exactly, with so many suspects, how could we investigate? As long as the case of the Prince of Yizhou is settled, we will be safe. Later we just hand this over to Minister Feng."
Xiang Chao promptly looked towards Xiang Mingxue.
Who would have thought Xiang Mingxue nodded as well, not perceiving the matter to be sothing warranting investigation.
Xiang Chao: ...Why can’t he understand their way of thinking?
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