Chapter Forty-Four: Unexpected

  When an imperial envoy came to invite Zhang's family to Zhao Kuangyin's small courtyard, she was teaching her grandchildren to read.

  Zhaowei has already opened his mind and finished learning the Three Hundred Thousand under the guidance of his father Zhao Jiong. He has started to tackle more in-depth lessons. As for Zhao, she quickly finished learning the Three Character Classic and the Hundred Family Surnames, and finally entered the realm of the Thousand Character Text. Compared to a few months ago, she has grown up a bit more, walking steadily and grasping the brush firmly with her small hands, writing out characters that are no longer scribbles, but rather have a somewhat dignified appearance. Zhangshi is very satisfied with the learning progress of both children.

  Lu Yunpeng comes to the gate every day to pick up Zhao Wei, teaching him a few simple boxing moves. Zhao Wei also urges his brother to run around the yard several times a day, so Zhao Wei's body has been getting better and better. Although the weather is getting colder day by day, he coughs less often. Zhang Shi is relieved but still can't be careless, often inviting reliable doctors to come and take her grandson's pulse, giving him tonics.

  As for Zhang Chaoyi, he has his own family and cannot stay in Fengxian for a long time. He has been back in Songjiang for some time now.

  Zhang's attitude towards Zhao Kuang was one of complete disregard. As long as the Jiang family did not take the initiative to come to her, she couldn't even be bothered with this nominal daughter-in-law. Now all she needed to do was wait, waiting for the Emperor and the Guangping King to make decisions for her ancestors, and she didn't care about anything else. When the imperial envoy specially sent someone to invite her to go to Zhao Kuang's place, her first reaction was extreme surprise, thinking that she had misheard: "Did the imperial envoy really say so?"

  The newcomer nodded: "Yes, please move forward, Old Lady Zhao."

  Zhang's family was silent for a moment, and then asked faintly: "Is Zhao Zhi's wife Jiang also there?" Zhao Hui was paralyzed and couldn't move, and with guards around him, it was impossible for him to do anything on his own. On the other hand, Jiang might be restless and stir up trouble.

  The newcomer also gave a definite answer: "Zhao Dainai is indeed here too."

  Zhang smiled coldly, glanced at him, and then whispered to the two children: "As I said earlier, copy these two pages of books, and ask Akira to bring you some snacks. After eating the snacks, take a break, and then continue reciting the book."

  Zhao Wei didn't notice anything unusual and obediently agreed. Zhao Mu vaguely felt that something bad would happen to Zhang Shi this time: "Grandma, shall I have Autumn Leaf accompany you?"

  "Ah, yes, Old Lady, I'll accompany you. Brother and Sister are here, there's still someone to take care of things."

  Zhang shook her head: "But it's just within the mansion, a few steps away, with imperial guards escorting, what need is there to bring a maid? You stay here and watch the child. If anyone dares to intrude while I'm not around, don't hesitate, directly call someone to go to the front and invite Lord Lu."

  Qiu Ye's face changed color and he hastily agreed.

  It's not that Zhang is being overly cautious, although the King of Guangping had promised to speak to the Emperor on their behalf and have Zhao Wei spared from being targeted by those with ill intentions, including Xiaolongfang, who would be delighted to see him gone. However, since the imperial edict has yet to arrive, it's better for them to remain cautious. If something were to happen to Zhao Wei, even if the perpetrator is punished severely afterwards, it would be too late.

  Zhaoyi quickly understood the reason, but she was still worried. Her grandmother, although only around 40 years old, was a truly weak woman with poor health, and she didn't want her to suffer any grievances. Why did that official suddenly summon Zhangshi without reason? And why did he invite her to Zhaojiu's courtyard? He had become a paralytic, couldn't he just be content with his fate? What evil intentions did that eldest sister-in-law Jiangshi have again? How could there be such bad people in the world, when others hadn't bothered them and weren't interested in revealing their secrets, yet they insisted on putting others to death while pretending to be innocent and pure, making one feel disgusted just by looking at them!

  Zhao was muttering to himself when he suddenly heard someone calling out "Autumn Leaf". Autumn Leaf went outside to see who it was and found that it was an old woman who often came to their house on orders from Wang the Fourth to deliver things.

  The old woman poked her head in from outside the gate, looked around, and not seeing Zhang Shi, heard Autumn Leaf say she had been summoned by the imperial envoy. She stomped her foot and said: "I'm late! It's all because of my old legs that can't walk fast. Manager Wang was also called over, telling me to hurry up and report to Old Madam, lest she falls into a trap, didn't expect I didn't make it!"

  "Qiū yè hěn jǐn zhāng: 'dào dǐ chū le shén me shì? wāng zǒng guǎn hái tè dì jiào nǐ lái?'"

  Translation:

  "Akiha was a bit tense: 'What's going on? Did Wang Director specially call you over?'"

  "Gao Cheng, the one who served the old master, is dead!" The woman said hastily. "He was poisoned to death after eating the porridge that was originally made for the old master. Gao Cheng made the porridge, but the people in the kitchen said that when Gao Cheng was making the porridge, someone from this courtyard came into the kitchen and quarreled with him for a couple of sentences. Later, Gao Cheng went out to fetch firewood, leaving the person from this courtyard alone in the kitchen for quite some time before coming out. Therefore, the old mistress cried and begged the honorable official to take charge, hinting that it was the old lady who instructed someone to put poison in the porridge, with the intention of poisoning the old master!"

  Qiu Ye was furious: "This is absurd! The people in our yard, the food we eat is never cooked in the large kitchen, it's all made by ourselves in the yard. How can you say that we went to the large kitchen and quarreled with Gao Cheng? Besides, if our people were really in the kitchen, Gao Cheng is usually very careful, how could he leave us unattended and go out to fetch firewood himself? This is clearly nonsense!"

  "Who says it isn't?" The old woman sighed, "We heard General Wang's words and knew something was off. Afraid that the elderly lady wouldn't understand the situation, she'd been deceived by their tricks, so I came to say a word, but unexpectedly I'm too late!"

  "Never mind, such an obvious flaw, the old lady won't fall for it. You just go back and thank your chief manager on my behalf."

  The old woman left, and Autumn Leaf returned to the main house with a somewhat unsettled mind. She anxiously looked towards the east wing but couldn't leave the two children unattended to go ask questions herself. So she called over a rough-handed servant from the courtyard and instructed her to go take a look at the situation in the east wing.

  Zhao Wei and Zhao Mei had just heard the words of the old woman who was spreading the message, and they both knew that someone wanted to harm their own grandmother, so they were very worried. Zhao Wei asked in a low voice: "Sister, I also want to go see grandma, can you stay here and copy books by yourself?"

  "No way." Zhao firmly vetoed his proposal, "We'll go together!"

  Zhao Wei's originally droopy little face suddenly became spirited: "Great, let's go together!"

  Qiu Ye was startled and hastily stopped them: "You can't go, young masters. The old lady has instructed you to stay behind and copy books. If she finds out that you're not listening, she'll definitely be angry."

  Zhaowei hesitated, and Zhao asked Akira: "Sister, aren't you worried about Grandma? Sending someone to ask is not as good as going yourself. If it weren't for taking care of us, you would have gone already. If we go with you, you won't have to worry about the front or back."

  Qiu Ye hesitated, so Zhao Zuo gave Zhao Wei a signal and intentionally started "crying" loudly: "I want my grandmother! I want to find my grandmother! Where is my grandmother?!" She sat in the chair, twisting her small body and making a crying scene.

  Zhaowei suddenly understood and quickly grasped his sister's intention: "Sister Autumn Leaf, my little sister is making a fuss about finding grandma and crying loudly. Let's take her to find grandma, or else she'll get sick from crying like this."

  Akane: "......"

  Zhang arrived at the scene to find everyone standing in the courtyard, with both doors of the house wide open. Zhao Jiong was lying inside, his eyes rolling back and forth, visible from the courtyard. Jiang's wife stood outside the door, quietly sobbing, accompanied by her maid Hong Xiang. The imperial envoy sat on a chair under the eaves, with a row of guards standing behind him, several people kneeling in front, and Wang Si standing to one side with his hands hanging down.

  There was a person lying in the courtyard, with a white cloth covering his head. Judging from his body shape and clothes, Zhang Shi quickly determined that he should be Gao Cheng. Is Gao Cheng dead? What's going on here?

  The imperial envoy respectfully stepped forward and saluted Zhang: "I have seen Madame Zhao, I'm afraid I've disturbed you, ma'am. It's truly a crime."

  Madam Zhang returned the courtesy with a bow: "I don't dare, I don't know why the imperial envoy has specially invited me to come, what is the noble purpose?" Completely ignoring Zhao Kuang and Jiang Shi's meaning, Jiang Shi's crying suddenly became louder.

  But no one paid attention to her, and the imperial envoy continued to say that Gao Cheng had died of poisoning. He then said: "Our family has already had someone verify it, this poison in Gao Cheng's body should be 'Xiao Tao Hong'. The porridge also contained this kind of poison."

  " 'Little Peach Red'? This should be a chronic poison, right?"

  "It's true." The imperial envoy was surprised that the county magistrate's wife was an expert, and he gave her a knowing look. "According to reason, with this amount of poison in the porridge, even if the criminal Zhao Jiong ate it for four or five days, he might not have lost his life. But strangely, Gao Chengcai only had two mouthfuls and died on the spot with seven orifices bleeding. From the corpse, we can see that he was poisoned at least three days ago, and it was a case of poisoning on top of poisoning, which is why he lost his life immediately."

  Zhang coldly smiled: "Since it was the poison from three days ago, all we need to do is see what Gao Cheng ate three days ago and who he was with, then we'll know the truth."

  The imperial envoy slowly nodded: "That's right, our family has already ordered someone to ask your servant questions, please also give us the convenience, Old Lady Zhao."

  Zhang looked at Wang Siping, and Wang Siping hastily said: "Don't worry, madam. I've already instructed them that no matter what the imperial envoy asks, they must answer truthfully." He paused for a moment, "Earlier, someone in the kitchen claimed that when Gao Cheng was cooking porridge today, one of the maids from your courtyard came to the kitchen to cook and had a few words with him. When Gao Cheng left, the maid stayed alone in the kitchen for a while, who knows what she did? This is completely nonsense, I've already explained it to the imperial envoy. The food for your courtyard has always been cooked in the small kitchen, and no one from your courtyard ever goes to the main kitchen. Moreover, when Gao Cheng cooks, he doesn't allow anyone to approach him or talk to him casually. This was ordered by the Duke of Guangping himself, and no one in the mansion dares to disobey."

  Zhang looked at the imperial envoy, who smiled and said: "Yes, your honorable butler has already explained it, and I have also asked other servants, and indeed it is so."

  "Hey, what's up with that guy in the kitchen who's talking nonsense? Why did she have to tell such a lie?"

  Jiang had already stopped sobbing and stared at their conversation with a mixture of confusion and astonishment. How did things turn out so differently from what she had expected?

  A guard brought a woman hastily from outside the courtyard and reported to the official: "Sir, this woman says that Gao Cheng left the small courtyard three days ago due to illness and returned home to rest. However, at night, he secretly followed someone away. She saw with her own eyes where Gao Cheng went that night."

  Jiang's face suddenly turned white.