Su Qingli was completely furious.
How could this old man have such a vicious mouth? What had she ever done to offend him?
Just as she was about to argue back, Bi Qian could no longer stand listening.
“Enough! Stop arguing! Can you actually treat illnesses or not?”
The last question was clearly directed at Su Qingli.
Su Qingli was just about to answer when Liu Guangsheng started laughing again as though he had heard the funniest joke in the world.
“Her?”
“Young Master Bi, don’t let this girl fool you. In our village, she is always stealing chickens, fighting, and cursing at people. Who in the whole village doesn’t know her?”
Liu Qianqian also came back to her senses and chimed in, “Exactly! How could she possibly know how to treat illnesses? She can’t even recognize all the characters!”
“Enough.”
Bi Qian was getting a headache from all the noise. He frowned.
“Doctor Liu, since this young lady has come, we should at least let her take a look. What if—”
“There is no ‘what if’!” Doctor Liu’s expression darkened. “Young Master Bi, I have practiced medicine for thirty years. How old is this girl? What could she possibly know about medicine?”
He pulled a piece of paper from inside his robe and unfolded it. A bright red official seal was stamped on it.
“See this? This is a medical license issued by the Imperial Medical Academy! I practiced medicine for ten years before I was qualified to obtain this certificate! What does a little girl like her have?”
Bi Qian glanced at the certificate, and his expression softened somewhat.
Doctor Liu pressed his advantage.
“To be honest, I already have an idea about Young Master’s illness. Last night, my daughter went through medical texts all night and found an ancient prescription. After I gave Young Master the medicine, his pulse was much steadier this morning. After taking a few more doses, he will certainly recover!”
Bi Qian pondered for a moment before turning to Su Qingli. His tone was cold and firm.
“Are you leaving on your own, or should I have someone escort you out?”
Su Qingli raised an eyebrow. “You believe him?”
“Who else should I believe? You?” Bi Qian’s tone was unpleasant. “You’re so young and already going around deceiving people. And now you don’t even care about a young woman’s reputation?”
“Fine. Just don’t come begging me later.”
Su Qingli turned around and walked away.
When she reached the door, she stopped and looked back at Doctor Liu.
“Doctor Liu, your prescription contains astragalus, angelica, and Sichuan lovage, doesn’t it?”
Doctor Liu’s expression changed.
“How… how did you know?”
Su Qingli did not answer. Instead, she looked at the man lying on the bed.
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you. Within three hours at most, he will develop a fever. Four hours later, he will fall into a coma. After six hours, even the gods won’t be able to save him!”
With that, she pushed open the door and walked out.
Bi Qian stood frozen in place. He wanted to call her back, but he did not know whether he should.
“Young Master Bi, don’t listen to her nonsense.” Liu Guangsheng came back to his senses and sneered. “I guarantee that Young Master will wake up within an hour!”
Bi Qian looked at him, then at the peacefully sleeping young master on the bed. He finally felt somewhat reassured.
“Thank you for your efforts, Doctor Liu.”
…
At the Yang Residence entrance.
Seeing Su Qingli come out so quickly, Su Changle actually breathed a sigh of relief.
“Are you all right? They didn’t beat you with a cane, did they?”
Although he did not believe that Su Qingli could actually treat illnesses, his concern was genuine.
“I’m fine.” Su Qingli was speechless. “But the father and daughter from the Liu family are inside.”
Su Changle’s eyes widened.
“That Liu family from our village?”
Su Qingli nodded.
Su Changle curled his lips.
“That old man certainly has good connections.”
Su Qingli noticed something strange in his tone.
“What? Does our family have some grudge against them?”
“Of course! How could we not?”
The moment this was mentioned, Su Changle became animated.
“When you were little, you fell into the river once, remember? He was the one who pushed you!”
This time, it was Su Qingli’s turn to be shocked.
“That happened? You saw it?”
“Not exactly. But on the day you fell into the river, someone saw him hurriedly leaving the riverbank. If it wasn’t him, who else could it have been?
“If Granny Zhang hadn’t used a bamboo pole to pull you back, you would have drowned!”
Su Changle said indignantly, “And when Sister-in-law had a difficult labor last time, Big Brother injured his head begging him for a piece of ginseng, but he refused to give him any.”
Su Qingli thought about it.
She would put the matter of the ginseng aside for now. But several years ago, the original owner had only been a little girl. What kind of deep grudge could Liu Guangsheng possibly have against her that would make him push a child into a river?
There was probably more to this matter than met the eye.
She would have to find Granny Zhang and ask her about it when she had the chance.
For now, Su Qingli could not make sense of it.
“Let’s go. We’ll buy some things and head home. Otherwise, Mother, Big Brother, and the others will start worrying.”
After using the money Cheng Siwen had given her to repay the debt, Su Qingli still had a little over ten taels of silver left.
For an ordinary family, that was already a considerable amount of money.
But in Su Qingli’s hands, it was hardly enough.
She bought fifty jin of coarse rice, thirty jin of white rice, thirty jin of millet, and twenty jin of white flour, spending one and a half taels of silver.
These things had not been this expensive before, but several villages had suffered floods last year, causing grain prices to rise by thirty percent.
The family was also running low on salt, so Su Qingli went to the salt shop.
One jin of refined salt cost 150 wen.
Remembering that she had a laboratory in her space, Su Qingli bought ten jin of coarse salt in one go, choosing the lowest-quality kind.
Even so, another half a tael of silver was gone.
Next, she bought five jin of pork fat, two jin of pork bones, three jin of pork offal, and one jin of pork foreleg meat, spending another tael of silver.
With a little over three taels left, she bought two bolts of coarse cotton cloth and several kinds of needles and thread, planning to make some seasonal clothes for her family.
She also bought several feet of expensive fine cotton cloth to make something for her newborn niece.
After leaving the cloth shop, she passed a candy stall and casually bought two jin of malt sugar.
Finally, she turned into a medicine shop by the roadside.
Su Changle assumed she was buying medicine and followed behind her without saying anything.
Su Qingli walked around inside for a while. When she came out, she had an empty medicine chest and several packets of medicinal herbs in her hands.
By then, seven taels of silver were gone.
Su Qingli had considered selling some of the swords and knives, but anyone with a discerning eye would immediately know that those items had not come from legitimate sources.
After thinking about it, she decided against it.
There were also bottles and jars in her space that could be sold for money, but anyone would immediately know that they were not products of this era.
If she sold them, she would probably be watched before long.
Unless absolutely necessary, it was better not to take that risk.
The two of them climbed onto the ox cart and headed toward the city gate with a cart full of goods.
However, just before they left the city, they saw a large crowd gathered around a public notice, discussing it in hushed voices.
Perhaps because two fully armored soldiers were standing nearby, everyone was speaking very quietly.
Su Qingli’s curiosity was immediately piqued again. She stood on tiptoe and looked over.
The notice was written in elaborate official language.
It basically said that the Crown Prince was unworthy of his position and had been demoted to a commoner, with his property confiscated and himself sentenced to exile.
The list of charges was also extremely long—treason, plotting against the imperial heirs, defiling the imperial harem, and so on. It was enough to make one’s eyes blur.
Su Qingli had no patience to read the whole thing. She only glanced at it a few times before looking away and continuing to drive the ox cart.
Su Changle asked curiously, “What did the notice say? I vaguely heard someone mention the Crown Prince.”
Su Qingli casually explained a few things to him.
Su Changle was even more shocked.
“The Crown Prince was deposed and exiled?”
“Changing dynasties and princes fighting for the throne isn’t exactly unusual. Why are you reacting so strongly?”
Su Qingli laughed.
“What? Do you know the Crown Prince?”
She had only asked casually, but Su Changle actually nodded seriously.
“I’ve seen him a few times when I was little.”
“?”
Su Qingli rolled her eyes.
“Why don’t you just say the Crown Prince is your sworn brother?”
“It’s true. We really saw him when we were little!”
“We?”
“Mm-hmm.” Su Changle nodded as he recalled the past. “Don’t you remember? When we were little, Father took the two of us out shopping, and we happened to run into the Crown Prince giving porridge to refugees.
“Then you got into an argument with the Crown Prince, knocked out one of his baby teeth, and threatened him not to tell anyone. Otherwise, you would marry him and bring him home as your husband.
“You told him that he would have to work like an ox for you every day, shucking corn and pulling peanuts… You scared him until he cried.”
Su Qingli: “…”