"Brother Lianpeng, in your opinion, since the father and son of the Jin Family Fortress died of terror, is there some hidden story behind this?"
Qian Mingyue also walked in a circle around the corpses of the Jin father and son. Besides feeling that the two of them had indeed died in ugly, terrifying, and bizarre ways, he noticed nothing at all.
"My lord must not listen to this person's nonsense."
Seeing Qian Mingyue babbling about some miraculous doctor while placing his complete trust in Li Lianpeng, the coroner was about to be driven insane. "I, Coroner Chen, have performed autopsies for decades and examined no fewer than a hundred corpses. Could I possibly fall short of some quack who came from who knows where and spouts utter nonsense?"
"Do not speak recklessly."
Qian Mingyue cast a dissatisfied glare at the old coroner and his face sank. "Brother Lianpeng's elder brother is none other than the renowned miracle doctor Li Lianhua of the Lotus Tower, who can bring the dead back to life and restore flesh to bones. With such a brother, how could Brother Lianpeng's medical skills be poor? How can you call Brother Lianpeng a quack?"
Coroner Chen had a straightforward disposition. Upon hearing Qian Mingyue's words, he felt a tightness in his chest, his vision darkened, and he nearly vomited a mouthful of outraged blood.
If not for keeping in mind that Qian Mingyue was a magistrate whom he could not afford to offend, today he would have cursed him out loud as a muddle-headed, foolish official.
"Since you do not believe me, I will not stay here to be an eyesore to everyone. My lord can find another expert."
Coroner Chen packed up his wooden box, lifted his feet, and walked away. As he walked, he muttered loudly, "Died of terror—what sort of thing could scare two grown men to death? Do they really take them for malevolent ghosts? If so, I might as well quit being a coroner and simply change professions to become a Taoist priest."
Liu Ruyu had originally been immersed in grief and weeping bitterly, but upon hearing the word "Taoist priest," she suddenly started, jumped up from her seat, and cried, "That's right... a Taoist priest... a Taoist priest!"
With that, Liu Ruyu ran frantically toward the inner courtyard. Qian Mingyue, Li Lianhua, and Bai Buyu were all momentarily caught off guard, and it was Li Lianhua who recovered his wits first, dropping the words, "Keep up."
Liu Ruyu stumbled all the way to the back garden of the Jin Family Fortress. Along the way, due to her chaotic and unsteady pace, she even took a fall and scraped her knee.
Yet Liu Ruyu paid not the slightest attention to checking her injury. She ran straight to a rockery beside the water, suddenly dropped to her knees, and began frantically scratching at something with her hands.
"What is she looking for?"
Bai Buyu watched as Liu Ruyu's dark hair fell in disarray and her hands were stained with mud, sobbing and choking as she dug furiously into the earth. "Where is it? Why can't I find it? Why can't I find it?"
"Madam." Li Lianhua walked over. Instead of stopping Liu Ruyu from searching, he rolled up his sleeves and smiled gently at her. "What is the Madam looking for? Is it very important? Would you like me to help you look?"
Seeing this, Qian Mingyue also ran over, squatted down, and rolled up his sleeves to start digging into the pit, his foolishness tinged with a hint of excitement. "Something important? What is it? This official will help you look as well."
Liu Ruyu looked dazedly at the two men for a long time before she slumped onto the ground, tears and snot streaming down her face as she began to recount the events of roughly eight or nine days ago.
That day, Liu Ruyu had gone as usual to offer incense at Ruixiang Temple in the city. She had entered the Jin Mansion for more than two years, yet remained childless.
Jin Dagen was growing older, and under his knees he had only Jin Fulu. Since she was a second wife, she was naturally extremely anxious.
After emerging from worshiping Guanyin, Liu Ruyu made her usual generous offering of incense money and instructed her maidservants and old nanny to carry several bamboo cages of creatures meant for release to the temple's back mountain.
That day, Liu Ruyu had drawn the lowest of the low divinatory lots. With a belly full of sorrow, she sat on a blue stone watching the maidservants and nannies chant scriptures while releasing white carp one by one into the stream.
Suddenly, a person dressed as a Taoist priest appeared before her. Liu Ruyu initially had no desire to pay attention to this strange-looking person, but she heard him smoothly recount the private secrets of her household and hit upon the knot of worry in her heart with a single remark.
Her interest piqued, Liu Ruyu was about to ask the Taoist priest how he could calculate things with such precision, but without waiting for her to speak, the priest tossed her a hollowed-out, intricately carved golden silk pendant.
"Inside this is a peace talisman drawn after expending many years of this poor Daoist's spiritual cultivation."
"You must wear it close to your body, or disaster will be upon you."
Liu Ruyu's gaze was hollow, her tears seeming endless as she said, "The Taoist priest was right... disaster is upon us... disaster is truly upon us."
Li Lianhua listened for a long while, furrowed his brows slightly, but said nothing.
For the remainder of the half-day, Li Lianhua strolled leisurely around Jin Family Fortress; nobody knew what he was wandering around for.
He left no corner of the fortress unvisited, even making a trip to the stable to earnestly feed the two lean horses with forage before departing in satisfaction.
Growing tired from walking, he rested for a while in the courtyard pavilion. By the time the sun sank toward the horizon, Li Lianhua finally uttered, "I'm hungry," and the three of them logically found their way into the kitchen of the Jin Family Fortress.
"Forgive the intrusion," Li Lianhua said apologetically to the matron who was tending the fire.
"You are too kind, distinguished guest." The matron got the stove fire burning, the kitchen smoke causing her to wipe her eyes repeatedly.
Waiting for the cold water to boil and estimating the amount, Li Lianhua tossed a few handfuls of noodles into the pot, squatted down to the side, and began picking vegetables while chatting with Qian Mingyue.
"Goodwife, do you happen to know what the relationship between Fortress Master Jin and Madam Liu is like on ordinary days?"
The matron shook her head. "I'm just a newcomer doing odd jobs in the back courtyard. Having just entered the mansion, I'm not clear on the master's and madam's affairs."
"Ah," Li Lianhua remarked. "Today I saw Madam Liu heartbroken and devastated; it didn't look fake. Her relationship with Fortress Master Jin must be quite good." With that, he lowered his head and focused on picking vegetables.
The three of them quickly finished picking and washing the vegetables, tossing them into the pot. Li Lianhua clumsily added seasonings, and three steaming bowls of plain clear noodle soup were immediately served on the table.
"If distinguished guests have no other instructions, I'll go attend to my work first. There are too many miscellaneous chores in the manor recently, and I'm afraid the others won't manage them all." The matron wiped the ash from her face, her expression full of fatigue.
"Goodwife, I see you seem to have an injury on your face. As it happens, I know a little something about medicine. Would you like me to take a look at it for you?" Li Lianhua smiled gently.
"Ah... no need." The matron lowered her head somewhat awkwardly, using her dark hair to shield the side of her face as if extremely reluctant to bring up the injury. "This is just a scar left from years ago. It frightened the distinguished guests, but it's nothing; there's no need to trouble the guests' minds."
"Scald scars of too long standing cannot be fully restored, but smoothing them out somewhat shouldn't be a problem. Tomorrow I'll go to the pharmacy in town to fetch some medicine and concoct some burn ointment..."
Bai Buyu picked up a mouthful of noodles with her chopsticks, her voice cutting off abruptly. Clear eyes filled with a trace of disbelief, and a moment later she slammed down her chopsticks and cursed, "Li, just how much salt did you dump into these noodles?"
"Ah," Li Lianhua exclaimed, looking completely innocent. "I forgot."
"Qian truly did not misjudge you two. You are indeed like miracle doctors—benevolent healers aiding the weak. This official admires you." Qian Mingyue's face overflowed with admiration. After delivering this passionate commentary, he picked up his bowl of plain noodle soup and took a sip of the broth.
Then he spat the broth right back out.
"Cough, cough... So salty."