The Farm Girl and the Executioner (Rebirth) 111

Chapter 111: Outsmarting Them

On the twenty-ninth of November.

Around the end of the Hour of the Snake(9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m.)

A bone whistle sounded from the northeast of the Everlasting Peace Clinic.

This sound was unremarkable and was barely noticeable in the noise of the crowd. Not many people noticed it.

However, Doctor Xue, who was in the consultation room, heard this and his hand suddenly trembled, but he quickly steadied it and said to the patient before him, “It’s just that the weather is hot and dry, which has caused you to get a little heatstroke. I’ll write you a prescription. You can just go and get the medicine according to it.”

With that, he quickly wrote the prescription, called for a young apprentice, and had him take him to get the medicine.

The patient thanked him and left the consultation room.

Ah Lai came in from the side. “Master, I’ve hung the ‘closed’ sign at the door. The carriage is ready.”

Doctor Xue nodded, stood up, picked up his medicine box, and hurried out of the consultation room, heading for the back door.

A carriage was parked at the back door. He bent down and got on, and the carriage immediately set off, driving out through the alley.

Half a quarter of an hour later, a carriage with a green door curtain sped to the entrance of the apothecary.

At the same time, an apprentice came out from inside and placed a “closed” sign at the entrance.

Seeing this, the surrounding patients were puzzled. “Wasn’t Doctor Xue just seeing a patient? Why is he closed now?”

Ah Lai quickly said, “There was an emergency just now, and they came in a hurry to get Doctor Xue. The family was very rude. We couldn’t even stop them.”

“Then what should we do?”

“If you have an emergency, you can go to another clinic. If you’re not in a hurry, you can wait for about an hour. Doctor Xue should be back.”

“Isn’t there another doctor?”

“Doctor Yang has something to do at home. He’s not seeing patients today.”

And at this moment, after the green-curtained carriage outside had stopped, two men jumped out, carried the patient from the carriage, and quickly ran to the entrance of the clinic.

They shouted, “Make way, make way—”

Just then, someone had just come out from inside and was bumped away. He grumbled unhappily, “What’s the hurry? Doctor Xue is not here—”

But these few people did not pay attention to this and rushed in with the person.

It wasn’t until they were blocked by a young apprentice who came out from inside.

“Are you here to see a doctor? Doctor Xue is not here at the moment. You can go to a nearby clinic.”

Hearing this, the man in the green clothes in front paused abruptly and his eyes widened. “What did you say—”

Ah Lai repeated, “Doctor Xue is not here at the moment. If you have any emergency, you should go to a nearby clinic quickly, so you don’t delay and something goes wrong.”

The few people behind the man seemed to have not expected such a turn of events, and their expressions instantly froze on their faces.

One of them said loudly, “It’s broad daylight, and the clinic is open, but the doctor is not here. Who would believe that?”

“That’s right. Are you trying to not treat us?”

Ah Lai explained, “I’m really sorry. There was an emergency just now, and Doctor Xue was called away. He’s really not here at the moment.”

“I don’t believe it. It must be an excuse—” the man in the white clothes directly pushed Ah Lai aside and rushed straight toward the consultation room.

The door to the consultation room was open, and it was empty inside.

Ah Lai followed him in, quite angry. “What do you mean by this? I already said that Doctor Xue is not here. Why did you barge into our consultation room—”

The man in the green clothes grabbed his collar. “The clinic is open, but you’re not seeing patients. Who’s in the wrong here?”

Just then, there was a commotion outside, and someone shouted, “The officials are here—”

The crowd parted to the sides, and a young woman who looked like a constable came in with a few constables, shouting, “What’s going on? You’re blocking the alley. Don’t you know you’re obstructing the carriages?”

Ah Lai quickly broke free from the man in the white clothes’ hand and stumbled out. “Sir—sir—”

When he saw that the constable was a woman, he quickly changed his words. “Constable sister—someone is forcing their way into the clinic and causing trouble. Please help us—”

Hearing this, Hu Guiying looked at the patient who was being carried by the two servants, then at the man in the white clothes whose face was flushed red, and asked, “What’s going on?”

Ah Lai said, “They have a patient with an emergency. They rushed in and wanted Doctor Xue to see him, but Doctor Xue just had an emergency and is no longer at the clinic. I told them to go to another place for treatment, but they were unwilling and even caused trouble here.”

Hu Guiying’s brow furrowed, and she looked at the man in the white clothes. “Is that so?”

The man in the white clothes gritted his teeth. “The clinic is open, but they’re making excuses that there’s no doctor to see patients. Isn’t this a refusal to treat?”

Hu Guiying looked at the patient who was being carried. His face was flushed, and he was clearly seriously ill. She immediately said, “The patient has an emergency and needs to be treated immediately. You go to the nearest clinic first. I’ll have two people clear the way for you. As for whether the doctor is here or not, Zhao Minghu, you are in charge of searching the clinic. If the doctor is here but refuses to see the patient, and delays the treatment of the common people, arrest him immediately!”

The patients on the side all said, “This little constable is quite clear-headed—”

“That’s right. Hurry up and take him over. Don’t delay the treatment.”

“The nearest big clinic here is the Benevolence Hall. If you go there, there won’t be any mistakes—”

The man in the white clothes was now in a dilemma and had no choice but to grit his teeth and wave his hand. “Let’s go—”

Seeing the few of them get on the carriage with the patient, Hu Guiying waved her hand and said to her men, “Search the inside and outside thoroughly. See if there’s a doctor hiding in the clinic and not coming out to treat the sick!”

…

In the evening, Hu Guiying came for dinner.

After entering the door, her two eyes were rolling around, looking at Jiang Huaizhen for a while, then at Lin Shuang, as if she wanted to see a hole in the two of them.

But when the two of them looked over, she would turn her head to look at the sky, as if nothing had happened.

The sound of the wild ducks by the river was still faintly ringing in her ears.

She hadn’t thought about this before, but once she had discovered the clue, no matter how she looked at it, she could see the cat and mouse game between the two of them.

She must have been blind before.

Lin Shuang had stir-fried a plate of pig’s ears, a plate of chicken kidneys, and had also made a cold dish. The three of them sat in the courtyard and ate.

Hu Guiying chewed on the pig’s ears with a crunch, then took a large mouthful of rice, and only after she had swallowed did she say, “That patient took the medicine prescribed by the Benevolence Hall and died before he even left the door. The family was causing trouble at the entrance of the Benevolence Hall a while ago. I just went there with some men and persuaded them to leave. I don’t know if they’ll go back tomorrow.”

“They will. How can they not? Those people couldn’t extort any silver from the Everlasting Peace Hall, and now they’ve finally latched onto the Benevolence Hall. They definitely won’t let go easily,” Lin Shuang said.

Hu Guiying clicked her tongue. “Who in the Qin family came up with this bad idea? They came up with such a plan and didn’t even tell their own people. Now it’s good. They’ve shot themselves in the foot.”

Lin Shuang snorted lightly. “If we hadn’t found out in time, it would have been our foot that was shot.”

Hu Guiying glanced at her. “How did you know about this? You guessed it so accurately.”

Lin Shuang glanced at Jiang Huaizhen without a sound and replied, “I used to know a little sister named Wang Chun’er. She’s now the second wife of the Qin family’s young master.”

Jiang Huaizhen lowered her head and picked up a chicken kidney. The two words “Qin Chong” from the letter the day before yesterday flashed in her mind.

“So that’s how it is,” Hu Guiying smiled. “It’s really good to have an inside source.”

Lin Shuang smiled. “After these two rounds, and they haven’t gotten any good, the Qin family’s side should not be making a move against the Everlasting Peace Hall for a while.”

Hu Guiying raised an eyebrow. “It’s hard to say. But I’ll go over there on my patrol every day. It should be able to intimidate those people to some extent.”

“Alright. Thank you for your hard work.”

How could Hu Guiying dare to take the credit for the hard work? She now had a house and a horse, all thanks to Lin Shuang. What was this little matter?

…

And at this time, in the main hall of the Qin residence, an old woman with a full head of silver hair was sitting on a sandalwood armchair.

Her face was thin, and her cheekbones were high. Her pair of upturned eyes were as sharp as a hawk’s, and the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes seemed to hold decades of accumulated ruthlessness.

“Aunt…” Pan Min stood with his head lowered, stammering as he reported the situation. “We had already made a plan, but who would have thought that that old fellow Xue Shanwen would go out for a house call at the last minute, catching us completely off guard…”

Old Madam Qin sneered. “Was it a last-minute house call, or did he wait until your people had arrived before he hurried to avoid them?”

Pan Min didn’t dare to look up and replied in a low voice, “Other than the few people who did it, only your nephew and Doctor Yao knew about this. Others shouldn’t have known, let alone the Xue family.”

“The yamen constables were on the scene. It is said that they searched the entire apothecary but did not see Xue Shanwen’s figure… It wasn’t until almost an hour later that this old fellow came rushing back with his medicine box…”

Old Madam Qin’s face was gloomy.

“This… that…” Pan Min asked cautiously, “The patient’s family, I’m afraid we’ll have to pay them…”

This time, it was a trap set in collusion with the patient’s eldest son. The second and third sons did not know, and now they were all pointing their fingers at the Benevolence Hall, insisting that they pay them.

According to the plan, if the person had died at the Everlasting Peace Hall, it would not have been too much to cause a scene.

But now that it had been switched, it was really difficult to deal with.

Old Madam Qin looked at his appearance, and a hint of displeasure flashed in her eyes. She said coldly, “Otherwise, do you have a better way?”

What way could Pan Min have? He didn’t dare to say anything.

“How is Qingyuan?”

Pan Min quickly said, “It’s still the same. Doctor Yao goes to see him every other day. He’s been lying in bed, and occasionally he’ll go for a walk in the courtyard in a wheelchair.”

Hearing this, Old Madam Qin became a little impatient and waved her hand. “There must be someone behind that Everlasting Peace Apothecary. Don’t touch them for now. You’d better use your brain when you do things in the future.”

“Yes, Aunt.”

Pan Min withdrew.

Just as he walked out the door, he saw a large and a small child walking toward him. The corners of his originally drooping lips slowly curled up, and he sneered slightly, then smiled. “Qingsheng has come to see his grandmother.”

Qin Qingsheng looked up at Pan Min before him and asked in return, “What are you doing here again?”

Pan Min spread his hands. “Your father is bedridden and can’t be filial to your aunt. You are still young and can’t help. Now that your aunt is old, I can’t just watch her old self work day and night for the Qin family and do nothing, can I?”

Qin Qingsheng glared at him fiercely. “Our Qin family’s business is none of your business.”

Pan Min raised an eyebrow. “That’s not for you to say.”

With that, he ignored the two of them and left triumphantly.