The Duke's Pampered Darling is So Scheming

Chapter 17: Chapter 17: Returning the Favor

When Lian Zhou arrived, he saw his master standing there, with several men in black lying on the ground a short distance away.

”Master, these men...”

From just over the wall, he had heard Ye Chutang’s voice and knew his master had agreed to help handle the aftermath.

He couldn’t help but feel surprised. After all, his master was someone who detested trouble. If he hadn’t wanted to get involved, Ye Chutang couldn’t have posed any real threat to him, even if she had seen everything that happened tonight.

Shen Yanchuan recalled the sight of Ye Chutang casually leaving with Xiao Wu in her arms, and his brow arched slightly.

That woman had clearly been wary of him from the moment they met. Yet now, she had placed this enormous liability in his hands, acting as if she trusted him completely.

’How interesting.’

He tilted his chin up slightly, his voice cool and detached. ”It’s a small effort. Just take care of it for her.”

The heavy stench of blood still clung to Lian Zhou, a clear sign he had just come from a fierce battle. And yet, there wasn’t a single speck of blood on him.

Hearing this, he immediately cupped his fist. ”Yes!”

...

「Cao Family Estate.」

Cao Chengwen was still waiting in his room.

As time passed, he grew increasingly anxious, constantly glancing toward the back courtyard.

But the men he was expecting were nowhere to be seen.

Cao Chengwen’s brow furrowed with anxiety.

’They should have been back by this hour. Why is there still no sign of them?’

’Did something unexpected happen?’

’But that’s impossible!’

’Ye Chutang is a frail woman. How could she possibly be a match for those three men?’

Cao Chengwen’s fists clenched, his heart in his throat. He couldn’t shake a strange feeling of unease.

Drowsiness washed over him, and he struggled to keep his eyes open.

He had been running around frantically for the past few days, constantly on edge and unable to sleep soundly. His body was finally giving out.

After another while, Cao Chengwen could no longer fight his exhaustion. His head lolled to the side, and he drifted into a deep sleep.

The next morning, the screams of servants jolted him awake.

Cao Chengwen hadn’t rested well and was already irritable. Being woken so abruptly put him in an even fouler mood.

”What’s going on! Why all the racket so early in the morning!”

But in the next moment, he was shocked to find that the door to his room was ajar. A crowd of servants was gathered outside, all looking his way with panicked expressions.

His gaze shifted downward, and he shot up from his chair!

A corpse! It was lying right at his doorway!

Cao Chengwen recognized the man almost instantly. At the same moment, a chill shot up his spine, and his blood ran cold, as if he’d been plunged into an icy abyss.

BANG—

The window blew open. Sensing something, he stiffly turned his head and saw two more corpses lying in the back courtyard.

Their feet pointed toward him, their heads away from him, a bizarre posture.

Cao Chengwen felt a stickiness on his hands. He slowly looked down and saw dried blood on them. A blood-stained dagger lay discarded by his feet.

To any observer, it would look as though the three had gotten into a conflict with him and he had stabbed them to death as they tried to escape!

Someone in the crowd screamed, ”Young Master Cao is a murderer!”

Cao Chengwen’s mind instantly went blank.

...

Ye’s Clinic reopened today.

A Feng had been cleared of suspicion, so business at the clinic returned to normal.

Ye Chutang examined a few patients, wrote out their prescriptions, and then went to the dispensary to prepare the herbs herself.

Yan and A Feng had gone to the academy for their lessons today, leaving only her and Xiao Wu at the clinic.

Being too small to reach the upper medicine drawers, Xiao Wu was curled up on a nearby chair, one hand propping up her chin while the other idly flicked the beads of an abacus.

She was just playing; with so few customers, she could have tallied the earnings without an abacus.

While attending to her patients, Ye Chutang overheard gossip about a major event that had taken place at the Cao Family estate that day.

—Cao Chengwen had committed murder!

”Is that true?” Ye Chutang paused in the middle of wrapping a packet of herbs, feigning surprise. ”Why would Young Master Cao kill someone out of the blue?”

”Of course it’s true! I heard he didn’t just kill one person, but three! Two of them made it to the courtyard, but one didn’t even make it out of the room before he was stabbed to death!”

The gossips spoke of it with a mix of morbid curiosity and fear, clicking their tongues in amazement.

”I heard the dagger was still in his hand when they found him! Rumor has it those men owed Young Master Cao a lot of money from gambling debts. I wonder if their deaths have something to do with that—”

Rumors always had a way of twisting one story into another; it was best to only believe a fraction of such confident-sounding tales told as if by an eyewitness.

Still, it wasn’t hard to imagine the current state of the Cao Family.

Cao Chengwu’s death had already caused a huge uproar. Now, with three dead at once, the scandal was bound to be even greater.

Especially since the Cao Family was already in a precarious position. Now...

Only after the patients had taken their medicine and left the clinic did Ye Chutang turn and glance through the curtain toward a certain part of the courtyard.

’This Mr. Shen is certainly a man of detail.’

Catching Xiao Wu nibbling on another piece of candied fruit out of the corner of her eye, Ye Chutang called out, ”How many have you had?”

Xiao Wu guiltily held up two fingers.

Ye Chutang gently pinched her small cheek. ”You can’t have too much sugar. No more for today.”

Xiao Wu reluctantly surrendered the piece of candied fruit, placing it on a nearby dish.

Then, as if remembering something, Ye Chutang picked up the dish. ”Right, the medicine should be ready. Xiao Wu, you watch the shop. I’m going to deliver this.”

...

Inside his room, Shen Yanchuan inspected his wound. It had already healed and scabbed over completely. Before long, it would be fully recovered.

’Her medical skills are on par with, if not better than, those of the Imperial Physicians in the Capital City.’

Lian Zhou entered with the freshly brewed medicine, a look of delight on his face. ”Master, Doctor Ye didn’t change the prescription today! She said your condition has mostly recovered and you don’t need a new formula every day! You just need a few more days of bed rest to recuperate!”

’Shen Yanchuan felt that the phrase ”bed rest to recuperate” carried a strong, pointed implication.’

”Is that so?”

”Yes! And since she didn’t change the prescription, she didn’t even charge a consultation fee today!”

Lian Zhou was thrilled.

When he first met Ye Chutang, he hadn’t felt much hope, but who would have thought she would actually manage to heal his master!

Shen Yanchuan took the bowl, gazing at the dark brown decoction. The bitter aroma was overwhelming.

’One hundred taels a day for medicine, and today it was finally free.’

’Is this her way of thanking me?’

As Shen Yanchuan lifted the bowl, he noticed a small piece of candied fruit had been placed beside it.

Without a change in his expression, he downed the medicine in one gulp and picked up the piece of fruit.

In truth, he never ate such things. He had taken far more bitter medicines in his life and was long accustomed to the taste.

However, it was a kind gesture, and it wouldn’t be right to refuse.

Shen Yanchuan popped the candied fruit into his mouth. A rich sweetness instantly filled his senses.

His sharp brows arched slightly.

’—Now this is more like it.’