The Duke's Pampered Darling is So Scheming

Chapter 24: Chapter 24: Master, We Took a Huge Loss

”Th-this...”

The government officer stammered, speechless for a long moment.

Wu Xu stepped forward and snatched the pieces of Chuanwu away. ”You can’t even handle a simple task like this. What use are you!”

The startled government officer instinctively reached out to snatch them back, but the moment he moved, he remembered all the people watching and managed to restrain himself.

The woman was also dumbfounded. ”Tung oil? Wh-what tung oil!?”

With a slight lift of her chin, Ye Chutang gave the signal. Ye Jingyan immediately stepped forward and pulled open an entire row of drawers in the medicine cabinet.

The still-wet tung oil glistened with a faint, oily sheen, and a faint but unmistakable scent filled the air.

Ye Chutang said, ”I’ve actually been meaning to do this for a while, but I was always too busy to find the time. As it happens, I’ve had some free time recently, so I asked Yan and A Feng to take care of it. But they both have classes at the academy, so it wasn’t easy for them to find a free moment until today.”

She sighed, a hint of pity in her voice. ”This Chuanwu looks to be of decent quality. What a shame it’s unusable now.”

A dead silence fell over the small courtyard, both inside and out.

It takes three hours for a layer of tung oil to dry completely, yet these pieces of Chuanwu were stained with it. They must have been put in just now!

The woman began to panic. She never imagined Ye Chutang would completely pull the rug out from under her!

Yang Zhen stared at the pieces of Chuanwu, his expression grim. At this point, how could anyone not see what was going on?

”No!” the woman suddenly shrieked. ”This medicine cabinet is yours! You must have been the ones who put it there!”

Ye Chutang casually retorted, ”Oh? So you’re saying I emptied this entire cabinet, coated it with a layer of tung oil, and then, before it could dry, I specifically placed the wine-soaked Chuanwu inside?”

The woman’s face alternated between red and white, and she was left speechless.

Ye Chutang continued, ”How interesting. Out of everything I could have put in there, I chose only the very item that poisoned someone? Was I afraid I *wouldn’t* get caught?”

This rapid-fire questioning left the woman utterly speechless.

Yang Zhen turned to the woman and demanded in a heavy voice, ”Do you have anything else to say?!”

The woman’s eyes darted about in panic. Finally, she simply sat down on the ground and began to wail shamelessly. ”Lord County Magistrate! I don’t know! I really don’t know anything! I wasn’t the one who found it! It has nothing to do with me!”

Hearing this, the government officer who had ’found’ the Chuanwu earlier stared with wide eyes, fuming with anger and anxiety. ”What’s that supposed to mean?!”

’Isn’t she basically pointing the finger at me?!’

The woman ignored him, continuing to wail and wipe away her tears, shrieking that she had been framed.

By now, everyone could guess what had happened. The government officer must have planted the evidence in the drawer while he was ’searching,’ attempting to frame the clinic.

It was also highly likely he and the woman were working together. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have been so insistent on searching the clinic.

Yang Zhen’s brow furrowed. ”Are you going to talk here, or will you talk back at the government office?”

Going back to the government office meant he would likely face torture.

Realizing how dire the situation had become, the government officer fell to his knees with a THUD. ”My Lord! It was her! She’s the one who put me up to it! She gave me fifty taels of silver to secretly plant this! I don’t know anything else!”

”You’re lying through your teeth!” The woman leaped to her feet and immediately lunged at him. ”I’ll tear your mouth to shreds!”

But she was no match for the officer. She had just managed to rake a bloody scratch across his face before he kicked her away.

Both of them were a wretched sight. At this point, neither could care about anything else; saving their own skin was all that mattered!

Ye Chutang raised a hand to cover her mouth and let out a delicate yawn.

’She was getting tired of watching these dogs tear each other apart.’

”A moment ago, you said that if nothing was found during the search, you’d do whatever I asked. Is that right?”

The woman froze, her hair a mess and her expression terrified as she looked up.

The corners of Ye Chutang’s lips curved up. ”In that case, why don’t you tell us who put you up to this?”

’She had no personal grudge against this woman; she was clearly driven by some personal gain.’

’She already had a good idea who it was, but she needed this woman to say the name out loud, in front of everyone.’

Hearing the question, a flash of panic crossed the woman’s eyes. She shook her head frantically. ”N-no one! No one put me up to it!”

Perhaps realizing her plot was exposed and that further denial was useless, she abruptly changed her tune and confessed.

”It was me! I was treated here before, and I wasn’t feeling well, so I wanted to get back at you. That’s why I came up with this plan!”

CLAP.

CLAP.

CLAP.

Ye Chutang clapped slowly, her expression one of mock admiration. ”To think that an ordinary woman like yourself understands pharmacology, knows that wine-soaked Chuanwu is poisonous, and can even produce fifty taels of silver to bribe a government officer to do your bidding. Truly admirable.”

The woman’s face turned ashen at her words.

Anyone with eyes could see that someone else had to be pulling the strings.

The woman’s expression shifted, and then, gritting her teeth, she turned and lunged headfirst toward the wall!

Ye Chutang, as if having anticipated this, said calmly, ”A Feng.”

In the next instant, a tall and sturdy figure shot past, arriving later but moving faster to block the woman’s path!

It was Ye Yunfeng!

He shot out an arm, grabbed the woman’s wrist, and gave it a vicious tug!

The pull was so strong the woman didn’t even have the strength to struggle as she was flung to the ground.

Ye Yunfeng snorted. ”Trying to die before you’ve talked? Dream on! You—”

Suddenly, he paused and looked up at Ye Chutang, speechless.

”Sister, she’s fainted.”

He didn’t know if she’d simply fainted from fright.

Ye Chutang wasn’t concerned. ”As long as she isn’t dead, it’s fine. She’ll wake up eventually. Besides, we still have one more, don’t we?”

As she spoke, she looked toward the government officer kneeling on the ground.

Knowing there was no way to defend himself, the pale-faced officer began kowtowing frantically. ”Spare me, my lord! I was just momentarily muddled! I beg you, please spare me just this once!”

He kowtowed until his forehead was bleeding, but Yang Zhen’s expression remained icy. ”This crime is heinous. Since you have done wrong, you must be punished! Men! Take him away!”

”Yes, sir!”

As she watched the government officers drag the man away, Ye Chutang raised her voice and asked, ”Lord County Magistrate, now that this matter has been cleared up, can our clinic be unsealed?”

The courtyard fell silent for a moment.

Who could have imagined it? The doors had been sealed that morning, and not even half a day later, they were about to be unsealed.

In less than a day, Ye Chutang had come and gone, and the trouble was already resolved.

There were still quite a few onlookers outside Ye’s Clinic. They had all seen and heard most of what had just transpired.

There was no choice but to unseal it.

Yang Zhen had no choice but to gesture to the man at his side. Wu Xu immediately went over and tore the official seal from the main doors.

Ye Chutang bowed to Yang Zhen. ”Thank you, Lord County Magistrate, for restoring justice to Ye’s Clinic.”

Yang Zhen was clearly vexed. After a few perfunctory words, he led his men away, having them drag the unconscious woman along.

The once-bustling courtyard fell quiet once more.

Inside, Lian Zhou, who had witnessed the entire affair, murmured,

”...Master, we just paid for half a month of room and board. Was that a big waste?”