Chapter 437: Chapter 160 Dark Clouds and Light-vented
The sky gradually darkened.
The carriage descended the mountain, and the road became much smoother.
After passing through the porridge tent that Qi Family had set up earlier, Lu Tong remained silent, not uttering a word for the entire journey while Pei Yunmeng also did not speak again. The two sat quietly like this, and unknowingly, West Street was already approaching.
It was already night, and all the shops on the street were closed, with few pedestrians passing by in the quiet. Qingfeng stopped the carriage in front of the entrance to Renxin Medical Hall, and Lu Tong expressed her thanks to Pei Yunmeng before turning to get down from the carriage, but he called out to her from behind.
"Doctor Lu."
Lu Tong turned around to look at him, not understanding what he wanted to say.
"Yesterday you said, if I told you about the Qi Family’s matters, you would also do something for me."
Lu Tong was startled.
She had indeed said that at the time.
However, at that moment, he had put on quite an act of being unwilling to engage in that business with her. Following today’s kind gesture of escorting her safely, it turned out the words he had wanted to say were here.
It seems there really wasn’t such a thing as a free lunch in this world.
Lu Tong asked, "What would you like me to do, Lord Pei?"
Pei Yunmeng lowered his head, took a letter from his bosom, and handed it to Lu Tong.
Lu Tong looked at him with puzzlement.
"You think this is a list of people for you to kill?"
Pei Yunmeng chuckled, "Don’t look so wary. Doctor Lu, your medical skills are excellent. I would like you to help me examine these prescriptions to see if there is anything wrong with them."
Prescriptions?
There were prescriptions inside this envelope?
The letter in her hand felt cold. Lu Tong subconsciously pinched it and then looked at Pei Yunmeng, "Is this the condition of our transaction?"
"That’s right."
Lu Tong then understood.
"I understand." She nodded, tucked the letter into her sleeve, and nodded to Pei Yunmeng, "Once I figure this out, I will visit you at the Palace Marshal’s Mansion, Lord Pei. I take my leave."
After speaking, she lifted her skirt to step down from the carriage and entered the gates of Renxin Medical Hall.
Yin Zheng had been waiting in the medical hall for a long time. When she heard Lu Tong knocking, she quickly opened the door. Before entering the clinic, Lu Tong glanced back one last time. The carriage curtain had been lowered, Qingfeng snapped the whip and the carriage started moving, its wheel sounds gradually disappearing down the empty street of West Street.
Lu Tong closed the big door.
Yin Zheng held up an oil lamp and followed Lu Tong, bombarding her with questions, "Miss, you’re finally back. Shopkeeper Du asked about eight hundred times where you had gone today. If not for Mr. Miao helping to speak up, he would have almost gone to report to the authorities. He got me so anxious. Miss, didn’t you say you were just going to the tea garden on the mountain to have a look? Why did you return so late? Have you eaten; did Lord Pei give you a hard time..."
Lu Tong answered each question one by one.
Yin Zheng no longer asked much about Lu Tong’s affairs with the Qi Family, perhaps knowing that Lu Tong wouldn’t tell anyway, and instead focused her energy on the present.
After a few more questions, seeing that Lu Tong looked tired, Yin Zheng guessed that she was exhausted from running around all day and thus put the oil lamp back on the table, and left after Lu Tong had washed up, advising her to rest early.
After Yin Zheng left, Lu Tong did not immediately go to bed.
The lamp was lit in front of the window; Lu Tong put on her robe and sat down at the table.
Today, she had followed Pei Yunmeng to Tuoluo Mountain Mangming Township and learned about the old affairs of Elder Yang’s family. Although the details were blurred and any evidence or witnesses had long since disappeared, Pei Yunmeng’s words had almost made it very clear. The Yang Family was another Lu Family, wiped out by Qi Yutai because of a Light-vented Bird.
Yang Dalang might have hurt Qi Yutai during their altercation, leaving a deep impression on Qi Yutai, to the extent that for the following years, he developed an extreme aversion to birds. Because of this, Grand Preceptor Qi, who was very fond of birds, subsequently expelled all the birds he was rearing in his mansion.
Unless the "Light-vented" could potentially affect Qi Yutai’s peaceful life, Qi Qing would not have made such a decision without cause.
Qi Yutai’s mother, and the family of her maternal grandfather, had a history of fits, and it was highly likely that Qi Yutai would also succumb to the ailment.
Any person or thing that might agitate him could become that very catalyst.
Now, she had found that catalyst.
Lu Tong reached out, slowly bringing her finger closer to the flame burning in the oil lamp.
After staring at the flame for a while, the once clear colors began to blur, and a faint heat emanated from her fingertips, as if one more step closer would burn her.
Lu Tong withdrew her hand.
The Light-vented Bird to Qi Yutai was like the dark clouds to her.
The dark clouds were already dead, but the Light-vented would become Qi Yutai’s dark clouds, forever and ever hanging over his head until a downpour would completely bury him.
She had found the activator.
Next... was how to perfectly integrate this activator into the rest of the ingredients, to simmer it gently.
Outside the window, a stray cat mewed, its call through the spring night sounding like a desolate night bell, awakening Lu Tong.
Coming to her senses, she thought for a moment, opened the drawer of the desk, and pulled out a letter.