Chapter 178
Li An rushed outward, colliding with Jiang Mingzhe who was just returning from outside.
"Who are you going to kill?"
Li An said nothing, changed direction, and continued to run outside.
"An'an, stop right there. You are not allowed to go." Ye Yunniang stepped forward and grabbed Li An. "Something has happened to your grandmother. If anything were to happen to you too, how am I supposed to live?"
"It's all my fault, I was wrong." Li An cried, blaming himself. "It was me. I was the one who told Chunyao about the relationship between Grandma and Master Bao. It's all my fault, I couldn't keep my mouth shut."
"I know you didn't do it on purpose, An'an." Ye Yunniang believed that Li An wouldn't have brought it up unprompted.
It was Ye Yunniang who had underestimated Chunyao, never expecting her to target the children.
"I want Chunyao to pay the price."
"Mother, leave Chunyao to me," Li Ping spoke up.
"Alright."
Ye Yunniang handed the matter of Chunyao over to Li Ping and didn't ask about it again.
She only learned from chatting with Hongyan that Chunyao had hastily left after selling Courtyard 2 to her at a rather low price.
"I don't know what happened to her, but she left in a real hurry."
Ye Yunniang said nothing; whatever happened to Chunyao had nothing to do with her.
Sensing Ye Yunniang's coldness toward Chunyao, Hongyan dropped the subject.
She then brought up the matter of splitting the household with Niu Dajiao.
After a bout of tearing and fighting, Hongyan and Ma Kouzi took the twins and moved into Courtyard 2.
Courtyard 1 was left for Ma Xiaokou's family and Niu Dajiao to live in.
"The money Niu Dajiao stole was recovered. I seized the opportunity to give her a severe beating." Hongyan's face showed sheer satisfaction as she spoke of this.
On the first day of the lunar month, Ye Yunniang's reminder made Hongyan realize that Niu Dajiao wasn't doing it for her son. She simply didn't want them to move out.
If it wasn't for her son, the money Niu Dajiao stole might not have been mailed to Ma Hui.
Hongyan observed secretly and discovered Niu Dajiao's hiding spot for the money.
"Niu Dajiao even tried to deny it, claiming she found the money. If she really had found it, she would have bragged about it until the whole alley knew." Hongyan didn't buy it at all.
"Now that you have the money, why didn't you buy a house outside?"
"The one we had our eye on before was already sold. As for the other houses, they were either too expensive or unsuitable."
Hongyan was also afraid that the money would be stolen by Niu Dajiao again.
Hearing that Chunyao was selling, Hongyan decided without a moment of hesitation to buy the house first.
Now, with her own gate closed, she didn't have to look at Niu Dajiao's annoying face anymore, and Hongyan was already very satisfied.
"Congratulations," Ye Yunniang congratulated Hongyan.
"Thank you." Hongyan smiled brightly. She saw an old servant woman heading toward the backyard and asked, "Has Aunt Cai still not woken up?"
"No." Ye Yunniang's heart felt heavy. A month had passed, and they still hadn't found any solution.
"Yunniang, Aunt Cai suddenly falling unconscious... Could she have provoked," Hongyan leaned close to Ye Yunniang and whispered, "something unclean?"
"Something unclean?" Ye Yunniang didn't understand for a moment.
"Being possessed, or attracting little ghosts," Hongyan said, shrinking her shoulders.
Ye Yunniang found it hard to explain that Cai Damei had been poisoned, so she simply said, "No."
Hongyan, however, felt it was true. "If not, how could someone perfectly fine suddenly fall into a coma? I think you shouldn't just hire doctors, you need to find a master to take a look. Blind Zhang is very effective, you should go find him."
Blind Zhang?
The name sounded a bit familiar. Then she remembered.
When Jiang Tingjun had his accident, he was the one they hired to take a look.
"If you're embarrassed to go ask him, I can go help you invite him. I've dealt with him several times. He told me that my life would be bitter first and sweet later. He said I would have a pair of twins, and the son among the twins would be especially filial to me. I'll enjoy my son's blessings in the future." Hongyan highly praised Blind Zhang.
Ye Yunniang thought that perhaps Blind Zhang could divine the antidote.
She asked Hongyan for Blind Zhang's address.
Ye Yunniang took Li An with her.
Cai Damei's accident made Li An feel extremely guilty. He refused to go to school and insisted on staying by Cai Damei's side.
To prevent Li An from sinking further into self-blame, Ye Yunniang asked him to come along to seek out Blind Zhang.
"Is he really that amazing?"
"When your soul was snatched away as a child, he was the one who cured you." Ye Yunniang recalled the events from Jiang Tingjun's time. "That night, when they burned your little clothes, I was scared, shocked, and curious all at once."
As they talked, they arrived at Blind Zhang's residence.
Blind Zhang lived in Huaihua Alley in the south of the city, in a beautiful and spacious three-courtyard mansion.
There were people guarding the door.
They explained their purpose for coming.
Ye Yunniang and her son received a number token, number 8.
"Excuse me, which number is Master Zhang seeing right now?" Li An slipped a piece of broken silver to the guard.
Having received the silver, the guard's attitude grew even more amiable.
"Number 3. Madam and Young Master can go to the teahouse on the front street to have a couple cups of tea and listen to some storytelling, then come back."
"Alright, thank you," Li An expressed his gratitude.
Ye Yunniang and Li An went to the teahouse on the front street, ordered some tea, sat down, and waited anxiously.
At this moment, both of them felt that time was passing by so, so slowly.
So slowly that they wished they could manually speed up time.
After drinking two cups of tea and making a trip to the outhouse.
The two returned to the Zhang residence and were welcomed inside.
Passing the screen wall and walking along the covered corridor, they arrived at a pavilion and met Blind Zhang.
"Please sit, you two," Blind Zhang gestured with his hand for Ye Yunniang and her son to sit down.
Ye Yunniang and Li An sat down. "Master Zhang, we apologize for the presumptuous intrusion today. It is regarding my mother..."
Blind Zhang raised his hand to interrupt whatever Ye Yunniang was about to say next.
"Madam, I do not know how to cure poison. I cannot help you."
"Does the Master know who can cure the poison?" Ye Yunniang pressed.
"I do not know." The answer Blind Zhang gave disappointed Ye Yunniang, yet it was also within her expectations.
"If you don't know anything, what kind of half-immortal are you?" Li An was dissatisfied.
"An'an, do not be rude." Ye Yunniang scolded Li An, then took out some silver and placed it in front of Blind Zhang.
"Thank you for your trouble in seeing us, Master."
Ye Yunniang took Li An's hand, preparing to leave.
"Madam, please wait a moment," Blind Zhang called out to Ye Yunniang.
"What instructions does the Master have?"
"I do not know who can cure the poison, but I know that your mother's hope lies in the capital."
"The capital?"
Blind Zhang said nothing.
"Thank you for your guidance, Master." Ye Yunniang bowed and left.
"Mother, do you believe what he said?" Li An felt that Blind Zhang was just being deliberately mystifying.
"The capital is at the feet of the Emperor, a place where the capable people of the world gather. The imperial physicians who treat the Emperor are the most skilled doctors of all. Perhaps they have a way."
However, with Ye Yunniang's status, it would be very difficult to see an imperial physician.
She would need Bao Min to exert his influence.
On their way back, Ye Yunniang and Li An thought about how to approach Bao Min to discuss this.
On the other end, Bao Min had already gone to find Mingzhe. He wanted to take Cai Damei to the capital and hoped Jiang Mingzhe could persuade Ye Yunniang to agree.
In the month or so since Cai Damei had been poisoned, Bao Min had been having a very hard time.
Bao Min wanted to convict everyone in the Xing family, and he also had to search for the antidote to the Thousand Days Sleep poison.
Every day, he carved out time to massage Cai Damei's hands and feet.
Over the course of more than a month, Xing Wenzhi was beheaded, and the rest of the Xing family were exiled for life, never allowed to return to Jiangcheng.
He had asked every doctor around Jiangcheng.
Many doctors had never even heard of the Thousand Days Sleep.
Some doctors had heard of it, but didn't know how to cure it.
Since Jiangcheng was a dead end, Bao Min thought of the capital.