Chapter 516 - 510_1
"This scoundrel has been extremely ruthless with his attack, fortunately, it didn’t harm the insides, but the external injury looks quite serious. If it leaves a scar and mars her appearance, that wouldn’t be good. A woman’s appearance is of utmost importance. We must apply medicine quickly. We are all men here; it’s not appropriate for us to apply medicine on Mrs. Lin. We should find a woman to do so," Doctor Zheng said after taking Lin Yue’s pulse.
Dr. Zheng brought over the prepared ointment, and Liu, the shopkeeper, quickly sent someone to the inner courtyard to call his wife over. It’s not that there weren’t any maids or old women available, but Liu, the shopkeeper, did not trust the servants with this task and felt more at ease with his own wife handling it.
While Liu’s wife applied the medicine on Lin Yue, Liu, the shopkeeper, and Dr. Zheng stepped out to the outer room to discuss the incident that had just taken place.
Liu, the shopkeeper, asked about the cause and the process, but Dr. Zheng had also only encountered the situation halfway through and wasn’t fully aware. However, judging by the character of Mrs. Lin and Li Sanfeng, it must have been Li Sanfeng who instigated the trouble. Moreover, ignoring everything else, a grown man beating a defenseless woman was already despicable enough.
"I think there’s more to this incident than meets the eye. When I confronted Li Sanfeng earlier, I saw several wounds on him inflicted by Mrs. Lin’s dagger, especially a stab wound to his chest. That location, if it were someone else, would probably not have gotten off so lightly. Only someone as thick-skinned and tough as Li Sanfeng could keep hopping around. But we all know who Mrs. Lin is, and she must have been driven to desperation to strike with such severity. Plus, I’ve heard from a servant that two days ago, Li Sanfeng was kicked out of the gambling house penniless. This scoundrel, with his brother being an arrest officer at the Government Office, gets away with everything and God knows what vile intentions he had.
"It’s no use just speculating; let’s wait until Mrs. Lin wakes up and asks her. Only then will we know for sure. After that, we can decide how to deal with Li Sanfeng." They hadn’t brought Li Sanfeng in with them at the time, partly because of the injuries he had sustained. If they had detained him and something had happened to him, it would have complicated matters, especially since they were unclear about the whole story and had only seen him fighting with Mrs. Lin on the street. If they were to take care of Li Sanfeng’s wounds, they weren’t willing to do so. It’d be better to wait until the matter was clarified before settling accounts with Li Sanfeng.
But then Liu, the shopkeeper, and Dr. Zheng thought of another problem. How could Mrs. Lin be alone on the street fighting with someone, with no one accompanying her? Others might not know, but Liu, the shopkeeper, was acutely aware that, due to the recent incidents of women disappearing in Xin’an City, Zhao Erhu worriedly purchased several martial arts-trained servants to ensure Mrs. Lin’s safety. So, where were the people who should have been with Mrs. Lin? And she must have come to Xin’an City by carriage, which was nowhere to be seen. Liu, the shopkeeper, and Dr. Zheng now had layers upon layers of questions in their hearts, waiting for Lin Yue to wake up before they could understand what was really happening.
Musheng brought Dalang and his brothers, as instructed by Lin Yue, to meet at the spice shop, but Lin Yue was nowhere to be found at the city’s northern spice shop. When they asked the shop’s clerks, they also mentioned that Lin Yue hadn’t shown up. Musheng was baffled, unsure of what was happening. Should he now take Dalang and his brothers back home, or should he look for the lady? Logically, the lady should not have returned home first, especially since he was driving the carriage. Suddenly, Musheng remembered the recent disappearances of women in the city; that’s why the master had bought them, skilled in martial arts, to guard the lady’s safety. Musheng began to panic. If something happened to the lady, not to mention whether the master and Haishi would let him off, he wouldn’t forgive himself either—having received great kindness from the master and lady, yet failing to properly carry out the task entrusted to him by the master and Haishi.