The truth came to light, and the scene was suddenly filled with relieved laughter.
Although the villain had been caught, Jiang Yuqing still didn't dare to let down her guard. She exhorted everyone to be sure to stay vigilant and guard the warehouse well before going back to sleep.
The next day at dawn, Jiang Yuqing led a small team of Imperial Guards to personally escort the two villains to the capital.
It was said that someone had broken into the village in the middle of the night last night, trying to set fire to the grain stocks.
The person behind the scenes turned out to be Zhu Xi Zhen, the daughter of former Minister of Rites Darong Fuzhou who had been demoted.
The Emperor was furious. He immediately ordered Zhu Xi Zhen to be arrested and brought to justice.
At first, Zhu Xi Zhen shouted loudly that she was innocent, but with solid evidence against her, she couldn't talk her way out of it.
Because her malicious deeds were simply too vicious, she was eventually sentenced to death by lingchi on the Emperor's order. Jiang Yuqing didn't go to the execution ground that day.
The steward told her that the common people who came to watch the execution crowded the entire execution ground, over half of them from the surrounding countryside near the capital.
The crowd was excitedly bloodthirsty, wishing they could devour her flesh alive. There were indeed some commoners who picked up pieces of her flesh, saying they would bring it home to feed the dogs.
To single-handedly incite the fury of all the common people in the capital, this Zhu Xi Zhen was quite a talent.
The lingchi lasted a total of three days until the last shred of flesh was sliced off her body. Only then did the executioner plunge a blade into her heart, ending her short and outrageous life.
Due to her misdeeds, her father Darong Fuzhou and brother were also implicated. They lost even the status of commoners and were exiled 3,000 li away, soon dying on the road to exile.
Thus, the once glorious Darong family completely collapsed and perished within a few short months, disappearing into the dust of history.
The rapid downfall of the Darongs rang the alarm for the other powerful aristocratic families in the capital again.
For men and gentlemen, self-cultivation, family management, country governance, and bringing peace to the land are the most important duties, with family management being second.
If you can't even guide your own wives and children well, what talk is there of governing the country and becoming pillars of the state? Utter nonsense!
Moreover, both of these family leaders had married daughters of the Zhong family, so everyone began to question the behavior and upbringing of the Zhong family. Who would dare marry such a disastrous wife as this?
Therefore, the families that had intended to propose marriage alliances with the Zhongs withdrew their proposals. Even the women who had already been betrothed found excuses to cancel the engagements and even returned home if already married.
In comparison to Zhu Xi Zhen being despised by the masses and leaving behind eternal disgrace, Jiang Yuqing became the "dream lover" in everyone's minds. There was even a folk saying, "raise your daughters to be like Jiang Linghui."
Jiang Yuqing just smiled faintly in response, declining to comment.
After the grain stocks incident, Jiang Yuqing put her mind at ease and invested her attention into the Imperial Medical Academy. She would occasionally visit the Empress in the palace as well.
She gave lectures during the day at the medical academy while also studying traditional Chinese medicine. At night after returning home, she provided special training for her disciples, focusing on Lu Yi.
She discovered that Lu Yi really was an exceptional medical student.
His knowledge of traditional medicine ran deep, comparable even to Master Qiu. His age was still young, with an agile mind and steady hands that worked quickly. It would be accurate to call him a natural prodigy born for medicine.
If she was honest with herself, he wasn't lacking compared to her either.
Before encountering Jiang Yuqing, after Lu Yi thoroughly researched medical cases, he would feel bored and turn to the more challenging field of toxicology.
Now with the "divine medicine techniques" brought by Jiang Yuqing, he was eager to stick to her side constantly, asking her to teach him medicine with an insatiable thirst for knowledge.
Therefore, although he was the last to join in, his progress was the fastest. She believed it wouldn't take long for his surgical skills to rival Master Qiu's group.
And now, the Hexian Hospital and Imperial Medical Academy were also on the right path.
With Jiang Yuqing providing enormous support in professional medical textbooks for the theoretical side, combined with the abundance of surgical cases at Hexian Hospital for practical experience.
Not only were Master Qiu and his disciples progressing rapidly in professional skills, even the clinicians and thirty surgical assistants at the medical academy made outstanding progress.
These students originally had considerable accomplishments in medicine. So their cognitive and comprehension abilities were beyond ordinary people's, only slightly lacking in the surgical field.
After this intense training period, rapid progress was only natural. Now they were able to independently complete some simple suture procedures, with rather high quality outcomes.
Similarly, Hexian Hospital was now famed not only in the capital, but its reputation had even spread to remote regions. Many patients with difficult or complex conditions traveled from afar to seek treatment.
As a result, beds at Hexian Hospital were always filled, and neighboring inns and guesthouses were fully occupied too.
Recently, Jiang Yuqing also noticed some new inns and hotels under construction nearby with similar designs and layouts.
This day, after returning home from Hexian Hall, Yu Zhu reminded her, “Tomorrow is His Royal Highness the Crown Prince's birthday, don't forget about it my lady.”
“Oh, is that so?” She had really forgotten. Jing Yan had mentioned it to her a few days ago when he came out of the palace to see her. At the time, she was busy grading student assignments and only responded to him absentmindedly.
Thinking about it now, Jing Yan knew her birthday and would always bring her a gift annually, but it seemed she had never kept his birthday in mind. Reflecting on this, it did seem somewhat neglectful on her part.
How old was he now? Ten years old?
Somewhat guiltily, she responded, “I didn't forget, I didn't forget. I've prepared a gift already.”
As soon as Jiang Yuqing returned home, she dismissed her attendants and retrieved a gift with some searching around in her spiritual space.
That's right, in her past life shortly before her unfortunate accident, she had ordered an LED lamp powered by solar energy from Taobao as a birthday gift for a young accident victim she had been taking care of. Unfortunately she had passed away before being able to present it to the child.
She immediately ran to her office desk, dragged out a cardboard box from underneath, and opened it to indeed find that solar-powered LED lamp.
Following the instructions she switched it on and off, adjusted the colors, finding it in great working order. Most importantly, it was solar-powered – just leave it outside for awhile to charge up after the battery ran down.
She had Yu Zhu locate some gift boxes for her to choose from, picking a beautifully decorated one to place the lamp into.
As a gift for the Crown Prince of a nation, the packaging certainly couldn't appear shabby.
Curious, Er Yao asked what kind of strange object this was. Jiang Yuqing just smiled and said this was a special kind of lamp that came from a distant overseas land, one of the inherited treasures of their sect. This prevented further questioning.
As one who received instruction in the palace, Er Yao knew what to inquire about and what not to pry into. Like matters involving her mistress' sect inheritance were absolutely not to be casually asked after.
During dinner, Jiang Yuqing mentioned to her master and senior martial brother that she would enter the palace to celebrate Jing Yan's birthday tomorrow.
They both acknowledged her plans. Jiang Yuqing then said, “Master, the new year holiday is only three months away. Will we be able to return home this year?”
Doctor Qiu stared blankly, seemingly surprised she had asked this. After some thought he finally responded, “I'm afraid not! The medical academy and hospital have just gotten on track. Coming and going would waste too much time.”
Jiang Yuqing also understood this rationale, but still felt a little let down nevertheless.
Unable to bear his young disciple's sadness, Doctor Qiu said, “Your master certainly can't leave, but if you're homesick, your third senior brother can accompany you back, how about that?”
Jiang Yuqing considered for awhile before shaking her head: “If third senior brother and I both went, only you would be left in this huge manor. That would be too lonely, so no, I can't abandon you master.”
Doctor Qiu stroked her little head affectionately, chuckling, “My foolish disciple, have you forgotten you still have two other senior martial brothers in the capital city? Your master wouldn't be left alone for new year's then!”
“Oh that's right!” Tuan Zi's eyes immediately brightened. “Master, then I'll go back for New Years. After the holiday I'll return to the capital city to find you.”
“Good. It's already mid September now. At most another month before the weather turns cold. If you want to go back to Qingzhou, you'll need to prepare early, otherwise the roads will be difficult to travel once the snows come.”
Jiang Yuqing smiled radiantly, “No worries, I'll just leave around the 27th or 28th of the 12th month, then rush back before Lantern Festival to accompany you in celebrating the Spring Festival.”
Doctor Qiu glared at her, “My foolish disciple, what nonsense you speak! Have you forgotten how long our journey here took when we traveled from Qingzhou?”
On the twenty-seventh and eighth days of the twelfth lunar month, I'm afraid you will have to spend the New Year on the road as soon as you leave the outskirts of the capital. "
Tuanzi said, "No way. My senior brother and I are riding Bai Xiaoshi back home. Bai Xiaoshi can fly, and we'll be home in a day."
Amidst sounds of soldiers fighting noisily, plates and bowls were smashed before most of the dishes on the table were saved.
Jiang Yuqing called people in to clean up and put out new bowls and chopsticks before continuing the meal.
Doctor Qiu said, "Good boy, is it true that Bai Xiaoshi can fly?"
"Uh huh. Bai Xiaoshi said it itself."
"But it's so small, carrying you would be a stretch, plus can your senior brother manage?"
Doctor Qiu looked at the resentful junior disciple beside him. Although not fat, he was the tallest of the brothers, a full head taller than the old man, though no one knew what he ate to grow so tall.
Jiang Yuqing said, "Don't be fooled by its size. This is Bai Xiaoshi's reduced form. Its true body is at least 10 feet long, as tall as the door to the Hall of Returning Spring. Carrying one senior brother will be no problem."
Doctor Qiu said, why not ask it again?
So Jiang Yuqing asked Bai Xiaoshi, who was gnawing an apple in his spiritual space. Bai Xiaoshi said, "I can, but he can't have ideas about cutting my antlers like old man Qiu."
Jiang Yuqing grinned twice and promised it, "Definitely not, really, I guarantee!"
As if! All medicine practitioners have this bad habit of being unable to resist good medicinal materials.
Jiang Yuqing said, "It agreed. But on the condition that you don't cut its antlers!"
The master and disciple duo quickly nodded in agreement.
It was just wishful thinking on their part. Putting aside whether they could defeat Bai Xiaoshi, if they dared make a move on its antlers, their junior disciple would be heartbroken. They did not wish to hurt the junior disciple's heart for the sake of antlers.
