When the young master of the Hou Mansion returned to the capital, Gongsun Zishu naturally came to pay her respects. Jiang Yuqing also liked this bright and generous girl.
Perhaps because of her background in the Jianghu, she had a kind of casual and carefree air unlike others. It must be said that she and her third martial brother were quite a good match.
Her martial arts skill was exceptional, especially her swordmanship, which was simply magical. Even Jiang Yuqing, who had not originally intended to learn martial arts, was moved and asked her for some pointers.
This angered her third martial uncle and he scolded her furiously, "You little rascal, you're showing favoritism over your martial brother! In the past when I took the initiative to teach you, you didn't want to learn. Now you're actually asking her to teach you the sword--isn't that going too far?!"
Jiang Yuqing smiled and said gently, "There's a time and place for everything, isn't there? Besides, it's not my fault your sword skill isn't as good as Big Sister Gongsun's."
"Alright, little stinker, you dare look down on me? See if I don't tickle you!" Saying so, he grabbed the little dumpling and started tickling her. He tickled her until she laughed loudly and repeatedly begged for mercy. The martial siblings played for a good while before finally stopping.
Gongsun Zishu watched the martial siblings playing the whole time with a smile, thinking to herself that the bond between these two was truly close.
The second day after Jiang Yuqing "returned to the capital," officials from the Ministry of Revenue came looking for her, concerning the sale of grain seeds. After calculating, there were two months left until the next planting season, so it was time to finalize the grain seed arrangements.
Jiang Yuqing entrusted them with full authority to handle things. With others taking care of things, she was happy to just sit back and collect money.
Besides, she figured they wouldn't dare skim too much off the top with the Emperor watching them like a tiger eyeing its prey. Anyone who tried any tricks would face the same fate as the Tang family.
The days passed by happily, and the little dumpling's fourth birthday arrived before they knew it.
Her birthday celebration was simple, with just her family together for a meal. This included Doctor Qiu, her three martial uncles, Tian Shanglu, plus Gongsun Zishu and Jing Yan. Jing Yan came bearing gifts from the Empress and Li Deshun.
It was an imperial examination year.
Not long after her fourth birthday, the new top three candidates of this year were freshly announced. On the day the Zhuangyuan (top candidate), Bangyan (second), and Tanhua (third) paraded through the streets, the entire capital was exceptionally lively. Jiang Yuqing went with Doctor Qiu to watch as well.
The Zhuangyuan and Bangyan were already quite old, while the Tanhua was at least thirty years old. While one could not exactly call them "old," they were still much less handsome than her father in the little dumpling's eyes.
Indeed, the filter through which the little dumpling saw her father was truly thick.
With the new successful examinees announced, it also meant her father's three-year term would end in two months. At that time, he would return to the capital with his family--just thinking about it made her incredibly excited.
As she counted down the days, she realized the grain seeds in her estate's fields had already been transplanted into the paddies.
April 18th was Doctor Qiu's 70th birthday.
To be accurate, no one actually knew when his real birthday was. The old man had been picked up from a pile of corpses by his master--the previous head of Bianque Valley--when he was around two months old.
His master had found him on June 17th. Based on the infant's approximate age, he counted back two months and set his birthday as April 17th.
There was a saying in this ancient era that "it is rare for a person to live to 70." His few disciples wanted to hold a lively, celebratory banquet for the old man's birthday, but he disliked making a fuss and refused.
He loved beef, but cattle were incredibly important productive resources at this time. Slaughtering cattle without reason was against the law. Only when cattle died naturally from old age or accidents that left them unable to work, and their owners reported it to authorities and obtained permission, could they be slaughtered.
As such, beef was extremely precious.
In her spirit realm, the mountain range by the medicinal fields did not have ordinary cattle. However, there were wild cattle in the Demon Beast Mountain Range by the Inheritance Hall.
Not to mention how difficult it would be to capture them, just one bite of the rich spiritual energy contained in demon beast meat would take Doctor Qiu's life.
She could only spend money to have the butcher shop and slaughterhouse keep an eye out. If they came across any beef, they were to deliver it to her immediately, price be damned.
Fortunately, three days before Doctor Qiu's birthday, the butcher shop did deliver 30 jin of beef.
On the old man's birthday, the kitchen prepared a table full of beef dishes using all kinds of methods like braised beef, boiled beef, stewed beef in grape wine, etc.
Jiang Yuqing felt something was missing. If only there were tomatoes or potatoes!
Braised beef shank with tomatoes or pan-fried beef with potatoes would be amazing. Especially potatoes--no matter if they were pan-fried, deep-fried, stir-fried, they would taste delicious anyway.
It was a real pity that after turning the kitchen in the residence upside down, she couldn't even find a single potato. It was disappointing indeed.
That day, when Jiang Yuqing returned from outside, before even entering He An Hospital, she saw a middle-aged man frantically pulling a donkey in a wooden cart towards them.
Seeing this, the onlookers couldn't help but laugh, some even heckling him, "Brother, people usually have donkeys pull them. How come it's the opposite with you?"
The man paid them no heed and continued rushing the donkey straight to He An Hospital. Once he reached the gates, he quickly unhitched the cart and started yelling hoarsely, "Doctor, doctor, come quick and save it!"
A male doctor heard him and assumed there was a patient with an emergency illness. He hurried out and asked, "What's wrong?"
The man pointed to the donkey on the cart and said, "It's ill! Please take a look!"
Upon seeing that, the doctor flared up at once and scolded, "Are you playing a prank on me? This is a hospital for humans, not animals! Why did you bring your donkey here?!"
The man became anxious and pleaded, "It's the same to treat people and animals, isn't it? Just take a look, will you?!"
A woman there to see the doctor couldn't stand listening anymore and rebuked him, "You speak without thinking! Based on what you're saying, you might as well marry livestock since people and animals are the same!"
Hearing what the woman said, the onlookers immediately burst into laughter.
The man said urgently, "I'm no good with words, please don't take offense, sir. I'm begging you, save it! This donkey is my family's only large beast of burden--our livelihood depends completely on it for transport and making a living! If something happens to it, my whole family will be doomed!"
In this day and age, a household having a large beast of burden was not easy at all. One could say that after their house, large beasts were a household's most valuable asset.
Her family had an old ox. This old ox had plowed fields for the Jiang family for over ten years and contributed abundant labor.
Even after it got old and couldn't pull the plow anymore, her grandfather Jiang Lao still carefully looked after this old partner, occasionally even leading it out himself to graze.
As such, she deeply empathized with the man's feelings. She went to take a look and discovered the donkey's mouth was circled with white foam and its body kept convulsing nonstop. She put on gloves, about to check the donkey's mouth, when it suddenly gave a great shudder and went completely stiff.
Jiang Yuqing felt for a pulse and found that it had died.
Seeing the donkey dead, the man plopped down on the ground and started bawling loudly, "My White Flower, you left me just like that! How is my whole family supposed to live now... White Flower...you can't abandon me and depart just like this..."
My goodness, listening to his crying, it was truly...nevermind. If one didn't know the context, hearing him cry like this, they might have assumed it was over a dead wife instead of a donkey.
This was meant to be a distressing situation, but the man's crying made the onlookers unable to resist bursting into muffled laughter. Jiang Yuqing also found this quite speechless.
Jiang Yuqing turned her gaze to the circle of white foam around the donkey's mouth. She felt that rather than sickness, its cause of death seemed more like poisoning.
So she asked the man, "Was your donkey long ill, or was this an acute sickness that came on suddenly?
The grieving man had not wanted to pay attention to a little girl like her at first. However, the doctor who had first spoken to him said, "This is my martial uncle's closed-door disciple, the current head of Bianque Valley."
Hearing that, the man sniffled briefly before continuing to cry as he answered, "To-today *hic*, I took a job *hic* delivering goods for a seed shop..."
Seeing him hiccup incessantly from crying, Jiang Yuqing quickly had someone bring honey water for him to slowly drink, while another person patted his back.
When he finally calmed down a bit, she asked again, "Did White Flower eat anything strange before falling ill?"
The man replied, "Just the usual fodder."
"Is there only fodder?" Jiang Yuqing shook her head and said, "It shouldn't be. Its condition looks more like it ate something poisonous and died from it. Think again, did it eat anything else?"
"Anything else..." The man suddenly slapped his forehead and said, "I remember now. When I was unloading goods at the seed shop entrance, I saw White Flower eating some kind of oval unknown root blocks.
That thing has a greenish skin, the big ones are about half a pound, and the small ones are two or three ounces. There are clusters of many two-finger-long white buds growing out of them here and there. White Flower ate more than half a bag.
I was scared to death at the time, thinking I would have to pay a lot of money. The boss of the seed shop said don't worry, anyway he didn't know what that stuff was and no one wanted it.
Did my White Flower die from eating that stuff?"
The man's description was too vague, and Jiang Yuqing didn't know what he was talking about for a while. So she discussed with him, asking if he could wait for a moment while she figured out the cause of White Flower's death.
The man said it was fine. Anyway, things had progressed to this point, and he also wanted to find out the cause of the donkey's death.
Jiang Yuqing then collected some blood samples, went back to her office, locked the door, and entered the Spirit Realm. Before long, she had the test results.
This donkey's blood contained high levels of solanine. It did indeed die of poisoning.
Recalling the sprouting greenish oval-shaped stem blocks the man described, an answer became apparent.
Potatoes!
This donkey died from eating too many potatoes that had begun to sprout.
Thinking of this, Jiang Yuqing was instantly thrilled. She hurried out of the hospital and said to the man, "The cause of White Flower's death has been determined. It was from eating the sprouting things you mentioned before that it died of poisoning!"
Upon hearing this, the man began crying again.
Jiang Yuqing took out a full ten-ounce silver ingot from her pocket and said to him, "Stop crying. As long as you tell me where the seed shop is where you unloaded goods before, this silver ingot is yours to take to buy another donkey."
The man never expected such good fortune. His tears instantly turned to laughter. "It's the Bountiful Harvest Seed Shop on Liu Tree Street east of the city. The owner's surname is Chang."
Jiang Yuqing stuffed the silver ingot into his hand. "Alright, take White Flower and bury it! Then go buy another donkey!"
The man scratched his head. "Do I really have to bury it?"
"What, can't bear to part with it?"
The man wiped his tear tracks and grinned. "It's such a big donkey, at least a hundred and ten catties of meat. Seems a pity to bury it when we could eat it instead."
"..." So you were just crying crocodile tears earlier for the gods! Jiang Yuqing ground her back teeth, speaking very sternly, "You can eat it, but after lying flat as a board it'll be your turn next."
"Can't I stew it for a long time?"
Tuanzi couldn't stand it anymore. Hands on her hips, she bellowed, "No, you cannot, it's not allowed to eat it! Did you hear clearly? Furthermore, you cannot secretly sell the meat to others. If I hear of anyone dying from poison donkey meat, I'll hold you accountable for their deaths and have His Majesty the Emperor punish your nine generations! Did you hear clearly?!"
The frightened man stammered, "I h-heard clearly."
"Since you heard clearly that's good. Now, immediately, go outside the city and find a place to dig a deep hole to bury the donkey! I'll have people watching you!"
"Yes, yes, going right now, leaving immediately!"
After the man left, Jiang Yuqing heaved a long sigh, massaging her throbbing temples.
Things were so difficult for her!
However, she still had more important things to do. Saying a quick word to Master, she hurriedly rode Little White Ten towards the east city gate.
