Bride Swap Backfire: My Cousin's Rebirth Made Us a Power Couple-Chapter 20 - 17: Murder Case

"As soon as that old doctor saw the prescription I took out, he asked about my relationship with Zhao Jing’s family from the Zhao Village. If I hadn’t been wearing a veiled hat, he probably would’ve stared a hole right through me."

Xu Su Ying laughed. "So what did you tell him?"

"I just told him the truth, more or less... I said I was a neighbor from their village and was just conveniently bringing back some herbs for them... Mom, this is just half a month’s worth of medicine, and it costs one and a half taels of silver. That’s three taels a month... What kind of serious illness does Mrs. Zhao have? Why does it cost so much every month?"

Chen Wanqing placed the bulging bags of herbs into her back basket, linking her arm with her mother’s as she waited for a reply.

For an ordinary family, three taels of silver was enough to cover an entire year’s expenses.

Unless, of course, the family had a scholar.

Everyone knew that pursuing an education was a bottomless pit. It wasn’t just that ink, brushes, paper, and inkstones were costly; books were exorbitantly priced. On top of that, one had to find a master and present them with gifts for every festival and seasonal change. No amount of money was ever enough to fill that hole.

But Zhao Jing’s situation was different. For him, at this stage, his studies weren’t a major expense.

Although Mr. Zhao had passed away, he had left behind a room full of books, saving Zhao Jing a significant amount of money. Furthermore, Zhao Jing was still in a period of mourning, and his scholarship had already reached a mature level, so he didn’t need to find a master. This saved him even more.

But the money the Zhao family saved didn’t stay in their pockets for long; it was all spent on Mrs. Zhao.

The medical expenses were enormous, amounting to thirty or forty taels a year. Wanqing wondered how Jing managed to grit his teeth and get through it, year after year.

"One and a half taels of silver for half a month? How could it possibly cost that much?"

Xu Su Ying was so startled her expression changed.

But then she thought about Mrs. Zhao’s frail constitution and nodded slightly. "Then again, that might just be what it costs."

She then went on to explain Mrs. Zhao’s condition to Chen Wanqing in detail.

"I heard she was born prematurely, so she’s always been in poor health. If she hadn’t fallen for Mr. Zhao back in the day, she might have had trouble finding a husband at all."

"Fortunately, she managed to marry Mr. Zhao, and her life improved. But she had a difficult childbirth when her daughter was born. She was lucky to survive, but her health took a turn for the worse and never recovered."

"Then, in the dead of winter, she fell into a stream. After that, she had to endure Mr. Zhao’s death. Her body and mind both suffered one heavy blow after another."

"Her body... at this point, it’s probably just the medicine keeping her alive. And medicine that can sustain a life is never cheap... Come to think of it, the year Mr. Zhao passed away, the school wasn’t open at all. Plus, with her needing to recuperate, the family’s silver was draining away like water. The little bit of silver Jing earns from copying books is barely enough to feed the family, let alone pay for such expensive medicine. That can’t be enough, can it...?"

Xu Su Ying mumbled, her eyes alight with curiosity. After a moment’s thought, Chen Wanqing leaned close to her mother’s ear and told her what she had overheard at Moxiang Pavilion.

Xu Su Ying clapped her hands. "I knew it! If Jing has another source of income, then it all makes sense. That boy really is something else. Not only can he juggle everything, but he does it all so well. Look at De’an—he’s the same age as Jing, but all he thinks about from morning to night is food and fun..."

Chen Wanqing abruptly changed the subject. "Mom, with the shop closed all the time, I don’t know how much business I’m losing every day. I can’t just rely on regulars forever. I need to attract some new customers..."

Xu Su Ying shot her daughter a look.

’Honestly,’ she thought, ’I gave birth to her. I know what she’s up to the moment she opens her mouth.’

But her daughter was talking about business, so she couldn’t very well steer the conversation back to gossip.

She had to follow her daughter’s lead. "So, what’s your idea? Are you thinking of making fragrances while you watch the shop? Or do you want to just hire someone?"

Chen Wanqing smiled at her mother. "Making fragrances in the shop isn’t practical. For one, Qingxiang House is too small. There’s no room to set up all the tools and racks..."

More importantly, it would be too easy for my secrets to get out.

But hiring someone wasn’t easy, either.

The story she and her mother told everyone was that the shop made money, but it was just a little bit, all earned through hard work.

But if they hired someone, anyone paying attention would quickly figure out the shop’s daily revenue. By taking stock of the flowers and herbs they bought, it would be easy to calculate their net profit. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

There were old sayings: "A shopkeeper’s eyes never leave his wares," and "Don’t flash your wealth." For one, if you had money, you had to worry about relatives and old acquaintances "borrowing" from you, which was really just a pretext for taking what they wanted. For another, you worried that a reputation for wealth would spread and bring disaster upon your family.

Chen Wanqing shared these worries, which was why she hadn’t acted on her plan to hire someone, even though she’d had the idea for a while.

After listening to her daughter, Xu Su Ying mulled it over for a moment before slapping her thigh decisively. "We’ll hire someone! We’ll just have to find someone tight-lipped and good-natured... You can’t let the fear of crickets keep you from planting your fields."

"We have to keep the business running, and we have to make it bigger. Right now, we’re just playing small-time and not earning much. The truly wealthy wouldn’t even look twice at the peanuts we’re making. And if something really were to happen... well, to put it bluntly, we have your father. I imagine anyone who doesn’t want to end up at the government office won’t go out of their way to cause trouble for our family..."

"Hey, Auntie! What did you just say? Where was there a murder?"

Xu Su Ying grabbed hold of a short, stocky woman.

The woman was stout, but surprisingly nimble. She had rushed past them like a gust of wind before Xu Su Ying managed to grab her arm.

With a quick twist, however, she broke free.

Without even looking to see who had grabbed her, the woman charged with the force of an ox toward the swarming crowd.

"There’s been a murder at Wo Laicai’s place! The county constables dug a corpse out of his wall! Good heavens, they say it was a merchant who came to do business in the county years ago. Wo Laicai killed him..."

Her words drifted back on the wind, but the woman herself had already vanished from sight.

Xu Su Ying grabbed Chen Wanqing, ready to follow the crowd.

Chen Wanqing pulled her mother back in the other direction. "Mom, look at that crowd. We shouldn’t go. Dad told us to come straight home after we finished our errands."

"We’re not going home. Let’s go see what’s happening. Your father is handling this case; he was just telling me about it last night when he got home. Come on, sweetie, let’s go have a look."

Xu Su Ying was all fired up. She pulled Chen Wanqing along toward the flowing crowd, quickly recounting what Chen Song had told her the previous night.

As they were talking and running, two people came panting up behind them. It was none other than Xiulan and Lianhua, their faces flushed from running.

"We were just getting some fabric cut when we heard about the murder. We snatched up our cloth and ran right out... The female manager was haggling with me over a single copper coin, telling me she wasn’t making any profit and was taking a loss. But she forgot all about that, slapped the counter shutter down, and zipped off to see the commotion..."

"We’re going too, but look at this crowd! The whole county is running over there. I’m afraid we won’t get a good spot," Xu Su Ying said, then added a reminder, "You all watch your valuables! Don’t let someone pick your pocket in the chaos."