Four Harmonies and Good Fortune

Chapter 604 Drawing fire from the bottom of the cauldron
Yang Qin had the doctor write out the prescription, and without a moment's delay, he went to get the medicine. Then he had the medicine brewed in the main kitchen before bringing it back to the courtyard.

On the way, he encountered Sang Dian, who tried several times to take the tray from him, but Yang Qin refused each time. Lord Wang was someone he greatly admired. Not only had he helped him find a tutor in Daming Prefecture, but he had also given him books and guided his studies in Bianjing. Now that Lord Wang was ill at home, Yang Qin naturally wanted to serve him wholeheartedly.

“Brother, you don’t need to follow me,” Yang Qin said to Sang Dian. “In a little while, when Lord Wang can walk again, you will need to take care of him. Now you should rest well.”

Sang Dian sighed. He didn't want to follow; he was afraid his husband would be caught red-handed.

Seeing Yang Qin like this, Sang Dian felt deeply guilty. Yang Qin was already quite clever, but he was still just a child. How could he know that his young master was full of wicked schemes? His illness was a pretense; his real intention was to kidnap someone.

Poor Yang Qin was still kept in the dark.

Sang Dian followed Yang Qin, talking to him from time to time. When he stepped into the yard, he deliberately kicked a flowerpot and subconsciously shouted, thus alerting the gatekeeper, Mama Yu.

As expected, Madam Yu spoke up: "What's wrong? Ninth Prince, please be careful with the tray in your hands. Let me have it!"

Yang Qin had already come this far, so why would he entrust the task to someone else?

“The medicine is all in the jar, it won’t spill,” Yang Qin said proudly to Mama Yu. “It was my idea. If Lord Wang doesn’t get up, we can just warm it up with some hot water.”

"Let me take a look," Madam Yu said with a smile, looking at the medicine pot, deliberately stalling for time. "Ninth Prince is indeed amazing."

While the three of them were still waiting, the door opened and Wang Yan stepped out.

Sang Dian hurriedly looked over and saw that his husband was still as handsome as ever, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Yang Qin hurried forward: "How is the master? Is he feeling any better?"

Wang Yan nodded: "After resting for a while, I'm fine now."

"Then..." Yang Qin looked at the medicine jar on the tray, about to ask if he still needed it.

Wang Yan reached out and picked up the medicine pot, poured the medicine into a bowl, tilted his head back and drank it all.

Yang Qin was surprised; he hadn't expected that Lord Wang would drink it without asking any questions. He was quickly pleased, however, as Lord Wang's actions clearly showed he trusted him.

Yu's mother took the tray, and Wang Yan reached out and patted Yang Qin's head: "You said before that you wanted to learn martial arts. Can Su Man teach you?"

Yang Qin nodded: "I did teach him, but Brother Man said that we need to build a foundation before we can learn anything else. Every morning I practice with Brother Man and the others. They practice their fists and feet, and I practice my horse stance on the side."

"However, I also peeked at some of the moves."

Su Man taught the guards in his household martial arts that each move was fierce. He watched them every day and had memorized many of the moves.

“Take me to your courtyard,” Wang Yan said, “to see how well you’ve mastered the horse stance, and to see what you’ve been doing with your studies these days.”

Yang Qin was naturally delighted and followed Wang Yan around chattering away until Wang Yan checked his homework, at which point Yang Qin remembered something.

A few doubts arose in her mind. Lord Wang had just come out of the house, but where was her sister-in-law? Where did she go? Did she go to the study next door, or…?

Yang Qin subconsciously shook his head; his sister-in-law certainly couldn't stay with Lord Wang forever.

That means we're going to the study.

He didn't think things through. Next time someone comes, he should stay and keep his sister-in-law company.

"What does it say here?" Wang Yan's voice brought Yang Qin back from his thoughts, and he hurriedly ran over to check.

That night, Yang Qin couldn't find a chance to think about anything else.

……

Xie family.

Xie Yizhi looked at her staff.

Cui Deng whispered, "The letter has been delivered to Your Highness... Second Madam. Your intention is to prevent them from mobilizing personnel to the capital?"

"Are we going to let Xie Yuyan go?"

Xie Yizhi's face darkened: "Do you think they can kill Xie Yuyan just by coming to Bianjing? You've seen the situation inside Bianjing. How could their people possibly enter the city smoothly to assassinate him?"

"Even if you manage to sneak into the city, how do you know it's not a trap deliberately set by Xie Yuyan?"

Cui Deng pondered for a moment and nodded: "What you say is true, sir. However, if we don't kill Xie Yuyan, the situation may not be easy to reverse, especially with Wu Qian. We still don't know where he is being held."

"Xia Mengxian was arrested. The officials in the Ministry of Justice and the Court of Judicial Review are either trusted by the Emperor or people planted by Prime Minister Wang. Even if they don't help, they won't cause trouble for Xu Huaiyi. It would be easy for Xu Huaiyi to put a prisoner away. Besides, they might not even lock Wu Qian up in jail."

"Wang Yan has the emperor's trust. If he wants to temporarily detain a heretical sect instead of handing it over to the government, it's just a matter of a word."

Cui Deng frowned and said, "Then we're helpless?"

“Of course not,” Xie Yizhi said, “but the more people involved, the easier it is for them to find fault with us. Isn’t that what happened to Xia Mengxian and his group?”

"What do you think they're waiting for? They're just fishing for us."

It's just a ploy to lure him and the head of the Holy Church.

Even if Xie Yuyan has truly forgotten the past, he should have noticed something by now. The reason everyone is keeping quiet is not because they are completely unaware, but because they are secretly plotting their own schemes.

Xie Yizhi said, "She not only needs to restore her identity, but also needs to thoroughly find out about her background and the cause of her parents' death."

This was also bait in his hands. He was certain that Xie Yuyan would not act rashly before figuring out the truth.

“It won’t be easy to find out all this,” Xie Yizhi said in a somber voice. “She had to plan things out little by little. We didn’t know she existed before, which allowed her to gather a lot of people through her business dealings. It was with these people and her reputation that she was able to achieve her current situation.”

If merchants hadn't become the court's eyes and ears, how could the court have caught so many Christians?

After a pause, Xie Yizhi continued, "We need to cause her some trouble so she won't have time to worry about anything else, only then can this farce truly end."

With Xie Yuyan in trouble and her prestige damaged, fewer merchants supported her, and naturally, they would no longer help her arrest the Holy Cultists.

“This is a desperate measure,” Cui Deng understood this and could guess what the master was going to do. “Right now, the most important thing for the porcelain business is to send the goods to the market, but it’s not time to send the goods yet.”

Xie Yizhi said, "That's what she thought too. Since the goods haven't started being transported yet, there's no need to guard against anyone attacking the caravan."

"But you've forgotten one thing. Xie Yuyan is so confident that this trade route will work simply because the Yang family already had a caravan. With just a few more men, they can transport even more goods. Besides, there's Zhao Zhongliang's bodyguard team protecting them. If we strike at the caravan and bodyguard team beforehand, how will Xie Yuyan have time to rebuild the same team?"

Cui Deng's face lit up with joy: "With the caravan and the militia in trouble, Xie Yuyan must be panicked. She will either send someone to check the situation or handle the matter herself. As long as she is in a panic, the Second Madam will have the opportunity to make her move."