maidservant

Chapter 152 Mei Renxing's Inhumanity Exposed

The thin ice on the moat had not yet completely melted away, but the sound of the clapper used by vendors selling apricot blossoms could already be heard sporadically in the streets and alleys.

Lin Xiao was defeated in a barbarian land thousands of miles away, and news of his death spread throughout the capital, right in the middle of a season when the weather was still chilly.

The news spread like wildfire across barren grasslands, from the eaves of teahouses and taverns to the deep courtyards of mansions.

Mei Renxing was leaning against the carved window of his study, watching the maid add new charcoal to the bronze stove.

When his trusted confidant whispered the devastating news to him, the official in his scarlet robe trembled slightly, and a half-cup of Biluochun tea rippled in the jade cup.

"Good! Good!" Mei Renxing suddenly slammed his teacup down on the sandalwood table, his distorted smile reflected in the rosewood screen.

"Two years ago, my father-in-law recommended me for a position in the central government, and it was this Lin Xiao who impeached me before the Emperor!" He paced back and forth, his python-patterned boots clattering on the blue bricks.

"A mere military man dares to interfere in court affairs, relying on his military merits! It's just that he holds a second-rank official position and is a confidant of the Emperor; even with a thousand methods, I can't easily confront him."

A sudden gust of wind swept past the window, making the wind chimes jingle loudly.

Mei Renxing stroked the jade-inlaid belt at his waist, threw his head back, and burst into a hearty laugh: "Haha! The day has finally come! A gentleman's revenge is never too late—Lin Xiao, oh Lin Xiao, even if you possess the courage of ten thousand men, you are ultimately no match for the inevitability of life and death!"

Mei Renxing's advisor, his back hunched like a shrimp, strode forward, holding up a gilded teacup with both hands. The rising steam from the tea enveloped his smiling face.
"Why should you, sir, get angry with that dead man? You are a magnanimous man, disdaining to stoop to the level of a crude brute!"

The clerk hunched over and leaned close to the desk, his withered fingers tapping loudly on the sandalwood tabletop.
"Take his bodyguard Zhanqian, for example. He relied on his martial arts skills to make us accept money, but in the end we still had to be punished according to the law, losing face for nothing. Since then, the shops have been giving us less tribute."

These words seemed to strike a nerve with Mei Renxing, who slammed his hand on the table and stood up abruptly, causing the ink in the inkstone on the table to splash out.

“He’s nothing but a vicious dog that bullies others by relying on its power!” Mei Renxing’s neck veins bulged, and his eyes flashed with a sinister light. “Now that the plague is over and the imperial envoy sent by the emperor has returned, I can now call the shots in the alleys and shops of this capital!”

"Without Lin Xiao as my patron, I will definitely teach him a lesson!" Before he finished speaking, he was about to summon the yamen runners, but his clerk hurriedly grabbed his wrist.

"You mustn't, sir!" Fine beads of sweat appeared on the clerk's forehead, trickling down his mustache.

"This Zhan Qian acts with unpredictable and ghostly methods, and his martial arts skills surpass even Lin Xiao's. Rashly sending men to surround him would likely result in losses and further trouble!"

Mei Renxing stood frozen in place, his fat fingers gripping his mustache tightly, twisting the whiskers into a braid.

Outside the carved window, dusk was deepening, and the setting sun cast dappled shadows on his face through the window lattice, making him look like a crumpled ghost face.

"Are we just going to let this go like this?" He gritted his teeth, his nails almost digging into his palms. "I'm already used to having to put up with the whims of high-ranking officials in this capital, but when have these common folk ever suffered such humiliation!"

The clerk's hunched back bent even lower, like a shrimp, and a sinister glint flashed in his triangular eyes. He leaned close to Mei Renxing's ear and whispered:

"If the hard approach doesn't work, we can try the soft one—Zhanqian's weakness lies with that female manager of Xinglin Medical Clinic, isn't it?" "You mean that one surnamed Song?" Mei Renxing's thick earlobes twitched suddenly, spilling leftover tea from his teacup onto the cuff of his lotus-patterned sleeve. "That young lady certainly has a face that's full of spring."

Before he could finish speaking, he narrowed his eyes warily, the python pattern on his official robes gleaming coldly in the candlelight with his movement. "But isn't she some cousin of Li Mao's family? To harm her would be to offend them."

"Master is confused!" the clerk interrupted, slapping his thigh, a fawning smile plastered on his face.
"Li Mao was demoted to Nanzhou long ago due to his embezzlement case; his carriage just left the city gates the day before yesterday! If he had truly received the Emperor's favor, how could he have been demoted to Nanzhou? He must have already lost power!"

His withered fingers tapped in the air, resembling a spider with outstretched claws.

"That's right, he's just a merchant. Could he really possibly catch the eye of the palace? Merchants have always been considered lowly, and I'm sure there are many in the court who no longer want to serve with him!"

“What you say is true, sir! Now that Lin Xiao is dead, Zhanqian has lost his backer. Shouldn’t we put our ‘peace charm’ back on the clinic’s signboard?”

Mei Renxing stroked his slick, oily mustache, a strange, guttural laugh escaping his throat. The two men's shadows stretched long, twisting on the blue brick ground into the shapes of greedy, ferocious demons.

The guard post outside the Xinglin Medical Clinic clanged as two dark figures bumped into it. Two yamen runners in black robes stood with their hands on their hips at the threshold, their iron rulers gleaming coldly. Their fierce appearance, with their blue faces and fangs, startled the old woman who was fetching medicine, causing her to stagger backward. The earthenware jar shattered on the bluestone slab, leaving behind a pile of medicine residue.

"Get the hell out of here!" One of them kicked over the medicine cabinet, and the aroma of angelica and chuanxiong mixed with dust rose up.

The waiting patients scrambled out of the clinic, and Doctor Feng, clutching the hem of his coat, strode out, his eyes wide with disbelief: "What are you officials doing here?"

"Stop pretending to be confused!" Another bailiff slammed the official document heavily on the counter; the three characters "medicine tax fee," still wet with ink, glowed eerily red in the morning light.

"Your clinic is quite large; you need to pay medicine taxes!"

Doctor Feng took the document with trembling hands, his knuckles almost crushing the corner of the paper: "This...this is not in accordance with the rules."

"Rules? Ha! I've been ignoring you all this time, did you really think business would always be this smooth?! Go ask around, which shop on this street doesn't pay protection money?!"

"This..." Doctor Feng glanced at Yun Shan, who was huddled in the corner by the window.

Yun Shan, dressed in plain white, sat on a small table by the window. She had left herself at the clinic because she didn't want Xiao Yue to worry about her.

Although she was still there, she seemed to have lost her soul. She had no energy to deal with the two constables until a loud crash shattered the silence—the constable's black boots crushed the celadon bowl used for pulse diagnosis, and the flying shards grazed the back of her hand, making her suddenly look up as if waking from a dream.

She was so tired. She looked up because of the sharp pain, but after she did, she felt completely exhausted and didn't even have the strength to open her mouth to argue.

Yunshan really didn't want to pay attention to it, and simply pushed the heavy money bag over the counter.

The dull thud of the coins clinking together startled the two constables, and also made Doctor Feng look up from behind the ledger, his white beard trembling as his voice shook: "This is half a month's income!"

The two men couldn't believe that Manager Song had paid the fee so easily, and they were at a loss for what to do.