Daming: Internship also counts as work experience

Chapter 165 There is such a courtyard

Jia Chuan sighed, scratched his forehead, and said, "It's not that I don't want to talk to the Emperor, but how can I say it? If I use the wrong words, not to mention the Duke of Qian's mansion and the Prince of Zhou's mansion, even the Herb Collection Bureau and the Herb Garden could lose hundreds of lives in an instant."

"Do you think things will be different if you keep quiet?" Gao Yunduo asked calmly.

Mu Lian was filled with mixed emotions, but her gaze towards Jia Chuan was resolute. Then she suddenly stood up, knelt down, and kowtowed hard. Gao Yunduo and Dong Yuanyuan quickly stepped forward to help her up.

Dong Yuanyuan complained, "Your sister has such a short temper. How can you solve this kind of thing by kowtowing? She knelt down in a flash, which startled me."

Gao Yunduo explained, "Yuanyuan means that whether he can find out the truth of the case has nothing to do with whether you kowtow or not."

Mu Lian kept her head down and remained silent.

Jia Chuan got up and left the room. He wanted to sort out his thoughts on how to write this report in a way that would buy him time and prevent Zhu Zhanji from issuing his decree to punish anyone.

It was still a bit chilly in the courtyard. Although it was much warmer during the day, it seemed colder tonight than last night. Jia Chuan looked up at the dark sky. There was no moon or stars. Was it cloudy? Was it going to rain?

Spring rain is as precious as oil.

Jia Chuan sighed for a moment, and an idea flashed through his mind. Just then, Shunzi and Gao Yuntian quickly walked into the courtyard. Seeing Jia Chuan standing under the eaves, Shunzi hurriedly said:
"Judging from what those three said, the one with the same name as me is quite important. He doesn't need to do anything on a daily basis; he just needs to stay by Zhou Cheng's side. The three of them can rest after Zhou Cheng goes home, but he doesn't. He says that his home is not in Kaifeng and he needs to stay at the Zhou residence. However, as long as Zhou Cheng is in the study, he will stay by his side. Madam Zou has tried many ways to win him over, but he has refused them all."

Jia Chuan smiled and said, "These three know quite a lot."

Gao Yuntian said, "It's because this person is very famous in the Zhou family. How could these people not gossip about him in private?"

"Is no one talking about Zhou Cheng's childlessness?" Jia Chuan asked.

"You even thought of that?" Gao Yuntian looked at Jia Chuan in surprise.

Shunzi hurriedly said, "The three of them said that ever since the person with the same name as me came, Zhou Chengxiang suddenly realized that the reason he had no children might be because of something wrong with him, and he secretly started seeking medical treatment."

"secretly?"

“Yes, the three of them overheard Zhou Cheng and that person’s conversation and guessed it from their private discussions. When I asked them what changes Zhou Cheng had undergone since that person arrived, this was the first thing they thought of.”

"What else came to mind?"

"Zhou Cheng became busy around the time of the old prince's death, and he always did things in a... sneaky way. The three of them meant that even at the herb-gathering bureau, Zhou Cheng often left them in this courtyard. Only the one with the same name as me went out with Zhou Cheng. If the two of them wanted to say something, they would send the three of them away."

"Where is Commander Lu?" Jia Chuan asked Gao Yuntian.

"In the garden."

“I remember he said that when he went to Zhou Cheng’s study, he brought back some jewelry from the study. Have him bring it to me so I can take a look.”

Gao Yuntian turned and walked out of the courtyard.

Jia Chuan strolled around in the yard, with Shunzi following beside him.

"You go in, I'll just wander around."

"You can wander around, I won't say anything, but I'll be there when you want to talk."

Jia Chuan glanced at Shunzi, sighed, and said as he strolled around, "I must write a letter to the Emperor tonight, but the whole case still has no clear direction. How can I write it? When the old prince was alive, he trusted Zhou Cheng, but he was also wary of Zhou Cheng. How could the old prince not have made arrangements for such a person when he was dying?"

"What arrangements?"

“Even the old Prince had to be wary of Zhou Cheng, so there must be something he needed to be wary of. How could the new Prince Zhou possibly control him? The Herb Gathering Bureau is the largest business of the Prince Zhou's mansion, and it's also the one that needs the most careful management. To avoid the Prince of Han, the old Prince Zhou didn't even publish his books. Do you think the old Prince Zhou wouldn't have made any arrangements for the Herb Gathering Bureau when he was on his deathbed? Even the Duke of Qian's mansion secretly sent people to keep an eye on it, just in case the Herb Gathering Bureau made a mistake by blindly pursuing secret and rare medicines. Just now, Mu Lian also said that some prescriptions aren't that hard to obtain…”

"You said the remains buried in the herb garden were used for drug testing. There were skeletons, rotting corpses, and recently deceased bodies. This means the drug testing had been going on for some time, and Zhou Cheng must have known about it. Also, look at what Mu Lian said about the time she saw the bodies being transported—the night you came to the herb-gathering bureau. It's very likely that you said something that made Zhou Cheng panic. And they would definitely try to keep such a heinous act a secret from as many people as possible, using the fewest people possible to accomplish the greatest task. But there's a premise..."

Jia Chuan nodded and said, "There must be someone in the herb-gathering bureau who can make the decisions for them to dare to make such arrangements."

“Yes! And Zhou Cheng can only truly take control of the herb-gathering bureau after the old prince is gone, and only if the old prince didn’t arrange for anyone to watch over him before his death…”

"The Herb Collection Bureau and the Herb Garden are the culmination of the old prince's life's work!" Jia Chuan's eyes lit up, and he turned and hurried toward the main house.

He knew how to write the letter.

……

Halfway through writing the letter, Commander Lu arrived with some jewelry. Gao Yunduo and Dong Yuanyuan stepped forward to take it apart, but it was just jewelry, nothing special.

Jia Chuan continued to dictate, and Chen Mo wrote it down.

The letter first introduced the case and explained the cause of death. Then it described Zhou Cheng's changes, detailed the old prince's wariness of Zhou Cheng, and explained why the Duke of Qian's mansion was not at ease with the herb-collecting bureau. Finally, it introduced the discovery in the herb garden and the deduction that someone was using human lives to test medicine.

Furthermore, there should be quite a few types of drugs involved; this inference still needs further verification.

Why conduct drug trials? Shouldn't we just prepare the medicine once we have the prescription? Jia Chuan's analysis was to test different drugs and different people, to determine what dosage would be lethal, how long it would take from taking the medicine to death, and when the antidote would be most effective. Finally, he boldly stated that the death of Prince Zhou Ding, Zhu Su, was very suspicious and hoped that the emperor would allow him to open the coffin and examine the body.

The letter also mentioned the cooperation of Prince Zhou, Zhu Youdun, as well as Mu Lian's actions and assistance to him, but it made no attempt to defend the Prince Zhou's Mansion or the Duke of Qian's Mansion, nor did it mention the books written by the late Prince Zhu Su. Jia Chuan felt that now was not the time to bring this up. Those books certainly deserved to be seen by more people, but if they were mentioned now, it might...

Chen Mo finished writing, and Jia Chuan read it twice more before saying, "Send it out immediately." Jia Chuan knew it was impossible to exhume and examine the body of a prince, but he hoped to use this method to lead Zhu Zhanji to think that the princely mansion had been plotted against, so that Zhu Zhanji would understand that this matter must be thoroughly investigated, rather than being vented in anger. He wanted to find out who had such audacity and what their purpose was.
If Zhu Zhanji can refrain from condemning them all indiscriminately, Jia Chuan will have bought himself some time.

He needs time.

……

That night, the Imperial Guards and the Prince's Palace guards worked until the end of the Chou hour (1-3 AM), when Jia Chuan stopped them. There were already quite a few corpses, and there was no need to dig them up day and night; some should be left for the people coming from the capital.

What troubled Jia Chuan was how to determine the time of death of these remains.

Knowing the time of death is crucial to understanding when Zhou Cheng was bribed and when he began testing drugs on living people.

This is a difficult problem. In the previous life, there was advanced equipment, but in this life, there is only an old man named Zheng.

The most urgent task at present is to find the place for testing the medicine. This place must be in the herb-gathering bureau, and it must be very remote. Normally, even other people in the herb-gathering bureau would not be able to get close to it. The four deputy envoys should know something about such a place. Shunzi and Gao Yuntian were sent to interrogate them again.

Dong Yuanyuan was already sleepy. Seeing that Jia Chuan hadn't said goodbye yet, she simply pulled Gao Yunduo to go rest. Gao Yunduo hadn't forgotten Mu Lian. She didn't know how many more days Mu Lian could live like this, so she told Jia Chuan that Mu Lian should stay with them tonight so she could sleep more comfortably.

Jia Chuan understood Gao Yunduo's meaning and did not stop her.

Only Jia Chuan, Chen Mo, and Old Zheng, who was sitting there nodding frequently, remained in the room.

Lu Baihu left with the gold and silver jewelry. Jia Chuan didn't ask where they were taken, how they would be kept, or whether they were registered.

He felt that the Embroidered Uniform Guard naturally had its own procedures for these matters, and asking too many questions would only annoy people, and he didn't have time to think about these things anyway.

Jia Chuan felt that the outline of the case was becoming clearer. Although he still did not know how to examine the bones to determine the time of death, he was certain that Zhou Cheng dared to act so recklessly after the old prince passed away. However, sending living people into the herb-gathering bureau and transporting corpses out of the herb-gathering bureau were not things that could be done quietly. Even if they were extremely careful, if it happened too many times, someone would eventually see it. It was definitely not just Mu Lian who saw it.

So here's the question: were the people doing these dirty deeds from the herb-collecting bureau or from somewhere else?

After Jia Chuan arrived at the scene, the Embroidered Uniform Guard first questioned the people from the Herb Collection Bureau, and he also asked around, not to mention the four deputy envoys, but they couldn't find any clues, which puzzled Jia Chuan greatly.

Zhou Cheng must have accomplices, or rather, superiors, but Zhou Cheng is a worldly man, and the old prince has given him plenty of face. In Kaifeng, Zhou Cheng's status is even higher than that of the officials in the government office. What more could a pharmacy apprentice like him want in his life to have reached this point? How could he be bribed at this age?
There was only one reason: Jia Chuan was certain that Zhou Cheng had no shortage of money or women, but he lacked a son!

Therefore, if Zhou Cheng were to be bribed, it would most likely be through this means. In other words, the person bribing Zhou Cheng might not have much money or power, but they must be able to treat infertility, or at least have a way to make Zhou Cheng believe that he could have a son.

Conversely, it also holds true. The person who bribed Zhou Cheng was powerful and influential, and had access to a urologist. But if someone was powerful and influential, how could they not know that this promising young man was not easily fooled? Why would they hastily bury the body only after Zhou Cheng had visited?
Chen Mo yawned and said, "Get some rest. You only slept for a little while today..."

“If there were such a courtyard, no one from the herb-gathering bureau could enter… What I mean is that such a thing would never have happened when the old prince was alive. Now that the old prince is gone, even Zhou Cheng might not dare to do it. Prince Zhou doesn’t pay much attention to politics, but he’s not stupid. There must be someone in the herb-gathering bureau with eyes and ears. If such a place existed, the prince would probably have already…”

"Then why did you send Shunzi and Gao Yuntian to ask?"

“I didn’t think it through just now. There must be such a place, but there must be other excuses to prevent the people from the herb-gathering bureau from getting close.”

Chen Mo frowned and asked, "Do you think what Mu Lian said is necessarily true?"

Jia Chuan's hair stood on end. He had found the remains in the Herb Garden, which meant the body had been transported from the Herb Collection Bureau.
Jia Chuan got up and ran towards the door, almost bumping into Gao Yuntian who was about to open it. This scared Gao Yuntian so much that he was speechless and just stared blankly at Jia Chuan.

In fact, Gao Yuntian was quite frightened in the garden last night. Jia Chuan had long forgotten that Gao Yuntian had a lingering unease in his heart that he hadn't healed. It was dark, there was a corpse, and Gao Yuntian was concerned about his image. Plus, there were quite a few people around him, so he managed to hold on.

But some thoughts that arose in the darkness did not leave Gao Yuntian. His frequent outings tonight had put a tight string in Gao Yuntian's mind, which snapped the moment Jia Chuan suddenly opened the door.

Jia Chuan didn't have time to help Gao Yuntian call back his soul right now. He pushed Gao Yuntian aside and was about to run towards the east wing. Shunzi was right behind Gao Yuntian and hurriedly asked, "Where are you going? I asked them and they said there is such a place. It's quite eerie. Nobody goes there on weekdays."

Jia Chuan slammed on the brakes. He glanced at the east wing, turned around and pulled Shunzi into the room. Just as he was about to close the door, he saw Gao Yuntian still standing there.

Chen Mo stepped forward and pulled Gao Yuntian into the house, comforting him, "You're just scaring yourself. What's there to be afraid of at night?"

Jia Chuan asked Shunzi impatiently, "You mean they know there's a place in the herb-gathering bureau that nobody else is allowed to go?"

"It's not that they wouldn't let us go, it's that no one dared to go. That courtyard was originally a mixed courtyard where pharmacists and laborers lived together. It was a small courtyard where the others were all occupied. A few years ago, a pharmacist broke his leg while collecting herbs and was sent back to the herb-collecting bureau to recuperate. At that time, only a few laborers lived in the courtyard. The other pharmacists wouldn't come back to live there when they were collecting herbs. As a result, the injured pharmacist died a few days later. Nobody knows how he died. He only broke his leg; everything else was fine. People brought him food every day. He just died like that."

Shunzi was talking animatedly when Old Zheng suddenly sat up straight, stared at him, and asked, "Who died?"

Chen Mo exclaimed, "Can't you guys stop making such a fuss so late at night?"

Jia Chuan gestured for Shunzi to continue.

"When the medicine worker died, it was just that, and no one thought much of it at the time. But a few days later, the servants living in the same courtyard all died one after another, as if they had planned it. They said their deaths were very frightening. When the medicine workers returned, they were too scared to stay after just one night, saying they heard crying all night."

"You heard everything?" Old Zheng asked in surprise.

"I don't know, those people all died later."

"what?!"

Chen Mo and Old Zheng spoke in unison, while Gao Yuntian couldn't utter a sound, only keeping his mouth open.

(End of this chapter)