All the heavens begin with the love in the courtyard.

Seeing the crowd around him, Bai Jingqi thought for a moment and decided that he should also show some of the qualities of a child prodigy. So he put his hands on his hips and called out to Bai Wenshi.

"Mom, I want all of these! They're all mine! In the future, I'm going to become a genius who's rich, skilled in martial arts, a doctor, and a chef! Hahahaha!"

Bai Jingqi's small stature was enough to completely shock everyone with his shout. The entire hall fell silent. From some corner, Third Master Bai also shouted.

"A monster has appeared in the Bai family! God! Save our Bai family!"

Chapter Three: A Major Incident Happened in the Bai Family

Master Bai's shout startled everyone awake, but the meaning behind his words made many people so angry they wanted to slap him.

The old man even scolded Master Bai.

"Get out of here!"

Bai Sanye's words made many people look at Bai Jingqi with more complicated expressions once again.

In short, Bai Jingqi's performance just now truly shocked everyone. A one-year-old baby who can walk, talk, and express his future needs is truly amazing.

In the end, it was the old man who presided over the first birthday ceremony for the little prodigy Bai Jingqi.

From that day on, Bai Jingqi's reputation as a child prodigy was completely established. In the capital, who didn't know that the Bai family had produced a child prodigy?

Bai Jingqi also enjoyed the treatment befitting a child prodigy. At just over a year old, his mother sent him to school, saying he needed early education. In the morning, he learned to write, and in the afternoon, Bai Jingqi would go to his grandfather's study to read books on medicine.

Bai Jingqi remembered that Old Master Bai didn't have many years left to live. While the old man was still alive, he had to extract some real skills from him no matter what.

The old man naturally doted on his bright grandson, and the two of them often exchanged medical knowledge.

As expected of a great medical master, Old Master Bai was incredibly knowledgeable, possessing a vast knowledge of everything from palace secrets to ancestral medical techniques and even folk remedies.

For the soul in Bai Jingqi's mind, this world was an absolutely wonderful dream experience. Starting as an infant, he had no worries about food or clothing. He came from a family of doctors and only needed to study hard from a young age, learning knowledge that money couldn't buy in the future. He didn't know how much of this knowledge would remain after he woke up.

However, no matter how much he retains, Bai Jingqi's little brain, like a vacuum cleaner, absorbs both good and bad knowledge in one go.

In the original novel, Bai Jingqi was a mischievous and naughty little rascal when he was young. However, in this world, Bai Jingqi is a child prodigy praised by everyone. He is especially loved by the patriarch of the Bai family. On several occasions, the patriarch has declared that in the future, the head of the Bai family must be succeeded by Jingqi.

Bai Jingqi wasn't interested in becoming the future head of the family; he believed that learning more knowledge was the most important thing while he was still young.

His days are now fully scheduled; he not only studies literature and medicine, but also martial arts.

I get up at 5:30 in the morning and exercise my arms and legs for two hours to recall some long-forgotten memories.

For example, grappling techniques and some combat skills, and even some distant memories of special forces soldiers. Although these are not needed for the time being, they will be useful sooner or later, because chaos is coming.

I'm still young, so I need to build a solid foundation first. In the future, I'll find a few masters of traditional Chinese martial arts and learn the essence of martial arts from this era. Then I'll try to see if I can integrate it into modern military combat techniques.

At first, Bai Jingqi's biological mother was strongly opposed to him getting up so early every day to exercise, but it was no use. As Bai Jingqi grew up, his family could not even notice when he got up in the middle of the night.

In the end, Bai Wenshi couldn't be bothered to care anymore. Anyway, her son was definitely a child prodigy. As long as he studied well, what could his small arms and legs possibly do?

Four years passed in the blink of an eye, and Bai Jingqi finally turned five. In these years, he has come to understand what kind of world this is.

In modern terms, this world was an era of extreme wealth inequality. Just how severe was it?

A prominent family in the capital like the Bai family earns hundreds of thousands of taels of silver every year. Bai Jingqi didn't understand what that meant before, but after strolling around the streets with Big Beard, he realized just how wealthy a prominent family like the Bai family really was.

On the street, an egg costs about three coins, a white steamed bun costs three coins, and a multigrain steamed bun costs one coin. Meat is more expensive; a pound of ordinary large carp costs ten to fifteen coins, and a pound of pork costs about thirty coins.

An average worker outside earns about thirty coins a day, and that's for manual labor. A haircut only costs three to five coins. Rice costs around seven coins per pound.

A laborer who does hard labor every day can only buy a few kilograms of rice. This salary is not enough to support a family. However, it has long been the norm for ordinary people not to have enough to eat.

If natural disasters or man-made calamities don't occur, ordinary people in this era can barely make ends meet because prices have remained relatively stable.

Before 1900, prices in the Qing Dynasty remained almost unchanged for two or three decades. It wasn't until after the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion of China that prices truly began to rise.

This is the life of ordinary people, but what about the lives of the wealthy?

Take the Bai family for example. Bai Jingqi's mother receives 120 taels of silver as a monthly gift. Each of the three members of the family receives 40 taels of silver per month for living expenses. You should know that one tael of silver can be exchanged for 1,000 copper coins.

Ordinary people work hard for a month and still don't earn a single tael of silver, while wealthy families can have dozens of taels of silver for living expenses every month. This difference in wealth is quite evident.

The servants in the Bai family were paid fairly well. Ordinary servants received two taels of silver a month, which was much better than doing hard labor outside. So, in feudal society, being a servant or maid was a good job.

In a wealthy family like the Bai family, each branch has its own property. Take Third Master Bai for example; over the years, he has amassed at least tens of thousands of taels of silver from the Bai family. He then lends this money out at exorbitant interest rates, earning thousands of taels of silver in interest each month.

Outside, an ordinary person selling their daughter would only ask for fifty taels of silver, and even then, they would haggle. You could buy a beautiful young woman for twenty or thirty taels of silver. This was in good years. In the dead of winter, during famine years, there were many elderly people and children freezing to death on the streets. Every morning, the government would hire people to pull donkey carts and take away dozens of frozen corpses.

Every winter, the mass graves outside the city become a playground for stray dogs. However, most of these stray dogs don't survive the winter. Dogs eat people, and people eat dogs; they just make do with what they have.

This is what Bai Jingqi has seen and heard in the past few years. He now understands what the end of a dynasty means, and he finally understands how reasonable it is when the villagers outside the city rush to pass ladders when the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded the city, as described in history books.

However, all of this is obviously irrelevant to Bai Jingqi now. His status in the Bai family has been very special in recent years. Although he is young, he is deeply loved by the elders in the family. Of course, there is one exception, which is naturally the Third Master Bai.

Ever since Third Master Bai shouted that a monster had appeared in the Bai family when Bai Jingqi was one year old, he had a grudge against Bai Jingqi.

With his unusual way of thinking, Bai Sanye naturally didn't like Bai Jingqi either. After Bai Jingqi revealed some of his shady dealings in front of his wife, Bai Sanye even tried to confront Bai Jingqi physically. As a result, the scene of him being chased around the yard by his braid by four-year-old Bai Jingqi became a laughing stock in the Bai family.

From then on, Master Bai would avoid Bai Jingqi whenever he saw him. If he couldn't afford to offend him, he could at least avoid him.

After five years of living as a native, Bai Jingqi gradually became assimilated into this world. His clothing, food, housing, and transportation gradually reflected the characteristics of this era. He originally thought that life would continue like this, but the calamity that had befallen the Bai family and the Prince Zhan's Mansion still broke out.

That night, Lord Wei from the Imperial Medical Academy hurriedly knocked on the Bai family's door and rushed into Old Master Bai's room to tell him about a major event concerning the fate of the Bai family.

It turned out that on this night, a concubine in the palace took medicine prescribed by the eldest son of the Bai family and died in the middle of the night after vomiting blood!

This matter greatly shocked Old Master Bai. After all, the death of a concubine in the palace due to medical treatment would be a devastating blow to the Bai family. Moreover, the medicine was prescribed by the eldest son. If this were confirmed, the eldest son would be finished and face the death penalty.

That night, the entire Bai family mansion was disturbed. Bai Jingqi was groggily awakened by the noise. He looked at the brightly lit scene outside and got up with some confusion. He had been sleeping alone since he was three years old, and his parents' room was next door.

There's nothing I can do. I'm an adult at heart, but my own parents don't treat me like an outsider. Every now and then, they nag me for a long time, even in front of me. Who can stand that?

It's so offensive!

Bai Jingqi got up and yawned. Over the past few years, his sleep schedule had become a habit, waking up promptly at 5:30 every morning. It was probably not even 2:00 now, so something serious must have happened.

Bai Jingqi casually put on his clothes and shoes, put his hands behind his back, and walked out of the room with his short legs.

Outside, Bai Jingqi's parents had already gotten up and were standing at the gate of the courtyard, asking about the situation. When they saw Bai Jingqi get up, they just glanced at him and didn't say anything. Over the years, Bai Jingqi had been like a little adult, and Bai Wenshi had never worried about him at all.

Bai Jingqi stood at the door, listened to the gossip for a while, and finally understood what had happened.

Regarding the poisoning of the concubines in the palace, Bai Jingqi vaguely remembered that it had happened in the original novel, but who could remember which year and month it happened? Besides, Bai Jingqi himself was a palace physician, so he couldn't stop it even if he wanted to.

If it were an ordinary concubine or mistress who was poisoned, money could solve the problem. After all, the Qing court was already corrupt from the inside out, and money could buy anything.

Unfortunately, the concubine who died this time was the second princess of the Zhan Prince's Mansion. Originally, the Bai family had already become enemies with the Zhan Prince's Mansion five years ago, and now this incident has made the two families completely enemies. However, things can't be that coincidental.

Besides, Bai Jingqi knew that his uncle, Bai Daye, was a doctor whose skills were personally passed down by the old master Bai. He would never kill someone so easily. Someone must be up to something!

Bai Jingqi stood at the door, stroking his chin, recalling the original novel and trying to figure out who the culprit behind this incident was. After thinking for a long time, he finally remembered.

Just as Bai Jingqi was beginning to understand what was going on behind the scenes, his mother stepped forward and buttoned up his shirt while yelling at him.

"Look at other kids, who doesn't sleep in late at night? But you little rascal, sigh, I guess I'm just indebted to you."

Seeing Bai Wenshi's sighing and complaining appearance, the old women next to her all rolled their eyes. This was blatant showing off of her son!

Bai Jingqi let his mother button up his clothes, then said to her.

"Mom, I'm going to Grandpa's. Please leave the door open for me later!"

Without waiting for the other party's agreement, he ran towards Old Master Bai's courtyard with his short legs.

Bai Wenshi, standing behind, didn't forget to call out.

"Kids, don't talk too much, and remember to come home and go to bed early!"

Bai Jingqi responded and then disappeared through the door, while Bai Wenshi behind him grumbled in dissatisfaction.

"Sigh, looks like I'll have to have another one. This child doesn't give me any sense of accomplishment as a mother at all!"

The older women around were so angry that they left.

Bai Jingqi arrived at Old Master Bai's courtyard, where it was already brightly lit inside and out. Upon entering, he saw Lord Wei from the palace, Old Master Bai, and his uncle, Uncle Bai.

However, at this moment, the anxiety on their faces was obvious. In particular, the usually composed Grandpa Bai was trembling slightly and standing uneasy, clearly showing how strong his fear and unease were.

Meanwhile, Old Master Bai was carefully examining the prescription written by Grandpa Bai, muttering to himself.

"That shouldn't be the case. If this prescription could kill people, then what's the point of the Bai family running a pharmacy?"

Bai Jingqi walked into the room with his hands behind his back and his short legs. When Lord Wei saw the little guy Bai Jingqi enter the room, he was about to scold him when he saw Old Master Bai call out to Bai Jingqi as he entered.

"Jingqi, you've come at the right time. Come on, quickly help Grandpa check if there's anything wrong with this prescription."

Old Master Bai's words greatly surprised Lord Wei, who was standing to the side. Although the reputation of the Bai family's child prodigy had already been heard in the capital, judging from the child's appearance, he was at most six or seven years old.

However, Bai Jingqi was only five years old at this time; he had just grown up to be more robust due to his years of eating and drinking.

Grandpa Bai, standing to the side, was in a state of unease. He was also somewhat surprised by what his father, Old Master Bai, had said. Although he was now the head of the Bai family, he only knew that his little nephew was usually very intelligent, much liked by his father, and always very polite to him. He never expected that his father would send a five-year-old to look at the prescription at a time like this. This made him both angry and anxious, and his body trembled uncontrollably. He clearly understood that if this matter were confirmed, he would probably lose his head.

Bai Jingqi walked into the room unhurriedly, with a calm and composed expression on his face. He put his hands behind his back, smiled and responded to what Old Master Bai had said, then walked over and took the prescription from Old Master Bai.

I took a quick look, and it was a common prescription for calming the mind and nourishing the body. The medicinal properties were very mild. If this medicine were to kill someone, you would have to force-feed the person dozens of kilograms of it to drown them.

Bai Jingqi casually crumpled the prescription into a ball and threw it into the trash can in the room, hitting the center with perfect aim.

Bai Jingqi's behavior surprised even the old man, while the old man next to him was so angry at the sight that he stumbled and fell into the chair behind him, his face turning pale.

Lord Wei's anger was rising. If this were his own unruly child, he would have given him a good beating to vent his anger.

Bai Jingqi smiled and said to the group.

“Uncle, there’s no use getting angry now. Even a blind fortune teller on the street knows that this prescription won’t kill anyone. But this Lord Wei said that the concubine was poisoned to death, vomiting blood in the middle of the night. It’s obvious that someone is trying to frame our Bai family!”

Upon hearing this, Old Master Bai's eyes lit up, and he immediately looked at Bai Jingqi, awaiting his reply. Both Grandpa Bai and Lord Wei also turned their gazes to Bai Jingqi.

Bai Jingqi put his hands behind his back and slowly paced around the room to gather his thoughts before speaking slowly.

“Our Bai family takes saving lives as our duty and never makes enemies. But the fact that Consort was poisoned is actually quite easy to figure out. I’ve heard that Consort was the second princess of the Prince Zhan’s mansion. She married the Tongzhi Emperor back then. And now, everyone should know who’s in charge in the palace, right? I think this second princess’s position in the palace is quite awkward. So, if she were suddenly poisoned to death at this time, it would be a win-win situation!”

Bai Jingqi emphasized the phrase "killing two birds with one stone," causing everyone's expression to change. Apart from Bai Jingqi, everyone present had previously served in the palace, and they instantly understood Bai Jingqi's "killing two birds with one stone" analogy.

Bai Jingqi looked at their expressions and said with a smile.

“Grandpa, I think the palace definitely won’t want to pursue this matter too deeply, since it’s not a very pleasant affair. But this concubine is the second princess of the Zhan Prince’s mansion, and our Bai family has a history of feuds with the Zhan Prince’s mansion. I reckon that the Zhan Prince will definitely not let this go so easily!”

Old Master Bai nodded heavily. Lord Wei and Old Master Bai also looked extremely grave. Lord Wei actually had a very good relationship with the Bai family, so he hoped that the Bai family could escape this calamity.

Bai Jingqi yawned, shook his head helplessly, and continued.

"This matter is definitely related to the Zhan Prince's Mansion. Didn't the Prince know that the woman in the palace wanted to harm the Second Princess? I bet he knew. He took this opportunity to wipe out our Bai family. That bastard is too cunning!"

Upon hearing Bai Jingqi's words, Old Master Bai immediately reprimanded him.