Chapter 18.1

Substitute Marriage (4) – The heart palpitations were probably due to poisoning (1)

It didn’t take long for word to spread all over Cangzhou that the Zheng family had found their daughter-in-law and were about to host a banquet to celebrate the occasion. The news became a topic of conversation among the common people.

The second son of the Zheng family was well-known to everyone in Cangzhou.

At the age of three, Zheng Yan Qing could read a thousand words, and at the age of seven, he was familiar with ancient poetry, and at the age of ten, he wrote good essays and became famous in Cangzhou.

At the age of twelve, he took part in the children’s examinations and ranked first place. He was well-known in Cangzhou and a role model for scholars.

However, perhaps because of his early wisdom, Zheng Yan Qing became very ill soon after the examination and his health deteriorated, so he missed the provincial examination.

The Zheng family visited many famous doctors but to no avail, so they turned to metaphysics and invited a famous Taoist priest to come for fortune telling.

The prophecy revealed that Zheng Yan Qing’s life was not long, and that the only way to break the situation was through a wedding.

Soon after that, Zheng Yan Qing had frequent nightmares and strange things always happened to him.

Because of this, no one dared to marry him and the wedding was delayed again and again. Seeing that the estimated auspicious day was coming, they could not find a suitable bride for a long time.

In desperation, they had no choice but to turn their attention to the martial art people and raise the banner of this competition to find a bride.

The crowd thought that this time they would get a chivalrous girl with excellent kung fu, but they didn’t expect an outsider with inadequate martial art skills.

Everyone was betting on how long this girl would stay at the Zheng Mansion.

Li Ruo Shui was applying medicine in the inn at the moment, unaware that she had already made a name for herself in Cangzhou.

It was Lu Fei Yue’s mission to sneak into Zheng Mansion, but because of her own problems, she had to let Li Ruo Shui carry the burden, which was really guilt-ridden.

“Ruo Shui, Zheng Mansion will come to pick up the bride tomorrow. If you don’t want to, we can still leave now.”

Li Ruo Shui, who was being pulled by Lu Zhi Yao to apply the medicine, pulled a stiff smile out of the corner of her mouth.

“It’s okay Sister Lu, I don’t take this marriage seriously. Besides, the antidote I want is also in Zheng Mansion, you don’t need to be so …… hiss, I don’t think I need to apply this medicine anymore.”

For unknown reason, Lu Zhi Yao was so excited about giving her medicine, like the cuckoo bird in the alarm clock. When it is time, it starts to say, “time to apply medicine, time to apply medicine” every day.

“The scar has already begun to recover, so there’s no need to apply medicine on it.”

Li Ruo Shui felt that the ointment was strange, as it was hot after the application.

“The doctor said that it will take three days, just wait until this afternoon and put on another one.”

Lu Zhi Yao’s tone was gentle but he pressed her hand and slowly applied the ointment to the wound.

He couldn’t see but he managed to apply the ointment so accurately, not even the position of the wound on her finger was spared.

Li Ruo Shui sighed and went along with him.

“Are you sure that the fire grass is in the Zheng Mansion?” Jiang Nian looked at her suspiciously.

“To be honest, I’ve already gone through the Zheng Mansion and not only did I not find any correspondence, the herbs were only common medicinal herbs like lingzhi and ginseng.”

(TL/N: lingzhi is a type of mushroom used in traditional Chinese medicine, namely ganoderma lucidum)

Li Ruo Shui thought about the plot carefully. This fire grass was given to Lu Fei Yue by Madam Zheng, it was not written where it was taken from, but it must be in the Zheng Mansion.

The system did not allow spoilers, but after deliberating for a moment, she reminded Jiang Nian.

“Zheng Mansion is huge and wealthy, I’m sure there must be fire grass. As for the correspondence, it must be somewhere where you haven’t searched, no need to rush, search again.”

Lu Fei Yue clutched her gilt sword and lowered her head, her cold temperament was no longer there, but instead revealing some meekness brought on by guilt.

“Originally, I brought you here to detoxify the poison, but now I need you to help me to complete my mission instead, and you still comfort us.”

Li Ruo Shui laughed dumbly and brushed away Lu Zhi Yao’s hand, stepping forward to pat Lu Fei Yue’s shoulder.

“This isn’t comforting, it’s the truth, and I really don’t care about the title of marrying someone.”

Lu Fei Yue lowered her head, sniffled and gave her a quick hug before turning to open the door.

“I’ll go get you something to eat.”

Jiang Nian patted Li Ruo Shui’s shoulder and hurriedly followed her out, and it didn’t take long for the two figures to disappear around the corner of the stairs.

Li Ruo Shui closed the door and just as she turned around, she saw Lu Zhi Yao sitting in the same position with his head down, his dark hair covering the side of his face, unable to see his expression clearly.

She didn’t pay much attention to it and sat back down. She picked up the sliced apple on the plate and put it in her mouth.

“Go ahead, I’ll eat something to distract myself.”

Lu Zhi Yao answered and raised his head again, picking up the white gauze on the side and wrapping it up around her fingers little by little.

It was now April and the weather was gradually getting better.

Li Ruo Shui’s hands seemed to follow the changes of the four seasons. Her hands were also warm, which was different from his temperature.

After being brushed away by her hand, that inexplicable agitation surfaced again in his heart, and he could not find a catharsis for it.

“Does this wound still hurt?”

Li Ruo Shui chewed the pulp and nodded, “A little bit, hurry up, or I’ll finish the apple.”

“If it hurts, you can still bite me.” Lu Zhi Yao stopped his hand and spoke very seriously.

Only that kind of pleasure could cover up this agitation.

Li Ruo Shui looked at him carefully, her cheeks puffing out, and the room resounded with the crisp sound of fruit being bitten off.

“Come closer then.”