After Third Son Shi entered the county town, he went to the gambling den to find Fourth Son Shi.
Seeing that Fourth Son Shi was completely addicted to gambling, Third Son Shi felt that he would cause trouble in the future.
Even though he had tried to persuade him many times, his bastard younger brother just wouldn’t listen to him.
He dragged him out and brought him into an empty alley.
Third Son Shi handed the medicine to Fourth Son Shi. “Drink it.”
Fourth Son Shi was originally having a good time gambling. He asked impatiently, “What is it?”
Third Son Shi couldn’t be bothered to waste his breath.
He directly focused on the benefits. “Do you still want the Wu family’s assets?”
1
Fourth Son Shi finally remembered what his mother had said when they entered the city.
He asked worriedly, “Could this really be poison?”
Third Son Shi smacked him. “It’s not real poison. Drink it. After you bring down the Wu family, I’ll give you the antidote.
“Then, bring your wife along and quickly take a share of the Wu family’s assets and return to the village.”
Fourth Son Shi was still hesitating. “What if there’s a problem after I drink it?”
Third Son Shi lost his patience. “It’s fine if you don’t drink it. In the future, the Wu family won’t give you a share of their assets. After you’ve gambled away all your money, you can go beg on the streets.”
When Fourth Son Shi heard that, he gritted his teeth and said, “Alright, I’ll drink it.”
He had been used to enjoying life recently, and did not want to live a life without money again.
Hence, he took the medicine and drank it.
When Third Son Shi saw that he had finished drinking the medicine, he felt relieved.
Hence, he said in a low voice, “Go back to the Wu family now. Tomorrow, our mother will bring us to visit you and cause a ruckus.”
Fourth Son Shi, who had originally wanted to return to the gambling house, could only nod. “Got it.”
Third Son Shi was worried and even personally sent him to the street where the Wu family’s courtyard was located.
He only returned to the village after personally watching him enter.
The next day.
Shi Qingluo thought for a moment and brought Xiao Baili to the Shi family.
She was prepared to personally go to the Wu family to cause a ruckus and let her sister-in-law gain more exposure to the outside world.
Moreover, since she had to cooperate with Mo Qingling, she was afraid that the Shi family would change the plan.
So, she had to go there and make sure that they stayed on track.
When Old Lady Shi and the others heard that Shi Qingluo was tagging along, they were naturally very welcoming.
They were more at ease with her going along.
Now that the Shi family had bought a few carriages, they took two carriages into the city.
Old Lady Shi and the others often went to the Wu residence to get some intelligence.
The butler and servants were already used to it.
Initially, they would not let anyone in.
Then, Old Lady Shi would bring her daughters-in-law to sit at the door and cry, causing the Wu family to be embarrassed.
Hence, Master Wu instructed that when the Shi family came, they should just let them in.
As long as they were not an eyesore in front of the outsiders, it would be fine.
Thus, they successfully entered the Wu family and went to the courtyard where Fourth Son Shi was staying.
Fourth Son Shi was lying weakly on the bed, looking as though he was leaving the world at any moment.
After the old lady entered, her heart ached terribly.
She even gave Shi Qingluo a questioning look. Would he be alright?
Shi Qingluo gave her a comforting look.
She looked at her fourth uncle in surprise. “Fourth uncle, what’s wrong with you?”
Fourth Son Shi wanted to roll his eyes.
This girl knew better than to ask.
After taking that drug, he had suffered a lot since last night.
He had diarrhea and vomited, his stomach was hurt and he felt dizzy.
“I, I might have been poisoned,” he panted and said intermittently.
Old Lady Shi immediately pounced over and cried, “My God, how could the heartless Wu family do such a thing?”
Then, she kept cursing.
Hearing this, all the servant girls around felt that their ears were getting dirtier.
Shi Qingluo saw that Old Lady Shi went too deep into her acting and could not come out of the scene.
She could only say this to the rest, “Quickly go and invite the physician to take a look.”
Third Son Shi gave Second Son Shi a look, who immediately went to invite the physician.
After the physician invited him over and checked his pulse, he confirmed that Fourth Son Shi was poisoned and that he had no way of curing it.
Old Lady Shi immediately went to the Wu family’s main courtyard to cause a ruckus.
Third Son Shi also took the opportunity to slip away and go out to the county office to report the case.
At this moment in the Wu family’s study room.
The Wu family head asked Eldest Young Master Wu, “When can you stop the trap you set up?”
Eldest Young Master Wu smiled and replied, “We can do it in the next two days. Fourth Son Shi has recently owed the gambling den several hundred taels of silver.
“When he owes a thousand taels of silver, that will be the time for him to suffer.”
He curled his lips and said, “When that time comes, if he doesn’t pay up, the gambling den will spread the news.
“Then, go to the village and ask for the debt from Old Lady Shi and the others.
“If the Shi family doesn’t come out, collect the debt from Shi Qingluo and his wife.”
He then narrowed his eyes and said sinisterly, “If that couple doesn’t help to pay the debt, the debt collector can speak with his fists.
“When the time comes, we’ll accidentally interrupt Xiao Hanzheng’s plan when he was about to take the imperial examination.
“They can only blame their bad luck and put the blame on the troublemaker, Fourth Son Shi.”
They had always been very wary of Xiao Hanzheng, especially when they heard that there would be an enke early next year.
Xiao Hanzheng had a famous teacher to guide him, so he was also going to take the examination.
They were a little flustered.
They combined their own ideas with the ideas contributed by those people in the capital, to craft their own plans.
As long as they could cut off Xiao Hanzheng’s road to imperial examinations, he would become useless.
Not only would they not have to worry about Xiao Hanzheng’s revenge in the future, they would also be able to make that mysterious figure in the capital happy.
Master Wu nodded in satisfaction. “If we finish doing this early, we won’t have any worries when we go to the capital.”
However, it was obvious that none of them had expected that Shi Qingluo and her husband had already made their first move.
All of a sudden, a commotion came from the courtyard beside them.
Master Wu sent someone to take a look.
When he heard that Old Lady Shi brought other Shi family members over to cause a ruckus, saying that the Wu family had caused Fourth Son Shi to be poisoned, he immediately felt a headache coming on.
His expression was incomparably gloomy. “Those people from the Shi family deserve to die.”
Once the matter was settled, all of these people would encounter accidents one by one.
He really had enough of them.
Eldest Young Master Wu was not that angry because he knew that these people were about to die from his schemes.
“Father, let’s go out and take a look. We don’t want to be humiliated if they cause a ruckus outside.”
They had moved their businesses to the prefecture capital and were prepared to move their house over immediately.
Other than being under Mo Qingling’s constant surveillance, they were afraid that he would make a move on them.
The other reason was that the Shi family had tarnished their reputation in the county town.
Master Wu nodded helplessly. “Alright, let’s go out and take a look.”
This was the last time.
The two of them walked out of the study room and went to the side courtyard.
When they entered, they saw that Old Lady Shi had brought her daughters-in-law with her, pinning the old lady and ladies from the Wu family to the ground and began to beat them up.
His expression immediately changed.
“You vixens, get lost.” Old Lady Wu had been pampered for so many years, and this was the first time she had been beaten up.
She was about to go crazy.
However, Old Lady Shi replied to her like this. “You damn old lady, your family actually dared to harm my son. I won’t let you off.”
“Ah!” Old Lady Wu cried out repeatedly.
She was also beaten up by Mdm Niu and others.
They had wanted to beat up this woman who couldn’t get her facts right, but unfortunately, they never had the chance.
Shi Qingluo, along with Eldest Son Shi and the other men, stopped the servant boys and servant girls who wanted to help.
She did not sympathize with the two people who were being beaten up.
Her young husband found out that it was the two women from the Wu family who wanted Shengyuan and her sister-in-law to be married and buried with the dead.
If it wasn’t for the Taoist priest who said that servant girls couldn’t be married and buried together with the dead, and that they had to find the pure girls and tie a knot with him, those from the Wu family would have wanted to give Young Master Wu a few servant girls to be buried together as his concubines.
Therefore, Shi Qingluo was also the one who instigated the old lady and the others to hit others.