Chapter 280: Love the House and Its Crows, and Who Are You
The love from her own daughter was a heavy weight, making Ji Qingwu’s breath catch.
Ji Qingwu cupped Jiu Jiu’s small bottom and hugged the little girl tight. Only then did her heart finally feel at ease.
Jiu Jiu’s little face snuggled against the side of her neck.
She asked, "Mother, are we going to live here from now on?"
Sensing her daughter’s dependence, Ji Qingwu said to the two maids, "You may leave us for now."
Then, she said softly, "Jiu Jiu, do you not like it here?"
The little girl’s eyes surveyed the unfamiliar room. She didn’t say she disliked it, but instead said, "I miss Grandmother and Nanny Li a little. Can they move in and live with us, too?"
Ji Qingwu thought for a moment, then said, "Tomorrow, Mother will take you home to see Grandmother. You can ask them yourself then."
The third day after the wedding—tomorrow—was the traditional day for the bridal homecoming visit.
Wei Ting had left for the Northern Border overnight. When Mrs. Qiao heard the news, she was bound to worry about her daughter’s situation in the Wei Family. Perhaps hearing Jiu Jiu’s innocent chatter would cheer her up.
Jiu Jiu lifted her face from her mother’s embrace and asked seriously, "Mother, will Jiu Jiu get married in the future, too?"
Ji Qingwu hadn’t expected Jiu Jiu to ask such a question.
’Such a pure, adorable little girl. Who knows what she’ll face when she grows up.’
Ji Qingwu replied with a serious expression, "If you want to get married, you can. If you don’t, then you don’t have to. You don’t need to worry about what anyone else says."
Jiu Jiu immediately shook her little head back and forth, her lips pouting.
"I want to get married!"
Ji Qingwu tapped the little one’s nose. "And who are you going to marry?"
Jiu Jiu announced proudly, "I’ll live in the house of whoever has a big house I like. If I find a house I like even more, I’ll just move again."
Ji Qingwu shook her head with a laugh. "Does that mean you’ll marry into whichever family has the most magnificent house?"
Jiu Jiu said, "Mother, this is called ’loving the house and the crow on it.’ It means that if I like his house, I’ll even like the crows on his roof."
’First, she falls for the house, and then she decides she likes the person as an afterthought. The little girl has her logic all backward.’
Ji Qingwu corrected her, "When you get married, the important thing isn’t the house, but the person you live with under the same roof."
Jiu Jiu’s eyes swept around the room. There was no one else there.
The little girl asked, "Why isn’t the man Mother married yesterday in the room? Did you marry him, discover you didn’t like him, and then kick him out?"
Ji Qingwu was stumped. Her relationship with Wei Ting was different from that of an ordinary couple, and she hesitated, unsure how to answer.
Suddenly, Jiu Jiu leaned closer to her chin, her big, blinking eyes looking as if she had discovered something.
"Mother, your room isn’t very nice. You even have mosquitoes."
Her small finger pointed to a red mark on her neck. "Bad, bad mosquitoes!"
Earlier, both Lan Zhi and Xuemei had felt guilty, so they hadn’t dared to examine Ji Qingwu’s appearance too closely.
When Ji Qingwu was getting ready, she hadn’t noticed the marks near her ear. She had simply changed into a high-collared dress, thinking it would hide the love bites on her chest and neck.
Jiu Jiu tilted her little head from side to side, then her gaze fell on the broken skin at the corner of her mother’s lip.
"Mother, were your lips bitten, too?"
Ji Qingwu was easily embarrassed. The memory of last night made a wave of guilt wash over her, and her face burned.
She turned her face away and called out, "Is breakfast not ready yet?"
Xuemei entered from outside, looking as if she wanted to say something but was hesitating. Ji Qingwu asked, "What is it?"
Xuemei said, "The General’s courtyard doesn’t have its own small kitchen. Breakfast has already been served over at Madam Wei’s."
If Ji Qingwu had never interacted with Madam Wei before, as a new bride, she might have gone to pay her respects to the elder on her first day to earn a reputation for being virtuous.
But now, she had no good impression left in the eyes of the Wei Family. It wasn’t worth the trouble of putting herself in an unpleasant situation just for a meal.
Especially with Jiu Jiu by her side, she couldn’t allow the little girl to be put in an uncomfortable position.
"Jiu Jiu, Mother’s taking you out for some delicious food."
「The second day of her marriage.」
Ji Qingwu led the little girl on a tour of a whole street of Lin’an’s morning market. After they had eaten until their bellies were full and round, the pair made their way to the medical hall.
Before they even reached the entrance, they could see from a distance that a large crowd had surrounded the medical hall, blocking it completely.
As Ji Qingwu drew closer, she could hear the distinct sounds of an argument.
At the very front of the crowd was an elegantly dressed middle-aged man, clearly from a wealthy family, who was accompanied by several attendants.
The man shouted, "This medical hall is a menace! My wife was prescribed medicine here to secure her pregnancy, and after taking it for only a few days..."
"...last night, my wife cried out in abdominal pain, and by midnight, she was bleeding! I am here to seek justice for my wife and for our child, who never even had a chance to see this world!"
The middle-aged man’s name was Song Wei, and he was a court official.
The onlookers had already started pointing and murmuring, sympathizing with Song Wei’s plight.
Manager Mi remained relatively calm. "Sir, I must ask you to present concrete evidence, and not just make accusations based on your word alone."
"You want evidence? Fine!"
Song Wei raised a hand, and a thin, elderly man with a goatee stepped forward from his side.
"I am Huang Zhitang of Qingchun Hall. I have examined the prescription they wrote and the remaining medicinal dregs. I can testify that there was a problem with the medicine Madam Song was given."
He stroked his sparse beard and said with a twitch of his eyebrows, "The original prescription did not include red living hemp leaves, yet residue of this herb was found in the medicinal dregs. Red living hemp leaves have properties that conflict with the madder root in the prescription. This is the true reason Madam Song lost her child."
With an old doctor from Qingchun Hall making the accusation—and since medicine was a specialized field—neither Manager Mi nor Mo Lingling dared to definitively state that the prescription was flawless.
However, Mo Lingling had sent all of the medical hall’s prescriptions to Ji Qingwu for review.
Mo Lingling walked up to the old doctor and sized him up.
Her voice rose as she said, "Since our medical hall opened, the majority of Lin’an’s noble ladies prefer to come here for treatment. The number of patients going to your Qingchun Hall has dropped significantly. Who’s to say Qingchun Hall didn’t deliberately send you here to slander us?"
Doctor Huang’s beard bristled as he glared. "Mr. Song, you see! They’re still trying to argue their way out of it. We might as well take this to the Capital Prefecture Mansion. This old man is willing to testify before the government."
Mo Lingling recognized Song Wei. She had seen him before at Liangxiang Pavilion and knew he was a man of high status.
If this really went to court, they might not come out ahead.
Just as they reached a stalemate, a clear, melodious female voice carried from behind the crowd.
"If you ask me, a trip to the Capital Prefecture Mansion is hardly enough. It’s not nearly enough to quell the grief Mr. Song and his wife feel for the loss of their child."
Song Wei turned around. He didn’t recognize Ji Qingwu, but seeing her uncommon bearing, he nodded. "This medical hall trifles with human life. It was opened by a member of the Ji Family. By rights, I should raise this matter in court. Simply asking the Capital Prefecture Mansion to pass judgment is already letting them off lightly."
Ji Qingwu passed through the crowd and walked to the entrance of the medical hall.
Seeing Mo Lingling staring at her with a mixture of surprise and excitement, she raised a delicate eyebrow, giving her a look that said, ’I’ve got this.’
Ji Qingwu turned to face Song Wei and offered a friendly suggestion. "Sir, you should take this directly to the emperor."
Song Wei noted her youthful face and the child she held by the hand.
He scoffed, "Young woman, who doesn’t know that the Emperor is gravely injured right now? How am I supposed to bring a complaint before the imperial court?"
Ji Qingwu replied, "Sir, you don’t even recognize me. How could you possibly succeed in bringing a case before the imperial court?"
Song Wei glared. "And just who are you?"