Chapter 470: Chapter 457: Incense Burner

“Instruct the servants below as well, never let them leak the news of Manager Zhuang’s visit for treatment. We can’t let others know that Manager Zhuang has medical skills,” said Cheng Ruize.

Upon hearing these words, Fang Hou’s eyes widened instantly.

It took a while for him to come back to his senses, and then he gave Cheng Ruize a thumbs up, “Young Master, you are indeed brilliant. Just now, Manager Zhuang also told me to keep this matter secret, and even asked me to tell you about it. But before I could even utter a word, you already knew about it.”

“Young Master, how did you acquire this skill of foresight?”

“There’s no foresight, it’s just that Manager Zhuang has never mentioned his medical skills before. Even the prescription for the mosquito repellent herbs was said to be gained by coincidence. It seems that Manager Zhuang doesn’t want to advertise his medical skills too much,” Cheng Ruize explained.

So that’s how it is.

His young master will always be his young master.

Exceptionally intelligent and heroic.

Fang Hou began to grin from ear to ear.

“Young Master, you should rest for a while. Sitting for too long like this can also be tiresome. It’s better to lie down, even if you can’t sleep, it’s good to rest,” said Fang Hou, picking up the soft pillow from behind Cheng Ruize.

“Manager Zhuang said that the medicine would make me sleepy; it seems to be true. I’ll sleep for a bit.”

Cheng Ruize laid down and said, “I’ve been sick these past few days and haven’t been able to offer incense sticks. Can you help me with this? Consider it as a reassurance to Aunt An.”

“I’ll go right away.”

After settling Cheng Ruize and seeing that he seemed to have fallen asleep, Fang Hou quietly closed the door, instructed a handy boy to watch over, and then went to the small ancestral hall.

The ancestral hall housed the memorial tablet of Mrs. An, Cheng Ruize’s mother.

Mrs. An died in childbirth when she had Cheng Ruize. In theory, Mrs. An, as a concubine, should have her tablet placed in the Cheng family’s ancestral hall. However, Mrs. Cheng felt that Mrs. An passed away too early and never saw Cheng Ruize. Cheng Ruize also never got to express his gratitude for Aunt An’s grace of giving birth to him. So, she let Cheng Ruize keep the tablet with him, so he could offer incense and worship daily. At least he could fulfill his filial piety. Every New Year, they would take back the tablet and put it with the rest for people to worship.

Thus, Cheng Ruize lit a stick of incense every morning and if he had spare time, he would recite a passage of scripture and chat in front of Mrs. An’s tablet.

You could say that this has become a habit.

While Cheng Ruize was ill in these few days, this routine was disrupted.

Before entering the small ancestral hall, Fang Hou changed into clean clothes. He opened the door and first kowtowed a few times on behalf of Cheng Ruize, “Aunt An, Third young master’s illness has significantly improved. Don’t worry. It’s just that he is still not fully recovered and can’t offer incense and kowtow to you himself. So, I am here to soothe your spirit and offer a stick of incense.”

After explaining, Fang Hou took the incense from the side, lit it with a match, respectfully bowed down again, stood up, and was about to insert it into the incense burner.

Just as he lowered his head, Fang Hou paused.

This incense burner, he remembered because Cheng Ruize accidentally dropped it while cleaning the ashes from it, causing a small chip on the edge.

Fang Hou originally suggested to replace it with a new one, but Cheng Ruize said that this incense burner has been used for a long time and has served Aunt An for so long. It’s just a tiny chip, there’s no need to mind it so much, so they continued to use it.

The incense burner in front of his eyes didn’t have this chip.

Obviously, this was a brand-new incense burner.

Usually, only Fang Hou and Cheng Ruize would clean and replace offerings in the little ancestral hall, other servants have not been in there. Why replace it with a new incense burner that’s exactly the same as the previous one in so much detail, so as to not attract attention?

But why, why would someone do so…

Cheng Ruize has always been kind and gentle to his servants, and was forgiving for mistakes and clumsy accidents. So, it was improbable that someone would accidentally break the incense burner and not dare to speak out.

Given this, it would only mean that someone had to switch out the original incense burner to hide something.

Speaking of which, Cheng Ruize’s condition was not illness but poisoning, and according to Zhuang Qingning, the poison didn’t accumulate to such severity overnight, but over a long period of time.

But he was almost always with Cheng Ruize, not sharing the same bed, but most of their daily meals were the same, and they went to similar places. Yet, Cheng Ruize was deeply poisoned while he was completely fine.

This certainly meant that something or somewhere Cheng Ruize was in constant contact with, he hadn’t touched.

The only place that comes to mind would be this small ancestral hall.

Cheng Ruize always came alone to offer incense, and often stayed here for a while, before leaving.

Could it be the incense…

Fang Hou frowned deeply, placed the incense in the burner, and hurriedly left the small ancestral hall.

“You two keep a good watch on the young master, I’m going to the County Government Office.” After assigning two trustworthy people, Fang Hou purposely raised his voice and mentioned, “I’m going to check what’s happening there, why haven’t they punished that quack yet…”

Then, cursing and mumbling to himself, he left.

—-

After leaving Cheng Ruize’s place, Zhuang Qingning went straight to Zhuang Yutian’s house.

Upon reaching the house, the front door was shut.

At this time of the day, Zhuang Yutian and Mrs. Meng were probably busy in the shop, with only the elderly and children at home, hence the closed door.

Zhuang Qingning reached for the knocker, lightly knocking twice.

“Coming.”

A responding voice sounded, and after a while, there was the soft noise of the bolt being drawn.

The door creaked open.

“Aunt Wen.” Seeing that the person was Mrs. Wen, Zhuang Qingning greeted her sweetly.

But when Mrs. Wen saw that it was Zhuang Qingning, she was initially taken aback, and immediately, with a “bang”, she shut the door tightly.

Zhuang Qingning, who almost got her nose hit, helplessly touched her forehead and sighed.

Indeed, the prideful old lady was angry.

“Aunt Wen, please open the door?” Zhuang Qingning smiled ingratiatingly, “It was really unexpected yesterday, and I didn’t have the chance to come over.”

“Isn’t this for apologizing, I especially made lotus cake for you to try.”

After Zhuang Qingning finishes speaking, she perks up her ears to listen for any movement, but there is no sound at all from behind the door.

“Aunt Wen?” Zhuang Qingning continued, “I had lunch at home, and now my stomach is already growling with hunger, I want to eat fried tofu balls…”

Still, silence persisted.

It seems like she really needed to bring out her secret weapon.

Zhuang Qingning cleared her throat and said, “It seems that Aunt Wen doesn’t want to see me and doesn’t want to see me anymore. It’s alright if that’s what you want. I won’t bother you anymore. I’ll leave this lotus cake at your door, remember to pick it up later. I’ll leave now…”