A’Ru watched Qi Yue and the others enter and took a deep breath.
“Doctor, I’ll go take the patient’s temperature,” she said.
Liu Pucheng nodded.
“You go prepare the salt-sugar water Lady Qi mentioned,” he said to Zhang Tong.
Zhang Tong responded affirmatively, and everyone busied themselves with their respective tasks.
This challenge between life and death had begun.
By this time, almost everyone in Yongqing Prefecture knew about this wager, and once again stirred up various idle gossip about the Marquis’s beggar young madam.
“Really… this time Marquis Dingxi is in big trouble…”
Most people opened with this sentence, so much so that outsiders newly arrived in Yongqing Prefecture thought this was the local customary greeting.
“This time Marquis Dingxi is in big trouble.”
Upon hearing this news, behind the prefect’s office, the prefect’s wife also said this to the prefect.
The prefect sighed.
“This Young Madam seems quite sensible. How could she be so unreliable?” he shook his head.
“What reliability could there be?” the prefect’s wife said. “With that kind of background…”
Then she recalled the various behaviors when treating her son. At the time, she was only worried about her son and didn’t think much of it. Now, thinking back, she felt offended no matter how she looked at it.
“Sister from the Xie family must be furious beyond words. Her fate is truly bitter,” she sighed.
The prefect frowned.
“Perhaps we should visit the Marquis’s mansion to express our…” he said in a low voice.
Before he could finish, the prefect’s wife interrupted him.
“Don’t go looking for trouble. Express what? Right now everyone is avoiding the Marquis Dingxi’s mansion. Why should we go toward it!” she said urgently.
The prefect found these words somewhat distasteful.
“After all, she saved Ziqiao. We should say something…” he said.
“We remember the life-saving grace, but that doesn’t mean she can’t harm people,” the prefect’s wife said. “Gratitude is gratitude, but reason must be reason too.”
The prefect said nothing.
“I’m telling you to be careful. This time, Marquis Dingxi is really in big trouble. You, as the prefect, shouldn’t act rashly. If those people cause trouble at our place, you’ll be in deep trouble,” the prefect’s wife cautioned again.
The prefect felt that listening to his wife was quite an unmanly thing to do, and coughed.
“You women don’t understand. I have my own judgment,” he said solemnly.
The prefect’s wife knew he had listened, smiled, and didn’t mind his small display of pride.
“How is the young master? Watch him carefully. Don’t let him run around. He just recovered. I’ve already requested a good doctor from the capital to examine him,” she called a servant woman over.
The servant woman quickly sent a little maid to check. Soon the little maid returned in a panic.
“The young master has gone out,” she replied.
“He just started walking around, and it’s about to get dark. Where did he go? Who’s with him?” the prefect’s wife was startled and questioned urgently.
“He said he was bored at home and wanted to go out for a walk. He went with the young masters from the Chen, Zhou, and Sun families. He said they wouldn’t go anywhere else, just to Yanxun Pavilion for some pastries,” the maid quickly knelt and said. “Several nannies followed him, and they brought hand warmers, foot warmers, and thick clothes—everything complete.”
Only then did the prefect’s wife breathe a sigh of relief.
“Yanxun Pavilion is a good place, quiet. After being cooped up at home for so long, it’s good to go out for a walk,” she said.
However, where Huang Ziqiao was at this moment was not very quiet at all.
The light was dim, and the noise was constant.
Deqing Manor was Yongqing Prefecture’s largest gambling house, with high, medium, and low-grade gambling halls to meet the different needs of various social classes.
But at this moment, in the highest-grade gambling hall, the atmosphere was rather strange.
“Bet! I’m telling you to place your bets here!” A young man sitting at a gambling table held a horse whip and heavily struck one direction.
There was a marker with the character “Qi” written on it, with only a few scattered chips placed there.
The gambling house’s big boss, Huang Siya, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead as he entered.
“My young lord, how did you get interested in this~ Quick, quick, I heard your health just improved. Don’t stay here. Come with me to a private room. Whatever you want, I’ll personally serve you,” he said with some flattery, stepping forward to help.
Huang Ziqiao struck him away with his whip.
“Don’t. I’m here to play,” he said, throwing a heavy bag of chips over.
It landed squarely and accurately on the “Qi” marker.
“Place your bets!” he shouted again.
The gamblers shuddered and came back to their senses.
“But, but we don’t want to bet on this side…” someone said boldly.
Before he finished speaking, Huang Ziqiao’s whip was pointing in that person’s direction.
“Who’s that?” he asked.
That person quickly hid behind others.
“Sir, he’s the son of Yongqing County’s assistant magistrate…” the servant beside Huang Ziqiao immediately said.
“Good, you just bet whatever you want. After you’re done betting, your father will pay,” Huang Ziqiao shouted.
An assistant magistrate might not fear the county magistrate, but the prefect was his superior!
That person was nearly in tears.
“This is a gambling house! How can anyone force people to bet in a gambling house!” he shouted.
Yes, yes, the others also nodded with aggrieved and dissatisfied expressions. They didn’t want to bet on that Lady Qi—that was clearly throwing money away! Who had so much money they didn’t want to win and instead wanted to lose? Wasn’t that sick?
At this moment, the sick person snapped his whip on the table again.
“I’m being kind, showing you a path to wealth. Don’t be ungrateful! Everyone, quickly place your bets! All bet on Lady Qi winning!” he shouted.
Meanwhile, in the lowest-grade gambling hall, amid the noise and sweat, seventeen or eighteen men of various ages crowded around a large table, shouting as they threw chips of varying amounts. The two sides of the table showed a stark contrast.
“Why is no one betting on this side?” a person squeezed in and asked. “If this side wins, wouldn’t that be a huge profit?”
People around heard this and turned to look, seeing a young man with his arms folded, curiously looking at the table.
Marquis Dingxi’s Lady Qi… what kind of bet was this?
“Little Coffin, you should bet quickly,” someone familiar shouted.
“I’ll bet then,” the young man said, without hesitation throwing all the chips in his bag over.
With this bag of conspicuous chips, everyone laughed happily.
“Good, with Coffin Boy who loses every bet placing his wager, we’re guaranteed to win.”