Peerless Physician: The Path of a Foolish Eldest Daughter's Rise to Power

The maids in the room all had bright eyes, waiting for the Third Young Master to continue. They knew that Young Master Yang had finished the interrogation in three sentences, but they didn't know the intricacies involved, so they wanted to hear more.

Gu Xinyue said, "Stop keeping me in suspense, just tell me."

"Okay, Third Sister. Later, the Crown Prince asked the Eldest Young Master if he needed to call other witnesses. The Eldest Young Master said no. The Crown Prince said to just name whatever he needed. The Eldest Young Master said, if this maid tells the truth, can you spare the lives of her family?"

The Crown Prince said that she should bear the consequences of her own actions alone, without implicating the innocent. The eldest son smiled and thanked the Crown Prince for his kindness. But the maid showed no gratitude; the despair on her face remained undiminished.

The eldest son wrote a few small characters, blew on them to dry, rolled them up, and tossed them in front of the maid. The maid slowly picked up the scroll, quickly read it, glanced at the eldest son, and then put the scroll in her mouth and ate it. The eldest son returned to his original spot.

After the maid finished eating the paper, she said that she was telling the truth this time. Her young lady and her best friends couldn't stand that Miss Gu had stayed in the countryside for five years, was illiterate, vulgar and uncouth. They said she was not only stupid but also a jinx. She said that anyone who received a big gift from her would be startled by a horse, and as it turned out, her young lady was right. She was very angry.

Today, Miss and her best friend conspired to embarrass Miss Gu. In the flower room, Miss saw Miss Gu by the pond and asked me to push Miss Gu into the water. They said it was very cold in winter and it would be good to let Miss Gu experience the bone-chilling cold.

I dared not disobey my mistress's orders. I seized the opportunity to push Miss Gu, but unexpectedly, her maid saved her. I was afraid because I hadn't completed my task, and I stumbled and grabbed my mistress. My mistress shook me off, and as soon as I straightened up, I lost my balance and fell forward, knocking my mistress into the pond. I originally wanted to blame it on Miss Gu, as long as Miss Gu was guilty of pushing my mistress into the water, it would be considered a merit. But when I turned around, they were more than ten feet away from me. I knew that I couldn't pin this on Miss Gu. I thought that I had failed to complete my mistress's task and had even knocked her into the water. I was completely finished.

She said that everything she said was the truth, and if she told even one lie, she would die a horrible death and be struck by lightning.

The case was solved just like that. This was my first time watching a trial, and it was quite interesting.

"Third Young Master, who was that girl who came to his aid?" Peony asked.

"I later asked my third sister about it, and she turned out to be Lin Wanyun, the legitimate daughter of the Marquis of Jing'an."

Gu Xinyue was very grateful to Yang Mujin. His mental fortitude was unmatched. If Lin Wanyun hadn't intervened, her cousin would have had plenty of ways to handle the situation. Although Lin Wanyun was an eyewitness, filing a case based on her testimony would cause her trouble. Therefore, her cousin changed his strategy.

Lin Wanyun, she remembered this name. She must be a kind-hearted and honest person. Once she recovered, she would go to see her and thank her in person.

Gu Xinyue smiled and said, "Thank you, Third Brother."

"Third sister, I've also discovered Princess Jiayang's secret. Would you like to hear it?"

"I'll listen if you're willing to talk."

"When I came out of Prince Yi's residence, Princess Jiayang was throwing a tantrum. She said, 'You all have eyes! You let a lowly maid eat the eldest young master's calligraphy! Why didn't you pick it up? Hahaha. Don't you think she likes the eldest young master?'"

"You haven't had breakfast, have you? Eat here."

"Okay, Third Sister is the best. You went to sleep as soon as you got back yesterday, but I thought you'd wake up early, so I came to tell you about yesterday."

"Thank you, Pistachio."

"Okay, I'll be your source of joy from now on. As long as Third Sister is happy."

After breakfast, people from the Gu family came to visit Gu Xinyue. Gu Xinyue felt that the aftereffects of this heart palpitation were that the people from the Marquis's mansion cared about her too much, visiting her frequently, offering all kinds of comfort and blessings, which made her feel exhausted.

In the afternoon, the peony brought gossip again.

Lady Ningguo had the maidservant from yesterday beaten to death and sold many of Xu Qingxiang's people. Prince Yi came to the Duke's mansion today to seek justice. Lady Ningguo originally wanted to beat all of the maidservant's family members to death, but Prince Yi said that the Crown Prince wanted to protect the lives of the maidservant's family members, so the Duke's mansion sold them all.

Now, the whole capital knows that Xu Qingxiang is a vicious and cruel person who disregards human life. Everyone says it's fortunate that it wasn't Miss Gu who fell into the water; with such severe palpitations, she would have died.

Now that the young lady's condition has improved, she cursed the young lady for being vulgar and unbearable, and everyone used to say that she was vicious. This reversal is refreshing.

And everywhere you go, you hear Yang Da Gongzi's zither music being played. The storytellers in the teahouses describe Yang Da Gongzi's case-solving in a very mysterious way, and it's called "Yang Da Gongzi's Three-Sentence Divine Case Solving".

Aunt Wu, Gu Xinrou, and Gu Rui came to visit Gu Xinyue, bringing a lot of medicinal herbs. Seeing that Gu Xinyue was in good condition and not as serious as the rumors suggested, Aunt Wu and Gu Rui left first.

"Third sister, aren't you skilled in medicine? How did you end up in such a terrible state?"

"Didn't the Second Miss say that a doctor cannot heal himself?"

"That's right. We heard about it yesterday, but we didn't know it was you. We only found out this morning. There were rumors that you wouldn't survive and that you were not far from the underworld. It scared us to death. My aunt said she was packing her things to go back to the manor, so I came back."

"Aren't you going back to your maternal grandparents' house?"

"There are only two days left until the New Year, so we definitely won't be going back. We're going to have our New Year's Eve dinner."

"Then stay in the manor."

"Why didn't your stepmother tell us we were going to Prince Yi's residence? If she had known, I would have come back long ago. If I had gone, you might not have been so frightened that you fell ill."

"Didn't you dislike visiting different residences? Could it be that you've taken a fancy to Chu Hongyu?"

"What nonsense are you talking about? He's the heir of the Prince Yi's mansion, and a prince of the second rank. No one is competing with him for the throne. He's a sure thing for becoming a prince in the future. How could I have such thoughts?"

"Then why are you attending the banquet?"

"Tell me, why did I miss both opportunities to meet Princess Jingning while I was thinking about the pastry shop?"

What are your plans?

"I'm thinking of naming that pastry shop? How about Roulin? Rou is from my name, and their surname is Lin. Does that sound nice?"

"Let's just call it 'ravaging,' let's trample on their pastry shop."

"Oh dear, I miscalculated."

"Why don't you just use the shop owner's name? When you open your own shop in the future, you can put your name on it."

"Okay, if I had printed the names of the pastries on them at yesterday's banquet and put them there, do you think those powerful and wealthy people would have bought them after eating them?"

"Great idea! You're awesome, keep up the good work!"

"There won't be any banquets like that anytime soon. Although your coming-of-age ceremony has arrived in our household, the mourning period for your grandmother is not over yet. Our household will not hold banquets. The banquets at my maternal grandparents' house are attended by merchants, not many dignitaries."

"I think you can achieve your goal, keep it up!"

"Don't just encourage me, help me think of a solution. A palace banquet is definitely out of the question, I don't even know who to ask, and the imperial chefs in the palace make very good pastries."

"You should rest. I'll come back to you when I've thought it through."

Gu Xinyue hadn't expected Gu Xinrou to be serious; she wasn't just joking and actually had a knack for business. She could cooperate with her.