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

"Miss, shall we make our move tonight?"

"No, we'll act this afternoon," Gu Xinyue said firmly. "Gu Ran, call the Third Prince over and come back quickly."

"Yes."

"Brother Gu, the lighting is poor at night, making it inconvenient for us to investigate. Let's have lunch first and discuss the details later."

After lunch, Gu Xinyue had a large square table placed in the reception room, with chairs on all four sides, and she sat down to study the blueprints.

Chu Yize arrived with Lu Yu and Ling Qi, and everyone greeted each other.

Lu Yu said, "Thank you for saving my life in the Deadly Forest, young lady. I have now fully recovered."

"That's good. I'm glad everyone put in the effort today."

After Chu Yize, Gu Xinyue, Gu An, and Lu Yu were seated, Gu Xinyue said, "I need Brother Lu to investigate the entrance to the cave and the secret passage inside. We need to make sure no one inside gets out and no outsiders get in. Brother Gu, please tell Brother Lu about the situation inside."

After Gu An finished speaking, Gu Ran and Xia He carried in a box. Gu Xinyue asked Xia He to open it, and he took out two small white porcelain bottles and said, "This is for prisoners to eat during interrogation. They have to take this bottle after twelve hours without eating, drinking, or sleeping. You can get the answers you want from even the most capable person. This bottle is very harmful to the body. You should give it to prisoners when you urgently need to file a case."

"Thank you, young lady." Lu Yu glanced at Chu Yize and put the two porcelain bottles into his pocket.

"Brother Lu, is it alright if I act in an hour?"

"I guarantee there won't be any problems with the secret passage."

Chu Yize said, "Go ahead and complete the task well."

Gu An and Lu Yu went out.

Chu Yize stared at the box on the ground. Gu Xinyue said, "Tell me what you need. I'll make it for you when we get back to the manor."

"Alright, I'll tell you what I need. It seems your medical and poison skills have improved quite a bit."

"Of course, I'm now dealing with even more rare and unique medical books."

Gu Xinyue glanced at Chu Yize's handsome face, then at the simple house. This man's powerful aura and overall demeanor were completely out of place with everything on the estate, so Gu Xinyue had no choice but to pretend she hadn't noticed.

When Gu An brought Ling Qi, Gu Ran, Gu Wu, and Gu Yang in, Gu Xinyue told them to sit down and called Xia He over. The eight of them then began their discussion.

"Brother Gu, how do we get in? Tell me your thoughts."

"Besides the father and son, there are three or four servants in that courtyard. After we go in, we'll take them into custody first, while the others guard the area and we'll investigate carefully."

Gu Xinyue took out several small parchment packets from the box and said, "It'll put them to sleep for three hours without any problem. Take the antidote with you, so you don't end up drugging yourselves too."

Gu Xinyue put a few small porcelain bottles on her person, then asked Chu Yize, "Do you have anything to say?"

"We'll go in through the main entrance. Gu An will go first, open the door, and then knock the person unconscious. The others will follow in turn."

Gu An walked to the gate and lightly leaped into the courtyard. He opened the gate from the inside, and Gu Ran had already entered. Gu Wu, Gu Yang, and Ling Qi entered from different directions by climbing over the wall.

Gu An instructed Gu Yang and Gu Wu to look around. He, Gu Ran, and Ling Qi captivated the people in the two courtyards and other areas.

As Gu Xinyue and Xia He walked in through the main gate, Chu Yize arrived and closed the door. Gu An, Ling Qi, and Gu Ran had already returned.

Gu Yang and Gu Wu defended the area, Gu An and Xia He searched the innermost courtyard, Ling Qi and Gu Ran searched the middle courtyard, and Gu Xinyue and Chu Yize searched the outer houses.

Gu Xinyue and Chu Yize looked at each room one by one. The landlord was lying on the bed. Chu Yize checked the bed and found nothing wrong. He pushed the wardrobe and found nothing wrong either. The landlord's son was lying on the floor next door. There was nothing unusual about the room either.

There are two courtyards here. Why is the father and son living in the outer room? There are three servants in this room. They sleep on a kang (a heated brick bed), while the father and son each have their own room.

Gu Xinyue pondered that the father and son were of higher status than the three servants, and outsiders didn't know they had servants. The people living in the courtyard must be of unusual status.

Next to it was a meeting hall that also served as a dining hall, next to which was a woodshed. The woodshed was quite large and had few miscellaneous items piled up. The area next to the woodshed was empty. The kitchen was adjacent to the central courtyard, and one wall of the kitchen was shared with the courtyard wall.

Gu Xinyue observed carefully. They were using the kitchen. There were several cabbages and radishes on the cutting board. There was a stove with two pots on it, one large and one small. The large pot had a stove door, and the small pot seemed to be connected to the large pot. Behind the small pot was a chimney.

Gu Xinyue noticed that the small pot showed no signs of being smoked.

Chu Yize took the small pot away, and when they looked at it closely, they saw that the pot looked the same, with a dark bottom that made it impossible to see anything.

After removing the large pot, it was discovered that the chimney was routed around to the back of the small pot. There must be something fishy about this design. What could it be?

Gu Xinyue picked up a small piece of firewood and said to Chu Yize, "If I throw this down, can you hear how deep it is?"

"can."

Gu Xinyue threw it down, but there was no movement below. Chu Yize said, "Xinyue, the depth below is a little over ten feet, but less than twenty feet."

Gu Xinyue called out towards the small stove, "Is anyone down there? Is anyone down there? Is anyone down there?"

No one responded, and Gu Xinyue was very disappointed.

"Xinyue, there should be someone down there. I heard the sound of metal clashing."

"I can't hear you."

"Xinyue, Xinyue, listen carefully, the sound is louder than before."

Gu Xinyue put her ear to the stove opening, and a clanging sound rang out.

"Chu Yize, I heard it, but the voice is very weak."

Gu Xinyue said excitedly, "People down there, wait a moment, we're here to rescue you."

They looked carefully but couldn't find an entrance to the bottom.

Chu Yize blew a whistle, and several men in black appeared. They threw whatever they could carry from the kitchen outside, but still couldn't find an entrance, not even a mechanism.

Ling Qi returned and said that apart from the plum blossoms in the courtyard being exceptionally vibrant, there was nothing else unusual.

"Do you suspect there's something wrong with how brightly the flowers are blooming?" Gu Xinyue asked suspiciously. "Then why don't you dig up the tree and see?"

Before Ling Qi could speak, Gu An and Xia He returned and said there was a corpse in the dry well in the courtyard.

"That's already a corpse. We'll deal with it later. There are people here, but there's no entrance. Everyone, check inside and out for any traps or anything like that."

Gu An and Ling Qi jumped onto the roof to take a look and found that there were two chimneys, but only one was a flue, while the other led underground.

Chu Yize patted the empty dish rack on the wall and heard a loud rumble. He continued patting, and with another rumble, the floor beneath the original cutting board moved, revealing an opening. When the opening was about ten feet long, the floor stopped moving.

Gu An and Ling Qi went down one after the other, followed by Chu Yize, and finally Xia He and Gu Xinyue went down together.

It was pitch black inside. Gu Xinyue said, "It's so dark, I can't see anything." Gu Xinyue didn't know that these martial arts practitioners had much better night vision than she did.

She took out a luminous pearl, and at the same time, Chu Yize also took out a luminous pearl, and the room was instantly lit up.