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His Majesty cast away the official in front of him, who was about to take up his post, and left without looking back.
He went to see Old Chief.
Old Chief didn't indicate his address in the letter, but it was impossible for His Majesty not to have the skill to figure this out.
The messenger said that a guest at Donglai Inn asked him to run errands.
Donglai Inn, very good.
His Majesty personally went to Donglai Inn, but when he arrived there, Old Chief had already left.
"When did he leave?" His Majesty's attendant asked.
The shopkeeper answered, "It has been for a while now. He goes out during the day and comes back very late every day."
"How many days has he lived here?" The attendant continued to question.
The shopkeeper flipped through the account book and said, "Five nights."
Donglai Inn was a very humble place, so much so that it would be rejected even as a latrine of the Emperor.
It deeply pained His Majesty to think that Old Chief had deigned to stay in a place like this for so many days.
One essential skill of a green tea bitch: Act pitiful!
Old Chief had long grasped the concept of a green tea bitch very well!
His Majesty waited patiently at Donglai Inn for most of the day, but he never saw Old Chief come back. It was impossible for him to just wait there all the time. After all, there was still a pile of memorandums to attend to in the imperial study.
In the end, His Majesty had to leave with regret.
It would have been great if he had met him, but he didn’t even see a glimpse of the other party. His Majesty felt that something was left unfinished and kept mumbling with reminisce in his heart.
This was another essential skill of a green tea bitch: Keeping people on tenterhooks.
When it came to the area of deceitfulness in officialdom, Old Chief had never let people down. This was also how he managed to put the demon empress in the cold palace back then, by employing the same green tea bitch tactic towards the former emperor step by step.
Although the demon empress came out of the cold palace in less than half a year, he still became the first person in this dynasty to topple the demon empress.
As soon as His Majesty left, Old Chief went back to the inn... Actually, he didn't go far. He was watching His Majesty in the teahouse opposite.
"Dear guest, someone came to see you just now." The shopkeeper said politely.
"En." Old Chief responded knowingly.
The shopkeeper added, "Will you be staying at the inn tonight? Shall I have dinner prepared for you? Do you want it to be sent to your room?"
Old Chief replied, "No, I won't be staying here anymore."
Wouldn’t it just be a waste of money to continue staying here when he had already achieved his goal?
Despite the dilapidated condition of the inn, a room here still cost two or three hundred coppers a night.
He had been really strapped for cash lately, with expenses at home and someone robbing him.
Thereupon, the hardworking and thrifty Old Chief decisively checked out of the inn.
Next, he would disappear for a while.
By keeping himself neither close nor distant, he could continue to scratch the other party’s heart.
Besides, no one would cherish anything that was too easy to get.
After leaving the court for such a long time, the Imperial Academy today was no longer the Imperial Academy three years ago, nor was he the Chief who had no worries in the past. His enemy wasn’t just Empress Dowager Zhuang who might regain her memories at any time, but there might be more.
He needed His Majesty's absolute reliance.
The family in Bishui Alley knew nothing about Old Chief's black-belly activities.
The elderly woman didn't see Old Chief for several days and thought he didn't want to hand over his private money, so he ran away.
"Grandaunt, I'm going to the medical hall." Gu Jiao tidied up the house and went to the elderly woman's room to inform her.
The medical hall opened for business again today.
The elderly woman mumbled and waved her hand, "Go ahead."
Gu Jiao gave her an odd look, "Grandaunt, what's the matter?"
The elderly woman frowned suspiciously and said, "I was just thinking about my name."
Gu Jiao was surprised to hear this and asked, "Have you remembered your name?"
The elderly woman shook her head, saying, "Your Granduncle mentioned it."
Sure enough, he knew her. He could even call her name.
"Then what's your name?" Gu Jiao asked.
“Zhuang Jinse.” The elderly woman answered.
Zhuang?
Gu Jiao was silent after that.
……
Gu Jiao arrived at the medical hall.
She saw Second Owner in the lobby, seemingly at his wit’s end.
Gu Jiao walked over and asked, "What's wrong?"
Second Owner sighed, "It’s the batch of medicinal herbs we ordered last year to make the jinchuang medicine for the military camp. Originally, the final payment was scheduled to be paid next month, but now the other party asked us to pay in advance, otherwise they wouldn't dare to deliver the medicinal herbs to us."
Gu Jiao had a very strict requirement when it came to medicaments. The concentration of the jinchuang medicine she produced was higher than that of other jinchuang medicine, hence the amount of medicinal herbs consumed was naturally huge.
They already paid a deposit of thirty percent last year.
After the opening of the medical hall, the business was good, but the upfront investment was too large and they had yet to recover it all. The thirty percent deposit was all paid by Second Owner.
The remaining seventy percent was worth hundreds of taels of silver, and he could no longer bear to pay for it alone.
Gu Jiao lightly gave a sound of response, took out a stack of silver banknotes from her pocket and handed them to him, "Here."
Second Owner thought Gu Jiao would ask why the other party suddenly changed their tune; who knew she would directly throw him some silver banknotes instead.
What a local tyrant!
Second Owner was simply dumbfounded, "You, you, you… Where did you get so many silver banknotes?"
"Well..." Gu Jiao thought for a moment then said, "From extortion."
Second Owner:“…”
He also wants to extort so much money, please take him along next time!
Actually, Gu Chengfeng wasn’t so well-off. The sum of money in his hand only added up to 1000 taels of silver, and he had to borrow the remaining 2000 taels from someone else.
In order to pay back the money, he had begun taking private jobs secretly, which wasn’t as simple as shoveling a few lumps of chicken manure. The jobs he handled were all very dangerous, enough to put him in extremely dire straits.
He was tormented by his homework during the day and by his secret jobs during the night, living a life worse than death. The words ‘very miserable’ were very fitting to describe him.
On the first day of business this new year, the medical hall had a lot to deal with.
Gu Jiao and Physician Song took some medicinal herbs out of the cabinet to dry outside, while Second Owner went to work on the final payment.
With money, you could do things with more confidence.
"Physician Song, please." Gu Jiao handed him a basket of medicinal herbs that had been sorted, saying, "Check if there are any bad ones among these, which need to be thrown away."
Physician Song said, "Actually, the weather in the capital is dry enough for medicinal herbs not to easily go bad. A little moisture doesn't affect the efficacy, so just dry them out in the sun."
Gu Jiao responded, "Regardless, pick out the bad ones."
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