Quick Transmigration: Why did you provoke him? He's love-struck!

Chapter 153 Canglan Ferry (23)

Yan Zhen was sent back to Zhuyuan. Madam Xu sent someone to fetch a doctor, and there was another round of commotion until the doctor prescribed medicine to prevent miscarriage and confirmed that she was alright. Only then did everyone leave one after another.

Once only Yan Zhen and Pei Ji remained in the inner room, Yan Zhen sat up, pinched Pei Ji's chin, and turned his face around to look at him.

His cheek was slapped by Pei Yuanhong, leaving a red and swollen mark.

"You suffered."

Pei Ji said nonchalantly, "It's alright, I'm not in pain."

Yan Zhen was quite satisfied with his partner's dedication, scratched his chin, and praised, "Good boy."

Yan Zhen fetched the ointment and applied it to Pei Ji's cheeks.

The two were very close together because of the medicine being applied.

Yan Zhen chops and pounds herbs every day to make beauty cream. Her fingers are not delicate, and are even a bit rough. When she applies the swelling-reducing and bruise-removing cream to Pei Ji's face with her fingertips, it brings a tingling and itchy sensation.

Pei Ji smelled the faint, bitter herbal scent on her body and, for some reason, suddenly remembered what Yan Jinhe had said earlier that day.

—Jiang Meimei has some good skills. Even while pregnant, she can still keep her husband so attentive that he has no interest in other women.

He doesn't want anyone to wait on him!

Although he thought this way, Pei Ji felt somewhat uncomfortable, and his expression became awkward.

Yan Zhen was applying medicine to Pei Ji when she noticed his eyes darting around and his long eyelashes trembling like little fans. She stopped applying the medicine and asked, "Does it hurt?"

Pei Ji hesitated for a moment, not wanting her to see through his thoughts, and could only say, "Mm."

Yan Zhen used her hand as a fan to fan his face: "The ointment will feel hot when it's first applied, but it will melt away. Just bear with it."

She fanned him a few times, but finding it too inefficient, she simply leaned in, puffed out her cheeks, and blew air onto his face.

Pei Ji was taken aback. The air brushed past his ears, and the unbearable tingling sensation intensified.

He leaned back, not daring to look Yan Zhen in the eye: "No, no need, I'll go out for some fresh air."

After saying that, he got up and fled the inner room as if he were escaping.

Yan Zhen gleaned something from his hasty retreat—could this little brother have fallen for her?

That would be troublesome.

It seems she needs to find another opportunity to give him a warning.

Given his pride and tendency to lose his temper and start cursing whenever this topic is brought up, it wouldn't be difficult to get him to give up those thoughts.

-

This dramatic power struggle between wives and concubines ended abruptly with Xu threatening to bang her head against a pillar and Yan Zhen experiencing a miscarriage.

Everything was within Yan Zhen's expectations.

As the saying goes, even an upright official finds it hard to settle family disputes. It is not easy for the Duke of Dingguo's mansion to cultivate an heir who can inherit the title. Pei Yuanhong could not possibly kill Pei Ji, nor could he stand by and watch Xu Shi run into a pillar.

As for Yan Zhen, relying on the "great-grandson" in her belly and Pei Ji's "favor", the Duke's mansion dared not easily touch her, and this matter could only be resolved by turning a big issue into a small one and a small issue into nothing.

After this incident, Yan Jinhe stopped sending people to Zhuyuan to invite Pei Ji every two or three days. The Duke's mansion was indignant on her behalf, saying that Yan Zhen had gone too far.

Even when Madam Feng came to Yan Zhen to pick up the beauty cream, she subtly reminded her to keep a low profile these days.

Yan Zhen pretended not to hear and continued to occupy Pei Ji with a clear conscience every day, while continuing to run her beauty cream business.

The beauty cream continued to sell like hotcakes. The few boxes sent to the palace received unanimous praise from the nobles. Even the Imperial Concubine sent a lady-in-waiting to the Duke's mansion to place an order for ten boxes at once.

Yan Zhen accepted the order in front of everyone from the Duke's mansion, saying that she would ask her mother-in-law, Madam Xu, to deliver it to the inner palace in three days. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a glimpse of Yan Jinhe's ambiguous expression, and she knew that it was time for Yan Jinhe to make her move.

Her chance has come.

Yan Zhen spent two days preparing the beauty cream to be sent to the palace. She specially changed the bottles for this batch of beauty cream to celadon-glazed lotus leaf pattern porcelain bottles.

After packing it up, he placed it on the shelf and instructed Mingyu, who was cleaning nearby, "Be careful not to touch this batch of beauty cream. It's going to be sent to the palace for the Imperial Concubine."

Mingyu glanced at the beauty cream several times, then lowered her head and replied, "Yes."

At night, Yan Zhen didn't sleep after turning off the lights. Instead, he pulled Pei Ji up to the roof and quietly stared at the room across the street where the beauty cream was made.

Pei Ji squatted with her on the rooftop, resting his chin on his hand, waiting for her for half the night. Both of them got several mosquito bites on their bodies.

Yan Zhen's back was terribly itchy, but she couldn't reach it with her hands behind her back, so she had to ask Pei Ji to scratch it for her.

While scratching her back, Pei Ji asked in a low voice, "Are you sure Mingyu will target the beauty cream tonight? What if she comes back tomorrow?"

"The beauty cream must be sent to the palace tomorrow. Tonight is her last chance. She will definitely come. Just wait patiently."

The two waited for a long time until the fourth watch of the night was struck, when a figure appeared furtively under the eaves.

Yan Zhen immediately became alert: "They're here."

The figure arrived at the room where the beauty cream was kept, cautiously looked around to make sure no one was there, and then pushed open the door and slipped inside.

Yan Zhen patted Pei Ji: "Come on, let's go downstairs."

She got up and tried to climb down from the other side of the roof, but Pei Ji grabbed her waist and used his lightness skill to fly her down.

When Yan Zhen landed, he lost his balance, stumbled, and bumped headfirst into his chest.

His chest was hard as a rock, and Yan Zhen felt as if he had hit a wall. He was in great pain, and when he looked up, his nose and eyes were almost wrinkled together.

Pei Ji saw her reaction and couldn't help but find it amusing.

Time was of the essence, so he rubbed her sore forehead as he led her into the room.

Inside the room, Mingyu took the beauty cream from the shelf, opened the oil paper package she had brought, and carefully poured the powdered poison into the porcelain bottle.

When poison comes into contact with the beauty cream, it dissolves and disappears without a trace in no time.

While doing all this, Mingyu's heart was pounding like a drum.

As the powder was being added to the last bottle of beauty cream, the half-closed door was suddenly kicked open without warning.

Mingyu was already on edge, and in her fright, she screamed and turned her head in a panic.

By the moonlight streaming in through the window, she saw Pei Ji and Yan Zhen standing in the doorway, and her face instantly turned ashen.

Pei Yuanhong was staying in his concubine's room tonight when he was woken up in the middle of the night by the steward knocking on the door, who said that something had happened in the Bamboo Garden.

He subconsciously thought that Jiang was causing trouble again, and was about to get angry when he heard the steward say again: "The young master's servant said that the Bamboo Garden was robbed, and the Jade Snow Lotus Cream that was to be sent to the palace tomorrow was almost stolen."

Upon hearing that it involved the Jade Snow Hibiscus Cream, and that it was the batch that was to be sent to the palace, Pei Yuanhong knew that things were not so simple, so he immediately put on his coat and went to the Bamboo Garden.

Halfway there, he ran into Madam Xu, who had been ignoring him for the past few days, and Madam Feng from the second wife's side, who was rushing over from the other courtyard.

When Pei Yuanhong saw that his son had informed even Xu and Feng, he knew that something serious had happened, and that it was most likely done by his own family.

He stepped into the bamboo garden with a worried expression, and from afar he saw that the courtyard was brightly lit, with maids and servants kneeling on the ground.

One of the maids was tied to a tree in the courtyard, while her son stood by with his hands behind his back. Jiang Shi held a long whip and beat the maid until she was covered in blood.