Chapter Ninety-two: Implementation

  The brother and sister had made their plans, the night was already very late, the woman from next door had come to urge them twice, the second time it was someone who attended to Grandmother Zhang. Zhao Xiu knew that she could not stay any longer, so she stood up and bid farewell to her elder brother.

  "Sister, wait a minute." Zhao Wei called out to her, turned around and walked into the inner bedroom. Before long, he came out with a foot-long brocade bag and handed it to Zhao Xiu, "This was given to you by Gao Zhen, the prince of Guangping. Grandmother said he's being reckless and wanted to help you put it away. I managed to persuade her otherwise, so sister, please keep it safe and don't let outsiders see it. If grandmother thinks you can take care of it yourself, she might just let you keep it."

  Zhaoxin felt puzzled in her heart, Gaozhen would send her things, although surprising, but not something strange, but why would grandma not want to keep it for herself? She took over the brocade bag and opened it to understand what was going on.

  Gao Zhen handed her a small, exquisite dagger, about the length of an adult woman's palm. The handle was made of purple sandalwood and the scabbard was made of pearl fish skin. The entire thing was black and almost devoid of decoration, except for the smooth handle which suggested that this dagger had some age to it. As soon as she drew it out of its scabbard, the blade shone with a silver light, giving off a chilling aura, and was undoubtedly razor-sharp.

  It's too strange, why did Gao Zhen give her this? Could it be that she learned boxing when she was a kid and after five years, he thinks she can learn sword fighting now?

  Zhaowei smiled and said: "The young master heard me say that the two sets of fist techniques I have are learned from you, and you're still practicing them. Let me tell you, it's not very good for a girl to practice fists. If you want to protect yourself, it's better to carry a sharp object with you at all times. This is something he used when he was young, but now that he's grown up, he doesn't need it, so he gave it to me to use. He also gave me a boxing manual, which is what he learned from. Although the young master has strange ideas, he actually means well."

  Zhao Xuan looked at the dagger and suddenly smiled: "It's good to have a dagger, I can take it with me when I go out to defend myself. If Xiaochangfang sends someone to harm me, I'll give them a knife!"

  Zhaowei disapprovingly glared at his sister: "Do you think they can't do such a thing? Don't joke about this." His previous thoughts were also naive, but on this trip to the north, he had seen many things and broadened his horizons. He had become much smarter. Even someone as intelligent and wise as Guangping Wang couldn't avoid being plotted against by others. The small second house was already in a precarious situation, yet they still wouldn't let them off easy. If he didn't keep an extra eye out, he would eventually be schemed against and even his grandmother and sister wouldn't be able to protect him.

  Zhaoxuan felt a bit embarrassed and pulled his brother's hand: "I know, I wasn't joking about this. I really want to take it out."

  Zhao Wei's face relaxed a bit, but he shook his head and vetoed his sister's idea: "Nonsense, if grandma knew about it, she would definitely scold you. What do you think this is? A paper cutter? This is a real dagger. Carrying it with you, not to mention whether you can protect yourself or not, what if you accidentally hurt yourself? You'd better calm down and put it away properly."

  Zhao Xun shrank his neck, but didn't foolishly refute his brother's words. He only said: "I understand." Then he tucked the small dagger into his belt and returned to his own courtyard.

  Mrs. Zhang sent the maid to find her: "The old lady said, 'It's been several months since the young lady saw her brother, and she wants to talk to him more, which is a normal human feeling. However, it's already so late, and you shouldn't have played outside for so long before coming back. There's always tomorrow to talk about things. Now that autumn has begun, the night wind is cool, and it would be better for the young lady to stay inside and not catch a chill. At night, make sure to cover yourself well with the quilt.'"

  Zhaoxuan stood up and replied respectfully, "It won't happen again in the future, please don't worry, grandmother."

  After the girl left, she carefully put away the embroidered bag with a dagger and specially instructed Bi Lian: "This is very valuable, don't let others touch it." Bi Lian responded with a sound, nervously asking her: "Miss, have you told your brother?"

  "Alright, brother knows what to do, so don't worry." Zhao Xuan turned around and looked at her, hesitating for a moment. "Tomorrow morning, you can go back home and tell your parents about the method of removing the household registration that I just told you, especially tell your father. As long as your family remains loyal to us, we will also have our own way of rewarding you. As for the matter of the packet of medicine powder, brother has already taken care of it and will instruct Xiaoman to go back and explain, so you don't need to worry about it."

  Bilian let out a big sigh of relief and nodded with a smile: "I understand!"

  On the second day, Zhao Wei calmly asked his grandmother Zhang at breakfast time to go out and see the teacher of the school. Zhang said: "Isn't it called for you to rest at home for two days before going back to school? It's not urgent for a while. Take advantage of the free time to organize your homework, review your books as well, otherwise when the teacher asks, you won't be able to answer and will lose face. And that copying assignment, have you finished writing it all?"

  Zhao Xun exchanged a glance with Zhao Wei, then lowered his head again.

  Zhao Wei smiled and said, "My grandson has almost finished his homework. Today, he will write two more compositions, and that's it. Although they may be a bit rough, I don't know if you'll be satisfied with them. However, my grandson bought several books for you in the capital, which are the ones you've been wanting. He plans to deliver them to you today first. Who knows, maybe when you see the books, you'll be overjoyed and won't pick on me."

  Mrs. Zhang said with a bad temper: "This kind of clever trick is not the right way." Although she said so, Sunzi had also been suffering on this road. When they were in the capital, because she was a widow, there were many inconveniences, and she often stayed at the Guangping King's mansion. Generally, social interactions were all handled by Sunzi, which made him have no time to review his lessons. Mrs. Zhang felt very sorry for him, so this time she decided to turn a blind eye and let Sunzi be a little lazy.

  Zhao Wei successfully left the house and first went to the teacher of the school, really sending a few books that were difficult to get. The teacher was very happy, picked up the homework he handed in, and also felt that some of the words he copied were well-written, while others were written poorly, which must have been caused by carelessness. However, the teacher did not scold him, but only let him know that he should be more careful in the future, and then sent him away. Today is not a holiday, and he still has to go to school to teach classes. He asked Zhao Wei to come back to class after Mid-Autumn Festival, and before that, to pre-study the new lesson at home first. Zhao Wei had been away from home for several months, and the school had already finished teaching one book, now opening a new textbook.

  Zhao Wei nodded and backed out. He didn't go home, but instead went to Wang Siping's house, taking out the package of medicine powder for him to see.

  Wang Siping was knowledgeable and experienced. As soon as he saw the powder, he knew what it was, his face turned pale: "Where did you get this stuff from? This is poisonous, don't touch it!"

  Zhao Wei listened and immediately had an idea: "Don't worry, Grandpa Wang. I know this isn't a good thing, but I don't know what it's used for. That's why I came to ask you. Tell me about it."

  "Wang Siping told him, 'This is a poisonous grass root that has been ground into powder. It smells fishy and if you accidentally ingest it, at first, you won't feel anything. But starting from the second day, symptoms of a cold will appear, and people will start to feel drowsy. Even in broad daylight, they can sleep soundly at night, but they can't help falling asleep again. For twelve hours a day, they need to sleep for at least eleven hours. Doctors think it's just a cold and can't detect the poison, so their prescriptions are useless. They'll just keep sleeping and waking up like this until the seventh day when it's too late to save them! That's why someone gave it the nickname 'Seven-Day Down', which is extremely poisonous. In the past, wealthy families loved to use this secretly to kill people without anyone noticing. Outsiders would only think that the deceased had died from a severe illness and wouldn't suspect poisoning.'"

  Zhao Wei took a sharp breath in, staring at the packet of poison powder, his eyes almost shooting out daggers.

  It goes without saying that this must be the second room given to Lu Dasou, thinking of finding an opportunity to secretly poison them. Lu Dasou's mother and sister are all in the inner courtyard serving him closely, and his younger brother is also the only male servant in this small second room. There are plenty of opportunities to tamper with the master's tea and food. If they fall for it, they will really think it's just a serious illness that can't be cured, and they won't suspect anyone's scheme at all. Once they're all dead, the second room will be gone, and the title of Duke Jianan will eventually return to Xiaochangfang's head, right? It's a pity that the second room has never thought of making things difficult for Xiaochangfang, but Xiaochangfang insists on being ruthless. Since that's the case, he doesn't need to show any mercy either!

  Wang Siping continued to ask: "Wei Ge, where did you get this vicious thing from?"

  Zhao Wei didn't answer, instead he grasped his hand: "Grandfather Wang, I need to report this matter to my grandmother. Can you come with me as a witness?"

  Wang Sipeng looked puzzled but still agreed.

  The two of them rushed back to the old mansion of Xiao Er Fang, where Zhang Shi had just invited the Eighth Old Master and Zhao Jue to discuss a matter. They wanted to discuss adding donations of money and grain from Xiao Er Fang to aid the disaster-stricken people in the public relief efforts. In one breath, Zhang Shi donated 1,000 taels of silver and 500 dan of white rice, as well as dozens of bolts of fabric brought back from the capital, including high-end silk fabrics with intricate patterns and colors that were already out of style, but still considered precious and dignified by many people.

  Zhaoyuan and the Eighth Old Master were both very grateful to Zhang Gong's generosity, and also told her that according to the newly introduced clan rules, Xiaofang had already obtained more than 200 contribution points, which was enough for her to propose a matter on her own and request a public discussion within the clan. As long as more than half of the clan members agreed, the proposal would be passed.

  Zhang didn't quite understand the use of this contribution point, and just smiled and nodded to show she knew, thinking that she would ask her granddaughter privately later. She proposed this contribution point, what was she up to?

  Zhao Xun's eyes lit up as soon as Zhao Jiong and the Eighth Old Master mentioned their family's contribution points, and when she saw her brother bring over Wang Siping, she hurriedly went to greet them, exchanging a glance with her brother.

  Zhao Wei nodded slightly to his sister, and Zhao Xuan's heart relaxed, smiling: "Bilian and Xiaoman have gone home." Zhao Wei nodded and walked directly towards his grandmother.

  At this moment, in the small courtyard of Lu's house, Lu Dasou had just finished listening to his father's words and was somewhat skeptical that there was a problem with his ears. Otherwise, how could he have heard such a ridiculous thing? He couldn't help but ask: "Dad, say it again?"

  "I'm saying, soon you'll go with me to Old Lady's presence and confess that the people from Xiao Chang Fang instructed you to use poison to harm Old Lady and Brother, intending to kill the people of Xiao Er Fang, then monopolize the title and family property." Lu Changxiu looked at her eldest son, with a sinister glint in her eyes. "What expression is on your face? Am I wronging you? Didn't you tell me before that Da Ta Tai gave you a packet of medicine and told you to think of a way to put it in Old Lady's or Wei Gege's tea?"

  Bi Lian and her younger brother Xiao Man looked at each other, they conveyed the words according to their respective masters' intentions. But did Father's face change too quickly? (....