The Empress Is Dead

"Oh! You were referring to my mother. She"s in the beast mountain with my father." Xulian casually said like she"s just talking about the weather while sipping her tea.

The grandfather and grandson duo turned speechless. She speaks so nonchalantly that they didn"t know how to react.

"Old man Hao, I would like to talk to you about your condition." Xulian finally decided to talk business. "I would like you to know that this isn"t a simple dementia. It was with human intervention, using herbs. It was the w.a.n.gji herbs. You sell herbs so you know how it works. It was similar to dementia and using it on a person your age won"t leave any suspicions. It was a rare herb and whoever fed it to you must be someone not simple."

"Our Caoyao Pavilion have them. As you have said young lady Lin, it was rare and needs a lot of consideration before we sell them. It could cure trauma if you manage to tone down its effects. Not many apothecary can manage to turn it to a proper medicine. But it doesn"t mean that no one could take them without notice. Our Caoyao Pavilion is a family business, therefore other members of the family can have access to them." Old master Hao solemnly said. He sound disappointed.

Xulian"s group only have one thought. "So it turned out to be a family"s internal strife."

"You see, I had an older brother. He was supposed to manage the business, but he was irresponsible and was always inside the brothels spending money. Our parents decided to hand the business to me. My brother didn"t really care as long as I give him money. But since he had a life of debauchery, he had a lot of women and of course children. He had 5 sons and six daughters. While I only have my wife and daughter. My brother"s sons fought for the right to inherit the business but since I managed it, I want to hand it over to my daughter.

"But since she is a woman, we were at the disadvantaged side. But my daughter married a talented man. He was better than me in business, and he married into the Hao family. He even allowed my grandson to use the name Hao instead of his w.a.n.g just so that my grandson could have the right to inherit the business easily. And since Yuwen is a son, the fight for the inheritance halted.

"But he died when Yuwen is only ten from bandit while delivering herbs. His father wasn"t able to teach him a lot about business so I took over his studies. I was not as good as his father though. And two years ago, when Yuwen is just 16, I got sick. The fight then resumed saying Yuwen is still too young. Luckily, he was a smart kid and also have a lot of knowledge about herbs to back him up so he manage to hold out. It seems everything was orchestrated by one of those nephews of mine." Master Hao narrated their whole story to Xulian"s group.

"But grandpa, the problems is identifying who among those five uncles of mine had a hand on this all. I am sure none of them worked together since they were also fighting with each other. There can only be one at the top." Hao Yuwen said dejectedly. Everything suddenly became complicated."

"Our Lin family"s Lin Mercenary Clan don"t do a.s.sa.s.sination but we are the best in spying and investigation. My brother, the current leader is in the City. I could arrange a meeting anytime. I"m sure the payment won"t be a problem with you." Xulian smilingly said. She didn"t forgot to promote their family business.

The grandfather and grandson duo are stunned stupid. They wonder how they got a.s.sociated with such person. She is the daughter of the famous wandering miracle doctor and now she is the sister of the leader of the legendary Lin Mercenary Clan. If they knew she is also the future empress, they might pa.s.s out on the spot! They discussed about her suggestion and set a meeting with Lin Huang tomorrow.

Realizing that old master Hao had nothing else to say, Xulian made her purpose known. "Old Master Hao, earlier today we went to your Caoyao Pavilion to have a possible deal." Xulian took out several porcelain bottles in her pouch. "These are the medicine I personally formulated. The one I used to cure your poison earlier is used to detoxify any poison caused by herbs. It won"t work with insect and animal essence poisons, but I have them here. I also have medicine to generally detoxify the body of any impurities. I also have one to beautiful the skin, this would be famous for the ladies. I also have one that could strengthen the bones for martial artists and old people. I plan to sell them for 100 gold coins in your store. I heard you offer buy and sell deals. The herbs I need to make this can be found in your pavilion too so I plan to make you a supplier of the raw materials. Do you find this deal good enough?" Xulian said everything in one breath. She"s been formulating her words ever since she knew that they are the owner of the Caoyao pavilion.

Hearing this, Old master Hao laughed. "Little girl, no need to be uptight. How about this, I will raise the price to 150 gold coins and promise to sell them out. I will only take 10% profit and also offer you 50% off in your purchase of herbs. Take this as my show of sincerity and grat.i.tude as my benefactor."

Xulian is so happy about the deal and thank old master Hao. She promised to meet them again tomorrow together with her brother Lin Huang. They then went back to the Lin manor. This day was a really long one for them and Xulian is too tired and fell asleep as soon as she hit her bed without even having dinner.