Rather than engaging in the pretentious socializing with those women who were like delicate songbirds in luxurious restaurants, I quite liked the suggestion Lu Tianchang put forward.
There must have been something extremely strange going on in Li Jiuming's mansion, which was why Si Xirui had seen her "living" uncle!
Due to the death, no one dared to stay at the welcome banquet any longer. The guests all bid farewell to the Si father - and - son and went back to their respective homes.
The welcome banquet, originally a joyous occasion, had turned into such a mess. However, Si Jiangchen didn't seem the least bit annoyed. He left the mess to Si Cheng, got in a car with me and Lu Tianchang, and followed Li Mingyue's car back to Li Jiuming's mansion beside Zijin Mountain in Jinling City.
Now, Qiu Zhuqing's body had been taken away by the police station and was stored in the morgue.
Li Mingyue had initially been insistent, demanding that the police station punish me.
This time, Si Jiangchen didn't even show up. After the coroner from the police station examined the body, a conclusion was almost immediately reached.
Qiu Zhuqing had committed suicide. Both the angle and the force of the knife stabbing were clear to the coroner's eyes.
But Li Mingyue kept wailing, claiming that her mother would never have had the thought of suicide and insisting that Si Jiangchen should stand up for her.
Lu Tianchang, annoyed by her crying, told her that instead of worrying about the dead Qiu Zhuqing, she should worry about her father, who, despite being ill, could eat a whole osmanthus - flavored duck in one meal!
Li Mingyue became even more flustered after hearing Lu Tianchang's words.
Now that her mother was no longer alive, if something were to happen to her long - ill father, those relatives from her mother's side who were eyeing the family fortune would surely swoop in and divide up everything. By then, not only the large property and shops of the Li family but even the ancestral house and fields would be completely taken away!
"Sister Mingyue, I'll go with you!"
Li Mingyue was in a hurry to get home. She jumped into the family car. Si Xirui, who had grown up with Li Mingyue, wanted to go and comfort her when she saw Li Mingyue in such a great upheaval.
However, Li Mingyue, in a panic, didn't even pay attention to Si Xirui. She closed the car door, and the car sped away immediately.
"Sister Mingyue!!"
Si Xirui stamped her feet in anxiety. Then she angrily opened the door of Si Jiangchen's car and pointed at the car speeding away in the distance. "Brother Achen, hurry up and catch up with Sister Mingyue. She must be so sad that she's gone crazy. She didn't even care about me and just ran home by herself."
"Hehe..."
Lu Tianchang, sitting in the back seat, let out a mocking laugh but didn't expose the truth.
Li Mingyue wasn't crazy with grief at all. She was just worried that the old man at home wouldn't die while she was away. Without a will, the huge fortune would belong to the entire Li family, and she, as the daughter, might not even be able to keep the house she lived in.
Si Jiangchen drove steadily and managed to keep up with Li Mingyue's car all the way without being left behind.
The Li family's mansion at the foot of Zijin Mountain was nestled against the mountain, with a large expanse of lush green forest behind it.
Before the car even came to a full stop, Li Mingyue impatiently jumped out, dragging her skirt, and rushed towards the mansion's gate.
"Sister Mingyue, wait for me!"
Si Xirui also ran in. She was a frequent visitor to the Li family, and the servants at the gate didn't stop her, allowing her to run directly into the courtyard.
The servants in the Li mansion were also very familiar with Si Jiangchen. After the butler heard the report from the servant, he quickly trotted over to greet us.
"How's your master's health?"
Si Jiangchen asked directly.
The butler was an old man in his sixties, wearing a traditional skullcap and a brown long gown. After hearing Si Jiangchen's question, he looked at me and Lu Tianchang hesitantly.
"It's okay. They're very capable gentlemen who can solve the problems in the Li mansion."
Si Jiangchen knew what he was worried about and pointed it out directly.
Only then did the butler let out a long sigh. As he led us into the courtyard, he told us about the strange things that had happened to Master Li Jiuming since he returned from Zhejiang Province.
Li Jiuming had already celebrated his sixtieth birthday. His first wife had died in childbirth, and the two concubines he took later had also failed to survive childbirth. He had someone tell his fortune and learned that he had a very strong and wealthy destiny but a thin fate with children. Only by doing good deeds in this life could he have a daughter.
Sure enough, after he married Qiu Zhuqing, he had a daughter named Li Mingyue.
As Li Jiuming got older, his health gradually deteriorated. Qiu Zhuqing, on the other hand, was a woman in her thirties, at the age when she needed a man's affection. So while Li Jiuming was away on business or inspecting the family's silk factory, she had affairs with other men. Li Jiuming knew that one of them was Si Cheng, the husband of Qiu Zhuqing's late sister Qiu Zhuying.
Almost all the servants in the Li mansion knew about this, but they all kept silent about it.
Because the Si family was a prominent family in Jinling and held a large amount of military power, and Li Jiuming was under their protection, he endured the humiliation.
But two months ago, when Li Jiuming returned home from inspecting the factory in Zhejiang Province, he found that Qiu Zhuqing had brazenly brought Si Cheng back to the Li mansion for an affair.
Hearing about it was one thing, but seeing it with his own eyes was another!
Li Jiuming had already caught a cold. When he chased and beat the two of them, he got so angry that his pores opened up, and the cold air invaded his body again. Finally, he fell ill in bed.
After countless injections and medications, he managed to keep his life.
During this period, Qiu Zhuqing came back, knelt in front of Li Jiuming to repent, and decided not to associate with the Si family anymore, asking Li Jiuming to calm down.
Li Jiuming knew that she was eyeing the family fortune.
As a businessman who dealt with smart people every day, Li Jiuming naturally left some back - up plans for himself.
He told Qiu Zhuqing that they could get a divorce, and he would pay her a monthly living allowance.
This amount of money was quite a fortune for ordinary people, but Qiu Zhuqing had a big appetite and firmly refused to divorce Li Jiuming.
She began to take good care of Li Jiuming.
The strange thing happened one day two months ago.
The temperature in the mountains was much lower than in Jinling City, so silver - thread charcoal was still burned at night.
The butler was usually not on duty at night.
After patrolling the courtyard, he was about to go back to his room to sleep.
Unexpectedly, just as he took off his coat, he heard a terrifying scream from the depths of the courtyard.
The butler quickly grabbed his shoes and ran out. Along with the others, he came to the room where Master Li Jiuming lived and found that Madam Qiu Zhuqing had just served the master dinner and was wiping his mouth with a handkerchief.
The butler didn't think much of it. He apologized and left.
Unexpectedly, from that day on, Li Jiuming became obsessed with eating chickens, ducks, and other poultry. Whether they were cooked or the peacocks and pheasants raised in the courtyard for viewing, as long as he saw them, he had to eat them.
While taking care of the master on a daily basis, the butler noticed something strange... The master only ate and never excreted!
He was like a glutton!