Chapter 340

A twelve or thirteen-year-old maid with a delicate appearance rushed out of the room crying. Seeing Jiang Shi at the door, the maid cried even harder.

"Ma, Madam, woo woo woo..."

Looking at the porridge all over her head and face, and her face that had been scalded red.

Jiang Shi knew her daughter was throwing a tantrum again.

"What happened?" she asked, frowning.

The maid cried until she was out of breath. "Miss, she, she thinks this servant is clumsy and doesn't know how to serve people, and she said, said the porridge was too hot..."

"Since you knew the porridge was hot, why didn't you wait for it to cool down before sending it in? Did Miss punish you wrongly?"

The maid's tears fell like broken beads, and she sobbed in defense: "But, it was Miss who said she didn't like it cold first..."

Jiang Shi didn't want to listen anymore.

"Alright, stop crying. Considering you are young and just arrived, I will spare you this time. Remember to be careful when you are on duty next time." She called the servant woman who was sweeping aside and pointed to the maid. "Take her to apply some medicine, and she is excused from duty today."

"Yes, Madam."

The servant woman took the sobbing maid to the side room.

Jiang Shi entered the room.

Du Mingzhu was sitting on the edge of the bed, her face turned toward the inside of the bed, clearly still sulking.

"Zhu'er, you are the master, why bother with a servant? You'll only make yourself sick." Jiang Shi opened the pastries in her hand and handed one to her daughter's mouth. "Mother bought your favorite mille-feuille cake, want to taste it?"

Du Mingzhu turned her head and didn't say a word, nor did she take it.

Jiang Shi smiled and stuffed the mille-feuille cake into her daughter's palm. "Alright, stop being angry. If you really feel that cheap maid is not useful, Mother will have someone else bought back."

Du Mingzhu stood up abruptly and shouted excitedly: "Buying ten more back would be the same! Every time they see my face, they look like they've seen a ghost. Ah ah ah ah, I've really had enough!"

"Mother knows, Mother knows it's their fault, they deserve to die."

Jiang Shi hurriedly comforted her. "But our mother and daughter are in a foreign land, we have to have someone to serve us, right? Just endure it for now, okay?"

She took her daughter into her arms and patted her back. "The Apricot Forest Conference is in two days, Mother has already signed you up. By then, all the divine doctors in the world will gather here, and surely someone will be able to cure you."

Signed up?

Du Mingzhu raised her face full of bumps and asked suspiciously: "Isn't it only those who know medicine who can sign up to participate?"

"You don't understand this."

Jiang Shi explained to her daughter with a smile: "According to the practice of previous years, there will be several rounds of competitions in the Apricot Forest Conference, and the last round is for the winners to treat several patients together, and finally decide the ranking. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Thousands of people are competing to sign up, but only a few are selected."

Du Mingzhu pushed her away, looking terrified, and shook her head desperately.

"No, I don't want to, I don't want to be seen by so many people with my face! They will laugh at me, dislike me, and judge me with the ugliest and most vicious words. I don't want this, I don't want this! No!"

Rather than exposing her scars to the public.

She would rather die!

"Zhu'er, calm down." Jiang Shi comforted her as much as possible. "Mother knows you are afraid, so I have already prepared a fake identity for you. This is Fengyang Prefecture, not Wutou Xian, no one knows you."

"Once your face is cured, we will go home immediately, and no one will know your background."

"The opportunity is rare. Mother spent a lot of effort and bribed several hundred taels of silver, and it was not easy to get you selected, so don't let Mother's painstaking efforts go to waste."

Hearing this, Du Mingzhu gradually stopped her hysteria.

"But, Du Ruo and those people are still in Fengyang Prefecture. What if she recognizes me..."

The thing she couldn't accept the most was letting Du Ruo see her current ghost-like appearance.

That bitch would definitely laugh her head off!

No one knows a daughter like her mother. Jiang Shi naturally understood Du Mingzhu's thoughts.

"Rest assured, Zhu'er, Mother has inquired. Du Ruo is here to accompany the exam, and the Prefectural Examination is already over. She will leave Fengyang Prefecture soon and won't recognize you."

Du Mingzhu was still hesitant.

Jiang Shi persuaded her earnestly: "The opportunity is only once. Once the Apricot Forest Conference is over, those divine doctors will all leave. Even if you bring heavy money to their door, there will still be a long line in front of you. When will it be your turn?"

Du Mingzhu's heart began to waver.

"Mother, are you sure Du Ruo and the others will leave?"

"Of course." Jiang Shi sneered. "What does the Apricot Forest Conference have to do with that little bitch? She doesn't know medicine, what is she staying here for? To drink the northwest wind?"

"Besides, her brother-in-law Jiang Zhan had good luck this time and hit the Prefectural Top Scholar. Isn't she in a hurry to go back and show off?"

Jiang Shi looked at her daughter and said sternly: "Zhu'er, you have to think carefully, which is more important, your face or your face-saving?"

Du Mingzhu slowly lowered her eyes.

Both are important.

But if she had to choose one of the two, she naturally wanted her face.

For a woman, without a face, she has nothing—no dignity, no freedom, and even less a desirable husband.

"Alright, then let's do as Mother says." Du Mingzhu finally made up her mind.

Only when her face is better will she have the ability to continue fighting with Du Ruo.

And only when she restores her beauty will that gentle and jade-like young man, Du Ruo's former sweetheart, notice her.

Du Mingzhu and her mother calculated everything, but unfortunately, they missed one thing.

That was that Du Ruo didn't plan to go back so soon.

And she had also signed up for the Apricot Forest Conference.

The day before the Apricot Forest Conference began, the Prince Ji Mansion sent more than a dozen servants and laborers, led by the accountant, to deliver the thirty thousand taels of compensation with great fanfare.

Originally, according to the logic of normal people, thirty thousand taels was a lot, so silver notes were definitely the most convenient.

But the Prince Ji Mansion wouldn't.

It was all in hard silver, pulled in a mighty procession of several carriages, packed in more than a dozen large wooden boxes.

The first wicked thing they did when they arrived at the Wutou Xian Hall.

Was to beat gongs and drums, and set off firecrackers.

Attracting all the nearby residents, who gathered there to watch the fun.

"Congratulations, Lady Du, congratulations, Lady Du, for winning thirty thousand taels of silver, let the whole world celebrate!" The accountant shouted loudly, fearing that others wouldn't hear.

Du Ruo watched his performance with cold eyes.

Sure enough, the onlookers exploded with a buzz, discussing it one after another.

"Thirty thousand taels, that much?"

"Tsk tsk tsk, how many lifetimes would it take to spend it all? She really fell into a money hole."

"Oh, jealous? It's a pity that even if you're jealous, it's not yours, hahahaha."

"I spit, it's like you're not jealous. Don't say thirty thousand taels, even if you had three thousand taels, I reckon your tail would be up to the sky..."

Hearing these words of envy, jealousy, and hatred, the accountant was very satisfied.

But it wasn't enough.

He took several sheets of paper out of his bosom. "Our Princess Consort said that we couldn't scrape together thirty thousand taels of silver at once, so we only gave twenty thousand taels in hard silver, and for the other ten thousand taels, we used other things to offset it."

He read them out loudly one by one in public.

"A manor in the suburbs, worth five thousand taels!"

"Two shops on Wulin Street, worth three thousand taels!"

"Five top courtesans, worth two thousand taels!"