Tang Dynasty Puppet Doctor

Chapter 110: Mrs. Cui's dream, another one died

Mrs. Cui's dream was very hazy.

The first thing I heard was a flurry of hurried footsteps and a woman's screams of pain. It seemed to be in a room, with servants running back and forth in a hurry and the midwife's slightly anxious consolation, until two loud cries of a baby echoed in the empty dream.

"Madam, they are twins, a boy and a girl." The maid's voice was very frightened.

Mrs. Cui's expression suddenly changed. She became very uneasy and even scared.

"Madam, twins are an ominous sign! The Taoist priest also said that if it's twins, one must be sent away, otherwise it will bring misfortune to the Cui family. Anyway, this child was born halfway, so why not leave one of them in Puzhou..."

Mrs. Cui cried bitterly and hesitated while holding her two children. In the end, she gave up one of the girls and gave her to a local businessman couple to raise.

Later, Mrs. Cui took one of the baby boys and a group of servants to escape a local war and returned to Chang'an. From then on, she never mentioned the fact that she had given birth to twins in the Cui family again. It was as if the girl had never appeared in her life. No one except her remembered this incident.

At first, she would often dream of the crying baby, but as time went on, she almost forgot about it. Until one day, she came to Puzhou again and saw a widow with a girl with a cinnabar spot between her eyebrows selling tofu at a roadside stall.

She recognized at a glance that the girl was the daughter she had abandoned, so she adopted her as her adopted daughter and gave her some gold, silver and other valuables.

At that time, a governor of Puzhou was killed, and the army fell into chaos for a while because there was no one in charge. Countless soldiers even looted in the streets. Many wealthy families passing through Puzhou suffered disasters. She took a group of women and girls from the Cui family to hide everywhere. Finally, a young man named Zhang asked the military officers to protect her, and thus she avoided the disaster.

Later, in order to thank the young man named Zhang and to ensure a good marriage for her abandoned daughter, she asked her maids and the young ladies of the Cui family to plan this matter so that the two of them could get married.

The scene here seems to be a beautiful thing, but Mrs. Cui's memory suddenly has a gap and a big change.

It seemed as if many confusing voices were whispering in her ears: "It's all because of you, because you abandoned her, that's why she has to suffer all this."

"She's already dead, why are you still pretending to come and see her?"

"It's all your fault. You killed your own daughter with your own hands."

"You said her birth was a bad omen for your Cui family, but as a mother, weren't you also a misfortune to her?"

……

The dream became very chaotic at this point, so Murong Huan stopped playing the flute and tried to wake up Madam Cui.

"Ma'am, who told you that twins are unlucky?"

Mrs. Cui burst into tears and replied in a daze, "It was the sorcerer Ming Chongyan. He was very favored by the Emperor and Empress at that time. In Huang'an, he encountered the daughter of the governor who was seriously ill. He used his magical skills to cure the girl. We can't help but believe what he said!"

Sorcerer Ming Chongyan?
Murong Huan's heart skipped a beat, and he said:

"But if we abandon our loved ones based solely on the sorcerer's words, wouldn't that be too hasty and foolish?"

"You don't understand. I'm the daughter of Zheng from Xingyang. At that time, the Emperor and Empress issued an edict prohibiting intermarriage between the five surnames, seven families, and ten clans: Wang, Lu, Cui, Zheng, and Li. I married Cui Lang privately. If news of the twins got out, it would surely attract the attention of the court and bring bad luck to the Cui family, so I..."

"What happened to that child?"

"They said she was dead. Because she had a seductive face, she attracted many local tyrants who robbed her. The young man named Zhang was also implicated by her, and both of them died..."

At this point, Madam Cui muttered to herself again, as if in a dream: "It was me who harmed her... It was me, as her mother, who harmed her..."

At this time, Murong Huan said, "Madam, guilt can't make up for anything. Only by waking up and finding the truth can you comfort your daughter's soul in heaven."

"Why did your daughter die? It's definitely not the simple reason others say."

As soon as Murong Huan finished speaking, Madam Cui suddenly opened her eyes and looked at him with a confused and guilty look. After hesitating for a moment, she suddenly touched Murong Huan's face and said:

"My dear young lady, you are so beautiful. When I saw you at the Peony Banquet that day, I thought of my own daughter, who had a similar childhood experience of being abandoned as you did.

However, she wasn't as smart as you, nor as lucky as you. Without the protection of my Cui family, she died young."

"Madam, do you think she ended up like this because she didn't have the Cui family's protection? Before you sent her gold, silver, and other valuables, she and her adoptive mother were running a tofu business, and weren't they living well?"

Murong Huan paused at this point and continued, "Poverty does not necessarily lead to disaster. Sometimes, possessing a treasure is a crime and may lead to disaster."

"What does this mean, young lady?"

"I just suspect there's something else behind your daughter's death," Murong Huan asked. "What was her name?"

"Her name is Yingying."

So the scroll titled "The Story of Yingying" actually tells the story of the daughter abandoned by Mrs. Cui, but the Yingying in this scroll is dead. Who could be the murderer?
Or was her guess wrong?

What is the significance of the scroll in the hands of the prefect Nan Ke?
Who killed Hong Xian and the prefect Nan Ke?

That day she also checked Hong Xian's whole body. Apart from the old wounds from being whipped, there were no new injuries, nor any fatal sword or blunt force wounds. However, she was bleeding from all seven orifices, and she had died from a severe poison attacking her heart. The poison was hidden in her silver bell, making it look like she had committed suicide.

She also re-examined the body of the Nan Ke prefect. There were no scars on his body either, but it seemed that he was knocked unconscious and then fed poison and died. As for the ants around him, they were just some sugar water on his clothes.

"Mrs. Cui, instead of living in the guilt of the past, it is better to cherish the present."

After saying this last sentence, Murong Huan walked out of Madam Cui's room. When Cui Yin and Cui Chengxuan saw her come out, they immediately asked, "How is it? Is my mother feeling better?"

Without waiting for Murong Huan's answer, the two of them rushed into the inner room. Seeing Madam Cui crying but already sober, they couldn't help but feel happy.

"Mother, are you feeling better? Do you still remember us?"

Madam Cui glanced at her children and suddenly burst into tears. "It's nothing. I regretted my deep obsession. From now on, I won't make you worry anymore."

Cui Yin couldn't help but be overjoyed: "That's great, mother, can you let go of the past?"

Murong Huan couldn't help but look back at Cui Yin and found that she didn't look much like Madam Cui and Cui Xuanwei, the head of the Cui family. Could it be that Madam Cui felt guilty about her biological daughter, so she adopted another daughter?

After a thought flashed through his mind, Murong Huan came to Xiao Muchen. The blind musician was also there and seemed to have been chatting with Xiao Muchen for a long time.

"How is it? Is Mrs. Cui's illness cured?" Xiao Muchen asked first.

Before Murong Huan could reply, joyful laughter emanated from Madam Cui's courtyard. A servant sighed, "It's incredible! This young lady has been here for less than half an hour, and Madam's illness is already healed!"

"He is indeed a miracle doctor!"

Hearing the word "miracle doctor", the blind musician's fingers couldn't help but tremble slightly.

At this moment, Murong Huan suddenly turned to him and said, "I wonder what Mr. Zhang's name is? You just said you came from Puzhou. Are you familiar with Yingying?"

"What's going on with your eyes?"

When the last question was asked, the blind musician's eyes fluttered, and his emotions seemed to be greatly affected. When he was about to say something, Xuan Yu suddenly rushed here and reported to Xiao Muchen: "My dear, it's bad, Madam Zheng Ba is dead!"

Murong Huan and Xiao Muchen's expressions changed drastically at the same time: "How did he die?"