After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Chapter 061 Died of Degeneration (Revised)

Before transmigrating into the book, she was an assassin who roamed the night, and many of those who hired her and those she killed were people from the underworld. Driven by profit, they would devise all sorts of schemes, such as packaging contraband as candy or baby toys and hiding them on innocent young children.

Assuming the murderer was also a cunning person, Manager Lu must have been hiding an even deeper secret, which the murderer cleverly concealed using Manager Lu's body.

"Does Yuan'er mean that someone hid something, or rather a secret, on Steward Lu, and the so-called 'resurrection' is actually the murderer trying to take that thing?" Physician Jiang found it unbelievable: "He's just a steward on the estate. What secrets could there be on the estate that need to be hidden?"

“That’s no ordinary estate.” Lu Zhiyuan crumpled the paper into a ball. “It’s the Lu family’s estate, managed by my mother, the eldest daughter of the General’s Mansion. Don’t you think the winds in the capital are getting stronger, Physician Jiang?”

Physician Jiang paused for a moment, then shook his head in realization: "Perhaps you're overthinking it, Yuan'er."

Downstairs at the restaurant, Manager Liu and Manager Lu got into a conflict after failing to reach an agreement.

In desperation, Manager Liu revealed that he had ordered the cat's carcass to be buried under the beam. His words fell silent, and everyone looked at Manager Liu with disgust.

Manager Liu panicked and tried to explain, but the more he tried, the worse it got. He gritted his teeth and shoved his head into the shop.

Seeing Manager Liu dig out a cat's carcass from under the floor tiles, Manager Lu gave his young apprentice a wink. A short while later, the officers from the city's patrol unit arrived. With witnesses and physical evidence presented, Manager Liu had no room to deny it.

As he was being led away, Manager Liu struggled violently, still clutching the cat's carcass: "The master said this cat must be burned at the door. Otherwise, I'm dead!"

There was no such person as a "master"; he was just a charlatan hired by Lu Zhiyuan.

Seeing Manager Liu being dragged away, Liu Ying looked puzzled: "Didn't you bury that cat under the floor tiles, Miss? How come... Could there really be such an eerie thing in this world? Should we find a fortune teller to break the curse?"

"Feudal superstitions are not to be believed!" Lu Zhiyuan tossed a bean over: "That was a wild cat that died of illness, which I asked Manager Lu to find."

"This was all Miss's design!" Liu Ying's eyes lit up with surprise. She sat back down next to Lu Zhiyuan and muttered, "Miss didn't need to go through all this trouble to teach that Manager Liu a lesson. Just tell Captain Ma, he has plenty of ways to help."

“The Commandant’s Office belongs to the imperial court, not the Marquis’s Mansion, much less to me, Lu Zhiyuan.” Lu Zhiyuan tapped Liu Ying on the head: “Tell Manager Lu to keep an eye out. If any shops belonging to the Liu family are for sale, regardless of their location, as long as the price is right, buy them all.”

"Miss wants to buy the Liu family's shop? How did Miss know the Liu family's shop was going to be sold?" Liu Ying blinked her eyes: "Miss is buying the Liu family's shop to spite Manager Liu and embarrass him."

"It's normal for merchants to compete openly and covertly, and even kick someone when they're down, but who would dare to cooperate with or associate with someone like Manager Liu, who uses evil magic to harm others for personal gain? It's only a matter of time before Liu's shop closes down." Lu Zhiyuan pinched Liu Ying's ear: "Use money to slap Manager Liu in the face? How big must his face be? Is your young lady such a bored person?"

"That young lady bought the Liu family's shop because..."

“Doing business, huh?” Lu Zhiyuan rolled her eyes. “Although Manager Liu isn’t a great guy, all the employees in his shop are hardworking and conscientious. Each of them has a family to support, with wives, children, and elderly parents. I can’t just stand by and watch them starve to death; that would be too cruel. Secondly, you know I’m not in good health and can’t find a stable way to make a living like those noble ladies in the capital. I have to plan for my own future.”

Physician Jiang felt a pang of sympathy upon hearing this and comforted her, saying, "With the Xie family around, you don't need to seek a fixed path like those noble ladies in the capital. You're still young, so don't worry about these things."

"You're not young anymore, you're almost nine years old." Lu Zhiyuan rested her chin on her hand, speaking with an air of maturity: "No matter how good the Xie family is, it's still the Xie family. No matter how grand the Pingnan Marquis's mansion is, I'm just a daughter looked down upon by my grandmother, and I can't inherit the mansion. With this body of mine, even if I barely live to adulthood, whether I marry or not, who I marry, and what kind of family I marry into are all problems. Only when I am strong enough can I completely control my own destiny and become a support for my mother and myself."

What she wanted to do was not only to be a support, but also to save the Xie family from the fate of being executed along with their entire clan.

Liu Ying's eyes reddened, and she hugged Xie Chaoyun's arm, saying, "What you said makes me want to cry. What kind of way out is Miss planning for herself? Can you take Liu Ying with you?"

Lu Zhiyuan chuckled and hooked her arm around Liu Ying's, saying, "I want to replace my eldest uncle as the richest man in Beiliang, and then find myself a son-in-law to live with me, so I won't be bullied after marrying into his family."

Liu Ying clicked her tongue in astonishment: "Miss has already thought about marriage? What kind of live-in son-in-law does Miss want to find?"

"Lu Yun or Han Ting?" His gaze swept over Lu Yun. "Let's see which one of them is willing. If neither of them is willing, I'll find someone else who is obedient or good-looking. In short, they can't bully me, they have to listen to me, and they have to pamper and protect me for the rest of their lives."

No one paid any attention to the innocent words of the eight-year-old child except Lu Yun.

Before leaving the restaurant, Lu Zhiyuan asked Physician Jiang to write a reply to her mother and have the Jiang family's carrier pigeon deliver it to the neighboring county.

That night, Xie Chaoyun had Lu Yong invite the coroner to the steward's house, where they conducted a second autopsy in front of Xu and Ruan. Unlike the first time, at Xie Chaoyun's request, the coroner not only examined Steward Lu's physical appearance but also inspected areas that were considered shameful to be seen.

"how?"

"Reporting to Madam, Steward Lu died from a debilitating illness."

What is "exhaustion syndrome"?

"It's what people commonly call 'horse-riding stroke'!" The coroner cupped his hands and said, "During the first examination, Madam Xu, perhaps for the sake of Steward Lu's reputation, did not reveal the details of their relationship to me. In addition, Steward Lu's clothes were intact, so I did not think in that direction, which led me to overlook many details during the examination. It was thanks to Madam's reminder that I was able to find Steward Lu's true cause of death."

Madam Xu blushed and said, "You coroner, how dare you spout nonsense in front of the Marquis and his wife! He was perfectly fine when I left the estate, how could he possibly be what you call a... a stroke on a horse?"

"Many people misunderstand this illness, so it's not surprising that Madam Xu doesn't know about it," the coroner explained. "There are several types of 'collapse illness.' One type is sudden death during the event, like the ones Madam Xu knows. Another type is death after the event, which can be caused by two reasons. One is that the body is inherently weak and unable to withstand the burden. The other is that the kidney qi is deficient, and due to heat or sweating, the pores are opened, and after bathing in cold water or being exposed to wind and cold, wind evil takes advantage of the weakness and invades the kidneys, leading to death. This kind of death has many coincidences, and Steward Lu just happens to be this type."

Both Ruan and Xu were stunned.

Manager Lu's death was actually related to both of them.

The coroner found nothing unusual on Steward Lu, only a few dried rat droppings with a few grains of millet stuck to them. Judging from the color of the millet, it was from the batch that had just been harvested from the fields before the festival and stored in the granary.