Rebirth of Poisoned Empress, by 颜若优雅

Chapter 75

For the following few days, the people in the Marquis Donglin Manor could neither sleep nor eat peacefully. They didn't even know how old the child was, much less his identity. The only thing they did know was that Shen Liang would be raising him. For the child, he disregarded everything and demanded Shen Ruiting to expand his courtyard. Since the day he was born, since when had Shen Ruiting ever compromised with him?

But he succeeded. Not only did Shen Ruiting allocate sum of money to him from the family's account, but also specifically told Zhao Lan, who was placed temporarily in charge of the back courtyard matters to take out another sum of money and give it to Shen Liang. He also ordered that no one was allowed to spread word about the child. This terrified everyone. Even the old madame's inquiries were silenced by Shen Ruiting, who had always been filial. Everyone began to speculate if the child had been born from someone Shen Ruiting was keeping and raising outside. But this didn't make any sense. If it was an illegitimate child, how could the child be given to Shen Liang, an unmarried Ger himself, to raise and care for?

Regardless of their hypotheses, Shen Liang began busying himself the next day, bright and early. In order to save time, Lei Zhen mobilized more than two hundred men specialized in civil engineering from the Nether Guards. With the Zhonglin Courtyard as the foundation, in just one short day, three walls of more than two meters high had been erected between Zhonglin Courtyard and the side wall of the Marquis Donglin Manor. Broken tiles were also plastered on top of the walls as to prevent people from climbing over them.

Five days passed and with the concerted efforts of more than two hundred people, three rows of tile roofed houses had been built from ground up. The empty space in the center had been left and used as a garden. The original Zhonglin garden had also been renovated. Besides an old tree, compared to the pavilions in the other parts of the Marquis Donglin Manor, the Zhonglin Courtyard's new pavilion did not lose in sophistication and magnificence the least bit. Although it wasn't built as beautiful, it was much larger, giving everyone plenty of room to move around. Shen Liang even had his own room to research poisons and medicine.

"Liangliang, people from the Lotus Fragrance Courtyard are here and requested that you pay a visit after classes." Shen Liang had utilized and moved too many people. The new Zhonglin Courtyard was able to start inhabiting people after just eight days. Most of the Nether Guards had withdrawn, leaving only Lei Zhen and a few other guards who guarded Zhonglin Courtyard and protected the people in it. That day after school, as usual, Shen Liang first paid a visit to Fu Ying's room to see Shen You as always. When he returned to his own room, Lei Zhen, Qi Yue, and Qi Xuan all came in to tell him of the matter. They had been silent for eight days now. It seems like they finally couldn't take it anymore. 

"En. Lei Zhen, how is it over at the City of Wangyue?" Shen Liang responded nonchalantly before questioning. He didn't provide an answer as to whether he would pay the Lotus Fragrance Courtyard a visit or not, but he was concerned about the affairs of Wangyue City.

"Hui An is still imprisoned and a portion of the Ling Family's army is still guarding the dam." Three days ago, the work of stabilizing the dam had already been completed. They watched as the weather grew better day by day. Wen Yuan was in a good mood and was in a hurry to return to the Imperial City to report back to the emperor for credit. But exactly at that time, Hui An appeared and predicted that a downpour would result in five days and begged that the Ling Army to stay behind and continue stabilizing the dam. Wen Yuan immediately ordered someone to behead him on ground of defrauding the public with words of witchery. The Nether Guards immediately provoked the crowd to rush forward and prevent the execution in a timely manner. General Ling was a cautious man by nature. He decided to leave Hui An be for now and have him temporarily confined in the government cells but couldn't persuade Wen Yuan, who was in a hurry to return to the Imperial City, to stay behind. Hence, before escorting Wen Yuan back to the Imperial City, he left a portion of his army behind in the City of Wangyue to guard the dam. One, because he was afraid a downpour may truly occur as the man predicted and two, he was afraid someone might deliberately damage the dam at this time.