The door to the private room creaked open, revealing Gumei staring blankly at the now corpse. The manager sighed. He never thought the young lad had it in him. He pushed the door wide open and ordered the servants he brought with him to clean up the room and dispose of the corpse.
One of the servants kneeled down next to the corpse and touched its wrist. "He is still alive!"
The manager saw the light slowly come back to Gumei's eyes as the latter digested what he just heard. Maybe Gumei didn't have it in him after all.
"But his pulse is very weak; he needs medical attention immediately," the servant added.
Gumei stood up and fumbled about, his eyes still out of focus, "I'll do it; I'll examine him."
The manager pushed him back down. "You are doing nothing. He will be taken to a physician, and you will be going home."
The manager beckoned to the servant, who noticed the man was still alive and instructed him to take Gumei home. Having settled that, the manager went to the third floor and pushed open a rather ordinary-looking door; behind it sat a lady whose face was covered by a veil and a dashing young man gracefully sipping tea.
"Is he gone?" the lady asked.
The manager nodded. The lady removed the veil to reveal an average face; this lady was the eldest young lady of the Shangguan family, Shangguan Qiangmei, and the dashing young man was the last son of the Shangguan family and Shangguan Qiangmei's youngest uncle, Shangguan Tianyuan.
Despite his youthful looks, Shangguan Tianyuan was well over forty and on his way to fifty; however, he was yet to marry because he couldn't find a lady as dashing as he was.
"Thank goodness that Jinx is gone! I was already sweltering under all these layers!" exclaimed Shangguan Qiangmei as she discarded the robes she was wearing. The manager could empathize with her; his heart was always in his throat anytime Gumei came around—which was almost all the time!—but master Tianyun got along with the lad pretty well. After all, they were the same kind of people; one was more pretentious than the other!
"How about the man Gumei brought to interrogate?" Master Tianyun asked.
"He has been taken to the physician."
"That is good. Make sure the man stays alive, or it might weigh on Gumei's conscience. He still has to marry my niece." Master Tianyun gazed at Shangguan Qiangmei with a doting expression.
"Who is marrying that rascal?" She scoffed, "He can go die."
The manager stood by the door waiting for them to finish their interaction; interrupting Master Tianyun's interaction with his niece was a death wish.
"Xie, what are you still doing here?" Master Tianyun answered.
"The third prince is in Nanhai, and he has positioned spies outside our pavilion."
"Don't we already know that?"
"He has established contact with Young Master Jian Nanfeng and Gumei."
At that, Master Tianyun sat up. "Those noble families... do they know the third prince is in Nanhai?"
"No, master. We held down the news and diverted their attention as per your instructions."
"Good, release the news to them. It's time Lord Qing Jun knows where his younger brother is."
"Yes, master."
…
The road from Nanhai to Guangzhou was even and smooth; however, the now sensitive Gumei felt the slight rocking of the carriage too much. He wasn't comfortable; he was thirsty, but he couldn't drink. Half a cup of wine would do him in.
After a few hours, they arrived at the Xiao Clinic, and a servant helped him out of the carriage. Outside the clinic stood Jian Nanfen, worry evident in his eyes, but Gumei paid him no heed. Instead, he scrutinized the servant who helped him out. This must be the servant that discovered the gang leader was still alive, he thought.
The manager was such a sweetheart. He sent the servant with Gumei, knowing the latter would be interested in him.
"What is your name?" Gumei asked the servant.
"Yong," the servant replied.
"No surname?"
"Young master, I am an orphan sold to the Rulai Pavilion; hence, I have no surname."
"Doesn't matter. Since you will be staying with me, you shall take my surname; from now hence forth, you shall be Xiao Yong."
"Thank you, young master." The servant bowed in deference.
Satisfied, Gumei turned to enter the clinic. Nanfeng moved to block him, but he easily sidestepped the former, "Coachman, take the young city head back home."
The coach's face soured. He only worked for the Shangguan family, damnit! But he still went along to persuade Jian Nanfeng to go home; after all, he could not go against the wicked Gumei or the City Lord Mansion.
Gumei entered the mini lab he constructed to practice medicine and reached out to continue mixing stuff as usual, but a strange fear suddenly took hold of him, cauing his hands to tremble. The small bottle fell and shattered into pieces. Xiao Yong rushed in and found that that blank look was once again in his master's eyes. He didn't comment on it and went about cleaning up the glass.
Gumei was still staring at his hands with that blank look by the time Xiao Yong was done, so the latter just left. If Gumei could play the villainous investigator, then he could handle the consequences himself. Xiao looked back at the makeshift lab once he was outside and sighed. The famous troublemaker of Guangzhou would be unable to make trouble for a while.