Marry a Duke

Chapter 9 She is his antidote

On the day of the birthday banquet for the wife of the old Duke Weiguo, the scene was no less grand than that at Grand Tutor Huo's residence, with many guests coming and going.

The Duke of Weiguo is a powerful official of the dynasty. He has just returned to the court after making unprecedented military achievements. He is a popular figure in the eyes of the emperor. All officials in the court, both high and low, want to have some relationship with the Duke of Weiguo.

Maybe I will have the opportunity to get support from Duke Weiguo in the future.

The *** family had already prepared a birthday gift, a half-human-high jade statue of Guanyin, with a solemn appearance.

On the surface, Empress Dowager Cixi was gentle, dignified and polite. Fu Ran was ignorant of state affairs and could not understand why Empress Dowager Cixi targeted the Duke of Wei.

The fact that the Emperor can use the Duke of Weiguo shows that he is a useful person.

*** also wanted to place people around Duke Weiguo, which showed that he did not trust Duke Weiguo.

*** started to get busy early in the morning, choosing clothes, combing hair, putting on makeup, and preparing breakfast.

Fu Ran was a second-class maid. She didn't have to comb the lady's hair or put on makeup. There was no maid specifically to do makeup for her.

She only needed to bring the breakfast prepared in the kitchen to the bedroom, arrange it properly, and then wait by the side.

After breakfast, *** set out for the Duke of Weiguo's Mansion with the counted number of people.

Princess Ruhui was naturally among them. Before getting on the carriage, she glanced at Fu Ran.

There were reminders and warnings in his eyes.

The Duke of Weiguo's mansion is extremely bustling. The old Duke of Weiguo's wife was a first-rank lady bestowed by the late emperor, and she has a noble status. Now the Duke of Weiguo is young and promising, with a bright future.

After *** entered the Duke of Wei's mansion, he met a woman from an official family.

Fu Ran asked around and found out that she was the legitimate daughter of Marquis An. However, their relationship was secretive and their conversations were just ordinary ones, which would not attract too much attention.

Fu Ran would notice that he had looked closely at the way *** looked at that person.

The expression of the eldest daughter of Marquis An's Mansion was also intriguing.

The maidservant beside Princess Ruhui came over to remind Fu Ran.

Fu Ran's heart skipped a beat. This was going to happen.

The Duke of Weiguo's Mansion holds lunch and dinner parties. There are more people at the lunch party, but fewer people at the dinner party.

During lunch, *** drank some wine again and asked Fu Ran to serve him sobering soup as usual.

She showed her familiar face in front of everyone again.

Duke Wei raised his eyes and glanced at her indifferently.

Fu Ran's heart was pounding.

She did look miserable that day in the Grand Tutor's Mansion, but now she is still able to serve the empress, so the Duke of Wei must be suspicious.

The old wife of the Duke of Wei was in high spirits. This was the first time that the Duke of Wei's Mansion had held a banquet after Wei Xuan's achievements, and it was such a grand banquet at that.

The old wife of Duke Weiguo is not old, she is only fifty this year. She is well maintained and has a dignified charm.

She was a capable person and had two sons and one daughter. Her eldest son Wei Qing died young, and she currently has Wei Xuan and daughter Wei Lin.

After the old Duke passed away, she single-handedly supported the growth of his two sons and one daughter, and restored the Duke of Wei's Mansion to its former glory.

For this birthday party, she invited young girls from Beijing with good family backgrounds to attend the banquet.

Wei Xuan is twenty-eight years old. Marrying the eldest daughter of the Sheng family was a wrong choice, so Wei Xuan doesn't want to marry again until now.

The Weiguo Mansion cannot be without a successor. Whether Wei Xuan is willing or not, he must give birth to a legitimate son before he turns thirty.

The Duke of Weiguo's mansion entertained guests with great care and prepared special and exquisite gifts for every female relative who visited.

Even the maids who accompanied them got one, and Fu Ran got a sachet, but the pattern and material of the sachet were naturally not comparable to those given to other ladies.

But there were flowers in it, with a faint fragrance, and she happily put it in her arms.

After the banquet, some guests left first as they had something to do. Most of them were men who had errands to do.

The female guests continued to stay in the Duke's Mansion to listen to operas, drink tea and appreciate flowers.

*** did not leave either, and was listening to the play with Princess Ruhui and a group of female relatives.

Qingzhu stuffed an object into Fu Ran's hands without any explanation and asked her to give it to Duke Weiguo and take him to Madam Wei's side room.

Princess Ruhui also sent someone to ask her, and she told the truth.

Fu Ran searched for a while before she found Duke Weiguo among the male guests. A bunch of people surrounded him, and she couldn't get close to him at all.

Fortunately, she saw Bi'an.

Fu Ran knew that Bi'an's attitude towards her was really bad and there was a knife in his eyes, but she still went over there with gritted teeth.

She had asked Cheng Jiang what the name of the attendant around the Duke of Wei was, and she went to find Bian despite herself.

Bi'an stared at her for a long while with a suspicious and cold look, which made Fu Ran's scalp tingle. He turned around and went in.

Fu Ran breathed a sigh of relief and waited there.

On the other side, Bi'an said something beside Duke Weiguo. Duke Weiguo glanced over and met Fu Ran's eyes.

Fu Ran shuddered. That cold and stern look was something that not everyone could bear.

Duke Weiguo did not move at all and continued talking with others. Bi'an came over to ask her.

"Please wait in the side hall."

"No, no, no, *** has important matters to discuss with Duke Weiguo, and is already waiting in the side room of the old lady's courtyard." She also handed over something.

Bi'an took it, said nothing, turned around and left.

Fu Ran was feeling uneasy. Her boss hadn't given her any specific instructions, so she should have completed the task by doing this.

Now she just wanted to find a place to hide quietly and wait for the things arranged by *** to be resolved before coming out.

Half a quarter of an hour later, she went to the old lady's courtyard, in case the doctor couldn't find her and operated on her.

Unexpectedly, not long after she stepped in, Nanny Qiu grabbed her and threw her into the house, and took Princess Ruhui away from the house.

Princess Ruhui's eyes were blurred and her face was flushed unnaturally.

Nanny Qiu was very quick. Before Fu Ran could react, she stuffed something with a strange taste into her mouth.

He forced Fu Ran to swallow it.

The scene was too chaotic and Fu Ran had no idea what was going on. *** was not in the old lady's courtyard at the moment. Everyone was gathered at the stage in the back garden.

*** was still accompanying the old Duke's wife. There were only a few maids in this courtyard at this time, most of whom were arranged by ***.

In a daze, Fu Ran only remembered someone saying that Princess Ruhui was the one who messed things up and knocked the young lady of the Marquis An's mansion unconscious. He took medicine and waited in the house.

Nanny Qiu was so angry that she had to give Fu Ran the medicine first and hurriedly sent her into the house.

Fu Ran soon felt unwell, starting from her stomach, like a burning fire, burning her entire body and making her mouth dry.

Her thoughts were confused and her consciousness was blurred.

Someone threw her on the bed and left, and she moaned in pain.

Soon after, someone entered the house.

There was a faint fragrance in the room, and someone was standing in front of the bed, staring at her for a long while.

Fu Ran raised his eyes, and what he saw vaguely was that cold and cruel face, his eyes were dark red.

"She is as vile as that."

What was burning in the house was a forbidden drug, an aphrodisiac that had been banned in the previous dynasty. The dosage was enough to make even a saint confused.

"I am innocent." Fu Ran murmured softly, not knowing whether he heard it.

Everything happened so fast that she could only vaguely hear him talking about the antidote.

Later she found out that the reason why banned drugs were banned was that there was no antidote, and she was his ready-made antidote.

If he were to step out of the old lady's yard due to the aphrodisiac, it would ruin the reputation of the Duke of Weiguo and the Duke of Weiguo's Mansion.