zChapter 937 - Providing You With Ten Bundles of Joss Paper (2/2)

Xuan Tian Ming nodded repeatedly upon hearing this and repeatedly praised his wife for this idea being very good. There were times when this young girl’s mind was more lithe than his! To be able to even come up with this sort of idea, thinking about it, when the joss paper arrived at the Liu manor, the people in the manor will end up feeling extremely nauseous, right?

Xuan Tian Ming’s guess was correct. Liu Huai had indeed nearly coughed up blood at the sight of the ten stacks of joss paper, but he did not dare say anything because Lady Zhou of the Yu Palace had come with Wang Chuan to send this joss paper. This elderly lady was a first rank noble lady. When she was young, she had saved the ninth prince’s life, and she had personally raised the ninth prince. That moment of impulsiveness in the afternoon brought about by Xuan Tian Ming’s words had ended up offending Feng Yu Heng. This resulted in being latched onto tightly. The Emperor nearly had his head chopped off. Now, the Yu Palace’s people had come. Where could he even get half a word in? Even if he was unhappy, he needed to obediently accept the ten bundles of joss paper. He even respectfully said to Lady Zhou: “I’ve troubled Lady Zhou with making the trip. Please come into the manor and have a cup of tea!”

However, Lady Zhou shook her head and said: “Many thanks for Assistant Minister Liu’s kind intentions. I won’t be having any tea to make sure that Assistant Minister Liu won’t be disturbed when communicating with the departed master of the Feng family.” When she said this, her head was slightly raised, and she was not even looking directly at the partially bowed Liu Huai. Thinking back to when she had delivered the betrothal gifts to the left prime minister’s manor, she did not even care about a standard first rank official! A lowly third rank assistant minister, how could that possibly make Lady Zhou take note.

It was only after they left that Liu Huai returned back inside. He then ordered his servants to close the manor’s gates before kicking over the stack of joss paper. He had originally wanted to vent his emotions, but this kick had been a bit too forceful, and the papers had not been tied together very well. As a result, with this kick, the papers scattered. With the Autumn winds blowing, the entirety of the Liu manor’s front yard was filled with paper flying all over. It looked exactly the same as if the manor was performing a funeral.

Liu Huai nearly vomited blood from this and quickly ordered the servants to pick up all of the joss paper. But how would it be taken care of after it had been collected? They could neither throw it out nor keep it. He could not really use these pieces of paper to write a letter to Feng Jin Yuan and go burn them later at night, right? Would that not be insane! Liu Huai thought long and hard and finally came up with an idea. He ordered the servants: “Send them all to the kitchen and stick them under the stove. Burn them to ash, burn them all to ash!”

The servants placed the ten bundles of joss paper into the stove area. At this time, the kitchen was preparing dinner. When the woman responsible for the fire saw such large stacks of paper, she simply stopped using the firewood and directly made use of these pieces of paper. This would be a bit faster than using firewood.

When Liu Huai ate dinner, his madam was accompanying him. Watching the servants bring out the dishes, Liu Huai took a few bites then frowned. He then put the bowl and chopsticks back down.

His madam, Li shi, was puzzled: “Husband, is there something wrong? Is there something not to your liking with the food?”

Liu Huai shook his head and pulled over one of the servants, asking: “How was this food made?”

The servant was puzzled: “It was made by the chef?”

“What was used for the fire? I am asking about what was used to cook the food. Was it firewood?”

The servant froze then shook their head: “Today, they did not use firewood. Didn’t master order them to burn the joss paper? The kitchen staff used that paper to cook the food. The fire burned quite brightly!”

Once these words came out, Liu Huai suddenly stood up, directly charging out of the room and vomiting. It was only after he vomited everything in his stomach that he accepted some water from the servants to rinse his mouth and wash his face. When he raised his head, his face had a bitter expression. He felt as though he was on the verge of a mental collapse. He was eating! This food had been made by burning joss paper! Who could possibly eat this sort of food? How could this be considered food for the living?

It was not just Liu Huai that was on the verge of a mental collapse, as his madam, Li shi, had it even worse. She simply flipped the table of food and rushed to the door. Pointing at Liu Huai, she cursed: “What sort of sin did you commit in court?”