Chapter 164: Bitter Medicine
Gill yawned as he led the man inside. “You’re way too early. Ms. Taylor’s medicine isn’t ready yet.”
“What do you mean it’s not ready? Ms. Taylor placed her order a long time ago. You people really don’t take this seriously!”
Gill scoffed. “So what? If it’s not done, it’s not done. You want to take the raw herbs back and have Ms. Taylor chew on them instead?”
“You-! I’m going to tell Ms. Taylor exactly how rude you’ve been!”
Gill rolled his eyes and walked off to the pharmacy, leaving the delivery guy standing in the clinic alone.
Inside the pharmacy, more than a dozen clay pots were bubbling on three rows of stoves. Yunice kept a close watch on them while flipping through a book. Even though modern technology had made it easy for most herbal pharmacies to use machines that could prepare entire batches at once, Yunice still preferred the traditional way—slow simmering in ceramic pots.
Gill walked in and saw her reading. “Ms. Saunders, the guy picking up the medicine is in the front hall, complaining that we’re too slow.”
Yunice didn’t even look up. “Close the shop door in a bit. Don’t let him leave.”
Gill nodded, then added, “I heard Paul got beat up yesterday. His shirt was shredded into ribbons—covered in blood.”
Yunice gave a cold little laugh. “Serves him right.”
Gill was confused. “Didn’t the Powell family treat him like their golden child? Why turn on him all of a sudden?”
Naturally, this was Yunice’s doing. Paul had tried to use Moss to humiliate Yunice during the family banquet. So she used the same trick—she sent a message to Elsie, posing as Paul, inviting her to the Powell mansion. When Paul found out, he scrambled to intercept Elsie to keep her from running into Taylor. In doing so, he missed the banquet and ended up neglecting Taylor as well. As luck would have it, Wyatt had just flipped a table and left Jackson fuming. All that anger had to go somewhere—and it landed squarely on Paul.
Yunice said coldly, “He poisoned Moss. A beating was the least he deserved.”
People said pets symbolized a person’s children in their astrological chart. In a way, Moss was a child Paul had raised—and he’d still been heartless enough to use the bird’s life as leverage over her. That alone showed how untrustworthy he truly was.
Yunice was grateful she’d managed to extract herself from their engagement, even though Taylor got dragged into it this time. Yunice didn’t think Taylor was a bad person. If this helped her see Paul for who he really was, maybe she could escape the Powell family before it was too late.
Just as Yunice was reading, a loud pounding echoed from the front. “Hello? Is anyone here? Is the medicine ready yet? I’m in a hurry!”
Yunice looked up and locked eyes with Gill. He walked out and sighed. “What’s the rush? If the timing’s off, the medicinal properties will be ruined. If the medicine doesn’t match Ms. Taylor’s needs, who do you think she’ll blame?”
The delivery guy looked irritated and pale. “Then hurry it up already!”
“Tesh, path,” Gill waved him off and stepped outside Virtue Hall. The man couldn’t sit still—he kept pacing the front hall, checking the time every few seconds. He was distracted. Gill circled around and pulled the rolling door shut.
“Hey!” The guy jumped up, rushing to the door and clawing at the seam. “What the heck? Why are you locking the door in broad daylight? Open it! Let me out! If you don’t, I’m calling the cops!”
He scrambled to his feet, scanning for a window to escape from—there wasn’t one. He lunged for the pharmacy door, but it was locked from the inside.
Yunice stood calmly by the simmering pots, unfazed by the pounding and yelling outside. One by one, she filtered the finished decoctions, her rhythm unbothered. Then came the sound of someone racing the shutter from outside, followed by crashing noises. And then—a scuffle. It didn’t last long.
After a few moments of silence, Gill knocked on the pharmacy door and cheerfully called, “Miss. In’s handled.”
Yunice sealed the last packet of medicine just as he spoke. She slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped into the clinic. The place was a wreck—shattered vases littered the floor. The delivery guy was tied up and shivering. Standing nearby was a well-dressed man in a suit—someone Yunice recognized as one of Taylor’s trusted aides. He nodded at her and said, “De Ryde, I’ve covered the damages to the clinic. I’ll be taking this man with me to hand over to Ms. Taylor.”
Rybe was Yunice’s pseudonymin public.
Chapter 164: Bitter Medicine
After Taylor’s medicine was tampered with last time, neither of them had made it public. They were just waiting for this next pickup, baiting the culprit into coming to them. Now that the man was in Taylor’s hands, how she investigated was up to her. Yunice personally delivered the medicine to Taylor.
Meanwhile, at the Kendall mansion, Taylor was furious when she learned her meds had almost been swapped again. “I will find out who’s behind this,” she growled. “Let’s see who’s so desperate to see me suffer.”