@Mojo I meant in terms of potential. She obviously doesn’t have wealth now, but they think she’s coveting General Lin and making money and so in their eyes she is. (They think she’s like them.)
Also, it’s not really expanded upon yet—we don’t know if her apprentice knows or not—but she is crossdressing as a boy right now. (When she first opened it was mentioned as the crowd called her a boy.) I imagine if she hadn’t, people would be much less willing to trust her medicine. I also really doubt the guy would have asked her about his problems with getting an erection if he had known. That’s what’s saving her reputation at the moment, and just now she’s practically getting paraded and whatnot. I think it’s safe to say they’re jealous.
In theory they could just expose her as a woman (and for all I know they might, I’m only working a couple chapters ahead atm), but that would also bring attention onto them in a potentially-critical way.
I’m realizing now that I have spoiler info of next chapter that will weigh this differently, (this isn’t a spoiler btw I won’t be sharing any here) but Wan’Er was super jealous of her and General Lin’s relationship (even scratching the tree in jealousy,) and Yao QianQian also suggest several times that JiuQing might be having an affair (pre-engagement cancellation) with him.
While part of that rhetoric of theirs is definitely manipulation to make JiuQing seem bad in the father’s and other’s eyes, I believe they (at least to some extent) believe JiuQing is as scheming and “man-oriented” (idk how to describe it, but reliant on a man) as they are. It’ll be expanded on within the next couple of chapters.
OH and they also spread the idea that she ran away with a man because they know about G. Lin, at least to some extent. (Or at least figured she was saved.) …And because it would be seen as shameful, but I think it’s implied they saw G. Lin (or a man, since it was at night) visit her when they spread those rumors. And, of course, she would have to have a backer to get her shop set up and to even have survived the attack—well, arguably JiuQing could poison them, but that’s not what she’s about—so it’s fair to say they think she’s got it made, regardless of her actual situation.
Edit: My comment was marked for spoilers but I didn’t give any; the things I mentioned were all in past chapters! Including the tree thing. It happened when G. Lin first visited their Manor.
