The young maid is indeed clever.
But no matter how clever or considerate she is, she can’t predict the Eldest Young Madam’s unpredictable actions.
Instead of denying the accusations, she forces them to eat the poisoned braised chicken, rather than sending people to search the house for evidence.
Her perfect sche didn’t save herself from danger, but instead proved her cruelty to the Eldest Young Madam.
The young maid felt a chill down her spine, losing all hope in life.
Su Jin looked at Xie Jingchen, "It’s your maid; you deal with it."
The young maid kowtowed and begged for rcy.
"You are the mistress of the Agarwood Pavilion; you deal with it," Xie Jingchen said.
"I don’t understand the house rules of the Duke Zhen Country Mansion. Are you sure you want to handle it?" Su Jin raised an eyebrow.
"Yes."
Not understanding is fine; it’s a good chance to learn.
Just as she thought this, she heard Su Jin instruct Xingxing, "Deal with this young maid using the rules of our Feihu Village from Qingyun Mountain."
Xie Jingchen, "..."
Xingxing looked a bit troubled. She looked at Su Jin and said, "Miss, I don’t know how to punish her. In Qingyun Mountain, we’ve never had such audacious maids. I’ve been up the mountain for years and only saw you give the Marquis castor bean."
Su Jin, "..."
Xie Jingchen, "..."
I (she) am not his real daughter, am I?
Xie Jingchen glanced at Su Jin.
Su Jin coughed lightly a couple of tis and asked, "After I gave my dad castor bean, what happened?"
Xingxing said, "After the Marquis ca out of the latrine, he said he hadn’t visited the latrine for days and made up for it all at once, then praised you for being filial."
Su Jin, "..."
Xie Jingchen, "..."
The two imagined Marquis Dongxiang clutching his stomach with a proud face saying, "My daughter is so filial."
Su Jin was speechless, unable to suppress her curiosity, and said, "Why did I give my dad castor bean?"
Xingxing replied, "The Marquis wanted to take the young master down the mountain to rob, not taking you, Miss; you felt he didn’t love you, decided to side with the Madam more, and couldn’t figure out how to be good to the Madam, so you gave the Marquis a bit of castor bean to amuse the Madam."
Su Jin, "..."
Xie Jingchen, "..."
Ahem!
Su Jin covered her mouth and coughed heavily twice.
"I used to be quite clever," she said.
Not knowing how to be good to her birth mother, she treated her father as a stepfather; comparing the two, she knew who she was better to.
Great.
Very strong.
Xie Jingchen silently picked up the chopsticks to eat.
Xingxing suddenly gasped in delight, "I’ve thought of a way to punish this young maid. She helped outsiders poison you and the young master; this is betrayal."
"We’ve had betrayal cases in Feihu Village before. The Marquis hung them up, whipped them hard, slapped them awake, whipped again, and splashed them with water until covered in blood, then cut off an arm and threw them down the mountain..."
Thud!
The young maid fainted from fright.
Xingxing, "..."
Xie Jingchen silently put down his chopsticks again.
Can’t a person have a good al?
Su Jin rubbed her forehead, "First lock her up and hang her on the tree in an hour, then sell her tomorrow."
"Why hang her in an hour?" Xingxing was curious.
"She just ate castor bean."
"..."
"Should we use the whip?" Xingxing asked.
"..."
"Let’s skip the whip."
Xingxing nodded.
She called the elderly woman to drag the maid away.
Xingxing had the maid lead the way to Chunlan’s pillow to find the poison.
There were two small packages hidden in Chunlan’s pillow, but Xingxing didn’t know what they were, so she handed them over to Su Jin.
One of the packages was castor bean powder.
The other was the poison.
The young maid was indeed clever. With the castor bean powder, it could be confird that Chunlan used castor bean to harm them, but unfortunately, the intelligence was used in the wrong place.
Su Jin sniffed the poison twice more, then frowned.
Xie Jingchen asked, "What kind of poison is it?"
Su Jin looked at Xie Jingchen and said, "This is one of the mixed poisons that only works when used together. Of course, this is targeted at . As for you, just ingest a little, and you’ll vomit blood at night."
One has to admire the people of Duke Zhen Country Mansion.
Even poisoning is done so ticulously.
Threatening the maid to poison her without knowing who was behind it, and only half of the poison was there.
She and Xie Jingchen ate and lived together, inseparable.
Plus, Xie Jingchen often had bouts of poison-induced fainting and vomiting blood. If nothing happened to her, one wouldn’t suspect it was sothing they ate.
If poison was induced at night, she might not avoid being blad.
And, after ingesting the poison, it would hide in her body, and if soone wanted her life later, they could just administer the other half of the poison.
"What a pity."
Su Jin looked at the poison package with regret.
Xie Jingchen frowned and asked, "What a pity about what?"
"It’s a pity the maid was too timid and swapped the poison for castor bean; otherwise, we could have used the strategy against them."
After all, knowing the braised chicken was poisoned, she wouldn’t actually eat it with Xie Jingchen.
At night, she could have Xie Jingchen pretend to have a poison-induced vomiting blood session and sleep until dusk. Later, whoever gave her the other half of the poison, then she would know who wanted to harm them.
Xie Jingchen took the poison and said, "There’s nothing to regret. If the other half of the poison was put in the food in the sa way, we still wouldn’t find out who was behind it."
Actually, no need to search; they could guess a bit.
After the commotion, Xie Jingchen lost his appetite, and Su Jin couldn’t eat either.
It was still bright outside, so Su Jin and Xie Jingchen went to the backyard to boil dicine and prepare a dicinal bath for him.
While the bamboo house was busy, on the other side, Mrs. Liu and others had it tough.
After eating the chicken, Mrs. Liu knew she wouldn’t live long and let the young maid support her to the front yard to give her last words to her son and her son’s father. But as soon as she finished, her stomach started to hurt, and she had to rush to the latrine repeatedly, losing half her life.
When Xie Jingchen called for them, the small kitchen was preparing dinner for the maids. With nobody watching, the stead buns and bread in the pot weren’t cooked, and with poison in the food, the maids didn’t dare eat and had to go hungry.
When Xingxing finished brewing the dicine and went to the small kitchen for food, she was told there was no dinner.
Skipping a al can make you hungry.
Xingxing patted her hungry belly and saw there was still washed fish and vegetables; her eyes lit up.
She quickly packed a basket, grabbed salt and sauce, and headed straight to the backyard.
Firing up the stove, she prepared a dicinal bath for Xie Jingchen.
Xingxing grilled fish by the fire.
Although she didn’t know how to cook, she could grill fish. In the past, she and the young lady would often grill fish by the river at Qingyun Mountain. Normally, she carried seasonings when going downhill, and she was an expert at catching fish.
At the ti the Marquis accepted the amnesty, she and the young lady were teased, saying that the Emperor saved the river fish, and if they didn’t stop, there would soon be no fish left because of them.
As Su Jin ca out of the bamboo house and stepped onto the stairs, the sll of grilled fish wafted as she got closer to Xie Jingchen.
She was amazed.
Looking at Xie Jingchen, she said, "You must’ve been a fish in your previous life; even soaking in a dicinal bath gives off a fish aroma."
Xie Jingchen, "..."
"A sprinkle of scallions would be perfect."
"..."
Xie Jingchen’s face darkened like the bottom of a pot.
"Miss, it’s grilling fish. Do you want so?" Xingxing poked her head out and asked.
"..."
"Of course I do."
"..."
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