Edited by Elanor
Chu Mu’s expression changed drastically as he snatched the teacup away. He had remembered something—
The incident from that year.
Perhaps the entire affair hadn’t been an accident at all, but rather tied to this cup of tea.
He remembered it very clearly. In his previous life, he hadn’t known of He Yuanqi, and he hadn’t made any preparations for the Plum Banquet. On the day of the feast, he had no guests other than Lu Li.
When the accident occurred, it hadn’t been in this location, but the situation had been astonishingly similar. It had also been in a remote Warm Pavilion, and he had been sitting by himself. While Lu Li was greeting others, he had been worried about Chu Mu and came over to take a look. He’d only stayed for a moment to say a few words before leaving without even sitting down.
The maid had also brought over tea.
Once Lu Li left, there was no longer any need for this cup of tea. Qin Ping, who had been carrying out his orders, returned. Seeing that the other person’s lips were dry, he took this cup of clean tea that no one else had touched and that was still at the right temperature and gave it to Qin Ping to soothe his throat.
Qin Ping drank the tea.
At that moment, someone outside the window was making a fuss loudly and had started a fight. Plates and bowls flew everywhere and a large bowl happened to fly right toward them.
Qin Ping protected his Master and stood in front of him.
Unexpectedly, he was hit on the head and fainted on the spot.
Qin Ping was skilled in martial arts, and it was generally unlikely that this situation would occur, but the head was a vital part of the human body, and it was not impossible that the bowl had happened to strike some critical spot. Chu Mu had been too anxious and became too ill to pay attention to anything else at the time, and by the time he woke up, his personal attendant had already been replaced by someone else. Qin Ping had died.
Both his family and the coroner were very certain that Qin Ping was unlucky and happened to be hit at the acupoint in the back of the head, and there hadn’t been time to save him.
Chu Mu wasn’t without his suspicions, but he couldn’t find any evidence. He couldn’t find any evidence no matter how he looked.
But now, as he looked at this cup of tea, he suddenly thought of something, perhaps Qin Ping had been poisoned!
People who had been poisoned exhibit sluggish behavior, and there was no difference between those who know martial arts and those who do not?
Qin Ping had met with an accident shortly after drinking this cup of tea. Now the same scene was playing out again…
Chu Mu broke out in a cold sweat and tightly grasped Xie Tingyue’s hand, “Did you drink it? Did you taste it?!”
Xie Tingyue found this strange but still shook his head. “It didn’t even touch my lips…”
Chu Mu immediately relaxed, his eyes closing. “Good… That’s good…”
His expression was too strange. Xie Tingyue gasped as he understood as well. “This tea—something’s wrong?”
Chu Mu didn’t answer right away but instead opened his eyes to examine the tea more closely.
The color of the tea was normal, the scent was normal, and the shape of the tea leaves at the bottom of the cup was also normal. There didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary…but if you looked closely, you would see a faint grayish-black color at the bottom of the cup.
Many tea leaves were also this color, and there wasn’t much of it, so it still looked normal. But at this moment, it seemed strange.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Jte Ze qbegfv bea atf afj lc tlr meq jcv qbegfv atlr meq lc ab byrfgnf atf fwqas afjmeq.
Ktf ugjslrt-yijmx reyrajcmf kjr ralii atfgf. Lf mjgfoeiis vlqqfv j tjcvxfgmtlfo lcab la jcv tfiv la eq ab tlr cbrf—-
Ktf rmfca kjr kgbcu.
Pa kjrc’a atf rmfca bo afj; la kjr j yla ilxf gbaafc fjgat.
Xie Tingyue immediately understood that this tea was poisoned!
So their opponent’s methods were to poison them!
He immediately turned his head to look at the maid who was serving tea.
The maidservant stood with her hands clasped and bowed. She had no idea what had happened here and showed no hint of guilt. When she saw Chu Mu pour out his tea and sniff his handkerchief, she only felt a bit curious and stole a glance.
So this little maid didn’t know anything? Someone borrowed her hands?
Then which part of this was poisoned—the teacup, the tea leaves, or the water? Who could have touched these things?
Xie Tingyue thought quickly.
Chu Mu didn’t know what poison this was, but he had a vague sense of familiarity. It was as if he had come into contact with it before, that it had once been in front of him for a period of time.
What was it…? The color was unfamiliar, and the scent was that of rotting soil…
Could it be the Lan Ying Herb?
Chu Mu’s brows furrowed slightly, his expression grave.
That’s right, it was Lan Ying Herb!
Lan Ying Herb was a special type of plant. It had special properties which could detoxify the body, but it didn’t have any specific antidote effects for any type of poisons. Doctors called it a double-edged sword, and it rarely circulated in the market. It was also poisonous. In its normal state, it was safe to touch and eat, but under one condition, it became deadly—when burned to ash.
When the Lan Ying Herb was burned to ashes, it became intensely poisonous. It would cause death by suffocation upon contact with blood. Furthermore, the symptoms of poisoning were not obvious on the body of the deceased, making it look like a sudden death.
Where had this Lan Ying Herb come from?
Had it been on the market recently? Or had he collected some himself and purposely released them? Was this one of those plants? Why would it appear here?
Xie Tingyue didn’t know what Chu Mu was thinking, but he said, “This cup of tea is for Lu Li.”
He had a bad premonition in his heart.
Chu Mu immediately confirmed his suspicion. “Their target isn’t me, it’s him.”
“Then why are they watching your room?” Xie Tingyue asked. He paused, then understood. “They want to search for something related to Lu Li.”
Chu Mu’s eyes were empty, “Yes.”
Chu Mu was close to Lu Li and had no reservations about discussing anything with him. Lu Li was also willing to discuss even Official matters with him, and Chu Mu could tell that there were some things Lu Li only told him, never mentioning them to anyone else.
But because of his poor health, the two of them didn’t meet often, and instead exchanged many letters.
Chu Mu knew that some of these letters contained subtle hints that weren’t quite incriminating, but he couldn’t bear to burn them and kept them all carefully…
Whatever the case, Lu Li was in danger. Chu Mu immediately called for Qin Ping. “Go see where Lu Li is and bring him here immediately. Don’t let him eat or drink anything, and don’t take your eyes off him for a second!”
Qin Ping had been secretly observing from a distance as per his Master’s instructions. He found this order a little strange—was his Master anxious?
At this critical moment, even his usual sarcasm had forgotten to surface. He immediately responded and went to do as he was told.
In the blink of an eye, Xie Tingyue also understood.
He stared at the empty teacup on the table. So the source of Lu Li’s danger had appeared so early on!
In his previous life, Lu Li hadn’t been successfully plotted against at the Plum Banquet because some other accident had occurred?
The worst thing about thieves wasn’t that they stole but that they were obsessed with their target. As long as they didn’t realize it, you could avoid them once, twice, but not countless times…
Chu Mu stared at the teacup, his gaze heavy. “I snatched your tea.”
Xie Tingyue nodded. “And poured it out to study it.”
Chu Mu: “So…”
Xie Tingyue: “That’s right, the person who did it must have known.”
If someone planned to kill someone else, they would naturally keep an eye on their target. They would keep an eye on them before finding an opportunity, and they would keep an eye on them after finding one too. They would keep an eye on them to see if their target had been successfully poisoned and if anything unexpected had occurred.
This cup of poisoned tea had been left alone and untouched for so long that the culprit hadn’t cared. But now that Chu Mu had studied it, what did that mean?
Chu Mu, the representative of the Chu Family, had noticed that there was poison at the scene and that someone was trying to cause trouble!
He was the host of the event. If he knew about it, he couldn’t just sit idly by.
Would the culprit wait to be caught? They definitely would either run or try to cover their tracks and pin the blame on others.
Xie Tingyue and Chu Mu exchanged a glance, and their eyes held similar emotions.
They hadn’t wanted to alert the culprit and planned to take their time, but reality had struck them unexpectedly that they were caught off guard
What should they do?
Let the culprit run?
How could they possibly let that happen?
Chu Mu sneered. “Guards, find He Yuanqi for me!”
He wasn’t sure about anything else, but this person was certain.
If they couldn’t catch the big fish, they couldn’t catch the little ones?
What a joke!
Today was the Chu Family’s home field advantage. The servants were all over the place, so it was easy to find information. Chu Mu and Xie Tingyue quickly received news, and surprisingly, the person they were looking for was right next door, in a lively venue only a window away.
This was too sensitive.
Xie Tingyue stood up and pushed Chu Mu’s wheelchair, “Let’s go take a look.”
Chu Mu nodded. “Mn.”
**********
Surprisingly, He Yuanqi did not slip away but instead walked right into the crowd and began to boast about himself.
“….My He Family Trading Company has the best products… Even the Princess uses my goods… Qi Wenhai hasn’t even grown all his hair yet, and I heard he liked to read when he was little. He’s too conservative by nature. How could he possibly be better than me…? He thinks he can get away with it just because he’s clinging to someone else’s thighs? Heh, looks like he doesn’t care about his little Sister’s reputation…”
They didn’t know how the topic developed but the conversation somehow ended up on the Qi Family. After trashing Qi Wenhai, He Yuanqi moved on to his little Sister, Qi Yingfei.
“You guys don’t know this, but that little Sister of his, the Ninth Miss, is very fair-skinned. She looks thin, but she’s actually developed quite well for her age. I felt sorry for her for not knowing anything about such things as human affairs, so I thought I’d teach her a thing or two by showing her the real thing. But she puked! Ha ha ha—what a shameless thing to do! Instead of thanking me for teaching her the pleasures in the world, she even tried to resist. Tell me, if you learn about these things early on, won’t you know how to behave toward your future husband? It’s really too bad that my good intentions were wasted…”
“But it was also quite interesting. The more scared she was, the more she trembled, and the more she tried to act tough and aggressive, the more I wanted to hear her beg for mercy and say, ‘Uncle, please let me go…’”
Xie Tingyue was about to vomit from disgust.
So his guess was right. Qi Yingfei had really been bullied by this beast!
The moment he saw He Yuanqi in the crowd, he thought that perhaps the man had completed his mission. As a businessman, He Yuanqi naturally loved to network and socialize. It wasn’t strange for him to be interested in these kinds of events, but why would he say something like that?
Who would want to listen to such disgusting stories? Who would even have a good impression of him after hearing this? Had He Yuanqi gone mad?
As the host of the event, Xie Tingyue couldn’t ignore this unexpected turn of events. Just as he was about to stand up, someone else beat him to it.
“Who allowed you to talk about her?!”
A blue figure swiftly stepped forward and kicked He Yuanqi, causing him to fall heavily on the ground.
“Fuck your mother, who dares—” He Yuanqi clearly wasn’t going to back down and cursed as soon as he fell. But as soon as he saw who kicked him, his voice stopped abruptly and his entire body shook.
Did he… know this person?
Xie Tingyue was surprised. He had seen this man in blue clothes before, sitting with Chu Mu and Lu Li, and because of this scene, it reminded him of the accident that had befallen Lu Li in his previous life.
“Who is he?” Xie Tingyue tugged at Chu Mu’s sleeve.
I gonna hang this disgusting scum (ʘ言ʘ╬)
Thank You for the new chapter (๑╹ڡ╹)╭ ～ ♡
He will disappear soon 🙂
Can we cut his balls ?
Disgusting man…
The guy in blue, is it the prince that talk with them a few chapters ago ?
No he is not 🙂 XTY is already familiar with the Prince Consort. This one is a new character. 🙂
Ooooh ! Exciting !
YEAH! BEAT HIM UP!
Personally I would poke holes in him let him bleed without dying, paralyze him then bring him to a remote area with no trees, throw him on the ground under the hot sun and on top of a fire ant hill and let him dry for a few days, but I don’t mind if Xiao Xie skin him alive <3