As she spoke, Xiao Cui scratched herself as if to feign cooperation. Unbeknownst to her, her face actually started to sting.

When Xiao Cui looked up, Fei Peng was astonished. How could the poison spread so quickly? When the girl called him just now, her face was normal, but after only the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, so many red rashes had appeared? The last bit of doubt in his heart vanished instantly.

He then asked in a deep voice, "Did that woman really say that?"

The thought of her face being ruined filled Xiao Cui with grief. She knelt down in front of him with a thud and cried, "This servant would never lie to you. This woman is vicious. She probably has her eyes on the wealth of our Xie family and wants to plunder all our valuables before she's done."

She was going all out; once the woman was dead, there would be no way to prove anything! Besides, she was also poisoned, and the only way to cure her was to subdue the woman and force her to hand over the antidote.

Seeing that the time was right, Xie Yuyan relentlessly added fuel to the fire, "Captain Feipeng, how much longer are we going to wait? Are we going to wait until she holds a knife to our throats before we make a move? Besides, if this poison spreads, and everyone falls ill, what strength will we have left to deal with her? Maybe that pot of fish soup is a trap set by that slut, specifically designed to lure us in. She's calculated that we haven't had such delicious soup in a long time! I went to buy fish soup earlier to check if it was poisoned for everyone!"

Xie Yuyan became more and more excited as she spoke, as if she really hadn't gone out of greed, but rather to investigate the risks for everyone. As she spoke, she even began to believe it herself.

Hearing her say that, Fei Peng became even more receptive. Having traveled the world, he wasn't unfamiliar with this tactic; there had been bandits who pretended to be a distressed couple, asking to travel with him, when in reality their intention was to kill and rob him.

Seeing the softening in his expression, and receiving her mistress's signal, Xiao Cui pressed on, "Oh my, I was wondering how they could possibly catch such big carp here? Two of them! Those carp weighed at least five or six pounds, and they were of similar size, as if they had been bought in advance. Otherwise, how could it be such a coincidence?"

The carp that Qin San Niang took out came from the fishpond in her space, and there were even bigger ones! However, the north had just suffered from war, and the drought in the south had just eased. There were fish of this size in the fish market, but it was really not easy to find two of the same size. Letting them search in the wild was like winning the lottery.

When Fei Peng and his group of men went to the water's edge, they didn't see a single fish, not even a small minnow the size of a palm.

Thinking about it this way, it seems that Qin San Niang and her group are indeed suspicious.

Fei Peng pondered for a while longer. These people didn't seem to be a family. There were old and weak people among them, but they had managed to get here safely, and each of them had a rosy complexion. They didn't look like refugees at all! It wasn't impossible that they were here specifically to rob people.

After leaving Xie Yuyan's side, Fei Peng took a deep breath of fresh air. Snowflakes mixed with the cold wind filled his mouth, but he didn't feel cold at all, as if he had just gotten rid of the foul air from before.

"Captain Feipeng, don't alert the enemy!" Xie Yuyan's voice came from behind. Feipeng lowered his head and hummed in response.

Concealing the glint in her eyes, Xie Yuyan casually lay down on the seat in the carriage. Trying to extort money from her? That was suicide! She wasn't some pushover! Then, thinking of her disfigured face, she irritably lifted the carriage door to let in some fresh air. The wind and snow outside rushed into the carriage, slapping against her face, making her wounds hurt even more.

"Miss, do you think Fei Peng can persuade everyone to take action today?" Xiao Cui asked, looking down. It's no wonder she was worried; her body was getting increasingly itchy. The thought that she would soon end up like her mistress filled her with inexplicable fear. This woman was truly ruthless, unlike the weak and helpless women they had dealt with before.

"He dares not refuse, otherwise the poison will infect them all, and then we'll all die together!"

Looking at her almost distorted profile, Xiao Cui held her breath and agreed.

Miss is terrifying, more terrifying than ever before! She began to reconsider whether she really wanted to marry along with Miss. If she gained the new son-in-law's favor, then Miss would have a hundred ways to kill her!

No, absolutely not, she has to find another way out!

Qin San Niang had no idea they had conjured up so many things in their minds, nor did she know that Xie Yuyan could be so distorted and vicious. She only imagined that her beautiful face must be quite a sight right now, but there was no sound at all! This was truly strange!

Could it be that my rash-itching powder has stopped working? No way, it's still on expiration, right?

Besides, even if it's past its expiration date, it shouldn't have no effect at all!

Before she could think further, she heard Wu Chunhua calling her from outside, "Third Aunt, is Xiao Er awake? Breakfast is ready!"

“We’re awake, we’ll go right away,” Qin San Niang replied.

Luckily, we had this tent. We laid out boards and blankets underneath, and covered it with a thick blanket on top. We also put a hand warmer inside, so it wasn't too cold. At least it was much warmer than outside!

Wu Chunhua and Liu Shi didn't get much rest yesterday, worrying all night. Since they couldn't sleep, they decided to get up and make pancakes. They had flour, a newly bought pot, oil, salt, etc. in the carriage, so they chopped some scallions and made delicious scallion pancakes. They also made over a hundred dry pancakes and stored them away; they could eat them for a long time in this weather!

"Mother, did you not sleep last night? Why did you make so many pancakes?" Qin San Niang asked in surprise, taking a bite of the scallion pancake in her hand and then a sip of hot porridge. Beside them, there was a large bag of dried pancakes that had already cooled and been wrapped.

"Third Aunt, you must be tired and sleeping soundly. Last night I smelled the aroma of wheat and saw that my aunts were making pancakes. I wanted to join them, but they sent me back to look after the children!" Liao Hongying said apologetically.

Although her family provided food, there was no reason for her to sit and wait to be fed. Liu and her family, understanding that her child was still young, often provided all three meals a day, which made her feel very indebted. Her husband, however, only said that there would be plenty of time in the future and that he would definitely repay them, comforting her not to worry and that she should just focus on taking good care of Xiaohu for now.

“Your little tiger is still young, only one year old. It’s the time when he needs his mother to take care of him at night. What if he kicks off the blanket and catches a cold? You just focus on taking care of the child. We have a long life ahead of us! Besides, it’s just cooking some food. Your sister-in-law Chunhua and I can finish it while we’re talking,” Liu said, as she served them porridge.

As for Xiao Hu's father, Scholar He? He was automatically excluded by Liu. How could a scholar do such a trivial matter as dealing with a child? He was already tired enough from driving the carriage during the day! Besides, Third Sister wanted to ask his scholar to tutor her child!