"you……"
Su Qingcai stared in shock at Su Xiaoning and Jiang Lin, who were holding hands. A nameless fire rose from the bottom of his heart. His hands were much faster than his brain. He rushed over and knocked Jiang Lin's hand away.
He held Su Xiaoning's hand tightly, his face grim: "What are you doing?"
Su Xiaoning scratched her head awkwardly and explained softly, "You must have misunderstood something... I was just taking his pulse..."
"Taking your pulse?" Su Qingcai frowned, looking somewhat skeptical.
Jiang Lin seemed a bit annoyed and said sarcastically, "She's not your possession, why are you watching her so closely? You're getting all nervous just from taking her pulse. Do you have to kick out all the people queuing outside?"
His words reignited Su Qingcai's anger. He looked coldly at Jiang Lin and said in a chilling voice, "I can do these things because she belongs to me. What about you? You have nothing to do with her. Why did you come to see her for no reason?"
"You two aren't even married yet, so how come she's already yours?" Jiang Lin raised an eyebrow, stood defiantly next to Su Xiaoning, and gave Su Qingcai a provocative look. "Speaking of which, isn't the Ninth Prince the last person who should be here to see her?"
What do you mean by that?
"Miss Su got into all this trouble because you insisted on bringing her along on the hunt. Although the Emperor gave the order, it wasn't necessary for the Ninth Prince to bring her along if he insisted, was it? You brought Miss Su here, and now all this has happened. You can't even protect her. You might as well just let her go!"
"absurd!"
Su Qingcai almost laughed out of anger. How did he become the source of Su Xiaoning's troubles?
"What, you're getting angry just because someone pointed out your mistakes?" Jiang Lin snorted coldly, and the two men's eyes met, as if sparks were flying everywhere.
Caught between the two, Su Xiaoning was speechless. Her head was throbbing from the noise, so she pushed them both away and said irritably, "Did you come to see me or to argue with me? Instead of wasting your time arguing, you should go and investigate what went wrong during the hunt that day!"
She pushed the two of them out the door and slammed it shut.
Su Qingcai and Jiang Lin looked at each other and then calmed down.
They had to admit that the most urgent task was to find out the truth. Even if they were unwilling, they could only cooperate temporarily and help Su Xiaoning first.
After a brief discussion, Su Qingcai and Jiang Lin returned to the scene and thoroughly searched the woods.
The woods were quiet and there was nothing unusual, except for the bloodstain left by the horse that had broken its leg.
Su Qingcai seemed to be preoccupied. Seeing that Jiang Lin's search yielded no results, he hesitated for a moment before saying, "Actually... when I came to rescue Su Xiaoning that day, I seemed to have seen the Seventh Prince's men in the forest."
Indeed, he clearly saw that day that a group of men in black seemed to be lying in ambush in the woods, and judging from their attire, they appeared to be men under the Seventh Prince's command. He wanted to take a closer look, but Su Xiaoning disrupted their plans, and the men vanished without a trace, impossible to track down.
Upon hearing this, Jiang Lin was astonished: "Why would the Seventh Prince's men be lying in ambush here? Could it be that he intends to...?"
rebellion?
Jiang Lin didn't dare to say those two words.
The two exchanged a silent glance. Su Qingcai broke the silence and said in a deep voice, "I can't be sure about this matter either. I'm just stating what I know. I don't know the specifics either. Since there are no clues here, let's go investigate elsewhere."
Having no other choice at the moment, Jiang Lin could only nod in agreement.
The two went to the horse farm together, found the groom, and asked about the mad horse.
The groom sighed, somewhat frustrated, and said, "That horse is usually so well-behaved and docile. Who knew something like this would happen! And although it's said to be in heat, it's not the mating season for stallions at all. I have no idea what's going on..."
"Isn't it mating season now?" Su Qingcai keenly grasped the key point in the coachman's words. He remembered that Su Xiaoning had also said it wasn't the season when she defended herself.
He thought for a moment and asked, "Is there anything that can excite horses and put them into heat?"
"There's no such thing..." the coachman said, then suddenly remembered something and slapped his thigh. "Hey, there really is such a thing! Spices! Horses can't stand strange spices, and if they smell too much, something bad might happen."
spices……
Su Qingcai and Jiang Lin took note of this, feeling it was an important breakthrough.
The two asked the groom a bunch of miscellaneous questions before leaving the horse farm.
...
It was evening.
The imperial kitchen delivered dinner to Baishige, and the dish delivered to Su Xiaoning's room was a roast goose.
The fragrant aroma of roast goose filled the entire courtyard. The fat man, who had been lingering there, smelled the aroma and followed it, unable to resist reaching out his hand for the roast goose.
"Don't be in such a hurry!"
Su Xiaoning slapped the fat man's restless hand away, put down her chopsticks, and stared at the plate of roast goose with a serious expression.
The reason was simple: she detected a strange smell in the aroma of the roast goose.
Out of caution, Su Xiaoning took out a silver needle and pricked the roast goose to test for poison.
The fat man's mouth was watering with desire, and he secretly reached out his hand, only to hear Su Xiaoning suddenly shout.
"poisonous!"
As soon as she finished speaking, Su Xiaoning knocked over the food on the table.
The food was scattered all over the floor. Upon hearing that it was poisoned, the fat man's face turned pale instantly, and he even burst into tears.
She's already been locked up in the Hundred Things Pavilion, and there are still people who won't give up and want to kill her...
Su Xiaoning gritted her teeth, glanced at the fat man who was wailing, and suddenly closed her eyes and collapsed to the ground.
The fat man's eyes widened in shock, and he even forgot to cry.
After a while, he suddenly realized what was happening and ran away in a panic.
"Help! Su Xiaoning has been poisoned! Someone, come quick and save her!"
...
Thanks to Fatty's tireless efforts in spreading the word, the news of Su Xiaoning's poisoning quickly spread throughout the palace.
When the news reached Su Qingcai, he immediately couldn't sit still. His mind went blank, and he rushed to Baishige.
He was extremely anxious and wanted to go in to check on Su Xiaoning's condition, but suddenly a group of guards rushed out and blocked his way.
"How dare you stop me?" Su Qingcai's face was grim, and his whole being was shrouded in a gloomy aura.
The Prime Minister suddenly stepped out from behind the guards. He glanced at Su Qingcai, who was trying to force his way in, and sighed, "Ninth Prince, I'm afraid I cannot let you in."
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