Seeing that she couldn't keep up the act any longer, Xiaoping's eyes instantly turned vicious, but she still refused to admit it: "It wasn't me! I didn't poison it! It was Pei Nian'an! He must be jealous that you dote on me, so he secretly poisoned the food and tried to frame me!"
He pointed at Pei Nian'an, who was still "fainting," and argued agitatedly, trying to shift the blame onto someone else.
Just then, a commotion broke out at the entrance of the inn. Lu Jiaojiao was accompanied by Lin Peirou, Lu Jin, Lu's mother, as well as the Pei family and the Su family.
They arrived in a large group to "see the spectacle." They had expected to witness the tragic deaths of Shen Qingtang's family from poisoning, but upon entering, they were dumbfounded.
Shen Qingtang and her group sat comfortably at the table.
The food on the table was still steaming.
The men dressed in black in the corner were already lifeless; they had clearly come to silence them but were dealt with instead.
Lu Jiaojiao's smug expression froze instantly.
He stared in utter shock at the scene before him.
Her curse didn't work?
Xiaoping's poison didn't work either? How could this be? Lin Peirou and Lu Jin were also stunned on the spot, not daring to even breathe.
The sarcastic remarks he had prepared were all stuck in his throat. Seeing this, the Pei and Su families also quietly retreated, afraid of being caught in the crossfire.
Shen Qingtang coldly swept her gaze across the group of people at the door, the chill in her eyes sending a shiver down Lu Jiaojiao's spine. Xiaoping, seeing the sudden appearance of the crowd, knew she was completely exposed, and her face turned deathly pale.
He slumped to the ground, no longer able to feign a pitiful appearance.
Shen Qingtang looked down at Xiaoping, who was lying on the ground, her tone calm but her words clear: "Actually, from the first day that couple brought you here, I felt something was wrong with you. Is it normal for a child who has just lost his parents to have no sadness in his eyes, but instead be full of calculation?"
She paused, her eyes full of understanding: "Later I found out that the couple who brought you here were murdered on the very day they left the inn, their bodies never recovered. You think I didn't suspect anything? Why were they silenced as soon as they brought you here? The answer is obvious: they were just pawns pushed out by the people behind you, and you, from the very beginning, approached me with a purpose."
Upon hearing this, Xiaoping's eyes widened instantly.
His face was filled with shock, and his lips trembled, unable to utter a word.
He didn't expect that.
Shen Qingtang actually knew so much all along! He always thought he was hiding it well, but it turns out he was exposed from the very beginning.
At this moment, the Second Prince also arrived upon hearing the news.
Hearing Shen Qingtang's words as soon as he entered, a hint of surprise flashed across his face, and his gaze towards Xiaoping became more inquisitive. He had always felt that Xiaoping was a bit strange, but he hadn't expected there to be so much going on behind the scenes.
Before Xiaoping could react, Shen Qingtang suddenly pulled out a gun, aimed it at him, and pulled the trigger without hesitation. With a "bang," Xiaoping fell to the ground, lifeless.
Shen Qingtang put away her gun, her eyes as cold as ice: "Don't use children as an excuse. I don't care who's behind him, or what your schemes are. If anyone dares to lay a finger on my family, I don't care if they're old or young, I'll make sure they die a horrible death!"
Lu Jiaojiao trembled with fear, but still managed to scream, "You're so vicious! He's just a child! How could you be so heartless!"
"A child?" Shen Qingtang sneered, took out a bottle of corpse-dissolving water from her spatial storage, and poured it over Xiaoping's corpse.
The corpse melted at a speed visible to the naked eye, eventually turning into a completely black worm that wriggled twice on the ground before becoming still.
Lu Jiaojiao was completely stunned when she saw this scene, and screamed as she backed away.
I almost fell to the ground. That wasn't human! Was it an insect?!
The second prince stood there, speechless with shock, his eyes filled with disbelief. He never imagined that Xiaoping was a "monster".
Shen Qingtang stared at the insects on the ground, her brows furrowed, which could transform the insects into the shape of a child.
The person behind all these conspiracies must be extraordinary.
The conspiracy behind this is probably bigger than she imagined.
She turned to look at the Second Prince, her eyes filled with a scrutinizing gaze.
Was the Second Prince's reaction just now genuine shock, or was it an act?
When Xiaoping was brought here by that couple, and rushed over to call her "Mother" as soon as they met, Shen Qingtang had a vague feeling of unease.
This child seems clingy and adorable, but there's always something strange about his words and actions.
He would unconsciously grab food with his hands while eating, and his chewing movements had a somewhat animalistic, savage quality, even after he learned to use chopsticks.
He would also secretly lick his fingertips when no one was watching; and he would wait outside her room at night, "acting cute."
Yet he would stare blankly at the chickens in the yard under the moonlight, his eyes filled with a predatory coldness that was not something an ordinary child should have.
Having witnessed countless extraordinary people and events, and knowing that the world was full of wonders, Shen Qingtang, though puzzled, did not immediately expose her suspicions, but instead observed secretly.
What truly convinced her that "Xiaoping wasn't human" was when she got up late one night and passed by Xiaoping's room, peeking through the crack in the door and seeing him lying on the bed.
Its body twisted uncontrollably, its limbs occasionally curling into strange arcs, and it mumbled incoherent, broken syllables that didn't sound like human language.
When she saw him again the next day, he immediately switched back to his soft and cute appearance, tugging at her clothes and saying, "Mommy, I had a nightmare last night." But the stiffness in his eyes, which he couldn't quite hide, betrayed his pretense.
He tried to imitate the innocence of human children, but he always slipped up in the details.
Unaware that humans cherish toys, they smashed Nian'an's little wooden car to pieces; they didn't understand "guilt," and when they did something wrong, they would only cry and make a fuss to cover it up, without a trace of apology in their eyes.
Shen Qingtang immediately concluded that the child had never learned "how to be a person".
His cuteness and gentleness were all a deliberate act, a facade. She just hadn't expected that.
Behind this "illusion" lies the terrifying truth of "insect demon transformation." Looking back now, all those details that once puzzled her have a reasonable explanation.
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