In late spring, the pigsty west of the General's Mansion stagnated with a sour, foul smell, mingled with the stench of stale pig feed from the previous night. It was so pungent it could make sparrows fall from the eaves. Liu Shi, carrying a half-bundle of hay, crawled out of the dog hole in the corner of the pen. Her brocade skirt, inlaid with broken jade, had long since been soaked dark brown by the mud, leaving a three-foot-long black mark on the muddy ground. The wooden fence, which she had pried with her hairpin for three nights, finally broke loose. Now, dried dirt clung to the cracks between her ten fingernails, and half a piece of moldy bean cake clung to her left cheek—the "snack" the sow had given her this morning during feeding.
"Bah! Shen Weiwan, that little bitch!" She spat out muddy soup with grass debris floating in it. Thinking of herself being locked up in the pigpen next to the woodshed, having to compete with the old sow for two meals of rotten water every day, she was so angry that her temples were throbbing. "When I get out, I will chop your cheap bones into pieces and feed them to the dogs!"
A gray-clad servant suddenly emerged from the shadows of the corner, clutching an oilcloth bag that shone eerily in the twilight. "Madam Liu, we've got the 'thing' you requested." Lady Liu pounced and snatched the bag. The word "arsenic" was written crookedly in cinnabar on the coarse porcelain bottle, and the white powder seeping from the cracks in the cork made her pupils shrink. She grabbed the servant's wrist, her gold and jade armor digging deep into his flesh. "Well done! When you're done, the key to the storeroom in the east wing of the General's Mansion will be yours!" The servant grimaced in pain and stuffed another piece of coarse cloth into her arms. "Madam, change quickly! A cook just left the kitchen, and you can disguise yourself as the newcomer to get in."
Half an hour later, smoke from the General's kitchen, wrapped in the aroma of meat, drifted out from behind the courtyard walls. Liu, wearing a starched, blue cloth palace maid's uniform, a greasy rag wrapped around her head, carried a basin of muddy vegetables to the stove. Chef Liu, in charge, swung his spatula at her, greasy drops splashing across her nose. "New here? Be quick! The young lady wants Emerald White Jade Soup today. Watch your skin if there are any missing leaves!"
Liu bowed and nodded, her fingers clutching the porcelain bottle tightly beneath her apron. While Chef Liu turned to pour bone broth into the pot, she slithered like a cat to the spice rack. The cork popped open with a pop, and Chuntao's clear voice suddenly echoed from behind: "What are you doing?" Liu's hand trembled, and the porcelain bottle spun half a circle in her palm. As she turned, the smile on her face was more awful than tears: "I, I'm checking to see if I have any Sichuan peppercorns to enhance the flavor of the soup..."
Chun Tao approached suspiciously, noticing grass scraps still clinging to her hair and a spot of unwashed mud at the corner of her right eye. Suddenly, she pointed at her cheek and exclaimed, "Ah! What's that on your face?" Liu hurriedly wiped it with her sleeve, only to have the mud stain smeared across her face, making her look like a clown on stage. Just then, Shen Weiwan wandered in with an empty bowl in hand. Seeing this, she raised an eyebrow, her eyes glancing at the porcelain vase hidden in Liu's sleeve. A sly smile curled the corner of her mouth: "Hey, where did this 'harlequin cat' come from? Is it a new pet in the kitchen?"
Liu's heart was pounding, her nails digging into the cold porcelain bottle. The lines of her forced smile were filled with nervousness. "My lady, I'm the new cook. I've made you a bowl of Emerald White Jade Soup." As she spoke, she turned to pick up the bowl. While Shen Weiwan was looking down at the bowl, she shook the entire bottle of "arsenic" into the emerald green broth. As the white powder fell into the soup, she heard the sound of her teeth chattering.
Shen Weiwan took the soup bowl and used a silver spoon to stir the floating vegetable leaves. Suddenly, she frowned and leaned in to smell it: "That's not right. Why does this soup smell like... lime?" Liu's heartbeat was almost pounding her throat. She twisted her apron with forced composure: "No, I put the best dragon bone soup..."
"Really?" Chen Weiwan suddenly pushed the soup bowl against her nose, the silver spoon making a crisp sound in the bowl. "Then you try it first, and see if it's well-seasoned." Liu took a step back in fear, and the soup spilled onto her blue skirt, leaving dark stains. "I, I dare not. How can a servant taste the master's soup first..."
"What's there to be afraid of?" Shen Weiwan raised an eyebrow and approached, the tip of her shoe grinding against the mud on the hem of Liu's skirt. "Did you poison the soup?" Her voice was low, but it stopped the servants chopping meat and stoking the fire in the kitchen. Liu's face turned pale as paper. Just as she was about to argue, she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her dantian, as if a blunt knife were stirring inside her internal organs.
She swallowed half a piece of cold steamed bread in a hurry when she escaped in the morning. She was too nervous just now and grabbed the cold tea by the stove and took a sip - but she forgot that it was a "surprise" prepared by Chuntao for Shen Ruorou: it contained three times the dosage of croton powder. She originally wanted to punish her cousin who came to eat for free, but now it made Liu's stomach explode.
"I... my stomach hurts..." Liu bent over, clutching her stomach, the cold sweat on her forehead trickling down her face. Shen Weiwan feigned surprise, taking two steps back, her voice tinged with exaggerated worry: "Oh, what's going on? Could it be that the 'arsenic' I just took effect?" Before she could finish her words, Liu threw away her soup bowl with a cry, clutching her buttocks and rushing to the toilet. A dark stain the size of a bowl quickly appeared on the back of her blue cloth skirt, and a suspicious stench permeated the air wherever she passed.
Chun Tao covered her mouth and widened her eyes: "Miss, she, she really poisoned it?" Shen Weiwan picked up the rough porcelain bottle on the ground, pulled out the cork and smelled it, and suddenly laughed so hard that she fell backwards, and the pearl pendant on the silver hairpin kept shaking: "Silly girl, this is not arsenic? It's clearly the 'Strong Tongli Powder' from Wang Ji Pharmacy on West Street!" She shook the bottle, and the white powder inside rustled, "Yesterday His Highness sent someone to replace the medicine, waiting for her to fall into the trap!"
The kitchen erupted in uncontrollable laughter. The fireman squatted on the floor, laughing, and Chef Liu banged the stove with his spatula. Shen Weiwan picked up the bowl of croton powder-soaked soup and waved it toward the toilet. "Auntie, take your time! If it's not enough, I'll ask the kitchen to refill it with the 'refill version'!"
Half an hour later, two servants, holding their noses, carried Liu out of the toilet. She was limp as mud, her blue clothes stained with filth, her hair tangled and clinging to her face, and vomit still clung to the corners of her mouth. Shen Weiwan stood in the corridor, covering her mouth and nose with a Su embroidered handkerchief, watching her being carried to the center of the courtyard. "Auntie, your 'final struggle' was truly 'amazing,' but the smell was a bit overpowering."
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