Chapter 19: Poor you, what are you going to do?
Shen Xingwan saw Wei Zihui's thin body standing straight, with the arm that could still move stretched back to protect the crying little Lingling.
Her heart ached and she felt sorry for the child.
How many crises and dangers must one have experienced to develop the mentality of a strong person who can remain calm in the face of danger and protect the weak?
She walked over, gave Wei Zihui a soothing look, then squatted down and hugged Xiao Lingling.
Shen Xingwan took out a silk handkerchief, gently wiped away the tears on Xiao Lingdang's face, and coaxed her softly, "It's okay, Xiao Lingdang, don't be afraid, I will protect you, okay?"
Little Bell nodded sensibly and stopped crying, but she was still a child after all, and couldn't control her emotions, and continued to sob pitifully.
Shen Xingwan patted her back gently. "What delicious food is in your oil-paper bag? Can you give me some?"
Xiao Lingdang was stunned, she lowered her head to look into her arms, then she remembered that she was still holding the bag of rice candy in her hand. She nodded, and quickly handed the candy to Shen Xingwan.
"Hey, eat, miss."
"So good."
Shen Xingwan took the wrinkled paper bag with a smile, opened it and saw that it was the most common kind of rice candy.
She picked up a piece and examined it carefully, and found that the icing on the rice krispie candy seemed to be a little bit wrong. She brought it to her nose and sniffed it carefully, and it had a slightly green smell.
She looked at the dead birds on the ground, her expression gradually turned cold. She raised her head and looked at Wei Zihui, then handed the paper bag to Feiyun.
"Go, find a doctor you know and have him examine it carefully to see what's mixed in it."
Feiyun left in response. Shen Xingwan touched Xiao Lingling's head and asked her softly, "Tell me, who gave you this bag of candy?"
Little Bell looked at Shen Xingwan and said, "I picked it up."
"Picked it up? Where did you pick it up?"
Little Bell turned her head and pointed outside, "The garden."
Shen Xingwan frowned. The garden of the prime minister's mansion was very large and it was not a restricted area, so there were many people coming and going. If Xiao Lingdang really picked up the candy there, it would be difficult to find out who had deliberately put it there in a short time.
She was about to send someone to inquire who had been in the garden today when the cook stumbled in.
She ran over and hugged Xiao Lingling. She caught a glimpse of the dead bird on the ground out of the corner of her eye. She was so anxious that she almost cried and rubbed her hands together to beg for mercy.
"Little Bell is ignorant and knows nothing. It's all my fault that I didn't take good care of her. I have to bear all her sins. Miss, if you want to punish me, just punish me..."
After the cook said this, she knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly.
"Mother... woooooooooooo..."
Little Lingling was so scared that she started crying again and hugged the cook tightly.
Shen Xingwan's heart ached. He sighed and quickly pulled the cook to stop her from knocking. "I don't mean to blame Xiao Lingdang. You don't have to do this. Just take good care of her in the future and don't let others take advantage of her so easily."
"Yes, yes, thank you for not punishing her, young lady. I will take good care of her and never let her leave the kitchen again."
The cook pulled the little bell, held her little head, saluted to Shen Xingwan, and took her away.
"etc."
Wei Zihui let out a soft cry, and the cook was so frightened that her legs went limp that she almost fell to her knees.
She had already seen clearly in the past few days that Miss Shen took very good care of the little boy. Although the child was thin and injured, he had an unparalleled noble temperament. It was obvious at a glance that he must be an important person.
The cook shed tears with a bitter face. She was not stupid. When she saw the death of the birds, she had guessed something. She estimated that most likely someone took advantage of the little bell and wanted to poison the nobleman through her.
Seeing that she couldn't escape, the cook turned around and knelt on the ground, crying, "Your Excellency, I dare not ask for forgiveness, I only ask that you take into account the young age and ignorance of Xiao Lingling and let me take her place!"
Wei Zihui laughed, revealing his two little canine teeth, which showed some of his proper childishness.
"What can you do for her? Get up now."
He came over and supported the cook with his good hand, then took out a few exquisite candies from his arms and stuffed them into Little Bell's hand. He also straightened her crooked braids and said with a smile: "Don't be afraid, it's okay. Come and play with me tomorrow. I'll wait for you and leave some candies for you, okay?"
Little Bell looked at him blankly and nodded, "Yeah."
The cook stood there in a daze, confused and bewildered, "You, you don't blame her?"
Wei Zihui smiled in relief, "It's the human who killed the person, why blame the knife? Go back and protect her."
"Oh, yes, yes, yes, even though you are young, you have such a big vision, you are really amazing!"
The cook was so grateful that she wanted to flatter the master as much as possible. She picked up the little bell and left with many thanks.
Shen Xingwan walked to Wei Zihui apologetically and said, "I'm really sorry. I promised the Regent to protect you, but this happened anyway. I will investigate thoroughly, but for your safety, it's better to send you to the Regent's Palace as soon as possible."
Wei Zihui looked at Xiao Lingling, who was sobbing on the cook's shoulder, and replied casually, "I want to stay here."
After saying that, his shoulders suddenly drooped, looking a little discouraged, and pursed his lips, "If...if living here will endanger the safety of your Xiangfu, then I'll leave."
Such a sensitive mind can only be fostered by suffering in a difficult environment.
Shen Xingwan noticed the disappointment in his heart, walked up to him, patted his shoulder, leaned over and told him: "I'm just worried that your identity and whereabouts have been exposed, and you may be in danger, but if you trust me and are willing to live here, I will definitely protect you."
"Is it okay?"
Wei Zihui raised his head, and a hint of anticipation gradually emerged in his eyes uncontrollably.
He clenched his hands into fists in his sleeves, very nervous, afraid that he would be disappointed again.
"Can I really...stay here?" he asked cautiously.
Shen Xingwan nodded solemnly, "I will definitely protect you."
Someone was sent to take care of Wei Zihui so that he could rest and recuperate, while Shen Xingwan went to investigate the strange rice candy in person.
Feiyun found three doctors from different clinics. After a careful examination for a while, they all came to the conclusion that the rice candy had been sprinkled with arsenic, a highly toxic substance that looked like icing sugar.
It is even the best arsenic. The best snowflake arsenic is produced after ordinary arsenic is purified several times. It tastes sweet and has almost no odor, making it difficult to detect.
The arsenic snowflake is extremely poisonous. Even a small amount of it can cause a person to die instantly.
"How vicious!"
Shen Xingwan slammed the table and said, "Immediately send someone to visit all the pharmacies and check who in the mansion has bought snowflake arsenic recently."
Shen Xingwan mobilized manpower and material resources and soon visited all the pharmacies in the capital. But the strange thing was that in this huge and prosperous capital, there was not a single pharmacy that sold the top-grade snowflake arsenic.
Seeing that the clues were about to be broken, Feiyun was at a loss when the owner of a medicine shop recalled: "I have heard about the origin of snowflake arsenic in my early years. It is extremely difficult to purify arsenic into snowflake form. It is a secret method of a master in Yangzhou that is not passed on."
"Yangzhou? Which pharmacy is it? Do you remember?" Feiyun asked hurriedly.
The shopkeeper shook his head. "He was a traveling doctor, his last name was Yang, and it seems that the family name was passed down to his daughter."
"What about his daughter? Where is she now? Is she still selling this snowflake arsenic?"
"I vaguely heard that she became the magistrate's concubine. Later, something seemed to happen to her and her whole family died. I don't know what happened after that."
Yangzhou... County Magistrate... Feiyun was shocked and asked him hurriedly: "Is the county magistrate's surname Tang?"
"Yes, huh? How did you know?" the shopkeeper asked curiously, stroking his beard and was about to ask more questions, but Feiyun had already run away.
That night, Shen Xingwan brought Feiyun and a bowl of medicine to Tang Lin's room.
Tang Lin'er was embroidering the beard on tiger-head shoes under the lamp. She was startled by the door suddenly opened. She covered her chest and stood up, "Sister, why are you here?"
Shen Xingwan sneered without saying a word. He turned around, picked up the bowl of medicine on the tray in Feiyun's hand, walked over a few steps, grabbed Tang Lin'er's hair and poured it into her mouth.
"Woo...you...save..."
Tang Lin'er struggled and sobbed, and Ruyi, who was standing beside her, was so frightened that when she reacted and wanted to come over to pull Shen Xingwan, she was already a step too slow and was pressed hard to the ground by Feiyun.
"Shen..." Tang Lin'er pushed the medicine bowl away, fell to the ground and vomited, crying and questioning: "You, what did you give me to drink?!"
Shen Xingwan sneered and looked down at her, "Snowflake arsenic."
Tang Lin'er's pupils shrank dramatically. She reached out and scratched her throat frantically, refusing to stop even when blood was dripping from it.
She scratched for a long time before she realized, why is she not dead yet?
She looked up at Shen Xingwan, whose eyes were icy cold without a trace of warmth.
"You really do know what snowflake arsenic is." Shen Xingwan leaned forward slowly. "It's your mother's stuff, right? Tang Lin'er, how dare you touch my people?"
Tang Lin'er looked ashen. Ruyi suddenly knelt down and begged, "Miss, please forgive me. It was my fault! I accidentally spilled arsenic when I was packing boxes a few days ago. I threw away everything that might have been contaminated. I didn't expect to drop a bag of rice flower candy in the garden, and that little bell picked it up. It's all my fault. Miss didn't know anything. Please punish me, Miss. Poor Miss, she's still pregnant!"
"Pitiful?"
Shen Xingwan sneered, picked up the almost finished tiger-head shoe on the table and looked at it, "Your child is a child, so other children are not children?"
"I never mentioned anything about Rice Flower Candy and Little Bell, and they were not allowed to say a word." Shen Xingwan looked at Ruyi, "How did you know that?"
Ruyi was stunned, staring at Shen Xingwan blankly, and then collapsed to the ground.
Shen Xingwan put down the tiger-head shoes and looked at Tang Lin'er, "With such a vicious mother, does the child in your belly really want to come into this world with you?"
Tang Lin'er was shaking with fear, and she held her belly tightly with both hands. "You, what are you going to do?"
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