Chapter 228 Caught Red-Handed
The incident happened so suddenly that Li Manyun had no time to react. Startled, she was immediately knocked to the ground by the impact, spilling the water in her hand all over the ground.
Li Manyun screamed instinctively, scrambling to her feet and trying to grab the cup: "Ah! My medicine!"
Xie Yunqi elbowed Li Manyun away. Although he was a few years younger than Li Manyun, a boy's strength should not be underestimated. He knocked Li Manyun several steps away but still lost his balance and fell to the ground.
"Sit down, you still want to move?" Xie Yunqi cursed under his breath, shooing Li Manyun into a corner to prevent her from going any further.
"In the dead of night, with ill intentions, holding a cup of medicine, who does he intend to poison?"
Li Manyun was stunned by his half-hearted words, and the cup shattered on the ground with a loud crash. The crisp sound not only pulled Li Manyun out of her daze, but also woke up Li Manyan, who was still groggy and had just woken up.
"Sister Yan Yan, slow down."
Sheng Sheng sat on the edge of the bed, gently stroking her so that she could sit up on her own.
Li Manyan struggled to sit up, each movement pulling at the wound on the back of her head. Waves of pain gradually brought her back to her senses, and she slowly began to remember how she got the wound.
"What happened to me..." Li Manyan said weakly, "I remember I was standing there, and it felt like someone hit me from behind, but there were clearly only..."
Li Manyan paused, then suddenly remembered the commotion she had just heard, and shifted her gaze to Li Manyun in the corner.
A flicker of surprise crossed Li Manyan's face, followed by disbelief: "Second Sister, could it be... you?"
Her voice was soft, and the way she called her "Second Sister" was trembling with doubt. In the end, her voice was almost inaudible.
Upon hearing this, Li Manyun's first reaction was to lower her head, not daring to look at her face.
"It wasn't me!"
Sheng Sheng, hands on her hips, said angrily, "You still say it wasn't you? Then what were you holding in your hand just now?"
Sheng Sheng pointed to the puddle of water and the broken teacup in front of the bed. Li Manyun looked away as if burned, trying to refute, "This, this is..."
"You can't possibly say that this is some kind of medicine you found for Sister Yan Yan, and that it's for her own good, can you? Let me guess, this is medicine, but it's definitely not medicine that's good for Sister Yan Yan. Physician Zhang prescribed medicine for Sister Yan Yan, and I, the princess, have never heard of Miss Li Er knowing anything about medicine. I don't think Miss Li Er would be so clever as to think that some folk remedy she heard about from somewhere would be more effective than medicine prescribed by the imperial physician."
The string of words left Li Manyun speechless. In fact, from the moment the two figures suddenly rushed out from under the table, Li Manyun realized that she might have been exposed.
Regardless of what happened during the day, she's now caught in Li Manyan's tent, and even if she jumped into the Yellow River, she couldn't clear her name, especially since there's a pool of the drug she just administered lying on the ground.
Li Manyun stammered, "I, I..."
Li Manyan's expression was complicated as she looked at Li Manyun, unsure of what to say.
Even if Li Manyun didn't speak or explain, Li Manyan had already figured out the general course of events from her words.
"Why?"
Li Manyan couldn't understand why Li Manyun would treat her this way, since one of them was from the first wife and the other from the second wife, and they usually had no conflicts.
He lured her to a secluded place under some pretext, then knocked himself unconscious with a stone?
After knocking her unconscious, she then tried to do something to herself.
Li Manyan dared not think about it.
I don't want to think about it either.
She considers herself a good older sister.
At home, she treated everyone younger than her equally, regardless of whether they were legitimate or illegitimate children, and always cared for and loved them.
While she can't be as warm and affectionate to every younger sibling, she does the things she should.
Li Manyun had always been very close to her since childhood.
Li Manyan never imagined that it was her sister who had done this to her.
Li Manyan looked at her with disappointment, and remained silent for a long time.
Is there something she did wrong?
Li Manyun lowered her head guiltily.
Xie Yunqi was now smug, having caught the "thief," and he had finally fulfilled his wish of becoming a hero who helped others in a storybook.
Therefore, Xie Yunqi was in a very cheerful mood, and her whole demeanor was filled with a carefree and elegant air.
"What do you mean, 'you'? Let me tell you, if it weren't for the fact that I'm in a good mood right now, I would have thrown you down to feed the pigs long ago."
It's clear that Xie Yunqi is in a really good mood. She's even in the mood to joke around with someone, especially someone who has failed in their schemes.
The fifth prince and the second princess caught her red-handed. Li Manyun knew she couldn't escape, so instead of arguing, she might as well hold onto the last glimmer of hope.
"Fifth Prince, Second Princess, please don't tell anyone! I just wanted to see my sister!"
Xie Yunqi looked disgusted: "Don't you want to listen to what you're saying? It's all incoherent. Do you even believe it yourself?"
"That's right. If you just wanted to see Sister Yan Yan, why didn't you come during the day when everyone else was coming? Why did you have to sneak in alone at night, avoiding the crowds, and even bring some medicine of unknown origin?"
She snorted coldly, "You were wearing these embroidered shoes this afternoon. Were you so anxious that you didn't even change your clothes before rushing over to drug Sister Yan Yan? If I'm not mistaken, the reason you were in such a hurry is because you only recently managed to get this drug, right?"
Li Manyun's face turned pale instantly. Being young, she acted impulsively when doing bad things, which made her "fearless".
Now that he has become the target of everyone's criticism and his thoughts have been exposed by others, he can no longer hide the panic deep in his heart.
"No, Fifth Prince, Second Princess, please let me explain, I..." Li Manyun tried to get up from the corner, kneel down before them, and beg for their forgiveness, "Please, please let me go, I really didn't mean to!"
Xie Yunqi grew impatient and elbowed Li Manyun again, causing her to fall to the ground once more. Then, he actually sat on Li Manyun's back!
Li Manyun was stunned for a long time, and even Shengsheng and Li Manyan were dumbfounded.
Sheng Sheng blinked, looking completely bewildered: "Fifth Brother, what are you doing? Get up!"
Why would someone sit on someone for no reason?
The child is so tired, everyone looks like a stool to him.
Xie Yunqi scoffed, "Why get up? To give her a chance to kneel down and then morally blackmail us?"
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