Chapter 56 Fragments of Memory
The coconut milk in the glass bowl shimmered, and the sago pearls sank to the bottom. Ruan Yigang stirred it with a small spoon.
The maid who served the dessert lowered her eyes and withdrew.
The man opposite her suddenly reached out, his fingertips brushing against the back of her hand, and gently took the bowl from her.
"I want to try my sister's."
His tone was casual, as if it were a spur-of-the-moment decision, and he had already scooped up a spoonful with her small spoon and put it in his mouth.
"Don't you dislike sweets?"
The person who usually feeds her is now craving her desserts.
"I'd like to try it sometimes." Gu Zhi lowered his head and scooped up the dessert, the porcelain spoon making a soft sound as it hit the side of the bowl.
"Did your sister go to see the doctor this afternoon?"
"Well, the doctor said that the medication is more likely to be mixed in with the liquid over a long period of time, but I have checked the water source, and other things related to what my mother has taken have been tested several times and there are no problems."
The man paused in his hand as he scooped the dessert, and when he looked up, his eyes showed no emotion.
"That maid from last time, it seems she hasn't been here for very long."
Ruan Yi was stunned when she heard Gu Zhi's casual remark.
Could it be that the poisoning of the mother really started much earlier, and that it was truly unrelated to Fu Jingchen?
Gu Zhi had already put the last spoonful of dessert into his mouth, and gently pushed the empty bowl back in front of her, his fingertips lightly stroking the rim of the bowl a couple of times.
That greedy boy! He didn't leave her a single bite.
Back in her room, she immediately opened the employee data file from the last survey on her computer.
She had already investigated everything that might be related to Fu Jingchen. Could it be that her investigation was really going in the wrong direction?
Could it be that the person who drugged the mother had no connection whatsoever with the later group of servants?
She quickly filtered through the "Years of Employment" column, looking for names that met the criteria of having worked for more than ten years and had long been responsible for food-related matters, and instantly only three names remained.
If that's the case, the goal seems clearer.
Ruan Yi's heart was pounding in her chest. She closed her laptop and stood up quickly.
It's the busiest time in the kitchen right now, with most of the maids preparing dinner, and their living quarters are empty.
Ruan Yi tiptoed and pushed open the doors one by one. The first two rooms had simple single beds, wardrobes, and tables against the wall, nothing unusual.
As she pushed open the third door, a strong scent of perfume assaulted her nostrils. Ruan Yi recognized it as a high-end perfume from G brand.
The fragrance was a fine floral scent, which should have been a refreshing and elegant high-end fragrance, but at this moment it was so strong that it made people nauseous. Ruan Yi subconsciously looked away and coughed twice.
Ruan Yi composed herself, closed the door behind her, and tiptoed inside.
Open each drawer of the maid's dressing table to inspect it.
The drawers weren't locked; they made a slight sound when pulled open, and inside were some odds and ends.
They were all just ordinary household items.
It's completely useless.
Just as Ruan Yi was about to close the drawer, footsteps suddenly came from the corridor, approaching from afar, with a deliberately light and dragging quality.
It's that maid who's back!
She'd better hide to avoid alerting the enemy, but the servants' quarters aren't a good place to hide.
My heart felt like it was going to jump out of my throat.
Ruan Yi practically crawled under the table, her knees hitting the seams of the floorboards, causing her to see stars from the pain.
She even held her breath tightly in her palms.
The moment the door was pushed open, Ruan Yi held her breath.
The maid, wearing work flats, stopped at the door, followed by the sound of fabric rustling, as if she had placed something on the bedside table.
The cell phone's sharp ringtone shattered the silence of the room.
"Hmm~ you rascal..." The maid's voice was very low, with a softness she had never heard before.
"Don't worry, I'll handle the bird's nest matter. Once they lower their guard, I'll get it sorted out again."
Bird's nest—it really is bird's nest!
Ruan Yi's fingertips dug forcefully into her palm.
It seems she's stumbled upon the truth by accident.
Ruan Yi bit her lip tightly. It turned out that her vague guesses were gradually being confirmed. But why would a maid go to such lengths to persecute her mother?
Last time, because her mother's condition was serious, she urgently sought help and called the doctor home, which must have already alerted the doctor.
"That little slut? She didn't seem unusual today."
"Huaiyuan, when should I come over tonight? I'm here..."
The rest of the words faded into a blur, as if the receiver had been covered, but the address in that sentence, the deliberately softened tone at the end, pierced her brain like an ice pick.
The maid was on the phone with her father.
Ruan Yi felt her blood instantly turn half cold.
Father, why would he have an affair with the maid?
Could all of this be related to him? Her father not only completely abandoned her, but also continued to...
The sound of the phone being hung up sent a shiver down Ruan Yi's spine.
The maid's footsteps moved, not toward the door, but as she hummed a song, she slowly approached the table.
The toe of the shoe stopped in sight.
Ruan Yi held her breath and shrank herself even tighter.
The space under the table was small, so Ruan Yi could only bury her head to the side, praying that the other person wouldn't look down.
Suddenly, the singing stopped, and footsteps stopped in front of the table.
One second, two seconds... the air seemed to freeze into ice.
Ruan Yineng could hear her own heartbeat, which made her eardrums buzz.
In the silence, she slowly looked up.
The moment the light flooded in, her gaze met that of the maid, who was leaning down to get something.
The maid's face appeared unusually pale in the light of the overhead lamp, her eyes bulging and staring menacingly.
The glass in my hand shattered on the ground with a thud, and water seeped along the floorboards.
"Young...Young Miss?"
The maid's lips trembled, as if she had seen a ghost.
How did you end up... here?
Logically speaking, Ruan Yi, as the head of the household, discovering the conspiracy should be a good thing.
But in this situation, when she saw the woman's face, her mind suddenly went blank.
The scene—a dark table under the table, and a hideous human face in front of you.
Like a rusty saw suddenly sawing open the floodgates of memory.
Countless chaotic fragments of images flooded in, carrying the smell of cheap perfume, pitiful screams, and her trembling figure hidden under the table...
Ruan Yi lost control and fell forward, her knees hitting the floor with a thud.
Cold sweat instantly soaked my back, sticking to my shirt as if countless icy insects were crawling on it.
Why...why does this scene feel so familiar?
Her heart felt like it was being squeezed tightly by an invisible hand, tighter and tighter, making it hard for her to breathe.
Ruan Yi opened her mouth, but no sound came out. She could only hear her own rapid, sobbing breaths, like a dying beast.
Just then, a loud crash came from outside the door, and the door was violently kicked open.
The man stood backlit in the doorway, his gaze sweeping over the girl curled up on the ground, his pupils suddenly contracting.
It felt like countless needles were pricking her head.
The maid's face in my line of sight began to distort and overlap.
The maid before him gradually merged with the woman in his memory, with her glamorous makeup and a sinister grin peeking out from the edge of the table.
Gu Zhi pulled her into his arms, his arms holding her tightly, his palm pressing hard against the back of her trembling neck.
"Sister, what's wrong?"
He could feel every muscle in the girl's body resisting, not him.
It is a resistance to those terrifying fragments that break through the floodgates of memory.
The maid's expression seemed extremely stiff and ferocious due to her helplessness, making her look particularly eerie.
The bone-chilling cold and the sinister smile that gradually appeared on the woman's face, overlapping with her memory, etched an even deeper fear into her consciousness.
Ruan Yi raised her hand, her fingertips trembling uncontrollably.
“You were there at the time…”
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