poisoning
"Girl, it's time to eat..."
Yuewan held the food box and gently placed it on the table.
Fu Huaiying put down the book in his hand, lowered his eyes and glanced, with a sarcastic smile on his face. Sure enough, it was just some leftovers.
"Leave it there."
"Girl, you'd better eat it quickly, otherwise it will get cold later."
“I eat it cold now.”
Yue Wan was speechless. This was not wrong. The third young lady was a concubine's daughter and had never been favored. Her mother died early. As the daughter of an imperial censor, she lived a life worse than that of a servant. The people in the kitchen served dishes to her according to her status. She had never had a hot meal to eat.
But this was not something she, a maid, should be responsible for. It was already bad luck to be assigned to this courtyard, and besides, her indenture was still in the hands of the eldest lady.
After Yue Wan left the room, Fu Huaiying stood up, sat at the table, reached out to take off the silver hairpin on her head, put it into the food and rice to check, and waited for a moment. The silver hairpin was still there, so she picked up some food and put it in the bowl, then leaned out of the window to feed the birds.
She lost her mother at a young age and had no one to raise her. She only had a cat left by her aunt to accompany her. She was not full, but she would share half of her food with the cat every day. However, one day, after she ate the food, the cat died. In order to save her life and not alert the enemy, she pretended that the incident had never happened. However, from then on, she dared not eat food that she had not tested for poison.
Fu Huaiying leaned against the window, picked up a mouthful of cold rice, put it into his mouth, and sneered. Some people have to make great efforts just to survive.
"Sister Huaiying!"
She leaned against the window, eating and daydreaming, and caught off guard, a head popped out from below.
Fu Huaiying was startled and almost dropped the bowl in her hand.
A young man with his hair tied up and wearing a red shirt came out from below and handed the cake in his hand to her.
"This is the osmanthus cake from Nianhualou, your favorite."
Fu Huaiying looked at him but didn't reach out to take it. Her face remained cold. "I don't need it. You can keep it for yourself."
Wen Yuhe felt a little lost for a moment, but still stuffed the bag of pastries into her arms, turned around and ran away.
Fu Huaiying subconsciously wanted to throw away the bag of pastries, but after looking at it for a long time, she still didn't throw it away. She was already hungry, so there was no need to waste the things that were forced into her.
She closed the window in annoyance. She didn't like Wen Yuhe. When she saw him, she thought of the disgusting face of the eldest lady.
Wen Yuhe is General Wen's only son and the eldest lady's most beloved nephew. He grew up in the Fu family since he was a child. The eldest lady's children rarely go home after studying at the academy, so he likes to come to her.
The eldest lady could do nothing to him, so she could only vent all her dissatisfaction on her. She didn't want to be known as a person who mistreats a concubine's daughter, nor did she want to make her life easy, so she could only start with her food, clothing, housing and transportation. Although she wouldn't take her life, she could still make her suffer for a while.
In the past, every time Wen Yuhe came, her food would be several times better. When she was young, she didn't understand and thought that Wen Yuhe was secretly helping her. However, she didn't expect that the food contained poison. Although the dose was not fatal, it made her lie in bed for half a month.
Fu Huaiying looked at the oil-paper bag in her hand and sighed, knowing that she would not be able to eat tomorrow.
She didn't eat many bites of the leftovers. She put the oil paper package on the table, opened it, pinched the osmanthus cake and put it in her mouth. She liked the osmanthus cake from Nianhualou the most because it had the taste of her mother, and tasted very similar to the one her mother made in the past.
The eldest lady was jealous. She didn't dare to blame her grandfather for sending the concubine to her father, nor did she blame her father for doting on the concubine. She only blamed the concubine for having a pretty face. She said she was a foxy woman who seduced her father to lose interest in state affairs. She sent someone to force poisoned wine into his mouth. No matter how angry her father was, he would raise his hand high and then put it down gently to suppress the matter. After all, he only cared about the future. What was human life in their eyes?
When my aunt passed away, her mouth was full of blood and she couldn't utter a word. She just held her hand tightly, unable to speak, and her eyes were wide open, which she never closed until her death.
No one cared about her aunt's life. Everyone just said that she died suddenly. Even her grandmother scolded the eldest lady. The family continued to live in harmony. Only she was in pain. Only she was left alone forever after the day her aunt passed away.
Wen Yuhe walked out of the courtyard with a smile on his face. Fu Bai was confused and said, "Sir, the Third Miss didn't look at you in a good mood either. Why are you smiling so happily?"
"You don't understand. She treats everyone with a distance, except me."
"It's no different, right?"
"She's only unfriendly to me, which proves that she can only drop her pretense and be herself when she's with me."
Fu Bai was speechless. How could he still think like that? Never mind. Whatever the young master said was fine.
Fu Huaiying ate only one piece of osmanthus cake and hid it under the cupboard.
She was not wrong. On the next morning, the mother beside the eldest lady brought her breakfast. It was extremely rich, with crystal pork elbow and braised pork. The table was full of meat and no green leaves at all.
"Third Miss, this was specially made by the Madam today. If you feel that the food doesn't taste good, just tell Madam. Why bother Young Master Wen? He went to Nianhualou to buy osmanthus cake at dawn yesterday for you and waited in line for a long time..."
Mother Liu had a kind face, but every word she said was full of ulterior motives. She said that she was greedy and that she ordered men outside her family around. She was almost saying that she had no shame.
Fu Huaiying was not annoyed, but chuckled softly: "Although this table full of meat dishes today is a gift from my mother, I have a bad stomach. If I eat these so early in the morning, I'm afraid I'll be sick again."
After a pause, she continued, "I have no idea what the sweet-scented osmanthus cake that Mammy just mentioned is. I've never seen it before, and I haven't seen Young Master Wen for over a month. I'm afraid Mother has been deceived by some maidservant who doesn't tell the truth and is only trying to stir up trouble."
The little maid brought by Mother Liu wanted to say something, but was suppressed by her eyes. She pulled the corners of her mouth and showed a forced smile.
"Perhaps one of the maids made a mistake. Those little maids in the mansion really need some discipline. If there is nothing else, I will take my leave."
Fu Huaiying looked at her back and loosened his hand hidden under his sleeve. It was she who poisoned A'niang when she died.
She was the eldest lady's confidante and had done many dirty things for her. There was still a long way to go, and one day, she would make them all taste the suffering that A'niang had endured before her death.
Fu Huaiying looked at the dishes on the table, then looked at Yue Wan who looked a little unnatural beside her, and said softly: "I can't eat these meats in the morning, you can take them and share them with the two women in the courtyard."
Yue Wan was a little flustered, "Miss... Miss, this... servant..."
"What? Don't dare to eat?"
"Thank you for the reward, young lady..."
Yue Wan complained bitterly. She could not refuse the gift from her master, nor could she throw it away casually, but she dared not eat it because she didn't know what the eldest lady had added to it.
Yue Wan collected the food, put it in a lunch box, and walked out with it, but heard the cold voice of the girl behind him.
"Yue Wan, you have to know that although I am an unfavored concubine, I am still a lady of the mansion. Although I cannot kill those traitors at will, I can always make them suffer."
"...This servant...This servant understands."
Fu Huaiying stood by the window, watching the two maids outside happily take the food box from Yue Wan's hand, and sneered.
She was a little curious. After eating those things, would they have another chance to mock her tomorrow?
Fu Huaiying gently closed the window, shut the door, took out the osmanthus cake from under the cabinet, and ate another piece, but felt a little choked.
The eldest lady was good at putting on a good show. The interior of her house was not luxurious, but it was not too bad either. However, all the ornaments and teacups were given by the emperor. No matter how poor she was, she did not have the courage to pawn them.
The only usable teacup yesterday was broken by Yuewan, so now when I want to drink some water, I have no cup to use.
She sighed, reached for a bowl, and drank some water.
Fu Huaiying did not wait for the ridicule from the old women the next day. As soon as night fell, she heard some noise outside, but she was too lazy to care and turned off the lights.
But she wanted to rest in peace, but someone wanted to disturb her. Just as she hung the curtain, she heard a "bang" and then Yue Wan's panicked voice.
"Girl...Girl...something's wrong...Mother Wang...Mother Wang..."
Fu Huaiying lifted the curtain and looked at her with her eyes lowered. The look in her eyes scared Yue Wan so much that she swallowed back the words that were about to come out of her mouth.
She glanced at the broken pieces of the vase on the ground and scolded, "What are you so flustered about?"
"Girl...it's...it's Mother Wang. She died in the house..."
Fu Huaiying raised her eyebrows. She thought that the eldest lady was just going to give her some non-lethal things as usual. Unexpectedly, what she gave her this time was pretty good, but the method was too crude. Did she think that she would touch the things she sent?
"Since someone has died, go and get your father."
Yue Wan knelt on the ground, hesitant and not daring to move.
Fu Huaiying knew that she wanted to report the news first, so she lowered her head and reached out to lift Yue Wan's head up.
"You want to tell Mother? Sure, but you handled all that food. Go ahead and tell Mother, but if you go today, you'll be the one taking the blame. Think about it yourself."
Yue Wan bit her lip and finally made a decision, "Miss...I will go and invite you now, my Lord."
Fu Huaiying looked at her back and curled her lips slightly. She knew that her father would be in the study handling official business at this time, and the eldest lady would go to bring him some nourishing soup. She didn't know how lucky Yue Wan would be and whether she would run into them.
As expected, after a while, Yue Wan brought Fu Liusong into the courtyard, followed by the eldest lady.
"Father, Mother..." Fu Huaiying bowed slightly.
"Yue Wan said something big happened in the courtyard?"
Although Fu Liusong didn't care much about his daughter, he knew that she was a responsible person and would not bother him unless something serious happened.
"Yes," Fu Huaiying pointed to Mother Wang's room, "Actually, I shouldn't have come to bother Father so late, but someone died, and I don't know why, and I can't make up my mind, so I had no choice but to send someone to ask Father."
Fu Liusong gave Cheng Suan a wink, and the latter understood. He took a few servants and went into Wang Mama's room. He covered Wang Mama with a white cloth and carried her out, holding a food box in his hand.
Cheng Suan put the food box on the ground and opened it. There were only some bones and soup inside.
Fu Liusong frowned: "This food box doesn't look like it's used by maids and servants."
Fu Huaiying glanced down and said softly, "This was sent by my mother this morning. My daughter's stomach is not very good, so it is inconvenient for her to eat such meat for breakfast, so she gave it all to the servants..."
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