Duan Lan’s face changed: "What happened?" He was speaking to Ji Xinhe.
If there was something wrong with this wine, wouldn’t he be in trouble?
Li Junyao looked wronged and pitiful: "Young Master Duan, I’m afraid there’s something dirty in this wine. When I was drinking it just now, I was about to feed it in when I smelled a strange odour."
Fuquan was dumbfounded and quickly said: "The wine was fine, how could it have a strange smell? How could there be any dirt in it? It was fine when I brought it over, even when I entered the mansion just now, it was inspected by the steward of your noble mansion and allowed in."
For an aristocratic family, there are many rules. Anything coming from outside the mansion cannot simply be brought in without inspection. They must be personally inspected by a trustworthy woman or steward to ensure that they are non-toxic and harmless before being allowed in.
In contrast to Fuquan’s panic, Ji Xinhe was much calmer, standing there quite peacefully. From the moment Li Junyao began to scream, there was no change in his demeanor, as if he was patiently waiting to see what kind of monkey show the woman in front of him could put on.
Li Junyao, enraged, grabbed the small wine bottle from Lu Lan’s hand and smashed it: "Yes, my Hou Mansion is very strict. Anything that comes into the mansion must be strictly inspected before it can be allowed in. If the wine was fine when it came in but now has dirt in it, it is clear, clear that it is you!"
Li Junyao pointed her well-nurtured, round and jade-like finger at Ji Xinhe, speaking in an angry tone: "It was you who took advantage of our inattention and put the dirt in the wine vat, intending to harm me!"
Duan Lan stood still, looking worriedly at Ji Xinhe.
Ji Xinhe put on an innocent face, asking her: "Why would I want to harm you?"
Li Junyao gritted her teeth and said: "Just now, I just scolded your servant for not following the rules and said that our renowned family cannot be compared to a small household. You must have taken it to heart, felt humiliated, held a grudge, and intentionally placed dirt in this wine vat to harm me when people were off guard! You’re truly vicious!" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Li Junyao had already planned to pin a crime on Ji Xinhe. Afterwards, she would strip her of her clothes and make her lose face in public! After all, since she dared to throw dirt into the wine, perhaps she still has physical evidence on her?
By then, everything would be beyond Ji Xinhe’s control, wouldn’t she be at her mercy?
If she caused the death of this mean person today, who would dare say a word?
Li Junyao thought to herself, her eyes filled with triumphant glee.
Ji Xinhe sneered in her heart. So, she had been planning this trap since back then?
The bystanders watched the drama unfold. Everyone knew that Li Junyao was out to get Ji Xinhe today. Who would interfere? It’s not a big deal if a merchant girl from a peasant background dies!
Duan Lan hurried to speak for Ji Xinhe, but was directly interrupted by her.
Ji Xinhe said: "Miss Li should speak with evidence. If she just says anything she wants, wouldn’t it undermine the rule of law?"
Li Junyao was waiting for this sentence and shouted loudly: "Good! People, pour out all the wine in this vat and let’s see clearly if there is dirt in it."
Lu Lan immediately said: "Yes."
Subsequently, several robust women were seen entering, carrying a large basin. They poured all the wine in the jug into it and started looking carefully with a colander.
The mouth of the wine vat was small, so one couldn’t see clearly what was inside. But it became quite evident with the large basin. However, Li Junyao didn’t seem to see the "dirt" she had prepared in the wine that was being poured into the basin.
Li Junyao knitted her brows and glared at Lu Lan.
Lu Lan hurriedly said: "There must be dirt in this wine, it could never be wrong."
Li Junyao angrily said: "You go and find it for me!"
"Yes." Lu Lan hurriedly ran over to help look.
Ji Xinhe nonchalantly walked a few steps closer to Li Junyao and said out of curiosity: "Looking at Miss Li like this, it seems she’s not looking for some unknown dirt, but rather seems anxious as if she’s lost something of her own. Shouldn’t it be best if there is no dirt in the wine? Miss Li, what are you hoping to find in this wine?"
Li Junyao pointed at her fiercely: "Don’t be so smug. If you dare to put dirt in my wine, don’t expect me to let you off easily! Once I find it, I won’t spare you!"
Ji Xinhe brushed off her hand, unintentionally brushing against her wide sleeve, and lightly laughed: "Then Miss Li, what exactly is the dirt? Is it poison? I was searched when I entered the mansion, so I couldn’t bring poison in. It must be something I picked up after entering the mansion. Could it be... mud?"
Li Junyao stared at her wide-eyed. What on earth was this woman saying?
Ji Xinhe nevertheless shook her head: "It shouldn’t be. Where can mud have such a peculiar smell? Something that can disgust Miss Li so much, probably is... what Miss Li fears most. What does Miss Li fear...?"
As Ji Xinhe spoke, she let out a faint laugh. The laugh was so chilling, it made people feel inexplicably uneasy.
For some reason, Li Junyao suddenly felt a bit itchy all over her body.
Then she saw Ji Xinhe open her palm, and a huge cockroach lay in her hand. She blinked, a hint of playful smile in her eyes: "Could it be this?"
Li Junyao suddenly felt her brain buzz. She was scared and backed away several steps. Then she turned her head and glared at Lu Lan angrily. She clearly had asked Lu Lan to throw these bugs into the wine vat. Why were the bugs not in the vat, but in Ji Xinhe’s hand?
Lu Lan was also taken aback and cried out: "I, I..."
However, she quickly reacted and shouted at Ji Xinhe: "You’re so audacious! How dare you catch these dirty bugs to scare my lady!"
No matter what, she had to pour a basin of shit on Ji Xinhe!
Ji Xinhe looked innocent: "You’re wrongly accusing me with that. Where can I catch these things? This is just a cockroach I brushed off Miss Li’s body without thinking. I saw a bug on her and kindly picked it up for her. I didn’t want to scare her, but how can you bite back and say I’m deliberately scaring her?"
The bug was brushed off from her own body?!
Only then did Li Junyao look at her own body in panic. On her fine fully-silk Moony gown, a few bugs were indeed crawling out. She even felt that there had been several bugs crawling inside her gown!
With an earth-shattering scream, Li Junyao turned pale with fright and directly fell and rolled on the ground while screaming: "Bugs! Bugs! Ah!"
The servants of the Hou Mansion were all stunned and rushed over in a swarm.
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