Seeing her like this, Jiang Bai, in order to make her truly believe that he would save her, simply sat down next to her and asked about some of the unusual things she had encountered before she fell ill.
"Did you eat anything unusual?"
Wang Xiufen dared not hide anything and recounted what she had eaten recently.
"I ate the same food I usually eat, and nothing unexpected happened before."
Jiang Bai pondered for a while and realized that it was indeed ordinary food, not something that would cause illness.
"Did you encounter any strange people?"
Could someone have maliciously poisoned it?
Wang Xiufen lay in bed for a long time before she remembered one person: "I haven't left the village much. I've only met villagers. If you want to talk about strange people, there was only one peach vendor who came into our village. The rest were all acquaintances."
It's possible that an acquaintance might have poisoned the house, but who could possibly enter the homes of so many families in the village to poison everyone?
Jiang Bai then inquired about the other patients, and found that there was nothing unusual about what they had eaten or where they had been.
However, when asked about the people they encountered, they all mentioned the peach vendor.
She immediately decided to go and take a look. When her sister-in-law heard that she was going to see the merchant, she quickly put down what she was doing and led her over.
The man sat under a wall at the edge of the village, carrying his load on a shoulder pole. A tattered straw hat covered half of his face, and two large baskets stood beside him, covered with a rag, through which only a hint of peach pink could be seen.
"This person seems normal to me." The woman didn't see anything wrong with the vendor.
"Let's take another look."
This person is the only suspect identified so far. If she is dismissed with just one glance, all her efforts in making the trip will have been in vain.
The two looked at him more closely for a while and found that the man did not do anything unusual.
Midway through, someone came and bought peaches. The tattered cloth was lifted, and the peaches inside looked plump and juicy.
Perhaps the suspicion was wrong.
Jiang Bai frowned: "Nothing's wrong, let's go back first."
Just as the two were about to leave, the vendor suddenly picked up a water jug next to him and started gulping down the water.
Some water trickled down the corner of his mouth, but it wasn't clear; it was dark brown.
The man took a few sips, put down the kettle, and his expression was not pleasant; he had a bitter look on his face.
He put down the kettle, then got up, packed his things, picked up his load, and turned to leave the village.
Jiang Bai was taken aback, and then, as if possessed, he took a step and followed.
"Sister-in-law, you go back first."
She left those words behind and walked away in a few steps.
The person wasn't drinking water, but rather what looked like medicine. Who would drink medicine like water?
This isn't exactly rare, but it's not exactly uncommon either.
The two walked one after the other. Jiang Bai followed carefully, and the other person did not notice her until they were almost entering the city. The other person turned half of his face and met her eyes directly.
Both of them were startled. Jiang Bai withdrew his probing gaze and smiled calmly.
The vendor, expressionless, asked, "What do you want?"
Jiang Bai glanced at his basket and smiled innocently: "I wanted to buy your peaches. I saw one that looked so fresh and juicy just now, but I didn't know if you had closed up shop yet, so I wanted to find an opportunity to talk to you."
The vendor sized her up and down, and seeing that she was well-dressed, his gaze immediately wandered.
He put down the basket in his hands, then lifted the tattered cloth, his tone still cold and deep: "How much do you want?"
Taking the opportunity, Jiang Bai took two steps forward and came to his basket. He carefully examined the peaches and said with delight, "I knew I wasn't wrong. These peaches are indeed very juicy. Then take ten. Thank you for stopping for me."
The man bent down slightly, pulled out a cloth bag, filled it with ten peaches, weighed them, and handed it to Jiang Bai.
Jiang Bai took the peach, paid for it, and said thank you.
The vendor straightened up and watched her take the peach. Under this gaze, Jiang Bai's lips twitched slightly, and she could only turn and leave.
When she returned, the vendor had vanished.
After searching everywhere without success, she turned back to the village.
It seems we've alerted her; her acting is really that bad.
After returning to the village, Jiang Bai carried peaches back to the ward. The patients felt much better after drinking the medicine she had prepared with her spiritual liquid.
She found a patient's family member and asked her about the vendor.
“That man was originally from the east of the city. He never came to our village to sell things before. But a few days ago he said his peaches were ripe, so he came here to sell them. We saw that his peaches were big and he was selling them cheaper than others, so we bought some. His peaches were big and sweet, and they were delicious.”
Upon hearing this, Jiang Bai took out the peaches he had just bought from the bag, smelled them, and found that the skin alone emitted a strong peach aroma. They were indeed sweet and good peaches.
But a thought popped into her head: it's the dead of winter, not peach season at all.
How come this person's peaches are ripe now?
The patient lying in bed looked at the peach in her hand and chimed in, "Indeed, his peaches are big and sweet; you'll want more after you've eaten them."
Jiang Bai looked up at him, her hand holding the peach pausing: "You've eaten this peach before?"
"I ate them, I ate several in one go." The patient licked his lips, still wanting more.
Jiang Bai then looked at the patient's family member: "You've eaten it too?"
“I’ve never eaten any of these before. This greedy guy ate them all. He was the one who told me these peaches were sweet and delicious, and he couldn’t resist.”
A flash of inspiration struck Jiang Bai. Holding the peach, he went to ask several other patients, all of whom had eaten the peach. Some of them said that their whole family had eaten it and then fell ill.
Some people only ate the food, and only that person got sick. For example, Wang Xiufen bought the food herself because she was craving it.
Jiang Bai looked at the sweet and tempting peach in his hand. So that's where the problem lay!
Just as she was about to start studying the peach, she suddenly received a letter from Zhao Yi.
The letter stated that many people in the capital had also contracted illnesses for no apparent reason, and the symptoms of those illnesses were very similar to those of Wang Xiufang, suggesting they were the same type.
Jiang Bai thought for a moment and then wrote down everything that had happened in the past few days in the letter, and warned him not to eat peaches for the next few days.
After giving these instructions, she began to examine the peaches she had bought.
After a night of research, they indeed discovered a component that causes illness in humans.
The vendor was indeed suspicious; the sweetness of his peaches was undoubtedly related to the medicine.
The poison wasn't too difficult to cure, so she made some preparations and went to the county town to buy herbs.
The city was bustling with pedestrians. Jiang Bai found a pharmacy that looked quite large and planned to buy medicine.
The shop assistant was very enthusiastic, smiling obsequiously: "Sir, what medicinal herbs do you need?"
Jiang Bai named several medicines, and the shopkeeper's mouth drooped as he listened.
"We don't have the medicine you mentioned in our store."
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