Chapter 79: People Have Thousand Plans 10: Small Kitchen
Xun Shu wasn't kidding when she said she'd help Li Xuanhe get to the bottom of what happened in the kitchen. While she didn't want to get involved in the case at the Pingyang Marquis' mansion, it was connected to Li Xuanhe, and it also implicated her, so how could she let it go so easily?
The disciples of Sitian Pavilion do not provoke trouble, but are not afraid of trouble. There is no reason for them to be timid when being beaten at their doorstep.
The kitchen was located in a corner of the Marquis of Pingyang's residence, occupying an entire courtyard. The main room in the courtyard served as the main kitchen, responsible for preparing meals for everyone in the residence. The eastern wing housed a small kitchen, staffed by the staff brought from the palace and the Princess's Residence to care for the Princess and Li Xuanhe.
The poisonous Touhuaci was discovered to have come from the small kitchen.
Xun Shu walked around the kitchen, surprised to see everyone doing their jobs without any confusion, seemingly unaffected by today's events. Yu Chang, who was accompanying her, explained, "Most of these people come from the palace and are used to it. How could they be so flustered by such a small incident?"
Xun Shu thought for a moment, kept the matter in mind, and turned to carefully check the situation in the kitchen.
The small kitchen was crowded yet orderly. Prepared food was placed in food containers and placed at the door, guarded by a dedicated person, waiting for the maids from each room to collect them. This prevented anyone outside the kitchen from entering to retrieve the containers, ensuring that no impurities were mixed in with the food and saving time.
Now, outside the kitchen door stood not only the guard, but also officials from the Dali Temple. Xun Shu stood by the shelf where the food boxes were placed at the door and asked the guard, "Are you guarding here this afternoon?"
"yes."
"Has anyone been here?"
"My lady, the large kitchen next door is located in the same courtyard as your Highness's small kitchen. People from other courtyards pass by here when they go to the large kitchen to get their food boxes. After lunch today, many people came to the kitchen, but only three people approached the food boxes. The first group was a maid from the Crown Prince's wife's courtyard. She came to the large kitchen to get some snacks and looked over here on her way out. The maid opened the food box but didn't touch the pastries inside. I tried to stop her, but I couldn't stop her.
"The second group was the servants around the Marquis. He also opened the lid of the food box and looked inside. He even wanted to ask for some, saying he was going to entertain guests. But I remembered the Third Young Master's instructions, so I naturally didn't let him have his wish.
"The third group was the young master's wet nurse. After seeing the transparent flower glutinous rice cake, she muttered a few words and snatched it away while I wasn't paying attention. After that, the maidservant beside the third young master came and wanted to take the transparent flower glutinous rice cake, but she didn't expect it to have been taken away by someone else, so she returned empty-handed."
Xun Shu was surprised and asked, "Can the food boxes in the Princess's small kitchen be opened by anyone?"
The servant sighed, a look of helplessness on his face. "If it were still at the Princess's residence, it wouldn't be allowed... but this is the Marquis of Pingyang's residence. The Princess said it wasn't appropriate for her to occupy the entire kitchen alone, and she needed to be considerate of the others. If other masters in the Marquis' residence took a liking to the small kitchen's food, they could have it. So, over the years, whenever someone approached and asked, I would open the food box and let them see. If the Third Young Master hadn't specifically instructed me to give this transparent flower glutinous rice cake to anyone around the Marquis who asked for it, I would have given it to them. But I didn't expect it to be snatched away in the end... It's my fault."
"Besides these maids and servants, who else has come into contact with this Touhuaci?"
Before the servant could say anything, an old man with white hair came out of the kitchen. It was the imperial chef named Huang that the princess had brought from the palace. He answered Xun Shu's question, "I was the only one who touched it. I made that plate of glutinous rice cakes myself. No one else touched it from beginning to end, so it's impossible that it was poisoned." He handed a plate of cakes to Xun Shu, "When I was making the cakes, I saved a few pieces. I originally wanted to leave them for my granddaughter, but I didn't expect they would be useful now. This plate of cakes has been kept in the cupboard since it was made and has not been touched by anyone. Take it and test it, and you will know that I am innocent."
Xun Shu lowered his eyes and looked at the soft, glutinous, and tender flower glutinous rice cake in his arms. He blinked and was extremely happy: "If there is no poison in it, I might eat it?"
Huang Yuchu waved his hand and said, "Until the case is solved, I and the others cannot leave here. This pastry will be stale by tomorrow. If you are not afraid of poison, feel free to eat it."
Xun Shu agreed happily.
Xun Shu walked around the kitchen a few more times, and after confirming that there were no more clues, he left without delay. When he returned to the courtyard, he opened the door and saw Li Xuanhe and others sitting under the tree in the courtyard, as if they were treating the small courtyard where Xun Shu was temporarily staying as a place to handle official business.
Xun Shu walked into the courtyard, holding a cake. He looked at Li Song, then at Chi Xiao, then at the man in the corner dressed as a coroner carrying a medicine box. His gaze finally landed on Li Xuanhe's face. "Isn't the courtyard of the Pingyang Marquis' Mansion quite large? Even if your courtyard is inconvenient, there should be other vacant courtyards, right? Why squeeze into my place?"
Li Xuanhe poured her a cup of tea and pushed it to the empty seat next to him: "Did you find anything?"
Xun Shu carefully placed the plate of cakes on the table and recounted the most important clues he had uncovered in the kitchen. Finally, he said, "If this plate of cakes isn't poisonous, it would prove that the Touhuaci wasn't poisoned when it was made, and thus prove the innocence of everyone in the kitchen."
Li Song, standing by, pulled out a silver needle and was about to stab it into the snack, but Xun Shu stopped her. She pulled the needle out and wiped it clean with a handkerchief, muttering, "I still want to eat this snack, so I need to clean the needle. What if it's still stained with the poison I've tested before and it poisons me?" She wiped the needle clean and handed it back to Li Song, "Here, test it."
Li Song watched her movements and was amused. "I carry this needle with me. If it's poisonous, I'll be the first to be poisoned." He inserted the silver needle into the three cakes on the plate one by one. After waiting for a moment, he saw no change in the tip of the silver needle. He sighed and said, "The cakes are not poisonous, so the poison must have been added later. It seems that the person who poisoned them is among those who touched the food boxes."
Xun Shu suddenly thought of something and placed his hands on Li Xuanhe's arms, tightening slightly. "If the poison was administered later, it must have been sprinkled on the surface. Just now in the old lady's yard, you touched the cake with your hands. Is that okay? Are you feeling unwell?"
Li Xuanhe lowered his eyes to the hands holding his arms and soothed them softly, "I'm fine. I'm not feeling unwell. I was indeed reckless just now. I won't do that again. Ah Shu, don't worry." He pointed to the coroner nearby and said, "Uncle Wang is here too. He's a veteran coroner from the Dali Temple and is very experienced. He was just about to tell us about the two deceased. Please sit down and listen."
Coroner Wang bowed and briefly told what he knew.
"The Crown Prince's body has been examined, and the results agree with your Excellency's conclusion: he died from an overdose of a powerful drug, leading to loss of yang energy. I speculate that the illness struck shortly after the Crown Prince and Miss Qin's sexual intercourse, causing a continuous loss of vital essence, but neither of them noticed until the next day. As for the young master, the old lady refused to allow me to perform an autopsy. I can only judge from the appearance of the corpse and the nurse's description of the young master's vomiting, diarrhea, and difficulty breathing before his death that he must have accidentally ingested aconite. Aconite is a herb found in pharmacies. If the dosage is controlled, it can cure illnesses, but if used in excess, it becomes highly toxic."
Li Song sighed, "Since the herb is so common, it's impossible to trace the source to the person who poisoned it. Do you think the person who poisoned the young master is the same person who poisoned the crown prince?"
Li Xuanhe glanced at Xun Shu: "What do you think, Shu?"
"I think it's probably not the same person." Xun Shu poured some tea on the stone table, dipped his fingers in it, and wrote and drew on the table. "There must be a reason for harming people. The fierce drug in the tea must not be for killing people, but for other purposes. Otherwise, why not just poison it? If it's not for killing people, it must be for those dirty purposes, such as ruining a girl with the drug, or forcing someone to marry a girl with the drug. The servants in Third Brother's courtyard said that they didn't bring tea into the house, so it must have been brought in by Miss Qin Er. The woman involved in this matter must be Miss Qin Er."
"Wait a minute." Chi Xiao interrupted Xun Shu. "Miss Xun, why do you say that the tea was brought in by Miss Qin Er? Didn't she say that there was a servant left in the courtyard at that time, and it was that person who let her in? Why didn't the servant go in and bring the tea?"
Xun Shu drew a picture of a house with closed doors and windows on the table and said, "The Crown Prince's visit to Third Brother's courtyard that day was a spur-of-the-moment decision. No one except the few people in the three courtyards would have known about it. After entering the house, the Crown Prince closed the doors and windows. So, if anyone saw someone inside, they would have thought it was Third Brother. At this point, if someone removed everyone from the courtyard and pretended to be a servant, intending to bring the drugged tea into the room, they would definitely not enter in person, because they would think the person inside was Third Brother and would be able to see through his identity at a glance. But if Second Miss Qin brought it in personally, everything would be reasonable and safe." She paused, then added, "Of course, if the servants Second Miss Qin mentioned were fabricated, then all this wouldn't happen. Second Miss Qin might have originally intended to put the drug in the sweet soup, but after seeing the tea at the door, she had other ideas and put the drug in the tea. Unexpectedly, when she entered the room, she didn't see Third Brother, but only the Crown Prince."
Xun Shu glanced at Li Xuanhe with a meaningful look. Li Xuanhe's back was crawling with fear from being stared at, and he quickly praised him, "Ah Shu, you're quite clever. If Ah Shu's guess is true, and the servant Qin Lanxin mentioned actually existed, then this servant must have known Qin Lanxin, and perhaps even done everything for her." Disgust flashed in his eyes, as if he had seen something foul. "Qin Lanxin is backed by only a few people. I wonder if she's aware of this." He paused for a moment and asked Li Song, who was standing nearby, "Did Zhuang Bo find out what medicine was in the tea?"
Li Song said, "We have some clues. We should have results tomorrow. Mr. Zhuang mentioned that this poison is quite difficult to make. This is the first time he has seen it. We should be able to follow the clues Mr. Zhuang gave us and find the person who poisoned it."
"I hope everything goes well."
The sky darkened, and dusk fell. A servant hung lanterns under the eaves, swaying in the evening breeze. Seeing the late hour, Li Song and the others took their leave, leaving the small courtyard to Li Xuanhe and Xun Shu.
The mottled shadows of the trees fell on Li Xuanhe's head and body, softening his outline and making him look like a ghost as he swayed. Xun Shu propped up his head and stared at him, unknowingly becoming fascinated and unable to resist reaching out to touch the cakes on the table.
Delicious food and handsome men, there is no greater enjoyment in the world than this.
As soon as her fingertips touched the Touhuaci, Li Xuanhe tapped her wrist. Xun Shu pulled her wrist back in pain and couldn't help but ask, "Why are you hitting me?"
Li Xuanhe moved the plate of cakes further away: "Although it wasn't poisoned, it's still a bit unlucky."
Xun Shu raised his eyebrows: "As a member of the Xuanmen sect, I don't care about these things, but you are so particular about them."
Li Xuanhe pondered for a moment and then said, "This cake has been sitting here for so long, it must be stale and tastes worse. I'm going to treat you to Touhuaci, the best Touhuaci in the world. I'll have Uncle Huang make it for you tomorrow."
Seeing that he insisted, Xun Shu retracted his claws and sighed, "Okay. It's a pity."
The two sat in silence for a moment, no one speaking. Only the gentle breeze, the bright moon, the chirping of cicadas, and the fragrance of osmanthus flowers kept them company. Li Xuanhe's thoughts, tense all day, gradually relaxed, briefly forgetting the turmoil and complexity of the past.
How wonderful it would be if the rest of my life could be like this, with beautiful scenery and beautiful women by my side.
Just as he was lost in thought, Xun Shu's voice reached his ears: "Third brother, you will become the heir of the Marquis of Pingyang in the future, right? Will you be unable to move out of this house?"
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