Chapter 372 – General Kitchen Or Small Kitchen
“Where did this come from?” Wei Yuewu’s eyes seemed to burn with fire.
“Uh… I accidentally stained it when I barged at the geomancer just now,” Jin Ling muttered in confusion while looking at her sleeve.
Wei Yuewu’s eyes were tightly fixed on that stained sleeve. Then, under the astonished gazes of the maids, Wei Yuewu reached out to take a pair of scissors from the basket beside her and neatly cut off Jin Ling’s ink-stained sleeve.
“Miss…” Huamo was shocked and wanted to stop her, but Shufei stopped her.
Wei Yuewu cut off the sleeve, placed it in front of her nose, and sniffed it carefully. Sure enough, that strange smell was emitted from the ink on Jin Ling’s sleeve. It was not the smell of ink, but it was mixed with the thick smell of ink. It was almost impossible to trace the smell.
She would not have noticed it had Grandmother not specially mentioned it to her and asked her to see it. She would not have known that Concubine Dong had hidden more vicious intentions behind this matter.
It was the smell of Five Drums Grass, and the smell was quite strong! It was because of the strong stench that Wei Yuewu could detect it in a short time. Five Drums Grass had another distinct characteristic. It emitted a special smell when it was wet. If it dried, it would be colorless and odorless.
Originally, the smell of Five Drums Grass could be detected when it was wet, but because the smell of the ink was very strong, it almost covered the smell.
It was called Five Drums Grass because if one directly ate it, he would not be able to survive past five clucks from the rooster. However, its smell was too strong and quite stinky, so no one would mistakenly consume it. Moreover, directly consuming the grass did not have any effect. It had to be boiled into soup before it could come into effect.
However, the smell was even stronger when it was boiled into soup. It could be said that the higher the temperature, the easier it was to be detected.
Another characteristic of the grass was that if one stayed in a place with the Five Drums Grass for a long time, the person would become weaker and weaker, and he would die in less than a year!
They drew a spell on the wall with the ink with Five Drums Grass in it, claiming that it would get rid of Mother’s bad luck. Others might avoid the courtyard far away, but as a daughter, how could she abandon her own mother?
Because of this, she would definitely plead with the Madam Dowager, but the Madam Dowager was determined to seal Mother’s courtyard and would never tear down the walls once they had been built. Even if she made a fuss and dragged Father to take her side, the best result she could get was that she was allowed to enter Mother’s courtyard or pay respects to Mother.
This was the best result, but she would step right into Concubine Dong’s trap!
Only she could enter Mother’s courtyard. There was no one to clean the place, so she would definitely go over to clean it from time to time. The poison of the Five Drums Grass would also seep into her body bit by bit. Eventually, she would fall ill.
She was weak, to begin with. Others might be able to hold on for a year, but for her, it might only be half a year before she was killed. Moreover, she would silently die under the poison of the Five Drums Grass. No one would know that she was killed by poison because the poison was hard to trace.
Moreover, under Concubine Dong’s ill-intended reminder, others would only believe that Mother would harm others even after she died. At that time, Mother’s name would be tarnished although she had been dead for so many years.
Concubine Dong was so vicious and evil. Wei Yuewu refused to believe that Concubine Dong had nothing to do with Mother’s death.
There was another characteristic of the Five Drums Grass. When it was blanched, it must be mixed separately with the soup or it would be impossible to mix with other liquids.
“Miss, w-what’s wrong?” Seeing the extremely cold expression on Wei Yuewu’s face, Jin Ling couldn’t care less about her clothes and asked carefully.
“There is poison in this ink!” Wei Yuewu narrowed her eyes slightly and took a deep breath. Only then did she feel that her blood seemed to flow back into her limbs and bones.
Concubine Dong had actually come up with such a vicious plan. She planned to step on her and Mother’s corpses to reach Marquise Hua Yang’s position! However, with her here, Concubine Dong could forget about it!
“There’s poison!” The several maids looked at each other and their expressions changed greatly.
“Miss, does Concubine Dong want to harm you?” Shufei shouted. Needless to say, there was no one else except Concubine Dong who wanted to harm Miss. Once Miss was dead, Lord Marquis would promote Concubine Dong to the position of Marquise for the sake of his only daughter, the Third Young Lady.
“Miss, do you want to tell Lord Marquis about it so that he knows how vicious Concubine Dong is?!” Huamo bellowed indignantly.
On the surface, Concubine Dong was always smiling gently, but in private, she was so vicious that her evil deeds sent chills down their spines. Wei Yuewu’s maids were pissed when they thought about what Concubine Dong did.
“No!” Wei Yuewu shook her head and put the sleeve on the table. After just a short while, the strange smell on the sleeve faded a lot. It was as if there was no strange smell at all. “If we made a fuss, Concubine Dong could say that she knew nothing about it. After all, no one had found her tricks until now.”
Needless to say, someone in the mansion made the ink, and Concubine Dong’s maids were part of it. Because she wasn’t caught red-handed, Concubine Dong could deny it through and through.
“I will keep an eye on them. As long as I find out that Concubine Dong’s people made a move, I will catch them!” Jin Ling thought for a moment and vowed.
“So what if you caught them? Perhaps, that geomancer will say that he needs it for the spell, and no one can enter the courtyard after it is sealed, so it doesn’t matter if the ink is poisonous.” Wei Yuewu curled her lips into a sneer.
Concubine Dong had even predicted this step!
“What should we do? We can’t catch them, and even if we do, we can’t do anything about it! Miss, are we going to let Concubine Dong have her way?!” Jin Ling was so angry that her face turned pale. She had seen vicious people, but she had never seen such evilly vicious people. They had only been back to the capital for a short time, but Concubine Dong had been plotting against Miss all the time. Moreover, her every move was aimed to kill Miss.
“Does the kitchen prepare the tonic for the Madam Dowager?” After pondering for a while, Wei Yuewu asked. Winter was a time for taking tonics. The Madam Dowager was so old, so she should be taking special tonics. Several times when Wei Yuewu went to Tranquility Courtyard, she saw that the Madam Dowager was drinking a tonic that had been specially decocted for her.
“I think the Madam Dowager’s tonics are prepared in the small kitchen in her courtyard,” Shufei muttered uncertainly. The Madam Dowager had a small kitchen in her courtyard, so it would be convenient for her whenever she wanted to eat something.
“Huamo, go and ask Nurse Mei where the Madam Dowager’s tonics are prepared,” Wei Yuewu instructed softly.
“Yes, I will go right away!” Huamo nodded and ran out. Nurse Mei knew the situation in the Madam Dowager’s courtyard better than all of them.
“Miss, Nurse Mei said that the Madam Dowager’s medicine is basically all prepared in the small kitchen so that she can have the medicine and tonic whenever she prefers. The maids will adjust the time according to the Madam Dowager’s schedule,” Huamo returned in a while and reported to Wei Yuewu.
Wei Yuewu raised her eyes and glanced at the sleeve that was dyed with ink. After a moment of concentration, she uttered, “Jin Ling, go out of the mansion and find out more about the geomancer, the more detailed the better. Ask more people and find out how his reputation is. Shufei, go and keep an eye on the geomancer and see what he is doing now.”
The ink has been spilled, so the geomancer couldn’t draw the so-called spell. Would he leave the mansion, or was he planning something else?
“Yes!” Jin Ling and Shufei answered simultaneously.
Wei Yuewu continued, “Huamo, let’s go over and ask Nurse Mei again!” She already had a rough idea in her heart, but there were some details that she had to ask Nurse Mei.
Was it the general kitchen or the small kitchen? Nothing would be absolute, of course…
Concubine Dong must be punished by the Madam Dowager right now as she made such a huge mistake. Concubine Dong wanted to win the Madam Dowager’s heart more than any other time.
After all, the Madam Dowager was part of her obstacles to being elevated to the position of Marquise Hua Yang. If the Madam Dowager strongly opposed, Concubine Dong might not be able to become Marquise Hua Yang even if she eliminated her.
Concubine Dong would never have thought that just as she went in and bowed to the Madam Dowager, the latter would slap her so ruthlessly that she fell straight to the floor. She felt the corners of her lips crack, and there was a rustic smell of blood in her mouth. Moreover, she was ashamed and exasperated because the maids and old maidservants in the room were looking at her now.
She would become Marquise Hua Yang soon, but the Madam Dowager slapped her right in front of the servants.
“Madam Dowager, please calm down. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding!” Nanny Hong saw that something was wrong and hurriedly advised. She waved her hand to dismiss the other maids and old maidservants in the room.
The two maids brought by Concubine Dong exchanged confused glances, not knowing whether they should retreat or not.
The Madam Dowager’s expression became more and more furious. Nanny Hong saw that the situation was not right and angrily shouted at the two ignorant maids, “Hurry up and leave!”
The two girls looked at the vivid-looking Madam Dowager, and then looked at Concubine Dong, who was lying on the ground with her face covered. They did not dare to hesitate and retreated quickly.
“Good, very good! How dare you scheme against me! Why didn’t I see how vicious and cunning you were back then! You’re nothing but a lowly slut! I promoted you to be a concubine, and this is how you repay me?!” After all the maids had left, the Madam Dowager angrily glared at Concubine Dong and cursed.
“Madam Dowager… I… I don’t understand what you’re talking about. What did I do to upset you? How could I dare to do something that would upset you?” Concubine Dong raised her head, hiding the hatred in her eyes and stammering timidly.
Her lowly and humble background had always been her greatest taboo. It was also the reason why she couldn’t become Marquise Hua Yang according to the norm. This had become a resentment in her heart, and a fact that she had tried hard to change. Now that the Madam Dowager mercilessly mentioned it, she felt ashamed and hateful.
However, she didn’t dare to rebuke the Madam Dowager, so she could only suppress the shame and anger in her heart and put on an innocent look.
“You don’t understand? You don’t dare?! You’ve made your move to this point. If you dare, will you flip the world upside down and drag the mansion of Marquis Hua Yang down with you?!” The Madam Dowager barked indignantly in a shrill voice.
These words made Concubine Dong’s heart skip a beat. For some reason, she felt something was off. The hand covering her face could not help but tremble slightly. What did the Madam Dowager mean by that? Was it because of Wei Yuewu’s matter?
However, she had done that secretly. The Madam Dowager might not be able to remember anything. Moreover, after the incident, shouldn’t the Empress be enraged at Wei Yuewu?
“Nanny Hong, bring the things over!” The Madam Dowager’s eyes flashed with a trace of fierceness as she ordered angrily.
“Yes, I will go and bring them over immediately!” Nanny Hong returned to the inner room. Then, she walked out with a pile of things and threw them in front of Concubine Dong…
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