Leaving her mother’s side, Lu Huiyi knelt in the center of the room. First, she kowtowed three resounding times to the fourth master, saying, “Father, please examine this clearly. After falling into the water, your daughter’s soul almost returned to the netherworld, thinking she would never see her father and mother again. Mother originally sent a maidservant to deliver pastries, but because your daughter missed her father, and these were precious pastries sent by my maternal uncle’s family, I specifically chased after her to deliver them in person. Father! How could your daughter ever harm you!”
Kneeling on the ground, Lu Huiyi used her robes as cover, lowered her head, and fiercely pinched her own thigh.
Raising her head, she wept even more bitterly, looking so aggrieved that anyone witnessing her appearance would feel deep sympathy.
Observing these two bouts of weeping, Little Concubine Yuan was startled. Wasn’t this her own signature routine of kicking up a fuss, weeping, and threatening self-harm? Not only had Lu Zhenyi failed to learn it, but Lu Huiyi had somehow picked it up entirely unassisted.
How could she possibly know that Lu Huiyi had learned it directly from her?
Glancing at the fourth master, Little Concubine Yuan signaled Nurse Hu to bring out that plate of peach blossom pastries.
“Young Miss Hui, is this the pastry you delivered today?”
“It is. Is there a problem?”
Originally sitting upright, Little Concubine Yuan simply leaned back against her chair upon hearing Lu Huiyi’s confirmation. “Take a closer look for yourself! The physician has already examined them; these contain croton beans, and it was precisely these peach blossom pastries that harmed the master and me.”
Finding it too shameful to speak aloud, Little Concubine Yuan pressed her handkerchief against her lips and averted her gaze, refusing to look at Lu Huiyi.
“How on earth could this be?” Lu Huiyi took the pastries, examined them earnestly, and muttered, “It cannot possibly be that Tianxiang Pavilion made a mistake. Let me think. My uncle bought them from Tianxiang Pavilion and had my maternal aunt deliver them personally; my uncle and aunt have no reason to harm Mother. Later, Mother instructed Wanqing to deliver the refreshments, and when Qingzhu and I ran into Wanqing at the second gate, Caiping was there as well. Could it be that these two maidservants tampered with them?”
Wanqing and Caiping fell to their knees in a panic, crying out in unison, “Father and Mistresses, please examine this clearly. This servant did nothing of the sort.”
“You girl, how can you still try to shift the blame to others? You claim you wouldn’t harm the master, but these two maidservants have worked in the fourth branch for so many years. Why would they want to harm the master?” Little Concubine Yuan demanded.
“What if the intended target was not the master?” Madam Zhang suddenly spoke up.
Uncomprehending, Little Concubine Yuan listened as Madam Zhang turned to ask Lu Qizheng, “Sixth Lang, did I just hear you say that what Wanqing delivered to your quarters was a plate of mung bean rolls?”
Lu Qizheng nodded.
“Master, I clearly instructed Wanqing to deliver the mung bean rolls to you and the peach blossom pastries to Sixth Lang. Since Sixth Lang’s wedding is imminent, the name of the peach blossom pastries sounds auspicious, which would add to his festive joy. Moreover, peach blossom pastries are sweet and greasy, and since the Master has never liked such things, only something as refreshing as mung bean rolls would be sent to your quarters.”
Just as Madam Zhang finished speaking, Little Concubine Yuan’s pupils suddenly constricted. Staring at Caiping kneeling on the floor, she watched as Caiping raised her head slightly to reveal a look of absolute despair. Seeing that wretched expression, Little Concubine Yuan knew she had lifted a rock only to drop it on her own feet.
Madam Zhang turned her gaze back to the kneeling Wanqing. “Wanqing, could you not even handle such a minor task?”
Scalp tingling with dread, Wanqing spoke instinctively, “But when the Twelfth Young Miss took the food box, clearly…”
“Clearly what?” Lu Huiyi asked.
At that moment, Wanqing understood everything. It was true that Lu Huiyi had personally checked the food box earlier, but she hadn’t inspected what was inside the two separate compartments.
Initially, Caiping had sought her out to help carry the food box, and the one in Caiping’s hand had been the peach blossom pastries. Later, when they bumped into the Twelfth Young Miss, Caiping had been standing on her left side and frantically shoved the peach blossom pastries into her left hand.
Therefore, when Lu Huiyi declared she wanted to deliver mung bean rolls to the fourth master, Wanqing had lifted her right hand, but Qingzhu took them and stated they were peach blossom pastries, thereby swapping out the real ones.
Lu Huiyi had known from the very beginning that there was something wrong with the peach blossom pastries and had intended for the master to eat them.
No, the master did not care for such sweet and greasy pastries; he would inevitably have sent them to Little Concubine Yuan, who loved sweet things.
If Lu Huiyi hadn’t swapped them, the person who ate the peach blossom pastries and needed to summon a physician today would have been the sixth young master.
So who wanted to harm the sixth young master, and why?
With the sixth young master’s wedding right around the corner, who wouldn’t want to see him get married?
Wanqing looked at Caiping. While she didn’t understand the full reasoning, she knew that Caiping was the most likely culprit to have tampered with them; otherwise, why would Caiping have given her silver for no reason? They had reached the outer courtyard gates when the Twelfth Young Miss took the food box, and Caiping immediately muttered some nonsense and walked away.
She refused to believe that Caiping was innocent.
This was no time to drag down the Twelfth Young Miss. Madam Zhang was the young miss’s biological mother, and she, Wanqing, still intended to keep working long-term in Plum Garden.
Kowtowing heavily, Wanqing shouted, “It was Caiping! Master, Madam, I understand now. It was Caiping!”
Panic-stricken, Caiping shrieked, “I did no such thing!” while frantically trying to cover Wanqing’s mouth with her hand.
Nurse Hu separated Wanqing and Caiping, and Madam Zhang instructed, “Wanqing, continue.”
“Today, as I just stepped out of Madam’s quarters carrying the two food boxes, Caiping came over and offered to help take the refreshments to the master. She even opened the box of peach blossom pastries and stared at them for a long time. Right up until we ran into the young miss, those peach blossom pastries stayed in her hands. I remembered Madam’s instructions that the mung bean rolls were meant for the master, so it must have been because there were too many people and things were chaotic that they got mixed up.”
“What do you mean by that, girl? Are you suspecting that my personal maidservant poisoned the master? If so, why would I have eaten some myself? Not to mention that the master doesn’t even like peach blossom pastries; if Young Miss Hui hadn’t personally delivered them and coaxed the master into tasting a piece out of affection, he wouldn’t have suffered like this today!”
“Then why don’t we send people to ask the major pharmacies who recently bought croton beans in the manor?” Lu Huiyi stopped kneeling, stood up, and proposed in a cold voice.
Little Concubine Yuan had been acting fierce and imposing, but at Lu Huiyi’s words, her momentum completely collapsed.
Accustomed to lording over the fourth branch, she never imagined that one day her actions would actually be investigated. The croton beans had been personally purchased early this morning by her own milk nurse.
Quickly assessing the situation in her mind, Little Concubine Yuan was just about to speak when Lu Huiyi cut her off first. “I must have remembered incorrectly and mistakenly handed the peach blossom pastries to Father. But if I hadn’t made that mistake, would the one meeting disaster today have been my elder brother? In my view, those croton beans were aimed straight at my brother.”
“Me? Why would anyone want to harm me?” Lu Qizheng asked, thoroughly baffled.
“Indeed, why target my brother?” Lu Huiyi’s gaze swept around the room, passing from Lu Qizheng to Madam Zhang, to the fourth master, and finally to Little Concubine Yuan.
Facing Little Concubine Yuan, she stated, “The pastries sent by the concubine mother ended up causing the fourth branch’s only male heir to fall ill, and right on the eve of the sixth sister-in-law entering the household. Such a mistress ought to be locked inside her own courtyard to spare the new bride from encountering any trouble on her wedding day. We will simply have to entrust someone else to sit beside Father as the fourth branch’s matriarch before all the relatives and friends, watching the newlyweds wed.”
Lu Huiyi was practically spelling it out: Little Concubine Yuan harbored malicious intentions. Turning pale, Little Concubine Yuan grew terrified that the milk nurse’s purchase of croton beans would be traced, and even more terrified that Caiping would break under the pressure and spill the truth.
“Enough! Sixth Lang’s wedding takes priority. My health is fine; this matter will be postponed and discussed later.”
With that, the fourth master left Zuichun Studio and returned to his quarters in the front courtyard.
Since the fourth master had spoken, the others found it difficult to say anything further and gradually dispersed.
Hearing the fourth master’s obvious favoritism, Lu Huiyi instinctively looked at her mother. She didn’t feel emotional over this favoritism; she was only worried about her mother.
Her mother’s expression remained just as tranquil and detached as her own, showing no particular emotion.
Swallowing her anxiety back down, Lu Huiyi relaxed her nerves.
Noticing Lu Huiyi’s visibly slumped posture and assuming she was grieving over the fourth master’s protection of Little Concubine Yuan, Lu Qizheng hurried forward to comfort her.
“Father has always been like that, Hui Niang. Don’t take it to heart.”
Lu Huiyi thought to herself where on earth her sixth brother had let his imagination run. Outwardly, however, she shook her head with fragile sorrow, saying, “Hui Niang won’t.”
“Though it was a twist of fate, Sixth Brother really must thank you. Those are Tianxiang Pavilion’s peach blossom pastries! I’ve dreamed of taking a bite out of them; if Wanqing had delivered them to me, I would have stood right there and polished them off to the last crumb.”
Lu Qizheng’s exaggerated words brought a reluctant smile to Lu Huiyi’s face.
“Sixth Brother should be more careful. Things delivered for free are rarely easy to swallow.”
“Kneel down! I can no longer afford to keep a greedy girl like you around in my quarters!”
It wasn’t until the following day that Madam Zhang finally settled accounts with Wanqing. In the main hall of Plum Garden, Wanqing dropped to her knees with a heavy thud.
“Mistress, spare me! This servant suffered a momentary lapse in judgment and fell for the tricks of that vixen Caiping. I beg Mistress to punish me.”
Arriving fashionably late, Lu Huiyi found Nurse Hu waiting by the entrance. Seeing her approach, Nurse Hu moved to lift the door curtain so they could enter together.
Lu Huiyi stopped Nurse Hu with a gesture and whispered a few instructions. Though Nurse Hu cast a hesitant glance inside the room, she ultimately chose to follow Lu Huiyi’s orders, signaling two maidservants to step outside.
Standing before the pearwood armchair in the seat of honor, Madam Zhang listened as Lu Huiyi set down the folding pages she carried, walked up to her, and helped her sit down. “Mother, mind your health. It is not worth ruining your own constitution over a servant girl like this.”
Madam Zhang didn’t feel particularly angry, but since Lu Huiyi assumed she was, she couldn’t be bothered to explain.
Without even glancing at Wanqing, Lu Huiyi spoke in a light, airy tone, “Wanqing, was this a momentary lapse in judgment, or did you accept benefits from someone?”
“This servant has always been fiercely loyal. Why would Young Miss…”
“Nurse Hu.” Interrupting Wanqing’s words, Lu Huiyi motioned for Nurse Hu to bring the two young maidservants inside.
Turning her head, Wanqing saw several pieces of precious jewelry held in the young maidservant’s hands, and her complexion turned rather unsightly.
“Mistress, Young Miss, these are the items old slave searched out from Wanqing’s room.”
Picking up a pair of gold filigree butterfly hairpins, Lu Huiyi examined them carefully under the candlelight. “Such fine white jade. Wanqing is merely a second-class maidservant by Mother’s side, receiving a monthly allowance of two taels of silver. After factoring in tips from superiors and deducting daily expenses, how many months of saving would it take to afford a gold hairpin like this?”
Wanqing felt a surge of relief that at the end of every month, she usually smuggled these items out of the manor to sell them, converting them into silver notes hidden inside her bedding. While these pieces of jewelry were expensive, they weren’t entirely out of the realm of what she could save up.
“Young Miss, this servant has been a servant in this household for five years. By economizing a little each day, purchasing a piece of gold jewelry is hardly a difficult feat.”
“Nurse Hu, bring them here for me to look at. Why do these hairpins look somewhat familiar?”