The basket of winter bamboo shoots sat quietly in the corner, their tender color almost glaring in the slightly dim kitchen.
After the initial shock, Lin Qianqian’s heartbeat gradually settled, replaced by a cold fury and razor-sharp alertness.
She didn’t raise any alarm, nor did she touch the basket immediately.
The other party’s method was so hidden that they had likely counted on ordinary inspections missing it. If she pointed it out rashly without concrete evidence, she could alert the perpetrator—or worse, be accused of making trouble and wasting ingredients.
She needed proof. She needed to figure out exactly what had been done to the bamboo shoots.
Lin Qianqian continued preparing the other ingredients for dinner, acting as if nothing had happened, while her thoughts remained fixed on the basket.
She found an excuse to send Chun Tao and Aunt Zhou away, claiming she wanted to experiment with a new soup recipe. Once the kitchen was empty, she returned to the basket.
She didn’t peel the shoots immediately. Instead, she carefully examined the basket and the straw and soil surrounding them. Pinching a bit of damp dirt, she brought it to her nose and sniffed. Aside from the earthy smell and the natural scent of decomposing plant matter, nothing seemed out of place.
The problem was inside the shoots.
She took out one bamboo shoot, but rather than peeling it from the root as usual, she used a sharp small knife to carefully slice a shallow vertical line along the shoot.
Then, like peeling a banana, she slowly removed the layers of the shoot’s outer skin.
Her movements were gentle and deliberate, careful not to destroy any possible traces.
The pale yellow flesh gradually emerged, exuding a sweet, fresh aroma. Lin Qianqian didn’t relax. She pressed her fingertips gently against the flesh, feeling its texture. Suddenly, near the tip of the shoot, she noticed a spot slightly softer than the surrounding flesh.
This is it!
Her breath caught. With the utmost caution, she cut a tiny circle around the soft spot and lifted a small piece of flesh with tweezers.
The moment it was lifted, a bitter odor, completely alien to the bamboo shoot’s natural fragrance, wafted out! And in the small hollow left behind, catching the light from the window, she saw a near-transparent gel-like residue!
Her pupils contracted sharply. That’s it! Someone had used an extremely fine hollow needle to inject a poisonous liquid into the core of the shoot, then relied on the bamboo’s self-healing to make the puncture nearly invisible. Without her keen senses, it would have been impossible to detect!
The method was utterly insidious. If it had gone unnoticed, the poison would have melted into the soup during cooking, colorless and tasteless—an unimaginable disaster!
A chill raced from her feet to her head, leaving her hands and feet icy. This was no longer a petty scheme for favor; it was outright murder. The intended target: Xiao Yu. And as the kitchen manager responsible for the meals, she would be the first to take the fall.
Suppressing the storm of fear and rage inside her, she carefully wrapped the tampered piece of bamboo shoot and the small portions she had removed in oiled paper and hid it in her sleeve. The remaining shoots, including the one she had opened, were thrown into the roaring flames of the stove. The fire consumed the tender yellow flesh and the potential threat, crackling lightly as it burned.
She could leave no evidence.
She could not allow even the slightest chance for the poisoned shoot to be used.
Afterward, she leaned against the stove, a fine sheen of cold sweat on her temples. Her heart raced, not from fear, but from the lingering terror and the anger of being cornered.
Liu Rusi! She actually dared to poison the prince! To get rid of her, she had gone so far?
No—Lin Qianqian shook her head sharply. Even if Liu Rusi hated her, she would never risk the prince’s life. The stakes were too high; if discovered, it would be a crime punishable by extermination of the nine clans. Unless… unless this poison wasn’t immediately lethal, but some chronic toxin, or one that caused specific symptoms yet was hard to trace? Something that could frame her without truly endangering the prince?
The thought steadied her slightly. But in any case, the other party had already gone mad enough to threaten the prince’s food security—a line that could never be crossed.
She had to report this to Xiao Yu immediately. But with no proof, and having just destroyed the evidence, would he believe her? Would he think she fabricated the story to secure her position or eliminate rivals—especially after the recent rumors incident?
Just as her mind swirled in panic, footsteps sounded outside the courtyard. Leng Feng had come to collect dinner.
Lin Qianqian quickly composed herself, adjusting her expression and breathing, tucking the oiled-paper package deeper into her sleeve to avoid suspicion. She carried the soup she had already prepared from other safe ingredients to the door.
Leng Feng took the food box, pausing for a moment to glance at her face, as if he sensed something, but said nothing. Mechanically, he reported: “The prince requests that Manager Lin come to the study after dinner.”
Another summons to the study?
Lin Qianqian’s heart sank. At this critical moment, the prince calling her—was it coincidence, or… had he already discovered something?