Fortunately, the venom of the snake that had bitten Xiao Jin wasn’t particularly potent. Jiang Yan had also used silver needles in time to expel most of the venom and stabilize Xiao Jin’s condition.
Xiao Jin had escaped serious danger, but he had been poisoned for quite some time. Although his life had been saved, he had suffered terribly.
After Lin Weiwei injected Xiao Jin with antivenom serum, she had a nurse start an IV to give him nutrients, then left to attend to other matters.
Once Jiang Yan confirmed that the remaining venom in Xiao Jin’s body had been cleared and that there was no longer any danger to his life, she had Xiao Xi stay with his brother while she went home to check on things and cook some porridge to bring back.
In the end, Jiang Yan found the venomous snake that had bitten Xiao Jin on the roof beam in the children’s bedroom.
This kind of snake lived in the mountains. It would never come down from the mountains for no reason, and the family compound was some distance from the rear mountains. There was no way the snake could have made its way here by itself.
Someone must have put it there!
Sure enough, Jiang Yan found two footprints in a corner of the backyard.
They weren’t hers, nor were they Huo Zhanting’s. Most likely, they belonged to the culprit.
The culprit had probably climbed over the backyard wall and entered the house, then put the venomous snake into the children’s bedroom.
Jiang Yan found a sheet of white paper and carefully made an imprint of the footprints so she could preserve the evidence. Then she found a straw hat and used it to cover the footprints, preventing them from being damaged.
Now that she had evidence, Jiang Yan wasn’t in any hurry to find the culprit.
She went to the kitchen, cooked some millet porridge, and brought it to the clinic.
On the way, Jiang Yan stopped by Zhou Yunjing’s house, gave him the footprint evidence, and asked him to help investigate the snakebite incident.
Only then did Jiang Yan carry the food container to the clinic.
By then, Doctor Lin had gone off somewhere and wasn’t there. Only two young nurses remained, standing outside the ward and listening to the gossip.
It turned out that after being intimidated by Jiang Yan, Old Madam Zhao had gone to seek support from the director of the women’s committee. She had embellished the story about Jiang Yan poisoning her stepson and told the whole thing to the director.
The director of the women’s committee was the wife of Political Commissar Sun, Zhang Fang. She had previously kindly reminded Jiang Yan not to be too extravagant or wasteful.
With something like this happening, Zhang Fang naturally couldn’t just ignore it. She had brought a large group of people to the hospital to check on Xiao Jin.
Lin Weiwei hadn’t actually been busy.
She had deliberately left.
After treating Xiao Jin, she had gone to find out what had happened.
She knew that there was no way Jiang Yan would deliberately catch a venomous snake and have it bite Xiao Jin. Jiang Yan wasn’t that stupid.
But Lin Weiwei was more than happy to watch Jiang Yan be misunderstood.
So she had deliberately found an excuse to leave the clinic, conveniently giving Old Madam Zhao and the others free rein.
The two young nurses couldn’t stop Old Madam Zhao and the others, and they didn’t dare try to stand guard over them either.
With the director of the women’s committee backing her, Old Madam Zhao felt emboldened again and stormed into the ward.
When she didn’t see Jiang Yan, Old Madam Zhao decided to threaten Xiao Xi first.
As long as he insisted that Jiang Yan had released the snake, there would be no way for Jiang Yan to clear her name.
“Xiao Xi, tell me. Was it that vicious woman Jiang Yan who released the venomous snake to bite Xiao Jin?”
Old Madam Zhao glared viciously at Xiao Xi.
The little boy froze in terror. His small eyes were filled with fear, and his hand instinctively moved toward his thigh.
Grandma Zhao loved pinching his thighs the most.
It hurt terribly.
*Sob… He was scared.*
*Why hadn’t Big Brother woken up yet?*
*Why hadn’t Stepmom come back yet?*
*Xiao Xi was scared!*
*Sob…*
Seeing Xiao Xi standing there like a frightened goose, Old Madam Zhao reached out and grabbed him.
“Come on, answer me! Did you see your stepmom release the snake and have it bite Xiao Jin?”
There was a threatening edge to her voice that Xiao Xi knew all too well.
Xiao Xi was terrified. He burst into tears, sobbing so hard that his whole body shook, but he still didn’t forget to defend Jiang Yan.
“N-No! Stepmom didn’t use the snake to bite Big Brother! Stepmom didn’t hurt Big Brother! She didn’t!”
“You ungrateful little brat! You’re so young, and you’ve already learned how to lie…”
Seeing that Xiao Xi refused to cooperate, Old Madam Zhao became furious.
She was accustomed to beating and bullying Xiao Xi. Whenever she was angry, she would pinch the inner part of his thigh.
That spot was hidden, so even if she pinched it until it turned red and swollen, no one would notice.
Xiao Xi cried even harder. He could already feel the pain in his thigh.
But just then, Jiang Yan suddenly rushed over and knocked Old Madam Zhao to the ground.
“You think you can bully my son?”
Jiang Yan looked coldly at her.
“Ow…”
Old Madam Zhao screamed.
Xiao Xi completely forgot to cry. He stared at Jiang Yan with sparkling eyes, as though a goddess had descended from heaven.
*Stepmom is amazing! She isn’t even afraid of Grandma Zhao!*
Old Madam Zhao scrambled to her feet and immediately complained to the director of the women’s committee.
“Director Zhang, look at Jiang Yan! All I did was ask Xiao Xi whether she was the one who released the snake that bit Xiao Jin, and she immediately attacked me! She must be feeling guilty because she did it! She’s the one who released the snake…”
*Smack!*
Without saying a word, Jiang Yan slapped Old Madam Zhao across the face again.
Some people didn’t respond to reason.
They only responded to overwhelming force!
Old Madam Zhao was stunned.
She had never imagined that Jiang Yan would be this brazen even in front of a leader.
How dare she?
Was it because she was the regiment commander’s wife?
Zhang Fang also felt that her authority as the director of the women’s committee had been challenged. She frowned unhappily.
“Jiang Yan, don’t think you can act however you please just because you’re Regiment Commander Huo’s wife. You’re bringing shame upon Regiment Commander Huo!”
Jiang Yan shook her hand and looked completely sincere.
“I’m not being arrogant or domineering. Hospitals prohibit loud disturbances. I was simply helping her shut up quickly so she wouldn’t disturb Xiao Jin’s rest.”
“You still can’t just hit people!”
More importantly, she had hit someone right in front of her. It was practically as if Jiang Yan didn’t regard her as the director of the women’s committee at all.
Jiang Yan looked innocent.
“I didn’t want to hit her either. But she apparently doesn’t understand human speech. She insisted on falsely accusing me of poisoning my own son, and no matter how I explained it, she refused to believe me. So I had to try another method!”
“You old hag, I’m not falsely accusing you! You’re the one who released the venomous snake that bit Xiao Jin! You’re his stepmother. You can’t stand having him around, so you wanted to secretly get rid of him!”
“First it was Xiao Jin. Then it’ll be Xiao Xi…”
*Smack!*
Before Old Madam Zhao could finish, Jiang Yan slapped her across the face again.
Then she shook her hand and said innocently, “Oops! My hand slipped!”
Pfft!
Old Madam Zhao nearly coughed up blood from sheer fury.
She turned to Zhang Fang and wailed, “Sob, sob… Director Zhang, look at this little bi—Regiment Commander Huo’s wife! She hit me again! She hit me right in front of you!”
Old Madam Zhao knew exactly how to stoke Zhang Fang’s anger.
And Zhang Fang really was furious.
This Jiang Yan clearly didn’t take her seriously at all!
But before she could reprimand Jiang Yan, she heard Jiang Yan explain:
“Director Zhang, please don’t let Old Madam Zhao provoke you. She’s only doing this because ever since I arrived, she’s no longer getting the five yuan, ten jin of rice, and one strip of pork my husband used to give her every month. So she deliberately framed me because she wants to drive me away!”
“Nonsense! I’m not framing you! It’s clearly you who…”
“Hm?”
Jiang Yan shot her a cold look.
Old Madam Zhao immediately shut her mouth and covered her face, terrified of being hit again.
Jiang Yan continued.
“If you don’t believe me, you can ask my husband whether he used to give her that much money and food to take care of the two children.”
“Zhao Xiaomei mentioned this before too. You were there at the time, so you should have heard it.”
“Oh, right. When I was at the military base earlier, I also heard Old Madam Zhao telling Xiaomei to marry Huo Zhanting!”
“So Old Madam Zhao deliberately framed me because she wants to drive me away. That way, she can continue using the excuse of helping take care of the children to get benefits from Huo Zhanting!”
Old Madam Zhao’s true intentions had been exposed. She panicked and hurriedly denied it.
“Nonsense! I didn’t frame you! You were the one who poisoned Xiao Jin. I saw it with my own eyes!”
“You saw my ass. You only saw me carrying poisoned Xiao Jin to the hospital.”
Jiang Yan suddenly paused.
“Wait. How did you happen to show up at my house so early in the morning?”
Jiang Yan looked suspiciously at Old Madam Zhao.
“Could it be that you’re the thief shouting ‘Stop, thief’? Maybe *you’re* the one who released the venomous snake that bit Xiao Jin?”