Chapter 49 | Arc 3.
“Whether or not Gan Shen is a reborn person, the answer will be revealed very soon,” Su Yu did not give a straight answer. “At this point, your task is to continue monitoring Qin Yiran, and also Gan Shen. If they look like they're going to make any moves, then you can use any means necessary to stop them."
“Got it!” Round Ball cracked its metaphorical knuckles as it began its monitoring mission.
As a result, three days later, Round Ball came to Su Yu with a report. “Gan Shen sent a message to Yue Lian telling her not to act against Qin Yiran for the time being, but right after Yue Lian received that, she started preparing a colourless and tasteless poison. It appears she wants to poison the Female Protagonist to death."
At this time, Su Yu had just completed an exciting round of flirt-with-Gan-Qi-and-then-leave-him-hanging-dry, and upon hearing this report, his eyes flashed slightly and he stroked his chin, giving a meaningful smile, “Let's go. We're going to pay Qin Yiran a visit.”
Su Yu could fully understand why Yue Lian would want to poison Qin Yiran to death, but he couldn't understand why Gan Shen would specifically instruct her not to.
For a pawn that has already outlived its usefulness, why would he keep her around and risk exposure? If Qin Yiran died at this time, Gan Shen perhaps could have tried to stir up more trouble in Gan Qi's heart and in his court. Wasn't that a double kill?
So why wasn't he acting like that? It couldn't be that.. Gan Shen actually truly loved Qin Yiran?
Although Gan Qi was annoyed with Qin Yiran, she still lived in Joyful Palace. These days, she had only been banned from stepping out of her palace, as well as having her food messed with.
This kind of punishment – in the eyes of the general populace – really couldn't count as a punishment at all. But for Qin Yiran who had been spoiled since childhood, this was a huge humiliation.
Limiting her daily life and not allowing her to go out was already a great humiliation, but someone was actually deliberately adding huanglian into her meals… did they even want her to eat?!
Qin Yiran had raised a fuss over this matter more than once, and even shed several tears, but all those who used to be respectful of her were now completely indifferent to her crying. To her extreme embarrassment and anger, there was even once when she had tried to barge out of the palace, and these people had unceremoniously dragged her back, leaving all her dignity on the floor!
In just three days, Qin Yiran had gone from her initial anger to slowly feeling despair and helplessness. Was she destined to live out her life in this undignified way?
No! She would never accept such a tragic end!
Also in the short period of three days, Qin Yiran had completely forgotten about Yue Hong's existence, and how she had previously vowed to save her from the Hall of Punishment.
“Yue Lian, hasn’t there been news from Ah'Shen?” Qin Yiran saw Yue Lian carry a food box into her room and her eyebrows subconsciously tightened, once again asking a question which had already been repeated multiple times before.
Such bitter food, how could she eat it! If things continued like this, she might very well die from the bitterness! [T/N: Huanglian – the medicinal plant that Su Yu had told the royal kitchen to add to all her food – is extremely bitter.]
Yue Lian's eyes flashed a smudge of vicious disgust, but her face showed a gentle smile, “This servant has already passed the news along, but there has not been a response from the Wangye. Esteemed Consort just needs to wait a little longer, I'm sure Wangye will respond soon."
“How can there not be news after so long, you need to go and urge him to respond. This Consort can't stay here a moment longer.” Qin Yiran didn't notice Yue Lian's growing disgust and just continued to complain, "This Consort came into the palace all for him, and now that I've been so humiliated by that disgusting man, how can he have no response? Tell him to think of a method as soon as possible to bring me out of the palace, I no longer want anything to do with this forsaken place!"
Yue Lian continued to take food out of the box, her tone aloof, “Why don't Esteemed Consort come eat something first. No matter what, having a healthy body is always the most important thing first and foremost."
Qin Yiran swept a gaze filled with intense dislike over the meal. "Has huanglian been added again? So bitter! How can this Consort eat that?!"
“If Esteemed Consort can’t stomach this, then why don't you try some of this milk pudding? This servant spent a silver coin and asked the masters of the royal kitchen to create it. It doesn't have any huanglian in it.” Yue Lian picked up a bowl and passed it over to Qin Yiran.
When Qin Yiran heard these words, her first reaction was not one of surprise, but rather one of complaint. “Since the chefs can be persuaded with silver coins, why didn't you do that before? Did you also revel in my misery, like the other ungrateful people??"
Yue Lian bit her teeth, her fingers holding the bowl clenched so tightly that it began to turn white. “How could this servant dare? It isn't that this servant hadn't tried before, but the royal chefs all refused.It took a lot of effort this time to persuade them to give me some of this pudding."
Qin Yiran snorted and then took the bowl. She stirred it with a spoon and after the honey glaze on top mixed with the rest of the pudding, she slowly lifted a spoonful towards her mouth under Yue Lian's watchful gaze.
But just at this crucial second, a low-pitched sound suddenly came from outside. “Halt!”
Qin Yiran reluctantly stopped her motion and irritatedly placed the spoon down. Yue Lian's eyes were full of unwillingness, There was only a small distance left, why did someone have to come over right now?!
As for why, naturally it is because Su Yu's timing is this great, showing up right at the most crucial moment, and because he had such mischievous tastes in things he deemed fun.
“Master Host, you know, you’re really bad.” Round Ball flitted around in a circle. They had clearly arrived a few minutes ago, and yet Su Yu had waited until the most critical moment to make his presence known. Wasn't this deliberately playing with people?
“Aren't I just acting according to the story?” Su Yu chuckled, giving an innocent "I'm just following the plotline" look.
When Qin Yiran saw Su Yu, her eyes immediately flared with anger, “You shameless servant, how dare you appear in front of this Consort!"
“Esteemed Consort, control yourself. This servant came here today not to listen to your scolding, but rather to save your life." Although Qin Yiran yelled at him, Su Yu was not angry at all. He knew that soon, he would return back these swear words in another manner tenfold, no, a hundred times more.
“Save this Consort's life? This Consort is living well, where is the need for you – a lowly servant – to come barging in? Also, you have no right to be involved in any of Consort's affairs!" Even though her situation was very poor, Qin Yiran still raised her noble chin.
Su Yu sneered and his eyes fell on the bowl of milk pudding. His next words caused several of the people standing around to turn pale. "It seems that the Esteemed Consort still doesn't know that someone has poisoned this pudding?"
Qin Yiran was stunned for moment, and once she reacted, her voice became shrill. “What did you say?! How could this bowl of pudding be poisoned!”
Su Yu wanted to announce the answer, but then Qin Yiran continued to talk with herself, her brain making up all kinds of conspiracy theories. "I know, the culprit must be you! I must be right."
“……” Carelessly creating supplemental theories is a disease, please get cured ah. Su Yu was simply speechless, “Esteemed Consort, please use your remaining limited IQ and consider the following. If it really was me who had tried to poison you, then why would I leap out right when you were about to eat it, telling you to stop? Even an idiot can think this through, okay?"
However, Qin Yiran was obviously the most foolish even in a group of idiots. Her attention was not caught on the logic, but rather on, “You actually dare to imply that this Consort is an idiot, how dare you, you are guilty of a great sin! This is a crime that you can die from!"
Su Yu rolled his eyes extra hard. Sure enough, between himself and Qin Yiran existed a huge IQ gap, much more so than the gap between himself and Round Ball. He couldn't expect Qin Yiran who was as stupid as a pig to keep up with his rhythm, so he could only try to steer the conversation back on topic. “Esteemed Consort, forgive this servant. The contents of this bowl were poisoned by the girl standing next to you – Yue Lian – and she even personally created the poison."
Qin Yiran subconsciously looked towards Yue Lian, both surprised and suspicious, and Yue Lian felt her heart jump. She opened her mouth to defend herself, "Han Gong Gong, ever since the incident, this servant is the only one who's stayed faithfully by the Esteemed Consort's side. How could I have committed this great sin?"
In these cases, the best way to faceslap a slag was not to argue logically with them because they would only speak nonsense. Instead, one must bring out real and formidable evidence, and then enjoy the pa pa pa of repeated faceslaps, watching them transform from calm, to gradually collapsing, and ultimately to painful despair.
Su Yu smiled and clapped his hands. Soon, an imperial doctor came in and after inspecting the bowl for a while, he finally concluded, “Han Gong Gong, this bowl of milk pudding was indeed poisoned. This poison is colourless and tasteless, and even a tiny drop can be fatal."
Su Yu nodded and clapped his hands again. This time, two chefs from the royal kitchen came in.
Without waiting for Su Yu's prompt, one took initiative to say, "Around 15 minutes ago, that girl over there came into the royal kitchen, wanting to exchange a silver coin for a bowl of milk pudding. This servant had refused. Later, when I was cleaning, I found a paper bag lying around in a hidden corner."
At this time, the doctor interjected, “I’ve looked at the paper bag before this, and its contents were extremely poisonous and identical to the substance found in the bowl of milk pudding.”
The other chef swallowed nervously, but he honestly confessed, "Yue Lian girl also approached this servant. In a moment of weakness, this servant had accepted and given her a bowl of milk pudding. But this servant can swear – the milk pudding itself definitely has no problems, and that paper bag definitely was not brought in by me!"
Yue Lian completely did not expect that Su Yu would come in all prepared with this many people – and even find the paper bag she had deliberately left behind to frame the kitchen staff – and she began to panic. “This servant did indeed exchange for that bowl of pudding with a silver coin, but that was only out of concern for the Esteemed Consort. Everyday, she has to eat such bitter food which has been laced with huanglian, this servant felt great pain watching that! What evidence does Han Gong Gong have that the poison was set by me?!"
Su Yu did not address Yue Lian, but instead clapped his hands again, calling upon two maidservants working in Joyful Palace.
The two of them had also obviously been informed of their parts in advance, and so one began speaking without further prompt. "Yue Lian heads out at 11:51am everyday to collect the Esteemed Consort's lunch, and comes back at 11:52am. However, today, she came back at 11:53am."
The other maidservant continued, “In the past month, Yue Lian always brings the food directly to the Esteemed Consort, but today, this servant saw her head into her own room first, and then come out after a while to bring the food to the Esteemed Consort."
“I was just going back to my room to get something – this isn't proof that I've done anything wrong!” Yue Lian tried to defend herself.
Su Yu glanced at the determinedly stubborn Yue Lian and felt that he had enjoyed enough of her wonderful expressions. It was time to end this. He slowly reached into his sleeve and brought out a small paper bag, “Yue Lian girl had gone back to retrieve this, correct? Wow, to actually hide the poison in the compartment between your bed and the wall, what a daring move!"
Translator: Lone Wolf Translations
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