After faking my death, the male lead’s cousin went crazy - Chapter 14

After Lanxi reached her conclusion, she began carefully analyzing everything she had seen and heard over the past few days for Gu Wan.

“Last time, when I was keeping watch outside Miss Li’s door for you, Young General, there were already signs. Back then, I said you liked begonias. Doctor Su only said one sentence, and Miss Li immediately treated it like an imperial decree.”

Gu Wan replied matter-of-factly, “Any normal person would be unhappy if someone suddenly told her to climb a cliff, wouldn’t she?”

Lanxi said, “But at that time, she and Doctor Su were walking arm in arm. They looked very close!”

Gu Wan said, “But I remember Ziying was there too, and she was also holding her arm.”

Lanxi continued, “Then what about this time? Although there was a small accident, Young General must admit that after Miss Li made the dessert, aside from Ziying, who was beside her, the first person to taste it was Doctor Su.”

This time, Gu Wan could not refute it. She quietly analyzed Lanxi’s words.

Seeing this, Lanxi hurriedly continued, “And look, after learning that Doctor Su had been poisoned, Miss Li actually risked her life to find the antidote. The moment she heard Doctor Su had woken up, even though her foot was injured, she immediately rushed over. Young General, you were there at the time too!”

That could not be fake, right?

Lanxi looked at Gu Wan with a hint of pride in her eyes, fully confident that she had won back this month’s pay.

But across from her, Gu Wan’s expression grew darker and darker. In the end, she simply pushed aside the things in her hand, extinguished the candle, and turned toward the bedroom.

That night, Gu Wan suffered a rare bout of insomnia.

Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Li Yueyue hanging from the cliff, looking at her through tearful eyes and asking whether she was going to die.

Gu Wan irritably turned over and pulled the blanket over her head.

But after thinking carefully about Lanxi’s words, they did seem to make some sense.

For example, when applying medicine to the girl, Gu Wan had personally helped treat her wound, and Li Yueyue had been utterly unwilling. But as soon as she said the ointment had been made by Su Zhaoyun, Li Yueyue immediately changed her attitude and repeatedly praised Su Zhaoyun for being amazing.

Even when Gu Wan had just pulled her back from the cliff edge, what Li Yueyue said was, “Don’t worry about me. Go back and save Miss Su first.”

So her feelings for Su Zhaoyun had already reached such a degree.

Then what did Su Zhaoyun feel toward Li Yueyue?

In Gu Wan’s impression, whenever the two of them stood together, Su Zhaoyun always had a smile on her face.

No, that was not right. Su Zhaoyun was different from Gu Wan. She was a medical woman by background and was very gentle toward everyone. She did not only smile when looking at Li Yueyue. When she looked at Ziying or Lanxi, her expression was also soft.

Besides, everything before her right now was just Lanxi’s one-sided claim. It could not be counted as fact.

What if Li Yueyue did not like women? Then the reason Li Yueyue was willingly staying behind would have to be reconsidered.

The next day, Su Zhaoyun had recovered somewhat. Her complexion was no longer so deathly pale, and her lips had gradually gained a soft pink color. She hurried over to inspect the poisoned items Gu Wan had brought back from Shang Rongyue’s room.

“You’ve only just recovered from serious illness. There’s really no need to rush. Did you sleep well last night?”

Su Zhaoyun looked at the dark circles beneath Gu Wan’s eyes and smiled with pursed lips. “The one who didn’t sleep well probably wasn’t me, right?”

Gu Wan rubbed her eyes and said with a serious face, “Last night, I kept thinking about who in my camp could be bold enough to tamper with food. I ended up sleeping a little late.”

After that, Gu Wan took Su Zhaoyun to examine the almond powder and the osmanthus honey.

When the silver needle was inserted, there was no problem with the osmanthus honey or one of the jars of preserved apricots. Only the almond powder and the other jar of preserved apricots made the silver needle change color.

Su Zhaoyun first rubbed the almond powder between her fingers and carefully distinguished the smell. Then she poured out the problematic apricot flesh and examined it carefully. In the end, she found the issue.

“Look. The color of these apricots is different from the others.”

Hearing this, Gu Wan looked over. Su Zhaoyun had divided the apricots into two portions. One portion consisted of ordinary yellow apricots. The skin of the other portion was slightly greenish, as if they had been knocked down from the tree before fully ripening.

But in a basket of apricots, it was normal for some to be good and some bad, some sour and some sweet. Ordinary people would never take it to heart.

Su Zhaoyun picked up one of the green apricots and turned it over to look at the end that had been connected to the branch. Sure enough, near the part connected to the pit, she found a tiny round hole.

It was the size of a needle hole, made by the thinnest embroidery needle.

Su Zhaoyun explained, “Almonds are divided into two kinds: southern almonds and northern almonds. Southern apricots have sweet flesh, and the almonds are sweet. Northern apricots have greenish skin, sour and astringent flesh, and bitter almonds.”

Compiled by Jingmu

“Bitter almonds?”

Su Zhaoyun nodded. “Yes. Once these almonds are ground into powder and mixed in, they naturally won’t be easy to detect.”

Gu Wan knew this bit of common knowledge. Bitter almonds were poisonous and could not be eaten. However, the toxicity was not considered high, and the poisonous part was only at the pointed tip of the almond. One would need to eat one to two hundred of them continuously for it to threaten one’s life.

But yesterday, Su Zhaoyun and Ziying…

Su Zhaoyun continued explaining, “That is the reason for this needle hole. From what I can see, these northern apricots were all processed. The poisonous tips of the bitter almonds were collected, ground, and boiled into a concentrated liquid, then injected into these apricots.”

Under normal circumstances, many apricot pits naturally split open. If there were a few like that in one basket, they would almost never be noticed. Moreover, not every needle hole had pierced into the pit. Most had only stopped in the apricot flesh. It was unclear whether this accident had been caused by the other party’s oversight, or something else.

The other party had calculated that the person processing the apricots would inevitably be careless and naturally would not pay attention to such small details.

Su Zhaoyun said, “Bitter almonds and sweet almonds have similar scents. Both come from apricots. Forget Miss Li not knowing medicine—even I would have difficulty detecting it if I didn’t already know.”

Gu Wan glanced at her.

She was quite good at speaking for the girl.

So these apricots were problematic, and the person responsible for purchasing them could not escape blame. Yesterday, Gu Wan had already ordered people to secretly investigate those responsible for purchasing supplies over the past few days and had them all restrained in preparation for questioning.

Now that the evidence had been confirmed, they left only the people who had handled the apricots. After an interrogation, sure enough, someone could not hold out.

After questioning him, Gu Wan had someone invite over her cousin, who was still recovering from his injuries.

Because his wounds had not yet healed, Gu Ze usually went around almost bare from the waist up. Any fabric touching his wounds caused indescribable torment. But there was no helping it. He did not dare disobey Gu Wan’s words, so he had to endure the pain and, with Buyou supporting him, walk step by step into the punishment room—the very place that had left him covered in injuries.

Whether physically or mentally, every step was extremely painful for Gu Ze. When he saw the man kneeling across from Gu Wan in the dark dungeon, he instantly cast all his resentment aside.

“Qian Kui! Why are you here?”

The Qian Kui that Gu Ze spoke of was someone who usually worked in the camp’s rear kitchen. His usual job was to load the purchased goods onto the cart and bring them back to the camp. It was rough labor.

He had not originally belonged to the military camp. He had been a servant of the third branch. Only because Gu Ze had seen that the man’s youngest daughter was beautiful, and the girl had cried to him, asking Young Master to help find her father a good position, had Gu Ze brought him into the military camp.

Qian Kui’s work was considered a good job in the rear kitchen. It seemed like hard labor, but in truth, every time he went down the mountain to purchase supplies, he could skim a little profit. Gu Ze generally turned a blind eye to it. After all, he was still thinking about Qian Kui’s daughter, and the tiny amounts Qian Kui skimmed were not even enough for him to visit a brothel once, so he naturally did not care.

But now, the man was tied up and kneeling before Gu Wan. When he saw Gu Ze, he hurriedly kowtowed again and again.

“Young Master, you must save this lowly one! Huijie always tells me you are the most generous and kind. You must save this lowly one’s life!”

This Huijie was precisely Qian Kui’s youngest daughter.

Across from him, Gu Wan selected a pair of fire tongs from among the torture instruments covering the wall.

After all, this was a dungeon, cold and damp. Even though spring had arrived, using charcoal fire did not feel hot.

Gu Wan used the tongs to pick up a burning-red piece of charcoal and carefully examined it. Then she leisurely said, “They say charcoal-roasted goose tastes good. Tell me, if this piece of charcoal landed on a person’s body, what would that feel like?”

With one sentence, Qian Kui was thoroughly frightened. He hurriedly kowtowed again and again, confessing everything he had done all at once.

“Young General, everything this lowly one says is true. This lowly one only saw that the green apricots beside them were cheaper. For a moment, greed clouded my mind, so I passed them off as good ones. That’s why I made such a great mistake!”

After saying this, he kowtowed several more times in succession. His forehead struck the floor tiles until it bled, but he did not dare stop. He only begged Gu Wan to spare his life.

“What’s going on?” Gu Ze was somewhat confused. It was only a basket of apricots. How much money could that be? Was it worth Gu Wan getting this angry?

So he stepped forward and bowed.

“Older Cousin, Qian Kui has always served by my side. He is the most honest and dutiful person. He only lost his way for a moment because of greed for money. For my sake, spare his life. I’ll make up for the silver lost in this matter.”

Spare him?

That wording was interesting.

Gu Wan pulled the silver clasp from Gu Ze’s belt and placed it into the almond powder. Instantly, the silver clasp changed color.

“A few days ago, Ziying mistakenly ate his apricots and suffered severe poisoning. She nearly lost her life. Why don’t you teach me, Cousin, how this debt should be repaid?”

Gu Ze froze in place in fright. Looking at the blackened silver object, his gaze toward Qian Kui instantly sharpened.

If it were only silver, that would be easy enough. But now human lives were involved, and the person harmed was someone by Gu Wan’s side. If this matter and his previous secret drinking were exposed together, even if his old man did not beat him to death, he would beat half his life out of him.

“No, Young Master! Please listen to this lowly one explain! This lowly one really only wanted to embezzle some silver. How would I dare poison anyone? Young Master, even for Huijie’s sake, you must save this lowly one’s life!”

Looking at Gu Wan before him, whose gloomy aura was like a rakshasa’s, Gu Ze realized that her purpose in calling him here was clearly to hold him accountable.

What Qian Hui? Right now, Gu Ze cared more about protecting himself. In any case, today, Gu Wan would not let this Qian Kui go. Thinking of this, Gu Ze turned around, drew the sword from the waist of a nearby soldier, and directly stabbed it into Qian Kui’s chest.

Blood splattered everywhere, landing on Gu Ze’s twisted face.

Qian Kui’s expression was shocked, his open mouth twitching several times as if he wanted to say something, but he could not make a sound. In the end, he collapsed to the ground and died.

This was Gu Ze’s first time killing someone. Warm blood splashed onto his skin, frightening him so badly that he fell to the side. The blood flowing from beneath Qian Kui soaked through the hem of his clothes. Only after he calmed down slightly did he stagger to his feet.

He turned and apologized to Gu Wan.

“Little Brother was momentarily careless and nearly caused a great disaster. Now the criminal has been executed. I hope Older Cousin will not continue being angry with that dog.”

Gu Wan did not answer. She only patted Gu Ze’s shoulder and said with a smile that was not quite a smile, “You truly are my good little brother.”

After Gu Wan came out of the punishment room, most of the smell of blood on her body had dispersed. Then she had someone call Su Zhaoyun over to further examine Qian Kui’s corpse.

At this time, Lanxi came over with a solemn expression and gave Gu Wan a look. Seeing that no one was around, she stepped forward and reported.

“Young General, recently, aside from us, the palace has also been purchasing large amounts of fresh green apricots.”

“Oh?”

“It is said that Consort Rong has pregnancy cravings and wants to eat sour apricots. His Majesty ordered the Palace Domestic Service to prepare fresh sour apricots for Consort Rong every day. If we had not caught this ride, our people would probably have had great difficulty buying this fruit right now.”

Consort Rong’s surname was Shen. She was the daughter of Gu Wan’s maternal uncle’s family. At the Mid-Autumn banquet some time ago, Shen Rong had voluntarily offered a dance. That night, she was kept in the palace, and the next day, the imperial decree granting her a title was sent to the Shen family.

Overnight, when Gu Wan saw this younger female cousin again, she had to call her “Consort Rong.”

Gu Wan instructed Lanxi, “Investigate further. You must catch the person who sold those things to Qian Kui.”

Who exactly was the person behind the scenes targeting?

If they really were coming for her, that meant Gaoji had already learned of her existence. But when two armies fought, what logic was there in poisoning a single person alone? Those apricots clearly had not been prepared for the soldiers.

If this was a method from the inner palace, then it would not be strange.

But since they were “specially” prepared for Consort Rong, and Consort Rong ate them every day, why was there no movement at all in the palace?

It seemed that after not seeing her for several years, this younger female cousin had become much more formidable.

“After Su Zhaoyun finishes examining it, have her come to my study,” Gu Wan instructed Lanxi.

When Gu Wan turned past the moon gate, she saw Shang Rongyue sitting on the threshold outside her study, holding her cheeks in both hands and staring listlessly at a few blades of grass on the ground.

When Shang Rongyue saw her, dazzling joy flashed in her eyes.

“You’re finally back. I thought you were going to stand me up!”

Because her foot was injured, Shang Rongyue limped as she walked toward Gu Wan, like an injured sparrow flapping its wings unsteadily. She nearly fell onto Gu Wan.

Seeing Gu Wan’s puzzled expression, Shang Rongyue put her hands on her hips and questioned her.

“Learning to write! You really forgot, didn’t you?”