With something on his mind, Master Sun, whose already poor cooking skills were about to bottom out, became even worse. He absent-mindedly made a lunch that was barely enough to kill a person, which caused another incident. After many officials and guards rolled their eyes and scolded Ji Caimai, Master Sun and Master Wang left Dali Temple together.

The time of the appointment with that person was not yet there.

They had arrived early and waited under a crooked-necked willow tree in front of the mansion, basking in the sun for a good half hour before they finally saw a pale-skinned and powdered white-haired eunuch emerge, holding an umbrella.

Looking at the white-haired eunuch with a pale face and bright red lips, the two of them shrank in unison: they always felt that the white-haired eunuch walking in front of them was exactly the same as the monster in the book that ate people and had no time to wipe their mouths.

When he walked up to the two of them, the white-haired eunuch glanced at them sideways and said, “Then Wen Xuance’s daughter has left the palace?”

The high-pitched voice made the two of them startled, and they hurriedly said “Yes” “Yes”.

The white-haired eunuch sneered after hearing this, and glanced at the two of them: “Working as a cook in your public kitchen?”

The two nodded hurriedly again.

The eunuch “hmphed” and said, “What’s the big deal! You two couldn’t handle a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl? Are you incapable of dealing with such a small matter?”

Master Sun and Master Wang sighed bitterly, saying, “Although that girl is only fourteen or fifteen years old, she’s given us more trouble than we can handle. As the saying goes, ‘Like father, like son,’ even a mouse’s child can dig a hole. That Wen Xuance was a cunning fellow, and his daughter was just as cunning. She’s been manipulating things behind the scenes, favoring our kitchen’s procurement both openly and secretly. Since she arrived, the two of us have already been scolded several times!”

When the white-haired eunuch heard this, he rolled his eyes, looked at the two of them with disgust, and spat: “It’s bad luck! Why are you two so useless?”

The two of them laughed and admitted their mistakes.

After being scolded by the eunuch for a while, they finally heard the white-haired eunuch say, “What’s the big deal! There’s no need to bother the master. I’ll just inform the inner court, and it will be taken care of!”

After hearing this, Master Sun and Master Wang were overjoyed and thanked the eunuch profusely!

The eunuch snorted coldly, raised his shrill voice, and shouted: “Go away! You two are an eyesore!”

Seeing the vicious guard in the mansion coming out with a stick, the two of them were so frightened that they rolled and crawled away.

They ran until they could no longer see the eunuch and then stopped.

The two of them were holding on to the corner of the wall, panting, but the expressions on their faces were shockingly ugly.

“Ugh, this eunuch!” Master Sun couldn’t help but spit and cursed, “A dog relying on someone else’s power!”

Master Wang’s expression was equally grim, and he added, “If it weren’t for dealing with that girl named Wen, we wouldn’t have to suffer the torment of a eunuch.”

“That’s all, just bear with it for now!” Master Sun cursed a few words and said angrily, “When the internal affairs department comes forward, I don’t think that girl can do anything.”

“In the end, it’s all because of that girl named Wen. If she hadn’t come, the two of us wouldn’t have to endure this frustration,” Master Wang said with resentment. Then, he looked at the sky and said, “It’s getting late; we need to go back and prepare the evening meal…..”

Although few people in the entire Dali Temple are looking forward to Master Wang’s evening meal, people have to eat. This evening meal must be done and eaten.

When it was time for dinner to be served, Liu Yuan, who had been running around for a day, finally returned to Dali Temple and put the clues he found in front of Lin Fei.

“Lin Shaoqing, what you said is right! That Li Ruizhi did buy these medicinal materials,” Liu Yuan said, “but he didn’t buy them in one place, but in different pharmacies. He bought them separately, but all the purchases happened to be on the same day.”

The medicinal materials were obviously available in a drugstore, but he chose to buy them separately. After checking this, a fool will also know that there must be something wrong with this Li Ruizhi.

Liu Yuan took a sip of the sour plum drink handed to him by Shangfeng and sighed a little: in fact, he was even less happy with the Duke of Huai’an than Li Ruizhi, but he would rather have it be the Duke of Huai’an who did such a thing, not the seemingly polite Li Ruizhi.

“What’s the use of this medicinal material?” Liu Yuan couldn’t help but ask after drinking a bowl of sour plum drink to drive away the dryness in his body.

Lin Fei raised his head and asked him: “Do you still remember the scene when you and I first entered the public house in Huai’an County?”

Liu Yuan was startled when he heard this, and the scene at that time flashed in his mind: the Duke of Huai’an was having fun waving his hand. He asked the maids to go down. A large group of maids came out and almost bumped into him and the two of them.

After hearing Liu Yuan’s answer, Lin Fei did not comment. He just raised his hand, pointed to his nose, and said, “What smell can you smell?”

What… smell?

“It smelled like powder!” Liu Yuan recalled the situation at that time and said, “The maid put on makeup, and the smell of powder became stronger.”

Lin Fei glanced at Liu Yuan who was still recalling, rubbed his eyebrows, and said: “The fragrance of the powder is mixed with the smell of medicine.”

Liu Yuan: “…I didn’t smell it.”

How many people have noses as good as his own?

Lin Fei pointed to the list that Liu Yuan brought back and said, “The smell of the medicinal materials above collided with the medicinal properties in the medicinal bath package of Duke Huai’an and turned into poison.”

Liu Yuan was shocked when he heard this: “Then Duke Huai’an…”

Lin Fei closed the medical book spread out in front of him and said, “Excessive sleepiness, unsteady footsteps, yellowish whites of the eyes – it won’t be long before he is gone.”

Speaking with such a calm tone about the imminent demise of Duke Huai’an County was quite remarkable.

Liu Yuan: “…”

So, reading medical books was really useful? When he looked at Duke Huai’an’s appearance, he just thought he was overindulging in sexual pleasure. How could he tell whether he was “having only a few days left to live”?

“Is it Li Rui’s poison that is killing Duke Huai’an?” Liu Yuan came to his senses and looked a little complicated when he thought of this conclusion.

Lin Fei said “Hmm” and said, “That’s it.”

“But why would he…” Liu Yuan mumbled but then shook his head. “No, it doesn’t make sense. He has no motive to poison Duke Huai’an County.”

Once Huai’an County Duke dies, Li Ruizhi can take his place and inherit the title of Duke of Huai’an.

“But this doesn’t add up either. Duke Huai’an County was planning to…,” Liu Yuan began but then hesitated.

“Without reporting to the court, Duke Huai’an County’s position naturally wouldn’t be given to Li Ruizhi,” Lin Fei explained. But even though Li Ruizhi still calls Duke Huai’an County his uncle, he has already been recorded in the family genealogy, and the adoption process is complete. With Duke Huai’an County’s death, he can also inherit the estate.”

So, was Li Ruizhi seeking wealth and hence killing someone? Motivated by wealth? Liu Yuan frowned, thinking of Li Ruizhi sitting in the study, touched his nose, and sighed, “I really couldn’t imagine that he is such a person.”

However, Lin Fei gave him a sidelong glance and said, “The matter of Duke Huai’an County is undoubtedly the work of Li Rui. However, I believe there is more to this whole affair.”

Liu Yuan looked at Lin Fei in disbelief: “Does Lin Shaoqing think that the death of Yan San and others is also related to Li Ruizhi? “

Li Ruizhi’s poisoning and killing of Duke Huai’an can be said to be murder, but why did he kill Yan San and others? There was no reason!

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T/N This is the last free chapter. Please read my previous post to know more. The next free chapters for this novel from now on will be on Thursday, Friday and Saturday starting from second week of October.