Chapter 129 Candy
When Ji Danqing came out of Red Cloud Yard, he turned back and cupped his hands.
"I'm already familiar with the inside of the residence. I don’t dare to trouble second young master and second young mistress to send me off. You two have been on the road all night, so you should go back and take a rest."
Gu Xiran smiled and said, "Doctor Ji, let us have a seat at Plum Flower Pavilion. We still have some things to ask for your guidance. If you're tired, you can rest in the east chamber and go back later."
Ji Danqing looked at him. He smiled helplessly and nodded.
Shu Huan had been silent all the way. When they arrived at Plum Flower Pavilion, Liangchen and Qiaoyun came out to welcome them. Gu Xiran asked them to tightly close the door of the courtyard and ordered all the maids to return to their own room and don’t come out until they're called.
This situation made Liangchen and Qiaoyun terrified. Something must have happened again, but they didn't dare to ask and did as ordered. Gu Xihe was playing with Shang Xin at the moment at Plum Flower Pavilion. After seeing such actions, he was also puzzled, rushed over and asked, "Second big brother, what is going on?"
Gu Xiran didn’t answer and said, "Shang Xin, stay to pour tea."
After he said that, he hurried to the main hall. He waited for the tea to be poured before he let Shang Xin close the door and guard outside. He then spread out his left hand that had been clenched, revealing a handful of candies in his hand.
"What are these?" Gu Xihe curiously went over, grabbed a candy and wanted to peel the candy paper off. He smiled and said, "Second brother, you are behaving more immature as you ages. You even brought a handful of candies back to sneakily eat it behind closed doors! Although eldest big brother had passed away, we can't drink wine and watch opera, but it's of no harm to eat candy…."
He thought that his words were funny and they should be laughing hard at them, but as he spoke, he felt that the atmosphere around him was gloomy and strange. He looked around and saw Shu Huan's and Ji Danqing's serious face. Gu Xiran was even more unpredictable. He couldn’t help but stop his mouth from running and carefully returned the candy into Gu Xiran's hand.
Gu Xiran put that candy on the table. "Doctor Ji, please take a look at it."
Ji Danqing reached for the candy and peeled off the candy paper. He looked at it over and over again for a long time, then asked Shu Huan for a knife. He cut a small piece and tasted it.
When he did these movements, Shu Huan felt that her heart was hanging in her throat….
She remembered that she wanted to eat candy before, but was interrupted by the appearance of Gu Xuan. Moreover, Gu Xuan usually called people in a very low and soft voice. Today, that "second sister-in-law" was abrupt and when she (SH) handed the candy to Gu Xuan, Gu Xuan didn’t eat it and just kept talking.
At that time, she didn’t feel anything wrong with these small details. However, after she saw Gu Xiran stole those candies when nobody was paying attention, only then did she break out in cold sweat. At this moment, she was naturally nervous seeing Ji Danqing taste the candy for fear that he might have tasted something wrong out of the candy.
Ji Danqing narrowed his eyes slightly to distinguish the sugary taste in his mouth. After a while, he shook his head and said, "The malt candy is mixed with a little bit of almond powder."
"That sounds normal." Shu Huan breathed a sigh of relief, "Even with poisonous bitter almonds, such a small amount is of no harm, right?"
Ji Danqing nodded without a word and looked down at the candy in his hand.
"Aren't we being overly suspicious? Every tree and bush look like an enemy soldier?" Shu Huan rubbed her temple with a headache.Every tree and bush look like an enemy soldier: to panic and treat everyone as an enemy.
Gu Xihe didn't know what they were talking about. He frowned dejectedly and said, “Why do I understand nothing?”
No one paid attention to him. Ji Danqing grabbed the knife and cut open the candy in the middle. The candy was solid and there was still no problem. At this time Gu Xiran handed over another piece of candy to him (JDQ): “Look at this one.”
Ji Danqing looked at him (GXR). Gu Xiran nodded and his attitude was very firm. He (JDQ) didn’t say anything. After taking the candy, he cut it open directly in the middle, only to find that there was a small black pill as big as the fingertip in the middle. His face immediately changed slightly.
"What's this?" Gu Xihe curiously moved closer to see.
Ji Danqing picked out the small black pill with the tip of the knife and gently sniffed it under his nose. His eyebrow twisted up: "There are too many substances (drugs) mixed in it. I'm not sure what kind of substances are inside of it at this moment."
Gu Xiran knocked on the table and said with a serious tone, "Little fourth."
"What?"
"Can you get a horse?"
"Oh, no!" Even if Gu Xihe was stupid and didn’t know how the world worked, he could take a hint from their weird behavior. Suddenly he said with a blank face, "There's something wrong with the death of eldest big brother?"
Gu Xiran only said: "We don’t know until we try."
Gu Xihe scratched his head and said, "Then let the carriage keeper bring a horse over here."
"No." Ji Danqing shook his head and said, "Things haven’t been clarified yet. It’s better not to alarm others. Why don't second young master and fourth young master go back to Danqing's place with me? I still have a horse there."
This incident was indeed a bit surprising. Gu Xiran couldn’t care to reject the offer. He nodded and told Shu Huan, "You don't need to go. Stay home and rest, and these candies…."
As he said that, he gathered all the remaining candies and gave it to Shu Huan, "Put them away properly. The candy papers that are slightly marked are poisonous."
Shu Huan agreed in a low voice. She looked at the candies and didn’t feel easy no matter where she stored the candies. As a result, she stuffed it all into the pouch she carried with her. Then she watched them leave. Her mood was a bit complicated.
If there is really something wrong with the candy, then Gu Xuan, she….
Would such a gentle and weak little girl be the culprit who killed Gu Xitian?
Shu Huan steadied herself. She decided to take a nap to restore herself before Gu Xiran came back. However, she still couldn’t sleep after lying on the bed for a while. Then she took a few candies out to compare them and discovered that the outside of the squared candies was wrapped with a red-colored mulberry leather paper. But the dyeing technique wasn’t very good. With a little rub, the fingertips would be dyed with a faint blush.
After repeatedly comparing the candies, she saw the subtle mark that Gu Xiran mentioned. It was a small crimson dot-like needle tip at the sealing point. It needed to be carefully looked at to be able to detect it.
After thinking in silence for a while, Shu Huan found that there were still two doubtful points that weren't resolved. She couldn’t lie down anymore, she got up and called Meijing, "Did you pay any attention to third young miss? Is there anything unusual? Tell me."
"Third young miss?" Meijing shook her head blankly and said, "She's very quiet at home. I never heard of anything happening to her."
Shu Huan raised her eyebrows, "Call Qiaoyun for me."
After a moment, Qiaoyun came in, "What is second young mistress's command?"
Shu Huan picked up the teacup and was absent-minded for a while, "Did the mother of third young miss pass away very young?"
When Shu Huan asked about gossip, Qiaoyun immediately smiled brightly, "Yes. Concubine Chen passed away when third young miss was only six years old. It was said that third young miss was so sad that she lost her voice and refused to speak for more than half a year. Afterwards, I don’t know how her voice got fixed, but she kept quiet habitually and didn’t talk much.
Shu Huan asked, "How did concubine Chen die?"
Qiaoyun lowered her head and thought about it. Finally, she shook her head and said, "That year, I hadn't entered the residence yet. I only vaguely heard that she had died of an illness after spending three months in bed!"
She died of illness!
Shu Huan rubbed her sore eyes with a headache.
This wasn’t right. If Gu Xuan's mother died of an illness, she had no reason to hate Gu Xitian. Murdering people required a motive. It was uncalled for someone to have a killing intent out of nowhere. Gu Xuan didn’t look like an impulsive person, let alone kill her own brother. Unless there were other hidden truths behind concubine Chen's illness. Otherwise, the killer shouldn’t be Gu Xuan.
Or, something else happened without anyone knowing?