Fu Zhen looked at her without getting up, saying indifferently, "Concubine Su."
Concubine Su wasn't annoyed. She sat down opposite Fu Zhen on her own. Seeing that the teacup in front of Fu Zhen was empty, she reached out to take it, but Fu Zhen quickly blocked her hand.
She raised her eyebrows slightly.
Fu Zhen let out a chuckle. "How could I dare to trouble you, Concubine, to pour tea for me?"
Concubine Su retracted her hand smoothly and said in a soft voice, "The young miss is the mistress of the mansion. I'm just a servant girl. It's only right for me to pour a cup of tea for the young miss."
These words were neither soft nor hard, leaving one feeling uncomfortable.
Fu Zhen lowered her eyes and poured herself a cup of tea. "Concubine, you're joking. After all, you're the mother of Sister Luobing. You're also an elder in the mansion."
Hearing her mention her daughter, a flash of hatred passed through Concubine Su's eyes, but her expression turned a bit melancholy. "Bing'er... With her around, I was a mistress. Now that she's gone, what am I?"
"Of course you're still an elder," Fu Zhen said indifferently. "Whether Sister Luobing is here or not, no one in this mansion can shake your status."
"Status?" Concubine Su suddenly threw her head back and laughed. "What status can I have? The young miss is really joking."
"I was only rewarded to the marquis as a concubine because the mistress was pregnant. I'm not particularly good - looking, and I have a mild temper. Over the years, the master has been so busy. When he comes back to the mansion, he either goes to see the mistress or the heir. Now with you here, he'll remember me even less." After laughing enough, Concubine Su took out a handkerchief and gently wiped the corners of her eyes, as if trying to erase the invisible traces of tears. "My whole life has been like stagnant water, and I've accepted it."
She really used to accept her fate.
But then, out of the blue, there came Fu Zhen.
Previously, she wasn't favored because everyone in this mansion was a proper master, each with a noble status. She accepted it.
But who was Fu Zhen?
A bastard whose real father was unknown. Just because of a bit of blood - relation, she managed to make everyone in this mansion show partiality to her.
Why!
She reached out to pour herself a cup of tea. "Sometimes I envy you very much."
Sometimes I also hate you very much.
She raised her teacup and wanted to clink glasses with Fu Zhen. "You're a lucky person. Bing'er was close to you when she was alive. So I'll toast you on her behalf. I hope that after her passing, she can live a healthy life and be as lucky as you."
Fu Zhen looked at her silently. After a while, she raised her teacup and gently clinked it with Concubine Su's. "I never think I'm lucky."
If she were really lucky, why would she have been drifting around for half her life and died a tragic death in her previous life?
"Concubine, as a junior, I'd like to advise you," she looked at Concubine Su whose face changed. "Don't start to regret until you're at the end of your rope."
After saying that, she still looked at Concubine Su but raised her head and drank the tea.
Concubine Su watched her finish drinking. Suddenly, she smiled. "Does the young miss think I put poison in it?"
"I'm not that stupid," she said coldly, raising her head and downing the tea in one gulp. She even showed the empty cup bottom to Fu Zhen. "Is the young miss relieved now?"
Fu Zhen smiled faintly. "When did I ever think so of you, Concubine? I was just giving you a piece of advice. You've wronged me, Concubine."
The expression on Concubine Su's face turned cold. She stared fixedly at Fu Zhen. "... If Bing'er were as smooth - tongued as you, she wouldn't have ended up like this."
When it came to Chen Luobing, Fu Zhen didn't want to argue with her. She had already gone down a dead - end road, and no matter what others said, she wouldn't listen.
"Then why did you come to see me today, Concubine?" she asked straightforwardly.
Concubine Su sneered. "To poison you. It'd be best if I could poison you to death."
She seemed to have completely torn off her gentle mask, revealing her spiky insides. Whoever got close to her would be stabbed and bleed.
"If you hadn't said that, I might have believed you a bit," Fu Zhen said.
She had never seen someone who openly poisoned someone and then revealed it in front of the victim.
Moreover, in her previous life, she didn't even know when the poison was administered. Just from today's encounter with Concubine Su, Fu Zhen didn't think the other party would be so simple as to poison her.
Concubine Su let out a couple of sneers, her tone sarcastic. "Believe me? I just praised you for being smart, and now you're being stupid?"
She stood up and slowly approached Fu Zhen. Leaning over to her ear like a green snake spitting out its tongue, she said, "I didn't put the poison just now, but now..."
She let out a low laugh, cold and slippery, truly like a venomous snake.
Fu Zhen's hand holding the teacup froze. Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her abdomen. Her face changed. She immediately pushed Concubine Su away and stood up, but her vision suddenly blurred. A sweet taste filled her throat, and she vomited a mouthful of blood.
The fresh blood stained her clothes and even a large part of the stone table in front of her.
She stared at Concubine Su with wide - open eyes, never expecting that she would be bold enough to poison her in broad daylight. "You..."
Concubine Su threw her head back and laughed maniacally. Her laughter grew louder and louder, like a crow screeching to announce death.
Fu Zhen felt her vision slowly darkening. Suddenly, she reached out and grabbed tightly onto Concubine Su's sleeve. She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly vomited another mouthful of blood.
Gobs of fresh blood gushed out of her throat, and even Concubine Su's clothes were stained red.
In a daze, she seemed to hear someone calling her. The voice was urgent and extremely anxious. "Zhenzhen!"
Her heart suddenly relaxed, and she completely fell into a coma.
She didn't sleep soundly this time. There was always someone talking by her ear. It seemed that someone suddenly cried out shrilly. Then there was a "bang" sound, followed by screams. After a moment, there was complete silence.
She felt tired and really wanted to sleep, but she couldn't sleep well. Her eyeballs kept rolling under her thin eyelids. Finally, annoyed by the voice in her ear, she opened her eyes.
The white light stabbed into her eyes. Her fragile eyes had just opened but were immediately stimulated to close again.
But this movement was noticed by the person beside her. He immediately grabbed her hand and gently called her name. "Zhenzhen."
Her five senses returned instantly. Her abdomen still ached faintly. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at Chen Tingfeng, whose hair was a bit messy and who looked in a sorry state. She smiled faintly. "Why did you make yourself look like this?"
Chen Tingfeng tightened his grip on her hand. He took a deep breath and said in a muffled voice, holding back the emotion in his chest. "You've been asleep for three days. You scared me half to death!"
God knew how panicked he was when he returned to the mansion and saw Fu Zhen covered in blood. In that instant, his mind went blank. His feet felt like they were rooted to the ground, as if they weighed a thousand pounds, pressing him down and not allowing him to take a step.
His heart was still beating in his chest, but the next second, it was seized by a sharp pain.
It was as if however much pain Fu Zhen was in, his heart would feel the same.
His heart was about to break.
He lay on the edge of the bed, staring at her with red eyes. "I shouldn't have agreed to your risky plan!"
He had let his guard down. He thought that after the previous incident, everything would be fine. In his previous life, Fu Zhen had been poisoned with a slow - acting poison, so he also thought that it would be the same in this life. Who would have thought that Concubine Su would be so reckless and administer a highly poisonous substance!
If he had come just a moment later, perhaps...
Suddenly, he reached out and hugged Fu Zhen. His eyes buried in her shoulder were completely red, and the hidden fierceness could still be faintly seen. "... I'll make her pay for this with her blood!"