Song Yinghuai lifted his eyes and glanced at Caiyu.
Caiyu was hot - tempered, impulsive and impatient. She always wanted to avenge her grievances on the spot.
When she first entered the mansion, she could restrain herself a bit. But now, under Song Yinghuai's lenient supervision, she had gradually revealed her true nature.
For a servant, this was a big taboo.
However, Song Yinghuai didn't want to stop her anymore.
He thought it was fine. Let's just raise her into a tyrannical little servant who relied on his power!
In this way, she wouldn't be able to leave him or the Prince Yan's Mansion.
Jiang Jinyue was ridiculed and tears welled up in her eyes again. "Cousin, I... about this matter, Yue'er..."
She didn't know how to explain that she had nothing to do with it.
If she said that she was really living in such straitened circumstances, how could she explain the elaborate headdress on her head?
It was already kind of Song Yinghuai not to expose her lie on the spot.
She gritted her teeth, suddenly got up from the ground, ran towards Zhuier, raised her arm and gave the half - dead Zhuier a hard slap:
"Evil servant! I didn't expect that in order to vent your anger, you would even harm your master! Hurry up and hand over the antidote now! I can still plead for you with cousin and not implicate your family. I'll even grant you a whole body!"
Her hand hit Zhuier's split wound, and her palm was smeared with thick blood.
The nauseous feeling churned in her stomach. Jiang Jinyue used all her strength to hold back the scream and nausea, and looked at Zhuier with a gloomy face.
Hearing Jiang Jinyue say that she wouldn't implicate her family, Zhuier couldn't help but give a sad smile.
"The servant didn't buy the antidote... The antidote is..."
After Zhuier mumbled the words vaguely, she finally couldn't hold on anymore and fainted.
Song Yinghuai motioned for Liu Huashan and the others to lock Zhuier in the dungeon. He also ordered the leader of Duoyan to go to the Biansha Black Market quickly and bring back the Hu merchant who sold the medicine and the antidote.
The leader took the order and left.
Song Yinghuai looked at Zhu Xiao and asked, "The underground black market in Biansha is a place full of all kinds of people. It's only two hours until dawn. I'm afraid it's too late. Does the master have any way to temporarily suppress the poison in the princess dowager?"
Zhu Xiao nodded. "Master Guangzhi can use the silver - needle acupuncture method to slow down the spread of the poison. He can delay it for another half a day... But according to the schedule, the messenger from the capital should be taken back to the capital by the old eunuch at dawn."
"By then, that eunuch will cause a ruckus, and the princess dowager will be in trouble. Your Highness may not be able to attend to both matters."
"It doesn't matter. They are just insignificant clowns." Song Yinghuai said, "Disperse all irrelevant people. Let them go!"
Zhu Xiao waved his hand at everyone, and the crowd quickly filed out of this slaughterhouse.
Only the nervous Jiang Jinyue and the silent Caiyu were left.
It was late at night and cold. Her body was full of wounds. When the wind blew, her pale and weak face due to excessive blood loss looked even more haggard.
Song Yinghuai casually glanced at her unsteady figure and then turned around and said:
"Go back to the study."
Although the study didn't have as many fireplaces as the bedroom, it was still warm.
Jiang Jinyue stood tremblingly on one side.
Song Yinghuai didn't ask her to sit down, so she didn't dare to sit down on her own initiative.
Caiyu brewed a pot of hot tea and came in. Her cold hands couldn't help but hold the pot to keep warm.
Zhu Xiao had rushed back with Song Yinghuai day and night and had been busy searching the Wanxiang Hall. He hadn't eaten or drunk anything since yesterday.
Seeing Caiyu bring in the tea, he grinned and stood up to take it.
Suddenly, Song Yinghuai coughed lightly behind him.
"Old Zhu, Duoyan Wuliang just told me that the spy, Nanny Yu, committed suicide in the dungeon."
These words made Caiyu and Zhu Xiao freeze at the same time.
Zhu Xiao was attracted by Song Yinghuai's words. He no longer tried to grab the teapot from Caiyu's hand. He turned around in surprise and exclaimed:
"What? That old woman was tied up in the dungeon. Our people had searched her. All the weapons and poison on her had been found, even the poison hidden in her teeth. How did she commit suicide?"
Caiyu's heart was pounding. Her blood seemed to be flowing backwards. She secretly looked at Song Yinghuai's slightly tired and gloomy face.
What was coming finally came.
Out of the corner of his eye, Song Yinghuai saw Caiyu's fingers holding the teapot tighten nervously. He slightly narrowed his eyes and said calmly:
"The guard in the dungeon reported that Nanny Yu swallowed a piece of broken iron, which cut her throat and internal organs. She died slowly from internal bleeding."
"This way of committing suicide is quite cruel." Zhu Xiao stared wide - eyed and said in admiration, "It must have taken one or two days for her to die. Many men may not have the courage to do this. She was really a tough one."
"The key is that when she committed suicide like this, our guards must not have noticed it at that time. By the time they found that she was almost dead, it was already too late to save her."
"No, where did that old woman get the iron piece to put in her mouth?"
Song Yinghuai smiled faintly, tapped his finger on the table, and looked at Caiyu with a seemingly absent - minded gaze. His voice was as gentle as the approaching sound of death:
"I didn't expect that someone who seems harmless actually doesn't even blink an eye when committing murder!"
With a "thud", Caiyu knelt on the ground holding the teapot, with a determined look on her face:
"Your Highness, Caiyu is guilty. Nanny Yu was forced to death by this servant!"
"Girl Caiyu!" Zhu Xiao sighed, but he didn't seem to be surprised.
The room suddenly became so quiet that it was suffocating.
Jiang Jinyue looked at the other three people in the room in surprise, feeling like an extra person.
What were they talking about?
She also had an impression of Nanny Yu. She was just an old servant and Jiang Jinyue had never taken her seriously.
That old servant was dead?
So what if she was dead...
Jiang Jinyue stood there blankly, feeling a creepy sensation in her heart.
Song Yinghuai didn't seem to mind her presence at all.
What did this mean?
Did he consider her as someone who was about to die too?
Song Yinghuai got up, stood in front of Caiyu, and looked down at her. His eyes were as cold as a cold pool, freezing people's hearts bit by bit.
"Why?" he asked softly, but one couldn't detect any anger in his voice.
Since the appearance of the Duoyan 3000 Guards, Caiyu had been thinking about how to answer. When Song Yinghuai asked, she blurted out without hesitation:
"Your Highness, there is something this servant has never said. On the Lunar New Year's Eve, when this servant was robbed and running away, I ran into Nanny Yu. I don't know why I met her at that time. Anyway, this servant asked her for help, but she left this servant and Uncle Zheng and ran away by herself!"
"Uncle Zheng died, and this servant was kidnapped. I almost lost my innocence..." Caiyu's voice choked with sobs. "This servant was fortunate enough to be saved by Your Highness later. When I returned to the mansion, I found that old servant was still at ease. This servant really couldn't forget Uncle Zheng's unclosed eyes when he died, nor could I forget the humiliation I suffered in the Golden Phoenix Tower!"
"That night, this servant accidentally saw Your Highness arresting the spy and only then knew Nanny Yu's identity. This servant... this servant boldly sneaked into the dungeon. That old servant had been tortured and just wanted to die quickly. This servant simply fulfilled her wish."
Caiyu lowered her head and held the hot teapot tightly. Her heart was pounding:
"This servant knows that I have ruined Your Highness's clues, but this servant was so angry at that time that I just wanted that old servant to die... Your Highness, please punish this servant!"
The room fell silent again.
Caiyu unconsciously bit her lower lip. She felt the scrutinizing gaze on top of her head, which never left her for a moment.
She held the teapot, not realizing that it was so hot that it burned her hands.
What she just said was a mixture of truth and falsehood.
The truth was that Nanny Yu did leave the Prince Yan's Mansion that night and lie in ambush at the appointed place.
No matter how one investigated, they could find that she wasn't in the prince's records that night.
The false part was that she didn't run into Nanny Yu with Uncle Zheng. She didn't meet Nanny Yu that night at all.
But it didn't matter. Both Uncle Zheng and Nanny Yu were dead.
The remaining members of the Dong family had been wiped out by Song Yinghuai's people.
Dong Yurong was also dead.
She was the only one in the world who knew about that matter.
She was gambling that Song Yinghuai would be soft - hearted towards her!