Cui Jintang passed the snacks in her hand to her rather impatiently. "You can eat them all, but don't eat too much."
Xie Rou took them all without any courtesy and led her in.
Xie Rou had been taking an afternoon nap, so the maids in Fengyi Palace didn't dare to go in and report the matter of Lady Pei.
Xie Rou scolded all the servants. Then she turned around and saw Cui Jintang sitting there listlessly, not even touching her favorite desserts.
She just sat there blankly, in a daze.
Xie Rou dismissed all the servants and sat beside her. "Lord Pei is seriously ill. Why didn't you rush to see him this time?"
"Zhu San has gone. What else do I need to do?"
Even though Xie Rou brought up Pei Zhaolin on her own initiative, Cui Jintang's mood didn't improve at all.
Xie Rou tilted her head and looked at the dejected Cui Jintang. "Did you quarrel with Lord Pei?"
Cui Jintang lifted her eyelids slightly and briefly explained what had happened during this period.
"He doesn't know that I'm Jiang Wu, so I can understand that he suspects me. But I just feel unhappy."
Xie Rou stroked her head and sighed. "You still have a child's disposition."
"I've already come of age!"
Xie Rou just smiled without saying a word.
She couldn't solve this problem either. "Tangtang, if you keep suspecting each other, the one who will get hurt in the end will only be the one who loves you the most."
Xie Rou wanted Cui Jintang to confess everything to Pei Zhaolin first.
Cui Jintang replied listlessly. "I'll handle my own affairs well. Sister, you're in your advanced pregnancy now. Don't think about these things too much."
At least she had to wait until the imperial examination was over.
Cui Jintang thought for a while.
---
On Shili Street, in the Pei Mansion.
As soon as Zhu San entered the Pei Mansion, he received a fierce blow on the back of his neck!
Zhu San blinked and looked back at the deputy general who had struck him in great confusion. "Why did you hit me?"
The deputy general looked at his own hand in shock and then at Zhu San's neck.
He blurted out. "Is your neck made of iron?!"
Zhu San's fingers hidden in his sleeves moved, revealing several silver needles coated with poison powder.
Zhu San raised his hand and was about to pat the deputy general on the shoulder. "I've been testing poisons on my own body since I was a child. If I didn't have a good body, how could I conduct the tests?"
Before he could finish his sentence, the hand hiding the silver needles was twisted hard, and a sudden kick was delivered to the back of his knee. Zhu San knelt down on the ground.
There was a loud "thud".
Zhu San winced in pain and subconsciously turned his head to look.
The person who came was dressed in black clothes with black hair and looked down at him from above.
That sharp look in his eyes made Zhu San feel uneasy.
Zhu San stiffened all over and asked dryly. "Isn't Lord Pei seriously ill and unable to get out of bed?"
Pei Zhaolin's calm eyebrows gradually became sharp. His jaw was tightly clenched, and the veins on the back of his hand holding the scroll bulged.
He unfurled the scroll in his hand with a swish, revealing the face of a woman.
"This person is the person in charge of the Cui Clan in Qinghe. Do you know her?"
Hearing this, Zhu San slowly shifted his gaze away with his neck stiffened and didn't even look at it for a few times. "I don't know!"
Pei Zhaolin neither got angry nor annoyed. He asked again in a deep voice. "Are you sure you don't know?"
Zhu San answered loudly and tried to get up, but was restrained by the deputy general and pressed down again.
Zhu San was extremely anxious. "What on earth did Lord Pei ask me to come here for today?"
Pei Zhaolin didn't answer. He took a new scroll from Fu Li.
He pressed two fingers against the axis and gently pushed it open. It was another portrait of a woman.
"Identify."
Just one word, which made Zhu San feel dizzy.
He was kneeling on the gravel, and his knees ached.
Zhu San lowered his head, and his voice was hoarse. "I don't know."
Pei Zhaolin didn't comment. He flicked his fingertips, and the end of the axis closed with a "click".
"Next one."
Pei Zhaolin pushed the scroll away. The woman in the painting was wearing red gauze. Her hair was low, and her neck was exposed. There was a small butterfly-shaped scar on the side of her neck.
"Identify."
The voice was colder and more urgent.
Zhu San still shook his head. "I don't know."
The third one, the fourth one, the fifth one...
Pei Zhaolin's movements became faster and faster. Every time he pushed the scroll, the sound of it hitting the table became louder.
"Identify."
"Identify."
"Identify."
With each word he uttered, Pei Zhaolin took half a step forward. His face was as gloomy as a fierce ghost, which made Zhu San feel flustered.
That single word, like an evil curse, always lingered in Zhu San's mind.
It made him can't help but think of his master in Yaowang Valley who whipped and scolded him casually for failing to solve the poison...
Zhu San's knuckles dug hard into his palm, and his breathing became rapid.
Zhu San's answer was almost forced into an instinct. As soon as Pei Zhaolin unfurled the scroll in his hand, the words "I don't know" would break through his throat on their own.
A drop of cold sweat slid down Zhu San's eyebrow bone into the corner of his eye, making him not even dare to blink.
Zhu San mechanically repeated. "I don't know."
Pei Zhaolin stopped for a moment. His gaze shifted from the painting to Zhu San's face, and he let out a short laugh.
It made Zhu San shiver with fear. He wanted to take another look in a hurry, but saw Pei Zhaolin bend down slightly.
He pressed two fingers against the axis but didn't unfurl it immediately. Instead, he stared intently at Zhu San's facial expression.
"The current imperial concubine. You don't know her?"
Zhu San's back trembled violently, but he gritted his teeth tightly and refused to explain any more.
Pei Zhaolin let out a low laugh. He bent down and pinched Zhu San's chin with two fingers, forcefully lifting his face up.
"Listen up, Doctor Chou San."
"Those who deceive and obstruct the investigation of the Censorate will, according to the laws of the Yan State, be beheaded at the waist in the market, their family register will be confiscated, and not a single chicken or dog will be left."
Pei Zhaolin's voice was extremely soft, as if he was talking about the weather today.
But his palm slowly moved down and pressed against Zhu San's Adam's apple, and his knuckles tightened inch by inch.
"I won't behead you at the waist."
"But I will tie up your senior brothers and sisters from Yaowang Valley in front of the main gate of the Censorate, peel the skin off their backs, and use an iron comb to scratch out the character 'deceive', so that all the common people can walk under their skin."
"On the second day, I'll scratch out the character 'conceal'."
"On the third day, I'll scratch out the characters 'censor'."
"On the fourth day, if you still have a breath left—"
He flicked his fingertips, drew out the short blade from his waist, slid it along Zhu San's earlobe to his collarbone, and gently pressed it down. A bead of blood rolled down the cold blade.
"I'll put you in a painted lacquer box and send you to your master."
At this moment, not only did Zhu San tremble all over, but even the two deputy generals beside him couldn't bear to listen anymore.
Fu Li said blankly. "Young master must be crazy..."
"Doctor Chou San." Pei Zhaolin put away his knife, and a drop of blood on the blade fell to the ground.
Pei Zhaolin held a scroll in each hand. His knuckles were slightly protruding, and his voice was cold. "This is your last chance. Do you know these two people?"
Zhu San was kneeling on the bluestone ground with his back straight, but his fingers under his sleeves were already pinching so hard that they turned white.
He looked up. After seeing the person in one of the scrolls clearly, his pupils dilated violently!
He quickly lowered his head. In a furious roar like a fierce ghost demanding a soul, "Identify", he quickly pointed with his hand.
Zhu San thought it was over.
But in the next instant—
Pei Zhaolin slightly raised his chin. His browbones were sharp, and he looked down with half-closed eyelids, making people's knees bend involuntarily.
He said calmly. "You lied."
Pei Zhaolin picked up the other scroll that Zhu San had discarded.
The woman in the painting was wearing a veil hat. She turned her head halfway, and the veil hat was blown up, revealing a faint half of her face and a small light red mole on the side of her neck.
He remembered that there was also such a mole on the side of Cui Jintang's neck.