……
Two days later, the gates of the examination compound swung open. A crowd had gathered outside, all there to welcome the examinees who had endured several grueling days within.
The candidates emerged one after another. Some were even carried out—those who had collapsed from exhaustion or poor health during the examinations.
Cui Huaiji was extremely weary when he came out, but he still looked reasonably well. Seeing that her eldest uncle had emerged whole and unharmed, Yaoyao let out a sigh of relief.
At least this time things had been different. Cui Huaiji had successfully completed all three examinations. Whether he passed or not, he would have no regrets.
The group returned to the Cui residence amid laughter and warm conversation.
To celebrate Cui Huaiji’s successful completion of the examinations, Grandmother had specially ordered a feast to be prepared so they could welcome him home and wash away his fatigue.
However, before the feast began, there was something even more important to deal with.
……
Cui residence.
“Yaoyao, what did you say?”
Rongyao repeated what she had just said. “Before Eldest Uncle entered the examination compound the day before yesterday, someone poisoned the food he was taking with him. Yaoyao was afraid that making a commotion would alert the culprit and interfere with Eldest Uncle’s examination, so I didn’t say anything.”
Cui Yeping’s face turned purple with rage. He crouched down and asked his granddaughter as gently as he could, “Are you certain?”
Rongyao nodded emphatically. “Yaoyao isn’t lying. I hid the poisoned pastries.”
She pointed at a food box beside her, and everyone in the Cui family turned to look.
Cui Huaihao hurriedly sent someone to fetch a physician from outside the residence to examine it.
The physician arrived soon and carefully inspected the food inside the box. At last, he told the anxious members of the Cui family, “That’s right. All of these foods contain a large amount of a powerful purgative. Even a small piece of pastry would be enough to cause nonstop diarrhea for an entire day.”
Everyone in the Cui family went pale, and they all turned to look at Cui Huaiji.
What a vicious poison! If Yaoyao had not discovered it in advance and Cui Huaiji had truly taken that food into the sealed examination compound, he would have had no time to write after eating even a small piece of pastry. He might even have been thrown out of the compound.
“Who could be so malicious?”
“Indeed! Whom has our family offended?”
With red-rimmed eyes, the Eldest Aunt took Rongyao’s hand and thanked her. “Yaoyao, thank you. If not for you, your eldest uncle would have gone through all that effort for nothing again. But how did you discover it? And who was the one who poisoned your eldest uncle’s food?”
Rongyao pointed toward Chu Mingyi. “Sister Mingyi discovered it. Sister Chu Mingyi knows medicine and realized that something was wrong with Eldest Uncle’s food, so she told me.”
The Cui family immediately turned toward Chu Mingyi, eagerly asking her to explain what had happened.
Chu Mingyi nodded at Rongyao, then recited the explanation they had prepared beforehand, mixing truth with falsehood.
“The residence was busy that day, and the kitchen was overwhelmed as well. As luck would have it, Cook An fell ill, so I helped Cook Cao prepare the food. While we were busy, Cook Cao suddenly ordered me to go out and buy sugar, saying that the household had run out. Cook Cao is in charge of the kitchen, so I had no choice but to obey and hurried out to buy some. On the way, however, I remembered that the sugar had only been delivered two days earlier—a whole large jar. How could it possibly have been used up so quickly? I grew suspicious and decided to return to the kitchen to take a look. That was when I saw Cook Cao secretly putting something into the food.”
Chu Mingyi paused to catch her breath before continuing. “I didn’t dare raise the alarm, fearing that I would alert him and cause him to act recklessly. Instead, I continued watching Cook Cao and discovered that the food he had drugged was meant for the eldest master to take into the examination compound. I know a little about medicine, and I could tell that the drug was no ordinary medicine. It was a poison capable of ruining the eldest master’s entire future. I didn’t dare conceal the matter, so I told the young miss, who had shown me great kindness. The young miss feared that revealing the matter would cause panic or alert the culprit, prompting him to commit further crimes and affecting the eldest master’s examination. Thus, she did not make the matter public and ordered me to replace the eldest master’s food…”
After hearing Chu Mingyi’s account, everyone in the Cui family was stunned.
None of them had expected Yaoyao, despite her young age, to remain so calm and composed. When faced with trouble, she had arranged everything properly and helped her eldest uncle overcome this calamity without alerting anyone.
“Men! Come with me to the kitchen and seize Cook Cao!” Cui Huaiyi shouted furiously as he prepared to leave and arrest him.
Rongyao tugged at her Third Uncle’s robe and pointed toward the outside. “Yaoyao was worried that Cook Cao might run away, so I already had him tied up. He’s outside right now.”
Everyone was startled.
In her clear, childish voice, Rongyao called toward the door, “Bring him in!”
Before long, several servants escorted a plump man into the hall. His hands and feet were bound, and a rag had been stuffed into his mouth.
It was none other than Cook Cao.
His eyes were wide open, bloodshot with red veins, and he struggled violently the moment he was brought inside.
Cui Huaiyi stepped forward and pulled the rag from his mouth. “Why did you poison the food?”
Cook Cao only protested innocently that he had done nothing. He claimed he knew nothing about what had happened and had never even heard of the pastries.
Seeing how stubbornly he denied everything, Cui Huaiyi drew his knife and pressed it against Cook Cao’s neck.
“If you don’t tell the truth, I’ll put a hole in you! Once you can no longer endure it, I’ll bring your children here to keep you company. I’ll have your entire family, young and old, thrown into prison!”
Cook Cao trembled violently, his face turning purple. He collapsed onto the floor and confessed.
“I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”
“Someone forced me to do it. I’m only a cook, and I depend on the Cui family for my livelihood. Whenever you take a bite of food, I earn a bite of food too. But that man came to me and threatened me. He said that if I refused to do as he ordered, I would offend an important noble, and that noble would certainly take my life. How could I dare disobey? I was forced into it!”
“I have an elderly mother over seventy and an eight-year-old son. The entire family depends on me. Please don’t kill me or send me to the authorities. Please, sir, please, madam…”
Cao Kuan spoke through tears, intending to keep silent about the money he had received. The Cui family was known for its kindness. If he made himself pitiful enough and cried hard enough, perhaps they would soften and let him go.
With that in mind, Cao Kuan cried even more earnestly and knocked his head against the floor before each of the masters.
“I was forced to do it! I was forced!”
Cui Yeping said, “Tell us who ordered you to poison the food, and we may consider sparing you.”
Cao Kuan wiped his nose and sobbed, “How could a lowly servant like me know? Whenever I asked even one extra question, that man would glare at me as though he wanted to kill someone. I was truly terrified of him. Every one of those wicked things I did was forced upon me by him…”
Chu Mingyi glanced at Rongyao before speaking. “My lord, I heard that Cook Cao came into a sudden fortune these past few days. He purchased a hundred mu of farmland and even bragged about it around the residence. Quite a few people know about it.”
Cui Yeping’s gaze grew colder as he looked at Cao Kuan. “You claim you were merely threatened, yet you said nothing about the benefits you received! Since you cannot name the person who instructed you, you will be sent to the authorities. A servant who attempts to murder his master deserves to be beaten until the flesh is stripped from his bones. Men! Take him to the magistrate’s office and have the full force of the law applied to him!”
Cao Kuan let out a terrified scream.
“I truly was threatened! That money was forced on me by that man! I was afraid of offending a powerful noble! I really don’t know his name or anything else about him!”
Cao Kuan was already being held up by several men. Within a few moments, they had dragged him to the entrance of the main hall. Clinging desperately to the doorframe, Cao Kuan shouted, “I remember now! I remember! That noble person must have been from the palace!”
