Chapter 66: Solution

  Li Peinan once said that Min An personally baked osmanthus tea, boiled snow spring water, and brewed cup after cup of tea to serve. Since the tea for the noble guests in the mansion was all prepared by Min An, it is reasonable to suspect her for poisoning Li Jingzhuo's autumn tea.

  The play was suddenly stopped, and the hall was extremely quiet. Min An, who was standing by the window, looked down at the floor tiles and only then realized that something had gone wrong. He had once made a tube of osmanthus tea and sealed two flavors, sweet and savory, on both ends of the tube to give to Fei Yi. Li Peinan happened to know about this and asked him to make another tribute gift. Min An followed Li Peinan's orders and made a bag of osmanthus tea, which was later used when the Xing Huan Guan received noble guests.

  The performers and musicians on the stage made their bows and retreated to one side. Li Jingzhuo sat on the main stage, his face full of anger. "This is really unlucky! You just had to provoke me when I'm not in a good mood, call Min An out to answer for this!"

  The attendants of the Wang Fu rushed out of the hall door, and Min An walked in from the side and knelt on the floor tiles.

  Li Peinan glanced at Fei Yi and suddenly said, "Fei Yi is well-versed in the art of tea, tell Father King about it. To brew a good autumn tea, what steps are needed?"

  Fei Yi got up and bowed to his father, then replied: "Steeping tea leaves, boiling water, scalding the teacups, and serving the tea in three rounds - not a single step can be omitted. By the time a cup of autumn tea is placed on the tray and presented to Father, it will take about half an hour."

  Li Peinan raised his hand towards the main stage: "So to speak, Father King's tea must not be made by Min An. Half an hour ago, I was still in Min An's house applying medicine for him, he couldn't have split his attention to make tea, Father King needs to investigate thoroughly."

  Li Jingzhuo coldly replied: "You have always been biased towards your own people, what you say is not credible."

  Li Peinan looked at Fei Yi again, and Fei Yi stood up, politely saying: "I was also present at the scene, I can testify for Min An."

  Li Jingzhuo sneered: "You and the Crown Prince share the same breath, yet you still don't count as a true one."

  Li Peinan asked: "Whom does the king trust? Bring that person out for questioning."

  Li Jingzhuo sneered even more deeply: "Could it be that the person I trusted happened to be present at the scene, administering medicine to Min An and conveniently serving as a witness?"

  Li Peinan said calmly: "Not necessarily impossible."

  Li Jingzhuo pointed at Fei Yi, looking at Li Peinan: "Today, even if you two brothers come up with a hundred arguments to prove that Min An did not poison him, he will still be guilty. I can't stand the ominous thing in front of me causing trouble. Come here——"

  Li Peinan suddenly stood up and walked to Min'an, gently pressing down on Min'an's head. He bowed his head towards the main stage where his father was still scolding him, and interrupted by saying: "Don't you know how to thank? The king has said that he can't keep you in front of him, listen to the king's words and quickly retreat."

  Min An heard that the King of Chu Nan was in a rage, and he didn't dare to speak up for himself, fearing that the more he said, the more wrong it would be. Li Pei Nan grabbed his collar and had already lifted him up, just short of using force to throw him out the door. He looked up at Li Jing Zhuo's pale face, but still didn't dare move his feet. Instead, Fei Yi stood aside, casually waving his hand, also signaling for him to quickly leave the hall.

  The attendants of the Wang Fu saw that Li Peinan was still standing beside Min'an, and naturally didn't dare to make a move. Li Peinan used a gentle force on Min'an's lower back, pushing him in front of Fei Yi. Fei Yi understood, and said calmly to Min'an, "Since you've already thanked the king, let's go together." After speaking, he didn't even look at his father, but directly grasped Min'an's sleeve and led him out of the hall.

  Outside the hall, Fei reminded him: "You should leave this place of right and wrong earlier, now even the king can't tolerate you."

  Min An wiped away the cold sweat on his forehead and replied: "I'll investigate the tea poisoning until the truth is revealed, otherwise I'd be considered fleeing in fear of punishment."

  Fei Yi continued to push Min An towards the bamboo house: "The young master is inside, he will give an explanation."

  Li Jingzhuo in the hall, although his face was not good, but his heart was bright. He knew that the tea water was not poisoned by Min An, from brewing to serving, it had gone through many hands. There were maids who boiled water, attendants who held trays, Xiao Zhi took the tea and put it on the table, then used her hand to touch the cup mouth, carefully testing the temperature of the tea. Even his eldest son Li Peinan, who often disobeyed him, had walked past the table, lifted the tea lid and looked at it, laughing and saying: "Father king isn't fond of throwing away this kind of tea in the mansion, who was so kind as to serve father king?"

  Li Jingzhuo didn't care who had poisoned the tea, he just wanted to take this opportunity to punish Min An and then drive him away. The person who had poisoned the tea seemed to know that Li Jingzhuo would drink several cups of tea in a day, so most of the time the tea offered to him wouldn't even reach his mouth, therefore they intentionally used such a clumsy method. Their purpose was probably not to harm Li Jingzhuo's life, but rather to shift the blame and point the finger at Min An.

  Li Jingzhuo naturally guessed the hidden situation in between and was pleased to see it happen, so he simply questioned Min An's innocence. Li Peinan could also distinguish between true and false, but in order to maintain the dignity of the Wang Mansion, he had to investigate who poisoned him.

  Xiao Zhiqing, who had always been cautious and reserved, was the first to speak out, asking the maid to search her body and luggage to see if she had hidden any poison, in order to prove her innocence. Li Jingzhuo saw Xiao Zhiqing's anxiety and couldn't help but comfort her, saying: "How could these dirty things involve you? There's no need to search you, I trust you."

  Xiao Zhi asked with a smile: "Since the prince trusts me, why don't I investigate the poisoning case?"

  Li Jingzhuo naturally agreed, and Li Peinan considered that he could not go against the king's will, so he went along with it and handed the matter over to Xiao Zhiqing.

  Xiao Zhiqing set up a public case and torture instruments in the thatched house, and interrogated several people one after another. Finally, he found out that the source of the poison was hidden on a guard. The guard was Li Jingzhuo's trusted follower, who was later sent to Li Peinan's side to send out the news from the mansion. Li Peinan caught him, cut off his tongue, flogged him and threw him into a remote courtyard. After hearing the news, Li Jingzhuo felt uneasy and brought the guard to his own side, unexpectedly giving him an opportunity for revenge.

  The guard lost his tongue and couldn't speak, staring at the indictment on the ground for a while in a daze, then looked up at Xiao Zhiqing who had saved his life before, let out two "ah"s, didn't make any extra resistance, obediently signed his name at the end of the document, admitting to the crime of poisoning.

  Xiao Zhiqing didn't make things difficult for him either, calling him to get up and go back to the house to wait for his fate, and sent the confession book to Li Jingzhuo's hands.

  Li Jingzhuo saw that things had come to an end and was very satisfied. Li Peinan thought carefully for a moment, knowing that the crime of poisoning would be best borne by the guards, and without saying another word, he nodded in agreement with Xiao's handling of the situation.

  A case of poisoning, neither big nor small, was thus settled.

  The news reached Min An's ears, who was waiting in the bamboo house. After hearing it, Min An did not let out a sigh of relief. He had previously called for Bao Nu to serve medicine to the guard and chatted with him, knowing that he was a broad-minded person. How could someone who has already seen through life poison his own master?

  The humidity outside was even heavier, and Min An had many questions in his mind, wiping the sweat from his forehead. Fei Yi sat with him for a moment, looking at him frowning all the time, and reminded him faintly: "Believe me, it's best to let the case fall on the guard, thinking again won't help."

  Min An retorted: "Why?"

  Fei Yi looked through it: "Those who can poison are no more than me, the Crown Prince, Xiao Da Ren and Father Wang himself. Who do you think is most likely to be poisoned among us four, and whom does Father Wang want to favor?"

  Min An nodded slightly and closed his mouth, because the result was obviously not in Fei Yi's favor. Fei Yi did not receive the king's favor, everyone in the mansion knew this inside information, if it was said that Fei Yi poisoned, half of the people would believe in this statement. Even if it wasn't Fei Yi, the crime of poisoning would still fall on the king and the prince, so after thinking about it, only Xiao Zhi remained.

  Currently, Xiao Zhiyin has gained the favor of both Wang Ye and Li Peinan. If she were to be framed, the outcome would likely be downplayed and eventually dismissed. After all, as a dual minister of the Wang and Shizi estates, they cannot afford to sacrifice her lightly. Losing Xiao Zhiyin would be like cutting off their own arm, which is clearly not a desirable outcome.

  Most importantly, no one would believe that Xiao was aware of the poisoning and harming of Wang Ye, not even Min An.

  Fei Yi and Min An sat silently in the room, each lost in their own thoughts. Fei Yi had originally wanted to stay with Min An through tonight's rainy night, but Min An kept urging Fei Yi to go back and rest.

  Fei Yi said: "The case has been closed, tomorrow morning when the sky clears up, you come with me to Changping Prefecture."

  Min An replied: "We need to ask Young Master first."

  "Please advise? Are you still willing to stay by his side?"

  Min An lowered his head and thought for a moment. He actually knew what the answer to his inquiry was, but he still needed to inform his young master about it formally.

  Fei Yi pressed her voice to ask Min An, are you going to Changping or not? Min An was forced to nod finally. Fei Yi immediately got up to arrange the carriage for the journey and left the bamboo house first.

  The dark sky was soon filled with the sound of thunder.

  Min An wiped away the sweat, looked up at the dark night sky, steeled himself, and made his way to the wing of the courtyard where the guards were quartered. The courtyard had just sounded the evening watch, and the guards had retired to their quarters according to schedule. The room of the mute guard was also pitch black.

  Min An just reached the window, used a small knife to open it, and a thunderclap came from the sky, startling him. He turned his head to pray to the heavens "Don't strike me, don't strike me, I'm not here to do bad things". Another bolt of lightning flashed down, illuminating the scene inside the house.

  The dumb guard lay on the couch with his eyes open, a straight cut on his neck and a steel knife beside him.

  Min An was struck by a bolt of lightning, his face also turned pale without realizing it. He stood hesitantly in front of the window, unsure of what to do.

  A loud thunder woke Min An up. Min An bowed towards the window and went to push the door, only to find that it was tightly locked and couldn't be opened from outside. He climbed in through the window and searched around with the help of the light, finally confirming that the guard had taken his own life.

  Min An thought he should report the situation in the house to Li Peinan to clear himself of suspicion, and climbed out of the window again. He took two steps, and a thunderbolt struck his head, making his scalp numb.

  Min An thought for a moment, then reached back and was about to lift his foot onto the windowsill when a steady arm grabbed the collar of his clothes from behind, accompanied by a very familiar voice. "Crawling in and out without any decorum, I've been waiting for you in the dormitory for a long time."

  Thank you b露, epiano2, 猪耳朵, 咩哈哈, breathesky2007, h, 小票, 我是么么, coco, 一毛球 for the landmine (*^__^*)