Chapter 430 Finding Out the Poison Source
Watching Mr. Jiang’s receding figure, Jiang Yashuang turned his head and looked at his wife and said, “My grandfather…”
“The good thing is that Lang’er is fine.” Qiu Yelan, with her eyes drifting, said lightly, “Even though we can spare the real culprit, we still need to find out who he is. Otherwise, who knows whether he will hurt us again or not?”
She didn’t care about the promise she made to He Shuijin because it was a matter of her son’s life and death, and said, “The reason why He Shuijin insisted on staying at the eighth sister-in-law’s mountain villa on purpose and refused to leave was that her first child was murdered by Madame He. This time when she found she was pregnant again, she was afraid that her child would be murdered again. So, she took advantage of the opportunity when mother was in Jing City. She offered to go there to find out the truth in the name of justice for the eighth sister-in-law and An.”
Jiang Yashuang said with his pupils suddenly contracting, “Really?” He remembered the secret behavior of Qiu Yelan and Su He during the summer vacation. He tried to find out why they behaved so secretly, but Qiu Yelan refused to tell. So, he let it go given that continuing to investigate would ruin their relationship. Who knew that this narrowly cost their beloved son’s life?
“If you had told me earlier, perhaps…” With such thoughts surfacing, he got upset, but when he noticed his wife’s haggard complexion, he suppressed his anger, “Go on!”
“You know her temperament. She will avenge herself on such a big loss! But Madame He is her mother-in-law and even her aunt! If she disclosed the ugly behaviors of Madame He to the public, it would damage the Qiao Chengbo Family’s reputation. She has always been a sensible person. How could she be willing to sacrifice the reputation of her family because of Madame He? I’ve thought it before that her leaving this time would be her two-fold plan. That is avoiding Madame He’s harmful behaviour and finding a way to trap her.”
” Lang’er was poisoned. For the sake of grandfather’s health, you could play dumb. But Madame He is the person in charge of family matters. How could she absolve herself from responsibility when our son was poisoned at home!”
Qiu Yelan said calmly, “I helped her when she had a miscarriage. And she begged me not to disclose it to anyone for the sake of her family’s reputation, and I agreed to do so. I had no intention of breaking my promise, but she shouldn’t have gotten the idea of hurting our child!”
When she called Madame He moron, she thought of He Shuijin, “The Jiang Family raised their reputation from the military, and family members were not allowed to accompany living in the military. And Marquess Qin and Sir Jibei were both born from a poor family and had no one in the higher position to count on. So, they had to fight if they wanted to get a promotion. Thus, there was little time left for the family. That was why the lady of the Jiang Family had to deal with everything all by herself.”
So, even after Marquess Qin became an imperial official, only Jiang Tianchi chose to join the military for the generation of Jiang Tianao. But the tradition that has been inherited for many years doesn’t change. It is that the men of the Jiang Family have long only focused on business affairs and not concerned themselves with family matters unless something goes wrong.
“As the Jiang Family feuded with so many enemies over the years, Marquess’s Mansion reinforced its defense!” Although Qiu Yelan did not see the Jiang Family’s guards’ reaction speed and resilience when Marquess Qin entered and Qiu Qian was found snooping. She did remember that Jiang Yashuang had mentioned that the guards were all elite soldiers from the Northern Army when she climbed over the wall of the other courtyard of the Jiang Family to meet Jiang Yashuang in the middle of the night before her marrying Jiang Yashuang. So, it could be imagined how strong the defense was at Marquess’s Mansion.
“These people are nominally under the control of lady of the house. In fact, even Madame Dou, who had experience in the military, was unable to dictate in this regard. This is a matter of life and death. How could we not listen to the advice from the experts?”
“Now grandfather is still alive and living here. These guards’ abilities can’t be ignored even if lady of the house is unreliable. So, how could they allow a person like Qiu Qian to sneak in and out without notice? We have the reason to believe that she was let in purposedly. Madame He didn’t have the ability to allow her in. Allowing a reckless person like Qiu Qian into our mansion was a risky move. The guards on duty would be punished severely once it was found out.”
“To cover the whole thing without a second person knowing it is not a job one or two guards could achieve. To win so many guards over is not something that can be done in one year and a half either. Not to mention the influence of Madame He, even if she had the influence, it would be impossible for her as she has only been in charge of the family matters for just a few months. It might be possible that she didn’t even have enough time to identify all the house guards, not to mention she managed to a.n.a.lyze which guards could be won over by any means and which couldn’t, and which ways should be used to win them over… Anyway, it’s something Madame He couldn’t achieve.”
Only He Shuijin had the chance to do this. She managed the accounts before she married Jiang Yaheng. After the marriage, she was in charge of everything except the official business. She had the opportunity and time to win the guards over by any means!
“Furthermore, Qiu Qian told us that she sneaked in three months ago. It was about the time when Lang’er was a month old. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. It happened at the time when something happened in our family. There is no secret that Madame He is not good at managing family matters and she usually struggles to cope with it. There was always something going wrong when there were family matters to attend such as the celebration of the first month of Lang’er and the death of the youngest grand uncle. Who wouldn’t think that this happened because of her lack of ability?”
By doing so, it would purge He Shuijin of suspicion, and the guards she won over were able to shift most of the blame to Madame He’s blind command!
“I’ll send someone to the capital immediately!” Jiang Yashuang’s face fell, “We have a son. But He Shuijin herself is also getting pregnant. I have no problem with her avenging her first child. That’s her own business. But if she dares to use our children as the trigger, I won’t spare her. She expected that Qiu Qian would bring the antidote in time…”
He sneered, “Anyway, He Shuijin had a miscarriage before!”
A child who had never been born yet wouldn’t break the heart of Marquess Qin. After all, it was not the first time Marquess Qin lost his great-grandson. The eldest son born by the concubine of Jiang Yadan who grew up and often ran around the courtyard died suddenly without any signs.
By this time, the twilight had been approaching. The couple ended their discussion. Fatigue came up like a tidal wave, which reminded them that they hadn’t eaten anything in two days.
They had dinner at the Flower Hall and sneaked to see their son Jiang Jinglang. Marquess Qin was also sleeping here. He was curling up on a soft couch by the window, frowning in his sleep, with Mr. Jiang sitting nodding at his bedside. The white hair of these two people made them even more sorehead and bitter under the lamplight.
Watching this scene, Qiu Yelan’s heart was getting soft, with her faint dissatisfaction and grievance dissipating gradually. She hugged her beloved son tightly and said, “It’s good that Lang’er is safe and sound!”
After seeing their son, they returned to the temporary dwelling and fell asleep with no strength to say anything more.
Although they were exhausted, they were still concerned. So, they got up earlier the next morning and called the maids to serve them to get freshened up, while asking, “How is Lang’er? And how about grandfather?”
“Junior young master is fine!” Chen Shui handed over a hot handkerchief and said softly, “Marquess Qin woke up half an hour ago and called for Dr. Lin to diagnose junior young master. Dr. Lin said that junior young master was well now and there was no need for the wet nurses to drink medicine any more and they just need to eat something nourishing.”
Qiu Yelan replied immediately, “Go to my storehouse to get the best herbs for the wet nurses!”
“Marquess Qin ordered to use the best herbs which would go to public accounts.” Chen Shui said, “Furthermore, since yesterday noon, the Mansion of Sir Jibei sent people over here to get to know whether junior young master is safe and sound, and each branch also sent gifts.”
“You keep all these and tell me later.” Qiu Yelan now had no mood to care about who sent gifts to express sympathy and solicitude for their son. She only cared about whether her son was totally recovering.
At a time when the couple was about to see their son after they freshened up, Mr. Jiang came, “Young master and madame, the cause to get junior young masters poisoned has been found!”
“What?” Jiang Yashuang and Qiu Yelan, who were drinking tea to rinse their mouth, both stood up and asked in unison, “Where exactly is the poison source?” G.o.d pity! Their courtyard was almost demolished flat, but they still couldn’t find the poison! Before, Jiang Yashuang promised to play dumb this time for the sake of the health of Marquess Qin and given his son was safe and sound. But Qiu Yelan was still upset because she couldn’t find the source of the poison. She didn’t even know how her son was poisoned. Who could guarantee that Qiu Qian could deliver the antidote in time if the murderer tried to poison her son again?
That was right. The couple suspected that this time He Shuijin took advantage of their son Jiang Jinglang to trap Madame He. As long as Madame He got trapped and punished this time, He Shuijin… Anyway, she was the daughter-in-law of the third branch. She wouldn’t expect anything bad happened to Jiang Jinglang?
But there was a blood feud between the third branch and the fourth branch, okay?
Now when the couple heard that the cause of poisoning had been found out, how could they not be excited?
“It was the wet nurses who got poisoned first.” Mr. Jiang hadn’t finished speaking, Qiu Yelan shouted out in alarm, “Could Lang’er be poisoned again?”
Jiang Yashuang’s face instantly got pale. Lang’er was his first child, his favorite. He still remembered Qiu Yelan once said it was hard for her to get pregnant. So, he never expected to have a biological child in this life, not to mention a son. So, it could be imagined how much he valued Jiang Jinglang.
So, in Jiang Yashuang’s heart, Jiang Jinglang was a surprise. If he lost Jiang Jinglang this time, he might not have any child in his life! There was nothing to be afraid of than losing something valuable after gaining it. If it weren’t for the slightest hope, he would have pushed Mr. Jiang away and rushed to see his son!
It was good that Mr. Jiang knew how they felt and continued without hesitation, “Both of you needn’t get worried. Previously, Dr. Lin wanted to give junior young master the antidote so he prescribed many prescriptions. And because the breast milk of the wet nurses was not enough to supply junior young master, we recruited other wet nurses. And later, when the antidote was brought over, Dr. Lin was afraid that there were still residues of the poison in his original wet nurses, which would be bad for junior young master, so he found two more wet nurses from local. From yesterday to now, junior young master has been fed by these two wet nurses!”
Only then did the couple let out a long breath and asked for confirmation, “Is Lang’er really okay?”
“Before I came over, Marquess Qin was hugging junior young master to play with him, and junior young master was pulling his beard and wouldn’t let go, causing Marquess Qin to plead for mercy!”
“Such a naughty child. Chen Shui, you go there to make sure that Lang’er won’t hurt his grandfather!” Qiu Yelan said this because she didn’t completely trust what Mr. Jiang had said. She only could feel relieved after her trusted maid went there to check. Mr. Jiang didn’t take it as inappropriate and only said, “The reason why the wet nurses got poisoned was that to promote the breast milk, they ate stewed pig leg daily, without no salt or basically no salt adding in it. So, they got fed up with the dish over time.”
Qiu Yelan knew exactly what his son’s wet nurses ate every day, and asked, “Is there any problem with the stewed pork leg?” Her face became darker. The stewed pork leg was made by Mrs. Li. And there were only several people in the kitchen and all of them were her dowery…
“No, no…!” The good thing was that Mr. Jiang denied what she said, “It was not because of the pork leg. It was because of the candied fruits. Because the wet nurses got fed up with the bland pork leg, they were offered several candied fruits to adjust their taste.”
“But we sent our own maids to buy these candied fruits and they always bought at the same store. And each time we put them on a silver plate. If there had been something wrong with the candied fruits, how could these silver plates not react?” Jiang Yashuang frowned, “Is there still a betrayer inside?”
They had the reason to believe that those who were still left here to serve them were trusted. But Su He and Xiaran were wearing a serious look when hearing this, not even daring to breathe.
“For silver plate or silver needle, they could only be used to test out whether the outer layer of the candied fruits was poisoned or not. How could you know that the stones of the candied fruits had been poisoned?” Mr. Jiang said bitterly, “Those apricots, peaches were with stones. The wet nurses of junior young master were not born in this courtyard and were hired from outside. And they were all from a poor family. Every time they ate candied fruits, they would break the stones to eat the kernels inside. That’s why they got poisoned!”
“…” Jiang Yashuang and Qiu Yelan gazed at each other in speechless despair!
It was their idea to find wet nurses from the market because they were afraid that the third branch would trap them as Jiang Yashuang wasn’t the first son of the fourth branch and they were never in charge of family matters. Ironically, the wet nurses from the market, honest as they were, got poisoned because of their poverty!
“Have you found out who poisoned the stones of the candied fruits yet?”