Feng Mingyue and the others returned to the Marquis of Ushi by riding horses. It was already night when they arrived at the manor.
Upon seeing the five people landed inside the Ehuang Courtyard steadily, Mei Hui and Li Qiu hurriedly walked forward and greeted them. “Miss, you’re back!”
Li Qiu was stunned when she saw two strangers appear beside Feng Mingyue. “These two gentlemen are…?”
Feng Mingyue nodded at the two. “Your new friends. Let’s go inside and talk.”
When the words ‘New friends’ slipped out of her mouth. Li Qiu and Mei Hui understood immediately that these two men were their master new subordinates.
Hence, everyone walked into the main chamber. Feng Mingyue sat on the master seat, while Li Qin brewed a cup of tea for her. “So what happened to Concubine Xu?”
Li Qiu immediately told everything that had occurred today.
Last morning, the servants were puzzled when they didn’t see Concubine Xu appear in front of everyone like usual. Therefore, the maid could only walk to Concubine Xu’s bad chamber, knocking on the door many times already but got no response. The maid felt apprehensive, thus she directly pushed the door in, but what she saw was Concubine Xu laid on the bed with her eyes closed without any breath left. She was dead.
Listening to Li Qiu’s words, Feng Mingyue’s brows tightened even more. She touched her chin thoughtfully. “In the end, how did she die?”
Mei Hui and Li Qiu shared a glance before one of them answered, “The Eldest Miss volunteered to check on Concubine Xu’s condition, and the result is she had been poisoned.”
Feng Mingyue’s expression became heavy. “Poisoned?”
Mei Hui nodded slowly. “Yes. In fact, no one knew the origin of that poison. Even the doctor wasn’t aware of it. Only…” She began to hesitate whether she should voice out her thoughts.
Noticing the other party struggling. Feng Mingyue gave Mei Hui a look, “Continue on.”
Mei Hui took a deep breath and said, “Only the Eldest Miss knew about the origin of that poison. What’s more, it was a rare poison that most people never heard of. Li Qiu and I suspect Concubine Xu’s death has something to do with the Eldest Miss.”
When Mei Hui’s statement fell. The whole main chamber sank into silence. Everyone was in their own thoughts.
Feng Mingyue leaned back against the chair. She looked at Sheng Yi. “What do you think?”
Since she chose these two men as her confidants. Feng Mingyue would without a doubt also ask for their opinions. Especially Sheng Yi, this man seemed to be really careless and lazy but in fact, he was very serious when it came to a crisis circumstance.
At this moment, Sheng Yi’s lazy manner had already vanished. He didn’t express his ideas but only asked Feng Mingyue solemnly, “Can you tell me more about this Eldest Miss?” As if afraid of being misunderstood by the people here. Sheng Yi added, “Don’t get me wrong. I’ve no other thoughts about this Eldest Miss. I just want to know this person’s character, so that I can affirm my opinion.”
Feng Mingyue chortled. Her eyes drifted between Sheng Yi and Wei Xue. However, she just gave them a quick glance before withdrawing her gaze, fearing that the others would discover her small movement. “She is Maquis Feng’s eldest daughter and Li Guo’s disciple named Feng Ling.”
Wei Xue questioned, “Who is Li Guo?”
Mei Li touched her nose, the corner of her mouth twitched slightly because of the other party’s query. “Actually, he is also a famous person.”
Upon hearing this, Wei Xue wrinkled his brows and replied honesty, “I’ve never heard of this name before”
Everyone burst into laughter.
Both Sheng Yi and Wei Xue were indeed bewildered when hearing Feng Mingyue mention Li Guo. They tried to search through their memories, trying to find the person named Li Guo. However, during these years they had traveled through the four kingdoms, yet they had never heard of this name.
In order to restrain herself from laughing, Feng Mingyue let out a light cough. “Li Guo is the head of the imperial physicians. He has amazing medical skills that could make him famous only in the Hu Kingdom. However, it’s already enough for him to gain many respects from a lot of experts in Hu.”
Because of his own outstanding medical skills, Li Guo was an extremely arrogant person. He would only accept one disciple every three years. And for those who had a chance to become Li Guo’s disciple was also a person that earned many admirations from others.
“Feng Ling is his third disciple. She is usually gentle and kind in front of everyone.” Coming to this point, Feng Mingyue’s expression was very gloomy. “But this woman was extremely violent when she bullied me in secret.”
Then the gloomy expression on the beautiful lady in white faded away instantly. A slight smile suddenly adorned her lips, “However, I’ll never give her another chance to trample me.”
Realizing that the atmosphere wasn’t quite right. Sheng Yi hurriedly concluded. “In the final analysis, this woman’s inner self is truly vicious.”
Li Qiu nodded. “Yes. She is a two-faced person. Only appeared gentle on the surface. But behind everyone, no one knows exactly what terrible things that the Eldest Miss has done so far.”
Sheng Yi stroked his chins and wandered in his thoughts for a short while. “In my opinion, Li Guo is only a physician, not a poison master who has come into contact with many poisons. So, such a rare poison, Feng Ling shouldn’t be able to know it.” He paused. “Or maybe she is interested in the poison field. Thus she likes to research about poisons and also knows some of the rare poisons.”
Wei Xue also joined in. “To be honest, I think we can’t rule out at all whether Feng Ling is related to Concubine Xu’s death or not.”
Li Qin nodded in agreement, “What Ah Xue said is also reasonable. We all know that this woman is not as simple as she appeared. But I’ve never heard of her having any grudge against Concubine Xu.”
Everyone voiced their own opinions one by one. Only Feng Mingyue was silent, she tapped her finger on the table, and unhurriedly said, “Have you ever thought that a woman like Feng Ling is actually ambitious?”
When this question was asked. The people presented inside the chamber immediately shut their mouths. In fact, it was easy to understand. If Feng Ling was indeed an ambitious person just like Feng Mingyue had said, then there was no reason for her allowing the obstacle to emerge.
Feng Mingyue sighed. “Alright, it is useless to keep on making blind guesses. It’s best to investigate Concubine Xu’s body.” She then stood up. “Right, what is the poison that killed Concubine Xu?”
Mei Hui answered, “The Eldest Miss said it was called Anjing.”
Anjing, as the name implied, was a type of poison that made the host die quietly without showing any sign of being poisoned. The poison would spread into every cell of the host body, and the host would not experience anything painful. They would die silently just like they were falling asleep. Anjing meant quiet, and this sort of poison that could act as a silent killer was extremely horrible than other poisons.
Surprised flashed in Feng Mingyue’s eyes. “This poison is indeed rare.” She walked out of the main chamber with six people following behind. “Besides, this poison is often used by assassins to kill people.”
Li Qiu tilted her head, looking at her master with quizzical gazes. “Why?”
Feng Mingyue chuckled, but the next sentence that slid out of her mouth could make people shudder in this kind of quiet night. “Because every assassin regards Anjing as a silent killer.”
Feng Mingyue stopped in front of her bed-chamber. She turned around, facing the six subordinates. “I’ll go check Concubine Xu’s body tonight. Wei Xue and Sheng Yi will accompany me.” Then she looked at the four personal maids. “Go and have a rest. I’ll introduce Wei Xue and Sheng Yi to everyone tomorrow. They will be the future commander and vice commander of the Black Panther Shadow Guards.”
“Understood.” The four maids bowed their heads and retreated respectfully.
Feng Mingyue turned back and walked into her bed chamber while throwing out some words. “Change your clothes and wait for me in front of the courtyard.”
