Chapter 165: Mad With Hate

 

Translated by Gumihou

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“The matter is not that simple, there must be hidden person pulling the strings behind the scenes.” Duan Tingxuan’s eyes were brilliant as killing intent flashed around him. “There is no way I’m going to just forget about this matter.”

“You really think I’m just going to let things go?”

Su Nuan Nuan placed the papers on the table and stood up. Her voice was cold as she said, “Everything that you know, I know. This was a trap set out by someone, their target was me. I hate that I can’t just find this person and chop them into eight pieces. Duan Tingxuan, I shall be frank with you. My hate is heavier than yours. I don’t hate them for trying to frame me. What I really hate is that they would risk Chuan’er’s life to harm me. No, this is beyond risking, they were determined to take his life just to harm me. This kind of poisonous way of thinking really made me mad with hate. I hate that I can’t just drag her out and make her suffer. I want to torment her. Let her die without a corpse.”

“Then, I shall find her for you.” Duan Tingxuan said decisively as he grasped his wife’s hand.

“How?” Su Nuan Nuan asked neutrally. She laughed bitterly and said, “If I could really find her, do you think I’d be so stupid as to let this matter go? Am I such a stupid person in your eyes? The problem is… we can’t find her.”

“How would you know without trying?” Duan Tingxuan frowned, “I also do not want such a poisonous person lurking the inner court. Not only would you be in danger, even the children. Today she attacked Chuan’er, who knows when she’ll target Fan’er, Sen’er or Ming’er?”

Su Nuan Nuan sighed, “I know that you’re talking about. Our mistake was focussing all of our energy on Chuan’er’s illness and ignoring everything else, allowing them an opportunity to dispose of the evidence. Who do you thing the culprit would entrust such dangerous missions to? Naturally it’s to the people most loyal and competent on their side. What? Are you planning to round up all your wives, concubines, as well as their personal maids and loyal servants in one swoop? What next? Force the truth out of them? Confessions obtained under torture are unreliable, so how would you determine who’s telling the truth?

Everyone else aside, let’s assume this was done by Xu Ran Yun. She might have overheard from someone that Chuan’er had eaten Snow Cream at Spring Breeze Court and took the opportunity to send a bowl of poisoned Sweet Ginger Soup to him. But where is your evidence? The bowl is gone, the Sweet Ginger Soups is gone, even the contents of Chuan’er’s stomach is gone.

What’s more, Xu Ran Yun is the closest thing Concubine Jiang has to family. The moment news of Chuan’er’s illness came, she did everything she could to throw mud at my direction. Everyone would guess that she must have done something behind the scenes. Under these circumstances, would she dare to act suspiciously in these short period of time?

If it’s not her. Then the culprit is even more insidious. Could it be that some ambitious person is trying to strike three birds with one stone? Duan Tingxuan, face it. We have lost the best opportunity to investigate this. Even if you try to find out anything now, you most likely won’t get to the real truth. It’s better to wait, and keep our eyes open. Forget about it, let’s just consider it a learning moment. In the future, if something similar happens, we will know how to counteract.”

“We don’t necessarily have to start our investigations on the actual persons. Snow Cream and hot tea definitely won’t cost Chuan’er’s life, it definitely won’t caused him to faint dead away like that so quickly. There must be some sort of ingredient mixed into his food. It could be rhubarb[1], croton seeds[2], or other medicine with laxative effects. We might be able to trace the culprit this way.”

Though Duan Tingxuan dearly wish he could deceive himself, he could not bear thinking about having such a poisonous woman as his wife or concubine. Therefore, he made the decision to pursue the matter.

“You think that whoever is behind this would be idiotic enough to personally buy these things by themselves? Your wives and concubines are no ordinary people. I bet that in the end you won’t find a single trace. Even if you did manage to catch some strings, it could be planted there by someone for you to find. Or, though the possibility is very small, no one actually went out of their way to harm me. Chuan’er might just have been too weak, and had gotten sick from Snow Cream and hot tea…”

She was still pondering over this when Duan Tingxuan said, “No matter what, Imperial Physician Han did imply there was some mischief behind Chuan’er’s illness. Therefore, someone must be pulling strings in the background. Even though there might be too many loose ends, I’m going to pursue this matter. I don’t believe that I can’t find anything. As long as we’re patient, the truth would eventually surface.”

Since Duan Tingxuan already made up his mind, Su Nuan Nuan did not bother to argue with him. Let him investigate on his own, it’s best if he could actually find out who the real culprit was. Do you think she doesn’t want to personally break that evil person in half with her own bare hands? It’s because this person can’t be found that she could only wait like this.

“Very well, let’s not talk about this anymore. You just go on with your investigation. Let’s change the subject, how is his highness the crown prince? Now that we are close to the year end, there must be quite a lot of banquets and sumptuous feasting going on. Make sure he doesn’t over do it. Otherwise all our efforts this past year would be wasted.” not wanting to talk about this depressing matter anymore, Su Nuan Nuan decided to bring up a different matter than had been occupying her mind.

“Don’t talk about this anymore.” Duan Tingxuan sighed, putting his head in his hands. “It’s just as you’ve said, that person has been eating non-stop. Since I’ve been busy these past two days, I haven’t been able to supervise his exercise. When I arrived at the East Palace today, I swear, his face has gotten rounder. I found out from crown princess that this greedy prince had been gorging himself on stir fried nuts. Hazelnuts, peanuts, and other seeds. He was even snacking on sugar covered chestnuts. Everything is covered in sugar and fried in oil.

Moreover, because of the snow, he had been jogging less as well. Of course he’s fatter. When I confronted him, he seemed remorseful. However, it looks like he really couldn’t help himself. Since he’s he crown prince, who would dare to coldly rebuke him? He normally has good self control, but for some reason, he couldn’t help himself when it comes to food. I really don’t know what to do.”

“Well, we can’t really blame the crown prince. There are just too many good things too eat this year. Therefore, it’s natural that he couldn’t help himself.” Su Nuan Nuan smiled, “I just happened to have a good thing here. You let him eat it as a snack, ba. Though it’s not something like a weight lost snack, it should be better than whatever he’s having every single day.”

“What thing?” at the mention of a new snack Duan Tingxuan immediately forgot about the crown prince. “Let me try it first.”

Su Nuan Nuan turned to give an order to Xiang Yun, who ran to the little kitchen nearby and came back with a little bag. Duan Tingxuan eager opened the bag and saw that it was half full of items about one finger long, just slightly thicker than his thumb and looked a little burnt. After investigating the item, he still couldn’t figure out what it was, but since it was Su Nuan Nuan’s cooking, it can’t be anything but delicious.

Thus, without hesitation, he grabbed one and shoved it into his mouth. His teeth came down on the thing with a loud crack. Both cheeks puffed out as he howled, “What’s this? Nuan Nuan, you can also fail in cooking? How could you give this to the crown prince? Just one of this would break his teeth, how could anyone eat this, ah?”

Su Nuan Nuan laughed, “Who ask you to bite down like that? That’s not the way to eat my special Dried Sweet Potatoes[3]. You’re meant to slowly chew it before swallowing. Be patient and keep chewing. You’ll know it’s true deliciousness soon.”

After that, she ignored Duan Tingxuan in favour of concentrating on her accounting.

 

[Gumihou: Yup, just ignore the idiot]

 

 

[1] Rhubarb side effects include: stomach and intestinal pain, watery diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting

[2] Specifically, croton tiglium: well known for its toxicity (severe purgative action), is used for the treatment of constipation

[3] Dried Sweet Potatoes – Just… sliced Sweet Potatoes that has been sun dried, and maybe fried or baked later for extra crispiness

 

 

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Translated by Gumihou from kitchennovel dot com.

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