"The young master is back!" shouted a servant.
Immediately, all the servants began to move and began to prepare lunch. A large table was placed in the middle of the hall. Fan Xian and the Countess sat opposite each other, and between them was a mess of dishes.
The atmosphere was a little strange, because the servants who had nothing to do were also staring at Fan Xian's chopsticks, and did not go to the backyard to eat. A few of the younger maids secretly swallowed their saliva, as if they were a little hungry.
This was an unwritten rule of the Count's Manor. Under Fan Xian's forceful request and the Countess's tacit consent, everyone had long since gotten used to it. As long as Fan Xian ate in the Count's Manor, he had to taste every dish and express his satisfaction before anyone else was allowed to eat.
Although they did not understand why the young master, who had always been cute and gentle, would have such a rude and unreasonable idea, when Fan Xian's closest maid, Dong'er, tasted the saltiness of Fan Xian's food before he ate and was fiercely chased out of the manor, everyone knew that this young master still had a shameless side to him.
And when Dong'er left in tears, the Countess only looked on coldly and did not say a word.
In the entire room, there was only the sound of Fan Xian chewing and sipping soup. All the servants quietly waited to the side with their hands at their sides. Like all rich families, the leftovers from the master's meal were always sent to where the servants lived, as a reward for the lower class. So Fan Xian did not eat much of each dish, only picking up the tip of his chopsticks and sending it into his mouth.
However, he ate slowly and carefully. His thin lips were pursed, and it looked like two rays of clear light were opening and closing.
The Countess of the Countess's Countess kept stroking a statue in her hand, her mouth slightly muttering a prayer, but no sound came out.
After a long time, Fan Xian finally finished tasting all the dishes. He smiled sweetly, and his eyes shone with a gentle light. He pointed at the stir-fried bamboo wormwood on the table and ordered the servants, "I like this dish."
The servants and maids breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly began to refill the food. Those who did not have any official duties could finally go to the backyard to eat, but another servant went to the kitchen and brought all the stir-fried bamboo wormwood to the hall, placing it in front of Fan Xian.
"Grandma, please have dinner."
Fan Xian stood and bowed respectfully to the old woman. He then accepted the bowl with both hands and politely placed it in front of the old woman. As for himself, he held a bowl of rice and continuously picked up the stir-fried bamboo wormwood from the plate. As he chewed, a trace of a smile flashed through his eyes. However, that smile on his beautiful face was particularly strange, as if he had finally found something he had been looking for a long time.
But for some reason, when the maids who were waiting at the side saw the smile on this twelve-year-old boy's face, they thought of the heavy slap that Housekeeper Zhou had suffered in the morning, and their hearts felt cold for no reason.
…
…
"I'll take it back to my room."
Fan Xian spoke to the servant girls beside him, and then carried the plate of stir-fried bamboo wormwood and a bowl of white rice to his own bedroom in the side courtyard. At this time, the old woman had not yet finished eating, and it was very impolite for a junior to leave the table. But the old woman did not say anything.
Back in his room, he took out some vomiting powder and swallowed it. Then he stuck his fingers into his throat and dug with all his might. Finally, he spat out the remains of the food. Not daring to tarry, he took out a few of his own pills from a drawer and swallowed them with clean water. He then circulated his zhenqi throughout his body and found that there seemed to be no problem. Only then did he relax.
He looked at the stir-fried bamboo wormwood on the plate and smiled bitterly. He then poured it into the toilet bowl behind his bed. There was poison in the food. It was the "Maokouzi" that the secret agents of the Overwatch Council often used.
The "Maokouzi" was a kind of orange-like fruit that grew on the southern island. It was very beautiful, and its flowers had a strange spicy aroma. The poison was contained within the fruit.
Because the juice of the Maokouzi mixed into the food, it did not easily change the color of the food, and it did not smell abnormal. Instead, it added to the aroma of the food, so it was often used by the secret agents of the Overwatch Council to carry out covert assassinations. Once the poison entered the stomach, it would begin to take effect at night, causing the victim to convulse and die. It was especially likely to die from some kind of infection, and it was difficult to determine the true cause of death.
Fei Jie was the ancestor of the Overwatch Council's poisons, and Fan Xian was Fei Jie's only disciple. So when he took the first bite of the stir-fried bamboo wormwood, he immediately tasted it. The Maokouzi had no taste, and its only flaw was that it tasted a little bitter. The assassin who had poisoned it had actually known to mix the juice of the Maokouzi into the already bitter bamboo wormwood.
Fan Xian did not immediately leave to detoxify the poison because he was afraid that the old woman would be frightened. But now he suddenly felt a little scared. He had been a little too bold. If it had not been the Maokouzi he had thought, but some kind of acute poison, he would probably be dead by now.
Ever since Fei Jie had warned him, he had been very careful about what he ate. He was afraid that the concubine of Count Sinan's manor in the capital would try to kill him. That was why he had been eating so strangely. He was afraid that the poison he had eaten would not kill him, but would instead kill the servants in the manor. So he had requested that all the dishes be tasted by him first, just like the legendary eunuchs in the palace who specialized in tasting dishes.
Although Fan Xian believed that his life was more important than anyone else's, he did not want innocent people to die because of him.
— — —
Seeing that the young master had come to the kitchen, the servant hurriedly stood up and brought a stool for him to sit on. "Young master," he asked with a smile, "did you not have enough just now? Would you like some more?"
Fan Xian laughed. "I like the stir-fried bamboo wormwood," he said.
The cook stood to the side and laughed. "As long as the young master likes it."
"Yes, it's quite fresh. When did you buy it?" Fan Xian nodded vigorously and asked carefully.
"I bought it this morning. Of course it's fresh."
"By the way, did anyone from outside the manor come to the kitchen today?"
"The vegetable delivery man, Old Ha, is sick. His nephew came by."
"Nothing. I'll be on my way then." Fan Xian grabbed a piece of bacon from the cook's plate and ate it. As he chewed, he smiled shyly. "Don't tell Granny that I came to the kitchen to steal food."
Watching the little boy leave the kitchen, the servants began to talk among themselves. They all said that the Count's illegitimate son was a good person, without the slightest of the bad habits of a powerful family. Except... his eating habits were a bit too much.
In a narrow street in Danzhou Harbor, Fan Xian hooked his fingers on the back wall of a building. With a push of his arm, he climbed in like a civet. This was the home of Old Ha, the vegetable delivery man.
There were only a dozen or so people in the Count's manor. Aside from a new batch of maids, they were all locals. After so many years, there was nothing to be suspicious about. Although Fan Xian had seen Old Ha before, hearing that he had fallen ill at such a strange time, he knew something was off.
Old Ha's room was dark, but in Fan Xian's eyes, it was as bright as day. He quietly walked into the room, and his nose picked up the scent of blood.
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