Chapter 16: Self-Inflicted Sin
Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation
Hai Xia was still hesitating. The clear sky earlier was now covered with dark clouds. She did not dare to delay any further as she packed the clothes and blankets.
Coincidentally, the heavy rain started pouring just as she put the blanket away.
"Sister Hai Tang," Hai Xia said, shocked. "How did you know that the sky was going to change?"
Qu Fulan sat by the window and watched the heavy rain fall into the courtyard. It quickly accumulated into a pool of water and flowed away along the low-lying area.
"Because when the time is right, the weather will change."
She had said something so ambiguous.
Hai Xia did not ask when it was. She felt that Hai Tang's words made sense. She just had to listen. She would not understand anything no matter how much she asked.
The third household met with an accident near evening.
At that time, the sky had cleared up after the rain, and the setting sun was infinitely beautiful.
There was even a rainbow in the sky, and all the servant girls stopped what they were doing and looked up.
The maidservants in the room ran outside to take a look.
The courtyard was bustling with activity.
Hai Xia also pulled Hai Tang out to take a look. Just as they reached the corridor, they ran into Hai Chun. When the latter saw them, she rolled her eyes and snorted coldly. She went to the other side to look at the rainbow.
Hai Xia and Hai Tang didn't mind and looked by themselves.
An old woman came in from outside and said when she saw them, "Second Miss was fine all this while, but her illness suddenly acted up. What a sin!"
Hai Xia was the most intelligent and lively of them all. She was interested in all kinds of news in the manor, so she immediately went up to her when she heard what she said.
"Nanny Cui, what's wrong with Second Miss?"
"She was fine this afternoon," Nanny Cui said. "She was just having some desserts with the guests. I don't know why she suddenly... acted up."
Wasn't this the same as not saying anything?
Hai Xia wanted to ask more, but Qu Fulan held her hand and said, "Don't ask. We shouldn't ask about the master's matters."
Hai Xia then shut up.
She had urged the nanny and was just trying to gossip for fun and did not dare to hear the actual situation.
What was the actual situation?
The Second Miss was at home receiving the noble ladies of the capital. Although she had married far away from Pingzhou, her relationship with this place could not be cut off. Perhaps one day, her husband would move to the capital. These connections would be of great use.
The women were drinking tea and eating snacks, chatting happily.
As a result, the Second Miss, who was sitting upright, suddenly had a ferocious look on her face, and her body also twitched.
At first, some people thought that the setting sun had blinded their eyes, but there were also some who were mistaken.
Who knew that the Second Miss's body would convulse two more times. Then, she twisted her body in public and began to scratch the itch without caring about her dignity.
Which of the women present wasn't a well-mannered and well-educated lady? Usually, the dangling ornament wouldn't shake easily, so how could it allow her to scratch an itch in public?
It was really too unsightly! It was inappropriate!
The noble ladies got up and left one after another, afraid that they would be implicated if they stayed any longer. If word got out, others would think that they were unruly people.
The Second Miss wanted to keep them. If she let them go just like that, her reputation would be completely ruined. However, the itch on her body was unbearable. She couldn't control it and scratched it. The more she scratched, the more serious it became. She wanted to scratch her flesh, but it still couldn't stop the itch.
At first, it was her back that was itchy, but when it spread to her neck and face, she realized that it was a dense red rash the size of a soybean.
In a short time, if it wasn't for the maidservants and nannies coming forward to stop her, she would have scratched her face.
Even so, the Second Miss's clothes and hair clip were in a mess, which was very unsightly.
The news quickly spread to the old lady, and she quickly called for a doctor.
When the doctor in the residence came to see her, the Second Miss was lying on the bed and feeling very uncomfortable. She gritted her teeth and endured the strange itch. She stretched her hand out of the tent and looked at the doctor through the curtain.
The doctor looked at the red rashes on the Second Miss's hands, but he couldn't find anything after a long time. The beard on his chin was almost gone.
The Second Miss gritted her teeth and waited for half a day without seeing the doctor speak. She didn't even care about her grandmother's presence and couldn't help but say in a trembling voice, "It's more important to prescribe medicine for me first, what's the use of continuing to treat?"
"Prescribe her some medicine to treat her first," the old lady couldn't help but ask.
Physician He hurriedly stood up and bowed. "Forgive this old man's incompetence. I can't diagnose the cause of the Second Miss's illness, but this old man can prescribe a medicine to try. As for whether it will be effective, this old man can't guarantee it."
"We'll only know if it's effective after it's used," the old lady said. "Go and prescribe some medicine first."
In the end, he prescribed some ointment and applied it to the Second Miss, but it didn't have any effect at all. The Second Miss was about to go crazy.
The old lady thought of Hai Tang. She could even cure insomnia that the doctor couldn't cure, so perhaps she could also cure this difficult-to-treat illness. So she called her over.
Qu Fulan was quickly called to the third branch.
However, she only took one look before kneeling down to the old lady. "This servant doesn't know how to look at this. Old lady, please forgive me."
What was there to blame?
She wasn't a divine doctor, so how could she treat every illness?
She waved Hai Tang off.
When Qu Fulan walked out of the Second Miss' room, she was still screaming in pain.
Just the sound of it made one feel... good.
Yes, she was the one who had drugged her.
Yesterday, when she was massaging the Second Miss' shoulders, after Sister Yue Yuan said that she was very useful to the old lady, the Second Miss still did not give up on the idea of taking her away.
Qu Fulan made her move.
In addition to being able to store things, her space also had some things inside, such as a medicine box.
There were all kinds of medicines in the medicine box, whether they were poisonous or not.
Qu Fulan herself knew medicine and could develop medicine to save people, but it was not convenient for her to develop medicine to harm people. Otherwise, if she was found out, she would lose her life.
The poison in the interspace could save her a lot of trouble. The medicine in the interspace did not exist in this world. Even if they wanted to find it, there was no trace of it.
It was a kind of tasteless medicinal powder. Just a little bit of it could make a person's body covered with rashes. It was extremely itchy, and one would want to scratch off a layer of skin.
The effect of this strange itch would last for a night, and the person would be in excruciating pain. The next day, it would not be so itchy, or at least it would be bearable. Moreover, it would be a small itch in stages that would end in a short while.
It was those soybean-sized rashes. Without the antidote, they would last for a year before completely disappearing.
In this way, she would no longer have any thoughts of humiliating others.
This was the effect that Qu Fulan wanted.
She had not thought of the idea of drugging the Second Miss yesterday when she was massaging her shoulders. She had already made a preliminary plan in her heart before she knew of the Second Miss's plan, which was the so-called worst-case scenario.
Later, she heard from Yue Yuan about the Second Miss' final plan, which was exactly the same as her guess. The plan of drugging her had already been formed, and she was only waiting for the opportunity to strike.
In the end, the Second Miss took the initiative to come to her door. How could she let her down?
The drug would not take effect immediately. It required a certain condition to trigger the drug to take effect. This condition was to drink tea. No matter what kind of tea it was, once a certain amount was drunk, the poison would be triggered.
Qu Fulan had been burning the tea stove for so long, so she was well aware of how much tea the people in the manor drank.
That's why the Second Miss only acted up today, and no one would suspect her.
-- Gift
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