Becoming the Villain's Discarded Wife
Chapter 287

Chapter 287: Chapter 287

April 16th.

The suspect of the poisoning case that occurred at Zuitingxuan half a month ago has been apprehended.

People of Yan City flocked to catch a glimpse, but all they saw was a bloated, paler-than-dead body soaked in water.

The body was placed on a cart, covered hastily with a layer of coarse cloth to shield its face before being pushed towards the county yamen.

Seeing such a scene, the onlookers started discussing.

"Why is the person a woman!"

"Wasn’t it said that the procurer of Zuitingxuan is a man? This is clearly a woman."

"Exactly, I heard the one who was poisoned hasn’t woken yet..."

Everyone discussed vigorously, yet no one was willing to believe that the woman on the cart could be the one who had poisoned at Zuitingxuan.

The government officials didn’t provide much explanation, they just dispersed the crowd and pushed the cart towards the county yamen.

Within the county yamen, Liu Jie’s eyebrows were deeply furrowed, he paced around anxiously.

They had investigated. The issue lay with the seasoning in the dishes.

It appeared to be anise from Western Region, but was actually a downright poisonous herb.

The vegetables shipped that day and the back kitchen had all been inspected, and the problem was found in the bag of anise.

Five pounds of seasoning in a bag, mixed with three pounds of small fennel, one pound of anise, and the rest, was this poisoned ingredient.

The remaining items in the warehouse were all small fennel mixed with sawdust.

Any seeing-eye person could tell - this procurer was tricked by the allure of a cheap bargain.

The one responsible for procurement was Peng Xin, a cousin of Lady He, and even though everyone knew he relied on Lady He for his position at Zuitingxuan, they still respectfully called him Manager Peng.

They originally planned to take Peng Xin back to the county yamen, but they were blocked by Lady He.

She merely said that the whole affair was orchestrated solely by Peng Xin’s concubine, who had fled after the incident with the silver coin.

Peng Xin even requested to sue the concubine on the spot for buying low, selling high, causing death, and framing him.

In the end, they had no choice but to seal off Peng Xin’s residence temporarily and send someone to search for the concubine.

Half a month later, they finally fished the concubine’s body out of the city moat in the Southern City.

Her once soft, white skin had swollen into a frightening form, her svelte waist now bloated like a barrel. As the government officials hoisted the body up, water seeped out with their movement. Her eyes bulged, and her cheeks were swollen. If it weren’t for the jewelry on her, there would be no way to identify her.

Sure enough, upon seeing the corpse, Peng Xin started crying loudly: "My little sweetheart! How did you... how could you leave me so?!"

Peng Xin cried his heart out, Lady He, standing at his side, looked disgusted and turned her head away.

She had warned her cousin from the start, the woman was none of any good, but he didn’t believe it. Now, the truth was apparent.

The moment she knew that he was in trouble, she ran away with the silver. She deserved her death for managing to take the fall for him.

"Lord Liu, now that the culprit is caught and we have provided evidence and witnesses, my cousin should be in the clear, right?" Lady He stepped back from the body and looked at Liu Jie with a smile.

A chill ran down Liu Jie’s back at Lady He’s smiling face. Although he knew everything was her doing, he had no evidence.

After all, on the second day of the incident, so-called eyewitnesses had come to the county yamen to testify for Peng Xin, claiming they saw a beautiful married woman plotting with Peng Xin’s subordinate.

"Lady He, I’m afraid I can’t bear the honor of ’Lord’."

"Then I’ll take my cousin and leave. As for this concubine, I’ll leave her to you to deal with."

After Lady He finished speaking, she lightly kicked the brokenhearted Peng Xin, and walked away.

"Madam He, let me remind you here. If you engage too much in certain affairs, there will eventually be retribution,"

Liu Jie’s voice resounded chillingly, sending a shiver down the back of Peng Xin who had just risen to his feet.

His motion of lifting the foot also staggered a bit.

Madam He paused her steps briefly, then left the county yamen without expression.

Retribution, who could take such a thing seriously?

If there was such a thing as retribution, how could her own mother have been abandoned by that unfaithful man?

At the He Family, Master He was in the study discussing the matters of the rouge manor with the steward.

The batch of orders was returned, and the goods were sent back along with them, tarnishing their manor with a reputation of delivering fake goods. Many of the shops doing business with them also halted their orders, causing them to incur losses around twenty thousand taels of silver.

"Master, this is the rouge they sent back. They, they claimed that this is the real thing, the ones we sent afterward, all, all were incorrect."

The steward of the rouge manor stuttered as he placed two boxes of rouge in front of Master He.

Both boxes of rouge were made in their own manor, he recognized them.

But how could they, how could they be different?

Master He’s complexion darkened slightly. He did not speak but opened the two boxes of rouge to examine them.

From the outside, there was no difference between the two boxes of rouge, and the powder inside seemed identical as well.

The steward in the manor saw that Master He remained silent, so he raised his head slightly, secretly looking for his reaction. At the sight of him frowning tighter, he felt even more nervous.

The ingredients used for these rouges were the same, he truly didn’t know what went wrong.

"He Fu, come in." Master He placed the two boxes of rouge on the table, his eyelids twitching.

He Fu, standing outside the door, heard his master calling him and quickly entered, fearing that he would be chastised if he was late.

"Yes, Master, is there something you need?"

"Examine these two boxes of rouge and see what is wrong with them." Master He pointed at the two boxes of rouge, his eyes full of fatigue.

He had only two sons and a daughter, with his only legitimate son causing them all sorts of troubles at home due to a woman, and even reaching the point of fasting.

Even though his eldest son was obedient, he was born of a concubine, and he feared his wife wouldn’t agree to entrust the household affairs to him.

"Yes, master."

He Fu had been with the He Family since Master He was young and was considered a veteran of the family.

Now, he carefully examined the two boxes of rouge, sniffed them, applied a bit on his palm as if he wasn’t sure.

It took half a moment before He Fu finally said, "Master, these two boxes of rouge may look similar, but the one on the left sticks to the hand unevenly and the color is a bit off. It also has a stronger smell. The one on the right has a gentle fragrance and feels smooth when applied on the hand."

Once he finished speaking, He Fu stepped aside. The steward, hearing his words, started sweating more.

"If, as you said, the ingredients are the same, how could there be such a big difference?" Master He rubbed his forehead, his tone filled with displeasure.

"I, I, Master, I genuinely don’t know. Our raw materials and recipe were always the same, and I kept a close eye, I didn’t dare to make a mistake."

"So, are you saying I accused you wrongly?" Master He grabbed the inkstone on the side and threw it towards the steward.

"No, no I wouldn’t dare." The inkstone just scraped past his cheek. Even though it hurt, he didn’t dare to dodge.

"Twenty thousand taels! This incident caused me to lose twenty thousand taels!"

"It could be, perhaps, this has something to do with Miss Su." As though the steward had a sudden realization, he hurriedly knelt and kowtowed to explain.

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