Chapter 81 - Plan To Die Before One Can Marry?
After Qu Xing left, the waiter and Gu Yan were the only people who were left inside that room. They looked at each other and sighed.
Unlike Gu Yan who has an idea what his master was talking about, the waiter creased his forehead and rubbed his chin, "Why is Master stealing a heart in broad daylight? Shouldn't it be better to do that at night?"
And why steal a heart? The waiter left this question to himself as he finds it quite hard to understand why his master wanted a heart this time?. For as long as their master wanted to rob the state's bank or even the palace treasury, he knew that his master's subordinates would do everything they could to empty everything from that place without leaving a trace.
However, this was the first time he heard his master wanting to steal a heart and even looked like he was completely absorbed with the idea of it…
Thinking like that, the waiter finally had an idea what to give to his master on his birthday. Will his master like a pair of beautiful eyes as a gift?
Without even hearing his mouth speaking his thought, Gu Yan could more or less guess what the waiter was thinking and sighed. He badly wanted to say that it wasn't like that and he was totally wrong.
But Gu Yan had more things to do as he glanced down at the paper in his hand and felt that the weight of it was really heavy.
The empress has really done it this time.
"Young miss, what do you think of the soup?" Su Tang placed a piece of meat on the plate of Lin Xiaofei, who was currently eating her lunch.
"It's good."
The sky outside was very clear that the sun was not covered by the clouds and asture heat coming radiating from it made people sweat. With the sweet breeze that the Spring has brought to the Capital, the heat was slightly cooled down.
Lin Xiaofei lazily poked the meat with her chopsticks. She somehow didn't have the appetite to eat as her mind was occupied with the thoughts of her marriage.
Honestly, she didn't really have any thoughts of marrying anyone in this lifetime. Her past life was lived solely for a man and she was married to him miserably thus, she became quite not as enthusiastic when it came to her marriage this time unlike any other young ladies who would blush and imagine the good life after marriage.
Glancing at the food and two maids beside her, Lin Xiaofei suddenly had a wicked idea.
She waved her hands and said, "The two of you sit and eat with me."
Surprised at her invitation, Su Tang and Bai Lu immediately shook their heads and refused.
"Young miss, this cannot happen. We're merely your servants and servants can't eat at the table and time with their masters." Bai Lu explained.
"Please forgive us." Su Tang instead apologized as she rejected this once in a life-time chance to eat with her young miss.
Smiling at them, Lin Xiaofei insisted, "There's no need for the two of you to follow the rules right now. I'm merely sharing the food I cannot finish. Please, help yourselves."
As she said that, her tone made it impossible for the two to refuse. They hesitated and feared that someone from outside could see them while they were also happy that their young miss was inviting them to eat. Was the heavens finally letting their young miss see the light of goodness?
The two maids sat on the chairs around the round table with plenty of food that could feed four people. They were drooling just by looking at the food and just as they were about to grab their chopsticks, they heard their young miss voice speaking in a warm voice.
"Ah, just a second" The two maids raised their heads in confusion as they saw Lin Xiaofei standing up and took something from one of the small drawers beside her bed before returning to sit in front of the round table.
Grabbing the bowl of soup, Lin Xiaofei untied a small black pouch as she said, "This powder is made up from an intestine rupturing herb," she poured the white powder on the soup and mixed it before pushing the bowl forward and in the center of the table.
"Will you give this a try?" Lin Xiaofei was smiling brightly as if she was only asking someone to eat poison and not to die.
With shock and pale faces, Su Tang and Bai Lu turned to look at her.
"This… Young miss… what do you mean by that?" Su Tang asked with wide eyes. She couldn't believe that her young miss would serve them a poison.
Tilting her head as if she was confused, Lin Xiaofei said, "I wanna know how deep your loyalty is. Drink a sip of the soup and I'll know if I can completely trust you. A single sip can take a person's life." She blinked her beautiful eyes at them, "If you don't want that… The door will always be open for you to leave."
The two maids shuddered on their chairs. Their young miss was testing where their loyalty lies in and wanted them to prove it. The both of them naturally are loyal to her but with her serious face, they knew that they had to do something.
Bai Lu was the first one to touch the soup with shaky hands. Seeing this, Su Tang also gathered her courage and got herself a broth from the soup.
The two raised their bowl and looked at each other, they saw fear in their eyes but it was also filled with determination.
As for Lin Xiaofei, she watched them take the rim of the bowl to their lips. A glint appeared in her eyes. She was not the real Lin Xiaofei, she was only doing this to tell if she could completely trust them now since she's about to enter a dangerous phase in her life.
Bai Lu and Su Tang closed their eyes, they were about to open their mouths to drink the soup when they heard a loud smack hitting the table.
Then, they heard Lin Xiaofei say: "Stop."
The maids were frightened, thinking that their young miss was angered by their hesitations. They wanted to correct their actions and tipped the soup but Lin Xiaofei reached her hands to stop them.
She looked at them harshly and said, "That's enough." She made them put the bowls in their hand on the table, "Go rinse your hands and mouths with lemon water to make sure you didn't touch the poison."
"Leave now."
Su Tang wanted to say something but Bai Lu pulled her out without a word. Lin Xiaofei's order was final and they can't disobey it. They also felt that they needed to as she had ordered them to. Rinse their mouths and wash their hands to get the poison away from their body.
It was just that, will their young miss who touched the black pouch okay?
With the two maids gone, Lin Xiaofei held the bowl in her hand. She stared at it for a long time while her thoughts were deep. She was likely thinking that the maids somehow proved their loyalty to her but she still needed to further prove it in the future.
The herb that she put on the soup and could make one's intestine rupture was real and not a joke. She was serious when she wanted them to drink it. The herb was one of the few items she secretly bought from the auction house.
In the past, she was careless and let the maids surrounding her scheme behind her back by following the orders of the other beauties in Yu Fangzhu's residence. She almost lost her life countless times by drinking the poison served to her.
Thankfully, she survived even after drinking the poisons served to her. It was a mystery but Lin Xiaofei assumed that it was her own body that somehow achieved certain tolerance against poison and thus, she survived even after drinking poison.
The test she had made her maids do was only to test their facial expression and see if they will expose themselves, but it seems that there's a chance that she can trust them fully with a few errands.
Raising the bowl towards her mouth, Lin Xiaofei wanted to test if in this lifetime and body, would she still be as immune as she was in the past?
As she was about to take a mouthful of the soup, a strong grip suddenly held her wrist and a loud crashing sound pierced through the silence as the bowl was thrown to the floor. One could see that a chopstick fell during the movements from the person and touched the soup. The silver became black, indicating that the poison was real and potent.
"Do you plan to die before you can marry?!"
Lin Xiaofei heard the deep voice furiously say and she looked up to see a handsome face with murderous eyes looking down at her.
It was none other than Qu Xing Xu.