"Why are you here!"
Upon seeing the person who arrived, Chu Lianxin stood up nervously and subconsciously looked around, afraid of being discovered.
"I heard you were in trouble, so I wanted to come and see you." The man's face was full of worry.
Chu Lianxin covered her face with the silk cloth, turned her back to the man, and said in a muffled voice, "There's nothing to see. You should go back now, it won't be good if someone sees you."
Instead of leaving, the man took two steps forward and hugged her from behind, saying, "Lianxin, don't avoid me. Let me see you for a moment so I can feel at ease."
Upon hearing this, Chu Lianxin leaned against the man's chest, tears streaming down her face.
"I look like this now, even ghosts would be afraid of me, so you'd better not look at me."
The man said firmly, "I'm not afraid. No matter what you become, I won't be afraid."
Upon hearing this, Chu Lianxin's heart, which had been filled with bitterness and fear, was suddenly filled with something warm and solid.
Her throat tightened and her nose stung.
Feeling the strength of the man's firm arms, she finally stopped suppressing her emotions.
She turned around, buried her face in the man's arms, bit her lip, and cried silently, her shoulders trembling.
The man stood there with his arms around the woman, letting her vent her emotions in his embrace.
After a long while, noticing that the person in his arms had calmed down, he gently pushed her away and reached out to gently remove the silk cloth from her face.
Chu Lianxin stopped trying to stop him and quietly let him lift the cloth covering her face, but the unease in her eyes still betrayed her nervousness.
As the silk cloth was lifted, the man's face did not show the disgust or fear that others did; instead, his eyes were full of heartache.
This relieved Chu Lianxin's tension considerably, and tears streamed down her face once again.
But this time, the tears weren't tears of sadness, but tears of gratitude for being cherished.
The man cupped her face in his hands and examined it carefully before asking for details of what had happened.
Then he said, "Judging from your description and the condition of your face, Xin'er, it seems like you've been poisoned."
"Poisoned! How could I be poisoned?" Chu Lianxin frowned. She had all the servants in the mansion under her control, and she couldn't understand who could have poisoned her.
"Think carefully, have you offended anyone recently, or has anyone been behaving strangely?" The man gently reminded her as he put the silk cloth back on her head.
"I haven't offended anyone…!" Chu Lianxin frowned slightly and was only halfway through her sentence when she suddenly thought of something and her expression changed abruptly. "If there is anyone whose behavior is strange, it is that little bitch in Wensi Garden. She has changed the most."
Chu Lianxin then recounted to the man all the changes that had occurred since Jiang Luoxue returned to the mansion yesterday.
"It must be that wretched girl. She must have been holding a grudge because I told the kitchen staff to feed her swill yesterday, so she took revenge on me with poison."
"That damned thing, I won't let her get away with this!"
Chu Lianxin said firmly, her eyes flashing with furious flames, wishing she could run to Wensi Garden and tear Jiang Luoxue to pieces.
"Don't be impulsive, I..."
"Madam~"
Before the man could finish speaking, the maid's anxious voice rang out from outside.
The two were so frightened that they immediately panicked.
Chu Lianxin told the maid not to come in, and pulled the man to the window. She opened the window and looked around to make sure no one was there.
"Hurry up and get out of here, be careful not to let anyone see you."
The man climbed out of the window, reminding her, "Don't act rashly. Leave this to me."
If it really was the young lady who did it, I will definitely find a way to make her hand over the antidote.
"Okay, you can go now!"
Chu Lianxin quickly closed the window, straightened her clothes, and then went to open the door, asking unhappily, "What's the matter that you're in such a hurry?"
"Madam, something terrible has happened. The stewards have come to report that all the servants in the manor have diarrhea this morning. There's no one to do the work, and there aren't enough chamberpots."
"Some people are even fighting over the latrines! The whole mansion is in complete chaos now, what are we going to do!"
"What! Everyone has diarrhea?"
Chu Lianxin felt her vision blur and almost fell. Her personal maid, Yuzan, and another maid, Zhiyi, quickly went to support her.
"Madam, be careful!"
Once Chu Lianxin regained her senses, she instructed the maid, "Quickly help me over there to take a look."
The master and servants arrived in the courtyard and saw everyone clutching their stomachs and groaning. Some were angrily yelling at the people in the latrine to come out immediately.
Those with short tempers would bang on the door, trying to pull the person out and crawl in themselves.
Many more people couldn't even wait to go to the toilet and had already soiled their pants, feeling ashamed and angry, and could only curse loudly.
The entire Minister's residence was in chaos, like a vegetable market. The sounds of diarrhea were constant, and the stench in the courtyard was so strong that it made people want to vomit.
Seeing this scene, Chu Lianxin wished she could faint immediately.
"What on earth happened? Has anyone gone to fetch a doctor?!"
A steward, his legs tightly pressed together and barely suppressing his urge to defecate, replied, "Reporting to Madam, we have already consulted a doctor. He said that we ate rotten food, which caused our diarrhea."
"The ingredients in the manor are all purchased fresh daily, how could there be anything rotten!"
Chu Lianxin was so angry that her face was contorted and her voice was so chilling it could freeze a person to death.
"Where is the person in charge of purchasing? Tell him to get over here right now!"
Not long after, Zhao San'er, who was in charge of purchasing for the Ministry of Personnel Mansion, was summoned.
Knowing what his master wanted to ask, he immediately knelt on the ground and kowtowed several times. Then he raised three fingers and said, "Madam, I swear to heaven that all the food I bought was absolutely fresh and without the slightest bit of rot."
If you don't believe me, you can ask the kitchen staff.
Chu Lianxin's eyes were like knives as she looked down at Zhao San'er: "Of course I'll ask. If there's a problem with what you bought, I'll take your life immediately."
She pulled over several servants to ask, and their stories were all the same as Zhao San'er's.
It seems the problem really isn't with the ingredients.
Chu Lianxin then sent someone to fetch a doctor to inspect everything in the kitchen.
Unfortunately, some of the supplies had already been used up, and the supplies that weren't used up didn't show any problems.
Chu Lianxin questioned all the servants, but couldn't find a single useful clue. She was so angry that she almost ground her teeth to powder.
Looking at the servants who were pale and exhausted, Chu Lianxin suddenly thought of her daughter from Ziwei Garden, and her heart tightened.
Fearing for her daughter's safety, she hurriedly ran over with her trusted maid.
Hearing from the maids of Ziwei Garden that her mistress had left without having breakfast, Chu Lianxin finally felt relieved and secretly rejoiced.
Fortunately, her daughter didn't eat the food in the mansion, otherwise it's hard to say whether she could have kept the baby.
If people find out she was pregnant out of wedlock, her reputation will be completely ruined.