Chapter 177: Sneak attack 5 (2/2)
Aunt He shook her head, ”no, my Lady. Everything she ate was carefully prepared. I prepared them myself to make sure of that, it can not be from her food”.
”if it isn't from her food then how did this happen? Was there anything recently bought from outside the house?”
Aunt He quietly thought back in the events of the past few weeks, they hadn't gotten anything new apart from_ ”my lady, there is something new that we recently ordered”.
”what is it?”
”The new skincare and makeup products. We ordered a new set of ther pregnancy-friendly products because of the baby. The manager send down a mint and rose flavoured incense with our orders that the steward brought over A month and a half ago. The manager claimed that it was a complimentary gift given to their customers.
Three weeks ago, Her grace complained that the scent of the previous incense made her nauseous. Since she didn't like the scent of the previous incense so we took it away and brought this out. I remember that the mistress started sleeping longer after we started using the incense. We didn't think anything of that and just assumed that it was because of the mint leaves in the incense.”
Physician Gu walked back into the bedroom, he searched the room with his eyes until his eyes fell on the lit incense close to the bed. Aunt He and two of Madam Lu's dowry maids followed him in. He glanced at the senior maids, ”bring the incense over and open the window so that the scent would go away.”
One of Madam Lu's dowry maids picked up the incense and left the room with physician Gu, while the other dowry maid stayed back with Aunt He. A few maids stood in the hallway leading to Zhu Fengyin's bedroom. Aunt He quickly ordered them to open the windows before leaving with the other dowry maid.
Aunt He was no stranger to Madam Lu's methods, the fact that her young mistress was poisoned on her watch did not look good for her. Madam Lu had all the right to be suspicious, many years of painful experiences thought them to trust no one. She already felt like she had failed her mistress by not protecting her daughter-in-law.
Aunt He was led to stand by the side while physician Gu opened the incense at checked the ingredients. His lips tightened as he carefully searched through the ingredients, ”these ingredients of this incense are very toxic to pregnant women my lady. The mint and rose flower were used to mask the scent of Gui flower”.
”Gui flower again, so it was the same person that is behind the previous attempt that is behind it this time?” Lu Yiling said.
”It would seem so, young Miss” physician Gu replied.
Madam Lu breathed in and out silently, she knew that it was the heir to minister Zhu that was behind the earlier poisoning, her men already found evidence but she stayed quiet out of respect to Zhu Fengyin. She felt that since it was her family issue, it was better to let her handle it but since he still tried to poison her again, she couldn't let him go this time.
'I should have nibbed it in the bud when it happened last time' madam Lu thought glancing at the bedroom.
Aunt He immediately rushed forward at fell on her knees in front of madam Lu, ”Madam I deserve ti be punished. I should not have let down my guards, because of my mistake you nearly lost your grandchild. Please forgive me!”
Madam Lu glanced down at her maid and sighed, ”stand, there is no way anyone would have suspected anything. Take care of Fengyin, as for your punishment. You wouldn't receive any salary for four months”
”Many thanks for your kindness, my lady” Aunt He said.