Poison Genius Consort

wu leaned in to ask, “Esteemed wangfei, what did you find out?”

“The tea Liuyue gave you, does it differ from the other teas you drink?” Han Yunxi asked.

Mu Qingwu knew the purpose behind her question, but he didn’t know how to give her a clear answer.
“Esteemed wangfei, that’s hard to pinpoint.
The tea leaves from the exact same place, season, and breed will have similar tastes if stored normally, but there would still be plenty of minute differences.” He paused for a bit before adding, “When comparing the same batch of tea from the same place of production, Liuyue’s teas would always be a bit better than the others.
It’s mainly in the method of curing and preserving the leaves so that they’re fresher.
Of course, sometimes it’s the water, utensils or time used to steep the tea that make the difference.
It’s really difficult to say.”

Han Yunxi understood as soon as she heard Mu Qingwu’s words.
To find an extra answer from all these subtle and immeasurable idiosyncrasies was impossible.
Just a simple technique of curing the leaves would create large minute differences.
Where were they supposed to start tracking them all down?

Han Yunxi originally wanted to look into the method of curing teas and find evidence from that end.
As things stood now, she’d be stuck following that clue without end and still not find a thing.
She organized her thoughts, leaving aside all sorts of distractions, and returned to the source of uncertainty about the tea leaves.

If the problem laid undoubtedly with the tea, then the open path they had was to find tea leaves containing poison.
But at this critical juncture, perhaps the suspect had already taken precautions against them.
If that was the case, where could they go to find poisoned tea leaves? If they gave up this clue, then their only choice was to make a move towards the suspect.
Han Yunxi’s concerns were exactly Mu Qingwu’s as well.
Seeing his dignified face, she began to smile.

“Young General, we still gained results from this trip.
There wasn’t any progress on the matter of the tea leaves, but at least…we determined a most likely suspect.”

Actually, just from all the clues they gathered today, Han Ruoxue was already plenty suspicious.
Add that to her own discoveries at Third Madame’s house and the suspicion grew.
She didn’t mention Long Feiye’s involvement in the matter since it was related to the Northern Li spies, whom Long Feiye had been secretly investigating all the while.
She could only wait with anticipation for Long Feiye to find additional clues.

Mu Qingwu hadn’t expected today’s clues to lead them to the Han Family’s Second Young Miss.
When he returned, the first thing he’d do was report to the Duke of Qin.
He thought it should be easy for His Highness Duke of Qin to investigate the backgrounds of Han Family’s Third Madame Li and Second Young Miss.
Since this matter concerned the case of the Northern Li spies, it couldn’t be made public.
Neither was it convenient for him to divulge details to esteemed wangfei.

Both of them inadvertently focused on the suspect and placed their hopes on Long Feiye, though neither was aware of the other’s thoughts.

Mu Qingwu nodded his head.
“Esteemed wangfei, don’t worry.
The general’s estate will seize the time to investigate this matter.
If there’s any news, we’ll tell you right away.”

“If I make any progress, I’ll tell you as well,” Han Yunxi said frankly.

Mu Qingwu was startled.
Was this mistress going to do a personal investigation? First of all, she was the married-off daughter of the Han Family, so it wasn’t good for her to frequently return home.
Secondly, she had to have some scruples regarding certain affairs, in her position as Qin Wangfei.

“Esteemed wangfei, as this official sees it, you should…”

Before Mu Qingwu could finish, Han Yunxi stood up lazily.
“Let’s go buy some tea!”

Her thoughts were in a mess, so she wanted to clear her mind and avoid thinking about this case for awhile.
It wasn’t convenient for Mu Qingwu to press her again, so he asked, “Which tea does esteemed wangfei like? We could have the tea servant bring it over.”

“I heard that their…Red South Peak isn’t bad.
You have to personally go into the mountains to harvest it?” Han Yunxi couldn’t help but think that she needed to bribe Long Feiye so he could hurry up and investigate the Han Family’s third wife’s affairs.
With his level of efficiency, she’d definitely get results within three to four days.
If she happened to make a mistake, then she’d still have time left over to keep investigating.

“Esteemed wangfei is truly perceptive.
Celestial Fragrance’s Red South Peak is grown especially for the imperial family, and not sold to outsiders,” Mu Qingwu laughed.

Han Yunxi was a little disappointed.
“Does this mean that it’s not for sale?”

“This official can’t buy it, but esteemed wangfei is part of the imperial family so you naturally can.
This official doesn’t know whether he can take advantage of esteemed wangfei’s honorable presence today?” Mu Qingwu teased.
After all their meetings, he’d unwittingly relaxed a lot more and wasn’t as reserved or cautious as before.
It was something even he himself hadn’t noticed.

Han Yunxi was immediately taken with the idea.
“Naturally,” she replied.

With a tea servant leading the way, Mu Qingwu and Han Yunxi climbed halfway up the back mountains into the area where Red South Peak was grown.
Row after row of neatly arranged trees stood just far enough apart for one person to walk through them.
The tea trees weren’t very high, but neither were they short.
They reached halfway up to the height of a person standing beside them.
Under the guidance of a tea master, Han Yunxi quickly grasped the technique involved in harvesting tea and walked with Mu Qingwu into the tea groves.

Since it was a mountainous road and Han Yunxi’s foot was still injured, Mu Qingwu couldn’t attend to harvesting tea, but hovered by Han Yunxi the entire time, afraid that she’d fall or sprain her ankle again.
Han Yunxi noticed that many of the tea leaves had been chewed on by bugs and muttered to herself, “There’s quite a few bugs, they probably didn’t spray any pesticides.”

In modern times, it was perfectly normal to spray tea plants with pesticides so that they repelled insects.
A few black-hearted tea growers even used insecticides heavily to guarantee a full harvest, or even sprayed drugs prohibited by the country’s laws.

“Pesticides?” Mu Qingwu didn’t understand.

Yet Han Yunxi suddenly spun around in shock.
“Poison!”

What if they sprayed Ten-Thousand Snake Poison on the tea trees?