"Young Master is back!" a male servant announced.

Instantly, all the servants sprang into action, preparing lunch. A large table was placed in the hall, with Fan Xian and the Old Madam seated opposite each other, surrounded by a chaotic array of dishes.

The atmosphere was somewhat strange, as the idle servants were all staring at Fan Xian's chopsticks instead of heading to the backyard for their own meal. Some of the younger maids were even secretly swallowing their saliva, seemingly hungry.

This was an unwritten rule of the Earl's residence. After Fan Xian's forceful request and the Old Madam's tacit approval, everyone had long become accustomed to it: at the Earl's estate, whenever Fan Xian ate in the house, he had to taste every dish and express his satisfaction before anyone else was allowed to eat.

Although they didn't understand why their usually lovable and gentle young master had such an overbearing idea, after Fan Xian's closest maid, Dong'er, tasted the seasoning before he did and was ferociously banished from the residence, everyone knew that this young master ultimately possessed the shameless side of a privileged child.

Moreover, when Dong'er left crying, the Earl's Old Madam simply watched with cold eyes, without saying a word.

The only sounds in the entire room were Fan Xian's chewing and the slight slurping as he drank his soup. All the servants stood silently with their hands at their sides, waiting. Like in all wealthy households, the leftover food would be sent to the servants' quarters as a reward for the lower ranks—so Fan Xian didn't eat much of each dish, just a chopstick-tip's worth.

But he ate slowly and carefully, his thin lips pursing and unpursing like two slivers of bright light.

The Earl's Old Madam incessantly stroked a statue in her hand, her mouth moving in silent prayer, without making a sound.

After a long while, Fan Xian finally tasted all the dishes, smiling sweetly, his eyes gleaming with a soft light. He pointed to a plate of stir-fried water shield on the table and instructed the servants, "I like this dish."

The servants and maids breathed a sigh of relief and quickly began to serve the rice. Those without duties could finally go to the backyard to eat, but another servant went to the kitchen to bring all the remaining stir-fried water shield to the hall, placing it in front of Fan Xian.

"Grandmother, please eat."

Fan Xian stood up and respectfully bowed to the Old Madam, then took the rice bowl with both hands and politely placed it in front of her. He, on the other hand, held a bowl of rice and continuously scooped up the stir-fried water shield from the plate. As he chewed, a hint of a smile flashed in his eyes, but the smile looked particularly odd on his beautiful face, as if he had finally found something he had been searching for a long time.

But for some reason, the maids serving at the side felt a chill in their hearts as they looked at the twelve-year-old boy's smile, remembering the heavy slap Steward Zhou had received on his face that morning.

...

...

"I'll take it back to my room to eat."

Fan Xian said to the maids beside him, then took the plate of stir-fried water shield and a bowl of white rice, and walked towards his own bedroom in the side courtyard. At this time, the Old Madam had not finished eating, and it was very impolite for a junior to leave the table, but the Old Madam didn't say anything.

Back in his room, he took some emetic powder and swallowed it directly, then stuck his fingers down his throat and desperately dug, finally vomiting the remaining rice and vegetables from his stomach. Immediately, he dared not delay, taking out a few pills he had prepared from a drawer, swallowing them with water, and circulating his true qi throughout his body. After confirming that there seemed to be no problem, he finally relaxed.

He glanced at the stir-fried water shield on the plate, smiled wryly, and then poured it into the chamber pot behind his bed—the vegetables were poisoned with "Mao Kou Zi," a poison frequently used by the spies of the Supervisory Council.

"Mao Kou Zi" was a fruit that grew on the southern islands, resembling a tangerine. It was very beautiful, and its flowers had a strange spicy fragrance. The poison was stored in the fruit itself.

Because Mao Kou Zi juice didn't easily discolor food when mixed in, and it wouldn't have any abnormal smell, but would instead enhance the flavor of the food, it was often used by Supervisory Council spies for covert assassinations. After this poison entered the stomach, it would take effect around evening, causing the victim to convulse and die, especially resembling some kind of infectious death, making it difficult to discover the true cause of death.

Fei Jie was the grandmaster of poison concoction in the Supervisory Council, and Fan Xian was Fei Jie's only disciple, so when he ate the first bite of stir-fried water shield, he immediately tasted it—Mao Kou Zi had little taste, the only flaw was that it would have a slight bitter taste—the assassin who poisoned him actually knew to mix the Mao Kou Zi juice into the water shield, which was already somewhat bitter, truly a formidable person.

Fan Xian didn't leave immediately to detoxify, for fear of frightening the Old Madam. But now he suddenly felt a little scared, his courage was too great. If it wasn't Mao Kou Zi, as he thought, but some kind of acute poison, he would probably be dead by now.

Since Fei Jie warned him, he had been very careful about his diet, fearing that the concubine in the Kyoto Si Nan Earl's residence would poison him, so he had the strange scene during dinner earlier. He was afraid that the poison he ate wouldn't kill him, but would kill the servants in the house, so he required that he had to taste all the dishes first, just like the eunuchs in the palace who were responsible for tasting the food.

Although Fan Xian believed his life was more important than anyone else's, he was not willing to let innocent people die because of him.

———————————————————————

Seeing the young master coming to the kitchen, the servant quickly stood up, brought a stool for him to sit on, and asked with a smile, "Young Master, are you still hungry? Would you like to eat something else?"

Fan Xian smiled cheekily and said, "I liked the stir-fried water shield."

The cook stood beside him and chuckled, "It's good that Young Master liked it."

"Yes, it's very fresh. When did you buy it?" Fan Xian nodded vigorously and asked carefully.

"Bought it this morning, of course it's fresh."

"By the way, has anyone from outside the residence been to the kitchen today?"

"Old Ha, the one who delivers the vegetables, is sick, so his nephew came."

"It's nothing, I'll go now." Fan Xian grabbed a piece of smoked meat from the plate that the cook handed him, chewed it, and smiled shyly, "Don't tell Grandmother I came to the kitchen to steal food."

Watching the little boy leave the kitchen, the servants began to discuss, all saying that the Earl's illegitimate son was a really good person, without any of the bad habits of the privileged children, except... the rules for eating were a bit too much.

In a narrow street in Danzhou Port, Fan Xian hooked his fingers on the back wall of a certain building. With a forceful pull of his arm, he climbed in like a nimble cat. This was Old Ha, the vegetable delivery man's home.

There were only a dozen people in the Earl's estate, besides the maids who had been changed, they were all locals for many years, so they were not very suspicious. Although Fan Xian had also seen Old Ha, he knew there was something strange about the timing of his illness.

Old Ha's room was completely dark, but in Fan Xian's eyes, it was as bright as day. He walked silently to the room, his nose smelling a hint of blood.