"Qier, can you tell me what the symptoms are after someone gets addicted to that stuff?" Jing Xinche sat in the study all day. He thought they shouldn't just investigate that batch of drugs, but also check if there were any people who had been poisoned.
"Okay. Those who are poisoned will experience hallucinations after taking it. They will lose weight rapidly in a short period. Moreover, if they don't take that stuff before the craving kicks in, they will go crazy and feel worse than dead. And..."
Mu Fengqie suddenly stopped speaking. She carefully recalled what she had just said, and it occurred to her that Mrs. Shen exactly matched these symptoms.
"Bad! Jing Xinche, come with me quickly!" She hoped it wasn't what she was thinking.
Mu Fengqie dragged Jing Xinche onto a horse and galloped to the Shen Mansion. It was almost time for the mansion to close its gates when they arrived, and the servants happened to see Mu Fengqie.
"Where's my godmother?" Mu Fengqie was so anxious that her head was covered in sweat.
"The madam is in her room."
Mu Fengqie pulled Jing Xinche inside. Seeing Mu Fengqie in such a hurry and recalling their previous discussion, Jing Xinche quickly realized that perhaps someone in the Shen Mansion had been poisoned.
"Ah! Fengqie, why are you here?" Mrs. Shen looked at Mu Fengqie in surprise.
"Godmother, have you felt any discomfort or something unusual recently? Tell me everything." Mu Fengqie didn't have time to explain and just blurted out the question.
"Discomfort, something unusual..." Mrs. Shen thought for a while and said, "Now that you mention it, I really do remember. These past two days, I've often felt weak all over. And sometimes, I've been extremely irritable. But as long as I drink that tea, I'll be fine. So I didn't call a doctor. What's wrong?"
"Godmother, where did you buy this tea?" Mu Fengqie's back was completely soaked with cold sweat. It was all a match. Her godmother...
"I bought this tea from the tea shop in the capital. It's quite expensive, though." Mrs. Shen replied.
"Godmother, it's too late today. Can we stay here for the night?" Mu Fengqie asked.
"Of course you can. I'll have someone prepare rooms for you right away." With that, Mrs. Shen left happily.
After Mrs. Shen left, Mu Fengqie looked at Jing Xinche wearily. Jing Xinche immediately understood what she meant. "Mrs. Shen..."
"Just as you think." Mu Fengqie's hands and feet were ice - cold. She didn't expect the thing she was most worried about to happen. Moreover, she didn't know how widespread this problem was, whether it was controllable, and among whom it had spread.
"There will be a way." Jing Xinche hugged Mu Fengqie to comfort her.
"Godmother, why did you come back so soon?" Mu Fengqie looked at Mrs. Shen puzzledly.
"Oh, godmother didn't mean to disturb you two. I'm just a bit thirsty. I'll just have a cup of tea and leave." Mrs. Shen said with a smile. She picked up the teacup on the table, finished the tea, and left. As she left, she even gave Mu Fengqie a teasing look.
"Qier, what's wrong?" Jing Xinche asked, seeing Mu Fengqie's absent - minded eyes.
"I just had someone replace that pot of tea. It's not the tea godmother has been drinking recently." So they would soon know if her suspicion was correct. Mu Fengqie pulled Jing Xinche and quietly followed Mrs. Shen.
Sure enough, on the way, they saw Mrs. Shen scolding and beating several servants. It was completely different from her usual behavior. The gentle and considerate Mrs. Shen was nowhere to be seen.
"Godmother, what are you doing?" Mu Fengqie pulled Jing Xinche out and motioned for the servants on the ground to leave quickly. The servants looked at Mu Fengqie gratefully and then left.
"Humph, just thinking about it makes me angry. These servants are so blind. They actually bumped into me just now." Mrs. Shen said angrily, looking as if she wanted to beat those servants to death.
"Godmother, when did you become like this? You weren't like this before." Mu Fengqie frowned and looked at Mrs. Shen, trying to calm her down. But unexpectedly, Mrs. Shen got even angrier after hearing Mu Fengqie's words.
"What do you mean? I was kind enough to prepare rooms for you, and now you're starting to blame me." Mrs. Shen looked at Mu Fengqie with a distorted face.
Mu Fengqie tightened her fingers and said, "Godmother, I didn't mean that. I was trying to say..."
"Stop talking. You two should leave now. I'm not in the mood to entertain you tonight." Mrs. Shen directly interrupted Mu Fengqie's words and started to drive them away.
Jing Xinche glanced at Mu Fengqie. While Mrs. Shen wasn't paying attention, he directly knocked her out with a palm strike. Mu Fengqie caught the falling Mrs. Shen.
"Let's find a room to settle godmother first, and then go find godfather." She hadn't seen Lord Shen yet, so she didn't know if he had been poisoned too.
When Jing Xinche brought back Lord Shen, who reeked of alcohol, Mu Fengqie frowned. It seemed that what Mrs. Shen said was true. Lord Shen really went out drinking every day.
But seeing Lord Shen's ruddy complexion, she felt relieved. It seemed that only Mrs. Shen in the Shen Mansion had been poisoned.
"Godfather."
"Fengqie, what's the matter so late at night?" Lord Shen accidentally saw Mrs. Shen on the bed. A look of worry flashed in his eyes, but then he thought of Mrs. Shen's behavior these days and suppressed that worry.
"Godfather, my godmother has been poisoned." Mu Fengqie said. She had also noticed Lord Shen's change just now. She didn't expect that Lord Shen had already noticed something was wrong with Mrs. Shen, but just didn't know the specific situation.
"What did you say?" Lord Shen asked in disbelief. How could this be possible?
"My godmother has been poisoned. All her changes in the past few days are caused by this poison." Mu Fengqie explained.
After hearing this, Lord Shen's eyes welled up with tears. "I knew it... I knew it... A person couldn't change so much for no reason." So that was the case.
"Fengqie, can this poison be cured?" Lord Shen looked at Mu Fengqie excitedly. Since they could figure out that it was poisoning, there must be a cure. There must be.
Mu Fengqie looked at Lord Shen's expectant eyes and felt a bit embarrassed to speak. She didn't have the heart to shatter Lord Shen's hope, but...
"Lord Shen, it's very difficult to cure Mrs. Shen's poison..." Jing Xinche saw Mu Fengqie's dilemma and took the words.
"It doesn't matter. I'm not afraid of difficulty. As long as I can cure my wife, I can find any medicinal materials." Lord Shen saw Jing Xinche's embarrassed look and thought it was difficult to find the medicinal materials for the antidote.
"Lord Shen, I don't mean that. What I mean by difficult is that it's difficult to detoxify, not difficult to find the medicinal materials." Jing Xinche said.
"What does the Marquis of Zhongning mean?" Lord Shen was completely sober now. He looked at Jing Xinche and asked.