"Young master is back!" a servant shouted.
Immediately all the servants became active and began to prepare lunch. A large table was placed in the hall, and Fan Xian and the old lady sat facing each other on both sides, with many scattered dishes in the middle.
The scene felt a little weird, because those servants who had nothing to do were staring at Fan Xian's chopsticks and did not go to the backyard to eat, and a few younger girls were secretly swallowing, as if they were hungry .
This is an unwritten rule of the Earl's Mansion. Under Fan Xian's strong request and the old lady's acquiescence, everyone has already gotten used to it—Earl Befu, as long as Master Fan eats in the mansion, he must have tasted every dish. After expressing satisfaction, others are allowed to eat.
Although I don't understand why the always cute and gentle young master would have such an outrageous idea, but once Fan Xian's closest eldest maid, Dong'er, tasted the saltiness before Fan Xian ate, she was viciously attacked by Fan Xian. After being kicked out of the mansion, everyone knew that this young master was still a shameless child of the rich and powerful.
And when Miss Dong'er left crying, the old Countess just watched coldly and didn't say a word.
In the entire room, there were only the sound of Fan Xian chewing and sipping the soup, and all the servants quietly waited on him with their hands down. Just like all big families, the leftover food from the master will always be sent to the place where the servants live, as a reward for the lower class—so Fan Xian doesn't eat much of each dish, just holding the tip of his chopsticks , into the mouth.
But he ate slowly and carefully, and his thin lips moved, looking like two bright lights opening and closing.
The old lady of the Earl's Mansion kept rubbing a statue in her hand, and prayed slightly in her mouth, but no sound came out.
After a long time, Fan Xian finally tasted all the dishes, smiled sweetly, with a soft light in his eyes, pointed to a plate of fried bamboo wormwood on the table, and ordered to the servants: "This dish I like to eat."
The servants and maids breathed a sigh of relief, and hurriedly began to add food. Those who have no office can finally go to the backyard to eat, but another servant went to the kitchen and brought all the leftover fried bamboo wormwood. In the hall, put it in front of Fan Xian.
"Grandma, please eat."
Fan Xian stood up, saluted the old lady respectfully, then took the rice bowl with both hands, and put it politely in front of the old lady. And he himself was holding a bowl of rice, holding the stir-fried bamboo wormwood on the plate, while chewing, a smile flashed in his eyes, but that kind of smile was on his pretty face, It looked extraordinarily weird, as if he had finally found something he had been looking for for a long time.
But for some reason, the maids waiting on the side looked at the smile on the twelve-year-old boy's face, and thought of the heavy slap on the face that Butler Zhou had received in the morning, and felt cold for no reason.
…
…
"I'll take it back to my room to eat."
Fan Xian said to the maids around him, and then took the plate of fried bamboo wormwood and a bowl of white rice, and walked to his bedroom in the side courtyard. At this time, the old lady hadn't finished her meal, it would be very impolite for the younger generation to leave the table, but the old lady didn't say anything.
Back in the room, he took some emetic powder and swallowed it directly, then stuck his fingers into his throat, dug desperately, and finally vomited out the food remnants in his stomach, and then dared not neglect, from the drawer He took out a few pills that he had made himself, swallowed them with water, and then circulated his true energy all over his body, and found that there was indeed no problem, so he felt relieved.
He glanced at the stir-fried bamboo wormwood on the plate, smiled wryly, and then dumped it into the toilet behind his bed—the dish was poisonous, and it was the "cat button" often used by the spies of the Overwatch Council.
"Cat button" is a citrus-like fruit that grows on the southern island. It grows very beautifully. The flowers produced have a strange spicy fragrance, and the toxin is stored in the fruit of this fruit. .
Because the cat button fruit juice is mixed into the food, it is not easy to change the color of the food, and there is no abnormal smell, but it will increase the aroma of the food, so it is often used by the spies of the Overwatch Council to carry out assassinations that need to be concealed. After the poison enters the stomach, it will start to take effect at night, causing people to convulse and die, especially like some kind of infection-type death, it is difficult to find the real cause of death.
Fei Jie was the ancestor of the Overwatch Council who prepared poison, and Fan Xian was Fei Jie's only apprentice, so when he took the first bite of fried bamboo wormwood, he tasted it right away—the cat button had no taste, the only flaw It just has a bit of a bitter taste—the poisoned assassin actually knew how to mix the juice of the cat button into the bitter bamboo wormwood, which is really a very powerful person.
Fan Xian didn't leave to detoxify immediately just now, because he was afraid that the old lady would be frightened. But at this moment, he suddenly felt a little scared, and he was a bit more courageous. If it wasn't what he thought was a cat's button, but some kind of acute poison, he might have died by now.
Ever since Fei Jie warned him, he has been paying attention to his diet, fearing that the aunt in Earl Sinan's mansion in Kyoto would poison him, that's why there was the weird scene during the meal just now. He was afraid that the poison he ate did not poison himself, but the servants in the mansion, so he asked all the dishes to be eaten by himself first, just like the eunuch in the palace who was in charge of testing dishes in the legend.
Although Fan Xian believed that his life was more important than anyone else, he was also unwilling to let innocent people die because of him.
※※※
Seeing the young master came to a place like the kitchen, the servant quickly stood up, put a bench for him to sit on, and asked with a smile: "Master, did you not have enough to eat just now, do you still want to eat?"
Fan Xian giggled and said, "I really like fried bamboo wormwood."
The chef stood beside him and said with a chuckle, "As long as the young master likes it."
"Well, it's quite fresh. When did you buy it?" Fan Xian nodded vigorously and asked carefully.
"Bought in the morning, naturally fresh."
"By the way, did anyone from outside the house come to the kitchen today?"
"Lao Ha, who delivered the food, is ill, and his nephew has been here."
"It's nothing, then I'll go first." Fan Xian grabbed a piece of bacon from the plate handed over by the chef and ate it, smiling shyly while chewing, "Don't tell grandma that I came to the kitchen to steal it."
Watching the little boy leave the kitchen, the servants began to discuss, saying that the earl's illegitimate son was really nice, and he didn't have the slightest bad habits of a rich man, except... the rules of eating are really a bit big.
In a narrow street in Danzhou Port, Fan Xian hooked his fingers around the back wall of a certain building, and as soon as he exerted strength with his arm, he crawled in like a civet cat. This was the home of Mr. Ha, who delivered food.
There are only a dozen people in Earl Beppu, except for the maids who have changed a group, they are all locals. It has been so many years, so it is not very suspicious. Although the old Ha Fan Xian who delivered the food had also seen him before, but when he heard that the timing of his illness was so coincidental, he knew it was strange.
Lao Ha's room was completely dark, but in Fan Xian's eyes, it was like daytime. He walked into the room without a sound, and smelled a bloody smell at the tip of his nose.