Counterattack of the Concubine’s Invincible Daughter

29. A Bowl of Seafood Soup

Translator: Snowball

Would Mu Yunxiao be so kind as to specially order the chef to improve the food for Mu Yingxue and her mother? In Mu Yingxue’s impression, her father was not such a person.

Even if it was not Mu Yueli but he who had wronged her yesterday, he would not act so humbly or try to befriend them. After the observation in the past few days, all kinds of Mu Yunxiao’s actions showed that he was a male chauvinist. It was even not an exaggeration to compare him chauvinism to cancer. Would such a man spend every effort to please his wife, his concubines, and his daughters? What’s more, this kind of flattery was kind of a hint that he was giving in.

No, it should not be Mu Yunxiao’s style.

“Liu’er, bring me a silver needle!”

“Madam…” Liu’er looked at Ouyang Ruo. Apparently, she was surprised to hear her master’s instruction.

“Bring it here.” Ouyang Ruo felt more surprised than Liu’er, but since she had already decided to center on Mu Yingxue, she would not doubt her decision. Moreover, there were too many bad things that had happened in the harem of the Mu’s Mansion. It wouldn’t surprise them if they really found out something.

Liu’er went to the inner room and got one for Mu Yingxue.

Without hesitation, Mu Yingxue took it up and began the test from the nearest pot, a braised carp.

She inserted the silver needle into the abdomen of the carp, pulled it out, and waited for the change of the silver needle.

After a while, except for a little soy sauce, there was no obvious color change on the silver needle. Ouyang Ruo heaved a sigh of relief when she saw this scene.

Even though she was prepared to be poisoned, she did not wish for such a thing to really happen. After all, once that happened, it meant that they were no longer the targets of others’ plots, but the ones that others were desperate to kill.

That would be too terrifying.

Mu Yingxue did not relax her vigilance like her mother did. Her intuition and analysis of reality told her that there must be something behind this banquet.

As expected, when it came to the last pot of seafood soup, a problem appeared. The silver needle turned from silver-white into black.

“What have we done to deserve this!” Mammy Qiao was so anxious that she stamped her feet and patted her chest heavily. Afterwards, she bent her knees and preyed with her palms together, “May the Bodhisattva bless us. Amitabha.”

It was she who got these dishes from the kitchen. Once Madam and Miss had eaten these dishes, she would be ashamed to explain it to them even if she died with them. Thus, her heart was beating fast.

“Mammy Qiao, please don’t do this. It’s not your fault. Please take care of yourself.” Liu’er massaged her chest and comforted her carefully.

Mu Yingxue looked coldly at the table full of dishes. Her hands under her sleeves were already clenched into fists. Someone was going too far!

She looked at the three people around her, not daring to imagine the scene that if she didn’t take this seriously today, and they all ate these dishes, then the consequences, the consequences…

Who was so desperate to kill her?

“Yingxue?”

Ouyang Ruo carefully held her daughter’s hands, which hurt because she held them too tightly, and gently forced her palms apart. “Who is so cruel to wish our immediate death?”

Seeing her lowering her head tearfully, Mu Yingxue pitied her a lot. She stretched out her hand and gently patted her mother’s back, “Mother, don’t be afraid. As long as I am here, I will definitely ensure everyone’s safety.”

“I believe in you.” Ouyang Ruo wiped the corners of her eyes with her sleeves and smiled at her. “I believe in you!”

This was supposed to be a good meal, but the poisoned soup ruined it all. Mu Yingxue asked Liu’er to carry the pot of poisonous seafood soup and follow her to the kitchen.

The female cooks were eating. Since there were only a few servants here, the atmosphere was very hilarious, and no one noticed their arrival.

Mu Yingxue stood in front of the door for a while. The content of their conversation was nothing more than the dirty arguments among the servants. However, these women described these lively, and from time to time, they would even laugh mischievously.

Liu’er looked at her master nervously after seeing this scene, but inwardly, she despised these shameless old female cooks for talking boldly in front of her miss. As a pure and noble lady, how could she bear hearing that?

“Miss?” Seeing her standing still at the door, Liu’er thought her master must have been angry.

Unexpectedly, a faint smile appeared on Mu Yingxue’s face, and she asked with a slightly ironic smile, “Mammies, you are really in a good mood. I’m wondering what’s so funny that makes you so happy.”

While the female cooks were chatting excitedly, they did not expect anyone to barge in. Therefore, they were stunned to look up and found it was the fourth miss who had been in the limelight recently.

In the past, no one would care about a fool but looked down on Mu Yingxue and her mother. However, things were different now. The crown prince, Prince Rui, and even the emperor all expressed their respect for this lady who used to be foolish. Who would dare to look down on her? At the very least, they did not dare to disrespect her in front of her.

The supervisor of the kitchen, Mammy Li, was the first to react. She immediately stood up and quickly walked up to Mu Yingxue. With a smile, she said in a flattering manner, “Miss, what brings you here? If there’s anything you need, just ask your servant to come over and tell me. There’s no need for you to come here personally.”

Mu Yingxue smiled faintly, which startled Mammy Li. “Nothing important. It’s just I’m very satisfied with the fourth branch’s food today, so I’m here to express my gratitude to you all.”

“Please, my lady, that’s what we should do.”

Mammy Li smiled awkwardly, but her heart was beating fast. She did not know what Mu Yingxue was doing here.

Mu Yingxue didn’t answer her and only ordered Liu’er to put the seafood soup on the dining table of the cooks.

Liu’er was smart. She put down the bowl of soup and said to Mammy Li, “This is a little token of my master’s appreciation.”

Mammy Li looked at the bowl of seafood soup and was slightly stunned. She had recognized that it was the bowl that she had just brought to their courtyard. Why did it remain intact the way she took it there?

Mu Yingxue observed her expression and said slowly, “Mammy’s cooking skill has improved a lot. It’s a pity that my mother and I don’t feel well recently, so we can’t eat seafood. If you don’t mind, please help me finish this soup.”

“Miss, what are you talking about? We are all grateful to you. How can we bear the word ‘finish the soup’?”

Mammy Li’s smile deepened. The seafood soup was filled with all sorts of good stuff like scallops and shark fins. It would be difficult to even keep a few private items for themselves, needless to say such a large basin of it.

“Go ahead, mammies. I’ll leave after you finish it all.”

Mu Yingxue ignored Mammy Li and her gaze fell on the other female cooks by the table. When one of them heard her words, her face suddenly turned pale.

Mammy Li, however, did not know that she was up to something else, and hurriedly said, “How can we do that? Miss, we would be lucky to have you here.”

Then she asked someone to bring a clean stool to Mu Yingxue and invited her to sit down. Then she went back to the table. After sitting down, she didn’t dare to pick up the bowl which half of the food in it would be cold at this time.

Seeing them not moving their chopsticks, Mu Yingxue did not force them. Originally, her purpose was not to let these people drink this soup. If anyone really wanted to have it, she would even say something to stop them. She only ran this test to see if there was any “ghost” she was looking for.

As she expected… there was one.

“You’re not embarrassed because I’m here, are you?”

She looked at them coldly. The smile on her face was somewhat cold and indifferent in the eyes of those who were guilty.

At this moment, a fat female cook whose face was pale said with a forced smile, “Miss Yingxue, I need to use the bathroom. Do you think…”

Mu Yingxue stared at her, and her eyes were neither cold nor warm. There was an ambiguous smile on the corner of her mouth, which scared the female cook so much that her legs were trembling inside her broad pants, and her sweat was pouring down like rain.

Unexpectedly, Mu Yingxue did not give her an answer. Instead, she looked at a dog eating leftovers in a bucket nearby.

The dog’s fur was shiny, and it could be seen at first glance that it always had a lot of good food to eat so that it looked fat and chubby.

Mu Yingxue suddenly asked, “Who raised this dog? It looks nice.”

Mammy Li replied with a smile hastily, “It’s just a stray dog. We raise it to keep it alive. If Miss Yingxuedoesn’t like it, we’ll take it to the outside of the mansion a few days later and send it away.”

“Mammy, what are you talking about? I like this cute dog. Why give it to others?”

After saying that, Mu Yingxue imitated the sound of a dog and walked to the table, picking up a spoon and scooping some scallops in the seafood soup and threw them on the mud not far away.

When the dog heard the call and smelled the fragrance of the scallops, it immediately ran over. After sniffing, the dog stuck out its tongue to lick the scallops.

When everyone saw that Mu Yingxue was in such a good mood to tease the dog, they all smiled and watched aside, but their smiles slowly froze on their faces.

It turned out that after licking the scallops for a while, the dog unexpectedly bent its front leg and slowly fell down. Then it spat foam at the mouth, four limbs convulsed, and finally the little thing bled from its mouth, nostrils, ears and eyes, lying on the ground motionlessly.

Everyone looked at the dog in confusion. After a while, they looked at Mu Yingxue in horror. How could the healthy dog be killed by her like that?

Only the fat female cook, who claimed that she needed to use the bathroom in advance, collapsed on the ground out of nervousness. She was so frightened that her face went pale, and her whole body was trembling.

Originally, the female cooks all thought it was Mu Yingxue who killed the dog, but now they finally realized that this bowl of seafood soup was cooked by Mammy Rong, the one who was now lying on the ground. When they saw her current state and thought of the sudden visit of Yingxue today, doubts aroused in their hearts.

“Miss, this, this… this is none of our business!”

As the supervisor of the kitchen, Mammy Li was the first to be blamed if there was anything wrong with the Madams and Misses’ food. Therefore, at this time, she defended herself immediately.

After her, all the female cooks knelt down and cried out their grievances. “We have nothing to do with this. Miss Yingxue, you are perceptive enough to know we are innocent.”

In the chaos and cries for justice, someone suddenly reacted quickly and pulled the one paralyzed on the ground. Pointing at Mammy Rong’s nose, the one asked angrily, “Did you do that? Did you do that to get us all implicated?”