Chapter 426: “Malady or Poison (1)”
Ah Jing was about to continue when Fan Zhuo’s voice interrupted him.
“Ah Jing! I do not want to hear you speak anymore about this in future. I trust my brother and I trust Little Xie. The gossip that comes out of the mouths of others cannot compare with I can see with my own two eyes and hear with my own ears here everyday. Throughout the period that Little Xie had lived here, had he ever bothered anyone in anyway? Don’t tell me you do not know where those tonics that had suddenly appeared in the kitchen out of nowhere were from.” Fan Zhuo said, as he looked at Ah Jing, his always gentle face showing a rare moment of displeasure.
Jun Xie might not like to talk much and did not get along easily with people. But that did not mean that he was a person that harboured ulterior motives.
After Jun Wu Xie had moved into the bamboo grove, Ah Jing would often find precious tonics in the kitchen that suddenly appeared out of thin air. Those highly expensive things would often be stuffed somewhere in the kitchen and placed out in the open like common vegetables. Ah Jing had initially thought that the Headmaster had arranged for people to deliver them to the bamboo grove and had asked the guard that delivered things to them daily, but the guard had only told Ah Jing he had never seen those things before.
Ah Jing had then told Fan Zhuo about the queer happenings and Fan Zhuo had immediately correctly guessed the identity of the person responsible for it.
Those things must have been secretly left in the kitchen by Jun Xie. Although Jun Xie always carried a cold expression on his face, his heart was however warm.
Ah Jing could not find any words to rebuke Fan Zhuo’s reasoning. If he had not heard those rumours circulating throughout the whole academy, Ah Jing had actually liked the little Young Master Jun. But when the rumours began to be heard time and time again, many began to believe those rumours to be the truth. And when he heard that the Elder Young Master had been mercilessly slandered and irrecoverably wronged due to his association with Jun Xie, Ah Jing had immediately turned the blame onto Jun Xie.
“I will take it as you had not said all these before, and I do not want Little Xie to hear them.” Fan Zhuo said in reproach.
Ah Jing head was lowered and he said softly: “But the Elder Young Master…..”
“If my brother doesn’t even mind, I do not care to hear about it as well. My incapacitated body is a burden to people when others speak about it. If rumours from others are to be believed, shouldn’t my father and brother have thrown me out right from the beginning and leave me to fend for myself?” Fan Zhuo asked persistently.
Ah Jing shook his head vehemently when he heard that.
Fan Zhuo let out a big sigh and was about to give Ah Jing some instructions when his face was suddenly covered in cold sweat. His pale face turned green and he clutched at the clothes at his chest tightly before falling forward onto the table.
“Young Master! Young Master!” Ah Jing was in a fluster.
A loud crash sounded!
The tightly latched door was suddenly kicked open and before Ah Jing could recover, he saw the figure of Jun Xie rushing in like a whirlwind, straight towards Fan Zhuo, who had fallen unconscious, and immediately carrying him onto the bed.
All four of Fan Zhuo’s limbs were twitching as he lay on the bed and his mouth was tightly closed. The lips on his mouth were turning from purple to become greenish and his face was creased in a tight frown. Ah Jing was about to cry as he stood rooted to the spot, unable to move.
Jun Wu Xie immediately took Fan Zhuo’s pulse and when she felt the pulse under her fingers, her brow immediately furrowed.
In the past few days, she had accidentally come across Fan Zhuo within the small yard and she had taken Fan Zhuo’s pulse discreetly as she had some thoughts about his health condition. Although the pulse had been weak then, it had been nothing like the chaotic pulse she felt now from him. The chaos in the pulse had initially seemed to have been brought about by the onset of Fan Zhuo’s illness, but if one were to look deeper, they would find that the chaos was due to external influences that had suddenly stirred all this up.
It was not Fan Zhuo’s malady acting up, but an effect brought on by poison!
Jun Wu Xie was suddenly reminded of Mo Qian Yuan. Fan Zhuo’s pulse now had felt exactly the same as Mo Qian Yuan’s had in the beginning. Although Mo Qian Yuan had similarly been poisoned, but his body had been in a much better condition than Fan Zhuo. Fan Zhuo’s severely weakened body might not be able to withstand the torment the poison would inflict on it.