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The Mantis Stalking The Cicada (3)
The spring breeze blew over the sill, sweeping through the jingling bead curtains carrying away the strong smell of medicine in the house.
“Ah choo!”
Zheng Mei sniffed. She put the empty bowl aside and ate a few more candied dates.
After the sweet taste rolled across the tip of her tongue, she hesitated for a while but finally spat out the candied dates. The bitter taste of medicine still lingered in her throat.
She couldn’t swallow hard food or speak loudly for the time being, all thanks to Lu Zhi Yao.
“Miss, why don’t you send him to an official? If not, let’s tell the master and madam.”
Zheng Mei’s maid helped her apply the medicine. Seeing the purple bruise on her neck, she was really terrified.
Yesterday she received a message to pick up Zheng Mei at the back door. As soon as she went, she saw that Zheng Mei was soaking wet, wearing a guard’s coat. Her voice was hoarse, and she looked like she was being persecuted.
“That will make me lose face.” Zheng Mei suppressed her voice and could only speak in a breathy tone.
She said yesterday that she was going to send him to the official, but she was just scaring Lu Zhi Yao. If she really sent him to the official, wouldn’t everyone in Cangzhou know that she was thrown into the water by him?
As for Lu Zhi Yao, what was so great about reporting to an official? It was likely that the official couldn’t even catch him. It was better to hurt him to his core and make him regret messing with her.
“How is your investigation going?”
“Almost done.” The little maid replied while applying the medicine.
“After he came to Cangzhou, he either came to our house to find Li Ruo Shui or went to the teahouse in Yanliu Lane to listen to books. He didn’t do anything else.”
“Such a temperament, if he’s not so dangerous, it is indeed to my liking.”
Zheng Mei shook her head and put this terrible thought to the back of her mind: “However, his relationship with Li Ruo Shui is unusual.”
Zheng Mei looked out the window, lost in thought.
For a while, she couldn’t think of how to get revenge. After all, although Lu Zhi Yao looked gentle, she had already experienced his callousness.
It wasn’t possible to defeat him nor talk to him. This was so frustrating.
“Miss, why don’t you go outside to get some air? The doctor said you have typhoid fever and you need more sunshine.”
“Okay.”
They walked to the garden in the mansion to rest and bask in the sun. In the blink of an eye, they saw a light yellow skirt dangling on the side of the rockery, which was very conspicuous.
Zheng Mei knew that this person was Li Ruo Shui just by looking at the corner of her skirt.
People in Zheng Mansion liked to wear stable colors. She herself mostly wore glaze blue. The only person who wore such a conspicuous and outstanding color in the mansion could only be Li Ruo Shui.
Zheng Mei and the little maid looked at each other. They moved their positions slightly and stood at a blind corner of the rockery to look there.
They saw Li Ruo Shui walking up and down holding a piece of letter paper, looking serious, as if she was thinking about something.
And near her, Zheng Mei saw Lu Zhi Yao without any surprise.
He was sitting at the stone table, stroking a long bunch of red flowers in his hands, and seemed to be in deep thought.
One was dressed in snow white, and the other was in light yellow. It looked like the sun was shining on the snowy mountain, which was perfect.
Although they did not communicate, the atmosphere was harmonious. Zheng Mei could feel the tranquility in it when she observed from such a distance.
Lu Zhi Yao shook the red flowers in his hand, and with a smile on his lips, he turned his head to “look” at them.
Her neck seemed to hurt again. Zheng Mei trembled subconsciously, took a step back, and couldn’t help looking away.
“Miss?” The little maid supported her and patted her on the back: “He is just a blind man, don’t be afraid.”
Zheng Mei took a deep breath to embolden herself. She couldn’t resist the curiosity in her heart, so she looked there tentatively again.
She wanted to see how the two got along.
*
“How interesting.”
Li Ruo Shui looked at the letter paper in her hand. She said four words expressionlessly and felt dizzy.
Mrs. Zheng’s words about “not wanting children for the time being” really shocked Li Ruo Shui yesterday. She planned to root out the person who poisoned Zheng Yan Qing in the mansion and get a divorce as soon as possible.
If they could unveil the truth of the poisoning, the number of guards sent to protect Zheng Yan Qing in the Zheng Mansion would be reduced. Additionally, the letters they were looking for should be found soon.
All in all, she intended to pull the curtains off the mystery.
The boy who gave the drug in the original book was someone who had been in Zheng Mansion for many years, and she just needed to find that person.
The method was very simple, but there was a problem. She couldn’t remember the boy’s name and only vaguely recalled his surname was Chen.
There were many little Chens in Zheng Mansion. There were eleven of them raised in Zheng Mansion since childhood, eight of them had been near the medicine, and five of them were male.
Li Ruo Shui stared at the five names on the paper with a serious expression. She tried to recall some relevant memories, but the memories were not recalled. Only one face came to her mind instead.
Ma Dong Mei.



In the original book, Lu Fei Yue happened to encounter a young servant who was poisoned and followed up for several days to obtain evidence before revealing it.
But she wasn’t Lu Fei Yue, so such a thing wouldn’t happen at all.
Li Ruo Shui simply threw the letter paper on the stone table, ready to relax and rethink.
She turned her head to look at Lu Zhi Yao who was studying the safflower and walked over to sit beside him.
“How is it? Have you thought about how to eat it?”
This bunch of red plants was planted in Zheng Mansion’s garden. Although it was April, there were quite a few flowers blooming, standing bright red in the flower pots.
“What’s the point of eating this?” Lu Zhi Yao closed his eyes and handed the flowers to her with a smile. “Didn’t I say that you can only sit down after walking for an hour?”
She just changed the subject because she didn’t want to walk!
Li Ruo Shui leaned over the table, and suddenly there was a crisp clang, which made Zheng Mei and the maid tremble.
They poked their heads out and looked over. Their eyes widened at the same time, and their mouths were slightly opened.
Under Li Ruo Shui’s loose sleeves, two iron cuffs were exposed, tightly clasping her wrists, one black and one white contrasted sharply.
The corners of her skirt blown up by the wind also revealed some dark and metallic luster.