Chapter 189 - The Culprit (1)
Chapter 189 – The Culprit (1)
"Young miss, what should we do now?" Su Tang worriedly asked her young miss as soon as they got in their courtyard.
Lin Xiaofei only glanced at her once before she said, "Nothing. Leave me for now. I want to be alone."
After she said that, she turned her back to the maid and closed the door behind her.
Once inside her room, Lin Xiaofei could feel the strength in her legs draining as she kneeled on the ground.
Despite her appearing strong and unaffected, Lin Xiaofei was greatly affected by Lin Xiaomeng's condition. She may not be his real granddaughter but he had been treating her like one, making her feel that he was one of the people who showed real affection towards her albeit not deserving it.
Lin Xiaofei let her elbows rest on her knees as she held her aching head. The emotions she was feeling right now was making her head feel confused..
But that didn't mean that her mind wasn't sound enough for her to think through what was really happening.
Lin Xiaomeng has a lot of enemies that might have paid the female servant to serve the poisoned tea to him. As an almighty general, he has crossed a lot of enemies throughout the battlefield, and people who hated to see him rise up.
Thus, it was hard to pinpoint who was the real culprit behind the female servant.
Prince Jing and Prince Ziyin visited the Lin residence that day so that makes them both the potential suspects. However, that would make things too complicated. The two of them didn't have any reason to poison her grandfather.
Prince Jing might be arrogant and overbearing but he wouldn't dare harm Lin Xiaomeng on the same day he came to visit the Lin residence. And considering that he wanted to marry her, he wouldn't have the desire to kill her grandfather but convince him instead to make her marry him. On the other hand, Prince Ziyin was a prince from the other kingdom. His movements were restricted and he couldn't risk the alliance between the two kingdoms by poisoning the great General of the Zheng empire.
Thus, these two were highly unlikely to be the culprits behind this event.
Lim Xiaofei could be wrong about her assumptions but it was the most plausible one at the moment.
And now the most important question was who would dare poison the great general, Lin Xiaomeng?
The only people who would benefit from this would be the emperor and the people who were against him.
But there was also another person whom she didn't forget to include. It was Yu Fangzhu.
As Lin Xiaofei was preoccupied with her thoughts, outside her courtyard, Su Tang and Bai Lu saw Lin Feng walking towards them.
Lin Feng stopped before them and said, "Announce me to your young miss. Tell her I wish to talk to her."
"Certainly, Master Lin Feng." Bai Lu nodded her head and went to announce him. However, she didn't get a reply from Lim Xiaofei.
Bai Lu fidgeted on the ground she was standing and looked back and forth from the closed door to Lin Feng before she announced again.
When she didn't get a reply the second time she announced his arrival, Bai Lu thought that her young miss might have fallen asleep.
And before she could tell what she was thinking to Lin Feng, the door to the room was pushed open and her young miss was standing before them.
"I apologize for being late to see uncle. I was changing my clothes. First uncle, please come in." Lin Xiaofei stood before them and just as she said, she really did change out of her clothes and wore a purple silk robe.
Lin Feng shook his head and said, "No need to apologize. I was the one who came in a hurry." As he said this, he walked inside her room. "I came here to tell you about some matters."
"Is this about grandfather?"
Lin Feng grimly nodded his head.
Lin Xiaofei let him follow her to her room and sat down before the table that was placed inside her room. Then, she dismissed the servants and waited for her uncle to say something.
As soon as they were alone, Lin Feng said, "The servant who served the tea opened her mouth and told me something really interesting."
"And that is?"
"Apparently, she's saying that the Duke of Xin was the one who ordered her to serve the poison."
Lin Xiaofei frowned at his words and looked up at him. "That is impossible."
"I know. The duke personally came to our residence to ask for your hand in marriage and father approved it." Lin Feng watched her reaction and when he got none from her, he continued, "Unless you offended the duke or he wanted to call off the wedding, then, he might have done it out of anger."
Lin Xiaofei almost scoffed at him but held back as she said, "If he did do it. First uncle doesn't have to worry as I will kill him using my own hands. However, I highly doubt it could be him as there was no reason for him to do that. And on the contrary, he never mentioned calling off the marriage and instead, he wanted to speed up the date of the marriage and be done with it."
"Does First uncle not trust him and suspect the duke?" Lin Xiaofei couldn't stop herself from asking him.
And surprisingly, Lin Feng shook his head and said, "I do trust him. Grandfather chose him to be your husband and I trust your judgment on him. It's just that this matter is really interesting."
"How so?" Lin Xiaofei didn't know what was so interesting about this when Lin Xiaomeng was on the verge of dying from the poison in his body.
Lin Feng ignored the strange look in his niece's eyes and explained himself, "I don't think that grandfather was their only target. The fact that that the serving servant pointed at the duke as the person behind this event. Wouldn't this mean that someone wanted to destroy the relationship between the Lin family and the Duke?"