(Chapter 42) Poisoned

'I feel bad for them, they all believe that you are some middle-aged man with great insight.' Astrid was now home from the first day of school, and was messaging Wu.

Yes, the same Mr. Wu was the hacker named Wu that Astrid had hired. She had met him and stunned him into silence. Upon knowing his boss was almost half his age and a girl. He wondered if he had eaten the wrong cereal in the morning...

But nothing could hide Astrid's intelligence for long. He quickly understood that his new boss, was an incredibly dangerous girl. She had the foresight that even country leaders would admire. While being completely cruel and heartless, he had experienced the late effects of what Astrid did to Direa... his heart would always go cold looking back at her expression that day...

'I'll take that as a compliment, how are your lessons going?' Astrid had sent over similar lessons for Wu to do, that Winoa had done.

These lessons were mind-blowing, the complex formulae, the effective way on how to make plans, how to give the plan many safe routes in case of emergency. How to run a business effectively, it was basically a cheat sheet.

The way Astrid taught was simply revolutionary, but simple. As the brain experiences nervousness and anxiety, the brain can memorize easier. Hence, she put anyone she taught under enough anxiety that they were pressured to learn, but didn't break down. But also made it so they could use what they were taught, and be adaptable with it.

A businessman could be the most intelligent person in the world, but if they aren't adaptable to the outside environment, then they will fail.

Henceforth, Astrid prioritized adaptability, as she didn't need to question professional hacker's intelligence, nor Winoa's. She needed them to experience real-life situations, but in a simulation style.

It was similar to how she was taught in her previous life. Except she also was taught with pure quantity of knowledge, she had a reason to learn.

'It's smooth right now, the company is also slowly picking up employees. The tech department is also picking up speed.' Wu finished sending his messages.

Astrid tapped her desk looking at the message sent. She had indeed set up her business. She was in the process of remodeling the building and was currently hiring in expectation of the building to be finished by the end of the month.

'Good, I'll be attending the interviews for tomorrow with my secretary.' Astrid typed, she had seen some of the interviews planned for tomorrow, and she was interested in a few of the individuals.

'Got it.' Wu replied as he went offline, he was a busy man now. So he understandably went offline as soon as he finished the report.

Astrid then moved back on to the stock market, she had been monitoring stock markets within Eastern Europe, trying to pinpoint those in the area that would benefit her family being absolved.

But then she noticed something. Close to every company could benefit if the Urzhokovic family either collapsed, or regained their power.

The benefits of absorbing parts of the old Russian nobility were obvious, while if they backed the Russian nobility. The connections available to them, and the support behind him would be greater than if they got a slice of the family.

This was when Astrid noticed how long this had been planned for. 50, or maybe even 100 years. Of slow decline for the family, it might have correlated of the dissolution of the royals in the country. But Astrid could see a large amount of time put in to destroy the family.

But Astrid wasn't worried. Not everyone would sit back and watch the family collapse, she knew that her father had support from the government that wanted to preserve the family.

Astrid's first goal would be to train up people, she needed the manpower to go up against multiple businesses, while she could destroy them. Another company could easily swoop in and swallow its assets.

Astrid's eyes were cold and calculating as she lowered her eyes. She wasn't making a business that stays mediocre, what was the point of aiming so low? Especially when Astrid could easily launch the Tuhs and Urzhorkovic families back into the limelight.

As she was scheming in her mind, she suddenly felt an extremely familiar stomach pain.

Ever since the first bout of stomach pains she had routinely felt these pains. She didn't find this a problem though, as her mother was close to her birth date she had more pressing worries.

Astrid momentarily frowned, the pain would be enough for most girls to scream and shout in pain. But she barely reacted, she was trained to have a ridiculous pain tolerance.

So she couldn't realize what this routine pain actually was, especially when she had never been given any teaching on the human body...

She then heard knocks on her door. In came a maid saying that her mother asked for her.

Astrid nodded and went over to the source of the crying... Once again Anya was crying for her again...

Astrid calmly picked up Anya and sat down in the living room. Seeing her mother ask for some food, Astrid was quite pleased.

Anya also bubbled cutely in Astrid's arms. She was mainly staring at Astrid's warm face.

Mrs. Tuhs was drinking her tea when she saw that Astrid suddenly frowned. "Is something wrong?" She asked seriously, Astrid had just taken a bite of a biscuit and currently looked like she was going to put Anya in her cot.

Astrid shook her head. These stomach pains... Could they be related to her 'illness'? She would need to do some research on it later.

Astrid did indeed put Anya in her cot. But as she was about to stand, her knees suddenly wobbled, as her face paled.

Mrs. Tuhs immediately stood up to support her daughter. "What's the matter? Andrea! Call the doctor over!" Seeing her daughter's face pale, she was immediately plastering a stern expression on her face.

Astrid suddenly felt surprisingly weak. She was stunned, when was the last time she had felt this bad? But she then narrowed her eyes at the maid that placed the biscuits down...

Seeing Astrid's cold gaze on her, the maid froze up. She shook in her place as she lowered her head.

"Mother, it seems I was poisoned." Astrid spoke casually, as if she was talking about her clothes for the day.

Mrs. Tuhs looked over to the maid who had lowered her head. She was someone hired recently because of her giving birth. She felt pity for the maid who had only recently lost her brother... Hence she hired her.

"You dare?" Mrs. Tuhs had already lost her kind expression, it was now replaced by a deathly cold glare. It wasn't hard to see for outsiders where Astrid's ice-cold gaze had come from...

The maid gulped. "I-I-I..." The maid couldn't respond, she knew what she did. But it was for her brother that she thought had died...

"Call the guards. Send her into the warehouse in my care." Astrid's voice was weak, but the gaze she showed was still terrifying.

Andrea did exactly as told. As the familiar set of men came and took away the maid. As she didn't fight back, Astrid had lightened her gaze.

"Y-Young Miss." Andrea then stuttered as her face turned pale with fright.

Mrs. Tuhs frowned, she followed Andrea's line of sight... And her face immediately darkened.

Astrid was confused, she was poisoned. Why were they looking at her with such a weird expression?

She didn't notice, that a small stream of blood had appeared on her legs. Which had made Andrea and Mrs. Tuhs panic.

Mrs. Tuhs sat Astrid down and ordered another maid to put the biscuits aside, they would be tested late. But now she ordered Andrea to get some things to wash up Astrid.

"Baby, do you feel any stomach pain?" Mrs. Tuhs had seen the blood come down Astrid's leg, and was now looking at her daughter with an icy expression.

Astrid did indeed. Although it wasn't painful for her, she didn't know how much pain she should be feeling right now...

So she decided to nod. Hiding it wouldn't help her, especially from her mother. Who wouldn't stop bugging her about it for months.

Mrs. Tuhs then sighed in relief. 'So it's just that... But why is there so much blood?' She needed Astrid to go to a hospital to have it checked out.

Never in her life, was Astrid told about natural processes of the human body. Since the curriculum at school did not involve human biology, that had mainly skipped over normal processes.

Processes of puberty for males and females, it was something taught in the school while Astrid wasn't in the lesson. So Astrid did not know the topic from her past life, or her past host.

So when she was taught about the process of a woman's period by her mother. She was baffled. What were all of these processes? She had never experienced anything like this in her past life.

Her mother was notably relaxed when she realized that it was that time of the month for Astrid. But she also now wanted to know why it had taken so long, and why she seemed to be unable to move...

If Astrid was poisoned, then how did she react almost immediately after eating the biscuits? The poison must have been on a previous batch, no poison would act so quickly. But is also seemed to have forced Astrid to...

Mrs. Tuhs wanted to laugh, Astrid being poisoned had indirectly helped her with a bodily function that she clearly had issues with. She now just needed to be sure that Astrid wasn't poisoned with anything dangerous...