022 To poison

The royal family of Xin has the surname Shen?

Shen Tang suppressed the urge to vomit blood and forced a smile, "Although you may not believe it, but you're really overthinking."

Qishan asked, "I'm overthinking?"

Shen Tang nodded vigorously, "Yes, you're overthinking."

Her "Shen" has nothing to do with the royal family of Xin! It's really just a coincidence!

Furthermore—

"Yuanliang, don't you find it absurd? If I were the person you speculated, how could I be in this situation now..."

If Shen Tang were not involved, she might have believed it—logically, Qishan's speculation seemed plausible, but there's a big premise for speculation to be true, this body has to be a young man, and Shen Tang is certain that her body hasn't grown any unfamiliar "bumps."

She! Is! Really! Truly! A! Girl!

"Not to mention, the officials escorting and convicting prisoners wouldn't easily let me go, and the Gong family members traveling with us wouldn't treat me as if I were nothing..." Therefore, this body couldn't possibly be the Gong Cheng he mentioned, let alone the illegitimate child left by the lord of Xin in the Gong family.

Even if it were true, could Shen Tang admit it?

A deceased king or prince, where's the way out?

Qishan pondered upon hearing this.

But on the surface, he remained calm and inscrutable, and Shen Tang couldn't glimpse his true thoughts—whether he was convinced by her or sticking to his own wild imagination.

"I understand."

Shen Tang: "..."

Brother, what exactly do you understand?

At this moment, she felt an urge to open a hole in Qishan's head to see what's inside.

"Go, fill all the water bags with tea. We're running out of time."

"And mine..."

"There's also mine..."

The shouts of the soldiers echoed outside the teahouse.

Because the escort route was remote, coupled with the hot weather, the water bags had long been emptied. They laughed as they smashed the water bags on the boss's face. The boss endured it, bearing the pain and humiliation, showing an ugly smile, and picked up the water bags, tucked them into his arms, and humbly said, "Yes, yes, I'll go—"

His worried gaze still fell on his wife.

A soldier kicked him on the buttocks impatiently, urging, "What are you dawdling for? Hurry up!"

The boss staggered, almost falling to the ground, and the soldiers who held him pulled him up. The boss's wife trembled with fear but dared not struggle.

The expressions of the couple, who dared to be angry but not to speak, let alone resist, pleased the soldiers, and their arrogant laughter, accompanied by the wife's fearful sobbing, reached the ears of every tea guest. Everyone was indignant, daring to be angry but not speaking, even Shen Tang silently recited, "Endure for a while, and the sea will be wide and sky high."

By the third time she recited it, she stopped.

"To hell with the wide and sky high!"

Qishan clearly heard Shen Tang swearing, "..."

Unexpectedly, this young master Shen, who looked refined and noble, had quite a rough tongue, which only street thugs or uncouth ruffians would use. Seeing Shen Tang standing up, he asked, "Is young master Shen going to intervene?"

Shen Tang: "I'm not that foolish."

Even if one were to stand up for others, one had to consider strategy. Direct intervention was not realistic, but it didn't mean one couldn't do it indirectly. Shen Tang rolled up his sleeves, adjusted his innocent expression, and went to help the boss.

The boss was pleasantly surprised and hurriedly declined, "Young master Shen can't do this..."

"What can't I do? With nearly a hundred water bags, how long will it take to fill them? I see that there are only you and your wife in this teahouse. I'm worried that you're too busy and being troubled, so it's better to finish quickly and send them away. It's also considered my goodwill..."

The boss's eyes teared up after hearing this.

Choked with emotion, he said, "Th-thank you..."

The couple had experienced the harassment, isolation, and despair of being bullied, and they knew that the tea guests were not obliged to help. Who didn't know how arrogant the soldiers of Geng were? They killed and plundered, reveling in killing. Who wasn't afraid of them?

During this time, soldiers came to check several times, and their eyes swept over Shen Tang, who was crouched in a corner, working hard. Because he was young, efficient, and had a slender figure, he was mistaken for a tea shop boy. After staring for a while, feeling that there was no problem, they left.

After working together for a quarter of an hour, until sweat appeared on their foreheads, they finally filled all the water bags and finished the job.

Qishan was curious, "What did you do?"

Shen Tang took a sip of tea, and even his eyebrows were written with "pleasure," "Later, Yuanliang will know."

Qishan raised his eyebrows, speculating, "Poisoning?"

"Your guess is right."

"Where did you get the poison?"

As soon as the words fell, Qishan suddenly thought of something.

He asked again, "Linguistic elixir?"

Shen Tang smiled and replied, "Yes."

Qishan took a deep breath, "Which sentence?"

Or rather, which sentence of linguistic elixir was "ruined" or "subverted" again?

Shen Tang, full of mystery, recited leisurely, "The green bamboo snake's mouth, the wasp's tail with a needle."

Qishan frowned, "This sentence of linguistic elixir?"

Like the previous sentence, "The original valley is luxuriant, the jin rhubarb is like syrup," both have not been used by anyone, or have been judged to have no value in linguistic elixir research. Simply understood literally, the poison should be snake venom and wasp needle venom.

"Well, I was afraid that the poison alone wouldn't kill people, so I added another medicine. Yuanliang, why not take a guess, what's the other medicine?"

Qishan had a photographic memory.

Whatever medicine Shen Tang mentioned must also be in the scroll of linguistic el