“You’re jealous of me and harbor resentment! But you don’t dare make a move against me directly, so you took it out on my cat and poisoned it to death.” Qiu Shu said indignantly.

She was convinced that Ji Yunshu had administered the poison!

And this debt must be settled right now.

Ji Yunshu was utterly speechless. What jealousy? What resentment?

It was all absurd talk!

Her mind was entirely focused on solving the case quickly and clearing Li Shiyan’s name. She had no time to care about such matters! Yet Qiu Shu kept pestering her again and again like children playing house, which was truly annoying.

“Miss Qiu, your logic is truly perplexing! First, I have no desire to have any connection with you, nor do I view you as my enemy. Since you’re not my enemy, I wouldn’t retaliate against you. Moreover, it’s always you who troubles me, while I avoid you whenever possible—why would I poison your cat and deliberately provoke you? Finally, if I had truly poisoned your cat, I would have thrown it far away after administering the poison, rather than carrying it out the door for your maid to see and make you suspect me. Since none of this makes sense, and you have neither evidence nor witnessed me poisoning the cat firsthand, yet you’ve drawn conclusions based solely on your own words and determined I’m the culprit! This is not only wronging me but also falsely accusing me.”

These words left Qiu Shu stunned for a moment!

Even someone uninformed would find it hard to believe she would poison a cat to death after hearing this. Moreover, how could someone as clever as her carry the cat out after poisoning it?

The maid also froze, organizing her words mentally before looking at Qiu Shu and saying, “Miss, it seems… that’s true. This servant indeed didn’t see Miss Ji poison it personally, so…”

Before she could finish, Qiu Shu scolded sharply, “Silence!”

The maid shrank back.

Qiu Shu didn’t care about all that nonsense. When a woman’s mind is full of rage, how can she think rationally? She handed the kitten Xiao Guozi in her arms to the maid beside her, then grabbed Ji Yunshu’s hand, “Don’t give me all this talk. My Xiao Guozi normally never eats things randomly, and I’m very careful about its diet. Besides the pastries you gave it, it wouldn’t eat anything else. If not you, then who? You’re the murderer!”

Ji Yunshu: “Must you be so stubborn and unreasonable?”

“You vicious woman! Always full of excuses. Today, I’m going to teach you a proper lesson.” Qiu Shu raised her hand to strike Ji Yunshu’s face viciously.

Ji Yunshu couldn’t dodge the slap in time. Just as the palm wind was about to strike her face, at this critical moment, a pebble flew from somewhere and hit precisely on Qiu Shu’s wrist. She cried out in pain, and her raised arm was deflected by the force, shifting to the side. Her body even stumbled backward, nearly falling to the ground.

Ji Yunshu started, following the direction from which the stone had flown, turning to look. She saw a hole torn in the paper window screen—the stone must have flown in from outside.

Who was it?

She hadn’t even had time to consider who it might be when Qiu Shu said harshly, “How dare you use underhanded tricks?”

“Miss Qiu, you’d better calm down.”

“Calm down? Xiao Guozi is dead, and you tell me to calm down?” Unwilling to give up, Qiu Shu raised her hand to strike again.

But just like before, another stone flew in from outside the window, hitting her arm again with even greater force than before. If someone hadn’t been supporting her from behind, she would already be on the ground. Her face was now flushed red as she clutched her aching arm, glaring at the “chief culprit” and saying, “What did you do to me?”

Ji Yunshu didn’t know either, but she had a vague feeling that someone was protecting her from behind! She knew that continuing this endless entanglement wasn’t the solution, and she needed to find a way to resolve the issue quickly. So she looked at the dead little black cat and said, “You say I poisoned this cat to death, then why not let me examine it? Perhaps I can figure out who did it?”

“The cat has already been poisoned to death by you, and you still want to look at its corpse?”

“I’ll say it once more—I did not poison your cat to death. Since I didn’t administer the poison, I can definitely find evidence to prove my innocence.” Ji Yunshu walked up to the little maid and said, “Let me examine it.”

The little maid hesitated and looked to her mistress for instructions.

Qiu Shu thought that things had already reached this point. Gritting her teeth, she signaled to give the cat to Ji Yunshu.

Ji Yunshu held the cat, then noticed the physician standing in the courtyard. She walked over and asked, “Physician, I trust you must have examined the cat’s condition. May I know what poison it was given?”

The physician said, “Aconite poison.”

“Aconite poison?” Ji Yunshu searched her mind for information about this poison’s toxicity while saying, “Aconite poison is a latent poison that doesn’t cause immediate death. Generally, the toxic effects manifest twelve hours after administration. Am I correct, Physician?”

“Precisely. Miss, you understand medicine.”

“I merely learned from a friend.” Ji Yunshu then placed the cat on the stone table in the courtyard, pressing gently on its belly. Not knowing exactly where she pressed, the cat’s mouth suddenly opened, and some contents spilled out.

Seeing this, the young ladies in the courtyard turned their eyes away.

They found it utterly disgusting!

They all covered their noses with handkerchiefs.

Even Qiu Shu couldn’t help but feel nauseated. Glancing over, she rushed forward saying, “What are you doing?”

Ji Yunshu said, “Don’t you want to know how the cat died? What exactly it ate before death? These are things from its stomach that haven’t been digested yet. Perhaps among them is something that was poisoned.”

“You’re truly disgusting!”

“Fine. Since you find this disgusting, I won’t bother with it anymore. Whether you want to find the person who truly poisoned this cat is up to you. I only need to prove my innocence.” She looked at the maid and asked, “Last night, when did your cat go missing?”

The maid said, “The beginning of the Hour of Hai.”

“And when did you see me carrying the cat out?”

“Approximately… the end of the Hour of Hai.”

“Just now you all heard the physician say that aconite poison’s toxic effects take over twelve hours to manifest. But from last night’s Hour of Hai until now, not even six hours have passed. How could I possibly have poisoned this cat to death?”

Qiu Shu was momentarily speechless.

“Miss Qiu, you came to question me without clarifying anything, even raising your hand to strike me. They say young ladies from distinguished families are well-educated, rational, and intelligent, but after these past few days of interaction, you’ve completely changed my perspective.”

“You…”

“Furthermore, the contents from the cat’s stomach are now on the table. You could easily have those coroners who examined Wang Huai’s body take a look—perhaps they can determine what poisonous substance it ate.” Her tone turned cold and hard, her eyes lifting slightly as she said, “Of course, you could also beg me. I might be able to find the culprit faster than those coroners.”

These words were like needles, each one piercing Qiu Shu’s body.

Seeing that she was at a loss for words, Ji Yunshu entered the room, turned and said to her, “If you change your mind, you can come find me anytime.”

With that, she closed the door.

Qiu Shu stood frozen in place, unable to react.

It wasn’t until the maid softly called out, “Miss?” that she responded.

Qiu Shu clenched her fists, glanced at the contents the cat had expelled on the stone table, and shouted loudly, “Why aren’t you hurrying to find the coroners!”

“Yes!”

Then she stormed off angrily.

The crowd dispersed one after another…

Zhu Yao had awakened by now. After sleeping through the night, her complexion had improved considerably. She vaguely heard sounds outside and sat up in bed.

Cai’er had just entered from outside, “Miss, you’re awake.”

“What’s happening outside?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? Don’t lie to me. Is it…” Any commotion in the courtyard was usually caused by Qiu Shu, and whenever Qiu Shu made a scene, it generally involved Ji Yunshu.

Therefore, she couldn’t help but worry!

Cai’er knew she couldn’t hide it and told her the truth honestly.

“How is it now?”

“Everything’s fine. Miss Ji silenced Miss Qiu with a single statement. In any case, Miss, you needn’t worry. The most important thing now is your health. You need to rest quickly. You’ve only just recovered, and both the Master and Miss Ji have instructed this servant to take good care of you.”