The two elders both collapsed to the ground, faces turning deathly pale, vomiting blood incessantly.

Ji Yunshu was terrified. She even froze for an instant before quickly getting up from the ground and kneeling between the two elders.

“Uncle Wei, Aunt Wei? You…”

She helped Madam Wei up from the ground, leaning her against herself. Instinctively, she held Madam Wei’s chin with her hands, repeatedly using her sleeves to wipe the blood being vomited from her mouth.

But she was somewhat at a loss!

Madam Wei’s face turned pale, her trembling hands reaching toward Ji Yunshu.

Ji Yunshu grasped them tightly and called out: “Aunt Wei.”

“Yi… Yi’er, please… help me… take good care… of him.” Madam Wei struggled to open her mouth to speak, those eyes carrying tearful light and pleading.

“Aunt Wei?”

“Promise… me.”

Ji Yunshu’s eyes reddened. Tears streamed down as she nodded desperately: “Alright, I promise you, I promise. Aunt Wei, you’ll both be fine.”

Madam Wei forcefully gripped her hand, her eyes anxious, saying: “Also… Yunshu, Yi’er he… is not… is not…”

“What are you saying?”

“Yi’er, is not… my biological…”

What?

Ji Yunshu was startled.

But before the words were finished, Madam Wei’s body convulsed twice, then suddenly stiffened. Her feet kicked once, and she suddenly stopped breathing.

Those bloodshot eyes remained wide open.

Dying with eyes unclosed!

“Aunt Wei, Aunt Wei!”

Ji Yunshu shook Madam Wei’s body in disbelief, but there was no response.

Turning to look at Master Wei, he too lay on the ground without breath. Similarly, his eyes were wide open.

In shock, Ji Yunshu shouted toward outside: “Someone, someone come!”

At this call, Luan’er outside heard first and ran to the doorway. Seeing this scene, she was frightened into trembling all over, covering her mouth with both hands and screaming.

“Quickly go get a doctor, hurry!” Ji Yunshu shouted.

Luan’er came back to her senses and quickly nodded. Her feet trembled a few times before she rushed to fetch a doctor.

At this moment, the Wei residence servants also came over. Seeing the two masters collapsed on the ground, they were so frightened their souls nearly left them before rushing inside.

Someone reached out to check for breath at Master Wei and Madam Wei’s nostrils, then suddenly collapsed sitting on the ground.

Frightened, they said: “Master and Madam… are dead!”

For a moment, everyone in the room was shocked into stunned silence.

Coming to their senses, everyone began shouting “Master” and “Madam.”

Crying as if heaven and earth had darkened.

Ji Yunshu was still tightly gripping Madam Wei’s hand at this moment. Her eyes were painfully red, her heart burning as if scorched by fierce fire, completely devastated.

Frozen!

She couldn’t believe it—still couldn’t believe it!

At this moment, someone noticed the person standing at the doorway and heartbrokenly called out: “Young Master.”

There stood Wei Yi at the door, hands hanging at his sides, those clear, beautiful eyes staring intently at the two corpses lying on the ground.

That Wei Yi seemed somewhat unreal!

Ji Yunshu raised her head and looked at him. That upright body stood rigidly in place. After a long while, he slowly moved his trembling feet, step by step moving inside, walking to his parents’ side. Under his feet, he stepped in that pool of dark red blood.

He crouched down, one hand grabbing his mother’s hand, one hand grabbing his father’s hand. But he didn’t cry. With a tone that made people feel deep sorrow, he said: “Father, Mother, Yi’er will be good. Get up quickly, get up, alright?”

“Young Master, Master and Madam… are already dead.”

“No, Father and Mother won’t die.” He shook his head, hugging his parents’ bodies and crying out, murmuring repeatedly: “Yi’er will be good, Yi’er won’t cause trouble anymore. Father, Mother, don’t sleep anymore, get up, alright? Don’t leave Yi’er behind.”

Wei Yi’s voice choked.

Seeing him like this, Ji Yunshu’s own heart felt torn apart.

It hurt!

And no matter what the Wei family people said, he couldn’t hear it and wouldn’t let go.

He just kept saying over and over that he would be obediently good!

Before long, Luan’er brought the doctor over.

After examination, Master Wei and Madam Wei were indeed dead.

After further inspection, the doctor said: “Master Wei and Madam Wei were poisoned with zhenjiu poison.”

Zhenjiu poison?

What kind of poison was this?

Everyone didn’t understand, but Ji Yunshu knew.

She asked the doctor, shocked: “Doctor, are you certain it’s zhenjiu poison?”

“That’s correct—it’s zhenjiu poison.”

After the doctor finished speaking, he suddenly noticed the two cups of tea placed on the table. He reached out and took one cup, held it to his nose to smell, then took a bit of powder from his medical kit and scattered some into the tea.

The originally light orange tea instantly turned black.

“This tea contains zhenjiu poison.” The doctor said, then sprinkled some powder into the teapot, but there was no abnormality. So he concluded: “Someone must have added the poison when pouring the tea.”

“That’s impossible.” Ji Yunshu refuted. “There couldn’t be poison in these two cups of tea, because… I was the one who poured this tea.”

Just as she finished speaking, someone pulled her away from Madam Wei’s side and pushed her hard. Her steps stumbled, and her body heavily crashed into the door frame.

“You poisoned them! You poisoned Master and Madam to death! It was you!” Someone pointed at her.

Her body shuddered. A pair of blood-covered hands hung powerlessly at her sides.

She said: “It wasn’t me, it wasn’t me…”

Wei Yi was crying. Hearing this, he raised his head to look at her, his bloodshot eyes carrying disbelief.

Ji Yunshu shook her head slightly, meeting those eyes: “Wei Yi, it wasn’t me.”

“Shu’er…”

“Believe me.” She was extremely earnest.

Wei Yi sniffled, crying without speaking.

“It was you who poisoned them! You killed them! Report to the authorities, report to the authorities!”

Someone shouted, and the whole room of people became agitated.

Those who cried cried, those who shouted shouted.

Luan’er grabbed Ji Yunshu’s hand and also cried out in fear, yet didn’t forget to protect her mistress: “Miss didn’t kill anyone! Master Wei and Madam Wei couldn’t possibly have been killed by Miss—no!”

The Wei family people didn’t care about that and ran to report to the authorities.

Before long, the magistrate arrived with bailiffs in great haste.

With such a major incident at the Wei residence—two lives—how could the magistrate remain calm?

Greatly frightened, he asked: “What… what happened here?”

The Wei family members all pointed at Ji Yunshu: “She poisoned Master and Madam to death! The evidence is conclusive—she’s the murderer!”

All arrows pointed at Ji Yunshu.

The magistrate naturally didn’t believe it. He carefully asked Ji Yunshu: “Yunshu, what… what exactly happened here?”

She didn’t speak. Her gaze remained fixed on the trembling, crying Wei Yi.

Seeing her silence, the magistrate naturally had to speak for her. Turning to the Wei family people, he said: “Could there be some misunderstanding? Two lives—the case can’t be hastily concluded. It must be thoroughly investigated.”

A Wei family elder was somewhat agitated: “Your Honor, she herself admitted the poisoned tea was poured by her! It must have been her who poisoned them! Our Master and Madam died so miserably—are we to let the murderer go unpunished?”

“This official doesn’t mean that, it’s just…”

“Killing must be paid with life! Please, Your Honor, make the decision—seek justice for our Master and Madam!”

The whole room of Wei residence people seemed to have “killing” in their reddened eyes, furiously denouncing Ji Yunshu, insisting she pay with her life!

The magistrate sighed, took small steps toward Ji Yunshu again, extremely conflicted: “Yunshu, this…”

She interrupted him: “You needn’t be conflicted. I understand.”

This made the magistrate extremely worried. He absolutely believed Ji Yunshu hadn’t killed anyone, but right now there was no evidence to prove her innocence.

So he could only…

“Someone, take her to prison. After investigating this matter, we’ll make a judgment.”

Several bailiffs exchanged glances, then prepared to arrest Ji Yunshu.

But Luan’er blocked them, tears streaming: “Don’t arrest my mistress! Magistrate Liu, you know my miss would never kill anyone—you know it!”

“This official naturally knows, but this…” The magistrate’s words stuck.

“Magistrate Liu, you must believe Miss—she didn’t kill anyone!”

Ji Yunshu called Luan’er’s name in time and said: “Luan’er, nothing you say now will help.”

“Miss…”

She stopped paying attention to Luan’er and walked toward Wei Yi, crouching beside him, looking at his face that was crying beyond recognition.

She reached out and touched his head.

Softly saying: “Wei Yi, don’t be afraid.”

He raised his bloodshot eyes to look at her, sobbing as he called: “Shu’er…”

“Don’t worry. With me here, don’t be afraid.”

He nodded forcefully, hugging his parents’ bodies and crying again.

Ji Yunshu held back her tears, held back the pain, stood up, and walked to the magistrate’s side: “Magistrate Liu, I hope you can seal off everything in this room and not let anyone touch anything.”

“Alright, this official understands.”

Finally, Ji Yunshu looked at Wei Yi once more, then followed the bailiffs away.

Behind her, in that brightly lit room, the Wei family people prostrated themselves beside Master Wei and Madam Wei’s corpses, crying and wailing miserably.

As if they wanted to shatter the night into pieces.

Ji Yunshu was taken to the prison and locked in a relatively clean cell.

Though it didn’t have the “luxury” of Madam Jiang’s cell, it wasn’t filled with foul stench either.

The magistrate’s heart was trembling. After locking her in, he clapped his hands together.

“How could such a thing happen? How could Master Wei and Madam Wei die when they were perfectly fine?”

Ji Yunshu squatted on a clean straw mat, hugging her knees, head lowered, not saying a word.

“Yunshu, right now the Wei residence people all say you’re the murderer. Though this official believes you, you must say something.”

She still didn’t speak!

The magistrate sighed.

He called over a jailer and instructed: “You must take good care of her. Go get a blanket, and also bring a brazier. This place is cold and damp—don’t let her freeze.”

“Yes.”

The jailer immediately went to comply!

Ji Yunshu didn’t say anything, just sat there blankly. Whatever the magistrate asked, she didn’t answer.

The magistrate was helpless and could only leave temporarily.

That entire night, Ji Yunshu sat in the cell, her slender arms hugging her curled-up knees.

Though there was a brazier beside her, the surrounding cold air was piercing, penetrating from beneath her skin into her blood!

But she didn’t feel the slightest cold. Those sunken eyes kept looking at her blood-stained dress.

Those bloodstains were dark red, even tending toward black.

The color of poisoning was indeed like this.

Slowly, she reached out and pinched the part of her skirt hem with blood on it, gently rubbing it.

She fell into deep thought!