“Help! My husband is coughing up blood, there’s poison in the porridge!”

A farmwife suddenly cried out.

“Someone, come quick! My husband’s been poisoned, help!”

Feng Jiu’er and the others heard the commotion, and everyone who could spare a moment stood up and moved toward the sound.

“What’s going on?”

Feng Jiu’er was closest to the farmwife and quickly reached the couple’s side.

“Your Highness, please look at my husband.”

The farmwife, cradling a soldier in her arms, raised her head to look at her.

“He was fine just a moment ago. We applied the medicine, he drank the porridge, and then out of nowhere he started coughing blood.”

The moment Feng Jiu’er looked at the man unconscious in the woman’s arms, she knew he had been poisoned.

“Let me see.”

She crouched down at once, her long fingers pressing against several of his acupoints.

“What’s wrong?” one of the brothers came over.

Feng Jiu’er cupped the poisoned soldier’s face, studied him, and said, “Prop him up.”

“Yes.”

The brother nodded and lifted the soldier upright.

Feng Jiu’er flipped back the soldier’s eyelids and immediately frowned. “This poison was just administered. Someone brought poison in here.”

The brother shook his head, and before he could say anything, chaos erupted all around them.

“There’s poison in the porridge! Don’t eat it!”

“Poisoned!”

“Mother, what’s wrong with you? Don’t die!”

“The princess poisoned us, she’s a liar!”

“Brother, what’s wrong?”

“Nobody eat any more of it, the porridge is poisoned. The princess pretended to save us — we were all deceived by her!”

“Help! The Third Prince is going to wipe us all out…”

The moment Feng Jiu’er stood up, a farmwife kneeling nearby lunged forward and clutched at her leg.

“Your Highness, you’re not a bad person, are you? You were the one who said you’d bring us out to save our families.”

“Your Highness, I beg you, please save my husband. I’ll work myself to the bone for you.”

“Your Highness.” The woman shook Feng Jiu’er’s leg again. “Please, save my husband.”

Feng Jiu’er looked into the farmwife’s dimmed, grief-stricken eyes, and felt a pang in her own chest.

“Don’t worry. We will do everything we can to save them.”

“The princess is a liar!” someone shouted, though no one knew who.

“The princess is a murderer!” another voice immediately echoed.

“Help! Won’t someone save us?”

“There’s poison in the porridge, don’t eat any more of it.”

Feng Jiu’er had already anticipated something like this might happen — she simply hadn’t expected the other side would go so far as to target the common people as well.

Feng Rui truly was no better than a beast! Feng Jiu’er swept her gaze across the surroundings once, gave the brothers a meaningful look, and crouched back down.

She pulled out a medicine pill, pushed it into the unconscious soldier’s mouth, tilted his chin up, and made him swallow it.

Two women dressed as farmwives kept their heads lowered, drawing closer to Feng Jiu’er from either side.

They looked just like the grief-stricken farmwife, but the hands hidden in their sleeves were each gripping a dagger.

“The princess is a murderer!”

“Neither the princess nor the Third Prince are good people!”

Amid the chaos, the two women quickened their pace and lunged at Feng Jiu’er.

At that moment, Feng Jiu’er was still tending to the soldier and seemed not to notice anything.

By the time anyone reacted, a short blade was already very, very close to Feng Jiu’er’s back.

“Your Highness, watch out!”

A woman standing nearby suddenly spun around and threw herself between Feng Jiu’er and the blade.

With a shhk, the short blade plunged into the woman’s body.

“Assassin! Protect the princess!” someone shouted.

As Feng Jiu’er turned, the wounded woman fell backward, collapsing into her arms.

“Are you all right?”

Feng Jiu’er reached out to steady her.

But the woman who had fallen into Feng Jiu’er’s arms suddenly pulled out a short blade she had prepared in advance, and with a reversed grip, thrust it swiftly toward Feng Jiu’er’s chest.