I became the tyrant's only belief.

Chapter 149: How stupid is that?
"The porridge at the Grand Tutor's Mansion is so delicious!"

A shrill scream shook off a bunch of snow on the roof and alarmed the people nearby.

Everyone came over to take a look out of curiosity.

There is an open space in front of the Yue Lao Temple in the south of the city, which is convenient for people to come and go, and several mansions’ porridge stalls are set up here.

Seeing more and more people gathered to watch the fun, the steward of the Grand Tutor's Mansion glared at the crying woman with a sullen face: "Don't talk nonsense! I don't know what your child ate and died. You actually want to throw dirty water on the Grand Tutor's Mansion. Who gave you the guts to do that?"

"Someone, come! Someone is eating a dead person!" The woman threw herself on the little girl's body and cried, her voice was shrill and piercing, "My Cao'er, she drank the porridge and said her stomach hurt, and she died while crying! The Grand Tutor's Mansion is killing people!"

The steward frowned, and was about to ask the servant to call the officials to lock up this unreasonable woman in the yamen to stop her from talking nonsense, but he didn't expect a trembling shout from the crowd, "Another, another one fell!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and found that the person shouting was a man with patched clothes, who looked to be about 40 years old, with messy hair and an untidy beard with rice grains on it.

In front of him lay an old man who was about fifty or sixty years old. He was twitching all over, scratching the air with his hands, and his mouth was wide open as if he couldn't breathe. A hoarse sound of extreme pain came from his throat.

The steward's eyelids jumped, and he hurriedly ordered: "Quick, send a doctor..."

Before he uttered the word "guan", the old man's eyes widened, his head tilted, and he died.

The hands covered with frostbite hit the ground with a dull thud.

The guard ran forward, put his hand on the pulse of the old man's neck, turned back after a moment, and shook his head at the steward.

The steward closed his eyes and was about to ask people to carry the body to Shuntian Prefecture, but unexpectedly he heard a series of screams.

In just a few breaths, five or six people fell down, both men and women, old and young, and their cause of death was exactly the same as the old man.

Everyone was shocked. Someone dropped his bowl of porridge with a trembling hand and said tremblingly, "He, they all, they all drank the porridge."

The sentence was stuttered and broken into several parts. As soon as the words were finished, the man reached out to dig his throat and spit out all the porridge he had just swallowed.

Most people value their lives, so seeing this, others who had drunk the porridge, no matter which restaurant it was from, started picking their throats.

There was a constant sound of vomiting for a while, and the porridge mixed with gastric juice poured out together, making the open space gradually filled with a sour and fishy smell, which made people who didn't drink the porridge feel nauseous and they backed away, covering their mouths and noses.

The manager knew something was wrong, so he sent someone back home to report the situation. He also ordered people to cover the porridge barrel and guard it strictly, not allowing anyone else to approach.

Upon hearing that a murder had occurred here, patrolling officers and soldiers rushed over, and soon after, Shuntian Prefecture's bailiffs and coroners also arrived.

During this period, two more people died, also after drinking the porridge provided by the Grand Tutor's Mansion.

Now nine bodies, big and small, were lying side by side on the ground. The coroner examined them one by one and finally came to the conclusion that they were poisoned by strychnine.

Everyone was in an uproar when they heard this, and they started pointing fingers and denouncing the stewards and servants of the Grand Tutor's Mansion. The good reputation that they had accumulated before was instantly destroyed.

The woman holding the child cried miserably. She had no time to wipe away her tears, which froze into ice beads and fell down, piling up on the child's body.

The steward looked at the woman twice more and said to the coroner, "This porridge was all cooked this morning. I have been keeping a close eye on it. There is no way that strychnine could have been mixed in. Please check the porridge in this bucket, sir."

He took the initiative to request to test the porridge, which quieted the people's condemnation. They looked at him in surprise and suspicion, waiting to hear the result.

There were three porridge buckets in total. The coroner checked them one by one. The first two were not poisonous, but strychnine was found in the last bucket.

The steward stared at the changing color of the potion in astonishment. How could it be possible? He suddenly looked at the servant guarding the porridge bucket and asked sternly, "Has anyone other than you approached the porridge bucket?"

The servant had already been frightened by the conclusion of the coroner, and now he was even more frightened by the steward's shouting. Even his answer was filled with helpless tears: "No, no, I was guarding the porridge bucket the whole time, and no one approached."

The manager secretly hated it, how could he say no? Wasn't this taking the blame on himself?

As expected, as soon as the servant said this, the voices of condemnation that had subsided started up again. Even the managers and servants of the nearby porridge stalls looked at them with suspicion and hurriedly distanced themselves from them for fear of being implicated.

The officers looked at each other in bewilderment. These were servants of the Grand Tutor's Mansion, and one of them was a steward. It was said that the prime minister was a ninth-rank official, so the Grand Tutor was not bad either. Did they really want to arrest him?

Just as the official was hesitating, someone who had received favors from the Grand Tutor's Mansion but was still alive raised an objection amid the outcry: "The Grand Tutor's Mansion has been providing porridge for quite a while, but today they poisoned the porridge. What are they trying to do?"

"Yes!" Someone raised an objection, "There are three porridge buckets in total, and only one of them has poisoned porridge. Could it be that someone poisoned it and deliberately framed me?"

Everyone looked at each other in bewilderment. It was not impossible, but someone immediately said, "No matter what the purpose was, the man died after drinking the porridge from his Grand Tutor's Mansion. He must give an explanation!"

Many people echoed: "Yes, so many lives have been lost, we must give an explanation, people cannot die in vain!"

"Check properly!"

"Strict investigation!!"

Just when the crowd was getting angry, Dong Yi hurriedly arrived on horseback.

As soon as he received the news, the court meeting was over, he snatched Xie Hui's horse and rushed over, with sweat on his forehead.

He dismounted and after listening to the runner's retelling, he waved his hand and ordered the runners to take back the corpse, the deceased's family, the manager and all the items in the porridge shed.

Then he bowed to the people and said solemnly: "Please rest assured, I will investigate this case thoroughly and give an explanation to the deceased."

*
[Frog fun! The porridge provided by the Grand Tutor’s Mansion contained strychnine, and nine people died from it! ]

Chu Liuzheng was so shocked that his nose, which had been blocked for a long time, was finally cleared. After reading the gossip, he was speechless.

[The purpose of distributing porridge is to gain a good reputation for being kind and righteous. How stupid must one be to poison their own porridge? These people are obviously just trolls who are trying to stir up trouble. Do those who follow suit have no brains? ]

[I want to see who is the abominable poisoner! ]

Chu Liuzheng searched quickly.

[Got it! Prince Li sent his followers to poison the porridge stall of the Grand Tutor's Mansion. The followers pretended to be poor people and mixed strychnine into the porridge when the people were not paying attention. They also diverted the attention of the servants when they were serving the porridge and mixed strychnine into the porridge bucket.]

[Fuck! How disregarding human life! If that woman's crying hadn't attracted everyone's attention, and if people hadn't been poisoned and died one after another, who knows how many people would have drunk that bucket of porridge. Wouldn't it be... the ground would be covered with corpses? ]

Chu Liuzheng automatically imagined the relevant scenes in his mind and shuddered.

She hurriedly gave Dong Yi an encouragement buff in her heart.

[Mr. Dong, come on, you must find out the truth! ]

At the same time, Xiao Jingfan, who had rushed to Nongyun Garden as soon as he received the news from the Jinyiwei, said: He caught up! !
He turned and walked towards Wenhua Hall, as if he had just walked quickly because he had nothing better to do.

Everyone:? ? ?
It’s fun!