The maidservant is too charming. I want to help her become the queen.

The next morning.

From time to time, there are several flatbed delivery trucks coming and going in front of the Mixue Ice Palace shop.

Meng Qi held the account book in one hand and a short carbon pencil in the other. He stared at the passing flatbed carts intently, and occasionally scribbled a few times on the book.

Before opening the store every day, counting the day's goods and taking inventory is Meng Qi's necessary work.

He muttered words.

"Five barrels of raw milk."

"Three baskets of fresh watermelons, three baskets of green oranges, three baskets of grapes..."

"Plus two cans of crushed black tea, two cans of jasmine tea, and three cans of matcha..."

After all the goods were delivered, Meng Qi led a few eunuchs into the backyard to start the day's preparations.

"In addition to delicious food, our Mixue Ice Palace also pays attention to food safety."

"If the raw materials of milk tea are found to be spoiled or rotten, they must not be served to our customers!"

Meng Qi stood aside and shouted with all his might.

Mixue Ice Palace is a brand that he and Lu Qingqing had created with great difficulty. It has received good response in the first few days of opening. He must control the quality to ensure the long-term success of his store.

The young eunuchs who were busy beside the stove answered one by one.

Since they came to work for Mengqi, they have not only increased their income, but also been able to taste a variety of new and exotic drinks every day. Naturally, they responded to the shopkeeper's requests.

Some palace servants were busy washing fresh fruits and vegetables in freshly drawn well water over and over again, while others were busy cutting the washed fruits and vegetables into bite-sized pieces on the chopping board.

Several palace servants also worked together to lift buckets of milk and pour them into the clay pots on the stove.

One of them placed the milk bucket on the edge of the pottery jar, while the other lifted the bottom of the milk bucket with all his strength.

The milky white and smooth milk was poured into the ceramic jar with a "splash".

The young eunuch who was in charge of holding the handle of the pottery jar discovered that something was wrong.

He called his little friend over.

"Hey? Look! There seems to be something in this milk."

"Why is there a layer of something like ash floating on the surface, and there are also a lot of broken leaves?"

Another palace maid took a closer look.

Sure enough, there were several pieces of foam like dead leaves floating on the white and fragrant milk, and they were particularly eye-catching due to their black color.

"I guess the lid wasn't closed properly last night, and the wind blew the fallen leaves in."

"I'll get a gourd ladle and scoop out the dead leaves."

After saying that, the palace servant picked up a gourd ladle and scooped out all the ash-like substance floating on the surface of the milk.

They poured the scooped milk into the slop bucket one ladle at a time, which caught Meng Qi's attention.

"Hey, what are you two doing? Why are you pouring out the milk for no reason?"

The young eunuch replied to Meng Qi and told him about their discovery of dust in the milk.

"Sir Meng, there is ash in the milk, so we scooped it out."

"It would be bad if a customer drank it."

Meng Qi glanced at the milk poured into the slop bucket and became suspicious.

Strange? The wood ash doesn't look like ordinary fallen leaves.

He seemed to have seen this ash in a medical book, but no matter how hard he tried to think about it, he couldn't figure out what it was.

He immediately ordered people to check other pottery jars to see if there was any such wood ash floating in the air.

As he expected, in addition to this pottery pot for boiling milk, there were similar things in several pottery pots for boiling tea nearby.

Meng Qi thought something was wrong.

If they were really fallen leaves, how come they floated right into the pottery jar?

Besides, there were no fallen leaves near the stove!

Apparently, the clay pot they used to make milk tea had been tampered with!

Meng Qi immediately ordered everyone to stop preparing the raw materials. He planned to investigate the source of the wood ash.

He pinched some powder from a clay pot with his fingers, then carefully took out a silk handkerchief from his arms and wrapped the powder in it.

“Everyone, if you find any pottery jars with wood ash in them, don’t use them anymore.

"Put these pots away first, and I'll find a few new pots from the warehouse to make milk tea today."

Everyone agreed and took quick action.

Meng Qi seemed to suddenly remember something and gave an additional instruction.

"Hey, those two people, don't use the milk you poured into the pottery jars before. Pour it all out."

Meng Qi was worried that the source of the wood ash was not simple. Even if the last part of it was scooped out of the milk, the remaining milk would inevitably be contaminated.

So the two young eunuchs carried the can of milk and staggered to the pool.

They looked at the full cans of milk and felt a little sorry, so they came up with an idea.

"Lord Meng probably thinks the milk is dirty, so he doesn't allow us to give it to guests."

"But it shouldn't be a problem to use this stuff to feed the horses. Otherwise, it would be a waste to just dump it out like this."

The other person nodded, and they put the can of milk aside, planning to take it to the stable when they took a break from work.

After Meng Qi settled the affairs in the hospital, he quickly rushed to the Imperial Hospital with the bag of medicine.

He took the package to other imperial doctors for identification and got a horrible conclusion.

An imperial physician stared at the thing in Meng Qi's hand, his voice trembling.

"What is this? Heartbreak grass!"

"If someone consumes it, they will die of liver and intestines, stomach cramps and pain within half an hour. This is a forbidden drug in the palace!"

"Doctor Meng, where did you get this thing?!"

Meng Qi was stunned.

What, Gelsemium elegans?

His shop has only been open for a few days, how come someone is already using the herb to poison him?

There are no other competitors in this palace!

Meng Qi was puzzled, so he had to rush to Ouxie Ting to find Lu Qingqing to discuss it.

Unexpectedly, after hearing this, Lu Qingqing was not as shocked as Meng Qi. Instead, an expression of disappointment and lamentation appeared on her delicate face.

Lu Qingqing sighed slowly.

"Oh, I didn't expect it to be like this."

Meng Qi looked at her in confusion, "Unexpectedly? What does this mean?"

Lu Qingqing hesitated for a long time, as if she had made a big decision.

"You don't have to investigate this matter. I know who did it."

Meng Qi wanted to ask more, but when he saw Lu Qingqing's ugly face, he swallowed the words back.

He really didn't know how to comfort others. Seeing his friend so depressed, he had no idea what to do and could only scratch his head.

"Qingmei, since you don't want to talk about it, I won't ask."

"I'm going back to the store first."

After Meng Qi left, Lu Qingqing kept thinking about what the eunuch in charge of purchasing for the palace said to her last night.

He told Lu Qingqing that Lu Panpan once went to him and spent a lot of money to exchange for a bag of heartbreak grass.

He felt something was wrong at the time, so he quickly reported the matter to Lu Qingqing.

At that time, Lu Qingqing thought that Lu Panpan wanted the heartbreak grass because she couldn't stand the difference between being a palace maid and wanted to commit suicide to end it all.

Who would have thought that this heartbreak grass was actually used to plot against me!

Fortunately, she sent people to secretly keep an eye on Lu Panpan, fearing that she would commit suicide because of her depression. In the end, it was just her wishful thinking.

Fortunately, Meng Qi discovered this in time.

If Meng Qi was negligent, considering the daily sales of thousands of Mixue Ice Palace products, Lu Qingqing really couldn't imagine what kind of bad consequences would happen?

The person who poisoned you is cruel and hard to guard against!