Peach Blossom.

Tao Ye was startled. She looked at the food box in her hand. Whether the meal was given to Wang Jing or to the princess, it would be the same task for her to complete. But the princess was used to a life of luxury. How could she eat such a bad meal?

Ruxia could see Taoye was doubtful, so she deliberately asked, "Are you reluctant, young lady? Or do you think the princess is not worthy of young lady cooking for her?"

"How could that be? The princess treats me like her own sister, and I can't repay her enough!" Tao Ye pretended to smile brightly.

"Then please!"

So Tao Ye followed Ruxia to the princess' room. When she entered, she saw Princess Si Yao sitting cross-legged on a soft mat with a dog in her arms - it was the "Baoer" that she had raised in the princess's mansion in the past.

Si Yao first glanced at the food box in Tao Ye's hand, then looked up at Tao Ye: "Sister, you originally cooked for your husband. If I eat it, you won't be unhappy, right?"

"Sister thinks so highly of me, I wish I could cook for her every day!" Tao Ye smiled and took out the food from the lunch box one by one and placed them on the coffee table in front of Si Yao. She thought, anyway, the princess has never tasted Mantang Jiao's cooking, even if she thinks today's meal is unpalatable, it is just unpalatable, it won't be exposed!

Before Si Yao could pick up the chopsticks, the dog in her arms jumped onto the coffee table and wolfed down several bites of the dish. It looked so hungry, as if it hadn't eaten for a long time.

The maid Ruchun acted surprised: "Oh my! Bao'er has already eaten it, how can the princess eat it?"

Si Yao also smiled shyly, stood up and apologized to Tao Ye: "Sister, I'm so sorry! Your kindness is in vain!"

"If Baoer likes it, just give it to him! It's not worth anything!" Tao Ye thought, it's just a waste of a takeaway order, no big deal.

The puppy Baoer was eating when he suddenly foamed at the mouth and fell on the coffee table.

Ruchun screamed.

Si Yao and Tao Ye heard Ruchun's cry and looked at the coffee table, only to see Baoer twitching a few times and then stopped moving.

"Bao'er... my Bao'er..." Si Yao squatted down, picked up the dog and started crying. Then he looked up at Tao Ye with tears in his eyes: "Sister, how could you do this to me?"

Tao Ye has already understood Si Yao's trick. She thinks this plan is not very clever, but she still fell into the trap.

Several maids shouted outside: "Hurry up and tell the mistress and the grandmother that Miss Man is trying to poison the princess!"

After a while, Xiao Rui and Zhou Yunniang appeared surrounded by servants.

Si Yao hugged the puppy and threw herself into Xiao Rui's arms, howling: "Mother, my baby died after eating the food that sister A Jiao sent! Please help me, mother!"

Ruchun added, "If Bao'er hadn't eaten it first, the one who ate this dish would have been the princess!"

Xiao Rui supported Si Yao, turned to Tao Ye and asked, "Ah Jiao, do you admit your guilt?"

Tao Ye sneered: "The princess's dog had been poisoned before I entered the door, what guilt do I have?"

Si Yao looked up at Tao Ye, as if he was extremely aggrieved: "How can you be so slanderous, sister? Everyone in the mansion knows that I have raised Bao'er for two or three years and I love him so much, how could I possibly feed him poison?"

Xiao Rui rebuked Tao Ye again: "There is a difference between the upper and the lower, how can you slander the princess casually?"

Tao Ye knew that Xiao Rui was biased towards the princess, so she gave Xiao Rui the same contemptuous look: "Is it slander or not? Can't you just find a doctor to check the dish? Such a simple method, Madam, you don't need me to teach you, right?"

Zhou Yunniang hurriedly pulled Tao Ye back: "Sister, don't be like this, mother's illness has just recovered..."

Tao Ye gave Zhou Yunniang a little face and said nothing more.

Si Yao couldn't stand it and got angry at Tao Ye: "Go find a doctor if you want to. Don't you dare to look at me?"

Si Yao immediately ordered the maid Ruchun: "Go and ask the imperial physician to send two assistant doctors or chief doctors over here, and go immediately!"

Tao Ye stretched out her arm to stop Ruchun, and smiled faintly at Si Yao: "Her Royal Highness the Princess said that the food is poisonous. Do the people of the Imperial Physician Order dare to say that there is no poison? I think it would be better to find two folk doctors, which would be more convincing!"

"Shut up!" Xiao Rui once again stopped Tao Ye: "You are getting more and more ridiculous! When will our family hire a folk doctor?"

Zhou Yunniang quickly took Xiao Rui's arm and tried to persuade them with a smile: "As the saying goes, family disgrace should not be made public. My two sisters, please give me a favor and don't look for any imperial physician or itinerant doctor. It's really embarrassing to spread rumors all over the city for a dog."

"That's easy. Just find someone else to taste it." Tao Ye picked up the dish that the dog had eaten from the table and asked the princess's four maids, teasing them, "Who wants to taste one?"

Like spring, summer, autumn and winter, they all took a step back at the same time.

Si Yao asked angrily: "Who would dare to taste it if it's poisonous? Since you said it's not poisonous, can't you just eat it yourself?"

"What a joke! How can I eat something that a dog has eaten?" Tao Ye then pointed the plate towards the servants outside the door, shaking it left and right, and asked, "Who will eat it? Who will eat it? I'll give you ten taels of silver!"

Seeing Tao Ye being so frivolous with her joking tone and cool posture, Xiao Rui and Zhou Yunniang couldn't help but shake their heads and sigh silently.

All the servants stepped back at the same time, their eyes filled with either fear or disgust.

Tao Ye found it very funny and couldn't help laughing.

She was laughing so hard that she couldn't stop, when she suddenly saw Wang Jing squeeze through the crowd of servants, grab the food on the plate and stuff it into his mouth.

Si Yao screamed: "Husband, you can't eat it! The food is poisonous!"

Wang Jing had already swallowed it, and he grabbed another handful of vegetables and stuffed them into his mouth.

Tao Ye's smile froze on her face. She quickly took back the plate and yelled at Wang Jing, "Don't eat it! The dog ate it!"

Wang Jing swallowed it completely, took a step forward, walked in front of Si Yao, his eyes were cold and sharp: “Dogs are cleaner than humans!”

As soon as these words came out, the whole place fell silent.

Although this was a reply to Tao Ye, it was actually a scolding to Si Yao, and everyone could hear it!

Wang Jing left on crutches. Si Yao's face was burning. She felt that everyone present was laughing at her.

Whether the dish is poisonous or not, the answer is already clear.

Zhou Yunniang knew Si Yao's embarrassment, so she hurriedly evacuated all the servants, persuaded Tao Ye to go back to her room, and finally came to help Xiao Rui.

Xiao Rui did not go back immediately. She came to the door of Wang Jing's room. Zhou Yunniang followed her and they saw that the door was open.

Xiao Rui walked in and Zhou Yunniang was waiting outside the door.

Wang Jing sat quietly. Although he didn't turn his head, he knew that Xiao Rui had come.

Xiao Rui looked at Wang Jing, hesitated for a while, and said softly: "I know you don't like to hear it, but you really shouldn't do this!"

"Then what should I do?" Wang Jing raised his head slightly.

Xiao Rui shook his head helplessly: "Because of your temper, a life was lost in our family a few days ago! How dare you be so bold!"

Wang Jing didn't care: "If people always live this pathetically, I'd rather not live long!"

Xiao Rui hurriedly stepped forward and covered Wang Jing's mouth, looking terrified: "Don't talk nonsense! Be careful that the gods hear you..."

Wang Jing pushed Xiao Rui's hand away, and his tone became a little better: "I understand my mother's painstaking efforts to maintain family harmony. I also spoke well of you in front of Gillian, but this does not mean that I approve of your behavior. I am so disappointed that you are so biased!"

Xiao Rui explained, "I am a little partial to the princess, but can I not be partial? Even so, she still makes a mess all day long! Besides, is Ah Jiao innocent? On the day of marrying the princess, you didn't hear what she said in the street... She was so shameless! And just now, you saw it with your own eyes. Although the princess wronged her first, what about her? A lady from a wealthy family, she has no respect for her elders and behaves erratically. She plays with a plate like a monkey. How can she be like the sensible and filial daughter-in-law I used to have?"

"You killed her sensible and filial nature!" Wang Jing looked at Xiao Rui with a serious attitude: "Ah Jiao is a rebellious girl by nature. She tried hard to adapt to the rules of our family for my sake, respecting her parents-in-law, and raising her daughter. During those eight years, she never complained even though she felt that you were partial to your eldest sister-in-law. But when she was kicked out of the house by you, she found that... it was all not worth it! You will never see that sensible and filial daughter-in-law again. If you continue like this, you will also see... a sensible and filial son disappear!"

Xiao Rui looked at Wang Jing in shock, unable to utter a word. After a long silence, she slowly turned around and walked out, returning to Zhou Yunniang.

Zhou Yunniang supported Xiao Rui. The afternoon sun was a little dazzling, so they tried to walk under the shade of trees as much as possible.

After walking for a while, Xiao Rui tilted his head slightly and asked Zhou Yunniang: "Am I really wrong?"

Zhou Yunniang just smiled and did not directly answer Xiao Rui's question: "Second brother and Ah Jiao could have achieved the happiest marriage in the world. How happy he felt before, how painful he feels now. Do you prefer him to be rich? Or do you prefer him to be happy?"

Xiao Rui smiled helplessly: "Wealth is a hot potato, can you just give it up if you want to? I promised the old man that I must protect the lives of this family before he comes back!"

Zhou Yunniang lowered her head and thought: "Then we can only... smooth things over."

When it was late at night and everyone was asleep, Tao Ye once again secretly came to Wang Jing's room. The medicine Wang Jing took every day made him sleepy, so he often slept soundly.

The door was still ajar and the key was still under the pillow, so Tao Ye easily came in and got the key.

After taking the key, she couldn't help but look at Wang Jing once more. She thought of what happened during the day and how Wang Jing defended her, and she couldn't help but feel touched...

But she changed her mind and thought: "He is defending his wife, why should I be touched?"

So she stopped looking at Wang Jing, sneaked out of Wang Jing's room with the key, returned to her own room, tapped the mirror, and called Chen Ji: "I got the key, now I'm going to the study in the front yard. I'll hide the mirror in my clothes. You have to keep your ears open at all times, understand?"

Chen Ji nodded: "Before you go out, remember to take a candle and a tinderbox. There is no one in the front yard at night, and there will probably be no light at all."

Tao Ye followed Chen Ji's instructions, took a candle and a tinder, hid the mirror on her body, and looked around to make sure that no one was in the yard. She then left the middle yard and ran to the front yard through the middle alley.