Famine and exile: I brought the Spirit Spring to save the entire Marquis's mansion.

Sang Ning often ventures into the wild, so he naturally knows a lot about survival skills and poison prevention.

The silkworms that gnaw at this chubby little boy are more likely to appear during years of severe drought.

Though seemingly insignificant, it can truly take a life silently.

Sang Ning not only spoke, but also used a wooden hairpin to pick up a half-centimeter-long insect floating on the surface and showed it to the old lady.

The old lady frowned, carefully examined the maggots, and then looked at Sang Ning with a deep gaze.

At some point, Huo Chang'an also opened his eyes and looked at Sang Ning, who was calm, composed, and spoke clearly and logically.

Sang Ning didn't know how much they knew about the original owner, but at this moment she was unwilling to pretend to be someone else.

The road ahead is still long; if you can pretend for a while, you can pretend for the whole journey.

After her initial surprise, Li Yuzhi, the eldest sister-in-law, also looked at the maggot.

Sure enough, its head was red, and upon closer inspection, it also had black tentacles and a spiky mouth.

Is it really silkworm erosion?

She couldn't help but look at the old lady.

The old lady went to the battlefield with the Marquis in her early years and traveled to most parts of Dongyang Kingdom. What hasn't she seen? She should know.

But the old lady really didn't know about this kind of thing.

But that doesn't prevent her from having sufficient judgment.

She's confused; these really aren't maggots.

Every day she would save her water to wash her son's body, so that even if flies laid eggs, they wouldn't hatch so quickly.

She recalled that when she followed the Marquis on his campaigns, leading her troops to camp in the wilderness, there had been times when wounded soldiers had their wounds soiled by maggots.

The area was supposed to be cleaned up, but those soldiers later died.

Is it...

"Sang Ning'er, how could you know these things? Everyone knows you were expelled from the girls' school and are just a good-for-nothing with no talent!" Huo Jingya said angrily.

"Mother, don't listen to her. Quickly clean up Fourth Brother. Have you forgotten what she did when Fourth Brother first came out? She was so scared that she fainted and kept saying, 'This isn't Fourth Brother!'"

"Along the way, she kept her distance and didn't dare to get close at all. She just didn't want her fourth brother to live like this. She wanted her fourth brother, who had become a cripple, to die!"

Sang Ning allowed Huo Jingya to vent her sorrow, but did not allow her to say anything thoughtless.

The words "useless person" spoken by her own family were more hurtful than insults from others. Didn't she know that?

Before she could retort, the old lady calmly asked, "Madam Sang, what symptoms would occur if one were poisoned by this toxin?"

"In the first few days, you won't feel anything, but in fact, the toxins have already invaded your meridians. The first symptoms are dizziness, incoherent speech, then coma, and you will never wake up again. If you were to dissect the body, you would find that the poisoned person's internal organs are all black."

correct.

correct.

That's it.

The old lady looked complicated, then suddenly realized something, and asked, "Then what method should we use to clean it out?"

Since Ms. Sang stopped her, she must have the right way to clean it up.

"Mother, you actually believed her? What does she know?" Huo Jingya said in disbelief.

"At least she dares to come over and pick out the bugs, do you dare?" the old lady asked bluntly.

Huo Jingya's face immediately turned pale.

The others all shrank back.

It wasn't that they didn't care about Huo Chang'an; on the contrary, if someone were to harm him, anyone would rush to his aid. But faced with such an insect, these young ladies, who had never lifted a finger before, felt a chill run down their spines, and their hair stood on end.

Just looking at it makes me feel like insects are crawling on my body; I don't dare get close at all.

Everyone lowered their heads in guilt and remained silent.

The old lady shook her head, feeling utterly powerless.

The Marquis's family had a virtuous tradition; the sons married wives but did not take concubines. The men doted on their wives, pampered their sisters, and spoiled their daughters. The women lived a smooth and carefree life, so much so that when disaster struck, not one of them was left standing.

How much longer can this old woman hold on?

The old lady suppressed the tightness in her chest and looked at Sang Ning again.

This Sang woman was also an unloved child at home, with a biological father but no biological mother. She made a point of meeting her once before the marriage.

At the time, her impression of him was that he was not a bad person by nature, but he was impulsive and brainless, and was completely suppressed by his stepmother.

Entering the Marquis's mansion was her urgent desire to escape her original family.

However, she lost her gamble.

Sang Ning cleared her throat. "Actually, it's very simple. Just rinse them with salt water. Once they can taste the salt water, they'll come out on their own."

"Gentlemen, could you please provide some salt water?" the old lady asked the bailiffs in a humble voice.

The constable, Li Chang, gave a forced smile: "Madam, if I may say something unpleasant, is it even necessary to clean this leg? A few small insects, even if they eat them, could they possibly eat away the life of a grown man like Fourth Young Master?"

"You..." Huo Jingya was about to curse with red eyes when her sister-in-law next to her hit her.

This is not like before, when they had to keep their heads down.

"That's true, but my family can't bear this. Brother, you have brothers and sisters too. Please be lenient. Even if he's about to die, we want him to leave this world with some dignity."

A voice, neither humble nor arrogant, rang out.

Sang Ning looked at the constable who had been kicked in the waist with a resolute gaze and a calm demeanor.

Damn it, I didn't kick you hard enough!

"I bet you haven't learned your lesson yet! You traitors dare to compare yourselves to us! It's laughable! A piece of trash like you still wants to be respectable?"

Some people are just weirdos.

In the capital, where nobles are as numerous as hairs, they live by the whims of others. Once they gain power, they take pleasure in tormenting people, especially those nobles they once looked up to but could never see.

In this way, they satisfy their already distorted and perverse tastes, and derive a sense of pleasure from torturing others.

"Getting rid of maggots isn't that troublesome! I'll do it for you, Fourth Young Master!"

Li Chang smiled wickedly and swung his whip at Huo Chang'an's leg.

Sang Ning suddenly leaned over, and the whip lashed heavily across her back.

I am!

It hurts so much!

Everyone was stunned, including Huo Chang'an, whose face was ashen.

His fingers, gripping the ground, trembled violently. He looked at Sang Ning, who was wincing in pain, with confusion and bewilderment.

He wasn't surprised that every family member here would shield him from the whip, except for her...

She is the daughter of my enemy. Why?

Damn it! Even Sang Ning himself doesn't know why!

Just now, my body seemed to be driven by someone, and I lunged forward.

Could it be that the original owner of this body didn't die?

"Oh my, how loving they are! I love watching this kind of thing, tsk tsk tsk..." Li Chang's eyes gleamed with even more excitement.

He was about to crack the whip again when the old lady stepped in front of Sang Ning.

"Sir! Please spare the boy. If you are short of water, may we go and find some ourselves?"

The old lady was filled with grief and indignation. Her family had spared no effort for Dongyang and been loyal to the emperor, but in the end, they were slandered by treacherous people, and her family was destroyed.

She wanted to question and denounce these cannibalistic officials, but she had no choice but to bow down to these villains.

Heaven has no eyes!

As soon as she stepped in, all the other women also stood in front of her.

Huo Jingya suppressed her grief and indignation, tears welling in her eyes: "Although my fourth brother has no official rank and is the most useless member of the Huo family, he has never bullied the common people. On the contrary, he once saved a child who was almost trampled to death by a horse in the bustling city."

I helped an elderly man who was dying to get medical treatment, and I helped the government arrest a lecherous thief who had harmed women!

I still remember how the officials praised them and how the people thanked them with flowers!

Even if my fourth brother is crippled or disabled, he's still the fourth brother I respect! If you want to hit someone, hit me instead; I'll take the beating for him!

"I'll take the beating for my fourth brother too!" the eldest sister-in-law choked up.

"I'll do it on behalf of my fourth brother too."

The third sister-in-law said in a daze that she had always been weak and was already feeling dizzy, but she was still trying her best not to faint.

Seven-year-old Huo Jintang's lips were already dry and bleeding, but he stood tall and proud, his thin chest held high: "I'm also speaking on behalf of Fourth Uncle."

……

Faced with his family members standing in front of him once again, Huo Chang'an hated his disabled body even more! His eyes were filled with tearing pain.

Useless! What good are you!

The more they acted this way, the more he wanted to die!

Li Chang's face was gloomy and he was even more furious. In so many years of escorting people, he had long lost his humanity.

In the capital, he was the lowest-ranking official.

On the way to his destination, he was king!

No one can defy him!