Chapter 24 – Thank You

Ning Liangdi glanced around.

When she saw the weeds in the courtyard, her head instantly ached.

She had assumed that Shurouhua was only saying things casually and wouldn’t actually make her clean, especially since she was a guest.

But then—“…”

Shurouhua took the rake from Qian Ning’s hands and very unceremoniously handed it to Ning Liangdi.

“Little sister, just rake up all the weeds from the ground with this.”

Since Ning Liangdi had offered to help, Shurouhua naturally wouldn’t embarrass her by refusing.

Ning Liangdi’s face darkened at once.

She was a proper Liangdi of the Crown Prince, yet Shurouhua had the audacity to ask her to do such menial labor.

She regretted it bitterly now.

Heavens knew why she’d spoken so boldly earlier, leaving herself no room to back out.

Shurouhua smiled sweetly.

To fulfill her duties as host, she even had Qian Ning fetch another rake and personally taught Ning Liangdi how to rake weeds.

Raking weeds was certainly much easier than pulling them by hand.

But Ning Liangdi had never done such labor before and found it very difficult.

She barely raked anything, yet the rake had already fallen from her hands multiple times.

It was unclear whether she was doing it on purpose or—as she said every time—”by accident.”

Regardless, Shurouhua was starting to feel sorry for her.

If she kept going, the rake might actually break.

And considering her current net worth was zero, she truly couldn’t afford to buy another rake.

After working for over half an hour, they finally managed to gather all the weeds into a pile.

Qian Ning was just about to carry them out and throw them away to prevent the seeds from spreading.

But Shurouhua suddenly stopped her. “Just pile them up in the corner and let them dry—we can use them as firewood.”

Qian Ning responded, “Yes!”

Ning Liangdi stared in disbelief.

She had truly not expected that Shurouhua, the daughter of the mighty General who safeguarded the nation, would actually do such manual labor.

But seeing her even refuse to waste the weeds gave Ning Liangdi an unexpected wave of pity for her.

Meanwhile, on Shurouhua’s side—

After feeling that they had tidied everything up, she finally remembered Ning Liangdi, whose face was now red from the sun.

She smiled sweetly and thanked her, “Thank you.”

Upon hearing this, Ning Liangdi’s angry little heart calmed down a bit.

She smiled slightly. “Sister, you’re too polite. I—”

Before she could finish her sentence—

Shurouhua immediately added, “I don’t have anything else for now, so you should head back early. I won’t see you off.”

Ning Liangdi: “…”

The smile on her face instantly stiffened.

Her chest felt like it had been punched—tight and suffocating.

Just as she finally began to feel a bit better, Shurouhua had already vanished without a trace.

…

At the same time, in the Crown Prince’s bedchamber—

Ji Chen was reapplying medicine to Xiao Che’s foot.

When he removed the bandage, he was surprised to find that the wound, which had previously been as deep as a fingertip, was already beginning to heal.

By all rights, such a wound should have taken at least three days to begin healing.

Ji Chen’s hands trembled slightly.

Xiao Che, being highly perceptive, immediately noticed. “What’s wrong?”

Ji Chen paused for a moment. “Has Your Highness removed the bandage recently?”

Xiao Che replied, “No.”

“Is something wrong?”

Ji Chen hesitated, then reached out to check Xiao Che’s pulse again.

What astonished him even more was that all the residual poison in Xiao Che’s body had completely disappeared.

“Your Highness, have you felt any abnormalities in your body today?”

Xiao Che furrowed his brows slightly.

Now that Ji Chen mentioned it, he suddenly recalled how he had gone out wearing shoes last night. He had expected the wound to hurt upon contact with the ground—but there had been no pain at all.

At the time, he had simply thought Ji Chen’s medicine was effective.

But now, upon reflection, he realized that even while walking earlier today, his foot hadn’t hurt at all.

He told this to Ji Chen.

Ji Chen asked what Xiao Che had eaten today.

Xiao Che thought for a moment. Since he had some porridge last night, he hadn’t felt hungry this morning and hadn’t eaten anything else.

Ji Chen immediately asked if there was any of the porridge left. Xiao Che said there was.

So Ji Chen ordered someone to bring over the remaining porridge from the night before.

Given the nature of the poison in Xiao Che’s body, it would’ve been impossible to cure it in just one night without an antidote.

Now Ji Chen suspected that something was unusual about Shurouhua’s porridge.

He shared his suspicion with Xiao Che.

Xiao Che’s heart clenched. If what Ji Chen said was true, then the person who poisoned him could very well be Shurouhua.

Eunuch Lin soon brought over the leftover porridge from last night.

Ji Chen examined it very carefully but found nothing suspicious.

Strangely, this result actually relieved Xiao Che a little.

At that moment, Zhong Zihan walked in.

“Your Highness, the assassin’s identity has been confirmed—”

…
(End of Chapter)