Chapter 123: All Are Apples

"Intuition," Ruan Xing said without hesitation. "Perhaps you haven't had much contact with mortals and don't understand, but the feeling she gives me is just like the stepmother selling apples in Snow White."

"What is Snow White?" Qintai He's expression grew even more puzzled.

"Uh, just a folk tale, it's not important. What's important is, when we eat tonight, watch your uncle more closely to see what kind of person he is. If their attitudes are the same, I think you should look around here... for what exactly they have been hiding from you."

Qintai He thought for a moment, then nodded heavily. "Okay."

The various courtyards of the Qintai Family manor were basically not connected. They had just discovered this when they entered; the outer stone structures and plants divided the various areas, scattered like a maze formation, while the inner courtyards were much more fragmented, basically in a state of being sealed off from one another.

It seemed that even though a large family lived together, there was still privacy between them; it was practically a small city.

If they needed to investigate at night, they only needed to search the area where they were staying; other places might not even belong to the same branch as them.

A servant led the two to a doorway and stopped. "Two guests, this is the room cleaned for you."

Ruan Xing asked curiously, "When that lady gave you instructions earlier, did she not mention our identities?"

The servant was stunned for a moment, then shook their head woodenly. "You are guests."

"Understood, you may go about your business." Ruan Xing waved for them to leave.

She turned to Qintai He and said, "It seems that second grandmother of yours knows you won't be staying long. If we go by the experience of domestic drama novels, she is likely your grandfather's second wife, but your father was born to the first wife."

"Mother never mentioned these things to me," Qintai He said in a low voice. "However, domestic drama..."

Ruan Xing hurriedly interrupted him. "Stop, that's not important either. There is still some time before dinner, why not take this chance to walk around the courtyard and see if there are any elderly servants we can ask about your grandfather's life."

Qintai He did not dwell on the words Ruan Xing used that he didn't understand; he agreed, and without entering the room, he followed Ruan Xing to walk around.

The servants they passed along the way did not stop them, only silently lowering their heads to do their own work. The two wandered for nearly half an hour before they finished looking over the entire courtyard and understood the layout of the courtyard and the houses where others lived.

But they did not go inside to look; it would be too impolite to enter someone's room casually without the owner's permission.

Ruan Xing frowned. "Do you find it strange?"

"What is strange?" Qintai He asked.

"We passed at least forty or fifty servants on our way here, but looking at their ages, the youngest is fifteen or sixteen, and the oldest is only in their forties. Calculating by time, when your grandfather was alive, the oldest servant here would have been nothing but a child who knew nothing." Ruan Xing rubbed her chin in thought. "We have no way to question these people."

Qintai He was silent. He rarely had contact with mortals. Among the cultivators he saw daily, some who appeared to be lively young girls were actually three or four hundred years old, and some with white hair might only be thirty or forty. He was truly not sensitive enough to the ages of mortals; at least, without checking bone age, he could not judge the approximate age of a mortal.

"Then what should we do?" Qintai He said.

Ruan Xing shook her head helplessly. "Although I don't believe that all the servants who served your grandfather here forty years ago are dead, if you ask these people, they certainly won't know anything either. Let's talk about it tonight. As for now..."

She looked up at the darkening sky, where servants were already lighting lanterns under the eaves, and said softly, "Things have come to this, let's eat first."

Although the customs of cultivators in Xizhou were different, most whose cultivation allowed for Inedia would not waste time eating three meals a day. Since that lady could invite Qintai He to dinner so naturally, Ruan Xing could be certain it would absolutely not be ordinary food.

Sure enough, inside the small flower hall, behind a screen, the eight-immortal table was set with six hot dishes, four cold dishes, and one soup, eleven dishes in total. All of them were Spirit Food!

Spirit Qi and fragrance overflowed, scrambling to drill into Ruan Xing's nasal cavity; she couldn't help but swallow her saliva.

Seeing this, the lady smiled slightly and hurriedly stood up to greet them. "I was just about to send someone to call you when you arrived. Sit down quickly, wait a moment longer, your uncle will be here immediately."

At the large table, only the three of them were seated.

Ruan Xing pointed curiously at a large basin of pink soup in the middle and asked, "Madam, what kind of soup is this?"

She had just been able to feel that this basin of soup had the most abundant Spirit Qi, and the ingredients inside must certainly be graded spirit plants.

The lady smiled and said, "This is Treasure Three-Flavor Soup. Inside, there are three precious materials: the juice of deer blood fruit, spirit mushroom slices grown on iron wood, and a Golden Core Stage Phoenix-Tail Crane. Good child, my cultivation is not enough to enjoy much of it; you and your uncle eat more later, it will be beneficial to your cultivation."

Hiss... Crane meat soup. Isn't this targeting a bit too obvious?

Ruan Xing quietly glanced at Qintai He's expression. He remained expressionless, his eyes indifferent, and after a soft 'mm', he stopped speaking.

Before long, a young man walked over from the outer room. His face was thirty percent similar to Qintai He's, but not as refined; he was a Golden Core Late Stage cultivator.

He walked to the lady's side and sat down, looking at Qintai He with a gentle gaze. "So this is the child my second younger brother left behind in the Central Province? He's grown so big, and his cultivation is not bad either."

"Hello, Uncle." Qintai He greeted him, and just as he was about to say something else, the man suddenly laughed loudly. "Good, good, child, there aren't so many rules among family, hurry and eat, the Spirit Qi will dissipate in a moment."

Qintai He nodded silently and began to use his chopsticks, but he didn't eat a single bite of the crane meat soup in the middle. Even when the lady personally served him a bowl of soup, he didn't touch a drop.

Ruan Xing sighed inwardly. That kid Qintai He was probably feeling quite awkward right now. She had to stand on the same side as him, otherwise, this kid would feel uncomfortable again.

Unfortunately, there was no capital to flip the table right now.

Ruan Xing endured the reluctance and heartache, not daring to look at that basin of crane meat soup at all, and could only pick at the other Spirit Food dishes to eat, comforting herself that although it wasn't Golden Core Stage Monster Beast meat, the other dishes also contained Spirit Qi, so eating a few more bites wasn't bad.

After they finished eating, the young man excused himself and left first. Qintai He stood up and returned to his room in silence.

It seems I'll have to comfort him properly later, Ruan Xing thought, trotting to catch up, when suddenly her feet went soft and she lunged forward, falling to the ground. Intense pain radiated from her chest and abdomen, making sweat bead on her forehead instantly.

And Qintai He seemed to be still immersed in his own emotions; he had already closed the door and did not see Ruan Xing's situation behind him.

"Damn it!" Ruan Xing cursed, struggling to crawl forward.

She must have been poisoned. This Simulation would likely end in failure, but she still hadn't figured out how she was poisoned. Since entering the Qintai Family, she and Qintai He had basically been inseparable; how was she poisoned while Qintai He was fine?

With great difficulty, she crawled to Qintai He's door and used all her strength to pound on it. By the time Qintai He came out, her vision was already a blur.

She only saw a large patch of bright red blood on the chest of Qintai He's originally pristine white robe.

Thanks to Qing Yu Yue for the tip~ Thanks to Ka Ka Da Da Da for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Mo Mo Mo Mo for the monthly ticket~ Thanks to Ni Jiang for the monthly ticket~ (End of chapter)