Chapter 440: “A Delicious Killer (2)”
“What do you mean?” Fan Zhuo’s expression became serious as well.
“Your body is in a very weakened state. And it is due to the weakness that it cannot be subjected to any harsh stimulations or reactions. But that anomaly had however occurred repeatedly on your body. This could only mean that someone has gone through some undetected avenues to induce your illness to relapse.” Jun Wu Xie explained as she rubbed at her chin gently in thought. She finally understood why she had been unable to detect any trace of poison in Fan Zhuo’s body.
The culprit had never used poison right from the start, but had instead cleverly employed another method.
“Fan Zhuo has been sickly from young and all his internal organs are much weaker than normal people. In Fan Zhuo’s case, if you want to give him tonics to fortify and strengthen his body, you can only give him those with a mild effect. However, if Fan Zhuo is given anything harsh with a strong effect, his weakened body would be unable to bear up under the violent reaction induced and that will lead to a sudden relapse of his illness without requiring anyone who wished him harm to exert any other efforts.” Jun Wu Xie’s eyes grew colder, as she saw the craftiness of the culprit from the method they employed.
Any common poison, however careful it was used, would be easily detected, but using nourishing tonics in such a roundabout way, however, would be seen as nothing unusual.
Jun Wu Xie had initially thought that Fan Zhuo had been poisoned, but she had not seen any signs on Fan Zhuo that showed that he had been poisoned. It was until the last relapse that Fan Zhuo had suffered that made Jun Wu Xie sure that her suspicions had not been wrong.
To Fan Zhuo’s current condition, a tonic was as good as poison to him.
“It’s been added into these dishes here?” Fan Jin’s was feeling his rage start to rise.
“Yes. But the culprit is extremely crafty. He did not add in any into the food we eat everyday, and only slips it in when he wants Fan Zhuo to suffer a relapse. By using a method like this, he was assured that it would be reliably delivered to Fan Zhuo, and he would not be easily found out. As the amount of tonics and elixirs that Fan Zhuo consumes daily is large, even if physicians were brought in to check, they would not suspect that Fan Zhuo’s relapse had been brought about by a non poisonous tonic. The culprit need not employ the use of poison, but merely needs to use nourishing tonics against Fan Zhuo, and wait undetected for Fan Zhuo’s body to expire on its own, under the torment brought about by his inability to withstand the induced nourishment.”
The method employed was rather devious, and Jun Wu Xie’s eyebrow was raised as she grew absorbed in her own thoughts.
If she had not paid close attention to the food and drinks that Fan Zhuo consumed daily, she might not have discovered it so soon.
Upon hearing Jun Xie’s words, Fan Zhuo’s face had paled considerably and Fan Jin’s fists were tightly clenched in rage.
“Who is it! ? Who is so bent on sending Little Zhuo to his death! ?” Fan Jin shattered the table with a slap of his palm on the table with a loud crash, scattering the crockery all over the floor.
Fan Zhuo was already so defenceless and weak. Who could be so vicious as to want to push him over the cliff into the deep abyss!
Jun Wu Xie gave the brothers a sideways glance. “It is not too difficult to find out the identity of the culprit. We will only need to wait.”
In that peaceful little bamboo grove, there had only been Fan Zhuo and Ah Jing staying in there all this time. Even though Ah Jing had borne a grudge against Jun Wu Xie during the period she had been there, Jun Wu Xie did not think that Ah Jing would actually add anything into their food. All the raw ingredients, fruits and vegetables they ate were delivered to the bamboo grove by Fan Qi’s disciple personally daily, and he was absolutely trustworthy. If the problem did not lie in the person receiving the goods, the only possibility left was that the problem laid in the food delivered here itself.
To uncover who was the culprit behind it, they could only wait in inaction for the culprit to deliver more clues right into their hands.
“Wait?” Fan Jin was a little puzzled.
Jun Wu Xie turned to Fan Zhuo and said: “You did not find anything odd with the dishes and you ate them as you did usually. And you will suffer a relapse today.”
Fan Zhuo was shocked, but he raised his head without hesitation and looked at Jun Xie to say: “I’ll do what you tell me to.”
“Little Xie, you want Little Zhuo to fake a relapse? But….. Little Zhuo doesn’t know how to…..” Fan Jin knew his little brother very well. Asking Fan Zhuo to put up a convincing act was just impossible for him.
Jun Wu Xie looked up at the brothers and said softly: “With me around, he doesn’t need to know how.”