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Chapter 26 Poison in the cake?

In an instant, the sky changed, and a fierce gale swept through.

"What's going on? It was clear just now!" The guards furrowed their brows. "It seems there's going to be a heavy rain. We must find a place to take shelter."

"Chief, there's an abandoned Taoist temple ahead. Let's go there to hide," said one of the guards.

By the time the group reached the Taoist temple, they were already drenched by the downpour.

The guards stared at the increasingly heavy rain, their brows knitted tightly.

"This damned weather. It just started raining out of the blue."

Shang Ruoyi gazed at the sky. The dark clouds were incredibly thick. It seemed the rain would only get heavier and wouldn't stop anytime soon.

With great difficulty, they found some dry firewood nearby that could still be used to start a fire. Everyone huddled around the fire, yet the cold on their bodies couldn't be dispelled.

People began sneezing continuously. The old princess had also been caught in the rain. Given her advanced age, she caught a cold and immediately developed a fever.

"Mother, Mother, what's wrong?" Concubine Qin, noticing that the old princess was burning up, said anxiously. "Mother, you have a fever."

Lin stepped forward and touched the old princess's forehead. "So hot."

The men of the He family gathered around the old princess, their hearts filled with anxiety, yet they were at a loss for what to do.

"Currently, without medicinal herbs and with Mother's high fever not abating, the situation looks dire," He Zhiyuan said gravely.

What he meant by "dire" made everyone's hearts sink.

Falling ill in such an environment could endanger one's life.

Zhang sat not far away, not approaching, coldly watching the He family.

Just as He Ning'an was about to go over, Zhang held him back. "They don't care if we live or die. Why are you going to join them?"

In the past two days, she and her son, He Jinghe, had been tormented by the poison. The He family hadn't come to check on them, nor had they shared any food. It would be better if this old woman died. Out of sight, out of mind. After all, she had always made things difficult for her.

Shang Ruoyi stepped forward and placed her hand on the old princess's pulse.

The He family exchanged glances. Could she really know medicine?

Zhang, watching from a distance, curled her lips. "Putting on an act."

"Grandmother has caught a cold and, due to the continuous fatigue these days, has some inner heat. With multiple ailments hitting at once, she's in this state."

"Oh, what shall we do?"

"Will Mother be all right?"

Shang Ruoyi furrowed her brows. The old princess's clothes were still wet, and with the cold seeping into her body, no medicine would be effective.

Just then, He Qinian carried He Jingheng to the group.

He grasped the old princess's wet clothes, and a surge of internal energy emerged. In an instant, the old princess's clothes were dry.

Shang Ruoyi blinked. Impressive! Truly impressive!

She took out a white pill from the space and, while giving the old princess water to drink, slipped it into her mouth.

She then massaged the acupoints for a while, and the old princess's body temperature gradually subsided.

"Ruoyi, you really know medicine," Concubine Qin grabbed her hand, saying excitedly. "That's wonderful, truly wonderful."

The eyes of all the prisoners were fixed on Shang Ruoyi. During the exile journey, the two most crucial things were food and medical care.

Last time, when Fuzi's fever subsided, everyone thought it was a fluke. After all, in the Tian Shun Dynasty, most doctors were men.

Once could be a fluke, but could it be a fluke twice?

The old princess's fever reduction was clearly Shang Ruoyi's doing.

They all began to envy Aunt Li, who had joined the He family. At least, she had food and her life was safeguarded.

They wondered if it was still too late to seek refuge with her.

The rain showed no sign of abating. Shang Ruoyi placed a pot on the fire. When she bought seasonings before, she had purchased a large amount of ginger. Shang Ruoyi boiled a large pot of ginger soup. The guards made all the prisoners drink a bowl to minimize the risk of getting sick and avoid delaying the journey.

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After all, at the place of exile, they wouldn't care about the reasons for any delays.

After drinking the warm ginger soup, everyone felt warmer.

The way they looked at Shang Ruoyi was tinged with gratitude. If it weren't for her buying ginger in advance, where would they have gotten this cold - dispelling ginger water?

Soon, it was time for dinner. There was still a bit of the provisions left from the journey. With such heavy rain, they couldn't go out to find food. So, everyone ate coarse grain cakes today.

During this time, the He family had been eating fine grains for the most part, not delicacies but still better than this. Coarse grain cakes like these were truly hard to swallow.

At this moment, they once again lamented how much they missed Shang Ruoyi's cooking skills.

Shang Ruoyi nibbled on the coarse grain cake, thinking about going into the space later to check if the corn had grown. If it was ripe, she could make roasted corn. At the very least, she could have a roasted potato, which was much better than the coarse grain cake.

Zhang, eating the coarse grain cake, cursed Shang Ruoyi in her heart again.

If it weren't for her father, how could the Dingguo Prince's Mansion have been exiled? Why was she suffering here?

With these thoughts, she chewed the coarse grain cake even more forcefully. Suddenly, she choked, fell to the ground, and started rolling her eyes. He Ning'an, He Jinghe, and his wife were so frightened that they shouted, "The cake is poisoned!"

"What? Poisoned?"

Upon hearing this, the other prisoners instinctively threw away their cakes. Zhang rolled on the ground, slapping her chest vigorously. Her appearance was terrifying.

However, the second - branch of the He family just watched from the side, not approaching. They were afraid of being hurt by Zhang's wild and menacing state.

Seeing this, the other prisoners became worried. Would they end up like this too?

The guards heard the commotion and came over to take a look. Zhang's face was purplish - red, and she was clearly starting to have difficulty breathing.

Could it really be poisoning?

Shang Ruoyi originally didn't want to intervene. But then she remembered how saving Fuzi had accumulated merit and led to the space's upgrade. Her heart stirred.

She had set He Jingheng's bones before and just treated the old princess. If she saved Zhang now, she might accumulate more merit. She wondered what surprises the next upgrade would bring.

With these thoughts, she pushed through the crowd and stepped forward to examine. It wasn't poisoning at all; she had simply choked from eating too fast.

Was this Zhang starving?

How could she gobble up a coarse grain cake like that?

Shang Ruoyi helped Zhang up and forcefully patted her back with the heel of her palm. After a few pats, with a "vomit" sound, Zhang spat out the food stuck in her esophagus.

Her purplish - red face gradually returned to normal.

Her breathing also became smoother.

"Miss Shang, is she..."

"She choked," Shang Ruoyi looked at Zhang, who was sitting on the ground, gasping for breath. "It's just a coarse grain cake, and no one was competing with her. Why eat so hastily?"

Everyone looked at her with disdain. She was supposed to be a noble lady, yet she ate as if she had never seen food before.

Zhang calmed herself down. She never expected that she would almost die from a coarse grain cake.

What made her even more disheartened was that none of her family members had come to her aid.

In the end, it was this ill - fated girl who saved her.

"Don't think that just because you saved me, I'll be grateful to you," Zhang said coldly. "You owe me this. If it weren't for your father, we wouldn't be in this situation. The debt of the father should be repaid by the daughter!"

Shang Ruoyi rolled her eyes. If it weren't for the merit, she wouldn't have bothered to save her.