Mr. Zhao also ran over in no time.

The old man’s face was pale with rage, but he wasn’t one to jump to the worst conclusions. "The fifth household raises rabbits," he said. "Go get two of them."

The rabbits were quickly brought over. Mr. Zhao personally ladled water from the vat and forced it down their throats.

It’s unclear whether it was the cold water or the drug’s potency, but after about ten minutes, the rabbits began to leap about frantically. Then, in front of everyone, they started to have violent diarrhea.

The courtyard filled with the thick stench of rabbit droppings, and everyone’s face darkened.

A laxative. That old crone had put a powerful laxative in the water vat!

’They had caught her red-handed. If the old woman had gotten away, who would have ever thought to suspect poison?’

A whole vat of water would last a family anywhere from three to five days, maybe even ten days or half a month. If someone kept drinking that laxative-laced water and had diarrhea for that long, they would have died from it!

Mr. Zhao was so furious he could have spat blood.

He thought the same as Chen Wanqing: the old woman must have been put up to this by someone, with the sole intention of harming Jing.

It had to be because Jing was a shoo-in to pass the county exam, and someone saw him as an obstacle.

Mr. Zhao, still retaining some semblance of reason, wanted the clansmen to send the woman to the government office.

But the rest of the Zhao Family couldn’t be bothered with such formalities.

They were all driven mad with rage!

Zhao Jing was the hope of their entire clan!

To ensure Zhao Jing could study in peace, his cousins helped farm the Zhao family’s fields. Whenever there was hard or tiring labor to be done at home, his cousins would vie to do it, determined not to let such matters distract Zhao Jing or delay his preparations for the imperial examinations.

But now, just as he was about to enter the examination hall, someone had to pull a stunt like this. Was this just an attack on Zhao Jing? No, this was a deliberate attempt to destroy their entire Zhao clan!

The younger generation, led by Zhao Tang, was not about to tolerate it.

Zhao Tang yelled, "Get her!" and the cousins surged forward. With a kick from each of them, the old woman was knocked to the ground, spitting blood.

By the time Mr. Zhao managed to stop the chaotic assault, the old woman was barely breathing.

Mr. Zhao grew even more incensed at the sight. "You brainless fools! Even if you were going to beat her, you should have waited until we found out who the mastermind is. If you beat her to death now, the person behind this will die laughing!"

Zhao Tang and the others suddenly realized their mistake and were struck dumb. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Fortunately, the old woman was surprisingly resilient. After spitting up a few mouthfuls of blood, her condition actually stabilized.

Other than groaning in pain, she seemed to have no other major injuries.

"Quick," Mr. Zhao said, "feed her two pills for internal injuries, then take her to the government office. Jing is going to become a Scholar and a great official; we can’t hold him back. If we kill someone recklessly, Jing will be implicated."

At these words, Zhao Tang quickly fetched an ox-cart. A group of them then loaded the old woman on, holding her down as they headed for the county seat to report the crime.

As the intended victim, Zhao Jing naturally went along. Mr. Zhao, still worried, went with them as well.

Mr. Zhao was left to hold down the fort. He said, "We have Wanqing to thank for this. If it weren’t for her, who knows how this would have turned out."

"Jing’s family wouldn’t have died, of course. No one is that foolish. If the diarrhea continued, they would have eventually figured out something was wrong with the water."

"But by then, they’d have suffered terribly. They probably wouldn’t have been able to get out of bed for days. Wouldn’t he have missed the registration deadline then?"

"If he couldn’t register, he couldn’t enter the examination hall. If he couldn’t enter the hall, he couldn’t take the test and become a Scholar."

"It was a chain of events, all perfectly calculated by the person behind this."

"It’s a good thing Wanqing was so sharp and foiled this plot. Otherwise, Jing would have been set back another year."

Mrs. Zhao had been frightened out of her wits and was only now coming back to her senses.

She grabbed Chen Wanqing’s hand. "It’s all thanks to you, Qing’er. If it weren’t for you, I don’t know what would have become of us."

Xiang’er chimed in, "Thank goodness for my sister-in-law! If not for her, we’d still be in the dark and would have suffered who knows what!"

An onlooking Zhao clansman added, "He certainly married the right woman! They say a good wife brings prosperity for three generations. This wife of ours will bring prosperity for at least five!"

"Wanqing is a capable woman, and her father is no slouch either. Once they hand that crone over to him, he’ll definitely get the name of the mastermind out of her."

Hearing this, Chen Wanqing felt a wave of sincere relief.

She was so thankful her father had returned from the Prefecture just yesterday.

Zhao Jing had been the one to tell her, and he had heard it from Mr. Wang.

Mr. Wang had an urgent commission and had come looking for Zhao Jing yesterday. Zhao Jing had stopped taking work with the examinations so close, unwilling to risk something so important for a small gain. But the client was a long-time patron offering generous pay, so Mr. Wang couldn’t turn them down and had come in person.

It was as he was leaving the city that he had bumped into Chen Song, who was just returning from the Prefecture.

Of course, he didn’t recognize Chen Song personally. But the official at the city gate greeted Chen Song, calling out, "Welcome back, Assistant Magistrate! It must have been a long journey." And who was the Assistant Magistrate of Qingshui County if not Zhao Jing’s father-in-law? That was how Mr. Wang had recognized him.