Chapter 87: Poison
"You okay now?" Li Wei asked looking at Ling Yue who was sitting on the car trunk and eating dumplings. Li Wei was successfully able to cheer her up and stopped to eat some snack outside before going to Li Mansion.
Ling Yue blushed hearing his question. She now felt embarrassed thinking about how she cried and wailed in his arms. How shameful. She thought. "Yeah. I am fine. I honestly don't know why I cried like that." She said and ate her dumpling again.
"Ling Yue" Li Wei suddenly called her seriously, using her full name. Ling Yue lifted her head and looked at him.
"You don't have to hide how you feel from me. Promise me, if you feel down again, then you will come to me and talk to me. Am I not your friend?" Li Wei said gently and Ling Yue smiled in response. Neither of them talked after that, but the silence was comfortable and soothing.
Li Wei parked the car in garage and both them walked into the Li Mansion. But Li Wei got a terrible headache as soon as he saw who was inside. The Xiong family. Do these people not know what time it is?
Though he was irritated, he didn't let it show on his face and walked in with Ling Yue, who as always, was expressionless.
"Yue'er. Why are you so late? I told you not to work so hard. Did you eat something?" Mother Li fired question after question as soon as she saw Ling Yue walking in.
Ling Yue was about to open her mouth to reply when mother Li spoke again. "Did you feed her anything or not?" Mother Li asked Li Wei.
"We ate dumplings while coming back." Li Wei answered.
"That won't do. I will ask someone to heat the dinner. Sit and drink some water first." Mother Li said and pulled Ling Yue to sit on the couch beside her. The Xiong family was successfully ignored by the entire Li family for few minutes.
"Ahem.. Hello Miss Ling. I have heard a lot about you. Its mice meeting you." Xiong Hui's mother spoke first to get the attention back.
Ling Yue calmly settled in her seat first before looking at the new faces. One was Xiong Hui, and then two other people which she thought were her parents. All the three of them had stiff smiles on their faces.
"I wonder what have you heard about me Mrs Xiong." Ling Yue asked back. She was really curious about this though.
"T-That that.." Mrs Xiong stuttered at the sudden question. In fact, she hadn't heard anything about this girl, and that was also why she came here to know about her.
Ling Yue looked at her with a bored expression and turned her attention to the mother Li who was instructing a maid to prepare dinner for her.
"Get some ginger tea first." Mother Li said and the maid left the living room.
"Ahem. Mrs Li. We are here to thank you for taking care of our daughter the other night. It was very childish of her to come and trouble you so late." This time it was Mr Xiong who spoke to Mother Li.
Li Mei, who didn't bother to hide her irritation sighed and started chatting with Ling Yue. It's not that she wanted to be rude to the guests, but it was simply annoying to see them acting all chummy when they have made their intentions regarding Li Wei's marriage very long ago.
"Ahem. Miss Ling. I have never heard of you before. From where are you originally?" Mrs Xiong asked after some chatting with Mother Li.
"I was born here. But grew up in forests." Ling Yue said truthfully and leaned back to see their expressions. There was complete silence in the room for few seconds. Li Mei wanted to laugh but held it back.
"Hahahaha... You have good sense of humour Miss Ling.." Xiong Hui said and then everything became quite again.
"I will have to use the rest room. Excuse me." Xiong Hui said and left the hall. A maid showed her the guest room and Mr Xiong and Father Li left to he study to speak about something.
"Madam Li, Miss Ling. The food is ready." A maid informed after few minutes and Mother Li immediately took Ling Yue to the dining table.
"First drink some tea. You should eat well." Mother Li said and passed the cup. Ling Yue happily took it.
Li Wei, who was sitting across them on the dining table suddenly felt his vision turn dark and then he saw something he never wished to see again.
There he saw Min Hua sitting across him, alone in the room, staring at the cup in her hands. Slowly, she brought it to her lips. Li Wei's eyes widened as he knew what was there in that cup. That was the cup in which she used to take her daily dose of poison.
Instinctively, his hands reach out to her and swept away the cup forcefully onto the ground, breaking it into pieces and spilling all the tea on the clean carpet.
"ARE YOU CRAZY? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DRINKING?" Li Wei's shouted at Ling Yue. It was that second that his illusion broke out and saw a shocked Ling Yue sitting and gazing at him perplexed.
"Wei. What happened? Why are you shouting at her? She was just drinking her tea." Mother Li spoke first.
Li Wei didn't speak and just looked at Ling Yue. She was shocked too, and stared back at him. Then he shifted his gaze to the spilled tea on the floor. His face darkened as he thought of what he just saw. It couldn't be a coincidence.
"Did you drink it?" Li Wei asked and Ling Yue shook her head, indicating no. Li Wei nodded.
"What happened Brother Wei? Why are you angry?" Xiong Hui, who just returned asked sweetly. She gulped a little when she the tea spilled on the floor but composed herself soon.
"Who made the tea?" Li Wei asked the maid who was at the dining table. The maid gulped and told that she was the one who made the tea.
Li Wei looked at the maid for few seconds before nodding. "Who else was in the kitchen with you?" Li Wei asked again as he picked up a broken ceramic piece which still had some tea and put it in a transparent cover before zip locking it.
"No one was there in the kitchen young master. It was only me." The maid answered nervously. Li Wei never got angry at home. This was new to them, and was also scary.
"I want the CCTV recordings near the kitchen of the last ten minutes." Li Wei said to the butler and the butler immediately got him the ipad to see the recording.
"What's wrong Wei?" Mother Li asked again, this time understanding that something was wrong with the tea and scooted closer Ling Yue.
"We will soon know what is wrong mom." Li Wei said and went through the video. Soon enough, he caught who entered the kitchen sneakily. It was none other than Xiong Hui, who went into kitchen and came out cautiously after a minute.
"Care to explain why you went into the kitchen Miss Xiong?" Li Wei asked. His voice sent chills down everyone's spine. Even Li Mei got scared of him for a second, but it immediately got replaced by anger when she saw the video. And looking at Li Wei's reaction, it wasn't hard to guess that this young miss of Xiong family must have mixed something to her Big sis's tea.
"What are you implying here Young Master Li?" Mr Xiong, who just came out of study with father Li questioned Li Wei.
Li Wei calmly smiled as he looked at the Xiong family. He had never seen such a foolish bunch of people. Are people these days always this desperate, or is it fate playing with them again?
"You are all guests here Mr Xiong. Enjoy your stay here. None of you will step out till we get the lab results." Li Wei declared, rendering the Xiong family speechless. Are they being locked here?
"You can't do that young master Li. We will complain to police and media if you do that." Mrs Xiong threatened, but that had zero effect on Li Wei. Li Wei was practically fuming inside. How dare these people try to poison Ling Yue inside her own home?
"Sure. Go ahead. But no will step out until we get the results. Either this, or tell your daughter to confess what she mixed in the tea." Mother Li commented and took Ling Yue upstairs.
From the start till the end, Ling Yue never commented on the matter. She was observing Li Wei's every move and expression in daze.
"I will make something for you Yue'er. You stay here. These people will not even let you eat in peace." Mother mumbled something and left Ling Yue in the room.
Ling Yue looked at the closed door and a small happy smile formed on her lips. She felt warm looking at how Li family was so patient and concerned about her.