Unintentional Surprise (GL) - Chapter 2

The troupe from Fuxian Linyin Pavilion set off at dusk, numbering more than twenty people.

A procession of over twenty performers and carriages was already quite a grand display. The Prime Minister’s residence gave full honor to Fuxian Linyin Pavilion, treating the performers as refined guests and allowing them to enter through the main gate.

As long as tonight’s performance went smoothly, this treatment alone would be a great honor for the entire troupe.

That is, if the performance went smoothly.

Inside the familiar grounds of Fuxian Linyin Pavilion, Wen Dinglan could act however relaxed and free she pleased. But once she stepped foot into someone else’s residence—

No, in truth, from the moment she stepped outside the pavilion gates, she had to be fully alert and prepared to face anything, whether routine or unexpected.

Such is the responsibility of the zither master of Fuxian Linyin Pavilion.

Dong Qing walked at the front of the group. Wen Dinglan, as the star performer, brought up the rear.

Their original destination was the guest courtyard in the Prime Minister’s estate. Since it was still early before the evening banquet, the group could rest and tidy themselves up for a while.

But as they passed through the garden’s arched corridor, Wen Dinglan caught a glimpse of something strange out of the corner of her eye.

That fleeting glimpse stirred her restless curiosity, prompting her to change course and abandon the planned path.

She had seen a pair of legs—

A pair of limp legs being dragged.

Everything above the legs had already been pulled into a room. Wen Dinglan couldn’t see who was being dragged.

Was it someone from the Prime Minister’s residence? Or, like them, a guest come to offer congratulations?

Unsettled and wary of any unknown danger that might implicate the Fuxian Linyin Pavilion, she decided to sneak closer for a better look.

Wen Dinglan moved quietly. As she neared the room, she deliberately pressed down on the strings of her zither to keep them from making a sound.

It was a kitchen, with food being cooked on the stove for the banquet. The rich aroma of the meal wafted through the doors and windows, but Wen Dinglan, tense as she was, felt no appetite at all.

What was strange was this: with the banquet so near, the kitchen should have been the busiest place in the house, full of people coming and going. But in reality, aside from the unconscious person and the perpetrator, there was no one else around.

Wen Dinglan wasn’t foolish enough to poke her head in. She stayed near a cracked window, ensuring her own safety as she observed.

She couldn’t make out the intruder’s face, but his every movement fell clearly within her sight.

He was changing clothes.

He stripped the unconscious man of his cook’s uniform and hurriedly put it on himself. Then, looking around to eliminate traces, he made up his mind: he dragged the unconscious body to a firewood pile and hid it deep in the corner.

To prevent anyone from noticing, the man even fetched a large tablecloth to cover the top of the woodpile.

At a glance, no one would guess there was someone hidden underneath.

What was the intruder’s goal? Wen Dinglan wondered silently.

Was he targeting some noble attending the banquet? Or was he simply here to stir up trouble?

The man’s next actions answered her question—

She saw him retrieve a wine flask filled with Zhenlong Jade Liquor, mark the base with charcoal, then take a small packet from his sleeve and pour its contents carefully into the wine.

It couldn’t be just a sleeping drug.

Who would go to such lengths to sneak into the Prime Minister’s residence just to make someone faint during a banquet?

No, whatever he added to that wine—it had to be fast-acting poison.

Wen Dinglan swallowed instinctively, caught between shock and fear.

If a noble were to die during the banquet, their troupe of performers would be the first suspects.

The investigation would start with them—ancestry records, daily movements, everything would be questioned. Even those chosen for burial rites might come from among them.

She couldn’t let the murderer succeed. Wen Dinglan had to save that poor, unconscious soul who didn’t even know they were on the brink of death.