On the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, the sky cleared after a snowfall. In the woodshed of the back kitchens of the Marquis's Mansion, Wang Wu the cook huddled in a corner, staring at the cold, gleaming dagger before him, his Adam's apple bobbing incessantly. Lüluo's hand on the dagger was as steady as a rock, while a servant behind her held a lantern that cast a greenish pallor over Wang Wu's ashen face.
"Master Wang," Jiang Wan said, sitting on a wooden stool and tapping her fingertips lightly against the IOU on the table, "the thirty taels of silver your son embezzled from the rice shop, I have already had someone make up for. But if you do not tell the truth, this IOU..." She paused, "...will be sent to the magistrate's office."
Wang Wu dropped to his knees with a thud, his forehead knocking against the ice-crusted gray bricks. "Have mercy, Miss! It was Miss Jiang Rou who told the little one to do this! She said that as long as I added aconite powder to your meals, she would secure a position for my son!"
Chapter 135