A beggar approached, emanating a foul, sour stench. Shen Yingxue, who had been politely smiling, frowned deeply, a flash of intense disgust crossing her eyes. Forcing herself to endure the nausea, she served the man some porridge and quickly sent him away…
Shen Lixue narrowed her eyes slightly: It seems Shen Yingxue dislikes serving porridge. Her enthusiastic performance must have another purpose...
Lei sat in the makeshift shed, sipping his tea, his eyes occasionally glancing at the distribution of porridge. A little beggar, about ten years old, ran into the line with a broken bowl, took a bowl of hot porridge, and walked away with a grin. A moment later, he ran back, squeezed into the line, and took another bowl of porridge…
Lei frowned but didn't say anything. Shen Caixuan, who was beside her, couldn't hold back any longer and stepped forward. Lei tried to stop her, but it was too late. She frowned tightly, hoping that Shen Caixuan wouldn't make a big fuss.
Shen Caixuan blocked the little beggar's path and coldly reprimanded him, "Little brother, each person can only take one bowl of porridge. If you take all the porridge, how are the others supposed to drink?"
Shen Caixuan raised her chin and glared at Shen Lixue with reproach. The little boy got his porridge from Shen Lixue once, and from her the other time. Didn't she see that someone else got their porridge twice?
"I'm not taking the porridge for myself, I'm giving it to my seriously ill grandpa and grandma!" The little boy's voice was clear and crisp, with a hint of timidity.
As fellow beggars, they knew each other somewhat. The nearby beggars all knew about the little beggar's situation, and they all looked at Shen Caixuan with reproachful eyes, whispering among themselves:
"Is this person truly kind or just pretending? The person is seriously ill and can't move, and can't even let their grandson come and get some porridge..."
"Exactly, hypocritical!"
"I just... I just..." Shen Caixuan's face flushed red and then turned pale. She racked her brains but couldn't come up with a suitable reason. Finally, she glared at the little boy, stomped her foot hard, and quickly ran back to Lei's side.
The way everyone looked at Lei Shi instantly changed. Could it be that the lady had sent that young lady to reprimand her?
Shen Lixue smiled helplessly: "Caixuan is really too impulsive!" Her actions have exposed the hypocrisy of the Lei family to everyone. Whether this will bring her a good reputation or a bad one remains to be seen.
Seeing the smugness and provocation in Shen Yingxue's eyes, Shen Lixue suppressed her anger and said in a low voice, "Shen Lixue, didn't you deliberately set all of this up?"
“What are you saying, sister? I am also the daughter of the Prime Minister’s family. The reputation of the Prime Minister’s family is related to my future. What good would it do me to scheme against you in public?” Shen Lixue retorted without any politeness.
The little beggar's grandparents were ill, and she only told the little beggar to come and collect porridge a few more times. She didn't do anything else. If it were Lei Shi or Shen Caixuan, who were more open-minded, things wouldn't have turned out like this.
"Not the best!" Shen Yingxue replied resentfully, secretly sprinkling some small particles into the porridge bucket in front of Shen Lixue, a strange, cold smile appearing on her lips.
Shen Lixue seemed not to notice, picked up a spoon and stirred the porridge, a few drops of foam inadvertently falling into Shen Yingxue's porridge bucket...
The sun rose higher and higher, but the number of people coming to collect porridge showed no signs of decreasing. Shen Lixue's arms ached from exhaustion, and she was about to go to the shaded area to rest when several beggars, supporting each other, came to the porridge bucket. Their clothes were tattered, their bodies weak, and their eyes bloodshot. They angrily said, "What kind of porridge is this? We've had diarrhea ever since we drank it, and we're almost collapsing..."
Shen Yingxue's eyes lit up, but she pretended not to know and said urgently, "So many beggars drank the porridge and they were fine, but you guys have stomach problems. Did you eat something else?"
The beggar glared hatefully at Shen Lixue, Shen Yingxue, and the others who were distributing the porridge: "We haven't eaten anything for two days except for porridge..."
"This..." Shen Yingxue was secretly overjoyed, but pretended to be embarrassed: "We were very careful when cooking the porridge, so theoretically, nothing unclean should have gotten mixed in. Do you remember which bucket you got your porridge from?"
The beggars were taken aback, their angry gazes suddenly turning to Shen Lixue: "We heard from the other beggars that her porridge tasted the best, so we lined up to get some, but we never expected there to be something wrong with it..."
Shen Yingxue sneered inwardly, but feigned ignorance and exclaimed, "Sister, is there something wrong with the porridge you made? You need to be careful when making porridge. Did you put anything you shouldn't have in it?"
"The ingredients for cooking porridge were assigned to me by Madam!" Shen Lixue sneered inwardly. No wonder the buckets in each room and courtyard of the Prime Minister's residence were marked, and it was stipulated that whoever cooked the porridge was responsible for serving it. It turned out that this was all a scheme to scheme against her.
Shen Yingxue's gloating gaze fell upon Shen Lixue like a sharp blade: "The materials have been allocated to you; you can add as much as you want. No one else can tamper with them!"
The porridge she cooked caused stomach aches, so she'll definitely be criticized and cursed. In more serious cases, she might even get beaten up by the furious beggars. Humph, who told her to rush to the porridge street and steal the credit? She deserves it!
The beggars glared angrily at Shen Lixue: "Miss, we have witnesses and evidence. What else do you have to say?"
They were indeed well-prepared, having set a trap, just waiting for her to fall into it. Once it was proven that her porridge was problematic, she would surely be condemned by thousands and cursed by tens of thousands. She would never be able to shake off the accusation of hypocrisy. Moreover, given Shen Minghui's personality, he would definitely hate her. At best, she would be kicked out of the Prime Minister's residence; at worst, she might have to spend the rest of her life in the Prime Minister's woodshed...
Seeing the beggars' angry and horrified expressions, Shen Lixue suddenly chuckled: "The porridge I cooked is absolutely fine. If you don't believe me, I can drink it and show you!"
Amidst Shen Yingxue's gloating and the beggars' seriously suspicious gazes, Shen Lixue slowly ladled a bowl of porridge from her porridge bucket and drank it down.
Half a cup of tea, one cup, two cups—as time passed, Shen Yingxue's smug smile froze slightly. She was frantic with worry. Her porridge clearly had a problem, so why hadn't she been harmed? Or was it that she had a strong constitution and could hold out longer…?
The troublemaking beggars exchanged glances, looking at each other in bewilderment: they had clearly seen some beggars get diarrhea after drinking the porridge, and someone had quietly told them that those beggars had gotten their porridge from the young lady in green...
"The Prime Minister's residence has prepared four buckets of white rice porridge and three buckets of millet porridge. What I'm serving here is white rice porridge. There are also three buckets of white rice porridge. Did you remember the wrong place to get your porridge?" Shen Lixue smiled gently and coaxed, and the fish were about to take the bait.
"We made a mistake, we made a mistake, it was indeed us who made a mistake..." The beggars awkwardly echoed Shen Lixue's words to cover up their embarrassment. They had never received any porridge from Shen Lixue. They had only come to confront her indignantly after hearing that there was something wrong with her porridge.
Shen Yingxue's suppressed anger flared up: "What do you mean, sister? Do you suspect there's something wrong with my porridge?"
Shen Lixue's gaze was cold: "I only said there was nothing wrong with my porridge, I didn't say I doubted my sister..."
Shen Yingxue gritted her teeth. Of the four buckets of white rice porridge, three were cooked by her and Lei Shi. If Shen Lixue's porridge was fine, then that was indirectly accusing them of having a problem.
Seeing the beggars' suspicious gazes, Shen Yingxue followed suit, slowly ladling a bowl of porridge from her own porridge bucket, and said proudly, "Look carefully!" This porridge was cooked under Xia Jin's supervision, so there shouldn't be any problem.
Shen Yingxue took a sip of porridge and immediately frowned: There were no side dishes, and this plain porridge had no flavor at all, making it hard to swallow. I really don't know how Shen Lixue managed to drink it!
Shen Lixue and the beggars watched her intently from the sidelines. She couldn't give up, so she had no choice but to grit her teeth and drink the porridge, taking small sips here and there. The porridge was as bland as water, and she wasn't used to it. She had to chew for a long time after each sip. The beggars were getting impatient for her. Why was she taking so long to drink a bowl of porridge?
Suddenly, a soft sound came from Shen Yingxue's stomach, followed by waves of pain, as if a thousand horses were galloping. Startled, Shen Yingxue subconsciously put down the porridge bowl and covered her stomach.
Shen Lixue sneered. It had already flared up so quickly, but she pretended not to know and asked, "What's wrong, little sister? Is your stomach hurting?" Shen Lixue's voice was neither too loud nor too soft, just loud enough for the nearby beggars to hear.
The beggar who had come seeking justice instantly understood, glaring angrily at Shen Yingxue: "So it was your porridge that was the problem!"
"No, no..." With abdominal pain and being accused by the beggar, Shen Yingxue was extremely anxious. She clearly put croton into Shen Lixue's porridge, so why was her porridge the problem?
"She actually gave us contaminated porridge!" The beggar's question triggered a chain reaction. Other beggars suffering from stomach aches swarmed around, glaring at Shen Yingxue with furious rage spitting fire in their bloodshot eyes: "Hypocritical...pretentious...shameless scoundrel..."
"No...you've misunderstood..." Although they were beggars, there were many of them, and they surrounded her, creating a spectacular scene. Each of them stared at her fiercely, as if they wanted to devour her alive.
Having lived in the backyard for so long, Shen Yingxue had never seen anything like this before. She trembled with fear, and her stomach was still aching. Not knowing what to do, she cried out urgently, "Mother, Mother..."
"Everyone, let's talk this out!" Lei pushed through the crowd and walked over, glancing at Shen Yingxue with displeasure. The porridge was almost finished being served, and today's good deed would be praised by others. Who would have thought that this would happen at the last minute?
Quietly ordering her guards to form a protective formation for herself and Shen Yingxue, Lady Lei faced the beggars with elegant grace and extraordinary bearing. Her slightly lowered eyelids gave her an air of looking down upon them: "The matter of the white porridge was a misunderstanding..."