Chapter 115: Please Punish Me, Master!

“Master, I have been taking care of Tengyi for a long time; this really wasn’t my doing. I… I will immediately call A Xin over to ask if he knows anything.” Liang, the groom, stood up, pleading for himself as he spoke. But when he caught the displeased look in Li Rui’s eyes, he quickly shut his mouth and hurried off to fetch someone.

“Tengyi has suffered.” Li Rui approached to soothe the horse, gently stroking Tengyi before personally scooping out the remaining castor seeds—disguised as black beans—from the manger, then adding fresh green grass for it.

Tengyi hadn’t eaten much, only experiencing some diarrhea. Li Rui ordered the preparation of detoxifying herbs, assuring that once administered, the horse would be fine. Fortunately, the problem was discovered in time, and with the horse’s innate ability to detect toxins, a major disaster was averted.

“Your servant greets Your Highness!” Shortly after, a young groom named A Xin arrived. Liang had mentioned some details on the way, and A Xin was also worried that something might have gone wrong under his care.

“You are the new groom?” Li Rui asked, noticing A Xin kneeling, barely sixteen or seventeen, roughly the same age as Haizi.

“Yes, your servant is A Xin, recently transferred here to assist,” A Xin answered honestly. This was his first time speaking directly with Li Rui, so naturally he felt a bit nervous.

“Did you feed Tengyi the forage and the concentrate?” Li Rui’s sharp question startled A Xin even more. He had heard there was an issue with the feed, but he had only followed Liang’s instructions and didn’t know where things went wrong.

“I followed Master Liang’s orders. Last night, I helped add the night feed. The rest of the time, I cleaned and assisted with chores,” A Xin replied quickly, his voice trembling. He repeated his words anxiously, fearful of saying the wrong thing. Liang stood nearby, equally anxious.

“Do you recognize what this is?” Li Rui held up a few castor seeds for A Xin to see. As expected, A Xin gave the same answer.

“Aren’t these black beans? I saw some leftovers in the kitchen yesterday and added them in. The kitchen’s Zhang Ma said they were going to throw them away anyway,” A Xin said after a glance, recognizing them as the items the kitchen had discarded the day before. Seeing they were black beans, he thought it wasteful to throw them away, so he fed them to the horses.

In the long history of agrarian society, black beans were commonly used as fodder for cattle and horses. It was found that animals eating black beans grew strong, vigorous, and resistant to disease. Thus, black beans were primarily used as livestock feed in the past.

At that time, white foods were revered, and only the poor or those who could barely feed themselves ate black beans out of necessity. Yet, physicians and health practitioners discovered and summarized the medicinal and health benefits of black beans.

“You fool! Do you know these are poisonous? Tell me how many you took and how many horses you fed them to!” Liang, even more anxious than Li Rui, scolded A Xin harshly, demanding he confess how many horses had been fed the seeds.

“I only casually mixed a small amount of black beans into the feed. I didn’t know they were poisonous. I deserve to die; please punish me, Master!” A Xin realized the gravity of his mistake and did not merely beg for mercy but accepted his punishment. This attitude satisfied Li Rui; if he had only tried to shirk responsibility, Li Rui would never have let it go so easily.

“Master, I failed to supervise properly and did not recognize these were poisonous. Please punish me!” Liang quickly knelt down as well, accepting responsibility. Having cared for the horses in this household for many years, he admitted it was his negligence that allowed his subordinate to make such a grave error.