With the scholar and the butler helping smooth things over, the botanist and the gourmet temporarily went their separate ways. Neither looked kindly upon the other, though. Clearly, this wasn't over.
Mr. Wen still hadn't returned, and Harry showed no intention of leaving. He made himself at home, eating and drinking to his heart's content around the manor. Xu Huo didn't have much to do each day. He usually chatted with Harry, spent the rest of his time wandering the garden, and kept an eye on Madam Ti Hui.
By the following evening, Madam Ti Hui had finally taken away a hummingbird.
She had brought it back to her room after injecting it with a potion that proved ineffective. That night, Xu Huo asked a servant who delivered daily necessities and learned that the hummingbird in the cage by Madam Ti Hui's bed had turned into a red-feathered hummingbird again. Unlike the fake the photographer had left behind, though, this bird's red feathers hadn't fully grown in. It would probably take another day or two.
Xu Huo inspected the bird feed and other items that had been replaced in Madam Ti Hui's room. None were poisoned. It seemed she kept the toxin she fed to the red-feathered hummingbirds in a separate place, where no one else in the manor could get to it.
He was patient. He discovered that, besides feeding the birds, Madam Ti Hui also spent some time gathering nectar. "Early Riser" was one of the flowers she collected.
Guessing that she used the nectar to make special feed, Xu Huo got some and fed it to a few hummingbirds. When they flew back to the greenhouse, Madam Ti Hui had no choice but to take them to her room and feed them too.
After trying twice, he