Chapter 90 Begonia

Meng Yutong walked quickly to the stone table, extended two fingers and gently pressed them on the side of the pigeon's neck. She held her breath and felt for a moment until she felt a faint but continuous throbbing under her fingertips, then she quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

She turned to Wu Ming and Shi Yu, who looked anxious, and reassured them, "It's alright, they're still breathing, they've just fainted."

Ji Yun had already arrived beside her. His expression was solemn as he looked at the stiff pigeon on the table, a clear resistance flashing in his eyes. But he still stepped forward, picked up the silver hairpin from the table, and tried to move the pigeon to examine it more closely.

Seeing this, Meng Yutong subconsciously reached out and gently tugged at his sleeve, "I'll take care of it."

Ji Yun felt the subtle force coming from her sleeve. Seeing that she was mindful of his fear of birds, the tension in his heart eased, and an indescribable warmth welled up inside him.

He took a half-step closer to Meng Yutong and whispered, "It is still breathing, but it is unconscious. This condition is quite similar to when my aunt first fell into a coma."

Meng Yutong nodded, then turned to Shi Yu and Wu Ming and asked, "Think carefully back, what exactly happened just now? Did it touch anything else?"

Shi Yu hurriedly replied, "Dr. Meng, I accidentally let it escape from its cage. It flew around in the yard for a while, and finally landed on this stone table. It pecked at the flower soil in your bowl, and then flew up again. I didn't expect it to suddenly fall down!"

He pointed to the small white porcelain bowl that had originally contained hibiscus flower clay, which was now completely empty.

Meng Yutong picked up the pigeon and carefully examined its beak, which was indeed stained with pink floral mud residue.

She quickly scanned the table and saw that the other medicinal powders and the red lip rouge wrapped in plain silk were exactly as they were when she left, clearly untouched.

"Besides the flower mud, did you eat anything else?" she pressed.

Shi Yu tried hard to recall, then shook his head firmly: "No more! I only fed it a handful of millet this morning, but there was absolutely nothing wrong with that millet. I even tasted two grains myself."

Therefore, the problem most likely lies in the hibiscus flower juice.

Wait a minute... she just fed a chicken with this flower juice!

Meng Yutong immediately squatted down to examine the live chickens in the cage. She picked out the chicken whose wing feathers had been marked and which had been fed a mixture of flower juice and medicinal paste.

The chicken was full of energy, flapping its wings and clucking in her hand, a stark contrast to the motionless pigeon on the table.

Meng Yutong's delicate brows gradually furrowed. If the problem lay solely in the flower juice, why was the chicken unharmed?

Her gaze returned to the stone table, scanning the items displayed on it one by one: various colored medicinal powders mixed in proportion, water, mortar and pestle... everything was clearly visible under the bright sunlight.

Just then, a gentle breeze blew by, stirring the objects on the table. The lip rouge wrapped in plain silk was pushed forward a short distance by the wind, and a corner of the silk handkerchief was unfurled, revealing the rich, luscious red lipstick inside.

The sun was indeed blazing today, its golden rays enveloping her and making the back of her neck feel slightly hot.

Suddenly, the layout of Princess Gyeongbokgung's bedroom came into clear view: facing south was a large hinged window, with a low couch under the window and a dressing table next to it.

Because of its orientation, the hall is bathed in excellent light. On sunny days, that area, especially the dressing table, is sure to be basked in abundant sunlight all day long...

A clear light suddenly flashed in Meng Yutong's eyes, as if the clouds had parted to reveal the sun. The chaotic thoughts that had been lingering in her mind instantly became crystal clear and connected into a coherent line.

Without further hesitation, she grabbed the marked live chicken from the ground, held it by the scruff of its neck, and quickly pushed aside the bottles and jars on the corner of the table to clear a space. Then she forcefully pressed the struggling chicken down to the center of the stone table.

The chicken, its wings and neck restrained, writhed restlessly from side to side, making terrified "clucking" sounds in its throat, its round eyes darting around, as it was forcibly fixed to the table.

Her sudden action left those around her puzzled and confused.

Ji Yun stared intently for a moment, a look of understanding gradually appearing in his eyes. He asked in a deep voice, "Do you suspect that there is something else on this stone table that can interact with the flower juice, ultimately causing someone to be poisoned and fall into a coma?"

Meng Yutong didn't answer, her gaze fixed on the chicken in her hand. The chicken was initially struggling, making gurgling sounds from its throat.

However, after only a short while on the stone table, its struggles visibly weakened, its head drooped, the light in its eyes quickly dimmed, and finally its body went limp, collapsing completely onto the table and ceasing to move.

Only then did Meng Yutong slowly turn her head to meet Ji Yun's probing gaze, her tone resolute: "It's lip rouge."

She pointed to the bright red lip rouge exposed to the sunlight: "When exposed to sunlight, this substance will release an invisible and odorless vapor. If someone happens to consume something containing a specific flower juice at this time and then inhales this vapor, it will cause poisoning and lead to unconsciousness."

She recalled with clear thought: "Princess Gyeongbok ate barley, red dates, and rose porridge that morning. Green Velvet once said that the roses used in the porridge were picked from the princess's garden. If I'm not mistaken, most of the seemingly ordinary flowers and plants in that garden have probably been tampered with, containing similar medicinal flower juices."

"After the princess finished her breakfast, she sat in front of her dressing table to try on hairpins. At that time, the morning light was just right, and the dressing table, which was full of sunlight, also shone on the opened box of lip rouge. Soon after, the poison took effect, and she fell into a coma."

Ji Yun's gaze also fell on the brightly colored lip rouge, a gift personally given by Jin An.

If everything is as Meng Yutong deduced, then isn't the mastermind behind the plot to murder her aunt Jin'an?

Meng Yutong had no time to notice the thoughtful expression on his face; she needed to verify her guess immediately.

She turned to Wu Ming and spoke slightly faster: "Wu Ming, go and look carefully at the counter in the front hall. When I returned from the Princess's residence last time, perhaps because the flock of pigeons disturbed me that day, a pomegranate flower fell into my hair. After I came back, I just casually put it on the table in the front hall. Go and see if it's still there."

Wu Ming accepted the order and left. He returned shortly afterward, holding a dried-out pomegranate flower in his hand: "Master, I found it!"

Meng Yutong instructed him to grind the dried flowers into powder using a clean container, while she casually picked a fresh pomegranate flower from a branch in the courtyard.

She ground the two different types of flowers into powder and fed them to the two live chickens, then let them roam freely on the ground. Next, she took the half of the lip rouge wrapped in plain silk from the stone table and placed it on the ground near the two chickens.

In just a moment, the chicken that had consumed the dried pomegranate pollen began to stagger, and then, like the pigeon before it, it collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness.

Just as I expected!

"How meticulous... how ruthless!" Wu Ming watched from the side, his heart pounding with shock. He couldn't help but click his tongue in amazement, but then a new question arose in his mind. "Master, those flowers and plants are all planted in the Princess's garden. They must be carefully cared for by someone. Who could do such a thing to the flowers and plants in the garden in full view of everyone?"

This statement indeed points to the key point. Meng Yutong recalled that on the day of Jingfu's birthday banquet, she had entered his bedchamber, where the vase on his dressing table was filled with magnolias.

When I visited again yesterday, the vase had been filled with hibiscus. This shows that Princess Gyeongbok did not have a fixed rule about what flowers to display in the palace.

Now, not only the hibiscus, but also the roses and pomegranates are showing abnormalities, which means that most of the flowers and plants in the garden may have problems.

But how can such a large-scale setup be done without alerting anyone?

Meng Yutong's gaze met Ji Yun's in mid-air, both of them deep in thought, trying to grasp that fleeting connection.

The unconscious pigeon lay on the table next to the chicken.

Suddenly, both of them jolted, and almost simultaneously blurted out:

"It's a pigeon!"

On the day of Jingfu's birthday banquet, a flock of pigeons suddenly took flight and scattered wildly throughout the garden, their wings brushing against countless plants and trees.

Meng Yutong clearly remembers that a pigeon fluttered around on the pomegranate tree behind her for a while before flying away to the hibiscus bushes not far away.

Someone must have tampered with the pigeons' feathers, adding some kind of inconspicuous drug. By using the pigeons to flap their wings and fly around, they could have silently spread the drug across the many flowers and plants in the princess's garden in an instant.

There is no certainty as to when Princess Gyeongbok will open this box of lip rouge, or what flowers and herbs she will pick from the garden to eat or admire. Only when she happens to come into contact with both of these things on a particular day will the latent poison suddenly take effect.

Once the poison takes effect, tracing the source becomes virtually impossible.

Meng Yutong's mind raced. In her previous life, Jingfu's accident occurred at the Spring Banquet the following year, not at this time.

This suggests that the timing of Jingfu's fulfillment of these two conditions in his previous life was different from that in this life, and perhaps the dosage he ingested was also different. Therefore, this time he only fell into a deep coma, rather than dying immediately with blood flowing from all seven orifices and his face withering, as is typical of begonias.

This poison... Meng Yutong carefully used a silver hairpin to remove a small piece of lip rouge, placed it in a white porcelain dish, and then added a few drops of freshly squeezed hibiscus flower juice.

The intense red and delicate pink blended together, gradually turning into a somber black.

She brought the porcelain dish to her nose, gently fanned it with her hand, and carefully inhaled the aroma emanating from the mixture.

At first glance, it smells like the rich floral scent of the lip balm itself, but upon closer inspection, a faint yet undeniable sweet and fishy odor can be discerned beneath the surface of that fragrance.

The smell was strange and indescribable, sweet yet with a faint fishy or rusty odor, all blended together to create a unique aroma.

This sweet, fishy smell... it's so familiar.

Meng Yutong suddenly closed her eyes, desperately searching through her chaotic memories, and finally remembered where she had smelled this scent before!

It was the medicine that Qing Shu sent in my previous life!

These are indeed begonias.

However, this time, Princess Gyeongbokgung did not apply the lip rouge directly to her lips. The toxins were only evaporated by the heat of sunlight, and the amount inhaled was limited, so the poison did not reach deep into her lungs.

But she was certain that it was poison from begonias.

Ji Yun, who was standing nearby, keenly noticed the sudden change in Meng Yutong's expression.

Her face suddenly turned ashen, devoid of any color, and her gaze was fixed on the black liquid mixed in the dish, her eyes churning with extremely complex and unfathomable emotions.

Among those expressions were fear, pain, and even disgust... The reaction was definitely not that of someone who was encountering this poison for the first time.

It was as if she had personally experienced this poison.