Chapter 340 Human Blood, Touching the Core

Pei Yuan remained silent, seemingly hesitant.

Sun Yan earnestly advised, "Your Highness's injuries this time are too severe, especially the wound on your chest, which has repeatedly reopened."

The doctor said that if you don't take good care of yourself, you'll definitely develop a chronic illness. Your Highness should rest for a few days before going to see Lord Shen.

There's a saying that goes something like this: "If love between two people is meant to last, why should they be together every day?"

"Your Highness, why waste a day or two? I assure you I will keep you informed of Lord Shen's movements in the coming days."

Pei Yuan glanced at him, then grabbed the jade bone fan and hurled it at him.

"Have you been reading too many random stories and started giving advice to people?"

Sun Yan caught the jade-bone fan and chuckled.

Pei Yuan snorted and looked at Liu Feng.

"How is Ah Chu doing these days? Has she encountered any danger?"

Liu Feng shook his head, "Young Master Shen has always been in the prefectural government office, and we have people in the office."

The report said that Lord Shen was very busy every day in the yamen, interrogating prisoners and reviewing case files, but had not encountered any danger.

Pei Yuan breathed a sigh of relief.

"It seems that the person who assassinated us was not the mastermind behind the Yangzhou case, but someone else."

Sun Yan speculated, "Could it be that Prince Heng knew His Highness had left the capital and sent someone to assassinate us?"

Pei Yuan shook his head. "If Prince Heng knew that I had left the capital, he could have directly reported it to Father Emperor, and Father Emperor would have been able to punish me without having to send someone to assassinate me."

"Who else could be so ruthless as to want His Highness dead?"

Pei Yuan couldn't think of it for a moment.

"The mastermind behind the assassination attempt on me has not yet been found, so I will not go to A-Chu for the time being, so as not to implicate him."

But those people won't get what they want, and they'll definitely come back. So spread the word, and this time we'll trap them like turtles in a jar.

The most dangerous enemies are those lurking in the darkness; we must find a way to expose them first.

"Your Highness, please take good rest."

Sun Yan placed the jade-bone fan back beside Pei Yuan's bed and took his leave with Liu Feng.

Pei Yuan stroked the jade-bone fan, but then noticed the handkerchief wrapped around his hand.

The plain white handkerchief had no patterns, but it was wrapped very neatly.

"etc."

He called out to Liufeng, who had just reached the door.

"Is this the wound the doctor bandaged for me?"

Liu Feng shook his head, "When we found Your Highness yesterday, your wounds had already been treated."

The poison in your body has been neutralized. I had a doctor check your pulse, and since everything was fine, we didn't re-bandage you.

In other words, the pregnant woman treated the wound on his hand.

This handkerchief belongs to that woman.

The woman whose back view resembled Achu's.

Suddenly, a pair of familiar yet panicked eyes flashed before Pei Yuan's eyes.

Before he fainted, he seemed to see Ah Chu's face.

He unconsciously rubbed the handkerchief in his hand, and vaguely seemed to smell a familiar, light fragrance.

He twitched his nostrils slightly and sniffed carefully, but all he could smell was blood.

Pei Yuan pinched the bridge of his nose and couldn't help but sneer inwardly.

That's insane! How could anyone think a pregnant woman would resemble Ah Chu?

Ah Chu is at the prefectural government office.

------

Shen Chu is indeed at the prefectural government office at this moment.

As someone who knew about the matter and brought Manager Li of Sanyuantang here, she should have been summoned and questioned by the authorities.

We still have to go through the motions.

Ling Ce asked her a few questions, pretending to be serious, and then let her leave.

When night fell, he immediately ran back to the courtyard to meet them.

As soon as he entered, he couldn't wait to ask, "How is it? Do you have any new information?"

You wouldn't believe it, but this afternoon many people from Qingshan Town went to the government office to cause trouble.

Everyone was pleading for Manager Li and calling for his innocence; Prefect Jiang said he was about to reach his breaking point.

If we have no other evidence, I can only convict Manager Li of stealing other people's property.

"They won't be locked up for long before they have to release them, and then all your work will have been for nothing."

Han Feng stroked the Golden Spear that wouldn't spill water in his hand, his brows furrowed.

"I have studied it carefully. In addition to musk, deer antler velvet, Cnidium monnieri, and Asarum heterotropoides, it contains other herbs."

Its base notes have a faint, fishy, ​​foul smell, like blood.

"The smell of blood?" Shen Chu was taken aback. "Can Senior Brother identify what kind of blood it is?"

Han Feng paused for a moment before continuing, "I suspect that the Golden Spear Never Falls is mixed with human blood."

puff.

Ling Ce spat out all of his tea, spraying it all over Yuanbao, who had just run over to find Chen Chu.

Yuanbao's smooth fur was soaked and clumped together, making him look like a mangy cat.

"Meow~"

Yuanbao immediately bristled, a fierce glint appearing in its bright green eyes as it glared at Ling Ce with displeasure.

Ling Ce felt he had avenged the day he was "brushed" against someone, and felt completely refreshed. He put his hands on his hips and laughed heartily.

"Heh, what are you going to do about it?"

A human and a cat engage in an extreme standoff, with a human-cat war about to erupt.

Chen Chu rolled her eyes, too lazy to pay attention to the childish Ling Ce, and scooped Yuanbao into her arms, taking out a handkerchief to wipe its wet fur.

She didn't forget to ask Han Feng, "How can you be sure it's human blood?"

Han Feng said, "I once heard of a folk remedy that involved grinding aphrodisiac herbs into powder, mixing them with turtle blood to form pills, and then taking them. The effect was twice as good as usual, and human blood was even better."

At that time, I was obsessed with the research of various prescriptions. I tried to reconstitute that prescription, but the taste was different from this one.

Moreover, human blood differs from animal blood; animal blood is more viscous and darker in color, while human blood has a slightly salty and fishy smell.

Chen Chu frowned. "But this is perfumed dew. Perfumed dew itself masks some of the scent, doesn't it?"

Han Feng shook his head. "If I'm not mistaken, they probably melted the prepared pills in the fragrant dew."

The scent of perfume was used to mask the smell of human blood, but the fragrance of perfume itself dissipates faster than the smell of medicine.

Once the fragrance dissipates, the salty, fishy smell of blood will be detected by those with a sensitive nose.

Shen Chu listened thoughtfully.

The eldest brother's nose has always been extraordinary; he can detect even the faintest scents.

He said it was human blood, so it must be human blood without a doubt.

Han Feng continued, "No wonder it dares to sell for 1,790 taels; it turns out it's something fed with human blood."

Chen Chu's heart stirred slightly. "Even if it's human blood, it can't be just any blood, right? Shouldn't the blood with the mildest smell be easier to mask?"

Han Feng nodded, "That's right. Everyone's body odor is different, and the taste of blood will also vary, but generally speaking, the blood of unmarried girls has the mildest taste."

Especially young girls who are meticulously cared for and whose lives are exceptionally refined, have a lighter-smelling blood.

Shen Chu suddenly looked up.

Meticulously prepared, with exceptionally refined living conditions including food, clothing, housing, and transportation?

In an instant, images of the beautiful residences and refined lifestyle of Tianxiang Tower flashed through her mind.

Could Tianxianglou and Jinqiangbudaoshui be related?

"I suddenly had a feeling that we might be about to get to the heart of the Yangzhou case."

Ling Ce was so startled by these words that he forgot all about teasing Yuanbao.

"What do you mean? You mean the Golden Spear That Never Falls is made from the blood of those missing girls?"

My God, if that's the case, wouldn't they all be killed?