Wan Jinlan returned to the palace, took off the hairpin, knocked it, and found no other features.
Three days passed in a flash, and when the day came for her to return home, Wan Jinlan still went back alone. Her mother hugged her and wiped away her tears.
Wan Jinlan felt okay and not uncomfortable at all. In such a huge palace, she was the only master. Apart from asking her to consummate the marriage, the empress dowager treated her very well in other aspects.
After the marriage, half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and there was still no good news from the north. A minister in the court suggested that Prince Su lead the northern army to quell the rebellion.
Emperor Jian'an did not agree, but after the news of the famine in the west reached the court, Emperor Jian'an finally gave in and wanted to suppress the rebellion as quickly as possible.
The west and northeast seemed to be in chaos, but Kyoto was peaceful and prosperous. Wan Jinlan in the Prince Qi's Mansion was worried about Xiao Feng.
Nanny Li was sent to the palace by the Empress Dowager to help her. It was more like a disguised way of urging her to consummate her marriage with Xiao Feng as soon as possible rather than helping her.
Fortunately, Nanny Li couldn't follow her into the room at night, so she continued to do as she pleased.
Wave after wave of doctors and eccentrics came in and out of the palace, all to treat Xiao Feng.
Some of them were pure frauds, while some of them sounded very knowledgeable and had real skills but were helpless against Xiao Feng's illness.
Seeing that Xiao Feng was getting thinner day by day, her reaction when speaking was not as strong as before, which showed that his condition was getting worse day by day.
On this day, her father sent a dark and thin old man named Yu Qi at noon. The old man was hunched over, and his face had the dark and red color of the southwestern mountain people. The look in his eyes made people feel uncomfortable. He spoke with a heavy accent, and she could hardly understand him.
Her father told her privately that the old man was the elder of the Miao village, and that his subordinates had walked for half a month up the mountain to invite him out of the village.
Xiao Feng was still lying unconscious on the bed. Yu Qi picked up the thin bamboo tube hanging beside him and spoke to the Duke of Zhenguo in a gibberish manner.
Wan Jinlan only understood a few words. Her father relayed that Yu Qi wanted to use his own method to test whether it was an insect poison.
Yu Qi was about to kick everyone out, but Wan Jinlan was worried. Yu Qi's face darkened, and he started to curse and push them.
"Come with me. He said that if there were outsiders present when he released his treasure, it might be frightened, leading to unpredictable consequences."
Wan Jinlan was still worried, and the Duke of Zhenguo signaled her to leave with his eyes.
When they arrived at the door, the Duke of Zhenguo said that the future of Yu Qi's son depended on him, so he didn't dare to do anything.
"Aren't the people of the Miao village very xenophobic? Why are they actively interacting with the outside world?"
Wan Jinlan had much more freedom in the southwest than in Kyoto. Having traveled with his elder brother to the border of Wei, he also learned a lot about the southwestern tribes. The Miao village in the southwest was one of the most mysterious tribes.
The Duke of Zhenguo said, "The major clans in the Miao village are causing a split."
Before the two of them could say anything more, Yu Qi came out.
"how?"
Yu Qi hung the bamboo tube back on his waist, his mouth a little tense. After a conversation with the Duke of Zhenguo, the Duke of Zhenguo's expression became much more solemn.
"Father..." Wan Jinlan was anxious.
"It's a Gu worm. Yu Qi said this kind of Gu worm is very special. It won't kill a person for more than a month, but if there is no antidote, the person will slowly die from exhaustion of blood and essence."
Wan Jinlan calculated the time and found that Xiao Feng had been lying in the mansion for more than a month, and his responses to her had become less and less these days.
"He can't solve it?"
The Duke of Zhenguo shook his head with a grim expression. "He said that this kind of Gu worm is fed with the blood of the person who raised it, and the antidote must also contain the blood of the person who raised it."
Yu Qi was still gesturing on the side, fearing that his son's future would be delayed because he did not play a role.
"If I forcefully remove the poison, he'll die, and he'll be in immense pain before dying, in a horrific manner. If it were any other poisonous insect, I might be able to help, but this one, I truly can't."
Wan Jinlan took a deep breath after hearing his father's retelling. He couldn't help but feel a little angry. If the poisonous insect could kill people without them even noticing, then wouldn't the people in the Miao village be able to kill anyone they wanted? How could such a thing happen in the world?
"Can you find the one who raises the Gu?"
After Wan Jinlan asked the question, Yu Qi looked evasive.
The Duke of Zhenguo and Wan Jinlan noticed that he was obviously abnormal, so they naturally had to interrogate him.
After a lot of threats and inducements, Yu Qi finally gave up.
His elder brother, named Yu Shuisheng, was a "child prodigy" of the Yu clan in the Miao village when he was young. After learning the art of raising insects passed down by his ancestors, he was able to cultivate new types of insect insects by himself. The insect insects with symptoms similar to malaria were developed using a poisonous mosquito in the deep mountains and dense forests of the southwest. Later, because of the failure in the battle for the chieftainship, he left the village in anger.
The Duke of Zhenguo asked, "Does he have any relatives in the village?"
Yu Qi shook his head. "My brother is so obsessed with studying the art of insect poisoning that he hasn't gotten married yet."
The Duke of Zhenguo felt a little tired. Although he didn't know how much truth there was in Yu Qi's words, if he sent people to investigate the village now, Xiao Feng would be dead in one round trip, and his daughter would become a widow. What was the point?
"Princess, Princess, the prince is vomiting blood." Chuntao's cry was heard.
Wan Jinlan hurried in and saw that Xiao Feng's whole body was convulsing slightly, with black blood coming out of his mouth. There was a small lump of flesh protruding next to the blue blood vessels on his neck, moving slowly under his skin.
Yu Qi took out the powder from the cloth bag hanging around his waist, poured it into his hand, and pointed it at Xiao Feng's nose.
After a while, the lump of flesh slowly stopped moving, and Xiao Feng regained his composure.
Wan Jinlan took a handkerchief and wiped Xiao Feng's blood clean. "What happened?"
Yu Qiyi said it all, and Wan Jinlan finally understood after listening to his father. When Yu Qiyi was checking whether there was an insect poison in Xiao Feng's body, his own treasure disturbed the insect poison in Xiao Feng's body.
Yu Qi gestured at Xiao Feng, indicating that once the poison reached his heart, he would die.
Wan Jinlan looked at the bulge in his neck, which had already disappeared, and asked whimsically, "Father, if I activate the Gu worm and then cut it off with a knife, would that be possible?"
Seeing the Duke of Zhenguo's expression, Wan Jinlan added, "As long as the knife is thin enough and the person swinging it is fast enough to avoid damaging the meridians in the neck, then it will be possible, right?"
The neck is the most vulnerable part of the human body. There are many meridians in it, and if you are not careful, it will cause bleeding. On the battlefield, the number of deaths among soldiers suffering from neck injuries is the highest.
The Duke of Zhenguo didn't know whether this method would work, but he looked around his son-in-law's neck and pulled his collar open a little, but he couldn't find a good position to cut the meat.
After asking Yu Qi, Yu Qi hesitated and said that although the method is feasible, it is not easy to operate because if the insect poisonous insect senses danger, it may torture the host to death in a very short time.
Wan Jinlan had already made up her mind. If she couldn't find someone who raised the insect to give Xiao Feng an antidote, she would definitely choose a time to get the insect out before it entered her heart. Even if it meant losing a piece of flesh, as long as there was a chance of survival, she would choose to do it.
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