From a young age, Yi Shangyun has tasted all kinds of herbs. With her extraordinary sense of taste and smell, it is not difficult for her to identify all the ingredients in a bowl of medicine, even if they are only present in trace amounts.
While human life is at stake, this matter ultimately concerns the Empress of a nation. To poison her own ruler is a heinous crime punishable by the extermination of her entire clan. If this were to become public knowledge, how would her people react? And where would that leave the dignity of the royal family?
As a herbal genius, Young Master Yi was no exception. However, he was clearly troubled at this moment, saying, "But how can we verify such a minuscule dosage? Without irrefutable evidence, how can the Empress accept it?"
Even Young Master Yi shook his head as if it were impossible, but Yi Shangyun suddenly raised his voice and said, "I have a way!"
Upon hearing this, Mei Zhixuan, who was secretly making up his mind, exclaimed impatiently, "You have a way to make the Empress confess? Is that true?"
Mei Zhixuan felt that heaven was helping him to succeed. He originally wanted to use the gunpowder he had secretly bought from Xi Qin to find an opportunity in the city to create chaos and force people to abdicate, but the plan ultimately failed.
Unexpectedly, someone was even more impatient than him; the queen had already plotted to poison the old king. This was truly a case of "searching high and low without finding it, only to have it come to you effortlessly."
.
In this way, he saved himself a lot of trouble and avoided being infamous for being disloyal and unfilial.
If Yi Shangyun can prove that the Empress poisoned the woman, then the Empress's power in the court will be completely eliminated. In this way, the entire Dongning Kingdom will become his possession without lifting a finger.
Unexpectedly, the woman she had gone to so much trouble to find was no ordinary person.
As he was thinking, he suddenly met Yi Shangyun's eyes. Yi Shangyun was surprised to see that there was no grief in his eyes, which was the same as the grief of losing a loved one. He was stunned for a moment, wondering why he would react this way.
Mei Zhixuan quickly realized what she meant and avoided her gaze, explaining, "Oh, my sister, what I mean is, if my sister can really find the poison in this soup, then Father Emperor in the afterlife can rest in peace!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Mei Zhixuan pretended to cover his face and began to weep: "Father, you died so unjustly! Our great nation is full of talented people, yet the imperial physicians in the palace are all mediocre. At the critical moment, not one of them could verify the truth for you. Father died with his eyes open, and it is truly your unfilial sons who have failed you!"
Seeing this, Yi Shangyun frowned, seemingly deep in thought. Her previously resolute heart suddenly became hesitant. Finally, she said slowly, "This matter is of great importance and should not be spoken rashly. Let me think about it more carefully."
Mei Zhixuan seemed to have guessed some of her thoughts, so he lowered his sobs a little and said, "Then you must think it over carefully, my dear sister. At this moment, I'm afraid only you can find out the truth for Father!"
At this moment, Yi Sanshao, who had been quietly accompanying her, noticed that Yi Shangyun's complexion was not good, and that it was already late at night. So he got up and said to Mei Zhixuan, "It's late today, and the princess is too tired. I'll trouble the Third Prince to arrange things here. I'll take the princess back to the palace to rest first. Otherwise, the princess might not be able to handle the things that follow."
Mei Zhixuan hurriedly replied, "That's only right. Then I'll trouble Your Highness to take good care of my younger sister!"
Young Master Yi nodded to him, then, with Yi Shangyun's help, slowly got up and walked out of Qingxin Palace.
The winter evening was drizzling, as if it were hurriedly preparing for the upcoming Spring Equinox.
Before I knew it, a fine drizzle began to fall outside the window, making it feel mysterious and enchanting.
A light drizzle fell with the breeze, and everywhere was pitch black and quiet, as if it were about to swallow up everything in the world, making people feel suffocated.
At this moment, after bathing and changing into a white mourning dress, Yi Shangyun finally returned to her bedroom alone and closed the door tightly behind her. However, she was already in tears.
After entering the room in a daze, she finally sat down at the table, tears streaming down her face, and muttered to herself while gazing at the gentle rain outside the window, "Your Highness should have already left Dongning's land by now, right? In this life, Your Highness must hate Yun'er to the core. I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. What Yun'er said wasn't sincere, it wasn't sincere..."
After saying that, she slumped over the table, utterly exhausted, and buried her head in her hands, crying silently.
After an unknown amount of time, he slowly sat up, sniffed, and frowned deeply, pondering, "I never imagined that the Empress would be so treacherous. After being husband and wife, she was so heartless towards my father, to the point that she couldn't even wait for him to pass away and was already eager to have her son succeed to the throne. What is she afraid of? She is already the Empress, second only to the Emperor. Her son will undoubtedly be the future ruler, so why is she in such a hurry?"
Yi Shangyun was completely baffled, but then became even more worried: "But now, looking at that Second Prince Mei Zhihao, he is ignorant, absurd, immoral, incompetent, and of extremely poor character. How can he shoulder the heavy responsibility of being the ruler of a country? Mei Zhixuan, on the other hand, is narrow-minded, extremely cunning, ruthless, and will stop at nothing to achieve his goals. He acts arbitrarily and has no mercy or morality to speak of. If the capital of Dongning is handed over to such people, I'm afraid the country will soon be on the verge of collapse."
What will become of Dongning's future? This question has remained unresolved for a long time.
Then she thought of Xuanyuan Han again, thinking that if he were by her side, he would definitely handle everything well, and she wouldn't feel so helpless and troubled!
She truly hadn't expected that he would risk returning to the palace alone again today, just to take her with him. She murmured, "Now is a time of great turmoil for Dongning Kingdom. As the legitimate princess, how can Yun'er disregard the safety of her people and watch helplessly as the land her father and mother painstakingly built is trampled upon, and the people bullied, while she herself only cares about her own pleasure, running away with Your Highness? Yun'er... Yun'er has no other choice. She only hopes that Your Highness can return to your rightful place, and live a peaceful and joyful life..."
"Knock knock knock"
Just then, a knock sounded at the door. Yi Shangyun quickly wiped away her tears, dragged her tired body to get up and open the door.
Upon seeing the newcomer, he said with some surprise, "Third Young Master, it's you."
Young Master Yi looked at her face, which was clearly wet with tears, with heartache, and explained, "So many things happened today, I was worried about you, so I came to check on you."
Yi Shangyun slowly released her hands from the door panel and said, "Please come in!"
After leading Young Master Yi inside and settling him down, she poured him a cup of hot tea and thanked him, saying, "Thank you so much for today, Young Master. If it weren't for you, I don't know how I would have faced all of this alone."
Young Master Yi said with utmost sincerity, "Girl, no matter where you are in the world, I will always be with you."
As Yi Shangyun personally served the tea, he said, "Third Young Master, you really don't need to be so good to me. I don't deserve it."
However, Young Master Yi remained steadfast in his statement: "No, you deserve it."
Seeing the troubled look on his face, Young Master Yi quickly changed the subject, saying, "By the way, you just said you had a way to prove that the medicine was poisonous. What is that way?"
Yi Shangyun took a deep breath and said, "The Empress's nourishing soup is made from three taels of ginseng, which is known as the best for 'nourishing yin and replenishing life, strengthening the body and consolidating the foundation,' a hundred-year-old He Shou Wu that nourishes the liver and kidneys, replenishes essence and blood, and strengthens muscles and bones, deer antler, and other ingredients, along with wolfberries and turtle shell glue. Does Third Young Master think what Yun'er said is correct?"
Young Master Yi thought for a moment, then frowned slightly and said, "It seems there's one ingredient missing, but I don't know what it is?"
Seemingly reluctant, Yi Shangyun had to recall again: "Third Young Master, do you remember when we examined Father Emperor's body? He died of cardiac arrest, blocked blood vessels, and blood clotting, which ultimately led to suffocation."
Upon hearing this, Young Master Yi seemed to find it hard to believe his own judgment. How much hatred must the poisoner have harbored to use the most poisonous substance in the world? "You mean, it was this!"
Yi Shangyun said, "That's right, it's 'Blood-Sealing Throat', the most potent of the Nine Poisons."
He paused, then continued, "The Antiaris toxicaria, also known as the arrow poison tree, is one of the most poisonous woody plants in the world. The sap from its trunk, branches, leaves, and fruit is highly toxic; if it enters the body through a wound, it can paralyze the heart and cause blood clotting, leading to death, hence the name 'blood-sealing throat.' Hunters in deep forests coat their arrowheads with this poisonous sap; once the arrowhead hits a wild animal, the animal quickly dies from the clotting of its blood. If this sap accidentally gets into the eyes, it can cause immediate blindness. Even..." When this tree burns, the smoke can cause blindness if it gets into the eyes. There's an alarming claim that if the sap of this tree is coated on arrowheads, the prey hit by it rarely survives more than five seconds. Hence the proverb, "Seven up, eight down, nine no life," meaning that a wild animal struck by a poisoned arrow can only run a maximum of seven steps uphill and eight steps downhill, dying on the ninth step. Humans and animals are instantly killed by a sharp weapon coated with the poison, hence the name "seeing blood seals the throat."
Hearing this, seeing that Young Master Yi was quite shocked, Yi Shangyun was also incredulous. Finally, she said slowly, "But the Empress was extremely clever. She added a very small amount of the poison, which was impossible for ordinary people to detect, to Father's medicine soup over a long period of time, allowing the poison to accumulate slowly. One day, Father died from the poison."
"Empress, why does she hate the King of Dongning so much? What is the reason for this?" Young Master Yi was extremely puzzled.
After a long silence, Yi Shangyun took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind, and said, word by word, "Because of me!"
Immediately, Young Master Yi looked into Yi Shangyun's eyes and exclaimed in surprise, "Because of you?"
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