Chapter 266 Seven Steps to Suicide
When Grand Tutor Yan saw Jiang Yu, he stood up and exchanged greetings with her. His face showed embarrassment; how could he not? His own family's sordid affairs had spilled over into someone else's household, and now someone had died.
"I've made a fool of myself in front of the Duke of Chu," Grand Tutor Yan said, forcing a smile.
Jiang Yu gave a casual reply, then sat down with Grand Tutor Yan. Grand Tutor Yan then said, "I've really caused trouble for the Duke of Chu. I'll take everyone away for questioning right away."
In other words, they want to resolve this matter behind closed doors.
“Grand Tutor Yan,” Jiang Yu said, “since this matter has occurred in my Duke of Chu’s mansion, let’s investigate it here to avoid any misunderstandings later.”
Since she had gotten involved in the Grand Tutor's family affairs, and since Yan Fengju had approached her, she wanted to do as much as possible for Yan Fengju. Jiang Yu knew very well that when wealthy families resolved matters behind closed doors, they would simply try to smooth things over, weighing their interests and ultimately causing the weaker party to suffer.
Although Yan Fengju demonstrated her talent, she was an illegitimate daughter, and her aunt did not seem to be favored. Under the weighing of interests in the Grand Tutor's mansion, she might have to swallow this humiliation.
Grand Tutor Yan hadn't expected Jiang Yu to continue meddling in his family affairs. Seeing Yan Fengju standing to the side, he understood. It seemed his granddaughter had truly caught the eye of the Duke of Chu. This was good news for him.
It's just that resolving the matter in front of both families would be even more humiliating for him. But what does face matter compared to the interests involved? Besides, he's already lost face, so what's a little more?
“Then we will continue to trouble the Duke of Chu,” Grand Tutor Yan said.
Jiang Yu nodded, then said to Yan Fengju, "Hurry up and take the exam, or it will be too late."
Yan Fengju stepped forward and bowed to Jiang Yu and Grand Tutor Yan before quickly leaving. Jiang Yu then instructed Xia He to accompany her to the government office. Grand Tutor Yan also instructed his eldest grandson, Yan Fenghua, to go along as well, to demonstrate the importance the Grand Tutor's mansion placed on Yan Fengju.
Originally, Yan Shuyang was supposed to accompany the student during the exam, but given what happened, they have to find someone else.
After Yan Fengju and the others left, Grand Tutor Yan continued the interrogation, and the results were the same as those obtained by Jiang Yu. At this time, Doctor Li finished examining the deceased maid Yuechan.
"What was the cause of death?" Jiang Yu asked.
Dr. Li frowned and pondered for a moment before saying, "The lividity is pale purple like clouds, distributed on the back and limbs; the cornea is partially obscured, and rigor mortis is beginning to appear on the jaw and neck; the tongue is crimson with no coating, and the pulse is weak and almost imperceptible. This matches the description of 'death due to exhaustion of qi and blood' in the 'Record of Redressing Wrongs,' so it seems to be neither poisoning nor external injury, but rather caused by a sudden onset of obstruction of the heart vessels."
Upon hearing his conclusion, Jiang Yu frowned, while Grand Tutor Yan's expression relaxed somewhat.
"Has Yuechan ever had any illnesses in the past?" Jiang Yu asked Yuegui, another maid of Yan Fengju.
After hearing this, Yuegui frowned and thought for a while, then shook her head and said, "No, Yuechan has always been in good health and has never even caught a cold in a year."
After listening to her words, Jiang Yu looked at Doctor Li. Doctor Li understood and carefully asked Yuegui a few questions, concluding that the possibility of Yuechan experiencing a sudden onset of cardiac arrest was very small. Then, a hint of hesitation appeared on Doctor Li's face.
Seeing this, Jiang Yu said, "Dr. Li, please speak your mind directly."
"Yes," Doctor Li frowned and thought for a while before saying, "I once saw a record in a classic book about a poison called Seven Steps to Death, whose symptoms are similar to sudden obstruction of the heart vessels."
"Does Dr. Li have a method to verify this?" Jiang Yu asked.
Doctor Li hesitated for a moment, then said, "I have never come into contact with this kind of poison before, and I have only seen it in ancient books. However, I happen to have that book with me. If the Duke of Chu can trust me, I will verify it according to the records in the book."
Jiang Yu turned to look at Grand Tutor Yan, only to see his brows furrow again, though he still nodded. Jiang Yu then instructed Doctor Li to check the records for verification.
With permission, Doctor Li opened his medicine box and took out a yellowed book. Jiang Yuming could clearly see the two large characters on the cover: "The Classic of Poisons."
Okay, this is also a classic text.
Doctor Li picked up the book on poisons, flipped through it quickly for a while, and finally stopped at one page. After carefully reading it, he looked up at Jiang Yu and said:
"This poison requires cold iron from the far north in the twelfth lunar month, which is soaked in peacock gall for seven days and seven nights. Then, it is placed in a furnace with strychnine frost and thunder vine juice, and calcined with the Three Yin Fire for three days and nights. Only when the blue smoke in the furnace condenses into frost can the Seven-Step Deadly Poison be obtained. This poison is activated upon contact, but because the required ingredients are hard to find and it is not easy to make, it has long been lost."
"How can we verify this?" Jiang Yu asked again.
Dr. Li said, “If you take the hair of the deceased and put it in wine, you will see flocculent precipitates that look like blood streaks. This is the poison. This poison contains Tripterygium wilfordii, which causes the hair to become brittle and dry. The poison of peacock bile also stimulates Strychnos nux-vomica. The two stimulate each other, which causes the heart vessels to become blocked like cold iron.”
Jiang Yu stood up. "Then let Doctor Li verify it."
It wasn't that she didn't want to listen to Dr. Li's rambling; it was just that she genuinely couldn't understand some of it.
"good."
Doctor Li picked up a pair of scissors, walked around the screen, and entered the gauze-draped wardrobe. Jiang Yu followed him in, and Grand Tutor Yan followed as well. He carefully examined Yuechan's hair and saw that the ends were indeed dry and yellow. His face became serious again.
Doctor Li cut off a lock of Yuechan's hair, and Jiang Yu asked Dongshuang to bring a bowl of water. Doctor Li put the hair lock into the bowl, and at first, the hair lock floated on the water without any change. But after a dozen breaths, the hair lock began to slowly sink, and at the same time, something visibly emanated from it.
About fifteen minutes later, Dr. Li scooped out the hair ends and saw some red, blood-like substances settling at the bottom of the bowl.
"It seems that he has been struck by the Seven Steps of Death." Doctor Li said with some doubt, "The Seven Steps of Death has been extinct for many years. I didn't expect it to reappear."
Grand Tutor Yan's expression grew even more grim, and Jiang Yu asked Doctor Li again, "How can we prevent ourselves from being poisoned by this?"
Dr. Li: "It's fine as long as there's no skin contact."
"Then I'd like to trouble Doctor Li to take a look at the contents of that box," Jiang Yu said, pointing to the box that Yan Fengju's two maids had brought from the Grand Tutor's residence.
Dr. Li nodded, then opened his medicine box, took out a pair of gloves, and put them on. He then walked to the box, opened it, and took out the items one by one, checking each one as he went.
Doctor Li was a master of detoxification whom the Duke of Chu's mansion had searched for a year to find, so he naturally had a great understanding of poisons. A little over a quarter of an hour later, he pointed to a sky-blue ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress) and said, "This has the Seven Steps to Despair on it."
Everyone's eyes were drawn to the dress, but no matter how they looked at it, they couldn't see anything unusual about it. At this moment, Yan Fengju's maid, Yuegui, said, "This dress doesn't seem to belong to the Third Miss."
P.S.: The "Seven Steps to Death" poison is a fictional creation of the author.
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