The putrid stench of the Ministry of Justice's prison seemed to solidify, a mixture of mold and the sour odor of urine and feces, causing the moss growing from the cracks in the rocks to curl and wilt. Chen Weiwan clutched an otter-skin-trimmed Suzhou embroidered handkerchief to cover her mouth and nose. The tips of her three-layered brocade shoes carefully picked up a pool of greasy mud, their soles crunching over gravel. Countless withered hands, black mud embedded in their nails, jutted from behind the bars of the cells on either side. They clutched the bars, making loud clattering noises, and their hoarse howls, like broken gongs, mingled with the stench of urine, pierced into one's nose.
"Miss, this place smells worse than a pigsty." Chuntao tightened her grip on the gilded food box. Her skirt brushed the corner, startling two fat mice. She jumped half a step away, and the ceramic bowl inside the food box made a crisp clinking sound. "Are you really going to give this to Liu? When the kitchen was boiling coptis root yesterday, the smell made the cat in the next yard run three miles."
Chen Weiwan raised her eyebrows, the corners of her mouth under the handkerchief turned up into a cunning arc, and the red gold hairpin in her hair flickered with golden light as she moved: "Of course I have to give it. Aunt has become a 'fountain' in the Imperial Hospital. As a junior, how can I not give her a bowl of 'calming soup' to show my filial piety?" As she spoke, she caught a glimpse of a cockroach crawling across the straw pile. She picked it up lightly with her toes and crushed it into meat paste.
Liu's cell was at the end of the corridor. The iron lock on the door was rusty, and half a straw was stuffed in the keyhole. Looking through the iron bars, she saw a haggard woman curled up in the straw. Her coarse prison uniform was stained with dark brown stains. Her once sleek hair was now matted into felt, like a tattered felt hat. Hearing footsteps, she slowly raised her head. Her cloudy eyes were bloodshot. The moment she saw Shen Weiwan, resentment flashed in her eyes, like a dying wolf in the wilderness.
"Chen Weiwan...you little bitch, how dare you come here!" Liu's voice was hoarse and dry, like two pieces of sandpaper rubbing against each other. She supported herself on the ground and tried to stand up, but her weak body dragged her back to the straw pile with a muffled sound.
"Auntie," Chen Weiwan squatted in front of the prison door, using a silver hairpin to pick up half a moldy steamed bread in the corner. The mold stains glowed an eerie green in the dim light. "Yesterday, Doctor Wang specifically told you that you were poisoned by the 'croton foetida', which damaged your spleen and stomach. I specially asked the kitchen to make a bowl of 'Coptis chinensis tranquilizing soup' to help you calm down." As she finished speaking, Chuntao opened the food box. A strong bitter smell wafted from the black pottery bowl inside. The fumes made an old prisoner in the cell next door, who was missing half an ear, cough repeatedly and shout towards them: "Whose medicine is this? It's so bitter that I'm about to vomit bile!"
Liu suddenly lunged at the iron bars, her skinny fingers wedged against the cracks, her nails scraping against the rust with a harsh sound. "You tried to poison me! Back when your father died, you used this trick to trick me into drinking coptis root water, claiming it was 'mourning and calming tea'!"
"Oh, Auntie, you have a really good memory." Shen Weiwan blinked in feigned surprise, her coral pearl hairpin gleaming red on her temples. "But that bowl didn't have sugar in it back then, so today I specially asked Chuntao to add three spoonfuls of hundred-flower honey." She winked at Chuntao, who immediately understood. She scooped up a spoonful of soup with a small silver spoon and deliberately waved it in front of Liu: "Madam Liu, please smell it, it's so sweet!"
The strong aroma of coptis root, mixed with a faint hint of honey, penetrated Liu's nostrils through the iron bars. She took a sudden step back, knocking over a broken wooden barrel in the corner with her back. The foul water inside splashed all over her. The rancid liquid flowed down her prison uniform, leaving large dark stains on the straw. "I won't drink! Get out of here!" she screamed, her voice thick with tears.
"How can Auntie not drink?" The smile on Shen Weiwan's face suddenly disappeared, and her eyes were as cold as ice in December. "Have you forgotten the feat of flushing the toilet into a fountain when you were in the Imperial Hospital? Doctor Wang said that you have been 'overdosed with Croton' and need to use Coptis chinensis to relieve internal heat, otherwise..." She deliberately dragged out her words, observing Liu's pale face, "I'm afraid you'll have a conditioned reflex when you see a toilet in the future."
Before she finished speaking, she suddenly reached out and grabbed Liu's wrist, which was sticking out from the iron bars. Her wrist was so thin that only skin covered the bones, and Shen Weiwan's fingertips could almost touch her throbbing veins. Liu screamed and tried to pull back, but Shen Weiwan held her tighter, her knuckles turning white from the force.
"Let me go!" Liu struggled desperately, the sleeves of her prison uniform slipping off, revealing her bony forearms, covered in red bumps from the insect bites of the prison. Shen Weiwan remained unmoved and winked at Chuntao. Chuntao immediately stepped forward, prying open Liu's clenched teeth with a spoon. Shen Weiwan then lifted the ceramic bowl and poured the dark coptis chinensis soup down the corners of her mouth.
"Hmm... cough cough!" The coptis solution flowed down Liu's throat, choking her until tears streamed down her face. She coughed violently, her arms and legs kicking wildly in the straw, sending dust flying in the beam of light. The prisoners in the neighboring cell erupted in a commotion. A burly man with missing front teeth slammed the railing and shouted, "Look! Madam Liu from the General's Mansion is drinking coptis!" Another prisoner with a scar on his face laughed, "This tastes even more intoxicating than croton oil!"
"Chen Weiwan!" Liu finally broke free, wiping the coptis juice from the corner of her mouth. The yellow juice dripped down her chin onto the front of her prison uniform, creating an ugly stain. She raised her head, her eyes filled with devastating hatred, as if she wanted to devour Shen Weiwan alive. "Even if I turn into a ghost, I will never let you go!"
Shen Weiwan dusted her hands and stood up, carefully wiping the water stains on her fingertips with a handkerchief, as if she had touched something dirty: "Aunt, you should worry about yourself first. I heard that the newly transferred prison boss likes to feed Coptis chinensis to the 'croton fountain' the most. You -" She deliberately moved closer to the iron bars and lowered her voice, "there are plenty of blessings to enjoy."
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