Five Elements/5
In the darkness, she seemed to see Li Si standing not far away, with a ferocious face and hatred in his eyes.
He asked Ye Xuanling, "Why did you come looking for me? If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be dead. Everyone in Anping County is dead, and you're the only one left alive. How can you still have the nerve to live on?! This is all your fault! You took my life!"
Ye Xuanling panicked, unable to utter a word. She was stunned by Li Si's words. She felt that he was right. If she hadn't gone to him to ask for the document and tell him that there was another reason for Anping's downfall, he wouldn't have died.
"Feel sorry."
But soon, as soon as she said this, she realized that she had indeed gone to look for him, and perhaps this had caused him to be murdered by the governor, but this did not affect her state of mind.
Even if everyone in Anping County died, it didn't mean she couldn't live on! She should live on. She would find out who was behind this and she wouldn't let them die with regrets.
She was alive and she had important things to do. She felt sorry for Li Si, but it was not her who killed him, but it was her.
In an instant, the contradictions in her heart surged up. She covered her face and dared not look at Li Si again.
When she opened her eyes again, the darkness in front of her had faded away, and a layer of dazzling white light enveloped Ye Xuanling. She closed her eyes again due to the stimulation.
The man's voice was rough, yet it seemed to have become ethereal and floating during a long journey. Ye Xuanling couldn't hear what he was saying, but she felt waves of pain in her solar plexus again.
She should have seen him.
The night is long and the dreams are numerous, the soul is confused.
Ye Xuanling propped herself up, moving very carefully, for fear of disturbing Sanqi who was standing next to her.
She hadn't slept well in the past few days and always woke up in the middle of the night. She breathed a sigh of relief because she didn't eat much and her body was weak and her head was dizzy.
Li Si's death has always lingered in her heart, and it was all because of her.
However, she seemed to have heard the voice in her dream a long time ago, but... she didn't know where she heard it, or what the person said.
She sat up straight, a little further away from Sanqi, and tucked the quilt in for her. The two candles were still flickering slowly, and she watched the drops of wax slide down. The sound of the cold wind whistled outside the window.
The wild geese fly high in the distance, but the people have not returned yet. The wind and moon are leisurely behind the curtain.
She suddenly remembered that the man had been standing on the street outside the window before she went to bed, looking into the room through this window.
What a strange person.
She thought she was familiar with this man and they could be considered friends, but to her, he had too many secrets and she couldn't see through him.
Forget it, Ye Xuanling sighed lightly and closed her eyes tightly. She couldn't sleep anyway, so she might as well get up and study the bag of herbs that Sanqi gave her.
She climbed down from the couch and tiptoed to the wooden table. She grabbed a few stalks from the sack. Four leaves of the shishi grass, with thick, bristly roots. She thought of getting some acid from the small kitchen, but it was too late and she didn't know if the door was closed.
She should keep these few remaining things, as they might be of great use in the future.
Turning her head, Sanqi was still sleeping on the couch, but Ye Xuanling didn't know if this would disturb her. The candle was still burning, and the light might be too bright for Sanqi.
She took the bundle and hung it on the wooden rack beside the couch, just enough to block out some of the light and shadow. But after thinking it over, she blew out the candle, took her things and went downstairs.
There was someone on duty at the inn late at night. After greeting and paying the bill, Ye Xuanling tinkered in the small kitchen. After all, the things in the small kitchen can be used in dishes. The strength of these acids and alkalis is not high, so it is unknown whether the poison will be useful.
She boiled down the medicine mixed with alkali and put it into a white porcelain medicine pot. If there was a mouse now, she really wanted to catch it and try it out.
Zhang's stomach was clearly filled with strong acid, but why was the bitter herb smell so faint in the corpse's belly? She was puzzled, and she still felt that her knowledge of medical skills and poison theory was too limited to answer her own questions at such a critical moment.
She put the medicine jar away and no longer felt sleepy. She wanted to go to West City and see if she could find out something there.
Thinking of this, Ye Xuanling had already left the inn.
It was a cold moon, at the hour of Chou, and the dark sky was covered with only a faint layer of starlight. It was so dim and gloomy that she could hardly tell where she was.
Late at night, there were no lights on the streets except in a few shops, inns and restaurants. Even though these shops would leave two lights on outside, Ye Xuanling still took a flashlight and headed west to the city.
She seemed to have not had a good sleep for several days. The cold wind blowing against her body made her feel extremely awake. West City was a little far away from here, but it wouldn't take too long to get there. West City was not as prosperous as the city, and the shadows of the trees added a touch of bleakness and desolation to the night.
"Doctor Ye?"
Hearing the sound, Ye Xuanling turned her head to look, and it was this person again.
Ji Yan leaned against the gray-brown tree trunk, with some surprise in her eyes, and just watched him walk towards her.
"What's wrong?" Ji Yan changed into a snow-blue brocade robe embroidered with mountain and river patterns. His face was calm and composed, his lips slightly raised, and his eyes stared straight at her. "Are you surprised?"
Ye Xuanling lowered her head and looked away from him: "No, I just didn't expect to meet you here, at this time."
"Why are you here? Aren't you sleepy?" Ye Xuanling asked.
"Rather than saying I'm not sleepy, it's more like I'm reluctant to sleep." Ji Yan replied, "What about you?"
"I can't sleep." Ye Xuanling said calmly. She glanced at Ji Yan, thoughtfully, "Master Ji seems to have something important to do, otherwise why would he appear here for no reason?"
"I don't care about the Five Elements Case." Ji Yan seemed to be mocking her, but the tone of the person next to her was brisk, with a hint of amusement, "Could it be that you are more interested in my secret?"
He always liked to do this, get close to her, when he said certain things.
She turned her head, her gaze not avoiding at all, and it seemed that the next moment, both of their eyelashes trembled at the same time.
It was so close that Ye Xuanling could clearly see her face reflected in his gray eyes.
But she didn't look panicked, instead she moved closer to Ji Yan: "Ji Yan, I'm just more interested in you."
A slight surprise flashed in his eyes, and he was stunned. Then his eyebrows curved, and lightness and joy appeared on his face again: "Okay, I won't tease you anymore." He put some distance between them, put his arms behind his head, and strode forward.
"I know where you're going. I'm naturally the same as you." Ji Yan said, gradually slowing down his pace, as if waiting for her, "I've been waiting for you."
Always, waiting for her.
Ye Xuanling nodded without saying anything more, but the distance between them was closer than before, but not close enough to travel.
"Ji Yan? Why are you reluctant to sleep?" Ye Xuanling did not test the issue, but asked it clearly. She actually had a very timid guess in her mind.
He knew that he didn't have much time left, so he was reluctant to sleep.
This person is very careful about his life.
Ye Xuanling glanced at him secretly, then cast her gaze on the blue panel. Why could she only see his clearly? Could this thing be related to the person next to her?
She looked away, and suddenly, the panel disappeared.
"We went to Xicheng because of the bitter grass smell that Sanqi mentioned. This thing tastes very bitter when it comes into contact with sourness, but it is obvious that there was strong acid in Zhang's stomach. However, the bitter grass smell was very light during the autopsy. It must have been neutralized by something." Ye Xuanling said as she took out two porcelain white medicine bottles from her bag.
"Here, smell it." Ye Xuanling handed him the medicine jar. "Do you think the smell is light?"
Ji Yan shook his head: "I think you added acid to this bottle, so I can smell a hint of bitter grass, but the other bottle only has an alkaline taste."
Ye Xuanling seemed to have thought of something and took out a cloth bag: "Then smell this, can't you smell it?"
Ji Yan didn't take it, but leaned in to sniff it, then shook his head.
To Ye Xuanling, this action looked like a puppy with sparkling eyes. She remembered that there seemed to be such a white puppy in Uncle Wang's house next to the clinic.
But she soon realized how could she compare a human with a dog. Ji Yan was a living person, not someone's dog.
"You really can't smell it?" Ye Xuanling asked seriously, "But Sanqi and I can smell it."
"Is there something wrong with you?" Ye Xuanling pointed at her nose, indicating his. She felt that she hadn't done anything offensive, after all, she hadn't pointed at his head.
"Doctor Ye, I think I'm a normal person."
Ye Xuanling forced a smile. Perhaps her time was running out, her senses were failing? She would have to find someone else to smell it.
The two of them walked all the way to West City. At this hour, few people had not rested yet, but that didn't mean there were no people.
The people in the breakfast shop always have to get up very early. After asking around, the two of them found out that the people here were indeed just as Sanqi said, with every household picking the grass.
The two of them found out the specific effects of Shisi grass, where it grew, and whether anyone in Xicheng had purchased a large amount of this herb recently.
At first, the boss was unwilling to pay attention to them, so Ye Xuanling had to take out some change and put it aside.
The boss then replied with a smile: "There are a lot of this grass growing in Linxi. This herb is very good and can cure all kinds of diseases!"
"Cure all diseases, but for them it can only temporarily relieve pain, right? Shisi grass, isn't it just fighting poison with poison? Taking a large amount of this thing for a long time will cause illness.
Ye Xuanling: "Boss, which way should we go in Linxi?"
The breakfast shop owner patted the dust on his hands, circled the silver on the table in his direction, and then pointed in the direction of the rising sun: "Just keep going that way. You will see a dilapidated temple. It's about two or three hundred square meters of flat land on the right."
The moonlight is bleak and the east is about to get bright.
The two looked at each other, thanked each other, and didn't leave in a hurry.
"Do you still want to go check on that actor?" Ji Yan asked. "I had people watching him last night, but he didn't make any big moves."
"Sanqi once saw several corpses with Nuo masks carved on them near a dilapidated temple. I'm wondering if she's ever been to Linxi." Ye Xuanling shook her head. "First, have your people keep an eye on the actor so he doesn't reveal his true identity. I'll go get Sanqi."
"The three of us will go to Linxi together." Ye Xuanling suddenly thought of something and twitched the corner of her mouth. "Oh, right, we need to ask the squad leader to come along."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
