Chapter 19, Volume 12 of the Imperial Kitchen
On the emperor's table were dishes such as wine clams, braised deer tendons with scallions, water dragon chess pieces, camel hoof soup, and eight-treasure jade liquid soup. The portions of each dish and cup were originally quite large, but after Shinjuku's "careful selection", they looked rather pitiful.
However, the emperor seemed completely unconcerned. He put down his jade chopsticks, took a sip, and calmly finished eating.
The rest of the people sitting below, seeing that the emperor had started eating, also began to eat one after another.
The beautiful melody of "High Mountains and Flowing Water" flowed through the room once again.
Consort Yan, seated to the lower right, sampled a few items before taking a box of digestive pills from her personal maid.
"Your Highness, aren't you going to eat? You haven't eaten much today," the maid asked.
"I lose my appetite when I see dirty things."
"There was something dirty in the food?! What is the Imperial Kitchen doing? This servant will go and tell the head chef on Your Majesty's behalf!"
Consort Yan glared at her fiercely, and the maid trembled, instantly frozen in place, realizing she had misunderstood.
The two concubines next to her exchanged glances, then strolled over to Consort Yan and started chatting.
"Lately, things have been so tense that we can't even have a peaceful dinner. I wonder if His Majesty is suspicious of us; he won't even let us serve him at the meal."
"His Majesty has never liked being served, and he even dislikes having eunuchs following him. Over time, only the Imperial Concubine has been able to get close to him."
Consort Yan's expression relaxed considerably upon hearing this, and her charming eyes revealed a hint of smugness. Seeing that the two women were sweet-talking and sensible, she casually gave them some silver ornaments.
But before she could even feel happy for a moment, Consort Yan, wondering how His Majesty was eating and whether she should have a drink, looked up at the head of the table. But what she saw made her feel as if she were in an ice cellar, and she almost bit her teeth to pieces.
The emperor did not allow anyone to serve him. He personally picked up the wine pot, poured a cup of wine, and then pushed the cup to the upper right corner of the table, which was right next to the place where the young man was serving the meal.
"Do we need to taste this wine too?" Shinju asked, looking up at the Emperor.
Shinju had been wondering why he wasn't allowed to leave after tasting the food, though he hadn't brought it up himself. Now it seemed the Emperor was probably terrified by the successive poisonings, which was why he had become so cautious, even having someone taste the wine on his behalf.
King Zhen always felt that there was a hint of pity in Shinju's eyes for some reason.
Is it self-pity? Pity for not having the chance to taste fine wine.
Seeing the way the young man had devoured the food earlier, the King of Poison knew he was a glutton, so he decided to share a cup of Blue Bridge Romance with him.
The two were thinking completely different things, but that didn't stop them from continuing on their way.
The King of Poison didn't answer, but simply raised his chin, gesturing for him to drink.
Shinjuku then raised his cup and took a sip.
"How is it?" the Emperor asked.
"Non-toxic".
"..."
"..."
Shinju realized he had been too certain; how could one taste whether the wine was poisonous or not? So he quickly added, "It's delicious. I was just saying that the wine is delicious."
"Hmm." Whether the King of Zhen believed him or not, he took the wine cup back and simply said, "Drink less."
Mayuki replied, "Understood."
Afterwards, one drank alone, the other sat silently, and they never spoke again. But neither of them realized how shocking their brief exchange had been in the eyes of others.
The concubines sitting below were almost dumbfounded. After all, the emperor was known for not being close to men and women. The six palaces in the harem were practically no different from the cold palace. He usually treated his ministers or servants with an official demeanor, keeping them at arm's length.
They had never seen the emperor treat a servant in such a way, talking intimately as if they were old friends. And the servant also had an undeniable good looks, making it hard not to have any ideas.
"...What do you mean by 'serving a meal'? Is that a proper meal service?!" Consort Yan could no longer maintain her dignified demeanor, her face contorting for a moment. "Where did this vixen and harlot come from...? Go and investigate her immediately!"
Despite her anger, Consort Yan still cared about saving face, so she spoke very softly, only overheard by the eldest princess and the third prince sitting to the side. As a result, they both looked at their mother with great alarm.
Shortly after, the sound of the night watchman's drum came from inside the palace, signaling the end of the banquet.
Even after the banquet had completely ended, Lin Wu still couldn't understand why the reception had ended so abruptly.
The Emperor was the first to leave. Half an hour had passed since he ate the poisoned imperial meal, but to everyone's surprise, nothing happened!
Undeterred, Lin Wu sent his spies to the Imperial Hospital to inquire about the situation after the banquet. However, two more hours passed, and it was the middle of the night, yet he still hadn't heard of the Emperor summoning any imperial physicians.
“…How could this be?” Lin Wu’s smile vanished, his eyes glazed over, and he staggered as he walked from the cold courtyard back to the night tower that had been reserved for the Feng Kingdom’s envoys and the officials who had missed the key.
At that moment, a figure swept past him, nimbly leaping onto the roof of the tower.
As soon as the banquet ended, Shinju expanded his six senses and followed the arsenic powder he had left on the eunuch who delivered the Snow Cloud Soup. He then found the contact person and followed Lin Wu ever since.
After Lin Wu entered the room, Zhen Su sat cross-legged on the eaves. After a long while, he did not hear a sound and wondered if the other person was alone. It was not surprising that it was so quiet. He decided to take another look.
However, a short while later, a man sneaked into Lin Wu's bedroom, but this time he made no sound at all, which immediately put Masakatsu on high alert.
wrong.
Shinju immediately amplified his five senses to the maximum and released his inner energy to probe, discovering that there was an invisible barrier inside the room that completely isolated the two people inside from the outside world.
...It's the sound barrier. These two are clearly no ordinary people. The sound barrier is formed by the vibration of internal energy, allowing true energy to resonate with the sound, thus canceling out the transmission of sound. Only martial arts masters could use such a technique.
But running into him was their bad luck.
Before his demise, Zhen Su cultivated a rather unique path, an extension of internal energy and true essence. Compared to the traditional, elaborate immortal arts, it could be considered a return to simplicity. Therefore, basic martial arts in the mortal world were incredibly easy for Zhen Su. In terms of martial arts prowess, even grandmasters in the mortal world would address Zhen Su as their patriarch.
In the blink of an eye, Shinjuku submerged his five senses into the sound barrier and successfully heard the conversation between the two people inside the room.
"Don't be angry, don't be angry. It's okay if we failed this time. There will be other opportunities."
"Are you really not going to pursue this against me this time?"
"My dear wife is so angry, it's all that man surnamed Guan's fault. He's so incompetent. He's tried it on those livestock so many times, but he still can't get the dosage of poison and antidote right. I'll go and replace him later, so you won't be angry anymore. It breaks my heart, my darling."
Upon hearing this, Shinjuku revealed an expression of "I knew it."
The West Horse Farm, lacking officials and laxly managed, was ideal for secretly testing poisons, which perfectly matched Masakatsu's earlier suspicions. However, Masakatsu hadn't expected that these people would poison the food in the livestock area and then remove the poison from the food cook, so that the emperor would lower his guard and eat the poisoned imperial meal.
The incident involving the previous cook was likely caused by the cook's failure to properly control the dosage of the antidote. This oversight also meant that Masakatsu hadn't considered that such a method might be used.
At the same time, Masakuni also recognized the other man in the room besides Rin Go as being none other than the head of the Shangyi Bureau, Chao.
Upon reflection, it seems that when he went to the Bureau of Ceremonies to await assignment, Steward Chao probably recognized him, and his arrangement for him to go to the West Horse Ranch was likely deliberate. The extent of Steward Chao's hostility towards him also means that this Eunuch Lin is probably the person behind the scenes who instigated the wicked servants to make things difficult for him in the outer residence.
Meanwhile, their conversation continued.
"It's not Doctor Guan's problem, it's that Xiao Qingzi. He tastes almost half of a dish! He's such a glutton, and yet the Emperor hasn't said a word. It's very strange..."
"So it was that kid. Did he see through the disguise and poison in the food?"
"But he never anticipated that I would give him the antidote, which would truly kill him. Who would risk their life for that scoundrel emperor?"
"That's true."
"The Emperor wasn't poisoned, so the one who served the meal won't die from taking responsibility. I'm so angry! I should have known better than to serve that Snow Cloud Soup! I was just thinking that since he didn't taste it in the side hall, he wouldn't have taken the antidote. If he died at the table, the Emperor definitely wouldn't touch the food, and all our efforts would be wasted, resulting in the loss of a lot of manpower. Who knew that the Snow Cloud Soup would be removed! Such a good opportunity, yet nothing happened! Now that I think about it, even if we hadn't served the Snow Cloud Soup, the dog Emperor wouldn't have died, but at least we could have gotten rid of that eyesore."
"He's just a pretty face, but in terms of looks, he can't even compare to a hair on my wife's head."
"Ugh, I don't have a single hair on me."
"Really? Let me see, my wife, to make sure it's really not there?"
Then came the rustling of clothes, increasingly explicit voices, and wild, pleasurable cries...
Shinju's eyelids twitched, and he quickly withdrew his five senses. He silently wiped his face, then swung his palm out with his backhand. His inner force, like ripples spreading outwards, struck the two people from a distance, silently removing the sound barrier.
Unbearable intimate sounds instantly echoed throughout the night tower.
A note from the author:
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