Chapter 103 Qishan Fengchan 10 Medicine Bottle
Qi Zijin's thoughts went back to a day a few months ago.
That day, he and His Highness went to the palace for a retreat. After nightfall, as usual, His Highness stayed alone in the main hall, while he and several other guards took up residence in a small room across the courtyard. His Highness went to bed early that night, while he and the others gathered for a drink, which resulted in frequent nighttime awakenings. At the end of midnight, returning from the toilet, he suddenly heard an unusual noise, as if someone were scurrying along the eaves and walls, footsteps darting across tiles, the sound of sleeves rustling in the night breeze.
Judging from the sound, it was the noise coming from His Highness's bedroom.
He was about to call for help when, in a flash, an idea popped into his mind.
Could this person have been deliberately sought out by His Highness? His Highness had forbidden anyone else from his chambers or courtyards, perhaps specifically to meet this person? Could this person be a craftsman at the Sai Palace, so His Highness only experiences sleepwalking when he's in the palace?
The moonlight was bright that night, and everything was clearly visible in its detail. Qi Zijin, finding the courage from nowhere, tiptoed cautiously to the door between the cross courtyard and His Highness's courtyard, peering through the crack.
Under the moonlight, a figure in black nightgown, with their back to him, effortlessly pushed open the unlocked palace door and entered. Qi Zijin watched for a long time through the crack in the doorway, but the figure never reappeared, let alone a clear look at his face. The next day, he casually mentioned that he seemed to hear some noises the previous night and asked His Highness if he had heard anything. His Highness replied that he had heard nothing and slept well, so he must have misheard.
Hearing His Highness say this, Qi Zijin could only suppress his doubts, but at this moment they were churning again and flooding his heart.
He spoke carefully, and finally asked softly, "I heard that His Highness Prince Chen died. He was wearing all black, like nightgown, when he left... Is this true? So he wasn't waiting in the palace for someone to find him, but was actually out looking for someone else? What I saw that day was actually His Highness returning to the bedroom after an outing?" His face was full of self-blame. "If I had known His Highness would meet with an accident, I would never have left the bedroom last night. I would have stayed with His Highness and would not have given the thieves a chance... What should I do now..."
Li Xuanhe wasn't surprised that Qi Zijin knew some details about Prince Chen's death. No secrets exist within the walls, which is why His Majesty immediately sealed off the Zhai Palace. He didn't answer Qi Zijin's question, but pressed on, "Since you believe Prince Chen secretly met with someone in the Zhai Palace, do you have any suspects?"
Qi Zijin frowned slightly, then shook his head after a moment. "No. I've never seen Your Highness get along well with anyone in the Zhai Palace, but when he was in his fiefdom, Your Highness placed a few same-sex friends he got along well with in the palace, and often had candlelight nights with them, discussing knowledge. That's why I have this guess. If it were any other trivial matters, Your Highness would definitely leave them to us servants and would never go in person, except for that matter..." He scratched his head and continued, "But Your Highness seems to admire the State Master and praise the Changsheng Palace many times, both privately and publicly. Every time he comes to the Zhai Palace, if the State Master happens to be there, he will invite him for tea or wine. But how could such an immortal-like figure as the State Master meet with Your Highness in the middle of the night? It must not be the State Master, it must be someone else."
When Qi Zijin mentioned the Imperial Master, his face was filled with admiration, as if he were truly some remarkable figure. Xun Shu frowned as he heard this, and in his heart he remembered the jokes his senior brothers and sisters had said last night after drinking.
"Those who truly love all beings like the gentle breeze and bright moon, and who understand the mysteries of fate, will not wander through the twists and turns of the world, coveting the admiration of ordinary people and chasing empty fame."
He's just a rare liar in the world.
Li Xuanhe saw Xun Shu's pouting mouth and couldn't help but curl the corners of his lips. Meeting Qi Zijin's shocked gaze across from him, he cleared his throat as if to cover up and asked one last question: "Does His Highness Prince Chen have any enemies?"
Qi Zijin shook his head: "Your Highness is a royal noble, who would dare to make an enemy of him or bear a grudge against him?"
-
After noon, the coroner from Anle Town completed the examination of King Chen's body.
The mortuary was set up in a room in the courtyard where the body was found. Although it was shabby, it had doors and windows, so it could be used as a makeshift. Li Xuanhe led Xun Shu and others to the small courtyard they had visited in the morning and stopped at the gate.
The gate had long since rotted away, its once vibrant paint a shadow. Weeds grew behind the gate, and in the dim light of dawn, I couldn't see clearly. But now, in the sunlight, something was hidden in the grass. Xun Shu, with his sharp eyes, was the first to notice it. Bending down to pick it up, he discovered it was a rusty lock.
"This should be used to lock the gate of the courtyard." Xun Shu murmured.
Li Xuanhe took it in his hands and examined it carefully. It was a most ordinary lock. The keyhole on the side was blocked by rust, making it impossible to insert a key. The top bolt was broken, and only a thin ring of rust remained. It looked like someone had smashed it open with a blunt object, or maybe it didn't need to be smashed at all, just a little force could be applied to open it.
Li Xuanhe handed the door lock to the person beside him and asked, "Have you asked the people patrolling at night? Did they hear any noises?"
"Your Excellency, I've asked the night watchmen. Because this courtyard is uninhabited and the items stored there are old and dilapidated, they're worthless. Therefore, the patrol route doesn't include the area around it. The team only glances here when passing the Queen's chambers and the study on the south side, where His Majesty's documents are stored. They said they didn't see anyone passing through here last night, nor did they hear any strange noises."
Li Xuanhe didn't expect to really get anything out of him, so he just nodded slightly and stepped into the yard.
The weeds and bloodstains that had been blurry at dawn finally became clear. Xun Shu stood at the obviously crushed spot where King Chen's body had once lay, his eyes lowered as he stared, lost in thought.
The surrounding grass was indeed stained with blood, and the soil on the ground also had traces of blood...but wasn't the blood a little too little? The sword had penetrated the heart, not even the blade, leaving only the hilt outside the body. It should have penetrated the entire body, so how could there be only so little blood?
A tightly closed door in the corner opened, and two men emerged. The leader had graying hair, followed by a young man in his twenties, carrying a toolbox slung over his shoulder. They must have been the coroners hastily summoned from Anle Town. The imperial guards at the door said something to the two men, and then the old coroner and his apprentice approached Li Xuanhe and Xun Shu, stopping a few steps in front of them and politely bowing.
"Sir, the body hasn't been autopsied yet. We've only examined the surface of the body. Aside from a sword puncture in the chest, there are no other external injuries." The old coroner took the completed body form from his apprentice and handed it to Li Xuanhe. "This sword wound isn't fatal."
"Not a fatal injury?" Chi Xiao was surprised.
The old coroner nodded. "The deceased's lips were cyanotic, with remnants of vomit in his mouth, and his eyes were bloodshot. He died of poisoning. I tested the poison with a silver needle, and it turned black. However, the specific poison is still unknown. As for the sword wound, the bleeding was minimal and the wound was smooth, so it must have been inflicted after death."
"Posthumously caused?"
"Yes. Not only that, I noticed traces of wiping on the body's lips. The murderer must have carefully cleaned it in an attempt to conceal the true cause of death."
Li Xuanhe took the corpse and scanned it, finding no other questions. He nodded and said, "Thank you for your hard work."
After the coroner shared his findings, he was led by the imperial guards to another courtyard for a rest stop, barred from leaving the Zhai Palace. Li Xuanhe gazed at the tightly closed mortuary and instructed his attendants, "Although the weather is getting cooler, a body left here for too long will still start to stink. Send someone to inquire if there's any ice storage or a cool, cold cellar in the Zhai Palace where Prince Chen's body can be temporarily placed. If not, report this to the Crown Prince and ask him to dispatch a large group of troops from the palace to Anle Town to purchase ice."
After the man took his orders and left, the courtyard suddenly fell silent. It was then that Li Xuanhe realized Xun Shu wasn't with him. Panic seized him, and he glanced around until he spotted Xun Shu near a dead sapling in the corner. She was squatting beside the tree, digging at the dirt with a small wooden plank she'd found somewhere.
When she was in the coffin shop before, I didn’t see her having a hobby of playing with soil?
Curious, Li Xuanhe approached, only to find the ground beside the sapling bare of stone bricks and overgrown with weeds. But amidst the weeds, a palm-sized patch of bare ground appeared quite soft, its color different from the rest of the soil, as if someone had deliberately loosened and weeded it. Just as he was about to help, Xun Shu had already unearthed a small medicine bottle from the soft earth.
Xun Shu carefully brushed off the dirt on the medicine bottle and did not speak or move for a while.
This medicine bottle was the most common style on the market, grayish-white, with no patterns or reliefs on the surface. Xun Shu felt that if he went to the herbal medicine shop or clinic in Anle Town to buy pills, the bottles they would bring out would most likely look like this. But it was this ubiquitous bottle that gave Xun Shu a bad feeling.
She raised her eyes to look at Li Xuanhe beside her and said seriously, "I've seen this medicine bottle."
"Where?"
There were too many people around, and Xun Shu didn't want to expose her relationship with Wuweizi, so she leaned close to Li Xuanhe's ear, lowered her voice, and told him what happened that day.
Her voice was soft, barely a breath, brushing against Li Xuanhe's earlobe, instantly turning it red as a cooked crab. Li Xuanhe's heart was tormented, yet he could only endure the tingling sensation, waiting until she had finished before pulling away. He touched his burning earlobe, his expression remaining serious. "This medicine bottle is just a common one; it might not be the one you're looking for."
Xun Shu didn't notice his strangeness and nodded in agreement: "I think so too. I don't know where he is now. If I could meet him and ask him, maybe I could find out the truth."
The wax seal on the medicine bottle had long been broken. Xun Shu uncorked it and poured the medicine into his palm, but nothing came out. Xun Shu's eyes froze. "If this was really that bottle of medicine, there should have been two pills in it, but now there's not a single one left. Do you think this bottle of medicine is related to King Chen's death?"
"Nine out of ten," Li Xuanhe said. "This courtyard has been sealed off for years, and nothing has happened. Yet, last night, Prince Chen died here, and this medicine bottle was buried here too. How could such a coincidence happen?"
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