Chapter 110 Qishan Fengchan 17 Death
There was an alchemy room in Sitian Pavilion. When Xun Shu was young, he would occasionally go there to watch his master make elixirs.
The alchemy room was large, but it didn't appear empty. The floor was filled with all sorts of medicinal herbs, fresh, dried, whole, ground up, mixed with various minerals and strange objects she couldn't identify.
Master's alchemy was aimless and methodless. He sifted through the scattered herbs, selecting the right ones before sifting them into the furnace, refining them under a high fire. This was simply a way for him to while away the long days in the mountains. Most of the elixirs he created were merely for physical health, fed to the few foxes and dogs who inhabited the mountain. Now that he thought about it, those foxes and dogs had sleek fur and were much stronger than their companions. It must have been thanks to the elixirs Master had prepared.
Looking back at the alchemy room in the Hall of Eternal Life, the floor was spotless, with no piles of herbs to be found. Even the interior of the alchemy furnace was sparkling clean. Yet, this room was filled with a foul odor, clearly having been used recently, and the smell had not yet dissipated.
"Someone has cleaned this place up." Yu Chang gave the answer first.
"It looks like someone's trying to hide something," Xun Shu whispered. She remembered what Wuweizi had said that morning: the Imperial Master had come to the alchemy room the previous afternoon, and then there were sounds of arguing. It must have been after that that the Imperial Master had his men completely clear out the room.
Xun Shu carefully closed the alchemy furnace and restored it to its original state, then walked to the treasure pavilion nearby and looked through the boxes on the shelf and the papers that had not been collected.
Most of the boxes were empty, with papers containing prescriptions for applied medicine. Some were marked as longevity and rejuvenation, while others were blank. Xun Shu couldn't discern the specific effects. Yu Chang lowered his voice and said, "The useful ones must have been taken away. The rest are probably just waste paper."
"Not necessarily." Xun Shu spread out several pieces of paper on the ground, took the fire starter from Yu Chang's hand, and moved closer to the papers. "These papers are all written with the recipes of elixirs, and there are traces of corrections on them. I guess that every time the elixir was refined, the formula was modified according to the efficacy, and some notes were written on the original formula." Xun Shu slowly moved the fire starter in her hand, and her fingers stroked the ink on it. "These ink marks are divided into new and old. These ink marks are slightly faded, and they must have been written a long time ago. I guess they were written when the national teacher came to the Zhai Palace to prepare for the Fengshan ceremony, or maybe they were brought from the capital." She pulled out two pieces of paper from them and rubbed the ink marks vigorously with her index finger. The ink marks spread out. "The ink on these two pieces of paper is very new, the color is bright, and it hasn't dried yet. They were just written in the past two or three days."
Yu Chang was about to say something when he heard a noise outside. He immediately grabbed the tinder, blew it out, put it away, and lowered his voice: "Someone is coming."
Xun Shu hurriedly folded up the few prescriptions he had picked out and put them in his arms, then gathered the rest and put them back on the shelf, tidying them up a little, trying his best to prevent the visitor from noticing anything unusual.
Yu Chang pointed to the window in the corner and took Xun Shu out through the window. Almost as soon as the two of them left and closed the window, they heard the sound of several people talking at the door.
"How did the door unlock?"
"Could it be that someone left the lock unlocked?"
"Bullshit! The Palace Master locked this lock himself. I watched him close it—oh no, the locked window has been opened too. Someone's been here."
"Should we tell the Palace Master..."
Xun Shu wasn't very skilled, so he was carried on Yu Chang's back. He leaped over the wall and gradually moved away from the alchemy room. The two men's voices were left behind, becoming increasingly faint until they were completely inaudible.
Yu Chang moved quickly, bringing Xun Shu back to the courtyard in just a moment. Xun Shu was still worried about what was happening in the alchemy room. "What if they tell the Imperial Master about this? Will they search the Zhai Palace?"
Yu Chang sneered and said disdainfully, "Even if we tell that demon Taoist, what's the use? Would he dare to tell Your Majesty about this? This recipe is clearly something that cannot be seen in public, otherwise why would they clean out the alchemy room so thoroughly? Besides, all we took were a few discarded pieces of paper. Searching the palace is no small matter. Without a strong enough reason, neither Your Majesty nor the Crown Prince will agree to it."
Yu Chang's words were so convincing that Xun Shu felt relieved. He stopped asking questions and unfolded the prescription in his arms again.
The prescription didn't have any efficacy listed, and Xun Shu knew nothing about elixirs. She handed the prescription back to Yu Chang, asking him to pass it on to his senior brothers and sisters, asking them to identify the formula. Yu Chang held the papers, a look of hesitation on his face. "Miss, I need to show the prescription to my husband first. After asking him, I can give it to Brother Liang."
Xun Shu's breathing stagnated, and he felt a little depressed, but then he felt that there was nothing wrong with what Yu Chang and Li Xuanhe did.
She went to the alchemy room today not only for the Imperial Master's secret, but also to help Li Xuanhe get to the bottom of the case. Now that she had found evidence related to the case in the alchemy room, it should be handed over to Li Xuanhe for processing. Why would she act on her own?
Xun Shu pursed his lips and said softly, "There's no need to send them out of the Zhai Palace. Just give these two pieces of paper to Lord Li and let him make the decision. The Dali Temple has many capable people, and he will find the right person to identify the prescription on this paper."
Yu Chang was stunned, realizing that he seemed to have done something bad with good intentions. He scratched his hair, not knowing what had gone wrong. He could only say, "I will listen to you, young lady."
-
There is only one day left until the Fengshan Ceremony.
Yesterday, Li Xuanhe and Chi Xiao hurriedly left the small courtyard and haven't returned since. Yu Chang showed Li Xuanhe the two prescriptions, but he didn't know what he said. Early this morning, Yu Chang left the Zhai Palace to look for Liang Qiu and his men. Upon returning, he handed the letter from Liang Qiu to Xun Shu, then shuffled back and forth, not leaving immediately.
Xun Shu paused as he opened the letter, wondering, "But what else is going on?"
Yu Chang recalled the night she went to see her husband and told him everything that had happened that day. He then scolded her harshly. She said aggrievedly, "Miss, yesterday's recipe was not my husband's idea. I made my own decision. He said, 'Your words are what he meant.' I shouldn't ask him about the recipe again. Please don't take your anger out on my husband because of this."
Xun Shu was stunned for a moment before he realized what he was talking about. He nodded and said, "I understand."
Yu Chang couldn't guess what the three words "I know" meant, and wanted to ask again, but when he saw Xun Shu had already opened the envelope and taken out the papers inside, he scratched his head, turned around and left the yard.
Liang Qiu's letter consisted of only a few lines, roughly implying that both pieces of paper were highly poisonous, and that the prescription had been changed to make the medicine more toxic and delay the onset of the disease, from immediate onset upon entering the throat to allowing the victim to survive for an extra stick of incense to half an hour.
Logically speaking, the faster the poison takes effect, the more likely it is that the person who consumes it will have no chance of survival, leaving the poisoned person with no time to consult a famous doctor, let alone the opportunity to induce vomiting and find an antidote.
Why did the Imperial Master try every possible means to delay the onset of the poison?
-
In the evening, Li Xuanhe finally returned to the small courtyard. His face was heavy and haggard, with furrows between his brows that hadn't faded for a long time. It was a look Xun Shu had never seen before. He saw Xun Shu waiting in the courtyard, rubbed his brows, and when he looked up again, his expression had softened considerably. He walked up to Xun Shu and said gently, "Yuchang's visit to me yesterday was not my intention. Ah Shu, whether you believe me or not, I completely believe in you."
Xun Shu didn't expect that his first sentence would be this.
She paused and said softly, "I understand. Let's put this matter aside for now. I know you're busy, but I want to tell you something more important first, something about the case."
Li Xuanhe couldn't finish the explanation he had prepared. He sighed, sat down on the stone steps in front of the house, and compromised as if resigned to his fate: "I've been running around for a long time today. Please sit here with me for a while."
Xun Shu shook her head. "I've rested for quite a while today. I'll just stand here and talk." She handed Liang Qiu's reply to Li Xuanhe. After he read it, she slowly said, "I believe the pill Prince Chen took wasn't the immortality pill hidden by the Imperial Master, but the highly poisonous pill in the furnace."
Li Xuanhe sorted out his thoughts before asking, "Why do you think so?"
Xun Shu counted on his fingers and started from the beginning.
"I've always wondered how Prince Chen knew there were two elixirs. This matter is top secret, and the only people who know are you, me, Wuweizi, the Crown Prince, and the Imperial Preceptor. The first four will definitely not tell anyone about this. As for the Imperial Preceptor, although I suspect he and Prince Chen are secretly colluding, the elixir that he didn't give away must have been kept by the Imperial Preceptor for himself, so he wouldn't have told Prince Chen about this. I'm afraid he didn't take it because he wanted to wait for Your Majesty to take it first to see how it works. Since these five people won't talk, how did Prince Chen know about this?"
"Later, I remembered what the Crown Prince said when we went to see him after the incident. He said that he and Prince Chen were with His Majesty that day, and later the Imperial Master came and presented the first elixir that had been swapped. He then said that there was only one elixir left, but he was working hard to refine a new one, and when it was ready, he would present it to the Crown Prince. He originally said this to please the Crown Prince, but unexpectedly, Prince Chen took it to heart. So from beginning to end, Prince Chen had no idea that there were two elixirs in the world. He only wanted the elixir that was being refined for the Crown Prince in the furnace.
"The Xingyue Palace is heavily guarded. No matter how skilled he is, he couldn't have entered the Imperial Master's residence and taken the elixir without alerting anyone. The alchemy room, on the other hand, is sparsely guarded. Yu Chang was able to enter and exit freely with a burden like me, let alone Prince Chen, who was acting alone."
Li Xuanhe's expression grew serious. "That does make sense. I was thinking that day, the Imperial Preceptor and His Majesty have long been at odds with each other. How could the Imperial Preceptor be so kind as to concoct an elixir of immortality for the Crown Prince? If what he said in front of the Emperor that day was merely an attempt to lower the Crown Prince's and His Majesty's guard, and he was actually concocting a poison to harm the Crown Prince, then that makes sense."
Xun Shu still had doubts: "But will the prince really take the medicine sent by the Imperial Master?"
"That's not important," Li Xuanhe patiently explained. "The Imperial Master gave the poison, and if the Crown Prince doesn't take it, he won't lose anything. But if he does take it, it will be a pleasant surprise. Some methods may seem clumsy and crude, but if they succeed, they can solve the problem once and for all."
Xun Shu sighed, "That's true. The physiognomy I can see, the Imperial Preceptor can see too. He must have known long ago that Your Majesty's life was coming to an end. If Your Majesty could achieve immortality, the Imperial Preceptor's position would be as secure as a rock, untouchable. But this elixir of immortality is, after all, a novelty that no one has ever tasted before. If it doesn't work, the Imperial Preceptor would have to make preparations in advance. After Your Majesty passes away, the Crown Prince will take the throne. The Crown Prince hates the Hall of Eternal Life so much, so the Imperial Preceptor and the Hall of Eternal Life will surely face a bad end. If I were the Imperial Preceptor, I would also find a way to get rid of the Crown Prince."
Li Xuanhe hesitated for a moment, then decided to tell Xun Shu the truth: "It's no longer necessary now."
"Um?"
"His Majesty has passed away."
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