Night has fallen.
Inside the Kunning Palace, the candlelight was bright, yet there was no sound.
Xiao Che had already left, and the palace servants were all waiting in the outer hall. Lin Wanwan dismissed everyone, citing "feeling unwell and needing to rest," and locked herself alone in the inner room of her bedchamber.
The moment the door was locked, she finally let out a long sigh of relief, her nerves, which had been tense all afternoon, were able to relax for a moment.
She strode to the dressing table and took out the silk handkerchief, which she had been clutching until it was burning hot and which had determined the fate of countless people, from her wide sleeves.
The handkerchief was half-dry, and the dark brown medicine residue on it stood out starkly.
She took a clean white porcelain plate and carefully used a silver hairpin to scrape off the dried medicine residue from the silk handkerchief, bit by bit.
The fine, dark brown powdery residue looked eerie and ominous against the backdrop of the white porcelain plate.
Is this... the "culprit" that is eroding Xiao Che's body day after day?
Lin Wanwan's heart jumped into her throat again.
She knew she didn't have a modern laboratory, sophisticated analytical instruments, or professional chemical reagents. All she could rely on were the most primitive methods, methods belonging to this era, and... her mind, which transcended centuries and came from the 21st century.
A simple, timeless "chemistry lesson" quietly unfolded in the quiet inner chambers of the palace.
The first step is to observe its color and smell its aroma.
Lin Wanwan brought the white porcelain plate close to the candlelight and carefully observed the powder in the bright light.
They looked much like ordinary Chinese medicine dregs, just remnants left after boiling plant roots, stems, and leaves. She could even distinguish some common medicinal fragments, such as those from angelica and astragalus.
Everything seemed so normal.
Lin Wanwan frowned slightly, then she bent down, brought her nose close to the white porcelain plate, and gently and carefully sniffed it.
A strong, unbearable bitter smell of Chinese medicine instantly filled her nostrils. She had smelled this on Xiao Che almost every day for the past month, and it was so familiar to her that she couldn't be more familiar with it.
However, beneath this strong bitter smell, Lin Wanwan's sense of smell, heightened by nervousness, detected a faint, peculiar odor that did not belong to any common medicinal herb.
It was a very faint, slightly astringent taste, similar to... bitter almond.
Bitter almonds?
Lin Wanwan's heart skipped a beat!
This smell, for a modern person, is almost an alarm etched into their DNA! It is often associated with some kind of highly toxic substance!
Her heart clenched instantly.
Could it really be a deadly poison? But if it were, how could Xiao Che have survived for so many years after drinking it?
She forced herself to calm down and proceeded to the second test.
She removed a plain silver hairpin from her hair. This was the oldest and most commonly used method of testing for poison in this era—using a silver needle to test for poison.
Holding the silver hairpin, she held her breath and carefully probed the tip of the hairpin into the small amount of medicinal powder, stirring it gently a few times.
Then, she held the silver hairpin up to the candlelight and examined it carefully.
The tip of the hairpin remained a smooth, silvery-white.
It did not turn black.
There wasn't even the slightest sign of it turning black.
Lin Wanwan's brows furrowed even more.
The fact that the silver needle did not turn black indicates that the dregs did not contain arsenic, poison, or other highly toxic substances that would cause instantaneous protein denaturation and be detected by silver.
That's strange.
If it's not a highly toxic poison, then how can we explain Xiao Che's symptoms of poisoning?
And where does that faint, lingering bitter almond flavor come from?
Lin Wanwan sat in front of the dressing table, lost in deep thought.
Her mind, like a high-speed supercomputer, frantically searched for all relevant knowledge within her.
It has a bitter almond flavor...it's not highly toxic...long-term use can lead to physical weakness and lethargy...
These keywords kept swirling, colliding, and combining in her mind...
Sudden!
A flash of inspiration, like a bolt of lightning, suddenly cleaved through the fog in her mind!
She remembered!
She recalled a legal science program she had watched in her previous life, which was about ancient palace secrets and mentioned an extremely rare plant that could be called a "perfect poison".
The forensic expert in the program described it like this—
"This plant itself is colorless and odorless, but when it is boiled with several other specific medicinal herbs and stored for a long time, a certain substance inside it slowly decomposes, releasing a toxin with an extremely faint bitter almond smell. This toxin will not kill immediately, nor can it be detected by the traditional silver needle poisoning method. It will gradually erode a person's central nervous system, causing them to become drowsy, weak, dizzy, and lethargic without them realizing it... The body's functions will slowly deteriorate, and eventually, like a lamp whose oil has been exhausted, it will go out silently. To outsiders, it will appear that the person 'died of illness' or 'died of weakness,' and no one will be able to find out the real cause of death."
At the time, Lin Wanwan only considered it a curious piece of knowledge and forgot about it after hearing it.
But now, every word the experts say on the show strikes her heart like a resounding bell!
Every single characteristic perfectly and seamlessly matches Xiao Che's symptoms and the bowl of dregs in front of him!
And the name of that plant, which had only appeared in legends on the show and resembled the Grim Reaper's scythe, clearly and deliberately surfaced in her mind—
Withered.
Heart.
Grass.
"Withered heart grass..."
Unconsciously, Lin Wanwan uttered the name in a whisper.
The moment those three words escaped her lips, a chilling sensation shot from her tailbone to the top of her head!
She felt ice cold all over her body and her hands and feet were numb.
If her guess is true...
So this was not a simple poisoning, but a meticulously planned, long-term murder that had lasted for who knows how many years!
The target of the murder was the current emperor!
The executor, however, took advantage of the entire Imperial Medical Academy and everyone's preconceived notion that the emperor was "naturally weak," disguising this deadly poison as a life-saving remedy and feeding it into his mouth day after day!
What a terrifying tactic! And what a vicious mind!
Looking at the tiny bit of medicine residue in the white porcelain plate, Lin Wanwan felt that it was not powder, but piles of man-eating, grinning demons.
She forced herself to calm down and continue thinking.
"Withered heart grass"...
According to the program, this poisonous substance is extremely rare, growing in the miasma-ridden forests of the far south, and is very difficult to harvest. More importantly, its toxicity, and the methods for combining it with other medicinal herbs to achieve a chronic poisoning effect, are closely guarded secrets.
Only the most skilled and pharmacist-savvy physicians, or rather... poison masters, know how to use it to kill people silently!
So, here's the question.
The imperial physicians who prescribed medicine for the emperor were the most skilled doctors in the entire Great Zhou Dynasty.
Who exactly were those white-haired, revered imperial physicians? How could they possess such skill and such audacity to commit such a treasonous act against the emperor?
Was it one of the greedy imperial physicians?
Or... has the entire Imperial Medical Academy been taken over by a mastermind behind the scenes?
Lin Wanwan dared not think any further.
With each deeper layer of thought she took, she felt she was one step closer to the horrifying truth, and one step closer to death.
She carefully wrapped the dregs of the medicine in an oiled paper and hid it at the bottom of her most private dressing case.
She knew that this small paper package was her only, and most dangerous, talisman.
She blew out the candle and lay down on the cold phoenix bed, but she couldn't fall asleep.
Outside the window, the moonlight was cool and clear.
But in her heart, a stormy sea was raging.
A massive, dark conspiracy, powerful enough to overthrow the entire dynasty, has quietly unfolded before her...
Just the tip of the iceberg.
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