The snake corpses in the Eastern Palace hadn’t been cleared away yet, and everywhere hung a foul stench of blood.
As soon as Zhao Yan and his group arrived at the inner hall, they were stopped by the Eagle Guards stationed at the entrance. Zhu Qiyue asked, “Why has Lord Zhao come?”
Zhao Yan, along with Su Jin and Zuo Qian, bowed to him. “We humble servants heard that many snakes inexplicably appeared in the Eastern Palace. Considering that court has not yet reconvened, we feared the Twelfth Highness might be short-handed, and also worried these snakes might have disturbed the late Crown Prince and late Crown Princess. That’s why we rushed over to see if we could help investigate the matter.”
His words were proper, easily using the pretext of helping to cover over the crime of privately intruding into the inner palace.
In his heart, however, Zhu Qiyue thought: What is there to investigate? Even he knew this was done by his Seventh Imperial Brother—could Zhao Yan not guess?
The spring light was pale. After Su Jin followed Zhao Yan in paying respects, she looked toward the courtyard.
The courtyard was noisy and chaotic, with female family members who had come to mourn, palace eunuchs serving in the hall, physicians from the Imperial Medical Bureau, and Eagle Guards all gathered there. Su Jin searched through the crowd but couldn’t find him. Only when she withdrew her gaze did she see Zhu Nanxian leaning alone under the corridor.
He was looking toward her.
From such a distance, she shouldn’t have been able to see anything clearly, yet from that solitary figure she discerned a certain bleakness.
Su Jin’s heart ached somewhat, but she knew this sorrow shouldn’t be shown. She looked back toward Zhu Qiyue. “May I ask Your Highness, why did so many snakes appear in the Eastern Palace? Does Your Highness already have some clues?”
Zhu Qiyue nodded. “This prince has already caught the snake charmer outside the palace walls.” He didn’t mention the slave girl, because she belonged to Zhu Zhaowei’s household.
Zuo Qian asked, “Was anyone injured?”
Zhu Qiyue knew that although Zuo Qian asked this, the person he and Su Jin truly cared about was Zhu Nanxian, so he said, “Several people were injured, but fortunately the snakes were non-venomous. Thirteenth was also bitten by a snake. If you two are concerned, you may go see him.”
After Su Jin and Zuo Qian thanked Zhu Qiyue, they walked around the crowd toward Zhu Nanxian.
Drawing closer, Su Jin saw the plain headband tied around his forehead. In just a few short days, he had grown much thinner. His wrist wound was still seeping blood. His face showed pale, weary features, and his lips had not a trace of color.
Only then did she realize that he stood far from others, leaning against a pillar, not because he found the crowd too noisy, but because he had been too severely injured at Zhaojue Temple and couldn’t stand for long.
Su Jin’s heart ached terribly. Her full heart of concern was crushed by this sorrow, and when it reached her lips, it became just a soft phrase: “Your Highness.”
The corners of Zhu Nanxian’s mouth moved, as if he wanted to smile at her, to put her at ease. But thinking of his current predicament, he feared doing so would be detrimental to her. In the end, he pressed his lips together, swallowing all the sorrow and joy of this reunion into his heart. It seeped into his bones and blood, finally flowing from his dimmed eyes, transforming into a barely visible trace of long-absent starlight.
He shook his head and said, “I’m fine.”
But hearing this “I’m fine” only made Su Jin feel worse. Born in glory, fallen into dust; prosperity withered, life hanging by a thread—what kind of “fine” could be called “not fine”?
She began to hate her own powerlessness.
In her heart, it was as if a silent rain was falling, the rain threads like mist, stirring up plume after plume of gunpowder smoke on this battlefield without visible weapons, deep in her heart.
Su Jin clenched her fists, reminding herself that dwelling on things was useless. The urgent matter was to quickly investigate the truth of this case. Only by knowing what happened could she understand why it happened.
Before long, the Eagle Guards sprinkled realgar powder in the inner hall and invited the uninjured female family members into the hall pavilion.
After Su Jin called over several palace maids and eunuchs to question them, she spoke quietly with Zhao Yan for a few moments. Having obtained his approval, she bowed to Zhu Qiyue. “May I ask Your Highness, all those bitten by snakes just now—whether injured in the main hall or the inner hall—showed no abnormalities after using that powder, except for that white rat, correct?”
“Correct.”
Su Jin nodded, squatted down, and carefully examined the white rat on the ground. She saw its whole body had stiffened, the blood congealed at the wound was black, and beneath the white fur showed a dark purple hue.
She thought carefully, looked back at Zhu Nanxian, hesitated slightly, then looked at the physician beside him. “I must trouble Physician Jiang to draw some blood from His Highness.” Then she added pointedly, “The left wrist.”
Upon hearing this, the physician knew what Su Jin intended to do. He took a small dish for medicine from his medicine box. After Zhu Nanxian dripped blood into it, he sprinkled some of the powder for clearing snake venom into the dish.
The blood in the dish turned black and solidified upon contact with the powder, just like the white rat.
Seeing this scene, Su Jin bowed to Zhu Qiyue with hands clasped. “Twelfth Highness, this humble servant has an unreasonable request. I hope Your Highness will grant me one hour. Within this hour, I have a way to determine the truth of this case.”
Zhu Qiyue didn’t know what truth she was talking about. Could she possibly be trying to expose his Seventh Imperial Brother’s misdeeds?
As he hesitated, the Eagle Guard commander at his side said, “Lord Su is being unnecessarily troublesome. The truth of this case is obvious—the snake that bit the Thirteenth Highness was venomous, and the dead white rat was also bitten by the same snake.”
Su Jin shook her head. “No, if that snake was inherently venomous, why did the physician show no poison when examining the Thirteenth Highness’s wound earlier?” She continued, “Moreover, the Eastern Palace has strict security. The snake charmer outside the palace walls was driving snakes—how could he possibly have such extraordinary ability to use a single flute sound to drive only one venomous snake into the inner hall of the Eastern Palace to find the Thirteenth Highness? This simply isn’t feasible.”
Having said this, she bowed to Zhu Qiyue. “I wonder if Your Highness noticed just now—the blood Physician Jiang drew from the Thirteenth Highness came not from the right wrist where His Highness was bitten, but from the left wrist. This indicates that His Highness’s poisoning actually has nothing to do with the snakes. It should be that he ate something, used something, or came into contact with something that caused this powder, which should clear toxins, to be poisonous only to him.”
Hearing these words, Zhu Qiyue understood—some things in this world are originally harmless, but when mixed with other things, they become highly toxic substances.
Zhu Qiyue pointed at the guard on the ground who had prevented Zhu Nanxian from taking shelter in the hall. “Search his body for this prince again.”
However, another Eagle Guard said, “Your Highness, Luo Zi couldn’t possibly have poisoned anyone. These past few days he’s only been waiting outside the inner hall. Today, after the snakes appeared, he only entered the courtyard and died before getting near the Thirteenth Highness. Moreover, these past days the Eagle Guards have been mutually inspecting each other. Cao Si and I inspected Luo Zi. We guarantee with our lives that he had no foreign objects on him.”
This was a rule of the Twelve Guards: when performing guard duty, mutual inspections must be conducted three times daily. If someone is still found carrying private objects, they are severely punished, and those who conducted the inspection share the same guilt.
Zhu Qiyue ordered the other Eagle Guards, “Find everything Thirteenth used today for this prince.”
At this time, a woman in the courtyard with level brows and phoenix eyes said, “Twelfth Cousin, I know who poisoned him!” The speaker was none other than that imperious Princess Zhu Hele.
She raised her hand and pointed at Qiling. “It was her!”
Zhu Qiyue’s brows furrowed. Before he could stop her, Zhu Hele had already stated confidently, “Today at noon, after we all ate our vegetarian meal, we were resting in the main hall. Only Qiling asked the nanny for an extra portion and came to the inner hall. I wondered at the time what she was doing. Who knew she had ulterior motives! She must have poisoned the vegetarian food, which is why Thirteenth Cousin’s blood turned black when it met the powder!”
“That’s not right.” Another woman with brows like distant mountains said, “You also ate that vegetarian food. You were also injured. Why didn’t your blood turn toxic after using the powder?”
This woman was Shu Rongxin.
She spoke slowly. After finishing, she glanced at Su Jin and lowered her eyes, saying softly, “I hope Lord Su will investigate clearly.”
Zhu Hele said, “Need you even ask? The vegetarian food itself was not poisonous, but what Fourth Miss Qi did on the way there is unknown.”
Qiling couldn’t defend herself.
Today, having received Zhu Qiyue’s token, after coming to the inner hall, the Eagle Guards hadn’t searched her body either. And the vegetarian food she delivered, Zhu Nanxian had indeed eaten.
Thinking of this, overwhelmed with guilt, she didn’t know if she had truly been careless and allowed someone with ulterior motives to tamper with things. For a moment, she didn’t defend herself. Looking around, she picked up the half-remaining vegetarian food from the stone table and bowed to Su Jin. “Then please, Lord Su, have someone examine this vegetarian food, this bowl, and everything Qiling carried today.”
“No need.” Hearing her say this, Su Jin shook her head. “It wasn’t you.”
Zhu Hele sneered, “What, is the reputedly upright and incorruptible Censor Su also one who cherishes fragrant beauty and protects pretty women?”
Her words were crude and unbearable, causing Su Jin to slightly furrow her brows. But she paid her no more attention and instead said to Zhu Qiyue, “If the vegetarian food were poisoned, how would that explain the white rat also being poisoned? That white rat didn’t eat vegetarian food.”
As she spoke, she clasped her hands toward Zhu Qiyue. “Twelfth Highness, actually the answer is already obvious. I heard that on the night of the seventh, before the Thirteenth Highness returned to the Eastern Palace, the Twelfth Highness ordered the Eagle Guards and Jinwu Guards to inspect everything in the inner hall of the Eastern Palace together. So if there were poisonous substances, they must have been placed here after the eighth. Today is the tenth. Within these three days, what is present in this inner hall now as a matter of course that wasn’t here before?”
Having finished speaking, Su Jin’s gaze fell on an incense burner to one side of the courtyard.
After the Crown Prince and Crown Princess died, Zhu Nanxian was placed under house arrest in the inner hall and couldn’t attend the mourning. So Zhu Qiyue had this incense burner brought in for him to offer incense three times daily, kneeling before the burner to recite Buddhist prayers for his brother and sister-in-law.
Seeing this incense burner, Qiling also remembered. When she first arrived at the inner hall, she had felt the sandalwood scent here was thicker than in the main hall, heavy as if about to form mist. Now the fragrance was covered by the bloody stench of snake corpses, and she’d forgotten about it.
Zhu Qiyue immediately said to the Eagle Guards, “Inspect this incense burner thoroughly for this prince.”
Incense was burning in the burner, and the ash inside was still hot. The Eagle Guards used their sword hilts to search through the ash. In just moments, they indeed found a lump of black, paste-like substance.
Upon seeing this substance, Physician Jiang suddenly gasped, walked forward to hold it in his hand for a close look, then suddenly cried out and knelt on the ground. “Your—Your Twelfth Highness, Thirteenth Highness, this is Eternal Life Powder.”
Eternal Life Powder wasn’t originally called Eternal Life Powder. Its original name was Congealed Char.
During the previous dynasty, Emperor Daozong was obsessed with immortality arts. He summoned Taoist priests to the palace to refine elixirs, and later they produced a pill called the “Eternal Life Pill.” When first taken, it made people feel mentally pleased and radiant. But with prolonged use, it caused people to lose their spirit and will, dying suddenly. It was said that after death, their blood turned dark black and green, like ink.
And the most important ingredient in the “Eternal Life Pill”—or rather, the most important poison—was Congealed Char.
Physician Jiang said, “Although the poison of Congealed Char acts slowly, it acts viciously. The amount of Congealed Char in one ‘Eternal Life Pill’ is only like a tiny particle, and it lurks in the human body. Unless it encounters River Lamp Grass or Seven-Leaf Lotus, its effects usually don’t manifest until half a year later.”
As he spoke, he looked at the fist-sized piece of Congealed Char in his hand and shook his head, setting it aside. “This poisoner is vicious, actually obtaining such a large piece of ‘Eternal Life Powder’ and placing it in the incense ash to disperse throughout the hall and be inhaled. No wonder His Highness’s blood turned black upon meeting this humble servant’s powder—River Lamp Grass is precisely an excellent medicine for expelling snake venom.”
Su Jin asked, “Physician Jiang, please consider—for such a large piece of ‘Congealed Char,’ using only the method of burning and dispersal, how long would it take to settle in the human body and become a lethal poison?”
Physician Jiang hesitated. “It would ultimately require two or three days, wouldn’t it?”
The incense burner was brought into the inner hall on the eighth. Today was only the tenth. Two or three days—that would mean this piece of “Congealed Char” should have been placed here on the eighth itself? But on the eighth, the inner hall of the Eastern Palace was already under strict security.
Thinking of this, Su Jin immediately bowed to Zhu Qiyue. “Please, Your Highness, order the Eagle Guards to guard the inner hall and not let anyone leave.”
Zhu Qiyue said, “Why does Lord Su say this?”
Su Jin stood with hands clasped behind her back. “Because I already know where the true poisoner is.” Her gaze swept over the female family members and fell on the slightly closed hall door. “She is right here in this inner hall of the Eastern Palace.”