The results of the palace examination transformed into a thin sheet of paper, presented to Meng Guangshen’s hands.

Meng Guanlou saw the grave expression on his father’s face. He stood up and snatched the paper to look at it. Meng Guangshen said, “Eight passed the retest. Of the eighteen candidates, only three were selected. The remaining five positions went to the six people Prince Yan brought.”

Who could have imagined that all their scheming had ended up making wedding clothes for others?

Meng Guanlou said urgently, “Father, your son toiled with painstaking effort in Songyang, not daring to slack off for a single day, expending countless energy to befriend these people. Our people must advance in the retest, otherwise the manpower and money spent will be like water spilled that cannot be recovered…”

Meng Guanlou’s words were stopped by Meng Guangshen’s palm. He suddenly remembered that his father most disliked seeing him display a flustered demeanor. Meng Guangshen’s icy, rough hand stroked his face once, his dark eyes calm as still water: “Father knows. I will resolve this.”

A trace of emotion showed on Meng Guanlou’s haggard handsome face: “Father, your son and Second Lady Cui are truly tormenting each other. Could we possibly…”

“The marriage agreement cannot be dissolved. The Cui family has already been raided and exterminated, leaving only Cui Ying. If you abandon her after leading her on, how will the sage view the Meng family?” Meng Guangshen said.

Meng Guanlou wanted to speak further, but a cold glint flashed in Meng Guangshen’s eyes: “Ninth son, you were born into silk garments and jade-fed luxury, which has made you unable to endure even the slightest setback. If I had your temperament, I would have died a hundred, a thousand times already.”

“You think I don’t know you’re still taking the powder? Stay home and don’t go out.” Meng Guangshen coldly walked out, leaving only Meng Guanlou’s disappointed expression behind. “Someone come, watch him carefully.”

Meng Guanlou stared fixedly at that list: “No, we must win… Call Yumei here.”

—

The patients at the healing workshop bustled about.

The place on Qun Qing’s neck where she’d been stung by the bee had swollen painfully. She had no experience treating bee stings, so she quickly got up to find Doctor Li to take a look.

Only someone who had died once knew how precious life was—she couldn’t take any risks.

She stood in the queue slowly moving forward. The person behind her seemed to shift position. Qun Qing suddenly smelled a few traces of yellow vanilla’s scent. Without needing to turn around, she could sense who was standing behind her.

She heard Juan Su’s voice: “Is this His Highness’s third dose of medicine today?”

Lu Huating made no sound, only lowering his eyes to look at Qun Qing. With his fan handle, he extremely lightly lifted the white gauze of her veiled hat. Her skin lacked color, which made the red swelling particularly obvious—it looked very painful.

His gaze paused for a moment before he let the white gauze fall back down.

Wasn’t she standing on the Crown Prince’s side? Why would she still help those six people?

“Did you see clearly?” Qun Qing said.

Lu Huating replied, “If the stinger isn’t removed, you’ll have fever for three days.”

These words were grating to hear. The medical hall was noisy, so Qun Qing didn’t turn around and didn’t speak.

Suddenly several dog barks rang out. The people in front rushed to move back, pressing the queue backward. Someone shouted, “A mad dog is biting people!”

Qun Qing broke free from the queue and stepped forward. The people around had already cleared a small area of space. She saw that the black dog with a lame leg that Doctor Li kept in the back courtyard had broken free from Xiao Song’s chain. Its eyes were bulging as it bared its teeth, biting and dragging backward on a woman’s skirt hem, terrifying the woman until her legs went soft.

Xiao Song had no way to intervene. Qun Qing took the chain from his hands, wound it around twice, and waited for an opportunity to loop it around the dog’s neck. Exerting force with her hands, she pulled the dog backward while saying, “Behave.”

Qun Qing’s hand strength was already quite substantial, but unexpectedly she felt an extremely powerful force break free and snap the chain.

Qun Qing looked at the broken chain in her hands, then at the fresh blood dripping from this black dog onto the ground, somewhat astonished. She had often fed this black dog when she was at the medical hall before. It was an elderly dog in its twilight years that even struggled to move—she didn’t know what had possessed it today.

She lunged forward to grab it under its ribs. The black dog twisted its head to bite her. Qun Qing saw a pair of reddened eyes.

Juan Su struck the dog’s neck with his sword sheath, knocking it unconscious. Only then did it go limp, but even in Qun Qing’s arms, it still stared with eyes slowly convulsing.

Qun Qing felt obligated to help Doctor Li maintain the medical hall’s order. She carried the black dog to the back courtyard and said to the patients, “Everything’s fine now, everyone continue with your consultations.”

Lu Huating indicated for Juan Su to remain in the queue while he also followed along.

Qun Qing saw a bowl of dark substance placed beside the dog’s den, with a faint familiar fragrance. She couldn’t help but ask Xiao Song, “What did you feed the dog?”

Xiao Song said, “I didn’t feed it. A few days ago it was only exhaling, not inhaling—looked like it was about to die. Master cut off a bit of the Jade Boiling Pill you brought.”

Qun Qing’s expression suddenly became focused.

Before long, Doctor Li rushed over. He felt the black dog’s pulse with his hand and sighed. Qun Qing said, “Master, you fed the dog Jade Boiling Pill?”

Doctor Li frowned and said, “These past few days I’ve been studying that box of Jade Boiling Pills you gave me. When humans use a small amount of this medicine, it can accelerate blood flow, invigorate yang and raise body temperature. Seeing the dog at death’s door, I thought to try it.”

Lu Huating asked, “Could this substance have the same origin as the talc powder banned in the previous dynasty?”

“Not the same origin.” Doctor Li said, “The main ingredient of Jade Boiling Pill should be tender leaves of meima from the Northern Rong highlands. The fragrant scent is also the smell of meima. Meima doesn’t grow in the Central Plains, so it’s extremely expensive—much rarer than Five Stone Powder.”

Qun Qing looked at the black dog’s eyes full of red blood vessels: “So because of overdose, it became this agitated?”

“When I was young, I knew a traveling physician from Northern Rong. He told me about meima.” Doctor Li frowned in thought. “Before fighting to the death, Northern Rong soldiers would harvest large amounts of meima, grind it into powder, make flatbread and eat it—then they could become a ferocious army. Thinking about it now, I’m afraid people would be like this dog—frenzied and bloodthirsty, deaf to reason, fearless of death or injury.”

Deaf to reason, fearless of death or injury…

Lu Huating caught a glimpse of the instant change in Qun Qing’s expression.

Images from that day at Pure Tranquility Temple flashed through Qun Qing’s mind.

Prince Yan bursting through the gate on horseback, the reddened eyes beneath his demon mask—no matter how she revealed Princess Bao’an’s identity, no matter how she begged for mercy, he had no reaction and still pierced her chest with a long sword.

Qun Qing had a strong feeling that on that day, that person had very likely taken meima.

Qun Qing raised her eyes: “Master, if someone has previously taken large amounts of meima, what method could I use to test for it?”

Doctor Li: “I’m not entirely clear on that either. Why don’t you take one Jade Boiling Pill with you, Liu Niang? If it’s someone’s first time taking it, they’ll probably experience some discomfort, but someone who’s used to taking it probably won’t react.”

Qun Qing nodded, said nothing more, collected her medicine from Doctor Li, and hurriedly departed.

The person behind quickly caught up. Lu Huating grabbed her wrist, his voice sounding behind her ear, carrying a warning note in his laughter: “You want to test Prince Yan? Jade Boiling Pill is toxic—this person advises the young lady not to test it randomly.”

Before she’d even spoken, he’d already guessed what she wanted to do.

Qun Qing abruptly turned her head. The two were too close—his crimson lips were right before her eyes. Qun Qing lowered her gaze to look at them, thinking of how Lu Huating detested being close to others, so she deliberately moved closer. He indeed retreated slightly.

Only then did Qun Qing feel more comfortable inside. She raised her lashes to look at him: “Try and see if you can stop me.”

She turned and left.

Lu Huating paused for a moment. Before him were the coming and going common people. The stagnant heat before his face finally dispersed.

Perhaps it was habit from constant conflict, but facing such provocation, he actually felt no hatred. Like having water splashed in his face—very sobering.

—

After the preliminary examination results came out, Qun Qing was summoned into the hall by Li Xuan.

She saw Li Xuan supporting his temple, as if he had a headache, so she went to add a spoonful of intoxicating layered incense to the censer. She paused, then casually placed a small piece of Jade Boiling Pill inside as well.

She wasn’t just testing Prince Yan—she was testing the Crown Prince too.

Smelling the fragrance, Li Xuan opened his eyes. His phoenix eyes coldly looked at Qun Qing: “What is your status? Have you forgotten?”

Meng Guangshen had already told him about the preliminary examination: “In the past, His Highness always protected Young Lady Qing. This time she deliberately favored those six candidates—no matter what, this cannot be justified.”

But Qun Qing’s eyes were very calm: “Which status is His Highness referring to? This subject’s status is examination supervisor—my duty is to maintain the palace examination’s order. If I’d allowed Prince Zhao to disrupt the palace examination, that would have been dereliction of duty.”

“As for this subject’s status as a palace woman of the Lateral Courts, I dare not forget it for a single day. Without His Highness’s promotion, where would I be today? Precisely because of this, I must think even more for His Highness’s sake: Those six candidates arrived in haste—Prince Yan surely hasn’t had time to cultivate relationships with them yet. His Highness is the Eastern Palace, while Prince Yan is merely a prince. If they’re truly talented and pass the examination, if His Highness seeks worthy men, they will naturally align themselves with His Highness just as this subject has. Why must we guard against them heavily during the examination and lose our gracious bearing?”

Her tone was neither servile nor arrogant. Halfway through her speech, Li Xuan began coughing, veins bulging at his temples, yet he only said “good” three times: “According to your words, is this palace being anxious and lacking confidence?”

Was this cough from anger, or a reaction to the Jade Boiling Pill?

Qun Qing couldn’t determine for certain. She pressed her lips together and said, “There is only one area where His Highness may lack confidence—that Prince Yan’s consort is already with child, while His Highness still has no heir…”

“Get out.” Li Xuan finally caught his breath, his face iron-blue as he pointed at the door.

Qun Qing walked out.

In the fragrant mist, her figure was solitary, upright and slender, suddenly reminding Li Xuan again of that figure on Paulownia Flower Terrace.

But Li Xuan felt that her temperament must be vastly different from Qun Qing’s—at least it shouldn’t be like this. Acting on her own initiative, disobedient—if considering it from the perspective of interest, he shouldn’t keep her.

“You’re only skilled in rear palace matters and have read a few books. Worldly affairs aren’t as simple as you think.” Li Xuan said. “I’ve already disciplined Second Son. Don’t try to be clever during the retest.”

Qun Qing acknowledged and walked out.

If only it were as simple as Li Xuan said. If Li Pan hadn’t provoked her, she wouldn’t have wanted to stir up trouble either. But Li Pan and the Meng family were both targeting her—she had no choice but to take precautions.

That evening, while Qun Qing was reviewing the agents Xu Lin had left behind, she received a wax pill.

It was written by someone codenamed “Kill.”

This “Kill” was an old palace servant who happened to work sweeping at the Hanlin Academy. Qun Qing had ordered her to stand by outside the Plum Blossom Envoy Pavilion, monitoring every movement of those candidates.

Now she had sent back information saying that at midnight, a young man had quietly entered and exited the candidates’ rooms. She’d eavesdropped at the wall—it was Meng Guanlou’s chief secretary, called Yumei.

Yumei had stayed for about one incense stick’s time and had already explained the retest examination questions in advance to the three selected candidates.

This Yumei was extremely alert. He’d delivered the answers orally and burned any written notes, leaving only a corner of a burnt fragment that could be recovered.

Qun Qing fingered this scrap of paper, dressed, and left her quarters.