“Have you heard? Several maids were beaten to death today at Changchun Palace.”

“What? What happened?”

“They say they were bribed to harm the Dragon Seed in Consort Zhen’s womb… Now everyone in Changchun Palace is kneeling, and the Academy Director rushed to the palace to help preserve Consort Zhen’s pregnancy…”

In the front hall of the Medical Academy, two physicians were huddled together with bowls in hand, talking. Lu Tong walked past them, and seeing someone approach, they lowered their heads to eat, falling silent.

Besides their duties at the Medical Academy, the physicians spent most of their time attending to various noble families and knew quite a few secrets of the great houses.

Consort Zhen had been greatly favored recently. The current Emperor was advanced in years and had four princes in total. Apart from the Crown Prince, the Third Prince was most beloved. If the Dragon Seed in Consort Zhen’s womb was male, the future political situation remained uncertain.

Changes always occur in an instant.

Lu Tong walked around the tables and chairs, went to the kitchen to get some leftover steamed buns, wrapped them up, left the dining hall, and walked toward the medicine room along the back corridor.

This row of medicine rooms usually stood empty, but since Lu Tong had come to the Medical Academy, they had rarely been put to use.

Lu Tong walked along the corridor, all the way to the second-to-last room, and pushed open the door to enter.

Inside the room, a medicine stove sat on the floor, bubbling and releasing steam. Lin Danqing sat before it, her eyes narrowed from the fumes, with medical texts and pharmacopeias scattered all over the floor.

In the gaps beside the medicine stove were stuffed several green-shelled eggs, their shells slightly blackened from the heat, squeezed under the medicine pot like a string of river stones piled beneath the vessel.

Lu Tong handed her the wrapped buns, and Lin Danqing smiled: “Thanks for especially bringing me food.”

“They’re just cold buns,” Lu Tong sat down beside her, “Why not eat in the dining hall?”

Chang Jin didn’t allow eating outside the dining hall, so Lu Tong could only bring her a few buns.

“I’m in the middle of making medicine,” Lin Danqing casually took a bun and bit off half of it in one go, nearly choking herself. After drinking some water to wash it down, she said: “You know how it is – as doctors, we certainly can’t leave a pot of medicine that’s being decocted.”

Lu Tong remained silent.

Lin Danqing had little to do these past few days, with fewer assignments from the Medical Academy. With plenty of free time, she seemed to have developed an interest and occupied the room next to Lu Tong to try making new medicines.

The previously empty medicine rooms were now occupied by the two of them – Lu Tong in the last room, Lin Danqing in the second to last. Like a competition, each stayed up later than the other at night.

Lu Tong looked down and gathered up the scattered medical texts on the floor. Seeing that Lin Danqing’s copy of “Ming Yi Medical Classic” was opened to the “Various Poisons” section, she was slightly startled.

She seemed to have seen Lin Danqing reading this section late at night before as well.

Lu Tong looked at the medicine pot in front of Lin Danqing.

The decoction in the pot was boiling with white foam, making it impossible to see the medicinal ingredients clearly, but there was a faintly familiar bitter fragrance that seemed to be from antidote ingredients.

After a moment’s silence, Lu Tong asked: “Are you making an antidote?”

“You’re amazing,” Lin Danqing said with half a bun in her mouth, staring at her, “I used precious ingredients and specially reduced some of their potency – you could tell just by smelling?”

Lu Tong pointed at the “Ming Yi Medical Classic” on the floor: “Isn’t it opened to that page?”

Lin Danqing: “…”

After a moment of silence, she said: “So you just guessed.”

She closed the “Ming Yi Medical Classic” in front of her and put it aside, looking somewhat dejected: “I originally thought the Medical Academy’s library was extensive. Chief Physician Chang said the ‘Ming Yi Medical Classic’ has the most complete record of poisons in the current Liang Dynasty, with over five hundred types. But I’ve read this book several times now and found it’s nothing special. There are many poisons not recorded here at all, showing that the path of medical science is indeed long and arduous.”

She seemed very disappointed.

Lu Tong thought for a moment, then asked: “The poison you’re looking for isn’t in there? What poison are you trying to counter?”

Lin Danqing’s gaze flickered.

After a while, she sighed, using silver chopsticks to move the green-shelled eggs away from the medicine stove, poking at the eggshells with the chopsticks.

“Do you know about the poisons from the Southern Borderlands?”

Lu Tong: “I’ve heard of them.”

The Southern Borderlands were remote, naturally abundant with poisonous snakes, insects, and ants, with strange flowers and herbs everywhere. The poisons there were fierce, and being far from the Central Plains, the Liang Dynasty’s medical books could only record a tiny fraction of them.

Lin Danqing rolled a roasted egg on the ground, testing it with her hand until it wasn’t so hot, then cracked it on the ground, scattering green shells everywhere. She quickly peeled off the shell, revealing the tender white egg inside.

These were free-range chicken eggs personally selected by Du Changqing, small in size but said to be better than those sold in the official alley stalls.

“Eggs taste better roasted than boiled,” Lin Danqing offered her one, “Want one?”

Lu Tong shook her head, so she took a bite herself, her eyes brightening: “So fragrant!”

Lu Tong quietly waited for her.

After taking a bite of the roasted egg, Lin Danqing said: “I’m looking for an antidote to something called ‘Arrow-to-Eye.'”

“Arrow-to-Eye?”

Lin Danqing sighed.

She said: “You know, the poisons from the Southern Borderlands are fierce. I’ve never been there, and I don’t even know what this ‘Arrow-to-Eye’ poison grass looks like. Chief Physician Chang says the Medical Academy’s library is the most complete, but I couldn’t find any record of ‘Arrow-to-Eye.’ I asked the Academy Director and Chief Physician, but they’d never heard of this poison grass either.”

The girl gave a bitter smile: “I’m starting to wonder if ‘Arrow-to-Eye’ is just made up, just a fabricated name.”

She was usually carefree and easygoing, but now she seemed somewhat melancholic, sitting on the ground eating the egg bit by bit, showing a trace of bitterness.

Lu Tong thought for a moment, then said: “Arrow-to-Eye – is that the poisoned grass that gradually blurs one’s vision until blindness?”

“Cough cough cough—”

Lin Danqing began coughing violently.

“You you you… cough cough—”

Lu Tong handed her the water flask, and Lin Danqing gulped down half of it, looking at her in shock: “How do you know!”

The Southern Borderlands’ poisons were rarely encountered by Central Plains people, just as she had searched everywhere for records of this grass but found nothing over the years. Not only the Medical Academy, but even the old, well-respected doctors in the capital’s medical community had never heard of this poison. Lin Danqing herself had almost given up, but unexpectedly, Lu Tong had described it perfectly.

“How do you, how do you know about this poison?!”

In her excitement, she crushed the half-eaten egg she had been holding, getting egg yolk all over her hand.

Lu Tong handed her the damp cloth from the medicine pot handle.

“I once saw it recorded in my master’s notes.”

All of Yun Niang’s medical books were piled up at Luomei Peak – to be precise, there were few medical books but many poison manuals. Sometimes Lu Tong didn’t know where Yun Niang had collected all these strange poisons from, ranging from the Central Plains to foreign tribes, from mountains to seas. Some were natural poison grasses growing in places rarely visited by humans, others were new poisons she had created herself, even more potent and vicious.

Lu Tong had read them all.

During those days on the mountain, she only regretted not reading more.

Lin Danqing grabbed Lu Tong’s hand, her eyes sparkling: “Sister Lu, where is your master? Could you take me to meet her…”

“My master has passed away.”

“Then what about the notes? Could I borrow them for a look?”

Lu Tong lowered her eyes: “The notes were burned along with my master at burial.”

Lin Danqing froze, showing disappointment.

But she quickly rallied and asked Lu Tong: “Sister Lu, since you’ve read your master’s notes, what did they say about ‘Arrow-to-Eye’? What does it look like? Is there an antidote?”

Lu Tong shook her head: “No.”

Yun Niang liked collecting worldly poisons but didn’t care for antidotes. Many of those poison manuals contained incurable poisons. If a poison could be easily countered, it wasn’t worth Yun Niang recording in her notes.

“Arrow-to-Eye” only had its name and effects recorded, with no mention of an antidote.

“The notes said that if someone ingests the ‘Arrow-to-Eye’ poison, their vision gradually blurs, with pain like arrows piercing the eyes. In as short as three to five years, or at most twenty years, they become blind.”

Lin Danqing froze, murmuring: “Yes, pain like arrows piercing the eyes…”

After a long silence, she gave a bitter laugh: “It seems the records about ‘Arrow-to-Eye’ are still too scarce.”

She listlessly picked up an egg and tapped it on the ground absent-mindedly, seeming very frustrated.

Lu Tong’s gaze swept across the medicine pot in the room, and she suddenly spoke: “What you’re making now, is it the antidote for ‘Arrow-to-Eye’?”

Lin Danqing nodded, then shook her head.

“I’ve used many antidote ingredients, but the medicine I’ve made has very ordinary effects, no different from common antidotes.”

“Why not try fighting poison with poison?” Lu Tong suggested.

Lin Danqing looked at her in surprise, then firmly rejected the idea: “When I first entered the Imperial Medical Bureau, the teacher said that in prescriptions, it’s better to be mild than heavy, better to be benign than toxic, better to be small than large. ‘Arrow-to-Eye’ is already a deadly poison – using poison to counter poison, the patient wouldn’t be able to withstand it.”

The Medical Academy physicians always used gentle medicines, fearing accidents. Lu Tong usually appeared gentle and delicate, yet she immediately suggested such an aggressive treatment method, which startled even Lin Danqing.

“Medicines have seven emotions – those that oppose and neutralize each other when used together represent the king’s way of using medicine. The Imperial Medical Bureau only teaches students about medicines that complement and assist each other. Though safe, it leaves too few options. Better to forge a different path.” Lu Tong spoke calmly, unconcerned: “Some poisons, when viewed alone, only cause poisoning, but when combined with other auxiliary medicines that neutralize their toxicity, can be used as medicine. Some medicines appear unremarkable alone and are beneficial, but when stored in special vessels or combined with other substances, these beneficial medicines can become dangerous…”

At this point, Lu Tong suddenly stopped speaking, her expression becoming somewhat dazed as if she had realized something.

Lin Danqing didn’t notice her change in demeanor and seemed influenced by her words, lowering her head in quiet contemplation without speaking.

After a moment, Lu Tong stood up: “I’ve delivered the buns. If there’s nothing else, I’ll head out first.”

Lin Danqing came to her senses and looked up at her: “Aren’t you making medicine?”

Today wasn’t Jin Xianrong’s treatment day. Usually, when there was nothing to do, Lu Tong would stay in the medicine room, reading medical texts and making new medicines—Jin Xianrong’s poultice had already been changed several times.

“Not today.”

After a pause, Lu Tong said: “I’m going to the Commander’s mansion. Today I need to treat the guards.”

…

The Imperial Army Commander’s mansion was very lively today.

When the young guards heard Lu Tong’s name, they emerged from various places. Some who had been training in the martial arts field didn’t even bother changing their sweat-soaked clothes, darting like arrows into the main hall, rolling up their sleeves to deliberately show off their strong arms: “Doctor Lu is here!”

The five hundred “ducks” of the Commander’s mansion started clamoring again.

Chi Jian stood to one side, watching coldly.

He couldn’t understand why Lu Tong had won such favor among the mansion’s guards. The other young ladies who had visited the Commander’s mansion were warm and generous, gentle and charming, while Lu Tong was always ice-cold, yet somehow won the most hearts in the mansion with that cold face.

And then there was his own master…

According to Qing Feng, Pei Yunying had pushed aside mountains of official documents to especially spend a day accompanying Lu Tong to visit tea gardens outside the city, resulting in him working until midnight processing documents that night.

Chi Jian glanced at the female physician surrounded by the crowd, puzzled in his heart.

Could it be that Lu Tong had used some kind of love curse on his colleagues?

He’d heard that women from the Southern Borderlands were skilled with love curses, secretly casting them on handsome men from the Central Plains to steal both body and heart. If the men didn’t comply, they would suffer a fate worse than death, tormented daily.

Love curses were truly frightening.

He shuddered and hurried away.

Lu Tong was unaware of Chi Jian’s inner complaints, remaining silent amid the crowd.

Going to the Commander’s mansion for treatment was just an excuse, but who knew there would be so many guards seeking her care? Each of these tall, vigorous men pointed to scratches no bigger than a fingernail on their arms, asking for treatment in particularly pitiful tones.

She was also puzzled.

Everyone said the Imperial Army Commander’s mansion selected guards based on appearance and physique, but could it be that they only looked at appearance and physique? With such delicate constitutions, was the capital’s security truly guaranteed?

If the guards at the Grand Tutor’s mansion were all this delicate, perhaps she wouldn’t even need to use poison – she could massacre the Grand Tutor’s mansion by herself.

Thinking this, her movements became much quicker.

Only when the sun began to set did Pei Yunying come to drive people away, and the group of guards finally dispersed reluctantly.

Pei Yunying stood at the doorway, smiling at Lu Tong. She stood up, packed her medical box, and followed him inside.

It was still that room where he handled official documents. On the purple sandalwood wave-patterned lacquered desk by the window, official documents were piled thick. The purple brush hanging on the official kiln brush holder was still wet, next to an ink stone, as if the occupant had just been writing furiously.

He looked very busy.

The young man pointed to a rosewood chair, and Lu Tong sat down.

Pei Yunying also sat down opposite her.

He smiled and asked: “What brings you here suddenly?”

Today wasn’t a treatment day.

Lu Tong took out a letter from her sleeve and pushed it across.

Pei Yunying glanced at it.

The familiar envelope was the one he had given Lu Tong before parting after visiting the tea garden that day.

That letter contains the “prescription.”

He reached out and took the letter but didn’t hurry to open it, only raising his eyebrows to look at Lu Tong: “Has Doctor Lu reviewed it?”

“Yes.”

“Any problems?”

“Yes.”

The room fell silent for a moment.

He lowered his eyes and thought for a while. When he raised his head again, he was still smiling, but his gaze suddenly turned cold as he asked: “What’s the problem?”

Lu Tong spoke calmly: “They’re all tonics. The prescriptions are very intricate – at first glance, they nourish the body, but when mixed with one particular substance, the tonic becomes poison. Though not immediately fatal, over time the body gradually weakens until death from heart failure.”

Pei Yunying stared at her: “What substance?”

“Gold.”

He was startled: “Gold?”

“Gold powder is toxic and can treat conditions like epilepsy and mental disorders, calm the heart, and settle the soul. Generally, for symptoms like upward-rushing qi and coughing, cold damage with lung injury and blood vomiting, lung diseases, or extreme fatigue with thirst, small amounts can be added to pills and powders.”

After a pause, Lu Tong continued: “But in the prescription, Lord Pei gave me, if the gold powder is added, the consequences would be endless.”

He remained silent, seemingly deep in thought.

Lu Tong continued: “The medicines used in this prescription are expensive – the user must be from a wealthy family. If served in a gold bowl…”

Pei Yunying’s expression changed slightly.

If served in a gold bowl, no gold powder would need to be added – the tonic would become a deadly poison on its own, accumulating year after year without anyone discovering the truth. Both the prescription and medicines were harmless, and the gold bowl was harmless, but when combined, the results were devastatingly dangerous.

Both are secretive and brilliant.

Lu Tong lowered her eyes, her heart also unsettled.

After Pei Yunying had given her the prescription, she had studied it carefully these past few days, but after many reviews, she hadn’t noticed anything wrong. She didn’t believe Pei Yunying would give her an ordinary prescription without reason. After pondering for a long time without understanding, it wasn’t until her conversation with Lin Danqing today about conflicting medicinal properties that she suddenly realized the key.

Adding gold powder directly to the medicine would be too obvious, and easily discovered. But if served in a gold bowl, though the effect would be slower than gold powder, it would still take lives over years of accumulation.

She didn’t know who had written these prescriptions Pei Yunying possessed, or for whom they were prepared, but households that could afford such expensive medicines would naturally use luxurious utensils.

As for gold bowls…

Such expensive items were beyond ordinary families’ means. Those who could afford them must be either wealthy or noble.

Just as she thought this, she heard Pei Yunying’s voice: “Doctor Lu’s medical skills are truly exceptional.”

Lu Tong looked at him.

He put away the letter, again wearing that unconcerned expression that made it difficult to discern his thoughts.

“Thank you.”

“No need,” Lu Tong said: “Lord Pei told me about the painted eyebrow case, and I examined the prescription for Lord Pei – this was the agreed-upon trade, very fair.”

Pei Yunying smiled: “This is truly Doctor Lu’s usual style.”

Always keeping personal and professional matters separate, afraid of owing favors or being owed, insisting on everything being crystal clear, as if completing this transaction meant cutting all ties, never to interact again.

He looked out the window. The sun was setting in the west, golden-red twilight piercing through the branches in the courtyard to shine on the window, where half the setting sun’s shadow could be seen in the distance.

“It’s getting late,” Pei Yunying withdrew his gaze and stood up, picking up her medical box for her. “Let’s go, I’ll see you out.”

Lu Tong nodded.

When they went outside, there were few people left in the Commander’s mansion. It was dinnertime, and the guards had all gone to the dining hall. The guards at the Commander’s mansion fought for food more fiercely than at the Medical Academy – if you went late, there weren’t even leftover buns to eat.

The sunset had dyed the mansion courtyard’s banana leaves with a layer of red, and people walking through it were bathed in a fuzzy warmth from the evening glow. In the distance, late-returning spring swallows circled the trees, the dusk showing a gentle serenity.

Lu Tong saw that under the flowering vines, the wooden shed was empty, with some cotton cloth carelessly piled inside and an empty bowl of clear water.

That was…

As if knowing her confusion, Pei Yunying suddenly spoke: “After you came, I had Duan Xiaoyan take Gardenia to the training field.”

Lu Tong was startled.

He said: “Don’t be afraid, Doctor Lu.”