Someone was on the roof—and not just arriving now. The movement had likely been there for some time; Ziqing had simply only just noticed it!
Her gaze flickered with surprise, and in an instant her figure vanished into thin air—only to reappear high atop the roof.
At that moment, the bright moon hung overhead, illuminating the entire rooftop clearly—yet it appeared completely empty, silent, not a soul in sight.
“Come out!” Ziqing said in a low voice. She’d sensed something off in the flow of the air nearby—someone had to be there!
“As the ancients say: before one’s father-in-law and mother-in-law, the master of one’s husband’s household, one dares not walk alongside them, dares not speak casually with them. If given instructions, one listens and obeys. Little Qingqing, how could you treat your parents-in-law this way!”
Suddenly, a familiar voice came from behind her. Ziqing was startled at once—anyone who opened with classical quotations and scholarly allusions like that could only be that one particular scholar!
She spun around at once to find, standing behind her, a white-robed scholar, his expression warm and gentle, elegant and composed, untouched by worldly dust—none other than Baili Weisheng!
He’d come to Liuxian Island too? How was he here?
“You…” Ziqing was thoroughly taken aback.
“What do you mean, ‘you.’ Little Qingqing, you really are something else. You’ve barely set foot through someone’s front door and already thrown the whole family into an uproar. How are you ever going to be a proper daughter-in-law like this! Oh dear, it seems I really do need to think carefully about whether to bring you home to meet my parents!” Baili Weisheng said, stroking his chin, looking utterly serious about it.
“What are you doing here?” Ziqing demanded furiously at once.
“Just passing by. Heard some arguing and came to take a look, never expected it would be you!” Baili Weisheng said, as naturally as though he really had just happened to be passing through.
Ziqing had no interest in arguing with him and said earnestly, “Who exactly are you? Why did you help me last time?”
Baili Weisheng sat down cross-legged, looking at Ziqing with an air of great grievance. “Last time… wasn’t that you holding a blade to my throat, forcing me to help?”
Ziqing fell speechless for a moment, then stepped forward and asked seriously, “Why are you here?”
“Just passing by,” Baili Weisheng said firmly.
“Then why aren’t you leaving?” Ziqing said coldly.
Baili Weisheng suddenly reached out and pulled her down to sit beside him, saying earnestly, “Little Qingqing, this matter is no small thing—it directly affects whether I’ll be bringing you home to meet my parents in the future, so I really must explain this to you properly.”
Ziqing had no way to deal with him, so she decided to hear him out—whatever this fellow was really here for.
She listened attentively, but Baili Weisheng spoke with great solemnity instead. “Little Qingqing, do you know the ancient saying: to shout at one’s elders, to speak of hardship and suffering, to ignore when called, to disregard hunger and cold—such a person is called a wicked wife.”
Ziqing froze for a moment, then abruptly shoved Baili Weisheng down hard and turned to leave without a backward glance—she’d finally realized this fellow had come all this way just to lecture her on the Women’s Precepts, to scold her!
Yet Baili Weisheng remained perfectly serious, showing no shame at all. “Little Qingqing, Jun Beiyue has been poisoned with a drug-based toxin. There’s an inside traitor within the Gu family!”
The moment he said this, Ziqing stopped dead in her tracks. She spun around at once and seized Baili Weisheng by the collar. “How do you know that!”
Baili Weisheng smiled and pointed at his collar. “Let go.”
Ziqing released him roughly. “Talk!”
“I overheard that Physician Hua of yours. By rights, he should have woken up long ago—so many tonics, and yet no effect. There’s only one explanation: he’s been poisoned with a drug-toxin!” Baili Weisheng said, patting the spot beside him, gesturing for Ziqing to sit.
“Drug-toxin—what kind of drug-toxin!” Ziqing said, alarmed. A drug-toxin, essentially, was something like a seductive incense—something between medicine and poison, neither quite one nor the other.
Unless someone was deeply familiar with the properties of both medicines and poisons, such a thing would be nearly impossible to detect!
How did this insufferable scholar know all this? Just who exactly was he?
Baili Weisheng didn’t answer, only patting the spot beside him again—meaning, if she didn’t come sit, he wouldn’t tell her.
Ziqing had no choice but to sit down beside him, reluctantly.
Baili Weisheng, without a hint of restraint, casually draped an arm over her shoulder, acting like the closest of friends. “Little Qingqing…”
“Let go!” Ziqing snapped coldly at once.
Baili Weisheng simply ignored her and continued, “Go find some warm, red-colored herbs, have him take them every hour—that should be enough to wake him up. Want to try it?”
Ziqing didn’t struggle. Instead, she gripped his shoulder tightly with one hand and said seriously, “Just who are you, exactly? How can you tell medicinal herbs apart like this?”
Baili Weisheng showed no concern at all for the threat on his shoulder, still speaking with the same unserious seriousness. “Little Qingqing, I’m already planning to bring you home to meet my parents, and you still don’t trust me? I know everything under heaven and on earth—there’s nothing in this world I don’t know!”
“Nonsense,” Ziqing said coldly, releasing her grip, letting him keep his arm around her without another word.
Baili Weisheng’s brow furrowed slightly—he disliked this expression of hers most of all. But soon his face brightened again, and he smiled. “Not long from now, there’ll be a qin gathering on Liuxian Island. I’m here for the music—and I thought I’d drop by to see you while I was at it!”
With that, he released his arm and stood to leave.
Yet Ziqing didn’t stop him, simply lowering her head, her expression blank.
Baili Weisheng noticed, but still waved. “Well then, I’m off!”
But he hadn’t taken more than a few steps before he turned back, teasing, “Little Qingqing, what’s wrong? The drug-toxin won’t kill him, you know. Just do as I said, and everything will be fine!”
Still, Ziqing said nothing at all.
Baili Weisheng bent down at a ninety-degree angle, tilting his head to look at her, and suddenly pulled a silly face. “Little Qingqing, look!”
At first, Ziqing showed no reaction at all.
Baili Weisheng finally frowned, growing genuinely serious. “Han Ziqing, did someone bully you before I got here? Did I miss something?”
“When did you get here?” Ziqing finally spoke.
“I was already here before you even reached the main residence!” Baili Weisheng blurted out without thinking.
Only then did Ziqing lift her head to look at him, and without warning, kicked out at him. “Liar!”
With that, she walked away without a backward glance. Baili Weisheng, suspended in midair from the kick, rubbed the spot where he’d been solidly struck, grimacing in pain—yet in the end, he couldn’t help but laugh. “Little Qingqing, this sect leader actually got fooled by you!”
Baili Weisheng didn’t chase after her. Ziqing knew there was no point pressing him further—this fellow’s origins were mysterious, though he didn’t seem to bear any ill intent. Had he really come to help her again, this time?
So Jun Beiyue truly had been poisoned with a drug-toxin. The Gu family’s main residence was guarded so tightly, and with Imperial Physician Gu and Yingzi normally never leaving his side, the one who’d administered the poison had to be a traitor within the Gu family itself!
And whoever it was clearly understood drug-toxins, clearly had access to them—who could it possibly be?
The only two she could rule out entirely were the Gu family head and Madam Gu. If the two elders had wished him harm, they never would have gone to such lengths to save Jun Beiyue in the first place!
Ziqing glanced once more at Jun Beiyue, her brow furrowing tight. It seemed she would need to get Madam Gu to hand over Imperial Physician Gu as soon as possible. Whether Baili Weisheng’s words could be trusted was something only Imperial Physician Gu could properly judge!
As for drug-toxins, she herself understood nothing about them at all!