Ming Yi sighed softly and stood up, bowing to Yan Xiao. “I apologize to you, my Lord.”
“It’s alright… but why him?” Yan Xiao was puzzled. This girl seemed clear-headed, not the type to be blinded by good looks.
“Yes, why him indeed?” Ming Yi pondered, troubled. “Perhaps because I was born owing him.”
This strange statement made even Granny Xun feel sympathetic. “Young Miss, please stop drinking. Shall we return to the residence?”
“Didn’t the Lord say to wait for him? Do you dare not to?” She winked. “Though a short rest in the adjacent room would be fine.”
“Ah, yes. This old servant will arrange it right away.”
What should have been an exciting Duelist showcase had turned into a less than pleasant spectacle. After settling Ming Yi, Yan Xiao and the others left with Liang Xiuyuan. Ming Yi sat on the chaise lounge in the private room, watching the sky change from bright day to dusk.
“The Lord says he won’t be returning tonight,” Granny Xun reported hesitantly as she entered.
Ming Yi paused for a moment, then lowered her long lashes. “Lying again.”
“Don’t mind it, Young Miss. Perhaps there’s some business at the Yuan Shi Academy.”
On the first day of opening, what business could there be? It was nothing more than being unable to refuse a beauty’s invitation, off to some place for a tryst.
Very well. Taking advantage of this opportunity, she pretended to cry, falling onto Granny Xun.
Granny Xun immediately consoled her. “Don’t cry, Young Miss. You’re different from the others outside. This old servant has never seen the Lord be as tolerant with anyone as he is with you.”
“He will be in the future,” she whimpered, wiping her tears. “If he can treat me like this, he can surely treat others the same way.”
“How could that be? Young Miss has earned his favor with sincerity, unlike those who shamelessly vie for position.”
“Even Granny says I’ve earned it with sincerity,” she continued to sob. “But look, the Lord knows everything about me, while I still know so little about him.”
Her body was soft, her crying like trembling bamboo leaves, making one’s heart clench.
Granny Xun hurriedly said, “Let’s go back first. Whatever you want to know, this old servant will tell you.”
Ming Yi continued whimpering, “Someone like the Lord, with such profound Yuan Power, medical skills, and the ability to sweet-talk people… no wonder he’s so sought after.”
Helping her down the stairs and into the beast carriage, Granny Xun sighed, “It all came at the cost of the Lord’s life. The Yuan Power goes without saying, as the Lord himself has mentioned before. As for his medical skills, do you think the Lord learned them properly from someone?”
“Isn’t that so? Last time when Lord Yan and the others were chatting, they said the Lord’s medical skills surpassed even his.”
“Young Miss must have misheard. It’s not his medical skills that are superior, but his ability to identify poisons. The Lord is slightly better at that than Lord Yan.” Granny Xun couldn’t think of anything else to comfort Ming Yi, so she could only sell her Lord’s misfortunes, hoping that Ming Yi would consider this and not rush to give up on him.
At the mention of poison identification, Miss Ming indeed stopped crying. She blinked her clear eyes curiously at Granny Xun. “The ability to identify poisons… how did he acquire it?”
Granny Xun hesitated for a moment, then said in a low voice, “The overseer at the slave camp wanted to control the Lord for his use. So he constantly tested poisons on the Lord, trying to find one that only he could cure and wouldn’t cause immediate death. Thus, the Lord suffered the torment of countless poisons for an entire year, becoming self-taught.”
Ming Yi was stunned, and then her face darkened. “Where is that overseer now?”
Seeing that she still cared for the Lord, Granny Xun sighed in relief and smiled. “He naturally met a bad end. When the Lord left the slave camp, the overseer died by the very poison he had procured.”
“He didn’t find the poison he was looking for?”
“He did find it when the Lord was ten years old. But later, the Lord was no longer under his control, and the poison was cured.”
Ming Yi breathed a sigh of relief, then clenched her fists. “Such a vicious poison shouldn’t be allowed to exist in this world.”
Granny Xun smiled bitterly. “How could it not exist? Such an exquisite poison was once worth its weight in gold in the main city. It was only after the Lord personally killed the overseer that the poison gradually disappeared.”
Ming Yi lowered her eyes. “Has it completely vanished?”
“I don’t know about other cities, but it’s gone from Mu Xing City. Even the Lord only has one vial of antidote left, kept for emergencies.”
As Granny Xun spoke, she glanced curiously at Ming Yi, probably thinking she was too concerned about the poison.
Ming Yi quickly took the initiative. “Hasn’t the Lord only recently risen to prominence? How does Granny know so much about him?”
He had only settled in the main city at the beginning of the year. Could these servants in the residence have been with him since the slave camp?
The beast carriage stopped, and Granny Xun immediately lifted the curtain and got out, then said to her, “Young Miss, we’ve arrived.”
It seemed she wasn’t going to explain further.
Ming Yi didn’t press the issue. Instead, she pretended to be drunk as she got off the carriage, stumbling back to Liu Zhao Jun, then collapsed onto the bed as soon as she entered, falling into a deep sleep.
Granny Xun watched her for a while, and after making sure she was sound asleep, covered her with a quilt and left.
Not long after she left, Ming Yi got up and leaped to the backyard.
Twenty-seven passed by silently and heard her say, “The antidote is in this residence. Help me find it.”
“I’ve already looked. It’s not in the study or the secret room.”
“What about the green-tiled courtyard?”
“My Yuan Power isn’t sufficient to go there.”
Ming Yi clicked her tongue lightly and made a gesture to him. Twenty-seven immediately went to clear the way for her and keep watch.
Bu Xiu was still with Ji Bozai and couldn’t return for now. Granny Xun had also had some wine and was probably asleep. The two of them easily bypassed the guards and reached the green-tiled courtyard.
Although most of Ming Yi’s meridians had been destroyed, her Yuan Power still retained its original purity. She could lift Ji Bozai’s Yuan Power net without leaving any trace. Twenty-seven was most skilled at finding objects, and soon after entering, he came out with an armful of medicine bottles.
“All the ones with a medicinal smell are here.”
She looked down and saw over a hundred bottles of various sizes. How could she tell which one it was? She didn’t know what the antidote looked like.
It was too much to take all of them, and there was nowhere to hide them. But it would be a shame not to take any.
After sniffing a few uncorked bottles, she asked Twenty-seven, “Are there any poisons among these? If not, I could try taking them one by one.”
Twenty-seven’s eyebrows furrowed into a knot. “Your body can’t withstand any more strain. This method is unwise.”
Oh, right. Ming Yi slapped her forehead. She was too eager and had come up with such a foolish idea. Eating so many medicines would be like having a meal. Only an idiot would…
“This servant will try them for the Young Miss,” Twenty-seven took the medicine bottle from her hand.
Ming Yi gasped. “Don’t! Your Yuan Power is even stronger than mine now. It would be such a waste if it were destroyed.”
“This servant’s Yuan Power was taught by the Young Miss in the first place. Returning it to you is no trouble.” He poured out the contents of more than a dozen bottles and swallowed them in one gulp, without even blinking.
The evening glow had faded, and the green-tiled courtyard had darkened. Ming Yi couldn’t see Twenty-seven’s face clearly, but scenes from years ago floated before her eyes.