Chapter 52 - Poison

“WHAT!?”

Everyone’s voices exploded.

“That’s Impossible!”

“How do you know-?”

“Who could-?”

I put up my hands in an attempt for them to let me explain. “During my travel west, I stopped at the Ji province, and one of the nobles there invited me to eat and sleep with his family. That same night I discovered our food had been laced with a poison that accumulates in the lungs.” I shook my head, “I immediately cleansed it and searched for the poison the next day, finding it in the kitchen. I took it with me, but it was lost when the assassins attacked us a few days later.”

Everyone was stunned, especially the physician who, despite his best efforts, had been unable to find a cure for the Emperor.

I sighed, feeling like a failure for a moment. My lack of foresight had lost me the only evidence I had to support my claims... that meant that there was nothing I could do to stop the person responsible for the poisoning.

“I have healed the damage and cleansed your body of the poison, but we will have to find the source in order to discover the culprits.”

The Emperor must have caught something in my words because he asked, “do you suspect anyone.”

I grimaced “Yes, but it is only that: suspicion. I don’t have proof to convict anyone.”

“Who-?” Li asked for the first time, I saw his hands trembling, whether that was from fear or anger, I didn’t know.

“During today’s gathering, I noticed that two people kept trying to minimize the fact that I was attacked during my travels: The governor of the Ji province and-” I bit my tongue, unable to pronounce the next part, knowing the pain it would cause to the man in front of me.

“And...?” The emperor watched my struggle but still ordered me to continue.

“Forgive me, your highness,” I bowed to him, biting my cheek “but the other person who caught my eye was the First Prince Heng Shuo.”

The Emperor reacted as I had predicted: as if I had slapped him. He immediately rose to his feet and glared at me “You lie!”

“I wish it was so, my Emperor,” I said as sadness crept into my voice. I might not like Shuo, but I felt as if the emperor was family. I knew that the mere thought that one of his children could be acting against him, was both staggering and hurtful. “That is what I saw, but again, I have no evidence. I would suggest that we look for the poison inside the castle so that we can find the true culprits.”

The Emperor sucked in a breath before glaring down at me “Everyone, leave me.”

The three of us kowtowed and left as fast as we could.

Once outside of his pavilion, Heng Li stopped me by grabbing my arm.

“Mu-ge... are you sure?”

I sighed and shook my head. “I know nothing, but I intend to find out. I will not let my adoptive family be killed by their enemies, whoever they are.”

Li smiled, “I will help you.”

I grabbed his arm and returned the gesture “Thank you Li-de” I frowned “We should go to the kitchens and search there. We don’t want to give the culprit any time to cover up his crime.”

With a nod, we set out to the kitchen. Li immediately ordered a couple of guards to follow us and once at our destination, he commanded them to make sure that nobody left the premises while he and I surveyed the place inside-out.

“Stop there!” We heard one of the guards’ shout before there was a crash and a grunt. I motioned for Li to check what had happened while I kept looking. And as soon as he left, I closed my eyes and meditated, entering the same trance as before, and poured my chi out, as if it was a sonar, except that I was looking for something that reacted to it the way the poison did.

However, nothing ‘pinged’ back and I canceled the trance.

Unfortunately, the place was just too big. If I wanted to find something it would take days... time I didn’t have.

“Mu-ge!” Li called me, and I walked to him despondently.

Unlike me, Li was smiling.

“What?”

Instead of answering, he pointed to an unconscious man on the floor.

“Huh?” Looking closer, I found that the man was clutching something in his hand... a brown pouch. I looked up at Li and blinked “is this for real?”

He chuckled and nodded with a wide smile, “the guard saw him trying to leave and knocked him out.” I looked at the guard in question, who was bowing to us.

“Good job!” I praised, and he gave us a wushu salute.

“This Zhao Ping is glad to be of service to his majesties!”

I smiled at the eagerness of the man and bent down to pry the brown bag from the cook’s hands. In it, I found the same green powder that had been used to poison me. I nodded in Li’s direction and he ordered the guards to take the man into their custody. “Be discreet about it. Nobody must be informed of this yet” I said to the guards before they left.

Li looked at me strangely, but nodded, reinforcing that as an order. We then left together to my pavilion, where my sister received us with a giant smile.

“Ge-ge!” she practically jumped at me, hugging my arm as I patted her head.

“Aren’t you too old to be jumping at me mei-mei?” Li and I chuckled while she pouted at me.

“I am still your little sister, it’s your job to pamper me.”

I laughed out loud “No, no. You got engaged to Li-de for that.” That caused her to pout in his direction and I saw him struggle to keep his composure. Truly, Zhi was a master of looking cute and vulnerable. “Speaking of which, has the Empress decided on a date for your wedding?”

They both blushed and for a moment I felt like a true older brother, teasing my younger siblings like that. When I left the palace with Fa Min, the Empress hadn’t decided on an auspicious date for their marriage, for which I was thankful, because she had implied that mine would be next.

At the time, the only female that was anywhere close to being a candidate for me to marry was Meiling, but now I had Bai Fan to consider too... if she ever overcome her fear of me.

“Ge-ge” Zhi pouted at me again until I began to pat her head again. Then, from out of nowhere, she let go of me saying “I’ll bring some tea”.

The three of us sat together and chatted amiably for a few minutes before I sighed. There were a couple of things I had to say to the two of them, and another one for Zhi alone.

“We need to talk...” I said as I placed my hand over Zhi’s “Rather, I need to speak with both of you.”

I had already sent a letter to Zhi explaining what had happened during my travels, but I had omitted many things, simply because I didn’t know if the written message would be intercepted. But here in my own pavilion, I could simply order everyone to leave us and be done with it. Better yet, I could take my time to meditate and survey our surroundings with my enhanced senses. After asking for a moment, I did just that and found nobody in the vicinity that could overhear us.

As I had done in Ji, I created a sort of barrier rather than stopping people from entering, it would instead tell me whenever someone crossed the boundary so that I was aware someone could overhear us.

Then I told them all about the poisoning and assassination attempt, and about my suspicions towards the First Prince and the governor from Ji. The second part, Li already knew, but Zhi was horrified by the end.

“I will leave for the front lines tomorrow, meaning I won’t be able to deal with any of this until the invasion has been dealt with, but” I placed my hands on their shoulders, “I was hoping you would be able to help me out with that.” I frowned and turned to my adoptive brother “Li, I know I am already asking much, but it is my hope that you can bring our findings to your father. I doubt he’ll like to see me before we leave.”

“Don’t worry Mu-ge. I will approach him once he’s calmed down.”

“Good. Also-” I entered the meditative state I used to detect the poison and quickly cleansed Li’s body. Just to be sure, I checked Zhi but found nothing in her organism. When I came out of my trance a moment later, I continued “You were poisoned too, but not Zhi.”

Both went pale at that.

“I said nothing in front of the Emperor because of how things ended... but I think this might be connected to the succession.” I sighed. Oh, how I hated politics. “You and Shuo are the Emperor’s favorites. If this is connected to the succession then it would stand to reason that you would be poisoned too.”

“Could Shou-ge be poisoned too?” Li asked with a frown “wouldn’t that prove his innocence?”

I shrugged “Maybe, but he could have ingested the poison in smaller doses until he was resistant or immune to it; then he could ingest the poison along with everybody and declare that he didn’t know a thing. In all truth, I trust no one but you two and the Emperor. You should be very careful about who you speak with and with whom you dine with.” I scratched the back of my head. “I should probably go see the Empress too, just to make sure she isn’t poisoned too... who knows how many people have been affected by that crooked cook.”

“I’ll keep an ear to the ground,” Li said with a smile.

After a few more minutes, Li stood to leave, but before he did, I handed him the bag with the poison, “This is our only proof. Keep it safe and secret from everybody else.”

“I will, Mu-ge. You take care of yourself in the front lines.”

“I will.” I patted him on the shoulder and moved away so that my sister could say good night to him in a revoltingly sweet way. Before she retired to sleep, however, I asked for a few minutes of her time, and I inquired about her time in the palace while I was gone. She obliged, but I could see in her eyes that she knew there was something else on my mind.

As always, my dearest sister was just too perceptive for my own good.

“I’m engaged,” I said bluntly, and it caught her like a freight train.

“W-what?” she then glared at me “Ge-ge stop playing!”

“I’m not. I asked for Bai Fan’s hand in marriage and both she and her father accepted.”

She stared at me wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Then she simply shook her head. “My brother is an idiot,” she whispered before slapping my arm hard. “You don’t just go around and say stupid things like that! Be glad I’m not our mother or she’d slap you harder!”

“Good thing my mei-mei will tell her then, isn’t it?”

She growled and mumbled before sighing “yes, I’ll tell her. She’s likely going to take it better from me than from my idiot brother.”

“You’re a life-saver mei-mei.” I kissed the top of her head while she glared balefully at me.

“Is there any other stupid detail I must know before going to mother?”

“Ah,” I said, remembering my rather heated encounters with Ling. “I think there are a couple of things I’ve omitted...”

She was not impressed. However, this time I was able to talk to Master Fa about it before I opened my big mouth in front of Zhi or my mother. The man had even given me a speech to say to my mother in case she caught me before anyone else.

However, now that my sister knew and would inform our parents as soon as our province was liberated, there just might be a chance for me to attend my own wedding alive.

After a few more minutes later I was finally alone in my room. As I lay on my bed, my mind was a maelstrom of emotions and random thoughts.

That had been a normal occurrence in my previous life, especially after I turned 30. I would let my mind be wherever it wanted for a few minutes each day. It has always helped me manage my stress levels and to stimulate my creativity. Since arriving on the West Border, I hadn’t had time to think about my stories or create anything worthwhile, and it was eating at me.

In short order, my mind began creating a romance story around the circumstances that were currently ailing me. ‘A romantic story about a maid and a prince... The Prince and the Peasant...? That brings back memories.’ Memories of the last story I had ever created in my past life. I had everything in my mind already, characters, names and stories, their backgrounds and desires, and the circumstances that would either bring them together or separate them.

‘I need a good villain...shall I choose the same as before? A princess, a courtesan? Who could be a threat to our heroine?’ With a maid as a heroine... if it was going to be done right, the story should critique the social status, which meant that the villain should be someone from a high class. Another prince? Nah, they could simply order her death and be done with it... an evil lady? I nodded as a small smirk formed on my lips. An evil lady of noble birth that had an unhealthy interest in the prince, or an engagement.

The thought made me smile, reminding me of another story I had started in the future. The very one that had gotten me that contract and began the downward spiral until I died. If I remembered correctly, I had written one book and the complete outline of the saga. I was planning the sequel by the time I got infected.

Suddenly the face of Bai Fan swam before my eyes, and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

I could almost picture her pout upon learning that I had decided that she would be the villain in the story. But it was simply perfect: an evil, beautiful woman with an engagement that would be broken when the Prince fell in love with the maid.

Unable to sit still for much longer, I jumped to my feet, went to my nightstand and prepared some ink and paper to begin writing my ideas. The story would be a good reprieve in the following weeks or months... depending on how long I had to remain at the front lines.

Thinking about that particular topic brought some more stress. Never in both my lives had I ever been in a war. Sure, I had ‘experienced’ plenty of them in video games, but I had never been fond of conflicts.

Being born in a country that had been at peace for decades, the harshest events in my life had been the attacks of 9/11, and that time I had been mugged on the streets of Mexico City.

Both are quite forgettable after almost two decades.

War was always something outside my little world. Even during the worst of my depression and my martial arts lessons, I never truly faced conflict. We would have mock battles every now and then and bruises were normal, but in the end, we would all go back home to our families.

In this age, however, people had a different relationship with war. It was a latent danger just around the corner and there wasn’t even one generation that hadn’t suffered through it.

‘We humans are savages, aren’t we?’ I asked nobody in particular.

‘Humans have always had a love-hate relationship with war and conflict, it’s true’ My other self answered ‘You might not see it like that since you come from an age of peace, but war is a chance for your kind to discover its heavenly gifts.’

‘Heavenly gifts?’

‘Did you think that your creativity was your own?’

To be perfectly blunt, yes. I had never thought where my gifts and failures came from. I had no aptitude for sports or physical effort, but my mind had always been sharp and creative to the point where I felt I could create anything out of nothing. I considered it my ‘saving grace’, and since I was good at creating stories, I became what I was: a writer. I never was truly famous, but my writings would often be noticed by people. By the time I died, I had been quite popular in certain circles, enough that I was able to make a living from creating original works, either for myself or as a ghostwriter.

I sighed.

However, what I considered the greatest achievement of my life was my relationship with her. 13 months together, that was all it was, yet I had never felt happier or prouder of myself and her.

I shook my head and slapped my face hard.

“Stop it” I grumbled. If I continued torturing myself like that, not only would I cause another storm, but I would never be able to move on. After all, what was the point? I was stuck in the past, while she was still living in the future.

Two worlds apart, never to reunite.

I sighed and rolled to the side, closing my eyes to sleep.

‘If a dream is all I have, maybe I’ll dream of you..’ I smiled, thinking of her black hair and rosy lips, and fell asleep a short while after.