Consort Lan has returned to the Huixin Palace, and the celebration banquet is also held there.
At noon, the banquet was being held, and suddenly several palace ladies were carried to the Imperial Medical Bureau.
“…During the banquet just now, they suddenly experienced abdominal pain. Consort Lan ordered them to go down to rest. Unexpectedly, as soon as they left the table, they started vomiting and having diarrhea! So, Consort Lan heard about it and immediately ordered us to send them here.”
“Okay, okay!” The physician on duty hurriedly picked up the person and brought her to the table to check his pulse. “What other symptoms are there?” he asked.
One of the palace maids, weakly clutching her stomach, says, “It seems like they also have a fever…”
“For the past two days, they’ve been feeling nauseous, and it has become more severe today.”
Wen Qingci holds a special position, so the Imperial Medical Bureau specifically assigned a quiet side hall to him.
But the commotion here was too loud, and the voices of several people still reached his ears.
The symptoms of these few people are relatively typical and simple. By the time Wen Qingci walks to the front hall, the physician has already written the diagnosis and opened the medicine cabinet.
Seeing Wen Qingci looking at it, the physician who is taking the medicine puts down the pestle and cautiously says, “Wen Xiansheng, we plan to start with some medicine to warm the meridians, dispel cold, relieve urgency, and alleviate pain… well, what do you think?”
The cassia seeds and gelatin placed on the table are both medicinal ingredients for treating acute gastroenteritis.
Wen Qingci smiled and said: “You do your work, I just heard the excitement here and came to take a look out of curiosity.”
“Okay!” The physician can’t help but let out a sigh of relief.
Although Wen Qingci didn’t say much, the physician’s actions of preparing the medicine slowed down a bit when he looked at him.
In the midst of their conversation, a few more palace maids are brought in from outside.
Seeing this, Wen Qingci suddenly asks, “Are the palace maids the only ones brought to the Imperial Medical Bureau this time?”
The physician nods hurriedly, “Yes!”
Wen Qingci frowns involuntarily.
The eunuchs and the palace maids ate in the same dining room. Why was it that the maids were the only ones who got sick this time?
After a pause, he suddenly remembers the notes left by the original owner…
The original owner was involved in various medical disciplines, but he also had his own main research direction.
For some reason, he seemed particularly interested in the research of waterborne infectious diseases.
He even dissected many bodies for this purpose and left behind a notebook called “.”
“Water…” Wen Qingci murmurs to himself, “There’s a problem with the water.”
Almost every courtyard in the palace has a well. Although the palace maids and eunuchs eat meals prepared in the same kitchen, their drinking water is different.
He tightens his grip on the medicine box and walks over to a relatively stable palace maid, bending down to look into her eyes and says, “Take me to see the well where you live.”
Wen Qingci’s excessively dense eyelashes cover his eyes. From her perspective, she can only see his straight nose and a bit of vermilion between his eyebrows.
As beautiful as a deity in a temple.
The young palace maid couldn’t help but nod blankly.
The banquet at the Huixin Palace is about to end.
A palace maid hurriedly runs to Consort Lan’s side and whispers something to her.
The next second, the expression on Consort Lan’s face suddenly turns serious.
“…Alright, follow Wen Xiansheng’s instructions,” she pauses and adds, “Wait a moment, I’ll come along as well.”
“Yes, Your Highness.”
All the concubines in the harem have attended this banquet.
Seeing that Consort Lan’s had a strange look on her face, Consort Hui across from her can’t help but taunt, “Why isn’t Consort Lan happy? Isn’t it supposed to be a time of happiness for you?”
As soon as her words fall, everyone’s eyes turn towards Lady Consort Lan.
Concubine Lan slowly picked up the tea cup.
She has always been low-key and careful. Normally she would just brush aside Consort Hui’s problems.
But this time, Consort Lan smiles and says straightforwardly, “The Imperial Medical Bureau sent someone just now to say that Wen Xiansheng suspects there’s a problem with one of the wells in the palace.”
“What did you say…” Consort Hui grits her teeth. She forces a smile and slowly stands up, “Oh? Since such a thing happened in the harem, I have to go and have a look no matter what.”
Wen Qingci asked someone to ask Consort Lan just to get permission to enter the palace maids’ residence.
But he didn’t expect that when he got there, the small courtyard was already crowded with people.
In addition to the palace maids who already lived in this courtyard, there were also several familiar faces.
Wen Qingci: …?
What’s going on now?
Consort Hui, who is temporarily in charge of the harem, said first, “You are busy with your own business, don’t worry about me.”
“Understood.” Wen Qingci nods slightly and walks slowly to the edge of the well.
“It doesn’t look like the well water is dirty and impure… we need to see if there’s anything below.” He says.
“You two, go and check.” Consort Hui casually points to two eunuchs.
“Yes, Your Highness”
The two eunuchs took out several bamboo poles from nowhere and connected them end to end.
Once connected, they slowly start probing downwards.
At this moment, Wen Qingci finally starts to feel nervous.
Consort Lan was dissatisfied that her power was taken away by Consort Hui.
…Obviously, she wanted to take advantage of this matter.
The two eunuchs hold the bamboo poles and carefully probe the bottom of the well.
After a while, they exchange glances and their faces change color.
“What’s wrong?” Ming Liu supports Consort Lan as they slowly walk over, “Is there something down there?” she asks.
One of them nods with difficulty, “It seems like there’s something down there… but we need to take it out to see what it is exactly.”
“Alright, then take it out.” Nearby, Consort Hui grits her teeth and says.
A eunuch brings a shallow tray-like bamboo sieve and fixes it to a long pole.
Wen Qingci silently retreats to the back.
Things seem to be getting serious…
Just now Wen Qingci had guessed that perhaps a bird or animal had unfortunately fallen in.
But seeing this professional tool, a slightly terrifying guess emerged in his heart.
…Could it be a human being?
If I guessed correctly, the reason why the two eunuchs changed their faces just now was probably because the bamboo poles had poked their flesh…
calm down!
Under the tension, Wen Qingci’s brain became extremely active.
He suddenly remembered that there seemed to be a plot like this in “Supporting the Ming Hall”:
During Consort Lan’s pregnancy, a murder occurred in the palace.
This incident displeased the emperor and eventually became one of the reasons why Consort Hui lost her Phoenix Seal.
The author did not elaborate on this story, only briefly mentioning it when describing Consort Lan’s return to favor.
Now it seems this is what should have happened.
In the original work, this incident should have happened later, and it was not a big deal.
——The imperial physicians in the palace are not vegetarians, so they can naturally guess that there is something wrong with the well where the palace ladies often eat.
But one less thing is worse than one more thing. Even if they knew about it, they wouldn’t mention it.
It wasn’t until the palace maids themselves went to the well with suspicion and fished out the contents that the news spread throughout the harem.
Beside the well, the eunuch suddenly stopped.
After a while, one of them trotted over to the concubines.
After whispering a few words, they left the courtyard temporarily with pale faces.
Wen Qingci held his breath.
The two eunuchs once again exchange glances and begin to pull up the bamboo poles together.
The palace maids standing on the side couldn’t help but step back.
With a splash, water came out of the huge bamboo sieve, and there was a figure on it!
“Ah!!!”
Someone screamed first and rushed out of the courtyard.
The small courtyard turned into a mess in an instant.
Wen Qingci endured the discomfort, took a deep breath, held the medicinal jade tightly, and walked there step by step.
…
There are also several eunuchs and palace maids in the Yuguang Palace, who, like most people, look down on the eunuchs and palace maids of the Xie Bufeng. Most of the time, they are lazy and hide in their ear rooms, not treating their master seriously.
But on this day, the Yuguang Palace suddenly became lively.
Several people crowded around the well, drawing water bucket after water bucket.
“Is that enough?”
“It should be enough for two days. I’ll come back to get more the day after tomorrow.”
“Alright,” a palace maid in green clothes releases the pulley and asks mysteriously in a lowered voice, “Who’s the person who died over there?”
“Her name is Yuan Xian, do you know her? She’s in charge of cleaning the Baiqiao Tower. Just turned twenty-five a few days ago, the age to leave the palace,” the palace maid sighs, “We all thought she had returned to her hometown, but unexpectedly… sigh.”
“Her?” The palace maid of the Yuguang Palace exclaims in surprise, “Are you sure?”
“Sure. You know that Physician Wen, right? He personally examined the body, and the person is still in the courtyard.”
The palace maid who witnessed that scene spoke in an extremely exaggerated tone.
A young eunuch interjects, “This… Physician Wen… is indeed as rumored. It’s better to stay away from him in the future.”
Several people immediately nodded in agreement with the eunuch’s words.
The windows and doors of the Yuguang Palace are dilapidated, and combined with the fact that the people here are speaking louder and louder, their conversation is amplified.
All their words fell into Xie Bufeng’s ears.
The lunch dishes have been washed, but they haven’t been sent back to the Imperial Medical Bureau yet.
The courtyard where the incident occurred happens to be on his way there.
After a pause, Xie Bufeng picks up the wooden box and heads towards the Yuguang Palace.
Different from before, at this moment, everyone has already avoided the small courtyard and the medical Bureau inside like they’re avoiding the plague.
Xie Bufeng stood outside the courtyard and looked inside.
Yuan Xian, the palace maid who died less than two days ago, is now at the stage where rigor mortis is beginning to abate.
Before Xie Bufeng came here, Wen Qingci had already arranged the corpse, lying flat on the wooden board, and even carefully helped her tidy up her hair and remains.
Even from afar, Xie Bufeng can see her pale skin, contrasting with the skin that has begun to swell with wrinkles.
He can’t help but frown, feeling a bit uncomfortable.
“Don’t you find it disgusting?” he asks.
“When something like this happens in the palace, they usually just wrap the body in straw mats and throw it out,” Xie Bufeng said lightly, leaning by the courtyard door.
Wen Qingci doesn’t answer this question.
“But it’s just a shell. What’s there to be disgusted about… She helped me solve a puzzle, and I should give her the last bit of dignity,” he says lightly.
Xie Bufeng stopped talking and looked deeply at the moon-white figure.
Wen Qingci’s movements are particularly gentle and careful.
This is the first time Xie Bufeng has seen a corpse outside of anatomy class, and his mood is particularly heavy, with no time to spare for other thoughts.
After tidying up Yuan Xian’s appearance, Wen Qingci gently covers her with a white cloth.
Finally, he goes to the side to clean his hands with strong alcohol.
When everything is in order, he finally walks slowly to the edge of the courtyard gate.
This situation suddenly reminds Wen Qingci of his ending in “Supporting the Ming Hall” where he was dismembered by five horses.
At the moment he passes by Xie Bufeng, he slows down, turns his head back, and smiles at the young man, half jokingly saying, “If I die one day, I hope Your Highness can send me back to the valley. Instead of letting my body decay into mud, it’s better to use it for medical research. That would be a worthy end.”
The familiar scent of bitterness and faint alcohol enveloped Xie Bufeng.
After saying this, Wen Qingci smiled and left the courtyard with his medicine box
I smell some foreshadowing!