Chapter 131: Not Poisoned, Misunderstandings Deepen

The old imperial physician was half-carried to Shen Zhao’s bedside. The moment he saw who was lying there, his heart gave a start.

General Chu had been poisoned by the Wa as well!

The old physician’s hand trembled. The imperial court was about to descend into chaos.

“Why are you still standing there, Old Physician? Hurry and take my brother’s pulse!” Xie Yuheng urged.

“Did Young General Xie just say that General Chu is your brother?” So it was not the Xie family’s young master who had been poisoned!

“What, am I not worthy of being Brother Chu’s younger brother?” Xie Yuheng replied unhappily. Was the old man really so astonished?

The old physician did not argue. He had never said any such thing.

He sat down beside the bed and began concentrating on taking Shen Zhao’s pulse.

The instant his fingers touched Shen Zhao’s wrist, his expression turned solemn.

There truly was no pulse.

He moved his fingers to Shen Zhao’s neck. Still no pulse.

Then he held them beneath Shen Zhao’s nose. A faint, shallow breath brushed across his fingertips.

How strange!

The old physician’s expression grew increasingly grave. From everything he could observe, General Chu showed none of the usual signs of poisoning.

Her lips had turned a powdery white after losing all their color, while her face was ghastly pale, as though she had endured excruciating pain.

Excruciating pain—now that was consistent with the onset of poison.

“Please have Young General Xie bring me a dagger.” He intended to let some of General Chu’s blood and test it for poison.

Shen Tianci, who had been waiting nearby, took a dagger from his person and handed it to the old physician.

The old physician accepted it and raised it toward Chu Mu’s palm.

Seeing this, Xie Yuheng seized the physician’s wrist before the blade could descend.

“You old bastard, what do you think you’re doing? I brought you here to save Brother Chu, not to cut him with a knife! What are you plotting?”

Shen Tianci snatched the dagger from the old physician’s hand. General Chu had been poisoned for no apparent reason, and he trusted no one at court.

Had he known the physician wanted the dagger to cut General Chu, he would not merely have handed it over. He would have given the old man two cuts himself.

The corners of the old physician’s mouth twitched as he looked at the men surrounding him, each guarding against him as though he were a thief. He helplessly explained, “I asked for the dagger so I could let some of General Chu’s blood and test it for poison. There is no need for all of you to be so tense.”

He feared that if he explained any more slowly, these generals would tear him limb from limb.

Wasn’t it rumored that General Chu had been isolated by everyone? This certainly did not look like isolation at all.

In her unconscious state, Shen Zhao was frantic. Give him the dagger already!

A little blood would not matter. She was practically being burned alive by this unbearable heat.

Suddenly, a searing pain swept through her entire body, as though it meant to burn her to ash.

It was over. She was going to die!

“Ah… Father…”

If she died, what would become of her father and brother?

Shen Zhao’s cry of pain immediately drew everyone’s attention. Every gaze turned toward her.

The old physician hurriedly placed his fingers on Shen Zhao’s wrist, and then a miracle occurred.

“General Chu… General Chu has a pulse again!”

Shen Zhao abruptly opened her eyes. An unprecedented sense of comfort spread throughout her body.

“Brother Chu, you’re awake!” Xie Yuheng, whose eyes had never once left Shen Zhao, was the first to notice that she had opened them.

He excitedly leaned closer, his eyes brimming with tears as he gazed at Brother Chu.

He had nearly thought Brother Chu was dead.

The old physician’s brows drew together even more tightly. He murmured, “This makes no sense. How could this happen? What kind of poison is so hidden and so overbearing?”

His muttering drew everyone’s attention.

Shen Zhao looked toward the old physician, who was still examining his pulse, and asked, “Old Physician, speak plainly. What exactly is wrong with me? What poison have I been afflicted with?”

Shen Zhao was no longer surprised that Chu Mu had been poisoned. Someone had already given him medicine that rendered him incapable of having children for nineteen years; being poisoned again was hardly astonishing.

She only wondered when this poison had been administered. Could there be another enemy lurking among those around her?

Shen Zhao did not know that Chu Mu, who had attended the banquet at the Pang residence, had also fallen unconscious for no apparent reason, just as she had.

She assumed that someone else had poisoned Chu Mu again.

The old physician withdrew his hand. “Forgive this old man’s incompetence. I was unable to determine what poison afflicts the general. Would the general permit me to draw some blood?”

Without another word, Shen Zhao pulled the dagger tucked at his waist and handed it to him. “Go ahead.”

The old physician took out a white jade bowl from his medicine chest. With swift precision, he drew the blade across Shen Zhao’s fingertip, and a thin stream of blood trickled into the bowl.

Once barely a bowlful had been collected, the old physician immediately staunched the wound.

Under everyone’s watchful eyes, he began testing Shen Zhao’s blood for poison.

Beside him, Xie Yuheng chattered incessantly. “It must be that old bastard Chen Dingtian. He found some unusual poison and used it to harm you, Brother Chu. We shouldn’t have saved that Miss Chen at the market earlier today. How could she be so vicious as to strike at you with such deadly intent?

“You’re awake now, but who knows whether the poison will flare up again? What will you do then, Brother Chu?”

Shen Zhao thought over everyone she had encountered in the past two days. The only suspicious one was the Miss Chen whom Xie Yuheng had mentioned.

That Miss Chen had met her only once, yet had insisted on pledging herself to her.

In broad daylight, she had even behaved indecently, clinging to her and refusing to let go.

Every one of these signs suggested that Miss Chen was far from ordinary.

“How can this be?”

It was not only the old physician who was baffled. The young imperial physician who had accompanied him was likewise staring at the white jade bowl in astonishment.

“What is it?” Shen Zhao asked heavily. “Could the poison not have been neutralized?”

The old physician hurriedly shook his head. “According to my examination, General Chu, you have not been poisoned at all.”

She had not been poisoned? Then how had she suddenly fallen unconscious for no reason? And why had she suffered such unprecedented torment while unconscious?

At the same time, at the Pang residence—

Pang Yunche had finally managed to wait for the other expert in antidotes, who had arrived late from the Empress’s palace. He hurried back to the Pang residence at full speed.

He hoped Miss Shen was still alive.

Yet when Pang Yunche arrived at the guest courtyard with the palace physician, there was no sign of Miss Shen anywhere.

His elder brother was sitting propped against the bed, speaking to the two imperial physicians.

“I have troubled you both by making you come all this way. I do not know why I suddenly lost consciousness just now, only to awaken just as suddenly. Please take the trouble to examine me carefully.”

Pang Yunche was utterly bewildered.

Where was Miss Shen?

Could she have died?

But if she had died, his elder brother would never be this calm, pretending to be ill in bed. He would have gone completely mad by now.

Never mind. His elder brother would handle everything.

In any case, Pang Yunche had gone to the palace to request the physicians in his elder brother’s name. There was nothing improper about having them examine his brother.

The two physicians stepped forward and began examining Pang Yunjin. All they could determine was that the eldest young master had been irritable lately and was suffering from excessive liver heat. He needed to cool his temper and reduce the heat in his body.

They found no other symptoms, and they could not determine the reason for his unexplained loss of consciousness.

After prescribing two doses of medicine to reduce the internal heat, Pang Yunjin had Pang Yunche escort the two physicians out.

The commotion brought Madam Pang hurrying over after she had just finished seeing off the guests.

“Jin’er, what happened? Where do you feel unwell? Let your mother take a look at you.”

Madam Pang carefully examined Pang Yunjin. She had only learned that her Jin’er had inexplicably lost consciousness after Yunche went to see the physicians out, and from the physicians’ and Yunche’s words, she had understood that her Jin’er had been poisoned.

Why would those people still refuse to let her Jin’er go? Did they intend to force her into a desperate struggle in which they would all perish together?