The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus

28

Character names:
Lu Jiu: Incense maker
Guo Xiu: Minister ( He's the one who got the hallucinatory incense)

"Your Highness Dowager Consort, it's quite the coincidence: when this lowly official was returning from Taicang, I met with a boat accident and it was these few who acted fast and saved this lowly official's life..." Guo Xiu's large frame stood upright in the palace hall. He was half bowing with a fawning smile on his rather scary looking mien. It was awkwardly funny in some ways.

Dowager Consort Zhao didn't make a sound. Her sharp nail guard lifted up, and she was somewhat annoyed as she scraped the cover of the teapot over the mouth.

Liu Fuyi was focused on the old Imperial Physician with a head full of sweat and a silk-wearing young incense master. He scrunched up his brows without any clear indication as to why, seemingly pondering something.

Mu Yao quietly stared at her own hands. The white steam wafting off the cup of tea on the table condensed on her eyelashes.

"It was all this lowly official's fault for being slow in informing. You all received the summons of the Empress Dowager and traveled here from afar. You're also the saviors who saved this lowly official's life, I should have long prepared everything..." Guo Xiu was staring at the floor as he spoke endlessly without need.

"Enough!" Dowager Consort Zhao slammed the teacup onto the table. Her tone was annoyed: "Why I called you here, you know it yourself do you not?"

Guo Xiu paused for a moment before awkwardly speaking up: "Your Highness, I... this lowly servant was falsely accused."

"Hmph, falsely accused? You?" Dowager Consort Zhao shot him a fierce look before retrieving her raised voice: "Imperial Physician Chen, Mister Lu. Speak, tell me if this dowager consort has falsely accused him?"

The young incense master was Lu Jiu. He was here as a result of Mu Sheng intentionally inviting a commoner here.

He was wearing a specially prepared, completely new silk robe but still seemed rather unpresentable and poor within this beautiful palace.

He was very nervous and his original pale and thin face seemed to be splashed with a dash of red: "Replying to your highness... this incense, this incense... is, is top-notch sandalwood."

Upon hearing this, Guo Xiu's back became very straight: "Since this lowly servant has become an official of the Ministry of Rites, l've been working diligently and fastidiously; l'm only afraid of not having the chance of giving up my life in sacrifice for your highness... This servant knows that Your Highness is sincere in worshipping Buddha so now could this servant possibly create such shoddy work?"

His face was the definition of 'being wronged', it was to the point that he even exaggeratedly wiped the corner of his eye like he was crying

Dowager Consort Zhao endured and closed her eyes: "Imperial Physician Chen?"

"Replying to your highness Dowager Consort..."

The old Imperial Physician, whose hair and beard were all thoroughly white, trembled as he wiped off the sheen of sweat on his forehead. He strenuously spoke up: "There truly is a soothing and hallucinatory herb added into this..."

"Guo Xiu!" Before he finished speaking,
Dowager Consort Zhao's face turned fierce and her towering rage burst out. She suddenly slapped the table, "What do you have to say for yourself? let you reach your current status so smoothly and this is how you repay me?"

Guo Xiu started to shiver uncontrollably after being shouted at. His mind was a complete scene of whiteness and a thin layer of sweat covered his head. His face turned white: