RUYI

124 - Chihong Fenmian

"Jian-ge! Why are so cruel to Ting? She's done nothing wrong. You made a mistake!"

Wu Jian didn't bothered to acknowledge Wu Ting as he faced the Empress. Once the Empress took the scroll, she opened it to see nothing but ingredients.

"What is this..."

"Do you not recognized the meals your favored princess prepared the past month?"

Indeed, the scroll listed all the ingredients to every meal Wu Ting had made the past month. Nothing was left out.

"J_ Jian-ge_"

"Chihong Fenmian"

Hearing Wu Jian's words, Wu Ting and Madam Muyang froze. The Empress, on the other hand, was still lost.

"Is that not the name of the poison?" Wu Jian sneered.

"What?" The Empress was startled. "Poison?"

"Jian-ge!" Wu Ting frantically wanted to reach for Wu Jian but was stopped by her frightened mother. "Jian-ge, Ting doesn't know what you're saying. She doesn't have anything to do with it. Ting swears_"

"You don't have anything to do with the poison?" Wu Jian laughed coldly. "What thick skin you have"

"Jian-ge! Please believe Ting! Ting doesn't know anything! She didn't poison anyone!"

Wu Ting's frantic cries only betrayed her - revealing her guilt.

"Ting-Ting!"

Her mother pulled her back, wanting her to calm herself.

"Poison?" The Empress turned to look at Madam Muyang and Wu Ting. "What poison?"

"Your Majesty, we're confused as you are" Madam Muyang pleaded. "We know nothing about the poison Prince Jian is speaking of"

Again, Wu Jian let out a cold laugh.

"Get the royal physician here" Wu Jian ordered one of his men.

"Jian-ge! Why won't you believe Ting?"

Wu Jian ignored her completely as she continued to cry out for him. Moments later, the royal physician nervously rushed in and bowed to the Empress and Prince Wu Jian.

"Tell her Majesty what Chihong Fenmian is"

Chihong Fenmian is a poison used to kill the mother and her unborn child. What's vicious about it is that the poison needed time to form. The mother had to consume each specific ingredient over weeks and months in order for the toxic to take shape. Each ingredient are commonly found in food so no one would suspect it's danger. But the cruelty of the poison was that it not only kill the child at birth, but the mother will die as well. Their death will appear natural - sadly so, that no one would ever suspect poison.

But Wu Ting and her mother made a mistake. Chihong Fenmian needed time to take form. Wu Ting couldn't wait anymore and acted out by increasing more than one ingredient in each of the meals she had Ruyi consumed. The toxic never truly reached its final state.

Ironically, Ruyi's own poison body reacted to Chihong Fenmian uncompleted form. No one know if it's Ruyi's misfortune or Wu Ting's bad luck that things are the way they are now.