The Elegant Dancing Years By Huo Li (火狸) | BL

Chapter 35 | The Poison's Source

From the censer, wisps of clear fog rose infused with a cold, light fragrance which added a bit of indolence and comfort to this end-of-summer afternoon. Although it was past noon and the heat outside wasn't any less, it seemed that the bedchamber they were in was getting increasingly cooler.

"Ying Ran, you have something on your mind?" Qi Mingyue was lying on the couch with a book in hand but he wasn't paying attention to it, his eyes were gazing at the dazed woman dressed in white.

Yingran snapped out of her thoughts, "Ah, Your Highness? This slave got distracted for a moment, I didn't hear what you asked earlier."

"You have something on your mind." This time, it wasn't a question.

She knew that nothing could be concealed from His Highness, so she nodded and replied, "I do have something on my mind but I'm still uncertain about it. Therefore, I dare not speak presumptuously to Your Highness."

"What speaking presumptuously? Since you have something to say, just say it so that I can share your worries." Putting down the book in his hand, he tugged on Ying Ran's clothes and with some youthful playfulness, he shook it, "Ying Ran is going to say or not?"

His Highness always behaved with such grace and calmness that it invariably made people forget that he was only twelve years old. Now, however, he showed such a rare, lovely look of a young boy, Ying Ran couldn't help chuckling, "Your Highness, it's not a big deal, it's just... last time, when I was in the Underground Palace and heard of Soul lure and the soul-attracting nature of it, I felt a little surprised."

At that time, he had noticed that she looked strange. As expected, there was something else to it. "Why were you surprised? Are these poisons not commonly available? What's their origin?"

"Your Highness guessed it well. All these poisons should come from An Yang and they are very rare. Ordinary people have never even heard of them, let alone used them. If I wasn't born in An Yang, I wouldn't even have known about them."

"I heard that you once studied medicine and poisons, all of your knowledge comes from the Yi family. It seems that your mentor is truly erudite."

Hearing him say this, Ying Ran lowered her head, and spoke with seemingly infinite emotion and sadness, "Shifu[1] could poison and cure but he never used poison to hurt people. Even when in danger, he didn't want to use poison to save himself. Ying Ran had no choice but to make poison to hurt others, as a result, I was expelled by him."

[1] 'Master' which refers to a highly-skilled teacher towards whom one feels respect.

It turned out to be like this, Qi Mingyue glanced at Ying Ran, who had sunk into thinking of her past memories, and saw that she looked miserable. He turned to ask about the previous matter, "You said you couldn't be sure, what was that about? What couldn't you be sure of?"

"I suspect that those who instigated the poisoning got all the poisons from An Yang, but as I said before, they're all very rare. In fact, they're not only rare but simply impossible to obtain unless it's An Yang's royal family."

"What you mean is that these are all the hidden poisons of An Yang's royal palace?" Han Ziqi had something to do with An Yang? Then what he did was for a personal agenda or actually directed towards Cang He?

"Although they're not for exclusive royal use, it isn't easy to produce them or find them in the secret places of Jianghu. Only the royal family can afford the manpower and material resources required for it. Therefore, I can't be sure whether that's the case or someone purposefully targeted Your Highness." The world knew about His Highness' temperament and talent as well as His Majesty's love for him, so it could be said that if they lost His Highness, Cang He would be in turmoil.