The Culinary Chronicles of the Court Physician: The Disgraced Princess Consumes Poison to Create Medicine
“It’s me.”
She had continued to bear resentment.
Every time she looked into the mirror, she trembled with the urge to strangle herself.
She should never have imagined it. That such a strong-willed woman had harbored such despair. Yet, Zhen did not seem even slightly surprised. Only for a fleeting moment did his eyes twist with sorrow.
The two of them were mirrors. The poison that dwelled in her existed within Zhen as well.
Understanding. To be able to understand—it was the most potent poison of all.
“You know it, don’t you? The antidote for the forbidden poison that destroyed the former emperor.”
Zhen shook his head lightly.
“That poison was supposed to be incurable.”
“There is no poison that the Bai Ze clan cannot cure. However, this one… this was a forbidden drug.”
A sinister wind swept through the room, rattling the windows. The scent of medicine, lingering in the chamber, stirred into the air, stinging her nose—as if condemning her for unveiling the secret of the forbidden poison.
Brushing aside hesitation, Fei Ling continued.
“According to the writings of Bai Ze, the essential ingredient for a forbidden drug is but one thing—one’s own child.”
She placed a hand over the warm, throbbing mass within her chest.
“——The heart.”
Zhen drew a sharp breath, his brows furrowing.
“The life of you, the daughter of nobility, was the only cure?”
Poisoned blood requires a remedy of blood. A cruel logic, but one that defied human morality—hence, it was forbidden.
“After he was poisoned, the former emperor was constantly starving. People said that Chaos was ravenous for blood, but they were wrong. The emperor was starving for the cure.”
Medicine is something that delights the tongue. The more one needs it, the more one craves it, the more one longs for it.
“The former emperor wanted to devour me, his own daughter. But because he couldn’t, he turned his unfulfilled hunger upon others, slaughtering them over and over again.”
In his final years, the delirious emperor executed his ministers, consuming their hearts—only to vomit them back up, screaming, This isn’t it! His grotesque frenzy earned him the title of monster.
And why did he suffer such agonizing hunger, only to meet his end?
“It was all because of me. Those were my mother’s final words.”
Even now, she could not rid herself of them— If you had been devoured as the cure, the former emperor would not have perished.
Leaving behind that curse, her mother drank poison.
Her mother had loved the emperor.
And so, even while bearing despair, she upheld her promise to protect the noble daughter, as the emperor had once commanded. While at the same time, resenting the daughter who was born as medicine, yet never became one.
“That is why… at the very least, continuing to be medicine was my form of vengeance—my atonement.”
Raised as medicine, striving to become medicine—only to fail, at the very end, to be the cure for the father she adored.
“I wanted to be forgiven.”
For the one and only time she had failed to become medicine.
Fei Ling twisted her lips into a smile.
The more she wanted to break down, to scream and weep, the more she could only smile.
That was how she was born.
Zhen silently listened to her confession, which was not even a true confession.
To tell her it was not her fault—such words would be easy. To say that her mother, who both protected and resented her, was a poison—such words would be simple.
But such words would be no different from medicine without effect.
“You are cursed by medicine, aren’t you?”
Zhen wrapped his arms around Fei Ling’s trembling shoulders.
She pressed her face against his chest and lowered her lashes.
“Yes. Just as you are cursed by poison.”
In the end, Fei Ling’s mother had chosen poison as her salvation.
No matter how much Fei Ling tried to remain as medicine, she would never be granted forgiveness.
Fei Ling had once shattered under that realization.
“And yet… because you told me to become poison, this time, I was finally able to remain medicine until the very end.”
Perhaps, only Zhen had truly forgiven her.
His poison had been Fei Ling’s greatest medicine.
Now, she finally understood the meaning behind the words of Consort Xue Mei.
Because there is someone who says they will love you even as you wither, the flower can bloom in eternity.
A cruel contradiction.
And yet, if she were to borrow Xue Mei’s words, that was what love was.
The poison was spreading. Even forming words was becoming difficult.
Yet, Fei Ling smiled—like a bud finally beginning to unfurl.
“Thank you.”
“You truly… are the cruelest poison.”
Zhen sighed, frustration lacing his breath.
“A poison like hell itself, more captivating than a thousand flowers. And yet, I was utterly drawn to you.”
“I wanted to take you, poisoned, down to the depths of hell with me…”
Fei Ling felt her consciousness fading.
Once, Zhen had told her— This poison brings only death, without pain.
Though fatal poisons did not work on Fei Ling, her mind was slowly being eroded.
Her thoughts grew murky, her eyelids felt sewn shut, a numbing sleepiness overcame her.
A single kiss was pressed upon her closed eyelids before Zhen drew away.
Something clawed desperately at her chest, and she tried to reach for him.
But her fingers did not move—not in the slightest.
Even the remnants of her consciousness were swallowed by the poison, plunging Fei Ling into darkness.
