The fireflies dance on the bamboo leaves.
Perhaps because the sun didn’t reach, it was still a bit chilly in the summer in the simple, bamboo-roofed cottage with earthen walls. There were no wind chimes here. As night fell, the only sound that could be heard now and then was the distant call of a cuckoo, and the surroundings fell into eerie silence.
Leaning against the moonlit window, Fei Ling was grinding plant roots with a mortar and pestle. She suddenly raised her gaze and stopped. Someone was approaching the cottage. Faintly, an unfamiliar scent reached her nose.
Fei Ling tensed and peered outside through the door.
(Is anyone there…?)
Before she could relax, something lunged out from the shadows. She didn’t even have time to scream before a rope tightened around her throat.
(An assassin…! I’m in trouble.)
She struggled, but she couldn’t match the man’s strength. Even though she was resistant to poison, Fei Ling was still just a young woman. Her consciousness began to fade.
At that moment, the rope loosened, and the assassin collapsed, as if he had been struck.
Gasping for breath, Fei Ling saw a poisonous centipede crawl from the assassin’s collar. That was the venomous centipede of Zhen.
From the roof of the cottage, Zhen descended.
“She is mine. A mere assassin is not worthy of plucking such a flower.”
Zhen stepped on the corpse of the assassin.
“…Why are you helping me?”
“I already told you. I like you.”
He smirked. A bad feeling arose in Fei Ling, and she instinctively stepped back, but there was a wall behind her. Before she could escape sideways, his leg blocked her path.
“Well, then let’s just say it’s love. I’m the type who likes women. That should be convincing enough, right?”
If it were one of the concubines from the Feng Fei masters’ harem, they would have collapsed, charmed by him by now. But, unfortunately, she was Fei Ling.
“Not in the slightest.”
She stomped hard on his toe.
Zhen didn’t even move a muscle. Was he hiding something in his leather shoe? It was abnormally hard, and even when Fei Ling put her weight on it, it didn’t give in. In a fit of frustration, she swung her arm to strike, but he easily dodged it.
(…He’s really infuriating.)
Her arm was seized, and this time, she was caught.
“Jokes aside, a poison like yours doesn’t come by often. I don’t want to die a pointless death at the hands of some assassin. If you’re going to die, I want you to wither from your own poison, suffocating in the depths of hell.”
His smoldering smile was followed by the poisonous, twin-eyed gaze closing in on her.
It wasn’t love. It was a curse. It almost felt like resentment.
Before Fei Ling could respond, Zhen pulled away. Someone was stepping through the bamboo, moving toward them. A group of fireflies scattered, and a lantern swayed.
“What a noisy evening.”
With a sigh, Zhen hoisted the assassin’s body onto his shoulder and slipped into the shadows.
“Cai Fei Ling…”
It was a court lady. Judging by the lantern’s design, she was from the Empress’s retinue. She was pale and in a state of panic.
Shouting, she said:
“Cai Fei Ling, immediately come to the Imperial Palace. Her Majesty the Empress—”
The Imperial Palace
Fei Ling arrived at the palace and was led to the Empress’s chambers.
As soon as she entered, the intense heat and smoke took her breath away.
In the marble room, something was burning with a bluish flame.
“—Your Majesty.”
There lay the Empress, Xinhua, naked, her skin enveloped in a bluish fire. Her delicate outline shimmered in the dim light.
When Fei Ling had first heard the news from the court lady, she hadn’t been able to imagine such a thing. While she knew about such poisons as part of her medical knowledge, she had never encountered a case like this.
The Empress, Xinhua, was breathing faintly, curled up as though enduring intense pain, almost like a piece of burning paper.
The petals of a rose on the altar were blown into the air by the heat. Any petals that touched her burned instantly. Most likely, her clothing had burned away.
“The poison burns everything she touches—her clothes, even her drinks. I thought if we put her in water, it might help, but it just boiled and evaporated…”
(A too-strong ‘fire poison’ disregards water.)
Fei Ling’s mind raced through the ancient texts.
Fire poison. There were two types of symptoms: one where the body itself spontaneously combusts and another where only the objects the person touches catch fire. The former had been recorded as a form of spontaneous human combustion.
“But for it to affect the Imperial Palace… why?”
The palace was supposed to be protected by Feng Fei .
(No, I’ll think about it later.)
There was no time. Fei Ling spoke quickly to the court lady nearby.
“Bring salt, preferably rock salt!”
The court lady hurried to bring the salt. Fei Ling crushed the chunks and made them the size of candy before offering them to the Empress.
“Please, hold this in your mouth.”
The Empress was unresponsive, perhaps unconscious.
“Excuse me.”
Ignoring the risk of burns, Fei Ling forced the Empress’s mouth open and shoved the salt inside. Salt doesn’t burn, and it has cooling properties. As the salt rolled around her mouth, the heat began to subside.
The Empress’s eyelids fluttered open. The court ladies rushed over, speaking to her.
“Your Majesty! Thank goodness… you’re awake!”
“…Thank you. I’m sorry for causing worry.”
Even in this state, the Empress was comforting them. The court ladies wept, moved by her kindness.
“If anything happens to Your Majesty, I will end my life…”
“I will as well. Please, stay close…”
With her angelic appearance, the Empress exuded a motherly warmth. The court ladies’ eyes reflected a deep resolve. They were not merely loyal—they were ready to die for her, a devotion beyond admiration.
“Hu Ling.”
The Empress weakly shifted her gaze.
“Yes, I’m here.”
“I trust you. I know you will save me.”
Fei Ling nodded quietly.
“I’m hungry. Please prepare something delicious.”
The Empress smiled and closed her eyes in relief.
The salt would not cure the poison—it was only a temporary solution, to prevent the temperature from rising too high. But in order to cure the poison, she would need to understand what kind of poison had been used and how it had affected her.
Poison had been brought into the harem—the unsettling words from Zhen echoed in her mind. The harem was filled with a toxic malice. Had the Empress’s favored position made her a target?
But it was hard to imagine any consorts being able to harm the Empress.
There was one thought that pricked her mind, like a thorn—a possible grudge against the Emperor being directed toward the Empress.
(No… thinking like this is dangerous.)
Even if she didn’t yet understand the poison, she had to act.
“I will find the antidote, no matter what.”
