The Flower’s Dancer was in a state of disarray.
When Fei Ling Ling arrived at the room of Xue Mei, the consort of the Spring Palace, she was met with an angry voice.
“It’s bitter! Drinking it won’t cure anything anyway!”
“But, Your Highness Xue Mei, this medicine was prepared by the imperial physician using rare plant roots…”
“I said I don’t want it!”
Xue Mei Consort shouted, swatting away the tray held by a female attendant. The tray tilted, and the teapot fell. The medicinal brew spilled from the broken teapot, soaking the floor with its fragrance as the red petals scattered. The smell of Chinese medicine mixed with the scent of plum, filling the room with a choking suffocating atmosphere.
Plum… yes, plum.
Red plum petals were scattered around the meticulously arranged room. The scent of plum blossoms, which had filled the air earlier, must have come from here.
(A storm amidst the flowers.)
The plums in the Spring Palace should have already fallen after the equinox. It wasn’t just the petals that lay about but also buds. Where had these plums come from?
“…Ah, now you’re the food physician.”
Xue Mei, who had been sitting in her chair, turned her gaze to Fei Ling Ling and sighed audibly.
“Xiao Ling, I’m thirsty. Make me jasmine tea.”
“Understood…”
The female attendant, Xiao Ling, left the room quickly, not wanting to upset the consort further. As she passed by Fei Ling Ling, Xiao Ling awkwardly gave a slight bow. It seemed like a silent request to take care of the consort.
Fei Ling Ling faced Xue Mei again.
(A beautiful woman… With a chest like hers, she’d surely have milk if she had a child.)
As it was said that the Spring Palace was home to blooming and evergreen plum trees, Xue Mei Consort was far more graceful than the other concubines. Only she could wear fiery crimson silk without hesitation, her lashes like smoke and lips tinted red. Her glossy hair resembled silk threads, and it was clear she took great care of it. Even her fingernails were meticulously polished, and her nails were decorated with vibrant red polish, despite her sickly condition.
“You’re the food physician of the harem? I hear you concocted a medicine that instantly heals a strange disease.”
“My name is Fei Ling Ling.”
Xue Mei Consort glared at Fei Ling Ling, curling her lips in a smug smile.
“The chaotic girl, is it? How strange. I wonder why someone like you, at the lowest rank, even qualifies as one of the emperor’s concubines.”
Despite the title of “food physician,” Fei Ling Ling was merely a “harem food physician.”
A food physician is a high-ranking medical officer responsible for the meals of the emperor and empress. The food one consumes builds the body’s foundation. Balanced meals lead to good health, while imbalanced ones invite illness. It is the food physician’s job to regulate the immune system through diet.
However, in this harem, where the emperor is absent, there is a contradiction in the position of food physician. Fei Ling Ling is merely responsible for prescribing medicinal dishes to patients, which adds to the inconsistency of her role.
Therefore, Fei Ling Ling’s official rank was that of the lowest concubine, the eighth rank, a mere servant of the emperor.
“Ah, you’re the emperor’s niece, so you received mercy. Otherwise, you’d have been sentenced to death.”
(…Arguing in these situations is futile. If the emperor hadn’t seen some use for me, my neck would have been separated from my body by now.)
Fei Ling Ling remained silent, smiling, as Xue Mei Consort sighed again, possibly feeling foolish for venting her frustration aloud.
“You were probably asked by one of the female attendants, weren’t you?”
As a consort, Xue Mei had nine female attendants. Given that two of them were noted for their beauty, one could imagine her high rank. It was Xiao Ling, the attendant who had come to Fei Ling Ling with a request for medicine.
“You said the medicine was bitter.”
“What, are you planning to lecture me? It’s bitter and does nothing, that’s the problem. That stuff is no different from poison.”
“As you say, the medicine seems unsuitable for Your Highness. If it feels bitter on the tongue, it’s not the right remedy for you. A medicine should not cause discomfort but should be pleasing to the taste.”
In fact, Chinese medicine, if suited to the patient, would taste good, even if it used bitter plants.
Xue Mei narrowed her eyes and seemed a little pleased.
(Most likely…)
Fei Ling Ling’s gaze turned to the broken teapot.
A strong scent of licorice drifted from the medicinal brew. Licorice is a plant whose roots contain sweetness up to a hundred times stronger than sugar and is often used to balance the taste of medicines. The imperial physician had likely prepared the brew in a way that would be as palatable as possible, considering that Xue Mei Consort disliked bitterness.
(Even so, the fact that it is still bitter means… it’s not just that the medicine doesn’t match her condition, but there must be another cause.)
Perhaps it was the effect of the toxic plague invading her body. Or maybe something else.
“Well, it doesn’t matter. You won’t be able to cure this disease anyway. Even the most skilled court physician has already given up.”
Xue Mei Consort pinched the hem of her robe and smoothly lifted it up. Fei Ling Ling inhaled sharply.
Plum.
From her toned, slender legs, red plums bloomed, clustering together.
The double petals, adorned with yellow stamens, swayed gently, spreading the rich fragrance of plum blossoms. It was dazzlingly beautiful, but that very beauty was cruel.
The plum branches seemed to break through her skin and grow. From the skin on her legs and neck to the tips of her limbs, they were covered in hard, woody skin, transforming into something that could neither be called a branch nor a root of the plum tree.
Looking closely, the nails adorning her fingers weren’t decorated with red lacquer but with plums.
It was unnatural.
And yet, the disease invading her body… was beautiful.
“This is the ‘toxic plague,’ isn’t it?”
Xue Mei Consort faintly lifted the corner of her stiffened lips. Despite being confronted with the fear of death, she seemed to be forcing herself to act brave.
“First, let me conduct a physical examination. Excuse me.”
The skin, eroded by the woody substance, felt rough, as if it had turned into the texture of the plum tree bark itself. It didn’t feel like human flesh. Though there were no visible wounds on the skin pierced by the branches, beneath the soft exterior were hard, woody roots. The veins of these roots overlapped with arteries. Perhaps the roots had infiltrated the arteries, drawing blood to make the red plums bloom.
Fei Ling Ling’s mind began to unravel what she had read in medical texts. The “White Fang” (a medical book) contained a description of a condition where leaves sprouted and flowers bloomed from a person’s body. It was a well-known case of poisoning from trees, and there were others who expelled flowers from their throats or had their tears turn into petals.
“This is ‘tree poison,’ isn’t it?”
“Hmm. There’s no need for an examination. I already know what it is.”
“As expected. As you said, earth poison often manifests in an obvious way.”
Fei Ling Ling continued to take her pulse. The pulse had a distinct, rolling beat. She slightly raised an eyebrow. This was a pulse that indicated a certain condition. Given that, it made sense that Xue Mei Consort rejected the licorice as bitter. Fei Ling Ling continued speaking, her thoughts racing in her mind.
“However, even though we call it ‘tree poison,’ if we trace the source of the poison, it’s not just the tree that’s harming you. The ‘water poison’ or ‘earth poison’ that the tree’s roots have absorbed, or even ‘fire poison,’ might be involved.”
“If that is the case, even if we prepare a remedy using ‘metal’ to counter the ‘tree,’ we cannot cure the plague. The difficulty lies in the medicine itself.”
The sources of earth poison are varied. Sometimes, the blood of fallen soldiers pollutes the earth and turns it into poison, or living in reclaimed swamp land can unknowingly expose one to water poison. In the former case, the poison of the earth combines with that of metal, while the latter involves the soil’s toxins from the swamp’s sludge.
The ancients said, “To cure a disease, one must find its root.”
“Thus, unless we solve the origin of the poison, we cannot detoxify it.”
That, too, is the principle of poison.
“Earth poison, you say? What exactly is earth poison? How can something that is not poison turn into poison?”
Fei Ling Ling stopped her examination. She was taken aback.
Usually, when faced with such phenomena, most people would simply fear them and abandon understanding. No concubine had ever asked such a logical question about poison before.
For the patient, what mattered most was whether they would recover or not.
“Excuse me, Consort Xue Mei, what do you consider poison to be?”
Fei Ling Ling couldn’t hide her joy, her eyes narrowing slightly.
“Why is poison poison?”
