The Culinary Chronicles of the Court Physician: The Disgraced Princess Consumes Poison to Create Medicine
As promised, on the morning of the seventh day, a carriage from the palace arrived to take them away.
Even Zhen’s mother, just this once, dressed in a brand-new ruqun and even applied rouge to her lips.
Becoming a consort of the imperial clan, and upon the successful assassination of the emperor, rising to the position of empress—she had smiled as if the cherry blossoms were unfurling.
But it was winter. How did she not realize that cherry blossoms blooming out of season would only be scattered by the snowstorm?
As they reached the mountain gorge, the coachman abruptly lashed the reins.
Ahead lay a cliff.
Zhen instinctively knew—they intended to stage an accident and kill them.
As Zhen’s mother hastily tried to open the door, the coachman, throwing his life away, drew his sword and attacked. A snake, hidden within Zhen’s sleeve, sprang out with fangs bared and bit into the coachman. Yet, even as venom coursed through him, he continued to swing his sword wildly.
Amid the struggle, the carriage plummeted off the cliff.
Sending assassins to the secluded palace would only result in retaliation by human poison. The moment they were most vulnerable was now.
And the only one who could orchestrate this was Diao.
The thought of “eliminating evidence” flickered through Zhen’s mind.
What Diao desired was dragon’s blood. If he could obtain that, poison masters would no longer be necessary. And a human poison as dangerous as Zhen would be seen as a threat.
Use them until they are no longer needed—then dispose of them.
“Ah… I was finally supposed to be happy.”
As they plunged into the abyss, Zhen’s mother murmured.
Then, a heavy impact tore through Zhen’s body.
Thrown from the carriage, they crashed into a lake below.
Both Zhen and his mother avoided instant death, but their enemies had anticipated this. Flaming arrows rained down from above.
His mother clutched Zhen tightly, shielding him.
One by one, the burning arrows pierced her back.
“…Hah… hahaha… how could I ever… forgive this?”
Blood trickled from the corner of her lips as she let out a hollow laugh.
“In the end… you take everything from me…”
The fire rained down endlessly. Most arrows sank into the water, but some lodged into the wreckage of the carriage, setting it ablaze. Reflected in the lake’s surface, it was as if they had fallen into a sea of fire.
In the depths of despair, Zhen was struck by an overwhelming sense of déjà vu.
The village of the Qiongqi clan had been burned to the ground by the emperor’s army. The sight of the burning lake overlapped eerily with the poison masters’ demise.
Zhen had never witnessed that moment himself, but having heard his mother recount the tragedy countless times, it had taken root in his heart more vividly than if he had lived it himself.
Ah, so this is how the poison masters were burned—
“Zhen, Zhen… you are my greatest poison.”
From her bosom, his mother pulled out a blood-stained jade pendant and pressed it into his trembling hands.
“The emperor who took everything from me, Diao who deceived me, the imperial clan who abandoned the poison masters, the people who scorned me—”
Her hair caught fire. Her robes burned. Her life was reduced to ash.
In the hellish abyss, like a jar of writhing venomous creatures—
“Poison everything.”
And then, she breathed no more.
