Ming Dynasty Detective 1546

Chapter 111: Poisoning Techniques (Part )

"The Kumogakure Society is imprisoned in there?"

"Yes."

"Open the door!"

"Swish-swish-swish!"

In front of the woodshed in the backyard, two guards from the palace worked together to remove the thick chains on the door.

There were five chains in total, and it took a full quarter of an hour to open them all. The guard seemed to think it was too much trouble and said awkwardly, "The people inside are magicians! Otherwise, they can't be locked up like this!"

"If you really know magic, even ten chains wouldn't be enough..."

Li Yuying remained silent. She examined the thick chain and found it to be very strong. Furthermore, the windows of the woodshed were also boarded up tightly. But she felt strange: "Since they were locked up this morning, no one has come in or out since?"

"No one! Absolutely no one!"

"Then how do you deliver food to the people inside?"

"Send food? No, I won't... You won't starve to death if you don't eat for a few meals!"

As she said this, the door opened and a foul smell hit her in the face. Li Yuying, who had an extremely keen sense of smell, immediately covered her nose and saw that several people inside had already stood up stiffly.

Li Yuying looked at it carefully and matched it one by one with the magician who performed last night.

The troupe's owner, Hong Niangzi, is a woman in her forties. According to common people, this age is considered old, but she looks quite wealthy, with few wrinkles, gentle features, and a calm demeanor. The only thing is that she is fat and quite bloated.

The person standing next to her seemed to be a Hui people, with a high nose and deep eyes, but his name was a Han Chinese name, Jiao Bai. At this moment, his eyes were rolling around, and he looked quite uneasy.

On the other side was a tall and thin man named Lu Cangzhou. When Hai Yue and Yan Shifan watched the Tianqiao performance before, he was the first one to go on stage. His graceful posture impressed the audience. But now his face was pale and gloomy.

The youngest among the four illusionists was Yan Ling, a girl of about sixteen or seventeen years old. She had a petite figure and was hiding behind Hong Niangzi, with a look of extreme fear on her face.

"I am Li, the Princess of Annan Fanglian. Her Highness the Princess is still unconscious, so I have come to inquire about what happened."

Li Yuying briefly introduced herself and began to ask, "When Her Royal Highness fainted last night, was it directly related to your performance? Do you have an explanation?"

"I've met the princess!"

Lady Hong was the first to bow, her tone filled with resignation. "We are merely a troupe of street performers. We are honored to have been favored by Her Royal Highness the Princess and invited to perform at her residence. How dare we harm the Emperor's daughter? I hope the Princess will understand!"

"You have quite a good conversation."

Li Yuying examined the troupe leader and asked, "Your Excellency, do you mean that the princess's accident has nothing to do with you?"

Lady Hong was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "We have absolutely no intention of harming Her Royal Highness the Princess."

"This statement is ambiguous. There is no intention to harm. But is there any actual harm?"

Li Yuying's voice became sharper: "The Princess Mansion invited you here not just to perform magic, right?"

Hong Niang fell silent again, then sighed after a moment: "Princess, please understand. We are indeed here to perform magic. However, Her Royal Highness did make some unusual requests, and later made many changes..."

Li Yuying interrupted, "For example, the 'Magpie Bridge Meeting' that was staged in advance? Who is the princess planning to meet on this 'Magpie Bridge'?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Hongniang's face changed, and the other three began to tremble.

Is this something I can ask?

'It seems he is not the prince consort!'

Li Yuying had already determined the answer through this reaction, and changed the subject: "So the princess's initial coma was intentional?"

Red Lady whispered, "Yes."

"Wake up again during the night and act under the guise of sleepwalking?"

"Yes."

"Who are you meeting?"

"It's a scholar named Gao Zhongyuan. The prince consort hosted a banquet for him in the East Courtyard. The princess wanted to take the opportunity to meet him, just for a moment, nothing more. However, she was worried about the gossips of the servants in the palace, so she resorted to this desperate measure..."

"Did she see Gao Gaoyuan?"

"My disciple accompanied the princess to see it."

When asked this, Li Yuying looked at Yan Ling, the girl behind Hong Niangzi, and asked, "Were you with the princess last night?"

"Yes……"

Yan Ling said timidly, "I know some light body techniques. I took His Highness to the East Courtyard and met that scholar named Gao!"

Li Yuying became a little nervous when she asked this: "What did the two of them say?"

Yan Ling said: "No words."

Li Yuying frowned. "Right now, the princess's health is paramount. We cannot hide anything. Do you understand?"

Yan Ling was anxious: "What I said is true. The princess was just watching from a distance. At first, she seemed not to recognize the person. After recognizing him, she seemed very disappointed. After taking a look, she returned to her bedroom."

Li Yuying asked, "You didn't say a word the whole time?"

Yan Ling said, "The princess told me that her husband treated her very well and that she should live a good life and not do such an extraordinary thing. Seeing him tonight, I have fulfilled my wish from that time and have no regrets anymore."

"I see!"

Li Yuying breathed a sigh of relief and turned to Hong Niangzi: "Why do you dare to get involved in the affairs of the royal family?"

Lady Hong sighed softly, "Money can move people's hearts, and the Princess's Mansion is willing to pay a large sum of money."

"How many?"

"I paid a hundred taels of silver long before entering the mansion, and I will pay another five hundred taels after the matter is completed."

"Six hundred taels in total, it's certainly a lot. Who contacted you?"

"Zai Sizheng." "Why did I find you?"

"We have just arrived in the capital and have few connections with various parties."

"Would you like to sign a confession and write down the details of what happened?"

"willing."

"Bring them some paper and pen! And bring them some food!"

"Thank you, Princess! Thank you, Princess!"

……

The foul smell in the woodshed dissipated a little, and the food was brought in. Li Yuying watched the four people eat voraciously, and then wrote down their testimonies on paper.

Based on the current clues, the purpose of Yunyin Society entering the Princess's Mansion has become clear.

The magic show was fake, but the crying about the evil slaves making things difficult for her was real.

But the princess added another scene for herself.

Under the pretext of meeting on the Magpie Bridge, her soul was drawn to the Magpie Bridge and she sleepwalked at night to meet another man who had won the first place in the imperial examination when she was recruiting a prince consort.

As a result, it seemed that Gao Xueyuan did not satisfy her at the moment. She just took a look at him, fulfilled her old wish, and returned to her bedroom.

"Is this all the trouble?"

Compared to Haiyue, who is an ordinary person and finds it difficult to empathize with the royal family, Li Yuying feels a little emotional.

If Annan was in its heyday, she, as a princess, would probably be manipulated by a political marriage, marry a man she did not love, and then experience all kinds of misfortunes, living a life without control of her own will.

Now, risking their lives, they come to a strange country to seek help. They seem to be in a mess and encounter obstacles at every turn, but it is precisely because they take this step and shoulder this heavy burden that they have the real power of autonomy!
Li Yuying took a deep breath, put down her confession, and began to chat casually: "Do you know that I was also framed as a suspect not long ago..."

Instead of interrogating them, she even let them have a full meal, and the four of them were obviously quite grateful. Lady Hong hurriedly said, "How could the princess harm His Highness? This is absolutely nonsense!"

Li Yuying said, "Because the imperial physician diagnosed that the princess was poisoned by the fire hemp flower, and the imperial physician also said that the fire hemp flower is only found in Annan, so everyone suspected me!"

"The princess has been poisoned?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the four of them changed color.

Li Yuying took a quick look and saw that they did not look fake.

When the Yunyin Society was imprisoned, the imperial physician had not yet arrived, so he naturally should not have known the details of the poisoning. This reaction now is correct.

The next concern should be: "The princess is poisoned, won't the mansion suspect us?" "No wonder they have been locking us up, they thought what happened last night was exposed..." "What should we do?"

Seeing the other three panicking, Lady Hong coughed lightly and bowed to Li Yuying. "We are all ordinary people who travel far and wide to make a living. This time, greed got us into trouble and we are caught up in something we cannot bear. I only hope that Princess Li will have mercy on us, find out the truth, and seek justice for us!"

Li Yuying said seriously, "Once we catch the real culprit, we will naturally not implicate innocent people. Do you have any suspects?"

Lady Hong said, "Since I entered the mansion, the person I've interacted with the most is Cai Sizheng. He's a cautious and meticulous person, and his concern for the princess is genuine. He shouldn't be the murderer. As for the others, I don't know."

Li Yuying looked at Yan Ling: "Little sister, what do you think?"

Yan Ling glanced at her master, Lady Hong, and finally mustered up the courage to speak: "The evil servants in the mansion are the most suspicious! The princess' birthday is coming soon. If the queen mother knew about their evil deeds, she would definitely punish them. They are afraid, so they are the first to harm the princess!"

Li Yuying nodded slightly. "It's true that the evil servant had a reasonable motive for taking such a risk. But after you sent the princess back to her bedroom last night, the ones who covered for you were all the princess's loyal maids, not those evil servants, right?"

Yan Ling said: "No!"

Li Yuying said, "The princess was perfectly fine at the time, surrounded by loyal maids. But this morning, she suddenly fell into a coma. Logically, the evil servant shouldn't have had the opportunity to approach the princess and poison her!"

Yan Ling scratched his head, looking distressed: "Yes... yes..."

Li Yuying was also thinking.

When she just learned from Si Zheng Cai Yong that there was another person who was the Cowherd in the "Magpie Bridge Meeting" last night, she immediately suspected her husband Xie Zhao. Fortunately, after further investigation, the princess did not do anything out of line.

Of course, there is no guarantee that the prince consort will not misunderstand and murder his wife, but even if it is the prince consort, the method of poisoning is still a problem.

According to the judgment of the imperial physician Li Shaoting, the poison the princess has been poisoned with is suspected to be a variant of the datura flower, the hemp flower. However, this poison has a strong smell and is usually taken with hot wine so that it will not be detected. Who could have allowed the princess to take such an obvious poison during the period from last night when she returned to the palace to this morning when she was completely unconscious?

She had also asked Cai Yong in her bedroom. In order to prepare for the birthday performance, the princess had first alerted the Imperial Hospital and planned to hold on until she woke up in the afternoon. She lay on the couch without having breakfast.

This way.

How was the poison administered?
"Or is it that Li Shaoting's diagnosis was wrong, and the princess wasn't poisoned at all, and is now unconscious for another reason?"

"No! This person is so confident and assertive. Don't dare to joke about such a thing..."

Li Yuying thought of this and her eyes suddenly paused. She looked at Yan Ling's hand and saw several copper coins flying between his fingers. It was dazzling. She couldn't help but wonder, "The guards didn't search me?"

Hongniangzi said, "How could they not search us? The tools we needed for our magic tricks were all taken away by the guards, and some were even damaged..."

"Then what's in her hand..."

"We call it 'mud money'. It's the foundation of any illusionist. If you're truly destitute, you can use it to buy food. It can make the illusion look real. But afterward, you have to quietly replace the 'mud money' with real money, otherwise it would break the rules of the trade!"

Yan Ling obediently stretched out her palm, and Li Yuying discovered that it was actually made of clay. It rolled in the hands of this dexterous girl, like a real copper coin. Only by spreading it out and observing it carefully could one tell the authenticity.

"First it was fake, then I exchanged it for the real one..."

Li Yuying stared at it intently, her body suddenly trembling: "I understand! The poison was fake at first, but later it became real!"

There was a moment of silence in the woodshed, and Hongniang and the other three all looked over.

"The princess hasn't eaten since last night until this morning. Logically, the murderer shouldn't have had the opportunity to poison her."

"In fact, there isn't."

"Until the imperial physician from the Imperial Hospital arrived and diagnosed the princess, Li Shaoting, the imperial physician, concluded that the princess had been poisoned..."

At this point, Li Yuying paused and said something that shocked everyone inside and outside: "And the antidote he gave the princess next was exactly the real poison that caused her to remain unconscious until now!"

(End of this chapter)