Chapter 78: Bet with huge stakes (2/2)

Mu Liuyue was first stunned, then excited. Afraid that Han Yunxi would forestall it, she hastily answered, “Of course I dare! I bet you can’t find the hidden spy!”

The general’s estate had searched for a month already. Since the matter concerned big brother’s life, the emperor secretly ordered a few master detectives from the justice courts to come investigate, but that yielded no results. Mu Liuyue thought that big brother’s head must have gotten kicked by a donkey for him to find Han Yunxi for help. Han Yunxi was only here to show off at most.

Just because she knew some medical arts, she thought she was all-capable? What a joke!

Of course she’d bet. When it came time for Han Yunxi to take off her robes and run around Xuanwu Street, it’d be so shameful that the Duke of Qin would have ample excuse to divorce her! Since it was an arranged marriage, the original wife’s position would stay there forever if the wife had no crimes. But if the wife offended the Three Obediences and Four Virtues[2] or made a grave mistake, then divorcing her meant the Duke of Qin could take another official wife!

While Murong Wanru hoped that Han Yunxi could die, Mu Liuyue wished that she could be divorced.

A sly look flitted past Han Yunxi’s eyes when she saw Mu Liuyue look so confident. “All right. If this wangfei discovers the hidden spy, it’ll count as your loss.”

“Solve it within a month, do you dare?” Mu Liuyue provoked. Of course she demanded a time limit.

A month’s time was a bit short, but Han Yunxi still agreed with pleasure. This time, convincing the eldest Young Miss was more important than finding some secret agent! She had to personally teach this rude, conceited girl a lesson so that the next time they met, the girl would take a detour!

“If you can’t find the traitor within a month, then you lose!” Mu Liuyue said seriously. She wanted Han Yunxi’s absolute agreement.

“Would General Mu please stand as witness?” Han Yunxi glanced towards the other members of the Mu family.

Though she hadn’t found anything in her rounds, disappointing General Mu, he still didn’t want his daughter to lose face regardless of the results. Neither did he want to shame Qin Wangfei!

“Esteemed wangfei, I think we should forget about this bet. Compared to the matter of the hidden agent…”

But Mu Liuyue interrupted before he could finish. “Father, esteemed wangfei said herself that she wanted this bet. We can’t deny the esteemed wangfei’s amusements.”

“You still dare to talk!” an angry General Mu narrowly avoided taking out his whip. Mu Liuyue fearfully backed up a step, but she still glanced at Han Yunxi, worried that she’d take back her words.

“Great General, they all say that a monarch doesn’t make joking remarks. Though this wangfei is but a weak woman, I’m still the Duke of Qin’s official wife. How could my words count for nothing?” Han Yunxi said earnestly.

Now that they’d gotten to this step, Han Yunxi took out the power of status. But General Mu was still anxious. He couldn’t afford for either party to lose the bet!

“Esteemed wangfei, please look on behalf of this old official and…”

And yet he didn’t finish before Mu Qingwu of all people spoke up. “Father, Liuyue already agreed. The subordinates can’t rebel against the superiors and go back on their words!”

Mu Qingwu’s words were even unexpected to Han Yunxi. It looked like he had enough of indulging his pampered little sister. Very good, this guy hadn’t disappointed her. General Mu looked at Mu Qingwu, then Han Yunxi’s cold silence, and had no alternative but to agree. As soon as Mu Liuyue saw her father nod his head, she was filled with cheer. She was almost too impatient to write a letter and tell Princess Changping the good news so she could hurry back and witness the joke. But she quickly realized that she had been happy too soon.

“General Mu, since we haven’t found anything in the estate, there’s only one way left,” Han Yunxi said.

Mu Liuyue knitted her brows at the words. Seeing Han Yunxi’s calm self-possession, she felt inexplicably nervous.

“Please inform us, esteemed wangfei,” General Mu was anxious too.

“Look for the source,” Han Yunxi said seriously.

“The source?” Mu Qingwu didn’t understand.

“The origin of the poison,” Han Yunxi said simply.

Ten-Thousand Snake Poison was a rare poison made from the venom of the world’s top ten poisonous snakes. Though it was called ‘Ten-Thousand Snake Poison,’ it didn’t really hold ten thousand different venoms. It was because the top ten snake venoms combined could overpower the poisons of ten thousand commonplace snakes.

A simple name like this thoroughly expressed its horrific potency.

To create such a poison wasn’t simple. Not only did the poisoner have to know how to allocate the various proportions properly, they had to find the ten most poisonous snakes to extract their venom. Medicine and poison were of one family. Too much medicine would become poison; a little bit of poison could be medicine. Still, this was only under special circumstances. Medicine and poison still had strict differences between them.

But Ten-Thousand Snake Poison was one of those special exceptions. Despite being a hypertoxic poison, parts of it were still good medicine against rare illnesses.

-o-

[1] Xuanwu Street (玄武街) – xuanwu jie, in which Xuanwu refers to the Black Tortoise, a name for the guardian spirit of the north in Daoism.

[2] Three Obediences and Four Virtues (三从四德) – sancong side, aka the 7 Reasons to Divorce Your Wife If She Ever Breaks These Rules in ancient times, according to Confucian ethics. They are 1) obedience to father before marriage, 2) to husband after marriage, 3) and to son after husband’s death as well as 4) morality, 5) proper speech, 6) modest manner, 7) diligent work.