Chapter 144: The chronically-ill Imperial Physician (2/2)
Han Yunxi never expected Tianning Country’s head Iimperial Pphysician was prone to sickness. If Gu Beiyue hadn’t said so himself, who would be able to tell?
“Could it be that you caught a certain disease when you were young?” Han Yunxi asked.
Gu Beiyue’s eyes looked bitter and pained as he replied. “I heard my grandfather say that I was born prematurely. It was medicine that kept me alive.”
Now Han Yunxi was even more startled, though the information dispelled all her doubts. No wonder. In the past, premature babies rarely survived past infancy. Thankfully this guy had picked the right womb and had a divine doctor as a grandfather. Otherwise, it’d be hard pressed to raise him even if one had medicine. Han Yunxi only knew that Gu Beiyue had been brought to Tianning’s capital by his grandfather. As for his parents, she had no idea. Of course, she wasn’t curious enough to ask after his personal affairs.
She gave him a teasing smile. “Looks like you should appeal to the emperor to lighten your workload.”
Gu Beiyue smiled faintly. Despite his pale face, this smile was still as warm as an April breeze. “Esteemed wangfei, the information you asked this one to look into last time…”
“How is it?” Han Yunxi was excited. So this was the reason this fellow had asked to meet.
She’d asked him to investigate how Han Congan had become a director of Cloud Realm Medical Academy in order to find out the relationship between the academy and Lady Tianxin.
Seeing her so moved, Gu Beiyue was a little hesitant, but continued to speak. “Esteemed wangfei, I’m sorry to report. Although everyone in Cloud Realm Medical Academy has heard of Lady Tianxin, none of them knew her personally.”
His words stunned Han Yunxi. Lady Tianxin’s name had spread throughout all of Tianning’s capital city in her day. She even promised Han Congan that he’d become a director of the medical academy, so Han Yunxi expected her to have excellent connections within the school. Who knew that these were the results?
A director in the medical academy was a mid-rank personage. There were various people and positions still above that. Perhaps if any of them knew Lady Tianxin, she could ask them to make Han Congan a medical director. Good connections had to be made with those higher up, right?
“Then amongst the elders and department chairs, are there any who knew my mother?” Han Yunxi pressed.
Gu Beiyue only laughed. “Esteemed wangfei, this is as much as I could find out. When my grandfather was still alive, he only met with the academy’s elders a few times.”
“Esteemed wangfei, perhaps Lady Tianxin really had no connections with the medical academy. It wouldn’t have been hard to help Han Congan. His skills back then really were enough to shoulder the position of a director,” Gu Beiyue said objectively.
Fine, Han Yunxi realized that she’d acted impulsively, but she was anxious. There was only this thread cluing her in to Lady Tianxin’s identity. After drinking a few cups of tea in silence, Han Yunxi caused no more difficulties for Gu Beiyue. She couldn’t figure out this matter with one shot, after all. Instead she asked, “Did you just ask to meet me here for this?”
“There’s one other thing…” Gu Beiye seemed a little embarrassed.
Han Yunxi knew that her intuition was right. This fellow had to have arranged to meet with her in private for some other reason.
“There’s no one else here, go ahead,” Han Yunxi grinned.
Gu Beiyue’s smile turned bashful, making him even cuter. Despite his shyness, he was still very earnest. “Esteemed wangfei, I heard that you and Miss Liuyue made a bet. So…I’m curious as to how you knew to use goldfish to test for Ten-Thousand Snake Poison?”
Many of the spectators that day had no idea what was going on, but Gu Beiyue was a doctor. He understood perfectly and because of that, saw nothing out of the ordinary. To test for poisons, there were two methods: 1) examining the poison itself, 2) testing the poison on others.
Examining poisons were the jobs of poisons masters. Through sniffing, tasting, or reactions with other poisons, they could experiment and gain knowledge from results that perplexed other people. Testing poisons typically used poison stones, people, or animals. Such tests were performed for the benefit of observers.
Ten-Thousand Snake Poison was a very unique poison. Its traces in the tea leaves were miniscule, so how did this woman know to test for it with a goldfish?
Han Yunxi laughed at his words. Not long ago, Gu Qishao had made a special trip to the Duke of Qin’s estate to ask her the very same question. Gu Beiyue might not understand poisons, but he was still worthy of being called a divine doctor in his own right. Against Gu Beiyue, Han Yunxi was less guarded. She openly admitted, “I’ve read about it once in an ancient text. It’s fortunate that I remembered.”
“Was it one of the ancient books left behind by Lady Tianxin?” Gu Beiyue asked.
Urk…all right, she used Lady Tianxin as a shield against people who suspected her before. She might as well use her to the end.
“Mhm, it was left by my mother.”
“It looks like Lady Tianxin was a poisons expert as well,” Gu Beiyue said earnestly.
After telling a lie, one could only use more lies to cover it up. Han Yunxi’s mouth twitched before she nodded her head. “Probably. She just never had a chance to use that knowledge.” Han Yunxi didn’t want to continue this topic, so she patted her stomach with a smile. “Since I was late today, let me treat you to a meal.”
Gu Beiyue immediately moved to refuse, but Han Yunxi was faster. She yelled, “Waiter, waiter, bring over a menu!”
A waiter quickly opened the door and entered their room, making it hard for Gu Beiyue to refuse. Tender Fragrance Teahouse had a plethora of snacks that could perfectly stand in for a complete meal. This was Han Yunxi’s first time eating out, so she ordered a slew of different dishes. Gu Beiyue’s eyes grew affectionate as he watched without interfering.
Soon enough, the dishes were delivered, but the person bringing them almost made Han Yunxi fall out of her chair in shock!
This was none other than…?