Chapter 164: Poisoned, it has to be you (1/2)

Chapter 164: Poisoned, it has to be you

Cause of death?

Gu Beiyue glanced at Han Yunxi out of the corner of his eyes, but still replied honestly under the circumstances. “To reply Your Highness, if I haven’t made a mistake, Princess Changping should’ve died from poison. As for what kind of poison it was, I don’t know.”

If Princess Changping had still been alive, Gu Beiyue might not have been able to pinpoint poison. But a dead person would should signs of poisoning very quickly. There were dark marks on Princess Changping’s white face. Before long, the poison would be even more obvious, perhaps enough for him to identify it.

Poison?

These words were astonishing. It was actually poison? What kind of poison? Who poisoned her? Long Tianmo suddenly lost his temper at Shuang Hong. “Speak! Exactly what happened? What were you and the princess doing here?”

Changping should’ve shown up at the banquet long ago, but she’d been keeping mysteriously out of sight. Shuang Hong was scared senseless and could only shake her head. “Your servant…you servant didn’t…” Suddenly, she turned towards Han Yunxi and pointed a finger at her. “It was her! She did it! Qin Wangfei, she…”

Only now did the empress and empress dowager realize that Han Yunxi was there.

“Her Highness the princess said she was going to prepare a present for the empress dowager. Because she hadn’t finished engraving it yet, she hid herself here to carve. Just then she told your servant to bring something back for her. Your servant saw the princess lying on the ground when she returned, with esteemed wangfei by her side…” Shuang Hong was frightened to the point of tears. Hearing her words, the empress dowager and empress both stared at Han Yunxi with sinister expressions filled with venom.

Han Yunxi suddenly sensed that trouble had come her way. She’d been so focused on saving a life, and so shocked at what she found instead, that she didn’t have time to realize how much danger she was in. Still, she kept calm as she explained. “I was preparing to change my clothes next door when I heard crash. When I came over here, Changping had already collapsed on the ground…”

“What was she poisoned with? She was perfectly fine, so how could she have gotten poisoned? Where did it come from?” the empress asked. She was physically paralyzed on the ground, her voice swift and fierce as if she wanted to rip Han Yunxi apart.

The empress dowager was even more straightforward. “Why did Changping fall down? Why did this rack get knocked over? Han Yunxi, did you get in an argument with Changping? Or make a move against her? Tell us!”

“I didn’t!” Han Yunxi denied indignantly. “I’ll say it once more, I was next door when I heard the rack fall down and came over. By the time I came inside, Changping was already on the floor. After I found out she died from poisoning, Shuang Hong appeared.”

“What kind of poison? Aren’t you a detoxification expert? Why didn’t you save her? Why?” Long Tianmo was agitated as well. Changping was his only sister by flesh and blood!

“I haven’t figured out what poison it is yet, but she had already died from it by the time I arrived. There was no way to save her,” Han Yunxi said truthfully.

Hearing this, the empress scathingly denounced her. “Han Yunxi, you’re lying! You ran over as soon as you heard the noise, how long could that have taken?! Wouldn’t you have enough time to save her? What kind of poison could be potent enough to kill someone upon contact?”

This was something that Han Yunxi couldn’t figure out, either. Despite this, her position was firm. “I’m not lying. Only a thorough examination of the poison can tell us what happened. I’ll do that right now.”

She only saw the aftermath. As to whether Princess Changping died before she crashed into the rack, or after the rack fell over, nobody knew for certain. There were quite a few poisons that could take a life in an instant. Han Yunxi, too, wanted to know what this poison was and–more than that–where it’d came from.

She was about to walk over when the empress’s rage reached to the skies. “Han Yunxi, don’t even think of doing any tricks! You’re just a liar! Someone, arrest her!”

Han Yunxi knitted her brows in anger. “Who dares! Without evidence, what can you arrest me for?”

“Someone grab her!” the empress dowager’s voice was even fiercer. Very soon, guards rushed over and took Han Yunxi into custody. She wasn’t able to struggle free, but glared fiercely towards Long Tianmo.

“Your Highness Crown Prince, we don’t even know what Changping was poisoned with. Are you all really going to make unfounded attacks upon a person without evidence or reason? Is this how you act in the imperial palace?”

Long Tianmo was caught between grief and wrath, but he never wanted to believe that Han Yunxi would poison Changping to death. Neither could he think of any motives that would drive her to commit such a deed. After some hesitation, he spoke.

“Imperial Grandmother, muhou, let Imperial Aunt check the poison. It won’t do any harm.”

The empress was extremely repulsed by the idea, but the empress dowager spoke up before she could refuse. “All right, let her look. I’d like to see what kind of poison she finds that can take a life instantly!”

Only then did the guards release Han Yunxi, who knelt down by Princess Changping’s side. Once she saw the streaks of black on her tongue, she grew puzzled. On one side, she performed a conventional examination, while on the other, her scanners did a systematic check on the body. The results were beyond her expectations.

How could this be…

“Are you finished yet?” the empress pressed sternly. Han Yunxi stood up and looked around, her face uncertain.

“Did you figure out what it was?” the empress dowager demanded impatiently.

Only then did Han Yunxi speak. “Yes, it’s arrow poison wood[1].”

Her words left the room at a loss. What was ‘arrow poison wood?’ Nobody had ever heard of it before.

“What is it?” the empress dowager asked sternly.

“It comes from an extremely toxic tree commonly known as the Upas[2] tree. As long as an open wound touches this tree sap, the victim will quickly be poisoned until their heart exhausts itself and breathing becomes difficult, causing them to die from suffocation,” Han Yunxi explained.