Concubine Lan moved back to Huixin Palace, and the celebratory banquet was also held there.
At noon, when the banquet was in progress, several palace maids were suddenly carried to the Imperial Medical Bureau.
"… At the banquet just now, a few of them suddenly had abdominal pain, and Concubine Lan ordered them to go downstairs to rest. Unexpectedly, as soon as they left the table, they started vomiting and having diarrhea! So, when Concubine Lan heard about it, she asked us to send them here immediately."
"Okay, okay!" The doctor on duty hurriedly took the patient over and brought him to the table to take his pulse. "Any other symptoms?" he asked.
One of the maids covered her stomach and said weakly: "It seems that I still have a fever..."
"I started feeling nauseous two days ago, and it got worse today."
Wen Qingci had a special status, so the Imperial Hospital Director specially allocated a quiet side hall to him.
But the noise here was so loud that the voices of several people still reached his ears.
The symptoms of these people were relatively typical and simple. By the time Wen Qingci walked to the front hall, the doctor had already written the diagnosis records and opened the medicine cabinet.
Seeing Wen Qingci's resignation, the doctor who was fetching medicine put down the scale and said carefully, "Mr. Wen, we plan to prescribe some medicine that warms the meridians and dispels cold, relieves pain, and... Uh, what do you think?"
The cinnamon core and jelly on the table are both medicinal herbs for treating acute gastroenteritis.
Wen Qingci smiled and said, "You guys are busy. I just heard it was lively here and came to take a look out of curiosity."
"Good!" The doctor couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
Although Wen Qingci didn't say anything, the doctors' movements in dispensing medicine slowed down as he was watching them.
As they were talking, a few more palace maids were sent in from outside.
Seeing this, Wen Qingci suddenly asked, "Are the only people sent to the Imperial Hospital this time palace maids?"
The healer nodded quickly: "Yes!"
Wen Qingci couldn't help but frown.
The eunuchs and palace maids ate meals prepared in the same kitchen, so how come only the palace maids got sick this time
After a pause, he suddenly remembered the notes left by the original owner...
The original owner had some knowledge of various medical disciplines, but he also had his own main research direction.
For some reason, he seemed particularly interested in the study of waterborne infectious diseases.
He even dissected many corpses for this purpose and left behind a notebook called "Xinglin Jie'e".
"Water..." Wen Qingci murmured, "There's something wrong with the water."
There were wells in almost every courtyard of the imperial palace. Although the palace maids and eunuchs ate meals prepared in the same kitchen, they drank different water.
He clenched the medicine jade tightly, walked to a palace maid who was in relatively good condition, leaned over to look into her eyes and said, "Take me to the well where you live."
Overly thick eyelashes covered Wen Qingci's eyes. From her angle, she could only see the thin, straight nose bridge like jade and a dot of cinnabar between the eyebrows.
As beautiful as the gods in the temple.
The little palace maid could not help but nodded blankly.
The banquet at Huixin Palace is about to end.
A palace maid hurried to Concubine Lan's ear and said something while covering her mouth with her hand.
The next second, the expression on Lan Fei's face suddenly became serious.
"…Okay, let's do as Mr. Wen said," she paused and said, "Wait a moment, I'll stop by too."
"Yes, madam."
All the concubines in the harem attended the banquet.
Seeing Concubine Lan's strange expression, Concubine Hui on the other side could not help but sneer, "Sister Lan, why are you unhappy? Shouldn't you be in high spirits right now?"
As soon as the words fell, everyone's eyes turned to him.
Concubine Lan slowly picked up the teacup.
She has always been low-key and cautious, and usually would just perfunctorily answer Concubine Hui's questions.
But this time, Concubine Lan smiled and said directly: "Just now, the Imperial Hospital sent someone to say that Wen Qingci suspected that there was a problem with a well in the palace."
"What did you say..." Concubine Hui gritted her teeth, smiled, and slowly stood up, "Oh? Since something like this happened in the rear palace, I have to go and take a look anyway."
Wen Qingci asked someone to ask Concubine Lan just to get permission to enter the palace maids' quarters.
But he didn't expect that when he got there, the courtyard was already crowded with people.
In addition to the palace maids who originally lived in this courtyard, there were also a few old acquaintances.
Wen Qingci: …
What is going on here
Concubine Hui, who was temporarily in charge of the harem, said first: "You go about your business, and don't worry about me."
"Yes." Wen Qingci nodded slightly and walked slowly to the well.
"The well water doesn't look dirty or unclean... We need to see if there is anything underneath," he said.
"You two, go and check it out." Concubine Hui pointed two eunuchs over.
"Yes, madam."
The two eunuchs took out some bamboo poles from somewhere and connected them end to end.
After the link is established, explore downwards little by little.
At this moment, Wen Qingci finally realized that he was getting nervous.
Concubine Lan was dissatisfied that her power was taken away by Concubine Hui.
It was obvious that she wanted to make use of this incident to make some sense.
The two eunuchs held bamboo poles and carefully explored the bottom of the well.
After a while, the two looked at each other and their expressions changed.
"What's wrong?" Ming Liu supported Lan Fei and walked over slowly. "But is there something underneath?" she asked.
One of them nodded with difficulty: "It seems there is something... But we still need to fish it out and see what it is."
"Okay, let's fish it out then." Concubine Hui said gritting her teeth not far away.
The eunuch brought a shallow bamboo sieve fixed to a long pole.
Wen Qingci quietly retreated to the back.
Just now Wen Qingci guessed that perhaps a bird or animal had unfortunately fallen in.
But when he saw this professional tool, a slightly terrifying guess emerged in his mind.
Could it be a human
If I am not mistaken, the two eunuchs' faces changed just now, probably because the bamboo pole poked their flesh...
calm down!
Under the tension, Wen Qingci's brain became particularly active.
He suddenly remembered that there seemed to be such a plot in "Fu Ming Tang":
While Concubine Lan was pregnant, a murder occurred in the palace.
This incident displeased the emperor and eventually became one of the reasons why Concubine Hui lost the phoenix seal.
The author did not elaborate on this story, but only mentioned it briefly when explaining that Concubine Lan regained favor.
Now it seems that this is what is happening.
In the original book, this incident probably happened a little later and didn't become a big deal.
—The imperial doctors in the palace were no pushovers, so they could naturally guess that there was something wrong with the water from the well that the palace maids often drank.
But it is better to have less trouble than more. Even if they know, they will not mention it.
It was not until the palace maids themselves suspected the well and fished out the things inside that the news spread throughout the harem.
By the well, the eunuch suddenly stopped.
After a while, one of them trotted over to the concubines.
After whispering a few words, they left the courtyard temporarily with pale faces.
Wen Qingci held his breath.
The two eunuchs looked at each other again and began to pull the bamboo pole together.
The palace maids standing on the steps couldn't help but step back.
With a loud splash, water emerged from the huge bamboo sieve, and on it there appeared a human figure!
"ah!!!"
I don't know who screamed first and rushed out of the yard.
The small courtyard suddenly became a mess.
Wen Qingci suppressed his discomfort, took a deep breath, tightly grasped the medicine jade, and walked towards there step by step.
There were also a few eunuchs and palace maids in the Yuguang Palace. Like most people, they looked down on Xie Bufeng. They spent most of their time hiding in the side rooms and being lazy, not taking their master seriously.
But on this day, Yuguang Palace suddenly became lively.
Several people crowded around the well, drawing water bucket by bucket.
"Is it enough?"
"It should be enough for two days. I'll come back here to fight the day after tomorrow."
"Okay," the maid in green let go of the windlass and asked mysteriously in a low voice, "Who is the person who died there?"
"She's Yuan Xian, do you recognize her? She's in charge of cleaning Baiqiao Tower. She just turned 25 a few days ago, and is old enough to leave the palace," the maid sighed and said, "We all thought she had returned home, but we didn't expect that... Oh."
"Is it her?" The maid of Yuguang Palace asked in surprise, "Are you sure?"
"Sure, you know that Doctor Wen, right? He was the one who performed the autopsy on the body, and the patient is still in the hospital."
The palace maid who witnessed the scene spoke in an extremely exaggerated tone.
The young eunuch interrupted and said, "This, Wen Qingci... is indeed just as the rumors say. It's better to stay away from him from now on."
Several people immediately nodded, agreeing with the eunuch's statement.
The doors and windows of Yuguang Palace were dilapidated, and as these people talked, their voices became louder.
Their entire conversation fell into Xie Bufeng's ears.
The boy had already washed the lunch dishes, but had not yet had time to send them back to the Imperial Medical Office.
The courtyard where the accident happened happened to be on his way there.
After a pause, Xie Bufeng picked up the wooden box and walked out of Yuguang Palace.
Unlike before, everyone had already avoided the courtyard and the imperial physician as if they were avoiding the plague.
Xie Bufeng stopped outside the courtyard and looked inside.
The palace maid named Yuan Xian had been dead for less than two days, and this was the time when the rigor mortis was easing.
Before Xie Bufeng came here, Wen Qingci had already positioned the corpse, laid it flat on the wooden board, and even carefully helped her tidy up her hair and appearance.
Even from a distance, Xie Bufeng could see her pale skin, and her wrinkled and swollen skin.
He couldn't help but frown, feeling a little uncomfortable.
"Don't you feel sick?"
"When something like this happens in the palace, they just wrap the person in a straw mat and throw him out." Xie Bufeng said calmly, leaning against the courtyard gate.
Wen Qingci did not answer this question.
"It's just a piece of skin, what's so disgusting about it... She helped me solve the mystery, I should give her the last bit of respect." He said lightly.
Xie Bufeng stopped talking and looked deeply at the moon-white figure.
Wen Qingci's movements were exceptionally gentle and careful.
This was the first time he saw a corpse outside of anatomy class. He felt extremely heavy-hearted and had no time to think about anything else.
After tidying up Yuan Xian's remains, Wen Qingci gently covered her body with a white cloth.
Finally, he went to wash his hands with strong liquor.
After everything was ready, he finally walked slowly to the gate of the courtyard.
This feeling suddenly reminded Wen Qingci of how he was torn into pieces by five horses in the original novel.
When he passed by Xie Bufeng, he suddenly slowed down his pace, turned around and smiled at the young man, and said half-jokingly: "If I die one day, I hope Your Highness can send me back to the valley. Instead of letting my body rot into mud, it is better to use it for medical research, which can be considered a worthy death."
The familiar bitter fragrance and the faint aroma of wine slowly enveloped Xie Bufeng.
After he finished speaking, Wen Qingci smiled and left the courtyard with the medicine box.
(End of this chapter)