The Valued Lady is Truly Dominant

Emperor Chu had been watching Song Ci’s expression all along; seeing her react like this, his heart sank.

It seemed it was indeed the same material.

Song Zhiyuan also saw it and, holding Song Ci’s hand, asked, ”Madam, the Crystal Stone in this screen, isn’t it exactly the same as that bead necklace you received?”

Song Ci started forward, but was pulled back by Song Zhiyuan, whose eyes were full of terror as he shook his head.

”Don’t worry, I’m only going to identify it, nothing disastrous will happen. My body is already like this anyway.” That was what she said, but in her heart Song Ci was still somewhat apprehensive, afraid this kind of stone was the sort with the strongest radiation, the kind that required completely sealed protection.

Song Zhiyuan remained uneasy, but could only support his elderly mother’s hand.

Seeing that Emperor Chu was about to come over, Song Ci hurriedly said, ”Emperor, please stay seated and don’t move over here, lest the dragon body be affected.”

Emperor Chu felt a warmth in his heart.

Song Ci then said to Buhui, ”Master, have you ever seen such an ore? Is it one of those harmful ones?”

”What this humble monk has seen is only what the foreign monks brought. It’s said that there is more than one kind of Crystal Stone that can rot a person’s five organs; there are many kinds of ores. You ask me to distinguish them—this poor monk fears I cannot tell one from another.” Buhui still spoke the plain truth.

On hearing this, Emperor Chu was somewhat disappointed. ”In that case, isn’t there no way to determine whether this stone is harmful or harmless?”

Stone was only stone, after all; it hadn’t been soaked in poison. Even if they wanted to test it, they couldn’t.

Song Ci had already approached and examined it carefully. ”It’s the same material as the bead necklace I received.”

Song Zhiyuan and Emperor Chu both wore expressions of anger.

Imperial Physician Lu on the side was completely baffled. What kind of charade were these people playing? Why couldn’t he understand a single word?

”Master, may I ask what this is?”

Imperial Physician Lu leaned close to Master Buhui, pointing at the screen as he asked.

Buhui glanced at him and said, ”You are the physician-in-chief of the Imperial Hospital, yet you only read the Shennong Scripture? In fact, the medical arts from Nanyang and beyond are quite good as well. It would be no mistake to learn more of them when you have the time.”

Imperial Physician Lu: ”...”

He felt insulted.

Buhui quickly went on to speak of Song Ci and Empress Dowager Wang’s frailty, and then mentioned that some Crystal Stones could cause a person’s body to grow weak and feeble, and in severe cases the five organs would decay and the person would die.

Imperial Physician Lu’s face changed drastically; he instinctively retreated two steps. ”Could it be that the Empress Dowager and Madam Song have become so frail because of this?”

”My mother has a bead necklace made of this very Crystal Stone, and this screen has always been in the Empress Dowager’s chambers.” Song Zhiyuan said lightly, ”The bodies of these two old ladies, Imperial Physician Lu, you should know very well. They both suddenly turned weak and unwell—do you think that’s a coincidence?”

Imperial Physician Lu felt a chill at the back of his neck. He knew he had once again learned a secret, and feared that from now on it would be even harder for him to retire in honor.

Buhui also leaned in to examine the Crystal Stone on the screen closely. ”Whether this thing is harmful or not is very difficult to detect by the naked eye alone.”

Song Ci thought that in later generations, one test with instruments would reveal the truth, but without instruments, wasn’t there always white mice?

”It’s not difficult. If we want to see whether it is harmful or not, we can use small animals for experiments—rats, rabbits and the like—shut them in together with this screen and observe them daily. I imagine we could then find out.”

Buhui looked at Song Ci, his eyes half narrowed. ”Madam, what you say is reasonable.”

He had heard that those Westerners overseas, when performing those so-called operations where they split open the belly and chest, did exactly this kind of thing first. This old lady was rather clever.

Emperor Chu, however, shook his head and, face cold, issued his decree: ”How can animals be compared to humans? Eunuch Zhou, make arrangements. Go to the Heavenly Prison and pull a few death-row prisoners to be locked up alone for this experiment. Have the Imperial Physicians examine and diagnose them every day.”