Chapter 28: The Imperial Physician

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There were not many records concerning gu poison in the medical texts, so Wen Qiao herself was not entirely certain. Since there was still a little time, she decided to rest for a while. Once the imperial physicians arrived the following day, they could gather together and carefully consider how to resolve the matter. Otherwise, it would be rather difficult.

The Empress Dowager’s health was no trivial concern. If the matter was not settled, no one would be able to live in peace.

The next day, Wen Qiao went to the Empress Dowager’s bedchamber with two dark circles beneath her eyes. Nanny Song was still standing in her usual place. When she saw Wen Qiao arrive, she smiled at her, her expression full of affection.

“Child, why are your eyes so dark? Did you not rest well last night?”

Wen Qiao had already anticipated that the Empress Dowager would ask. She had not wanted to come, fearing that the Empress Dowager might worry about her and think too much. The old woman was already somewhat forgetful; what if her condition worsened because of the concern?

But Wen Qiao was staying in the palace. If she did not come, the Empress Dowager would likely send someone to summon her, and then she would still see Wen Qiao wearing those dark circles beneath her eyes.

It was better to come early and spare the Empress Dowager the trouble of sending for her. Perhaps that way, she would worry less.

“It is nothing, Grandmother. There were simply so many cicadas calling in the trees outside last night. Summer is nearly here, and the world outside is already lively. Their noise kept your granddaughter from sleeping well, but it is no trouble. Once you have rested for a while, I will go back and sleep a little more. I certainly will not neglect myself! Grandmother, I have asked the imperial physicians to come as well. They can examine your condition carefully, and we can discuss together how the prescription should be changed. Sometimes, I am not entirely certain on my own.”

Wen Qiao could hardly say that she had stayed up half the night reading. She could only put it this way so that the Empress Dowager would not worry.

The Empress Dowager nodded and ordered the palace servants to take sticky poles during the day and catch all the cicadas in the trees outside, lest they disturb Wen Qiao’s sleep at night.

The Emperor had not yet said when Wen Qiao would be allowed to return to the marquis’s residence. It seemed likely that she would remain in the palace for some time.

She did not intend to go to the Directorate of Education during this period either.

Learning those things was certainly useful, but the Empress Dowager’s health mattered more to her. Besides, she could read through the texts again in a few days and ask questions about anything she did not understand. It would not be particularly difficult.

Wen Qiao was clever and learned quickly. In the end, she would be able to master all that knowledge. She might as well spend more time keeping the Empress Dowager company for now and resolve her illness first. That would also spare her from remaining constantly on edge.

Only after settling this worry could she devote herself wholeheartedly to other matters.

“My body has suffered from this old ailment for years. I know it well enough myself, so do not exhaust yourself. I have lived with it all these years, and it is no great matter if things continue this way. You should put yourself first and stop thinking about my health every day.”

The Empress Dowager was kindhearted and naturally did not want Wen Qiao to wear herself out.

She truly liked Wen Qiao from the bottom of her heart now, and therefore did not want the girl to continue living in such a state.

Although Wen Qiao had not said anything, the moment she arrived that day she had announced that she would summon the imperial physicians to examine the Empress Dowager’s illness. From that alone, the Empress Dowager could more or less guess that Wen Qiao had either spent the previous night reading and studying prescriptions, or had been so troubled by her condition that she could not sleep.

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It had only just become summer, and the cicadas outside were not yet especially noisy. For an elderly woman of the Empress Dowager’s age, whose sleep was already light, the palace servants of the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility were well aware of the matter. Whenever she rested, they moved with the utmost care. The entire palace fell utterly silent; it was impossible that she had heard nothing at all.

Wen Qiao had probably only used the cicadas as an excuse because she did not want the Empress Dowager to worry.

Since that was the case, the Empress Dowager decided not to expose her.

The child truly was filial, and she liked her from the depths of her heart.

Before long, all the imperial physicians arrived. Wen Qiao first had them examine the Empress Dowager one by one, then invited them all to a side hall. She went with them herself, after giving Nanny Song a few instructions to ensure that the Empress Dowager rested properly. By the time breakfast was served, Nanny Song would probably send someone to summon her.

The imperial physicians had been made to rise early and hurry over. None of the palace’s honored residents had eaten breakfast yet, so the physicians had likely just risen and rushed here. At most, they might have eaten a few hurried bites of pastries in the carriage. At an hour when ordinary households had only just begun their day, these physicians were already coming to work.

But until the Empress Dowager’s health improved, Wen Qiao could not put her mind at ease. Besides, it was better to discuss the matter thoroughly first and determine whether gu poison was involved. If it truly was, that would at least be preferable to floundering helplessly without even knowing the proper direction for treatment. It was better to clarify everything now.

Once everyone had taken their seats in the side hall, the imperial physicians wore grave expressions. Imperial Physician Zhao, the most senior among them, spoke first.

“Miss Six’s medical skill naturally surpasses ours. If even you were uncertain after examining Her Majesty’s pulse, then the several of us are also at a loss. Based on my findings just now, I believe the Empress Dowager’s recent forgetfulness is the result of a chronic poison within her body. Although she has not ingested much of it, Her Majesty is advanced in age and her constitution is not as robust as that of a younger person. Even a small amount of medicine can have an immense effect on her body. That is perfectly normal.”

The other physicians nodded one after another. None of them had thought of gu poison. It was merely Wen Qiao’s conjecture, and she did not know whether any of them had ever studied it. Still, it was at least a possibility.

Yet seeing that none of them had considered this direction, Wen Qiao guessed that either the Empress Dowager had not been afflicted with gu poison, or the physicians knew nothing about it.

After some thought, Wen Qiao asked, “To be frank, after I examined Grandmother’s pulse and prepared her prescription yesterday, she did seem somewhat better after taking the medicine, and her complexion was no longer so pale. However, when I heard about her recent forgetfulness, coupled with several of her old ailments, I found the matter rather difficult. Even if the medicine had a great effect on Grandmother’s body, she could only have ingested a very small amount. It would not have such a tremendous impact on a young person, let alone a woman in her sixties. Grandmother has not even reached that age yet.

“Last night, I asked Nanny Song to find several books on gu poison in the Imperial Medical Bureau. There were only eight volumes, but after reading them, I gained a general understanding of the subject. If Grandmother truly has gu poison in her body, however, I have no idea what kind it is or how it should be removed. Do any of you gentlemen have a method, or any knowledge of gu poison? If we could find someone who understands it, that would be even better. It would save me from worrying endlessly while turning the matter over in my mind without reaching any conclusion.”

“What? Is that not something from the Miao borderlands? How could it have appeared in the palace?”

Imperial Physician Zhao was deeply shocked. Yet there was logic in what Wen Qiao had said. If the cause of the illness could not be found, then gu poison truly had to be considered.

Moreover, in theory, such a small amount of chronic poison should not have had so great an effect on the Empress Dowager’s body. The physicians had simply lacked another avenue of investigation and could only lean in that direction. Now that Wen Qiao had offered a slight reminder, they felt that her reasoning was indeed sound.

Chronic poison ordinarily required years of accumulation. The poison in the Empress Dowager’s body had evidently only begun to be administered in recent days. In other words, the person behind it had never expected the matter to be discovered so quickly. Before this, the physicians had found no traces of poison in the Empress Dowager’s body—only her old ailments.

It was not entirely unreasonable to connect those old ailments with her recent forgetfulness, but Wen Qiao still felt that something was wrong.

For something from the Miao borderlands to be brought into the inner palace was no minor matter. What was more, the Miao territory had been destroyed by the Emperor and his forces several years earlier. There could hardly be more than a few people in the inner palace with any connection to it. Most of the women were legitimate daughters of great families native to the capital. Unless their connections were unusually tangled or they harbored some other agenda, they would never have cultivated their own agents in the Miao lands.

Besides, gu poison from the Miao territory was exceedingly precious and generally not sold to outsiders. Now that the Miao territory had been destroyed, it was even more difficult to obtain for anyone who wished to harm another. If money alone could buy it, the method would be far too easy.

Yet although the Miao territory had been destroyed years ago, there had been no word of any court official maintaining ties with it. Either spies had been hiding among them, or someone had paid an enormous price to acquire the gu poison. But when had it been planted in the Empress Dowager’s body?

If this matter was not clarified, not only would everyone in the Imperial Medical Bureau be held accountable, but every consort in the inner palace would be investigated from top to bottom. Wen Qiao herself might even be questioned.

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“I find it astonishing as well. But if we do not consider gu poison, I truly have no idea how to explain Grandmother’s sudden forgetfulness. Even if she is somewhat advanced in age, she should not be suffering from forgetfulness to this degree.”

“If it is gu poison, I know very little about it,” Imperial Physician Zhao said. “I only know that there are specialists in gu poison among the Miao people. I once knew one myself, but we have not been in contact for many years, and I do not know where she is now. After the Miao territory was destroyed by His Majesty several years ago, I lost all word of her. I do not even know whether she is still alive.”

Imperial Physician Zhao had been born to humble origins. His ability to serve as an imperial physician in the inner palace was entirely due to the excellence of his medical skill. Before entering the palace, he had traveled widely, so it was not strange that he knew more people than most.

If the gu specialist Imperial Physician Zhao mentioned was still alive, she was indeed their only lead.

With only this one possible breakthrough, Wen Qiao clearly had no intention of giving up.

For Imperial Physician Zhao to reveal that he knew a gu specialist must have required considerable courage.

After all, they had just asked how anything from the Miao territory could have entered the palace without reason. Someone must have served as an intermediary to bring it in. Since he happened to know a gu specialist from the Miao lands, suspicion might ultimately fall upon him. That would not merely be inconvenient—it could even bring about his death.

But a righteous man had nothing to fear from the shadows. He was not afraid of an investigation, which was why he had spoken.

Even so, if Wen Qiao truly suspected him, he would be in considerable danger.

Fortunately, Wen Qiao had not yet turned her suspicions toward Imperial Physician Zhao. At present, the Empress Dowager’s health was clearly the more urgent matter. Moreover, Zhao had only entered the palace one or two years earlier, and they still had no idea when the gu poison had been placed in the Empress Dowager’s body.

Yet according to Wen Qiao’s calculations, even if the Empress Dowager had truly been afflicted with gu poison, it must have been in her body for far more than two years. For the moment, Imperial Physician Zhao appeared to be one of the less likely suspects.

Wen Qiao had not suspected him. The people most capable of taking action were naturally the consorts of the inner palace. But gu poison was an intensely private matter, and administering it was extremely troublesome. Unlike ordinary poison, it could not simply be mixed into food or drink and swallowed. It was closely connected to a person’s daily life and habits. The safest method would have been for a palace servant who attended the Empress Dowager personally to administer it. It was also possible that one of the inner-palace consorts had planted a spy in the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility.

But these people were being far too bold. They had given the Empress Dowager both chronic poison and gu poison. Could she truly be so hated within the inner palace?

Yet from Wen Qiao’s observations during this period, the Empress Dowager did not interfere in inner-palace affairs at all. Whenever something happened, she left it to the Empress to handle. Although the Empress Dowager’s relationship with the Empress was not particularly good, she rarely interfered in the Empress’s decisions. Only when the Empress committed some heinous act would she exchange a few words with the Emperor. Ordinarily, she had little contact with the Empress.

But the Empress had already sent someone to administer chronic poison. That alone gave her a motive. If she also knew about the gu poison, then there would have been no reason for her to send someone to administer chronic poison as well. Gu poison was far more potent and even more difficult to eliminate than chronic poison.

By that reasoning, the Empress was not especially likely either.

Then who in the inner palace would commit such an outrage against the Empress Dowager?

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