Mild Discovery

"Everyone please rise, especially you lady Feng. My sincerest apologies royal physician" she gently apologized to them.

"No your highness, you did no wrong, you do not need to apologize to a servant like me."

"Nonsense, I caused you all so much pain. How long did I ignore you?" She asked the royal physician.

He stammers, not so sure as to disclose the truth, because he knew the princess would feel bad. She had always been so good to her subjects.

She normally don't do this but she did as she was lost in thoughts. He knew she would be hard on herself.

"Master, out with it".

She had always had a flair for medicine. When she was small she often wandered here to learn from the royal physician and he taught her all he knew and treated her like his daughter and the princess of course.

Even when she broke something, he would scold his apprentices instead of her, for them not watching her properly and she often feel so sad about it.

Often times she would complain to him that she was at fault and not them, but he would still blame them as she was the princess and his majesty won't have it if she got injured.

Instead what she started doing was to get sweets and nice dishes brought to the apprentices as a way of apologizing to them. Sometimes she would bring them gifts. They loved her so much.

She looked at the royal physician again, reminding him not to lie.

"It was fifteen minutes your highness" the physician said while bowing his head, unsure of what to do. He didn't want to see the guilt in her eyes, it would hurt him. He had always cherished her.

"My apologies" she said feeling sad.

"No worries crown princess. Please come inside" the royal physician offered.

"Thank you. First, Lady Feng" she called out.

"Your highness" Lady Feng answered her.

"Go and clean yourself. Your dress is dirty."

"Yes your highness, thank you" she said rising up. All these time, she still knelt down feeling bad.

"Well get going. Eu-meh, Dongmei" she called for two of her maids.

"You called, your highness" they chorused as the bowed to her.

"Go to the royal kitchen and get some nice meal and some sweet snacks for the royal physician and his apprentices" she ordered.

"Her royal highness do not have to go through so much trouble for us" the royal physician said.

"It is no trouble at all. Now get going."

"We give our thanks to her royal highness" the royal physician and his apprentices chorused.

With that she went into the chambers and sat down, the royal physician followed in while the others waited outside.

"What have you found about the Castor oil plant?" Xiaoli asked the royal physician.

"Your highness, the plant oil has the ability to heal wounds. However, it also has the power to kill, as just one milligram of the plant's poison can kill an adult. For centuries, the Chinese have used castor oil as a medicine and when bandaging injuries. But nothing was noticed during her majesty's death. Meaning it may not have been used directly" he answered the princess.

"Meaning it may have been mixed with one of her medicines. Or a tea, so when she takes it, it would not have that killing effect once but would slowly kill the person" she said to the royal physician.

"True but we do not have any evidence and we do not know who did it."

"My father, in anger asked that all her medicines be burnt. He was angry that nothing cured her and he lost the love of his life."

"I am sorry your highness, we were incompetent and caused the death of her majesty, I deserve punishment" he said bowing his head.

"My father didn't blame you or punish you, so why should I? Isn't it obvious he knew it wasn't because of your incompetence? He never blamed anyone. Master, I stumbled upon a plant on my last journey, I recalled I had seen it somewhere else before" she said to the physician.

"Really, can you describe the plant your highness?" He asked her hoping to help.

"I plucked it and took it with me" she put her hands inside her sleeves and brought out a white cloth, then she handed it to him.

"I first saw this plant when I was a child, it was a glimpse but there is no mistaking it. My mother, the queen quickly passed it to her head maid when I rushed into her chambers to see her and wanted to take it from her table" she revealed to the physician.

"Let me get my books on plants. It seems familiar as well, I have briefly come across it when searching for a plant once" he gets up and went to the corner of his chambers and took out a book from several stacks of books and went back to sit in front of Xiaoli.

"It should be this book" he opens it and blows air on the book to remove some dusts on it.

"Yes, this is it. Lily of the valley" he said while showing her the drawing on the book.

"All parts of the plant are toxic, particularly the leaves. Water in which the cut flowers have been kept is also toxic. Though the water may yield enough toxin to be deadly, a "tea" made by boiling the leaves, would certainly contain even more of the toxin and would be a more effective poison. The actual amount of toxin in a teaspoon of crumbled leaves is guess work at best. Symptoms onset quickly and include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, flushing, hot flashes, dilated pupils, a red skin rash, excessive salivation, coma, and death. Fortunately, the poison is absorbed slowly into the body, so medical intervention can prevent harm" the princess read out loud, but loud enough for just the physician to hear.

"But this didn't happen?" The royal physician said.

"I bet it was mixed with one of her herbal tea, so you would not know the cause and slowly it would cause harm. But what was my mother doing with this plant?" She said asking no one in particular.

"I do not know, perhaps the queen's head maid may know" the royal physician suggested.

"True, I would ask for Lady Chu Hua to see me. Thank you Royal physician Zhao for your well... As usual I would love for this matter to be a secret" she said as she rose up from her seat.

He stand up as well "As always your royal highness. Thank you for visiting princess" he said with a bow then waited for her to leave, before following her out.