STEPPING TO THE TRUTH 2
Again, Zhu Su passed the next night by staying awake. As the result, he woke up late. He woke up just because of the arrival of Li Heng.
"Lord Zhou Wang! Are you alright?" Li Heng's call woke Zhu Su up from his nightmare. The prince rubbed his eyes first, did not immediately awoke.
"Lord! Please give us your answer if you're alright!"
"Physician Li!" Zhu Su suddenly got awakened. He hurriedly walked towards the door. "Why do you come here?"
Not only Li Heng who was standing in front of the door. Hu Nayin was also with him.
"My Lord, Hu Nayin tells me that you look unwell. You didn't even appear in the medical center this morning, so we decide to visit you," Li Heng said.
"This morning?" Zhu Su blinked. "It's still morning, right?"
"It's already afternoon, my Lord!" Li Heng shouted in surprise. "Now it is after the lunchtime!"
Zhu Su blinked again. He squinted, thus figured out that the sky was very bright and the sun was very shiny. Gosh! It turned out that he had been overslept! It was the first time that he was overslept until afternoon. He must be too tired and hence got such messed up.
Yet Li Heng had turned his sight. He was now staring intently at something behind Zhu Su.
"Your Highness... My goodness!" Li Heng quickly approached the object that caught his attention, which turned out to be datura flowers. "Why do you take those flowers?! Gosh, you've taken so much, for God's sake!..."
"I took them because they are very beautiful and unique, I've never seen them in Central Plain. I want to give them to Ruina."
Li Heng's face turned pale. "You can't, Your Highness! You can't give it to Wang Fei!"
"Why? These flowers are so beautiful, they can be house decoration?"
"Do you know what actually Manduoluohua is?" Li Heng asked sharply.
Zhu Su shook his head. "Don't know."
"Manduoluohua is not just any flower, my Lord. It is a poisonous flower! There is a horrific myth about this flower; Anyone who dares to eat it will go insane."
"Huh?!" Now Zhu Su twitched to surprise. "Such a beautiful flower can be poisonous?!" He now stared closely at datura. His curiosity rose up. "Can you explain, which part of the flower that makes it poisonous?"
Li Heng dragged Zhu Su away from the datura. "I am sorry, my Lord, but don't get too close to these flowers. Only the slightest mistake and you'll be poisoned!"
"You really make me feel even more curious! What is it that makes Manduoluohua so dangerous? It can kill us?"
"More than that, my Lord," Li Heng coughed. "Manduoluohua can destruct our mind!"
"What do you mean?"
"Actually, Manduoluohua is a kind of medicine. It is good for colds, asthma, and even convulsions. Amazingly, it can also be used for anesthesia. It was reported that Ma Fei San concoction made by Hua Tuo * contained Manduoluohua. But it can only be used in very small quantities. Just add a little, the consequence is eerie. People will hallucinate. Their eyes will glare widely, their heart rate will increase, their minds get in turmoil, then they will talk nonsense even get mad like lunatic, get delusional... Put more doses, they will faint, even die. And the effect of the Manduoluohua is so strong that just by squeezing its leaves and pressing it to the forehead then it will directly make people intoxicated."
"Wow, in spite of its beautiful appearance, datura is apparently horrifying..." Zhu Su was just about to put datura down, when a flash of thought infiltrated his mind.
"Be careful!... I... feel something wrong with them..."
Yes... actually the way Rui and Payloth behave is so strange. They can be so violent just because of a petty problem... Wait! Don't tell me!...
Zhu Su asked Li Heng, "You said, this flower can make people talk nonsense, even get mad like lunatic?"
"Exactly, Your Highness."
"Well then..." Little by little the flashes of memories passed through Zhu Su's mind. The new members screamed like lunatic and had the guts to oppose him as if they did not care about the the law... Rui and Payloth appeared like fools when got interviewed... The view of the incident when the soldiers of Mu Ying's squads killed each other brutally in Mount Laojun... and finally, the scene appeared, when Yunnan people suddenly died and abruptly came back to life so miraculously...
"And it is also herb contained in Ma Fei San concoction?" Zhu Su asked again.
Li Heng nodded. "True."
A smile appeared on Zhu Su's lips, turning wider and wider. Then he laughed, very loudly, while Li Heng and Hu Nayin were looking at him, bewildered.
"I get it. All has been solved perfectly," said Zhu Su, full of confidence. "Xie Wang... it has been so long I let you mess up here. But your time has ended now. Now it's my turn to crush you, troublemaker. Just wait a few moments, and I will finish you!"
***
A week later.
"Prince Turgen! Prince Turgen!"
Rumilie ran along the way furiously. It was dawn now, and Xie Wang himself looked at him curiously. "Why are you so angry?"
"Your Highness! That Ming Prince is so insolent! He insults you in front of the public. He accuses you of a liar leader. The empty case has a louder sound. Just making a silly trick yet becomes so proud of himself although actually a little child can reveal it. Thus he, Zhou Wang, will prove that he is no less powerful than that liar leader!"
Xie Wang stood up in a flash, infuriated. "What?!" He hit the table. "Zhu Su you son of a bitch! How dare you insult me! It's you who always lose to me!"
Wait... or perhaps, he really attempts to solve that trick?...
"Your Highness, this afternoon that Ming Prince will make a public speech to invite the people to support Ming and fight against you. We must stop that, otherwise, let alone overthrow Ming, it's us who will be destroyed by them!"
"I see!" Xie Wang grabbed his outer robe. "I'll go to the government office. Let me see, what actually that bastard wants to do!"
...
* Hua Tuo, a very famous physician during the period of Three Kingdoms. He was the first person in China to use anesthesia during surgery. He used a general anesthetic combining wine with a herbal concoction called Ma Fei San (Literally "cannabis boil powder").