Chiyin checks

Chiyin entered the workshop and glanced around. The earthen floor had bits of herbs scattered on it, just like how he usually left it. There were no footprints or marks from anyone entering.

He sniffed around, but there was no unusual scent in the room. Just medicinal herbal fragrance wafting in the air.

His eyebrows furrowed as he made his way to the far corner where the shelves filled with labelled clay jars of herbs were. Chiyin fumbled around the jars, feeling for the grainy surface of a small wooden box at the far corner of the top shelf.

His fingers brushed against clay jars, causing them to rattle against each other. He knocked two aside in his frantic search. The box was missing. He surveyed the room again and the shelves. Where on earth was his box of cunub?

His eyes scanned the room frantically, searching for any sign of the box. Chiyin leaned against the wall, racking his head to where he last put it. Top shelf in the dark, at night.

He frowned. Night time when the room was dim. His breath came in shallow gasps as he rummaged through the shelf below with his heart pounding faster. His trembling hands went back into feeling for the box.

To his relief, his fingers grazed against the cool wood of the box, hidden behind the jars.

"Found you!" he exclaimed to himself with relief.

With a sigh, Chiyin retrieved the box, holding it in his hands like a precious treasure. He cast a wary glance over his shoulder, ensuring that no one was watching outside.

Chiyin held the box in his hands, went up, and looked around once more. Once satisfied no one was in the vicinity except for servants passing by in the courtyard, he closed the doors and bolted both shut.

With a sigh, Chiyin placed the box down on the table and attempted to pry it open, only to find it still locked. He pulled the key out from the hidden pocket in his waistband and unlocked the box with a small click.

His eyes widened at the contents inside. The messy amount looked untouched. Like the same. And even if it wasn't, the amount found in Yinyue's concoction looked too much to be from his stash.

It led him to one conclusion: there's a spy inside her residence. His heart hammered against his ribcage. The cunub in the concoction came from someone and somewhere else. And he was the unwitting scapegoat. How dare the person!

Chiyin frowned. Who can access the cunub in Yinyue's territory? Even in the Black Mountains, the Xirong dealers limited the access to cunub and sold it in small amounts because of short supply.

He bit his lip. Ayi denied leaving the concoction alone while it brewed in the side kitchen. Chiyin couldn't think of anyone he knew. There were the five main elite bodyguards, housekeeper, stable keeper and too many servants in the residence to remember.

He didn't know all of them. His suspicion drifted to 01, whom he knew was of Xirong ethnicity. Despite his bias against 01, 01 was too weak even to venture over to his workshop. Let alone undetected. A fact Chiyin couldn't deny.

A few knocks on the door and he heard Hushiyi's impatient voice. "Uncle, you in there?"

Chiyin rolled his eyes, wondering why Hushiyi came looking for him. He was busy enough as it was. Then he stopped to think. If Hushiyi learnt of Chiyin accidentally drugging Yinyue, he would not sound so polite. Chiyin shook his head at the impossibility. That nephew of his might kick down the door.

"Wait…," Chiyin replied as he quickly locked the box again and this time he etched in his head as he place it on the corner of the top shelf. This box must not switch places.

"Don't come in yet. I'm doing something with poisons."

"Fine, I will wait for you in the courtyard then," Hushiyi replied.

He could hear pacing outside, but he didn't care. Hushiyi can wait. Chiyin went to the trunk, sitting at the opposite end of the room. He unlocked it by triggering a hidden mechanism through a well-hidden puzzle at the side of the trunk, and lifted the wooden lid up, releasing a pungent camphor smell.

Inside the trunk, there were a few blue vials packed tightly with the dull clay ones. The dull red clay vials were powdered medicine distilled from herbs.

On each white stopper of the blue vial was a stamped black symbol depicting the origin of poison. Chiyin was resistant to all of those poisons inside.

His finger ran across the stoppers with a smile forming on his face. Then he stopped at one with the symbol of a spider. Chiyin pulled it out and read the label again to avoid making a mistake.

Correct poison — his favorite with a terrible exposure effect. Odourless and the greyish powder could be mistaken as dust.

If anyone tried to take the box, a big surprise awaited them. He scattered the powder from the vial around the box and the area with glee.

Satisfied with his handiwork, Chiyin plugged the vial with its stopper and placed it back into the trunk. He shut the lid and heard the mechanism click within.

"What's taking you so long?" Hushiyi asked from the other side.

"Need to wash up," Chiyin replied casually as he went to the basin of clean water and dipped his hands to wash them.

From the corner of his eye, he spotted a small red object gleaming in the daylight streaming through the white opaque covering of the window. He stopped halfway, leaving his hands half dipped in the water to look.

His face drained of blood and his eyes snapped open in shock. That thing isn't supposed to be on his table. Chiyin staggered backwards from the shock, knocking the basin off the pedestal by accident. With a loud clang, the basin hit the floor, scattering water all around. The noise caused Hushiyi to rush in.

Before he could ask, he noticed Chiyin's pallor.

"GET OUT!" Chiyin yelled, waving his hands wildly in the air before Hushiyi could ask what happened. "GET OUT NOW!"