Chapter 18: Imperial Dr. Yen, Bullying

Yen was stuck with being carefully nursed the moment she returned to the Jade Palace. She was forced, dumbfoundedly, into a change of clothes, and was thrown into a vacant bedroom with a high-class futon laid out, not the narrow room she usually used. The futon was made from high-class cotton, a world of difference to the usual bed that was just piled with straw matting.

"My body doesn't feel strange, and I already drank the antidote." The antidote was meaningless. It was that sort of poison.

"What are you saying? The cabinet minister who ate it was super terrible afterward. There's no way that he was fine just because he vomited." Mao worriedly placed the damp cloth on her forehead.

He should have vomited out properly as an initial treatment. Even if she was curious, she couldn't leave here now, so she decided to close her eyes as there was nothing else, she could do.

It was a pointlessly long day. She woke up the next day before noon, having accumulated quite a bit of tiredness. For a maid, this was bad.

After she woke up and changed, she decided to look for Hong.

Yen returned to her room to look for the face powder she always used. Though it's a face powder, it wasn't the pure white thing that everyone used. She applied the powder in front of the polished copper mirror, bringing back her "fake" birthmark.

Hong was looking after the imperial princess at Consort Gina's palace.

She couldn't take her eyes off the energetic imperial princess and had her hands full of it, like having to remove the bed-sheet so that it won't be pulled off, or holding the chair used for walking practice for the princess. The little princess immediately noticed Yen as she struggled out of Hong's grip and making her way to Yen.

"You should be in bed," Hong said with a little exhaustion and bags under her eyes, she must have been up all night. Princess Wuying was a perfect angel in Yen's arms Afterall.

"I'm am not all that sick. Besides, Princess Wuying won't be tame unless I'm here." Hong didn't comment because she dreaded another night with the princess "And I think at this point you need more rest than I."

"Your right," she said, she was after all borderline on passing. When Yen noted that Hong left, she turned around

"Greetings to you, Consort Gina-sama."

"Same to you," She said with a heavenly smile of relief as her daughter was finally calm. Yen had taken out a make-shift pacifier and placed it the princess' mouth. Who immediately started to shift in Yen as if trying to sleep.

"That is?"

"A country in the north, using an object called a pacifier to get their children to calm down or sleep. I put a fruit flavor on it so that she will keep it in her mouth."

"Oh. You always have wonderful inventions for us" she giggled "Especially your massages."

Yen had placed the little princess in her crib once she had seen that she had been entirely asleep

"Do you want another massage Consort Gina?" she said when her hands were free from the princess.

"Yes," Consort Gina said with no hesitation. Yen moved behind the Consort and proceeded with a massage that made the Consort dreamy.

"Everyone came close asking who in the world that maid was. It was dreadful," the consort said lightly.

"I sincerely apologize." As she continued to work her magic.

"Also, Yijun has been here since this morning. He seemed so free, and he didn't know what to do, so he's outside wedding for me."

Yen stop when she saw that the consort had fallen asleep with a satisfied smile. Yen adjusted the custom-made chair that leaned, and she made this chair because the Consort would always fall asleep after a massage. She looked at the mother-daughter, she had done an excellent job as both are satisfied. Mao had been outside the door and walked in with Yijun, who looked like he was finished pulling weeds. Before he could say anything, Yen signaled to be quiet as the Consort and Princess were asleep.

Once outside the room Yen had followed Yijun to another room.

"This is from Ren-sama," he hurriedly placed the cloth bundle on the table. Yen opened the silver bowl. The soup that was served was inside. Originally, it wasn't for Yen. It was supposed to be Consort Gina's food. She refused yesterday, but in the end, they politely bought it over for her. As they had been persistent about it, in another meaning, she had been ordered to investigate the case.

"Please don't eat it," Yijun said.

"I won't eat it," she assured him, but he looked at her doubtfully

Yen held the bowl, taking care not to touch it directly, and squinted at it. Not the contents of the bowl, but the bowl itself.

"Did you hold this with your bare hands?" she asked.

"No. I only mixed the potentially poisoned contents with a spoon." He was against touching poisonous things. To not touch it, he wrapped it up with a cloth.

Hearing that, Yen's lips curved. "I see. Please wait a second." She left the living room and went to the kitchen. With a rustle, she took out something. Next, she went to the bedroom she slept in just then.

She bowed her head at the high-class mattress and unraveled the seams of the cloth.

Yen returned to the living room with its contents. What she bought in were white powder and soft-looking cotton. Yen rolled the cotton into a ball and added the powder. She patted the silver container down with it.

Yijun tilted his head, peering close. "Well." Traces of powder remained on the bowl.

"These are touch marks of human hands," Yen said.

Fingers break out in oil easily and so leave marks on metals on contact. It was much more so for severely tarnish-able silver utensils.

"You must wipe it with a cloth before you use silver utensils. It's pointless if there's tarnish on it." There were several fingerprints on the bowl. She could make any guesses on how it was held based on just the finger sizes and location.

"The one who held the bowl…" She realized she made the mistake of starting to speak.

That didn't escape Yijun. "Did something happen?"

"No." There was no reason to keep a poor secret. It couldn't be helped that yesterday's trick became pointless. "It should be four people in total, who touched this bowl." She pointed at the white prints, not touching it with her finger. "As your fingers don't touch the bowl when you polish it, it would be the one who served the soup, the one who set the table, and Consort Hui's food taster plus one other person."

Yijun raised his brave face to look at Yen. "Why did the food taster do that? "If possible, she wanted to go through with it peacefully. That was dependent on the looks of this stoic man.

"It's simple." Yen had a bitter expression ran across her face. "Bullying."