Lang’s green needle

Yinyue's eyes swept over the report, while Lang and Ronghe waited nervously. Both men kept their heads lowered before her, awaiting any questions. Her face showed intense concentration.

The guest hall felt colder when she first entered. Lang sensed an aura of dominance surrounding her — like those exuding from any general. He also noticed that Yinyue is a woman dressed as a man.

Her behaviour when she took her seat on the chair was also not lady-like. She leaned against the back of her chair, covered with the fur of a snow leopard. Her legs crossed with her foot on her knee like a man, with the unrolled scroll of the report resting on her lap.

"Hrmph." Yinyue closed the scroll together. Ronghe almost jumped out of his skin. None dared to raise their heads to look at her. The bamboo strips on the scroll clacked as she placed it down beside her on the chair.

"Raise your heads," Yinyue ordered both men before her to look up.

Ronghe noticed how pale she was. She neglected to wear a mask. Her skin almost resembled white jade, along with her lips. Smooth, but too sickly looking. The dark circles under her eyes hinted about a lack of a good night's sleep. Yet those eyes, like a shimmering lodestone, still wield a magnetic darkness drawing him to them.

Her face seemed vaguely familiar to him. Like a face of someone he saw in another life. Too different, Ronghe shook that thought away.

Yinyue pursed her lips into a thin line and studied the two of them while pinching her forehead. Ronghe wondered if she felt displeased with the report. He wrote only the essential facts. Enough to skirt around the facts to present it like an accident.

Her eyes moved to Lang, and she asked, "Physician Lang, what is their cause of death?"

Lang didn't seem to hear her question. He remained standing as still as a tree, staring at the large fire totem symbol of the Dayan Empire. Almost like fear immobilised him. Ronghe nudged him and he almost jumped.

"I-I…," Lang gulped. "M-My Grand Prince, my opinion is that their bodies were too frozen to ascertain death. W-when the carriage f-fell…no I mean, c-crash, the bodies were…"

He almost blurted out the word "frozen". If he had mentioned any chance of those bodies being frozen, that would place their deaths before the carriage. Ronghe had hinted to him that the victims in this case were no commoners.

"So, is it an accident or not?" Ronghe prompted, as he noticed a smirk growing on Yinyue's face. Was she annoyed?

"I m-mean the w-women, t-they d-died from an accident," Lang stammered. Yinyue didn't look satisfied with his answer.

"04, come out."

A black shadow flashed past them in her command. A figure of another young man appeared in front of them. Dressed in black like 02, 04 appeared shorter but more stocky than the slender 02. Lang hopped back, nearly stumbling backwards from the shock. Ronghe caught him in time.

Both men stole a look at each other. They didn't notice anyone in the hall earlier. Wasn't the earlier fellow called 02? And didn't he leave?

Ronghe noticed 04 walked without a sound like 02. Only highly skilled martial artists, especially assassins, could walk without the sound of footsteps.

The ones Yinyue used probably trained in the Shadow Pavilion. Were they going to get killed? Dead men told no tales. And a cover up required no witnesses.

Yinyue didn't bother to continue looking at the both of them and turned to 04, waving the scroll. "Copy this report onto the parchment for the Capital."

Ronghe arched his eyebrow at her words.

"Grand Prince, any further orders?" 04 asked after receiving the scroll.

His voice sounded hoarse and raspy when he asked.

Ronghe held his breath. What if the Grand Prince ordered them killed? Ronghe clenched his fists in anticipation of a possible fight. The guards had removed his sword and searched him for any hidden weapons. All he had were his balls of fists to defend himself if needed.

"None. Your priority is to copy it, word for word and then send it out," Yinyue replied, waving her hands for him to leave.

Much to Ronghe's relief, 04 bowed and left as fast as he appeared.

"And now the urgent matters which can't wait." She rested her left arm on the side of the chair and running her finger across her lower lip. "You mentioned about those in contact with the body?"

Lang stepped forward and bowed his head. This was urgent. "I-I…the three women's bodies had a strange smell."

"Oh? I recalled a stench but usually corpses smell like that," Yinyue spoke, sweeping his words to the ground while looking at her fingernails, as if bored.

"One substance was on their clothes, not flesh — the other on their skin is different," Lang said.

"Tell me about these two substances." Yinyue tapped her fingers on the wooden arm.

"The one on their wounds and skin isn't a poison, butt the scent is for attracting animals. A sort of powder. But the substance on their clothing was soaked in something, which causes hallucinations."

"Hallucinations?" Yinyue sat up straight in her chair.

Lang stopped, unsure of whether to go on. He could feel a pressure weighting down on his head.

"Is it cunub?"

Lang frowned at her question. From her reaction, he guessed someone got affected. Cunub would be a natural suspect in Dayan. To explain the substance he extracted from the clothes was difficult.

"Not cunub. Cunub doesn't turn the testing needle green."

Yinyue narrowed her eyes. "Green? What made you test the clothing?"

"Some sort of delusion affected my helper. He was seeing things. All those who came in contact with the clothing…had the same reaction."

Yinyue turned her sights on Ronghe. "You were also in contact with those bodies."

"I used a stick mostly," Ronghe replied. "But yes, I saw some odd things after. Most of those who worked in the makeshift morgue were affected."

Ronghe couldn't speak of reliving a certain life he wished to forget. The hallucinogenic effects of the substance on the clothing threw the makeshift morgue into an upheaval.

Lang was the fortunate one. Being a physician, he treated all suspicious deaths with equal suspicion of poisoning. He had worked in Yancheng before and seen all methods of poisoning, from food to the clothing.

"Do you know what it is?" She glanced at Lang again.

Lang shook his head. Yinyue frowned. There are too many poisons circulating in the world, which she didn't know of, and coming across a rare one meant calling in the expert — her grandfather.

"Keep the clothing first," she said. "Winter is still around. Find a cave in the mountains and seal them there."

"What if the relatives come?" Ronghe asked.

"Send them to me." She rose from her seat.