When Baili Yan returned to the small village with his game and herbs, most of the villagers were out working in the fields. Under the large banyan tree at the entrance of the village, a group of young wives and matrons gathered to do embroidery work, while the children laughed and played nearby. Upon seeing a stranger arrive, the children scattered in a bunch, then hid in corners to peek at the newcomer. The women also occasionally stole glances at this handsome young man.
Baili Yan paid no attention to their scrutiny and walked straight toward Daniu’s house on the outskirts of the village. By this time, Daniu had already gone out to work in the fields, and Daniu’s wife was sorting through pig feed to prepare for feeding the pigs, while their young son, Huzi, helped out nearby.
“Brother Liu is back! Your younger brother just fell asleep.” Seeing Baili Yan, Daniu’s wife stopped what she was doing and greeted him politely.
“Many thanks to Sister-in-law for taking care of my younger brother. These are some game animals I caught while gathering herbs, along with some fish caught in the stream. Consider it a little addition to the household meals, and I must trouble Sister-in-law to prepare them.” Baili Yan handed the game in his hands over to Huzi. Although social mores in the Mu Dynasty were relatively open, unmarried men and women still needed to exercise some discretion. Hearing that these were all ingredients to supplement the family’s meals, Huzi beamed with joy as he took them and ran toward the kitchen.
“Brother Liu, you are too polite.” Although the Mu Dynasty enjoyed economic prosperity, families in this remote mountain village rarely managed to eat braised meat. Even when they caught game, they would typically take it to the county town to exchange for practical daily necessities, reluctant to keep it for their own consumption.
“Not at all. This is also for my younger brother; he should be properly nourished while recovering from his illness.” After exchanging pleasantries with Daniu’s wife, Baili Yan returned to the room they were temporarily occupying. The room had poor lighting and was rather dim. Cao Xiaochan was fast asleep on that old, dilapidated wooden bed, his thin eyebrows knitted tightly together, looking extremely uncomfortable, and occasionally letting out pained moans. His cheeks flushed with an abnormal feverish red.
Baili Yan’s heart skipped a beat. He hastily put down the herbs he was carrying and strode over to the bedside to check Cao Xiaochan’s pulse. After taking the pulse, Baili Yan felt quite perplexed. This silly rabbit had been poisoned recently, and a different type of poison remained lingering in his body. For some unknown reason, it had never flared up, yet it could not be diagnosed either. Although the all-clearing pill had now neutralized the majority of the original poison, the two toxins had combined to form a new potency that was currently wreaking havoc inside Cao Xiaochan’s body.
“Silly rabbit, oh silly rabbit, the debt you owe me is growing larger and larger by the day. If you cannot give me a pleasant surprise, I’m going to have to stew you up.” Baili Yan smiled bitterly. He had truly picked up a massive trouble this time, but he hoped this toy he had set his sights on would not disappoint him.
Baili Yan produced several silver needles and drove them into several of Cao Xiaochan’s pressure points, then kicked off his shoes, climbed onto the bed, and helped Cao Xiaochan up. Pulling him into his arms, Baili Yan could only feel that this silly rabbit’s body was unexpectedly soft. Giving it no further thought, he crossed his legs behind Cao Xiaochan and sat up straight, placing both hands against his back so that Cao Xiaochan’s body sat unsupported on the bed. He then began channeling his internal energy to force out the poison. Before long, Cao Xiaochan felt a sweetness rise in his throat and spat out a mouthful of dark blood, staining the front of his garments.
Watching him expel the black blood, Baili Yan let out a sigh of relief, feeling grateful that it wasn’t some bizarre, incurable poison. He laid Cao Xiaochan back down on the bed. Seeing that his condition had now stabilized, he wiped the blood stains from his body and asked Daniu’s wife to look after him for a while. The medicinal herbs he had brought back were no longer sufficient for their needs, and he still needed to go out and search for a few more ingredients.
By now it was lunchtime, and Daniu’s wife urged him to stay for the meal before leaving. Feeling a hunger pang in his abdomen, Baili Yan agreed. When he saw the coarse cornmeal on the table and looked around the barren walls of the impoverished household, he thought to himself that while it didn’t matter if they ate coarse grains, Cao Xiaochan’s spleen and stomach, weakened by poisoning, could not handle such food. It seemed he would have to make a trip to the county town to buy some rice and flour, and take the opportunity to check out the situation in the city.
“Pardon me, Brother Liu. The family isn’t well off, so we can only wrong you both with this,” Daniu’s wife said apologetically when she saw Baili Yan pause.
“What are you saying, Sister-in-law? It is us brothers who are intruding.”
Huzi paid no mind to their polite exchanges. He picked up his rice bowl, ladled in some wild chicken soup, and shoveled the food into his mouth in huge mouthfuls, as he still had to deliver lunch to his father in the fields shortly. Daniu’s wife, on the other hand, refrained from touching the meat dishes; she had to exercise restraint, leaving the good food for their guests and her own child.
After finishing his lunch, Baili Yan headed out. He walked to his hidden stash on the outskirts of the town, removed the human-skin mask from his face, and revealed his handsome, seductive features. However, he quickly put on another ordinary-looking human-skin mask, disguised himself as a common villager, and entered the county town of Amixian.
Aside from bailiffs searching everywhere, there were no abnormal conditions in the county town, nor had there been any word of a prison break. Baili Yan sneered inwardly: did this County Magistrate Liu really think he could keep a lid on things? Paper could never wrap up a fire. The whereabouts of that ancient jade from Scholar Zhang’s family remained unknown; once the silly rabbit recovered, he would still have to come back and investigate. Our young master Bai was still keeping that family heirloom jade in mind and had not given up yet.
Baili Yan first went to a clothing shop to purchase two sets of cotton cloth garments for himself and Cao Xiaochan, then stopped by a pharmacy to fill his prescription. The pharmacy clerk glanced at the prescription and saw it contained no antidotes for snake venom, but merely ordinary herbs for clearing heat and detoxifying the body, so he thought nothing of it. Finally, Baili Yan bought five catties each of white rice and white flour before heading back.
Inside the county yamen, County Magistrate Liu was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. From last night until now, none of the large or small medical clinics in the town had reported anyone purchasing snake venom antidotes. Logically speaking, this should have been good news, as after so much time, the poisoned person ought to have thoroughly kicked the bucket, yet he simply could not find peace of mind. He always felt as though he had overlooked something.
Watching County Magistrate Liu pace back and forth in agitation, the advisor’s mind raced as he pondered how to lift the burden of worry from his superior. If this were modern times, the advisor would be an exemplary employee, wholeheartedly dedicated to solving problems for his boss. But right now, no one particularly cared what era it was.
“Why is Your Honor so anxious?” Unable to figure it out, the advisor asked County Magistrate Liu directly, because to relieve someone’s worries, one first needed to know where the worries lay.
“Advisor, Chief Wang and his men haven’t discovered any suspicious individuals to this day, and my heart is truly ill at ease.”
“Your Honor need not worry needlessly. By this hour, that death row inmate has probably already perished completely.” Hearing County Magistrate Liu’s words, the advisor figured the magistrate must simply be feeling guilty from having committed too many misdeeds.
“Calamity! Ruin! This is a major disaster!” County Magistrate Liu suddenly shrieked at the top of his lungs, startling the advisor so badly that he nearly fell flat on his back, hurriedly patting his old, withered chest like a chicken claw.
“Advisor, do you remember how that death row inmate consumed poison yet remained completely unaffected?” County Magistrate Liu stared eagerly at the advisor with a pair of small eyes.
“There was indeed such a matter, but it’s also possible the poison had simply been stored too long and lost its potency.” The advisor comforted County Magistrate Liu while simultaneously soothing his own fragile, shock-resistant heart.
“Absolute nonsense! Try testing it on yourself then!” County Magistrate Liu, who had always fancied himself a cultured and refined man, finally lost his temper and swore aloud.