Perhaps the screen had been folded away when the Ministry of Punishments entered the room to make it easier to move around, leaving the entire interior in plain view.
In the sitting area, a carved wooden bed stood against the western wall, while the southern wall was covered by a full-length wardrobe. There were also several small cabinets and display stands, holding candlesticks, a crane-shaped incense burner, flower vases, and other items.
Ning Yuan lay peacefully on the bed. The covers had already been pulled back, and his arms and legs rested naturally outstretched, as though he had slipped quietly into death.
Once the clerk had finished sketching the scene, Yan Tongshu walked in and examined Ning Yuan’s body together with the coroner.
The Minister of Punishments followed her inside. “The coroner has already examined him. Apart from old scars whose color has faded, there are no other wounds on his body. The silver needle test showed no discoloration. His lips are bluish-purple, his fingernails are cyanotic, and his lividity is dark purple. These symptoms are consistent with sudden death from a severe cold.
“Moreover, Prince Ning contracted a severe cold half a month ago and has never fully recovered. He was constantly coughing, suffering from chest pain and nausea, and his temperature had risen over the past two days. Based on all this, the coroner and I agree that he died of illness.”
Yan Tongshu examined Ning Yuan’s fingernails and noticed traces of lacquer beneath them. They were the same color as the round table, indicating that the scratches on its surface had been made by Ning Yuan himself.
On the buckwheat pillow beside Ning Yuan’s ear were several marks left by droplets of water that had soaked in and dried.
She reached out and pressed the lividity on the exposed skin of Ning Yuan’s body. The dark-purple patches disappeared under pressure. The body had only begun to stiffen, and this suggested that Ning Yuan might have been dead for roughly two shichen.
It was now past the middle of the Chou hour. Two shichen earlier, it would have been past the middle of the Hai hour.
That was just about the time people went to bed.
Yan Tongshu asked the Minister of Punishments when the death had been discovered. He said it had been after the Hai hour, confirming that the time of death was close to what she had inferred from the lividity. She then opened Ning Yuan’s eyes, and her expression darkened.
“Coroner.”
The coroner immediately stepped forward. “Lord Yan.”
Yan Tongshu said, “Make a note of this: the pupils of both eyes are symmetrically dilated. He has been dead for about two shichen, yet the body has not entered rigor mortis, and all the muscles remain unusually relaxed.”
The coroner leaned forward and carefully examined Ning Yuan’s eyes. After confirming that Yan Tongshu was correct, he wrote down the two observations.
Before Yan Tongshu withdrew her hand, the Minister of Punishments craned his neck to look as well. “What does this mean?”
Yan Tongshu’s expression was grave. “It means he may not have died suddenly from a severe cold.”
In someone who had died suddenly from a severe cold, the pupils would not be symmetrically dilated, and the muscles would normally have begun to stiffen. These were the distinguishing signs.
Yan Tongshu asked, “Who was attending the deceased before his death?”
At this point, a person as upright and renowned throughout the world as Yan Tongshu would never stop until she had uncovered the whole truth. And besides…
Deep sorrow showed in the eyes of the Earl of Yuguo.
It was not that he truly did not want to clear Yuan’er’s name. He simply did not want anything else to complicate matters.
The Earl of Yuguo sighed and waved for someone to bring in the household servants Wu Wang and Ding Xing.
Wu Wang and Ding Xing saluted the assembled officials.
As Yan Tongshu surveyed the room, she asked, “Were the two of you on duty that day?”
Wu Wang and Ding Xing nodded.
Wu Wang said, “Reporting to Lord Yan, Ding Xing and I changed shifts at the hour of the Dog and stood guard at the entrance the entire time. A little past the middle of the hour, Concubine Dantai brought the heir a bowl of chicken soup.”
Yan Tongshu caught the key point. “Chicken soup?”
He crouched down. There was vomit on the floor. The soup had already dried, mixed with bits of minced meat.
Wu Wang nodded. “Yes. The heir’s cold has not improved for the past half month. Every day, Concubine Dantai personally prepares chicken soup and brings it to him, hoping he will recover sooner. After the heir drank the soup, Concubine Dantai left the room.”
Ding Xing said, “The heir caught a cold half a month ago. He has been suffering from headaches, coughing, and general discomfort, yet he still has to copy out the *Tao Te Ching*. It has so many characters that he must rise early and sit in the study, copying until nightfall before he can finish. His illness eases slightly at night, but after being put through all that during the day, his cold worsens again. It keeps repeating like that, and his temper has grown much worse. We servants hardly dare go near him.
“Not long after Concubine Dantai left, we heard the heir smashing things inside. He must have been feeling unwell again. Wu Wang and I were both on edge. Then, just then, my lord suddenly had a gong sounded and summoned all the servants in the manor to Hui Pavilion Courtyard to be searched...”
“Cough, cough.” Earl of Yuguo coughed heavily twice. “That has nothing to do with the heir’s case. There is no need to mention it.”
“Yes, my lord.” Ding Xing lowered his head fearfully. “There are many servants in the manor, and the search took a long time. By the time we returned to the heir’s courtyard, it should already have been past the hour of the Dog. I cannot be certain, since I did not hear the night watchman’s signal—I am only estimating. After we returned, the heir’s room was very quiet, and the candle was still burning. Neither Wu Wang nor I thought much of it, and we continued guarding the courtyard gate.”
The heir had died unexpectedly, and the two of them had been on duty at the time. Afraid of being implicated, Wu Wang hurried to add, “That’s right. Ding Xing and I truly did not think anything was amiss. It was only later, when it was already the hour of the Rat and the candle in his room still had not gone out, with no sound coming from inside, that we knocked and asked whether the heir had any orders, or whether he intended to retire for the night. There was no response. We did not dare disturb him further, so we continued standing guard.”
Yan Tongshu rose, listening as he examined the rest of the room.
Ding Xing continued, “Then, after another half hour passed, we went to ask again. There was still no answer at the hour of the Boar. The heir was ill, and we feared something might have happened, so we knocked a little harder. Still, there was no response. The heir usually sleeps lightly—he wakes at the slightest sound.
“Now that he was ill, his sleep should have been even lighter. Yet even when we knocked so hard, no one answered. Wu Wang and I discussed it and decided something must have happened. But we were also afraid we might be overthinking things and provoke the heir’s wrath for nothing. So I went to Concubine Dantai’s quarters to find her.”
Wu Wang said, “Concubine Dantai is greatly favored by the heir. Fine food and amusements are sent to her courtyard in an endless stream. Even when he is ill, the heir cannot bear to say a harsh word to her. That was why she was the first person we thought of.”
“After Concubine Dantai arrived with her maidservants, she knocked on the door several times in a row, but no one answered. Perhaps she, too, sensed that something was wrong, so she ordered the two of us to force the door open. Once it was open, we searched for the heir and found him lying peacefully on the bed, still covered by a quilt. Concubine Dantai went up and touched him, but he did not respond. She placed a hand beneath his nose and was so frightened that she staggered back several steps. Only then did all of us realize that the heir was dead.”
Yan Tongshu examined the vase in his hand as he pondered the matter.
When Ning Yuan had been discovered, he had been lying peacefully in bed, covered by a quilt. Yet he was fully dressed in his lanshan robe, without having removed his outer garment.
Ning Yuan, heir to the Earl of Yuguo, was renowned as a humble gentleman and was especially fastidious about cleanliness. If he had truly intended to sleep, he would never have gone to bed without taking off his outer robe.
Moreover, judging by the condition of the corpse, Ning Yuan had been dead for roughly two hours—meaning sometime after the middle of the Hour of the Boar. Yet according to these two men, they had finished searching him at the beginning of the Hour of the Boar and returned then. After that, the room had remained completely quiet; they had heard nothing at all.
Strange. Could Ning Yuan already have been dead at the beginning of the Hour of the Boar?
Yan Tongshu pressed them, “You truly heard nothing? No labored breathing, no groans? No sounds of knocking or calling for help?”
Ding Xing and Wu Wang both shook their heads. “The heir liked quiet. Even during the day, he required us to keep silent; at night, he was even stricter. If there had been the slightest sound, we certainly would have heard it.”
So quiet?
Yan Tongshu had Tantai Mingzhu summoned once more.
What Tantai Mingzhu said matched Ding Xing and Wu Wang’s account.
Yan Tongshu walked over to the windowsill.
Ning Yuan’s room had four broad casement windows, all closed. He tested them one by one. One of them opened with a push, which meant it had not been bolted from the inside.
“Oh?” Tantai Mingzhu murmured in surprise. “This window was only loosely shut? I thought that after I left, the heir had closed it.”
“After you left?” Yan Tongshu turned to look at her.
“Yes.” Tantai Mingzhu nodded. “The heir’s cold had lingered without improving, and he often suffered headaches, so he disliked opening the windows. When I arrived, they were tightly closed. As Lord Yan knows, because of what happened to my father, closed windows make me uneasy. So I urged him to open at least one, to let in some air. Otherwise, the room would only grow stuffier and make him feel worse. The heir agreed, and I opened one—”
She raised her hand and pointed to the window in front of Yan Tongshu. “But I did not open it all the way, only left a narrow crack for ventilation. It was this window—the one Lord Yan is inspecting now.”
“I understand.” Yan Tongshu continued his examination.
Once the window was pushed open, several fresh marks could be seen on the frame—scratches left by fingernails digging into the wood with force. There were also signs of someone stepping on and climbing over it. Outside lay a set of footprints, one deep and one shallow.
Yan Tongshu signaled for Zhang Jiu to inspect them, then turned to Tantai Mingzhu. “Ding Xing and the others said that you bring Prince Ning a bowl of chicken soup every day?”
Tantai Mingzhu nodded. “The prince’s cold has lingered for a long time, and he has had little appetite. For the past half month, I have brought him a bowl of chicken soup every day and urged him to eat more meat, so that he might recover sooner.”
“But the heir has a weak stomach and finds chicken soup too rich, so these past few days I haven’t been making chicken soup, but partridge soup instead. Spring is when partridge meat is at its most tender. Even a soup made with nothing but salt is exceptionally flavorful, so I instruct the kitchen to order some whenever they see it for sale.”
Yan Tongshu nodded, indicating that he understood.
She asked, “Where is the soup now?”
Tantai Mingzhu frowned slightly, seemingly unable to understand why Yan Tongshu was asking. “The heir drank less than half a bowl and ate two pieces of meat before he could eat no more. I urged him repeatedly, and only then did he eat another two pieces. Afterward, I had the maid Fenghe dispose of the soup and meat.”
Yan Tongshu pressed, “Can it still be found?”
“This…” Tantai Mingzhu looked troubled. “It was thrown out. It should be in the slop bucket. Shall I have someone look for it?”
“Then have them look,” Yan Tongshu said decisively.
“Yes.” Tantai Mingzhu curtsied, then turned and withdrew to arrange for the maids to search.
The Minister of Punishments stepped forward. “What do you need that for?”
Yan Tongshu looked at Ning Yuan on the bed. “I suspect poisoning.”
“Poisoning?” The Minister of Punishments had long suspected that Ning Yuan had been murdered, so he was only mildly surprised. “What makes you say that? The silver needle showed no poison.”
“Some poisons cannot be detected by a silver needle at all,” Yan Tongshu replied steadily. “The signs of death do not match a cold, and there are no wounds on the body. Other than poisoning, I can think of no other possibility. Of course, the corpse must undergo further examination.”
The Minister of Punishments looked displeased. “For Lord Yan to declare it poisoning based on only those two signs seems rather rash.”
Yan Tongshu raised his eyes and shot him a glare. “Having doubts and failing to investigate them before jumping to a conclusion—that is what is rash. I have doubts, so I will investigate them properly. Even if it ultimately proves that I was overthinking things, it will only have cost us some time. But for Lord Chu to carry doubts and yet casually reach a conclusion, allowing the murderer to go free—that is true rashness and irresponsibility.”
The Minister of Punishments choked on his words. His mouth opened, then finally closed again.
He could not be bothered to argue with a stubborn blockhead like Yan Tongshu.
While Tantai Mingzhu was away searching for the partridge soup, Yan Tongshu went to the Earl of Yuguo. His gaze bored straight into the other man’s eyes.
“Earl of Yuguo, why did you suddenly summon every servant in the residence to be searched after half past the Hour of the Dog? What exactly happened then?”
The Earl of Yuguo clenched his teeth, his eyes dark and inscrutable.
This was precisely why he and the Minister of Punishments had wanted to settle the matter privately and had not wanted Yan Tongshu involved. The man was far too determined to get to the bottom of everything.
The Earl of Yuguo’s voice was low and heavy. “This matter has nothing to do with my son’s death.”
“How do you know it has nothing to do with it?” Yan Tongshu refused to yield, demanding sharply, “You called away every servant in the estate. What if the murderer took advantage of that time to come and poison the heir?”
A vein throbbed faintly at the Earl of Yuguo’s temple. “How could there be such a coincidence?”
Yan Tongshu pressed again. “What if it was no coincidence, but deliberately arranged?”
The Earl of Yuguo gritted his teeth. “Even so, I can guarantee that the matter has nothing to do with my son’s death.”
Yan Tongshu ground his teeth. Another damned stubborn old duck who refused to open his mouth.
At that moment, Zhang Jiu returned and said to Yan Tongshu in a lowered voice, “The footprints belong to a woman. The shoes are approximately 7.4 cun long. One print is deeper than the other, so she likely has a disability in her foot.”
Seven-point-four cun—converted to modern sizing, that would be a size 37 shoe.
Yan Tongshu lowered her eyes in thought, then asked, “How long were the strides?”
“Lord Yan, as expected, you are remarkably perceptive.” Zhang Jiu said admiringly, “I specifically measured them just now. The stride lengths were inconsistent: the shortest was two chi three, and the longest two chi five.”
That was not right. An adult woman’s stride should be between one chi six and two chi two. With size 37 shoes, she ought to be around 1.55 to 1.65 meters tall—her stride could not possibly reach two chi two, let alone two chi three to two chi five.
Yan Tongshu looked at Zhang Jiu. He nodded, confirming that they had reached the same conclusion: those were the strides of a man.
Generally speaking, a person’s natural stride is around thirty-five to forty percent of their height. Based on those measurements, the person should have been about 1.8 meters tall.
However, in an emergency, one’s stride would lengthen. Taking that into consideration, this person should have been at least 1.7 or 1.75 meters tall.
Yan Tongshu set the information aside for the moment, intending to examine it more carefully once they had finished searching the room.
She inspected the chamber for quite some time but found nothing unusual. Then she went to Ning Yuan’s bed to search it, feeling along the headboard and footboard, tapping here and there.
Her fingers found a hard protrusion. When she pressed it down, there came a click, like the sound of a latch springing open. She followed the sound.
The Minister of Punishments silently retreated two steps, moving to stand beside the Earl of Yuguo.
Yan Tongshu found a slightly uneven section and pulled it outward. It was a drawer—and it was completely empty.
Instinctively, Yan Tongshu looked toward the Minister of Punishments and the Earl of Yuguo. “Where are the things that were inside?”
The Minister of Punishments cleared his throat. “There was something inside?”
The Earl of Yuguo feigned surprise. “There was actually a drawer here? The craftsman was quite ingenious.”
Yan Tongshu clenched her teeth. Those two old bastards had definitely removed all the private letters and the like from the room beforehand.
“Lord Yan.”
Tantai Mingzhu entered, carrying a plate of meat. “The servants fished this partridge meat out of the slop bucket. Fortunately, the bucket was new and there was not much in it, so the meat could still be retrieved. It has not turned sour or foul-smelling.”
Yan Tongshu had Tantai Mingzhu set it down. Zhang Jiu went outside and had someone catch a rat, then brought over a clean wooden bucket.
They placed both the rat and the meat in the bucket. Before long, the rat had eaten most of the meat.
Yan Tongshu instructed Zhang Jiu to put the rat in a cage. The group then left the room and waited quietly in the reception hall.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, the rat’s legs began to weaken. It could no longer stand steadily and collapsed to the ground, squeaking in agony. Soon afterward, it began to vomit. Half an hour later, it lay on the ground, its entire body limp and unable to move, struggling even to breathe.
“It truly is poisoned!” The Minister of Punishments slammed his hand against the table in fury. “Tantai Mingzhu, what do you have to say for yourself?”
Tantai Mingzhu’s face went pale. Her knees buckled, and she fell to the ground. “I’ve been wronged, Lord Chu. It wasn’t me. I am the heir’s concubine—his woman. Now that he is dead, is there any place left for me in the Earl of Yuguo’s household? Besides, I personally served the partridge soup to the heir. If I had wanted to harm him, why would I put the poison in my own soup? Wouldn’t that be courting death?”
Her argument did make sense.
The Minister of Punishments glanced at Yan Tongshu, who had been staring silently at the rat. “Who is to say you aren’t doing the opposite on purpose, trying to clear yourself of suspicion?”
“Lord Chu!” The Earl of Yuguo stepped forward. “Calm yourself.”
He could understand why the Minister of Punishments did not want Yan Tongshu to continue investigating.
His Yuan’er was dead. His heart ached. He wanted to find the murderer and avenge his son, yet he could not allow the family’s affairs to be exposed. But the case could not be handled so carelessly—especially not where Tantai Mingzhu was concerned.
The Earl of Yuguo’s business still depended on Tantai Mingzhu.
The Minister of Punishments sighed and said no more.
Yan Tongshu crouched on the ground, examining the rat’s corpse.
What poison caused these symptoms?
A silver needle could not detect it. Heart pain, vomiting, weakness and soreness throughout the muscles...
Aconite?
No. With aconite poisoning, the tongue, mouth, and limbs hurt first, and the pain would not be this severe.
Poison hemlock... Poison hemlock caused convulsive spasms and opisthotonos; the muscles would not be so limp.
Nux vomica could also cause opisthotonos.
Pufferfish toxin was impossible to obtain in Bianjing.
Then a thought flashed through Yan Tongshu’s mind.
Gelsemium.
Also known as “gut-cleaving grass,” gelsemium was a vine that resembled honeysuckle—jin yin hua. It was a neurotoxin. After ingestion, it caused dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, double vision, vomiting, muscle weakness, numbness in the limbs, and paralysis of the respiratory muscles, ultimately leading to death by suffocation.
Yet these signs alone were not enough to identify gelsemium with absolute certainty. Animal testing could not fully confirm the symptoms; at best, it allowed for an educated guess.
But if it was gelsemium poisoning, abdominal pain would begin within minutes, which matched the time of Ning Yuan’s death.
Moreover, everyone had said that when they discovered Ning Yuan’s body, he had been lying properly in bed.
Gelsemium poisoning caused abdominal pain, dizziness, and numbness in the limbs, but in the early stages, the victim could still move—could still call for help.
Even if there had been no one outside the courtyard, instinct would have driven him to seek help. He would not simply have gone back to bed.
So why had Ning Yuan been in bed? Why had he been lying there neatly, covered by a quilt?
Yan Tongshu spoke. “I need to perform an autopsy.”
“No!” The Earl of Yuguo’s eyes widened in fury. “I will never permit anyone to desecrate my son’s body.”
Yan Tongshu explained, “At present, we suspect that Prince Ning was poisoned with gelsemium. But animal testing cannot confirm it completely. Only by opening the chest and examining the body—checking for gastric hemorrhaging, diffuse spots and patchy bleeding, as well as the condition of the blood in the heart—can we establish the cause with certainty.”
“No.” The Earl of Yuguo grew agitated once more. “My son is already dead. All his life, he loved cleanliness and refinement. How could I possibly allow his heart to be cut out and his organs removed after death, leaving him in such a wretched state—not even an intact body? Absolutely not!”
Yan Tongshu said, “Earl of Yuguo, only an autopsy can determine Prince Ning’s true cause of death. Only then can we confirm whether the poison was indeed gelsemium and follow the clues to find his killer.”
“Impossible.” The Earl of Yuguo refused without hesitation. “I will never permit anyone to desecrate my son’s body.”
Without the family’s consent, an autopsy could not be forcibly carried out.
The Earl of Yuguo had never wanted her involved in this case to begin with, and now his attitude was so unyielding...
Yan Tongshu pressed her lips together and could only let the matter rest. “Then, for now, we shall classify it as death by gelsemium poisoning.”
The Earl of Yuguo shot Yan Tongshu a vicious glare. “Hmph.”
His son was already dead, yet this venomous woman, Yan Tongshu, still wanted to mutilate his body. It was utterly intolerable.
Since the Earl of Yuguo would not allow an autopsy, Yan Tongshu could only examine Ning Yuan’s body externally.
After dismissing everyone else, she inspected Ning Yuan’s body together with the coroner from the Kaifeng Prefecture and the coroner from the Ministry of Justice.
She undid Ning Yuan’s clothes and trousers, but found nothing unusual. Then she loosened the knot of his hair and examined his scalp, yet still found nothing.
The body lay face-up on the bed. There were lividity marks on the back and buttocks, and the discoloration was in the settling stage, indicating that Ning Yuan’s body had not been moved. He had died lying on his back in this very position.
He had been dead for two hours, yet his muscles remained unusually relaxed—consistent with symptoms of poisoning.
Could it truly have been nothing more than a straightforward death by poison?
With that question in mind, Yan Tongshu began questioning those present.
The first person she questioned was the Earl of Yuguo.
The Earl sat in his chair. Thinking of his beloved son, on whom he had placed such great hopes, profound grief filled his eyes, and moisture gathered at their rims.
He said, “My son, Yuan’er, has been suffering from a lingering cold for the past half month. He was filial and feared infecting his mother and me, so he came to pay his respects only once every two or three days. He had visited us the day before yesterday, but not yesterday. Yuan’er’s health had not improved for so long that his mother was worried.
“Therefore, during the day, I took my wife to the nearest temple to pray for blessings. We returned at the hour of Shen, dined at the hour of You, and at the hour of Xu, there was a theft in the manor. We gathered the servants and searched the estate. After that, a servant hurried over to notify me, and only then did I learn that Yuan’er... Yuan’er...”
The Earl turned slightly aside, unwilling to let the others see him cry. Suppressing the hoarseness in his throat, he said, “A servant reported it to me. I went to Yuan’er’s room, and by then, he was no longer breathing.”
Yan Tongshu pressed, “What was stolen from the manor?”
The Earl quickly wiped away his tears. “Lord Yan, please do not keep pressing me. This truly has nothing to do with Yuan’er’s death.”
The Earl’s attitude made it clear that he would not say another word. Yan Tongshu did not waste any further time and instead asked Tantai Mingzhu, “What did Prince Ning consume this evening?”
“His Lordship was ill and did not eat much. For dinner, he had only a little fish, some greens, and a few mouthfuls of porridge,” Tantai Mingzhu replied with downcast eyes and a submissive manner.
Yan Tongshu asked again, “Was Prince Ning the only one who ate these things?”
Tantai Mingzhu said, “In reply to Lord Yan, I attended to the heir during his meal and ate a little myself.”
Yan Tongshu pressed, “What about the medicine?”
Tantai Mingzhu replied, “The heir’s cold has yet to improve. He needs to take medicine four times a day, and half an hour before drinking the partridge soup, he had just taken a bowl of medicinal decoction.”
Half an hour—the likelihood of the medicine being involved was lower still.
So this was not a case of multiple poisons. There was only one: the poison in the partridge soup.
With only one poison involved, the symptoms must have come from that poison alone. This made it all the more certain that it was gelsemine poisoning.
Yan Tongshu summoned a bailiff and ordered him to investigate the medicine. Only then did he turn to Tantai Mingzhu and ask, “Did you prepare the partridge soup yourself?”
