“That’s a great idea. Miss, you’re the boss.” Some sensible palace maids among them tried to fawn on Lin Mengya.
In fact, the only reason why they had been standing here since early morning was to make their existence known to Miss Helan and thus to earn bright futures.
Lin Mengya was well aware of this, as were these palace maids.
“In that case, you may follow this lady there. I’ll teach you some new morning exercises every once in a while. As long as you persist in doing morning exercises, you’ll definitely benefit from that. I have something to do, so I can’t join you,” Lin Mengya said.
She waved her hand with a mild and gentle smile and the high prestige of an in-charge palace maid.
However, at the sight of Lin Mengya’s affable smile, Baisu felt a little strange, as Lin Mengya had rarely revealed such a fake smile.
Lin Mengya smiled as she watched the crowd of palace maids leave, and did not stop smiling until the last palace maid disappeared from her sight.
Then she said, “Make a thorough investigation of today’s newcomers, and make a detailed record of them no matter which palaces they come from, as well as the palaces from which none of them come.”
Baisu nodded. She would properly do everything Lin Mengya asked her to do.
Unexpectedly, the imperial concubines took action so quickly that they had divided into several groups with clear boundaries within only a few days.
Lin Mengya had led the palace maids to do morning exercises since she came to the imperial palace, but there had never been as many palace maids gathering as today.
In fact, they all intended to play up to the new mistress of the harem.
But Lin Mengya knew clearly that many of them came to sound out Madame Jingrou’s actual situation.
Of course, she should draw those trustworthy people over to their side and watch out for those untrustworthy people.
After breakfast, Lin Mengya had a stroll before returning to the side chamber of the Fengyu Court.
By this time, Baisu had put down the record she made on Lin Mengya’s desk.
Lin Mengya picked it up and leafed it through carefully while frowning.
Nevertheless, after finishing reading the list, she smoothed her knitted brows. It seemed to have little influence on her.
“Baisu, who is Madame Ping? How come I haven’t heard of her before?” She asked as she tapped the list which clearly said that Madame Ping from the Jinglan Court had yet to send anyone to join them.
Moreover, the Mesdames on good terms with Madame Ping had sent their palace maids to join them.
It seemed that they deliberately tried to isolate Madame Ping, or perhaps the palace maids they sent could convey information to Madame Ping, so she didn’t have to send her palace maids to gossip with other palace maids.
“It’s said that she comes from the Ping Family, a family of witch doctors for generations, and she’s one of the four Mesdames the Emperor married after he ascended the throne. Nevertheless, Madame Ping is usually very cautious and does not easily pick on others. Her son, the Fourth Prince, is not outstanding, said to have been occupied with medical knowledge in recent years and paid little attention to political affairs. Madame Ping is not on friendly terms with Madame Jingrou, but their relationship is not bad. I have met her several times when I stayed by Young Master’s side. She is quiet and virtuous,” Baisu said.
Was Madame Ping neutral? Lin Mengya leafed through the list. Ningqiu had said that, apart from the Empress, there were three Mesdames with real power in the imperial palace.
Since the downfall of the Empress, the three of them had long dispersed and each of them had gone her own way.
It seemed that Madame Ping was not as indifferent to power as she looked!
“Shall I make an investigation of Madame Ping?” Baisu asked.
The list was made by Baisu according to ranks after a secret investigation.
However, Lin Mengya asked about neither the three Mesdames nor the Shaoshi and Beauties of lower rank.
She only asked about Madame Ping, which demonstrated the point.
“No. You said she comes from a family of witch doctors. Did she give any present to Madame or Xiaoyu?” Lin Mengya asked.
The reason why Madame Ping attracted her attention was that the other imperial concubines, who had children and came from aristocratic families, basically had sent their palace maids here.
Lin Mengya was keenly aware that it was reasonable for them to send their palace maids to sound out the situation for the sake of their sons.
However, Madame Ping, whose relationship with Madame Jingrou was not bad, did not send anyone here, while the Mesdames on good terms with Madame Ping had sent their palace maids here.
Lin Mengya would never believe there was nothing fishy about this.
“I have no idea what she gave Madame, but when Young Master just came back, she sent a pair of jade annuluses for congratulations. Miss, if you want to have a look, I’ll go and fetch it right away,” Baisu answered
Because Wanyan Yu gave preferential treatment to Lin Mengya and was eager to give all his good stuff to Lin Mengya, Xiaoyu’s stuff was placed in the side yard next to the Fengyu Court.
It didn’t take long for Baisu to fetch the pair of jade annuluses made of superb material.
One of them was bluish-green, and the other was milky-white.
Moreover, they blended into one integral whole naturally like twins.
Baisu said, “They are known as cloud-patterned lucky annuluses and said to be the heirloom of Madame Ping’s family. This pair of jade annuluses were carved from the same piece of jade, but one is blue and the other white, which is very rare. A few days ago, Young Master wanted to have them made into some jewelry for you, but he didn’t have time to do it yet.”
Hearing Baisu’s words, Lin Mengya couldn’t help rolling her eyes.
That would be a reckless waste of God’s good gifts to make such rare treasures into jewelry.
She put the jade annuluses in her palm and toyed with them. The warm touch gave her the illusion that they could breathe.
However, she had a different feeling when holding them in her hand and was unwilling to let them out of her hand.
“Eh? What is this?” Baisu asked.
All of a sudden, she noticed that Lin Mengya’s hand turned light purple.
If she hadn’t been careful, she wouldn’t have noticed it at all.
“This is the secret of the pair of jade annuluses. I see. It’s a miracle to put it in, but it’s probably even more difficult to get it out,” Lin Mengya said.
Hearing this, Baisu was confused.
What on earth did Lin Mengya mean?
Lin Mengya let go of the jade annuluses and put them back into the box. Then she fetched a towel beside her and carefully wiped the light purple part of her hand.
The Shen Nung system in her brain kept alerting her since the moment Baisu brought them in, reporting they contained a powerful hallucinogen.
She held the jade annuluses in her hand, which was equivalent to giving them a detailed examination.
The result showed that all the hallucinogen the jade annuluses contained was centred around the innermost part of the small hole in the middle of each of them.
Although jade felt warm and smooth on the surface, it was actually very solid.
To put it bluntly, it was a kind of good-looking stone.
In order to make the hallucinogen absorbed by the jade, one could either soak the jade in the hallucinogen and stew the jade repeatedly or make the jade annuluses hollow.
The appearance of the jade would be spoiled in these two ways.
However, this pair of jade annuluses, warm and of soft color, was definitely of high quality, which indicated the jade annuluses were not poisoned in these two ways.
But even so, it was still difficult to hurt someone with them in secret.
Jade was naturally solid, so some medicines must be stored in bottles made of jade so as not to lose their efficacy.
Lin Mengya put one of the jade annuluses in front of her eyes and used the Shen Nung system’s ultrastructural scanning system to give it an X-ray detection.
After magnifying it countless times, Lin Mengya finally solved the mystery.
Nevertheless, the ingenious design made her gasp.
The surface of the jade annulus was extremely smooth, without the slightest blemish.
However, there were countless holes even finer than hair in the jade annulus, especially around the middle layer.
Such holes could only be seen clearly under special instruments.
Moreover, there was something else in the holes.
With her current capabilities, she still couldn’t tell what it was.
She just discovered that the substance filling the holes was very strange.
According to Lin Mengya’s analysis and experimental result, on being heated, the substance in the holes would melt and then stick to the inner walls of the holes.
In this way, the poison at the innermost parts of the holes would quietly come out and have a direct influence on the human body.
But once the temperature dropped, the poison would return to harmless fillings of the holes so that people could not tell the secret of the jade annulus.
What a clever and ingenious trick to poison the jade annuluses! Lin Mengya was amazed at it.
At the same time, Lin Mengya was sure that Madame Ping harbored evil intentions toward Xiaoyu.
“Go and get a basin of hot water, or warm water would also be fine. I want a big basin of water,” she said.
Although she could not tell what was in the holes of the jade annulus, the poison had nowhere to hide.
Although the hallucinogen was powerful, it could not be exposed to water.
Once it was exposed to water, it would lose its efficacy and become useless.
Soon, Baisu brought the thing she needed. Without any hesitation, Lin Mengya soaked the pair of jade annuluses into the water.
Under Baisu’s astonished gaze, the water gradually turned light purple and gave off a pungent smell.
Nevertheless, the jade annuluses did not change at all and remained gorgeous.
“Miss, what exactly is this?” Baisu asked.
She had seen the jade annuluses before but saw nothing purple on them.
Why did they become like this after in Lin Mengya’s hands?
“This is the Purple Haze Grass, a powerful hallucinogen native to the hottest area in the southernmost part of the Lieyun Empire. More importantly, it can put people in a conscious but tremendously irritable state, so it’s also known as the Devil Grass. Nowadays, it’s rarely seen,” Lin Mengya said.
With the music score for the green stringed instrument, she naturally knew about it in detail.
Nevertheless, the Devil Grass was so rare. Could it be given to Madame Ping by her family?
Come to think of it, she found it could be possible. After all, it was reasonable for the Ping Family, a family of witch doctors for generations, to have the Devil Grass.
However, why did Madame Ping put such a precious poison in the pair of jade annuluses?
It should be noted that Xiaoyu had no interest in this stuff, neither would he bring them with him!
