novelraw Chapter 535 - 534: Chasing After
Chapter 535 - 534: Chasing After
Lu Ze didn’t wait long in the Shackles Prison before he hurriedly left, saying he needed to ask whether they had caught anyone yet, and who had such audacity to dare to poison a prince in broad daylight.
He left in such a rush that he even dropped the silver hairpin he used for the poison test on the ground and didn’t take it with him.
While he was there, Yan Daoxin kept lying on the straw without getting up. Only after Lu Ze left did he crawl over to the side of the fence, reach out to pick up the silver hairpin from outside, and carefully examined it in his hand.
Zhu Yu also came over to take a look, seeing that the tip of the hairpin had indeed turned a dark black color.
"Hahaha—" Yan Daoxin played with the hairpin a little and suddenly burst into laughter.
His laughter startled the talisman so much that even the constables outside heard it and ran over to check on the situation.
"Didn’t Prince Shu tell you someone came to poison our Prince?!" The talisman pointed to the food items in the cell, chastising as the two astonished men ran over, "You haven’t taken the things away yet. Do you really intend for our Prince to eat them?!"
The two constables were shocked, and it seemed they were unaware that the food was poisoned. They hurriedly opened the cell door and took the dishes out.
After cleaning up, as they were about to leave, the one at the back was grabbed by the talisman.
The talisman’s hand was like a fan, firmly gripping the arm of the already not-so-strong constable, who was so scared he nearly dropped what he was holding.
"Don’t rush off!" The talisman asked him in a gruff voice, "Who came to deliver food to us this morning? Did you catch the person outside just now?"
The constable was frightened to the point of trembling, shaking his head hurriedly: "I don’t know! Normally, the food is delivered by outsiders, and then we bring it to you.
Today, the person who came to deliver food said there was a lot of it and it needed to be eaten while hot, so they didn’t let us touch it and directly brought it to you...
We...we rarely hold any prisoners here, let alone someone as esteemed as a prince...so we didn’t dare to stop and question whether it was proper or not...and just let the person in...
It was also Prince Shu who led people to chase after them just now. We wanted to follow, but he told us to guard this place and not allow anyone suspicious to enter...
We had no idea the food was poisoned from start to finish!
Every word I speak is true! If I’m lying, you can take my head right off!"
The talisman snorted and let go, and the two constables hurried out with the dishes and food, nearly forgetting to lock the cell door again.
Yan Daoxin was still laughing to the point where tears started coming out of his eyes. After he laughed himself tired, he caught his breath and said, holding his chest, "These days in this prison have been incredibly boring. Suddenly having such an amusing incident makes me almost laugh myself to death!
I’ve traveled around all these years and seen all sorts of strange tonics and poisons.
But I never would have imagined that in the end, here in the Imperial Palace, a place that supposedly gathers all the world’s treasures, someone would try to use something as common as arsenic or vitriol to harm people!
I always knew that the current Emperor is diligent and doesn’t allow too much extravagance and debauchery in the palace, avoiding things like wine pools and meat forests, but I never imagined that the method of harming people in the palace would be so incredibly plain!"
Initially, Lu Qing had no reaction, but listening to Yan Daoxin’s somewhat sarcastic words, he couldn’t help but crack a smile.
"From now on, we might have to endure a bit of hunger. After all, if we could eat without concern after someone just tried to poison us, it would make our hearts seem overly large." After the laughter, he said to Zhu Yu and the others, "But it shouldn’t be long before we’ll be leaving here.
Talisman, next time they bring food, have them bring a razor.
When it’s time to appear before the Emperor, I can’t just show up all scruffy and unkempt."
The talisman quickly agreed.
When they next brought food, following Lu Qing’s instructions, the constables brought a razor, clean water, and other grooming items. The constables, afraid of making more mistakes after the morning’s events, not only met their requests but even brought a small bronze mirror.
Zhu Yu naturally didn’t need such things and watched Lu Qing shave with little interest from the side.
Her lack of enthusiasm mainly stemmed from the fact that she was quite hungry at the moment.
She didn’t have much appetite the previous night, so she didn’t eat much, and then this morning, there was the issue of the poisoned food.
The silver needle test let her and Yan Daoxin determine that the poison was likely either arsenic or vitriol, making it easy to guess the true intention behind the poisoning.
If you’re going to perform, do it all. Even though they knew the next meal was unlikely to be tainted, they still couldn’t touch it.
So by now, she was effectively two and a half meals short, and while bearable, it wasn’t a pleasant feeling.
It’s said that it’s hard to go from luxury to frugality, and it’s true indeed.
There were times when she was busy and went hungry or ate sporadically, but having another chance at life had made her pay more attention to regular eating habits, and Lu Qing silently helped by preparing easily portable snacks.
As a result, Zhu Yu hadn’t been really hungry for a long time.
Surprisingly, this hunger she felt now was quite unbearable.
Lu Qing shaved his stubble clean, revealing his originally clean face.
With the stubble gone, Zhu Yu suddenly noticed how much weight he had lost lately, making his jawline more pronounced and cheeks slightly sunken.
Lu Qing rinsed the razor in clean water, wiped it dry with a cloth, and turned to ask Yan Daoxin, "Shouldn’t you tidy yourself up, too?"