Chapter 440: Chapter 161 Gold
"Have you heard? Several maids were beaten to death in Changchun Palace today."
"Ah? What happened?"
"They say someone bribed them to harm the dragon seed in Consort Zhen’s womb... Changchun Palace is now filled with kneeling figures, and Envoy rushed into the palace just to help Consort Zhen stabilize her pregnancy..."
In the front hall of the Medical Officer Institute, two medical officers were chatting while holding bowls. Lu Tong passed by them, and upon seeing someone approaching, they lowered their heads to eat without speaking.
Other than serving in the Medical Officer Institute, most medical officers spent a large part of their time moving among the houses of officials and nobility, and they knew many of the secrets within these high walls.
Consort Zhen has received much favor lately; the Emperor is of advanced age now. Of his four sons, apart from the Crown Prince, the Third Prince is the most cherished. If the dragon seed in Consort Zhen’s womb turns out to be a male heir, it is still uncertain how the court situation will change in the future.
Changes always happen in the blink of an eye.
Lu Tong walked around tables and chairs to the kitchen, collected some leftover steamed buns, wrapped them up nicely, and left the dining hall for the pharmacy in the back courtyard.
This row of pharmacies was always empty all year round, but since Lu Tong arrived at the Medical Officer Institute, it has been rarely used.
Following the corridor, Lu Tong walked until he reached the second to last room and entered through the door.
Inside the room, a medicine furnace on the floor was bubbling and letting off steam, as Lin Danqing sat in front of it, her eyes slightly squinted from the smoke, with medical books and pharmacopoeia scattered all around her.
In the gap next to the medicine furnace, several green-shelled eggs were nestled, baked until the shells were slightly blackened, squeezed under the bottom of the medicine pot like pebbles.
Lu Tong extended the wrapped steamed buns to her, and Lin Danqing smiled: "Thank you for bringing me food specially."
"Only cold buns," Lu Tong sat down beside her. "Won’t you eat in the dining hall?"
Doctor Chang forbade them from eating outside the dining hall, so Lu Tong could only bring a few buns out for her.
"I’m busy making medicine," Lin Danqing bit off half a bun in one go, nearly choking, then after drinking some water and swallowing it, she declared: "You know as well as I do that we doctors can’t leave our pots when brewing medicine."
Lu Tong remained silent.
These days Lin Danqing didn’t have much to do; the Medical Officer Institute assigned her fewer tasks, and with plenty of free time, she seemed to have taken a liking to experimenting with new medicines next to Lu Tong’s room.
The previously empty pharmacy was now occupied by the two of them. Lu Tong’s was the last room, while Lin Danqing’s was the one before hers. Like competitors, they outdid each other by staying up later at night.
Lu Tong bent down to pick up the scattered medical books on the floor and noticed that the "Mingyi Medical Classic" by Lin Danqing’s hand was turned to the section on poisons, which made him slightly startle.
It seemed that he had seen Lin Danqing reading that section late into the night before as well.
Lu Tong looked at the medicine pot in front of Lin Danqing.
The potion in the pot was boiled to white foam, and the herbs within were indistinguishable. He could smell a faint familiar bitter fragrance, which seemed to be detoxifying ingredients.
After a moment of silence, Lu Tong asked, "Are you making a detoxifying medicine?"
"You’re really impressive," mumbled Lin Danqing with half a bun in her mouth, glaring at him, "I’m using precious ingredients and even specially reduced their potency; how could you tell just by smell?"
Lu Tong pointed to the "Mingyi Medical Classic" on the floor: "Isn’t it turned to this page?"
Lin Danqing: "..."
After a moment of silence, she said, "So you guessed."
She then closed the "Mingyi Medical Classic" in front of her and put it to one side, looking somewhat melancholic: "I originally thought the Medical Officer Institute had extensive collections. Chief Physician Chang said that the ’Mingyi Medical Classic’ has the most comprehensive recordings of poisons in the current Liang Dynasty, with over five hundred types. But having flipped through this book several times, I realize it is just as it is, many poisons aren’t recorded at all, which shows that the field of medicine is a long and arduous journey."
She seemed to be very disappointed.
After a pause, Lu Tong asked, "The poison you’re looking for isn’t in there? What poison do you want to counteract?"
Lin Danqing’s gaze shifted subtly.
After a long while, she sighed, using silver chopsticks to push aside the green-shelled eggs sitting on the furnace. She poked the eggshell with the chopsticks.
"Do you know about the poisons from the Southern Borderlands?"
Lu Tong: "I’ve heard of them."
The Southern Borderlands, a distant land, are home to many poisonous snakes, insects and ants, and various rare and exotic plants. The poisons from there are fierce, and due to its distance from the Central Plains, the medical books of the Liang Dynasty can only document a fraction of them.
Lin Danqing rolled the roasted egg on the ground, felt it until it was not too hot, cracked it on the ground, and shattered the green shell into pieces. She peeled away the shell to reveal the tender white egg inside.
These were eggs personally selected by Du Changqing. They weren’t large, but they were said to be better than those sold at the stalls in Official Lane.