Chapter 555: Chapter 555: Old Affairs
Gu Jinli still accepted Chu Family’s Pendant and Chu Family’s name card, saying, "Please thank Miss Ran for me, Nanny Chu, for her generous hospitality."
Nanny Chu replied, "If there’s someone to thank, it is our young lady who should be thanking you. If it wasn’t for you, our young lady... she would have died in vain."
By the end, Nanny Chu’s voice was choked with emotion.
Gu Jinli asked after listening, "Nanny Chu, is Miss Ran looking for the person who poisoned her with a mixture of various herbs?"
Nanny Chu nodded: "Yes, we’re searching. But among the doctors we suspect, none seem to have such skill."
"The one who knows how to poison like this may not necessarily be a doctor, but also an attendant well-versed in various herbs," Gu Jinli thought for a moment and said: "Among those you suspect, is there anyone who runs a pharmacy? Or an attendant specialized in preparing medicines? You might want to investigate in this direction."
Although doctors know how to treat illnesses, they may not be as knowledgeable about medicines as attendants who specialize in preparing them, just like how in modern times, pharmacists understand medications and their effects better than doctors.
After hearing this, Nanny Chu suddenly stood up; she remembered that in the dowry of the Old Madam, there was a pharmacy. Ms. Shen, because her first pregnancy was a set of twins, gave birth prematurely due to the immense size of her belly. Since the health of the eldest son and the second daughter wasn’t great, Ms. Shen requested a doctor and a few medical attendants from that pharmacy to be assigned to serve them exclusively.
Nanny Chu’s eyes reddened. The young lady’s guess was not wrong; the Old Madam might be related to this incident... Could it be that she truly thought the second daughter was blessed, while the young lady was an ill-fated first-born daughter, a person with bad fate?
Nanny Chu’s heart ached for Miss Ran. After suppressing the discomfort in her heart, she asked Gu Jinli many questions about Miss Ran’s leg condition, the toxins, and how non-toxic medicines could turn into poison when mixed.
Gu Jinli spent a little under half an hour explaining everything she needed to to Nanny Chu, finally suggesting, "Miss Ran might benefit from selecting a few people with good memories to be sent to a pharmacy for over five years of learning. Once they’re properly trained, the knowledge will serve them for a lifetime."
After hearing this, Nanny Chu stood up to thank her, "Thank you for the advice, after returning, I will relay your words to the young lady."
Noble families would employ doctors, but they looked down on attendants, thinking that having a doctor was enough; attendants were just medicine dispensers who weren’t significant enough to be taken seriously. Therefore, they never valued attendants, unaware that some attendants could outperform doctors.
Seeing Nanny Chu’s sincere attitude, Gu Jinli reminded her again, "Apart from medicinal herbs, mixing several seemingly non-toxic foods together and consuming them can also produce toxins that harm the body and, at times, even cause death."
Nanny Chu laughed and replied, "We are aware of this, and we have specialized cooks who understand these principles. Thank you for the reminder, miss."
Seeing that Nanny Chu and others were knowledgeable about these things, Gu Jinli didn’t elaborate further and accompanied San Lang to see Nanny Chu out of the Jiang Residence.
After Nanny Chu had left, San Lang escorted Gu Jinli back to the guesthouse.
On the way, he asked her, "Xiao Yu, can medicinal herbs and foods we consume react and become poisonous?"
Gu Jinli replied, "Yes. Medicines might not be toxic, and neither are foods, but if they are incompatible, consuming medicine after a meal could also lead to poisoning. Some toxins are potent and show symptoms quickly, while others are mild and can take years of accumulation to manifest symptoms, possibly spanning over several years."
She looked at San Lang and asked, "Why do you ask? Are you worried you might get poisoned one day while eating and taking medicine?"
She smiled and said, "Don’t worry, the food we normally eat generally doesn’t react with medicines, unless you eat something very unusual, or if someone deliberately sets you up and mixes something that can activate the toxicity of the herbs, just like what happened with Miss Ran."
San Lang slowed down and said, "I’m not worried about myself; it just reminded me of something from the past."
"What happened?" Gu Jinli stopped in front of him, looking at his face and asked, "Has a relative of yours ever been poisoned using this method?"
Qin San Lang fell silent.
Gu Jinli: "Don’t want to say it? Or is it inconvenient to say? If you still remember what medicinal herbs and food your family member ate back then, you can tell me. I want to see if eating both together could lead to poisoning?"
Qin San Lang, however, laughed: "I’ve already forgotten."
On their way fleeing from the disaster, Gu Jinli felt that she had come to understand him very well, and upon hearing this, she knew he didn’t want to talk further, so she could only step forward to leave: "Then I’ll be going back."
Qin San Lang quickly took a few steps to catch up, asking: "Are you angry?"
Gu Jinli turned to look at him: "No." Actually, she was a little upset; Brother Qin actually had secrets from her. A good partnership should be transparent, as suspicion and concealment can ruin the relationship between partners.
Qin San Lang seemed to understand her by now, and he stepped in front of her, blocking her path: "It’s my father. He used to be in good health, so strong that my grandfather would say he was as strong as an ox. But starting three years ago, his health began to decline gradually. The man who was invincible on the battlefield eventually died of exhaustion there."
After his father’s death, Emperor Jingyuan took drastic action against the Duke Wei Mansion, resulting in the extermination of their three clans.
Qin San Lang added: "Those who started to decline in health also included some of my father’s comrades, as well as my elder brother."
He had not been without suspicion, but he lacked evidence and could only assume that his father, big brother, and the few generals from Duke Wei’s lineage died on the battlefield because they were outmatched by the enemy.
Now it seems that his father, big brother, and those uncles’ health declining slowly could very likely be due to someone poisoning them, and the method of poisoning should be similar to that used on Miss Ran.
After listening, Gu Jinli suddenly asked: "Do you really trust me that much? You actually didn’t have to tell me."
Such matters would be considered family secrets.
"I have no intention of getting to the bottom of this and I’m not angry with you."
Qin San Lang looked at her and smiled: "I know, but I want to tell you because Xiao Yu is worthy of my trust."
"Because Xiao Yu is worthy of my trust."
Gu Jinli: "I’m a bit moved."
Hearing this, Qin San Lang hesitated, a hint of heat on his face, unsure of what to say.
Gu Jinli knew he was prone to blushing and guessed he might be feeling embarrassed at the moment, so she asked him: "Do you remember any medicines your father had drunk before his health started to decline? What kind of medicinal herbs were they? What about food? Which kinds?"
It would be hard to remember after so long.
But Qin San Lang worshipped his father the most and was meticulous by nature. After witnessing his father’s health gradually decline, he had the housekeeper retrieve all the prescriptions his father had taken and examined them one by one. Since he was not well-versed in pharmacology, he didn’t discern anything, but he still remembered the names of the medicinal herbs on those prescriptions.
He said: "I remember the names of the medicinal herbs, but for the food... my father liked to eat a lot. Before his health deteriorated, he had suffered a knife wound. He complained about the bitterness of the medicine, so when he was recovering, he demanded from my mother, if he was to take medicine, he must be given delicious food every meal and in enough quantity, or else he wouldn’t take the medicine. As a result, he ate a variety of foods, and it’s quite difficult for me to recall all of them at once."