The boat meandered unpredictably across the rivers, making ancient long-distance travel unimaginably arduous.
Ran Yan had not often traveled by boat; after several days, she had grown accustomed to the drifting sensation on the vessel, and occasionally she went on deck to admire the stunning sceneries on both shores. Ran Meiyu’s situation, on the other hand, was not so optimistic. Having grown up near waterways, she naturally faced no issues in boating—initially vibrant and lively, treating finding fault with Ran Yan as post-meal entertainment—yet after more than ten days, she was nearly lifeless.
Ran Yan also rarely got a quiet moment to herself, sitting on the deck and watching the scenery.
From Suzhou to Chang’an, it would take at least a month, and only half of the torment had passed. Even someone as patient as Ran Yan was nearing a breakdown, feeling the remaining ten-plus days stretch endlessly without an end in sight.
Ran Yan squinted her eyes, staring at the rolling river waters and couldn’t help but sigh.
"Can’t you take it anymore, Yan?" Even though Ran Yunsheng frequently traveled from south to north, after more than ten days of torment, he too showed some signs of exhaustion, which paradoxically added a touch of charm to his already handsome features.
"Just a bit bored." At the villa, she could at least plant some herbs and conduct pharmaceutical research, but on the boat, the medicinal materials available were limited. On the way to Chang’an, given the long journey, Ran Yan only selected some less commonly used herbs, like Uncaria, Aconitum, and Datura...
"Weren’t you quite enthusiastic about preparing medicine a few days ago?" Ran Yunsheng sat cross-legged beside her, "What medicine were you making, Yan?"
Ran Yan paused, took a small bottle from her sleeve, "This is colorless and tasteless, can dissolve in water, and the most important thing is, even if you autopsy the body after its ingestion, it’s hard to detect any anomalies."
Many chemical substances are colorless and odorless with huge toxicity. As for herbal poisons, so-called "colorless and odorless" merely reduces the extent of "color" and "taste." Each kind of medicine has its specific smell because of the substances contained within. If you remove the smell, it is very likely to also destroy their effects.
"Yan..." Ran Yunsheng stared at Ran Yan for a while and concluded, "You must really be terribly bored."
Ran Yan weighed the porcelain bottle in her hand, "Yes, otherwise why would I research such boring stuff?"
To kill someone in Great Tang, with the current level of autopsy techniques, she had at least a few hundred ways to make a death undetectable—why would she need a colorless and tasteless poison? It was a complete lack of technical content.
"If you are idle with nothing to do, why not practice playing the flute? If you put your heart into practicing, even if you can’t compare to the Assistant Minister in a month, you should still be quite good," Ran Yunsheng earnestly advised Ran Yan to do something appropriate for a lady.
Ran Yan leaned back in the armrest of the round-backed chair, propping her head with her hand, and slowly said, "Yunsheng, you think too highly of me. A month... even if it were a year, I couldn’t reach a decent level."
"How can you sell yourself short ?" Ran Yunsheng remembered that Ran Yan had once learned to play the guqin and the zheng and was knowledgeable in music, so it should be easy for her to learn.
Ran Yan said helplessly, "It’s not selling myself short, it’s being realistic. To put it in layman’s terms, it would be like a warrior skilled with a broadsword trying to handle an embroidery needle. Even if he could embroider something, the posture would still be off."
Wan Lu burst into laughter, "Wife, you put it so well! Isn’t that exactly the point?"
"Play it once, let’s hear," Ran Yunsheng couldn’t believe such an effect would occur.
Without further ado, Ran Yan pulled out a long flute from her sleeve, settled into a cross-legged position, and prepared her posture, but was interrupted by Ran Yunsheng before she started, "The straight posture is correct, but your arms need not be so stiff, just be natural."
This was Ran Yan’s most natural state. Over six years, apart from sleeping, eating, using the restroom, she was continually holding a scalpel or writing autopsy reports—anyone would be the same.
"Better not to play." Ran Yan put away the long flute, then asked, "Yunsheng, how long until we reach Chang’an?"
Ran Yunsheng, seeing she really didn’t want to continue, didn’t force her and followed the conversation, "About five or six more days until we reach Luoyang, then we switch to land travel. If we’re quick, it should take about eight or nine days to get to Xinfeng. From Xinfeng, Chang’an is not far away."
Though the path seemed straightforward, Ran Yan dared not be blindly optimistic.
In ancient times, Luoyang was called Yu State, located in the heart of the Central Plains, nestled against mountains and water, with convenient transportation—historically a strategic location contested by military forces.
Since the founding of Great Tang, Luoyang had enjoyed favorable weather. Merchants and scholars gathered there, and although its prosperity did not match that of Chang’an, it was still one of the major states in the Great Tang.