Observing the changes in expression on her mother’s face, Lu Liangwei said softly, “Mother, have you ever thought that something was strange about Madam Zheng’s sudden return with a child back then?”
Ling Lihua was startled. “You…”
“Mother, Grandmother already told me everything. Besides, I’m not a child anymore. I want to know exactly what happened between you and Dad back then.”
Sighing, Ling Lihua stroked her hair and said, “It’s all in the past; why even bring it up?”
Lu Liangwei furrowed her brow. “But you and Dad…”
“Weiwei, don’t worry yourself over what happened between your dad and me,” Ling Lihua interrupted her.
Lu Liangwei was anxious, but she recomposed herself when she thought of her mother’s hostility to her father. “All right then, let’s not talk about Dad right now. But there’s something weird about Madam Zheng. Don’t you want to get to the bottom of this, Mother?”
Sure enough, Ling Lihua’s expression eased a little after her daughter’s agreement to stop mentioning Lu Hetian. “What happened to Madam Zheng?”
“I just examined her earlier; she has been poisoned and only has a few days left. Don’t you find it strange, Mother? On paper, she’s just Daddy’s concubine, and she doesn’t have a prominent background or status, so why did she get lethally poisoned after being sent to White Cloud Temple by Dad? Who’d want to kill her?” Lu Liangwei was puzzled.
Hearing this, Ling Lihua reached out and took Madam Zheng’s pulse.
After a while, she withdrew her hand, confused as ever.
“She’s indeed poisoned. Fatally, in fact. But this poison is chronic and won’t kill her right away.” When Madam Zheng was a young woman, her family fell into decline, and there was nobody left in her household. When she was almost sold to a brothel, it was she—Ling Lihua—who saved her.
She knew Madam Zheng’s background best. That woman was literally as poor as a church mouse.
Even now, she was only Lu Hetian’s concubine at best.
Who would go to such lengths to poison her?
Unless—
“It looks like Madam Zheng must know some kind of secret, and that’s why someone wants to silence her by poisoning her.”
Lu Liangwei nodded. “I think so too. But what could it be?”
Ling Lihua chuckled. “If you want to know, I can make her wake up and tell you right now.”
Lu Liangwei was curious. “How are you going to make her wake up, Mother?” Was it like what she imagined?
The idea had just come to her when she saw Ling Lihua take out a slender silver needle. Ling Lihua smiled and said to her daughter, “Didn’t you want to study medicine, Weiwei? Now watch.”
Lu Liangwei stared at her without blinking. “All right.”
“Come, help Madam Zheng up,” Ling Lihua instructed.
Lu Liangwei helped Madam Zheng up from the bed obediently.
Grasping the silver needle, Ling Lihua pierced it slowly into the Baihui pressure point on top of Madam Zheng’s head. (TN: The 百会 (bǎi huì) pressure point is needled in order to activate spirit and resuscitate the brain in traditional Chinese medicine.)
Her movements were meticulous, but she was still explaining at the same time, “Doing this can revive a comatose person, but it’s also very risky. If you’re not careful, the person may never wake up. So when we pierce the silver needle into the patient’s Baihui pressure point, we should use moderate force; we shouldn’t go too deep but not too shallow either. About half an inch is enough to stimulate the patient’s central nervous system.”
Lu Liangwei listened to her carefully.
Although she had read about such a method in the books on medicine left behind by her mother, she had never tried it before.
Besides, given Madam Zheng’s situation, she would try to eliminate the poison first if she were to treat her. However, it was impossible to produce the antidote in such a short time, so piercing the pressure point with a silver needle was the faster and more convenient way.
If Madam Zheng had only been unconscious for a short time, she would be able to prepare the medicine to revive her immediately.
However, Madam Zheng had been comatose for a long time, not to mention the lethality of the poison, so no medicine could revive her instantly.