Corrupt official in the Red Chamber

Chapter 478 Strange Poison Devouring Dragon
After sitting in the room with Xue Baochai for a while, it was almost time for dinner. Qin Shun came over and asked, "My lord, is dinner served here or in front?"

Jia Rui replied calmly: "I won't eat here today, just put it here for your grandma."

When Xue Baochai heard that Jia Rui was not eating here, she seemed to have thought of something and felt a little uncomfortable in her heart, but she was very calm on the surface.

"I don't have much appetite today. Just ask the imperial kitchen to cook a few light dishes. Don't waste a lot of time." Xue Baochai said softly while holding the baby.

Qin Shun peeked at Jia Rui and saw that Jia Rui had no other expression, so he respectfully withdrew.

"Okay, you have a good meal, I have something to do when I go out." After Jia Rui finished speaking, he stood up and walked out.

After Jia Rui left, Yinger said unconvinced:
"Grandma, you are much more beautiful than the one from Yongshou Palace, and you are much younger than her. I don't know what the uncle sees in him."

Xue Baochai said leisurely: "Men, just to be fresh, she has been a queen after all. Our uncle wants to taste something that has never been eaten before, so we have to be considerate."

It turned out that Xue Baochai thought that Jia Rui had gone to Yongshou Palace to accompany Concubine Jing.

However, this time Xue Baochai thought wrong.

Jia Rui returned to the front of Yangxin Hall and sat on the kang in the side hall of Yangxin Hall for a while.

It wasn't until the sky turned completely dark that Jia Rui finally recovered.

"Qin Shun."

Jia Rui just called softly, and Qin Shun immediately appeared beside him.

"Master, what are your orders?"

"Prepare a few delicious side dishes and a pot of fine imperial wine."

Qin Shun thought that Jia Rui had not eaten dinner and was hungry now, so he hurried out and asked the imperial kitchen to prepare it.

Without the time to make a cup of tea, four or five exquisite side dishes and a bowl of white rice were delivered to Jia Rui. There was also a pot of royal wine beside it, exuding the fragrant aroma of wine.

Jia Rui looked at the food in front of him, his eyes a little blurry, and finally he seemed to be very bored and drove everyone present out.

"Prepare the food box, pack all the wine and food, and come with me."

The eunuch waiting outside immediately came into the house.

Qin Shun didn't understand what Jia Rui meant, but he still carried out Jia Rui's order perfectly. Each of the four or five little eunuchs took a food box and followed Jia Rui closely, leaving the Yangxin Hall together.

Soon they moved to Qianqing Palace.

Afterwards, Jia Rui walked squarely towards the small rooms where Emperor Xiaokang was imprisoned with a calm and firm expression.

Arriving in front of the house, the guarding soldiers hurriedly came over to greet Jia Rui. Jia Rui did not comfort the soldiers this time. He just nodded lightly and had the door opened.

After entering the door, he saw Emperor Xiaokang, sitting under the lamp with a book and reading with gusto.

Jia Rui looked at the well-off emperor and shook his head, and then said jokingly: "The book has been opened."

Emperor Xiaokang's face turned red after hearing what Jia Rui said, and he quickly threw the book on the table.

Jia Rui walked to the opposite side of Emperor Xiaokang and asked the palace maid to move a chair, and he sat down firmly.

"The Emperor seems to be in a good mood. He still has time to read."

Emperor Xiaokang's eyes twitched, "It's hard to live a life of waiting to die, so you have to find some entertainment."

"Then I'll come over and have a few drinks with you, and then we, the king and his ministers, will have a few words."

With that said, Jia Rui asked Qin Shun to put the food and wine on the table.

Emperor Xiaokang looked at the exquisite dishes in front of him with fear in his eyes.

He raised his head and looked at Jia Rui again, and saw that Jia Rui's face was very calm. Finally, the well-off emperor trembled and said, "I just had dinner and I'm not hungry. Jia Aiqing can eat by herself."

Instead of Emperor Li, Jia Rui ordered Qin Shun beside him, "Fill the wine with Long Live Lord."

Qin Shun immediately took action and poured a full glass of wine for the emperor.

But the emperor moved back as if he had encountered something terrible.

Jia Rui looked at the emperor in front of him and said softly: "My wife named the little prince Shixun. What do you think of this name?"

After hearing this, the emperor suddenly laughed, and the laughter became crazier and crazier, "Good name, good name...,"

As he spoke, his laughter turned into tears.

It turned out that the emperor had already noticed the difference when Jia Rui came in just now.

Especially when Jia Rui asked people to set up a banquet, the emperor knew that he was finished today.

After crying for a while, the emperor tremblingly picked up the wine glass on the table.

He raised his hand tremblingly and brought the wine glass to his lips.

Jia Rui's eyes became sharp, and he stared closely at the wine glass in the emperor's hand.

The emperor gestured with the wine glass several times to his mouth, but still did not drink the glass of wine.

Jia Rui sighed softly, "Your Majesty, drink this glass of wine, and our grudges will be cleared." But the emperor's hands shook like chaff while holding the glass of wine, and the last glass of wine spilled all over him, and he took a sip. It didn't even reach the mouth.

"Oh, Your Majesty, what are you doing?"

Jia Rui sighed, and then glanced at Qin Shun next to him.

Qin Shun's face turned pale, but he still followed Jia Rui's instructions and poured another glass of wine, then handed it to the emperor.

The emperor moved his body back, and then looked to the side.

Qin Shun glanced at Jia Rui secretly, and when he saw the impatient look in Jia Rui's eyes, he immediately stepped forward, grabbed the emperor's mouth with his hand and forced him to drink the glass of wine.

Because he drank too much, the emperor coughed violently after drinking the wine.

After a long time, the emperor stopped coughing, and then glared at Jia Rui: "Rebellious ministers and traitors, I will wait for you underground."

Jia Rui looked at the emperor and said with a smile: "Your Majesty, please say hello to me when you see the Emperor."

The emperor said with blazing eyes: "How come you don't have any emotions at all? You are simply a cold-blooded beast."

"Your Majesty, who among those who can ascend to that position has feelings?"

After saying that, Jia Rui stood up, turned and left the hut.

After leaving Qianqing Palace and returning to Yangxin Palace, Qin Shun opened his mouth several times, but in the end he said nothing.

In fact, Qin Shun was also wondering, did Jia Rui go to the Qing Palace just to give the emperor a drink? That glass of wine was not poisonous as he thought. Otherwise, after such a long time, the emperor would have become poisonous.

In fact, it was knowledge that limited Qin Shun's imagination. The glass of wine Jia Rui gave the emperor was indeed poisonous wine, but the poison in it was unusual.

What was added to that glass of wine was not ordinary herbs or venom from poisonous snakes, but a mineral.

This mineral was also considered rare in ancient times, and it was diamond.

Although diamond is extremely hard, solid steel stone is actually a very powerful poison.

As long as diamond is ground into powder, due to its hydrophobic and lipophilic properties, when people take diamond powder, the diamond powder will stick to the stomach wall. In the long-term friction, people will get gastric ulcers. If not treated in time, they will die. In stomach bleeding.

And it was incurable in ancient times.

Jia Rui knew this trivia and read an anecdote. It said that in the Middle Ages, many nobles died from colorless and odorless chronic poisons such as diamond powder.

What is even more terrifying is the death from diamond powder. If it were not for modern forensic medicine, in ancient times when medicine was not yet developed, it would not be possible to detect it.

The reason why Jia Rui used this poison was so that after the emperor's death, when the ministers came to pay homage to the emperor's last remains, unnecessary abnormalities would not appear.

In the next few days, Jia Rui was still dealing with those tails in Jiangnan.

But on the emperor's side, his health was getting worse day by day.

The reason was that the emperor began to vomit blood in the past day or two, and Jia Rui was not stingy and sent almost all the imperial doctors from the imperial hospital.

However, these imperial doctors almost exhausted their methods. They kept feeding various decoctions and acupuncture in turn, but they did not help the emperor's condition in any way.

Everyone in the civil and military circles of the dynasty already knew about this matter. Some loyal ministers even broke into the imperial hospital and forced the imperial doctor to show them the emperor's pulse.

Jia Rui was troubled by this, as if he didn't know anything about it, and allowed these people to make trouble.

As more and more ministers learned about the emperor's condition, everyone gradually no longer cared about whether the emperor was poisoned.

Because most of these ministers came from the imperial examination system, and it is said that scholars are good doctors rather than good ministers, so these people read some medical books.

After the emperor's pulse was read and leaked by several people, everyone knew after research that the emperor had vomited blood caused by eating something indigestible for a long time.

Since it is not poisoning, it means that there is something wrong with the emperor's body itself, and he cannot blame Mr. Jia.

Even the emperor himself suspected that he had wrongly blamed Jia Rui.

Just like that, a month later, just before the Chinese New Year, the emperor suddenly vomited blood, and all the doctors tried their best to stop it.

In the end, the imperial doctors also panicked. If this continued, the emperor would only be alive for an hour.

So they discussed and quickly captured the young eunuch from Qianqing Palace and asked him to report to Jia Rui at Yangxin Palace.

At this time, Jia Rui was not in the Yangxin Palace at all, but in the Yongshou Palace.

Why isn't he in the Yangxin Hall? That's because Jia Rui felt a little guilty when he saw the little prince, so he simply stayed out of sight and waited in Yongshou Palace.

He had just had dinner and was helping Concubine Jing to spin around in the yard where Changchun Palace was raised, when he saw Lao Li walking over in a hurry.

"My lord, according to the reports from the imperial doctors, the emperor is only here for an hour."

After hearing this, Jia Rui just moved his hands and didn't care anymore, while Concubine Jing next to her turned a little pale.

Although Concubine Jing also heard that the emperor was ill during this time and the imperial doctors were helpless, she did not expect that it would come so soon.

Jia Rui called a palace maid and asked her to help Concubine Jing back, and then said to Lao Li: "Have someone send all the emperor's princes to Yangxin Hall to see the emperor on his last journey."

Jia Rui paused and then said: "Let all the cabinet ministers come and see the emperor off together."

(End of this chapter)