The guards reported that the eunuch Xiao Guizi had committed suicide by hanging from the beam, suspected of committing suicide out of fear of crime. When the news spread, everyone standing in the Shang Yao Bureau looked shocked, obviously they did not expect this situation.

It seems that the second prince's poisoning incident is not as simple as it seems, and there is indeed something fishy about it. Otherwise, how could a good eunuch commit suicide?

Therefore, some of the imperial doctors at Shang Yao Bureau still had prejudices against Su Chen, thinking that he was making a fuss out of a molehill and that it was simply something wrong with his prescription that caused the harm to the second prince. But now that this incident has happened, they gradually feel that Su Chen

Maybe someone really used the decoction to deliberately frame him.

Su Chen calmed down and thought to himself that his strategy was initially effective. The mastermind behind the poisoning saw that things were developing into an uncontrollable situation and was worried that more connections behind the scenes would be uncovered, so he promptly stopped him.

Cut off this line and let him die without any evidence.

Whether Zhixian Decoction is toxic or not, as long as someone drinks it, it can prove its safety and efficacy. At that time, Su Chen will also be able to get rid of half of the charges. Therefore, the mastermind behind the scenes felt that the situation was a bit out of control, so Su Chen and

If the court continues to investigate, they are worried that big fish will be involved in the harem, so it is better to throw away the chess pieces as soon as possible.

"Send someone to protect the scene. I, Your Majesty the Princess, and Commander Yuchi will go over and take a look!"

Princess Yongning nodded. She had the most distinguished status here and said in a decent manner: "It has something to do with the investigation. You can go and have a look. Commander Yuchi, what do you think?"

Yu Chixin cupped his hands and said: "What Her Royal Highness the Princess said is absolutely true. Let's go over and inspect the scene right now!"

So, everyone left the Shang Yao Bureau and went to the area of ​​​​the imperial palace.

Since the imperial palace of the Southern Tang Dynasty was not as grand as the inner imperial city of Chang'an or Luoyang, the capital of the previous dynasty, the yamen of the six ministries and nine ministers were placed outside the palace.

, the bureau offices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs are all located in the palace, and are given a separate area, because their daily work is closely related to the emperor's office and life.

There are six bureaus in the palace, namely the Shangyao Bureau, the Shangshi Bureau, the Shangyi Bureau, the Shangshe Bureau, the AMTD Bureau, the Shangchaan Bureau, etc., all of which are inseparable from the food, clothing, housing and transportation of the nobles in the palace.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs includes five bureaus, namely the Yeting Bureau, the Palace Wei Bureau, the Xiguan Bureau, the Internal Servants Bureau, the Internal Affairs Bureau, etc., which manage some eunuchs, maids, finance, warehousing, etc. in the harem, specifically serving the emperor's family.

Most of the eunuchs in the palace live in the area where the internal ministers are located, and a few will live in the side rooms of each courtyard where they serve the nobles, so that they can serve them at any time.

Xiao Guizi was no longer a low-level eunuch, so he lived in a room for two people. The eunuch who shared the same bed had gone to change shifts, so he was the only one in the room. After he chose to commit suicide, he was not discovered in time.

Su Chen and others arrived at this simple room. The body of the eunuch Xiao Guizi had been put down and laid out on the ground, with a layer of white cloth spread over it.

Zhou Jiamin and Princess Yongjia were still young and were afraid of seeing dead people, so they did not enter the house and only stood in the yard.

A group of eunuchs, big and small, gathered in the courtyard, whispering, mostly around the young prince's remarks about "poisoning the second prince and committing suicide out of fear of crime". It is estimated that the harem and the court will soon go crazy inside and outside.

This is not a trivial matter. It involves the murder of the prince, which is definitely not something that a young eunuch can do. Someone must have promised benefits behind the scenes, but who is behind the scenes cannot be investigated at present.

Yu Chixin stepped forward and asked: "Have you found any evidence of crime?"

"Coming back to Commander Yuchi, we found a porcelain bottle in the deceased's luggage. The liquid inside was like poison and the smell was a bit unpleasant." After a guard replied, he respectfully handed over a small cyan porcelain bottle.

Yu Chixin took it, opened the stopper and smelled it. Sure enough, it had a strange smell. The liquid was dark and didn't look like anything good.

"Mr. Su, if you know medical skills, can you tell what kind of poison this is?"

"Let me test it." Su Chen reached out to take it, then took out a small white porcelain wine cup from the medical box, poured a little venom into it, and then tested it with a silver needle, but there was no reaction.

In fact, the effect of silver needles on detecting poisons is limited, and it has only been exaggerated by martial arts novels. Even as early as the Song Dynasty, Song Ci wrote "The Collection of Cleansing Wrongs", there are records of silver needle autopsy. However, the poisons that the ancients referred to mainly refer to

The chemical name of highly toxic arsenic is arsenic trioxide.

Due to the backward production technology in ancient times, arsenic contains a small amount of sulfur and sulfide. When the sulfur contained in it comes into contact with silver, a certain chemical reaction occurs, causing a layer of black "silver sulfide" to be generated on the surface of the silver needle.

Therefore, the silver needle poison test only detects the sulfur in arsenic. Therefore, the silver needle cannot identify poisons, let alone be widely used as a poison testing tool.

Therefore, from a scientific point of view, silver objects such as silver needles will turn black immediately after encountering certain things. This is mainly due to the interaction between silver and sulfide.

By doing this, Su Chen at least eliminated arsenic-related poisons, but the toxins on some poisonous insects and poisonous beasts need to be analyzed in detail.

He smelled the smell, looked at the color of the liquid, and the residual liquid hanging on the inner wall of the wine cup, and judged that it was a poison that came from poisonous insects, not poisonous weeds.

"Could it be centipede poison?"

Su Chen frowned, having a suspicion in his mind that because his prescription happened to contain centipede ingredients, the person behind the scenes wanted to kill the second prince, and also put the blame on him, so that the eunuch wouldn't taste it, and it would also cause the second prince to be tasted.

For the prince's convulsions and other reactions, centipede poison is the most suitable.

It is added to it, which increases the centipede poison content in the medicinal soup dozens of times. Not only can it not save people, but it can also harm people. The poisoned person will have fever, headache, nausea, vomiting, rapid pulse, delirium and convulsions, etc. In severe cases, it may even lead to

Death, these symptoms can also correspond to the reaction of the second prince.

The most important thing is that if the imperial doctor tests the reaction of the medicinal soup and other poison tasters, they will gradually associate it with centipede poison, so everyone will think that there is something wrong with the prescription prescribed by Su Chen. There are two centipedes in it, which induced the second prince's illness.

When the time comes, it’s hard to say whether the condition will be beneficial or not.

Princess Yongning saw Su Chen lost in thought, so she stepped forward and asked, "Su Chen, can you tell what kind of poison this is?"

"I speculate that it may be centipede poison, but we are not completely sure yet. We need to let the royal doctors do some research and give the specific name of the poison."

"Centipede poison!" Princess Yongning thought of the poisonous insect in her mind, and couldn't help but shudder. She was a little afraid of that ugly and scary insect.

Fu Dongsheng, the Imperial Guard, and Guo Sheng, the Chief of Staff, brought several people over. At this time, they all stepped forward to inspect the venom. With their years of medical experience, several people determined that it was centipede venom.

An imperial doctor said: "This little eunuch only had strangulation injuries on his neck. His death condition is consistent with death by suffocation. He died of suicide by hanging. It can be concluded."

Yu Chixin nodded and said: "It seems that this little eunuch is the despicable poisoner. After the incident, he knew that he could not escape. In order to cover the instigator behind the scenes, he committed suicide in fear of crime, so that we can no longer investigate." Updated fastest.

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Su Chen did not make an immediate conclusion, but squatted down and inspected Xiao Guizi's body. Although there were indeed no other injuries on the whole body, and it was true that he died of suffocation, the degree of rigor mortis in the limbs surprised him. This was not true at all.
Chapter completed!