I am the lowest-ranking maid in the Royal Pharmacy, but I have a face that looks exactly like the late imperial concubine.
On the night when the new emperor ascended the throne, he pinched my chin and forced my head up: "From today on, you are Concubine Rong."
The Sixth Palace was in an uproar, everyone was waiting to see me, the substitute, fall out of favor and die tragically.
But they don't know that before I entered the palace, I was the number one poison doctor in Jiangnan.
Until the queen was poisoned and dying, the new emperor pinched my neck: "Antidote!"
I smiled and drank the poisoned wine in one gulp: "Your Majesty, only the imperial concubine can cure this poison, but she has been killed by your own hands a long time ago."
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The death knell of Jingyang Palace rang eighty-one times, dull and dull, shattering another morning in the Forbidden City. The lead-gray sky weighed down the glazed tiles, and the ridged beast on the eaves was only a blurry and ferocious silhouette in the thin sunlight. Snow particles floated up again at some point, like fine salt, and rustled down on the palace road that had just been swept and was quickly covered with white marks. It fell on the shoulders of the dark blue or green-brown cotton robes of the eunuchs and maids, and also fell on the rim of the pottery pot of decoction in the backyard of the imperial pharmacy that was full of bitter white gas all day long.
The medicinal smell was too strong to be dissolved, mixed with the musty smell of old wooden cabinets, the earthy smell of hay bundles, and a deeper, more ubiquitous, cold and oppressive smell that belonged to the palace. The lower-level palace maids and the handy eunuchs shrank their necks, walked in a hurry, and looked numb. They occasionally exchanged glances and quickly moved away from each other. The imperial concubine passed away. This big thing was too far away from them, and it was far less important than the pot of medicine and the basket of charcoal in their hands. Listen more, see more, and speak less. This is the first lesson that the ant-like living people in this deep palace learned through blood and tears.
I
